How many products should an e-commerce site have?
Having an e-commerce website may turn out to be a very profitable online business if properly managed. One of the first questions you need to answer when launching an e-commerce site is the number of products to start with. Answering this question is key to both short and long-term success. Continue reading to know the number of products your e-commerce site should have.
From experience, we found out that starting with 5 – 20 products and then focusing on 1 – 3 works for most people. The truth is that there is no fixed number of products to start with. That’s why the number of products will vary from among different sources.
Why focus on those three? You’ll have to run marketing and advertising campaigns for your products and we doubt most people can focus on promoting 20 products at the same time.
So it’s advisable to focus on 1 – 3 products when starting out. You’ll get to the remaining products in time but they are there to make your store feel more alive.
From experience, many people aren’t satisfied when they are told there is no fixed number/magic number of products to start their online store with. They want a specific number to use and succeed. But if only that’s how things work. Some people have just one product and are very successful. Some have a handful of product, other have hundreds.
Ultimately, it comes down to your type of store, marketing efforts, your target customers, and how related your products are.
We’ll be talking about various e-commerce platforms below and the right number of products to start with on each platform.
How many products should I start with dropshipping?
The number of products to start with when starting a dropshipping store depends on the kind of dropshippig store you are building. The main thing to figure out here is the kind of dropshipping store you want and that could either be a general store or a niche store.
There are several factors to put into consideration when deciding which kind of store you want to build. We won’t be talking about that in this article but you can check it out here.
Most dropshippers these days use the “Quick Buck Method” where they just find a product in high demand, add it to their store, and focus on it. Sometimes, there’s the possibility of having an extra product or two as upsells. And they continue promoting the product until they notice sales declining, after which they move on and find the next viral product. If this is your business model, then one or two products will do for you.
However, if you are building a niche store, you might consider having between 5 – 30 products centered around a niche. This way, you can use cross-sell promotion and upsells for your products.
A general niche store will require more products to make your store feel more complete. Since you aren’t focusing on any particular products, you’ll need more representative products for all categories in your store. For example, you may have a general store where you sell headphones, hats, phone accessories, clothes, and so on. Each category may require up to 10 – 15 products and you can see why general stores require more products.
How many products should I start with Shopify?
Shopify is a wonderful platform that makes it easy for people to build their own independent online store. The platform is also well-suited for dropshipping and has become the store of choice for many dropshippers.
If you are marketing your own products on Shopify, then the number of products you have will be what you’ll be starting with. Depending on how many your products are, you could decide to focus on a selected few or the entire inventory.
However, if you are into dropshipping, you’ll have to follow the procedure outlined under the number of products to start with dropping we discussed above. Figuring whether to start a niche or general store is paramount.
General stores are easy to start since there is more freedom when selecting products and you don’t have to put many thoughts into the products you carry. It’d do you a lot of good if you consider it though.
A general store would need somewhere between 30 – 50 products to start with. If you won’t be focusing on any niche, then you need to have a lot of products to have credibility in the eyes of your potential customers.
Imagine going into a convenience store and you find only the middle rack stacked while the side shelves are empty. You are probably not going to be impressed with the store and would sooner than later leave, right?
A niche store, on the other hand, would require a lot of thought since you first have to figure out your niche. 5 – 20 products are a good number of products to start a niche store with.
How many products should I start with on Amazon?
Many benefits come with selling your products on Amazon. For one, the platform is already very popular and you can leverage the high traffic it gets. Amazon has a traffic of about 215 million per in the United States alone. So they are a lot of people that are ready to buy your products.
Being on Amazon also means setting an online store is easy. You don’t have to worry about setting up an online shopping website. And Amazon is already a trusted brand so being on Amazon alone means potential customers will trust you to an extent.
Now back to the issue of the number of products to start with on Amazon, you should think about the number of products you can manage and your marketing efforts. There is a lot of work to be done to promote your products and you should start with the number of products you can manage. This may be two for some people, five for others, ten, or more.
You can always increase the number of products if the existing ones are doing well which can happen if your marketing and promotion efforts are spot on. And with over 20 categories of products that you can sell on Amazon, there is no shortage of products you can list on the platform.
How many products should I start with on Etsy?
Etsy is another great platform where you can start your online business. Etsy’s big advantage over traditional e-commerce sites like Amazon is that Etsy doesn’t compete with sellers like you. Amazon has its own products and competes with other sellers selling similar products.
While Etsy doesn’t compete with the sellers, there are a lot of sellers on Etsy, with the number easily crossing the 2 million mark. However, the good news is that there are also people(more than 40 million active users) buying from the platform.
The general trend on Etsy is to start with 10 to 20 products. This way, you get to test things out first and see what’s working or not. You can also be a bit daring and start with 30 to 40 products. There’s more risk involved but you might just get your shop noticed faster.
Having 10 to 20 products or more gives credibility to your Etsy store as it creates a sense of security on the part of the buyers. They see a store that has a sizeable inventory while also having the potential to grow.
You can gradually increase your number of products over time. We also think it’s a good idea not to post all your products at once. By bringing your products out one or two at a time, you can build excitement in your customers, old and new, about updates to your website. Here’s a more comprehensive reading about the ideal number of listings on Etsy.
How many items to start an online boutique?
How much inventory you need is one of the first things you have to figure out about an online boutique. And a good way to determine this is through the preferences of online shoppers.
Generally, online shoppers prefer to shop from fully stocked stores. Imagine yourself wanting to buy clothes online. You’d most likely take a closer look at the items in a shop that looks fully stocked as their large number of products gives them more credibility. Also, you’ll feel like you have more clothing options and can decide to do all your shopping in one place.
Filling up a page would require about 9 – 12 items and that’s the minimum bunker of items you should aim for. You can go beyond items especially if you have items that come in a variety of colors of sizes.
While we recommend 9 – 12 items as the minimum to start with, there’s no limit to the number of items you can have. The more products you have, the better. But we expect you to research about items you’ll be adding. Also, you’d need to add quality photos and include go