There’s a lot of awful advice online. Usually these “tips” are from people who have been selling forever but don’t *actually* make money; like, ok, hooray that you have been selling online for 10 years, but you only make $5,000 profit per year. That’s under $420 a month and less than $100 a week. After all the time and energy is factored in, you’re basically doing nothing. Someone who has been selling full time for a decade should be clearing at LEAST $40,000 a year (ideally closer to $200,000+) and if they’re not, they’re absolutely doing things wrong and refuse to listen to advice, so you shouldn’t listen to their advice AT ALL.

Sorry for being harsh, but when it comes to advice we gotta keep it real. Anyways, when you first start selling you absolutely NEED to pick a niche and load up on inventory in it. This means if you want to sell womens clothing, buy womens clothing and skip cell phone accessories, home goods, mens cologne gift sets, etc. Equally, if you want to sell mens accessories you can branch out into mens clothing but avoid kitchen gadgets (unless they’re mens things) and pass on baby clothes even if they’re a really-super-mega-good-deal. I have always said “you should be able to describe exactly what you sell in 3 to 5 words. If you can’t, you have no niche.” Here at BigBrandWholesale.com we sell “Womens Wholesale Clothing”; that is our market. Yes, we also added in mens, home goods, childrens and more after a decade in business, but 80% of our site is womens, specifically clothing. Kapish?

Here’s why you want to focus on one thing:

The entire goal is to sell things and make money. If you wanted a hobby you would play volleyball. If you wanted to be a charity you would start a 501(c)3. You are in business to make money. And, the more things you can sell the more money you WILL make: common sense.

When you spread your product type across hundreds of categories you end up being a store that has a little bit of everything BUT A LOT OF NOTHING. Think of it like this: have you ever went to a store to buy a specific thing and they don’t have it? Do you settle for something totally different? No. Not usually anyways. If I need a navy blue womens size medium tank top I am not going to settle for a size XS yellow tank, nor am I going to go with a mens long sleeve tee. Heck, I’m not even going to settle for a size Large navy blue tank because it’s not my size. With

that in mind, MAYBE I would settle for a black size medium womens tank top. Or maybe if I see the navy blue medium listed I will ALSO buy the same one in black. If I have drank a bottle of wine I will also hit the stores Clearance Section and grab the orange T-back variation too. OMG, this hunter green halter top looks adorable *clicks ADD TO CART*. Next thing I know, the $25 bottle of champagne ended up costing me $150 in tank tops when all I needed was that navy blue one.

Cross-promotions, a full size assortment and drunk customers aren’t the only reasons to pick-and-stick to a niche. Its actually much deeper than that:

Search engines, marketplaces, social media sites, blogs, etc have Artificial Intelligence (AKA “A.I.”) that use “Spiders” / “Web Crawlers” (computer algorithms) to figure out WHAT your site IS / listings ARE and categorize them. This means, if Johnny from Arizona is looking for hiking boots so he can hit those gorgeous Cave Creek AZ mountains, Google needs to know what to show him. So those Google Web Crawler Spiders tell Google “Hey! This site here is loaded with mens hiking stuff! Show him this on Page 1!!”. Equally those same spiders might say “OMG, this eBay seller has a crazy assortment of mens kicks! Make sure he sees this pronto”, then Boom! Your listings are in front of Johnny’s eyes.

However, if your company had 2 pairs of mens hiking boots, 1 pair of mens Nikes, 4 sets of Kate Spade tea cups, a pack of Lip Smackers chapstick and a gorgeous set of Boll and Branch Mulberry Colored King Size Bed Sheets, those web spiders are like, “Bro, we have no clue how to index this. Just bury it and show John DesignerShoeWarehouse.com instead because they have mens boots”. Think of it like the grocery store: When you need noodles you walk to the noodle aisle and look at all the boxes to see what catches your eye (did you know noodle manufactures actually PAY for the EXACT location on the shelf that their product is stocked? This is because POSITION IS EVERYTHING!). If a brand of noodles isn’t on the grocery store noodle shelf and is instead in the coffee area, right next to the Folgers, you probably won’t be buying it…. Because the correct location means a world of difference. If shelving categorization was meaningless the store wouldn’t bother to have aisles sorted by product type. Imagine that insanity! Trying to find a pack of newborn size pampers when it’s mixed in with dog food, Uncle Bens rice, fresh cucumbers, frozen fish and Fritos. - Chances are you would leave and go somewhere else…. Just like Johnny from AZ who is ready to buy those boots.

There’s still more reasons to sell in one niche:

Repeat business - If someone knows you are the place they can always go to when they want to buy unique jewelry, custom t-shirts or artificial plants, they WILL come back! Just make sure you are getting them your company info via an Order Insert Card

Missed Opportunities Can Still Equal A Sale! Even though Johnny couldn’t find the Columbia boots in size 10, black, he still found hiking socks and a backpack.

You are building a BRAND. Even if you sell other brands and nothing you Trademark, you are still building a reputation. For example, I know Hobby Lobby sells home decor. I know the meat

You are building a BRAND. Even if you sell other brands and nothing you Trademark, you are still building a reputation. For example, I know Hobby Lobby sells home decor. I know the meat market has fillet mignon. I know Bed Bath & Beyond has pillows and blankets. Does this mean I can’t buy a kids toy from Hobby Lobby? Of course not. They have tons of other items. Does this mean I can’t buy some milk from the meat market? No, they have a giant drink assortment. I can also buy snacks or pop from Bad, Bath & Beyond, but none of these things are why I went to these places. 

So, if you're just starting out, pick something you love and load up on stock of that category.  As you grow you can add more categories.  :)