{"id":34979,"date":"2019-11-15T09:05:27","date_gmt":"2019-11-15T09:05:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shippingeasy.com\/?p=34979"},"modified":"2019-11-14T21:46:23","modified_gmt":"2019-11-14T21:46:23","slug":"niche-e-commerce-success","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shippingeasy.com\/blog\/niche-e-commerce-success\/","title":{"rendered":"Niche E-commerce Success"},"content":{"rendered":"

A crux to e-commerce success is finding a niche e-commerce opportunity and capitalizing on it. By recognizing a void in the marketplace and filling it, you limit competition and can dominate as a go-to source for products. That is exactly what Harrison Richards did when he founded Furls Crochet, an online store providing high-end, unique, and well-designed crochet hooks, knitting needles, fabrics, and other accessories. We sat down and talked to Harrison to learn more about his approach and how his team uses ShippingEasy to succeed. <\/p>\n

Identify Customer Needs<\/H2><\/p>\n

This doesn\u2019t mean identifying what you want a customer to need. This means doing your research to see where there\u2019s a gap in the market. Harrison Richards believed that all products people use reflect something about themselves. He spoke with friends and family members about what they liked and disliked about the options available to them, what they wanted to see show up in the market, and why they loved fiber arts to begin with. <\/p>\n

The gap in the market he identified was that in fiber arts, which is another name for the crochet and knitting industry, there were no beautiful, inspiring, or high-performance products available. The products on the market were not designed for the hands of those using the products and thus caused fatigue and pain. There was a clear opportunity to fix that. <\/p>\n

The result: over 180,000 crochet hooks, knitting needles, and skeins of yarn sold to a niche e-commerce audience of over 30,000 people in 94 countries. There was clearly an audience for these kinds of products and Furls Crochet filled that void. <\/p>\n

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Image courtesy of: https:\/\/furlscrochet.com\/collections\/<\/a><\/sub><\/center><\/p>\n

Not only did Furls fill a void, but the company also focused on quality and an important concern for its users–hand health. The designs of products are ergonomic with high-end design, and their customers love their products. This created a further affinity for the products offered by Furls Crochet and the business response reflected that. <\/p>\n

Streamlining Is Key<\/H2><\/p>\n

Once your business starts to find its stride, you may find yourself quickly overwhelmed. This happened to Harrison and his team when they hit their first holiday season. Any e-commerce merchant knows that this time of year can be hectic as an insurmountable number of orders begin to pour in. Harrison began searching for a solution to help his team keep up.<\/p>\n

Simply diving into a paid shipping and order fulfillment solution to streamline an e-commerce business can turn into a costly mistake. Harrison wanted something he and his team could test out in a free trial to be sure that the software fit his team\u2019s workflows, with a price point that worked within their budget. That led him to take advantage of ShippingEasy\u2019s 30-day free trial. <\/p>\n

A small business, even one focusing on a niche e-commerce audience, is going to deal with complications and need help from time to time. A major selling point for Harrison was that ShippingEasy offered the ability to call and speak to a real human who would walk him or his team through whatever they were struggling with. <\/p>\n