Whether you already have a Shopify store or you're currently at the research phase, knowing about similar businesses within the same niche using Shopify can provide you a considerable boost in so many ways.
In this article, we go through why you should want to know who the other stores within your niche are and what you can do with that information.
Tip: Have you already created your Shopify account? If not, sign up by clicking this link here to get a free 3-day trial + pay $1/month for the first 3 months!
6 Amazing tips for finding other Shopify stores in your niche
Ready to find Shopify stores in your niche? Here are the tips that we will cover below:
- Looking for a 'Powered by Shopify' shown on the site
- Looking at the source code
- Taking a look at BuiltWith
- Using the Myip.ms Shopify technique
- The "site" search term
- The "inUrl" search term
Let's begin!
1. Powered by Shopify shown on the site
One of the easiest ways to identify a Shopify store is by scrolling to the bottom of the page to the footer; there may be a little tag saying 'Powered by Shopify.'
Of course, this can be edited out of the store with relative ease, but not all Shopify users know this, such as the above example given.
2. Looking at the source code
One of the obvious ways to discover other Shopify stores within your niche is to simply Google search your product to see what comes up. Doing this may not pull all competitors up as some could be very new and not running Google Ads.
If you are unsure whether the results are Shopify stores or not, a simple trick to use is by viewing the source code; you can do this by right-clicking anywhere on the page and selecting 'view page source' as shown below.
Doing this should pull up a bunch of code you may not understand, but that doesn't matter, stay with us.
Simply click 'CTRL + F' and then type 'Shopify'; this will highlight any code with this word in it. Naturally, this will only show on Shopify stores.
3. Taking a look at BuiltWith
BuiltWith compiles numerous tools that enable you to look up what software a website uses, its primary keywords, as well as the platform it was created on.
It's effortless to use too by simply entering the URL of the website you want to analyze. BuiltWith will then return a list of all the software and tools it has found, as shown above. BuiltWith will let you know if the store is made on Shopify.
An additional bonus is that BuiltWith now also offers a free Google Chrome browser extension for further ease of use, completely free too!
4. Myip.ms Shopify technique
Another great tool you have at your disposal to find Shopify stores is Myip.ms.
This runs a scan on the IP address to gather information such as the IP location, average visits per day, the date when the URL was first registered, and most importantly, the hosting company.
Simply typing another store's URL into their search engine will pull results similar to the above. As you can see, this company is using Shopify.
5. The "site" search term
When you sign up with Shopify, there is the name of both your store and myshopify.com.
Google has a great way to find exclusively Shopify sites with a specific search term ending with myshopify.com.
You can do this similar to the above, by typing the search term and "site:myshopify.com" at the end.
You will be able to look at all competitors who are touching on these particular keywords.
6. The "inUrl" search term
Last but most certainly not least, an advanced search term can be used within Google, called 'inURL.'
This will return all results that contain your desired search term within their URL.
Using inURL won't necessarily return Shopify stores exclusively, but you may use any of the methods mentioned above to determine whether they are using Shopify or not.
Why would you want to find other Shopify stores in your niche?
When evaluating the niche you have chosen, knowledge is power.
All of the information gathered when using one (or all) of the above methods to find other Shopify stores within your niche will allow you to 'look under the hood,' so to speak, of the competitor's stores.
A bit of research will help you know whether they are using Shopify and an abundance of other information. It's advantageous to know how much daily traffic they are getting, how long they have been around, and what keywords they are using, amongst numerous other things.
All of this knowledge is available to you for free!
Researching the competition
Looking into other Shopify stores within your niche is an excellent way to establish where you currently place yourself within the market, if at all. For established businesses, it's also a great way to see where you are doing well and not so well.
Looking into competitors should be done before you go live with your store. Competitors could be taking sales away from you daily, and it's down to you to figure out why that is.
Pricing, product quality, or the competition's overall image could be among the factors affecting your sales being lost to competitors.
You can take a look at this article here to learn more about finding gaps in the market!
Find inspiration
Competitors will likely be looking at your store for inspiration, so it's only fitting to return the favor.
Taking a good look at the user experience when browsing through the competitor's store is a great way to find out where you may be going wrong through a fresh pair of eyes.
We are not suggesting copy/pasting the competitor's store word for word, as this is a terrible idea, but looking at the customer journey is a great way to find out how to improve on what you already have.
Deciding if the niche is saturated
This decision could be difficult for newer entrepreneurs who have an idea and think they may be onto a real winner. If the niche market for this idea is already saturated, perhaps it's best to walk away from it as the concept isn't as original as you thought it was.
Niche markets are typically small to begin with. Because of this, even a small handful of competitors will make it difficult to both make sales and remain profitable in doing so.
A saturated niche market will drive up your Cost-Per-Click (CPC) when running ads on selected keywords while simultaneously strong-arming you to cut your prices. If you manage somehow to push your way into a niche market, you'll likely be operating on wafer-thin profit margins.
Pricing your products
How much your competition is selling the same product will be a massive factor in how much you can sell yours.
You don't necessarily have to undercut them all, perhaps your product is far superior, or perhaps you want to sell it as part of a set. The point is, you can market yourself on this basis.
Looking at other Shopify stores within your niche is an easy way to get a rough idea of what people are prepared to pay for a particular product.
For more ideas on product pricing, check out this article on Dropshipping Pricing Strategies.
Keyword Research
We touched on this point a bit ago, but the Cost-Per-Click (CPC) will play a significant role in whether you remain profitable.
The CPC will be extraordinarily high in a saturated market, niche or non-niche. This is unsustainable long-term if you are paying $10 on ads to generate $15 in sales.
Looking at other Shopify stores running ads will help you understand what keywords they are using to generate paid traffic to them. You will also have a better idea of what you should expect to pay to generate a single sale with a bit of research, although this figure can typically be more fluid than others.
Should you want to read into this a little more, we have put together a fantastic article on How to Set the Right Google Ads Budget for Ecommerce Stores.
Conclusion
If you are just researching various niches before you jump into setting up your store, you are doing the right thing by being proactive and taking a look at the competition first.
Should you have already set up your store and have run into a few big players within your niche, it's not too late; this is a fantastic opportunity to see where you can do better.
If the other stores within your niche are just too much to compete with for a small market, or perhaps it's no longer worth your time, at least you are now able to make the well-informed decision to walk away.
Perhaps your pricing just needs tweaking to be more competitive, or you need to improve your customer journey. You can now use other Shopify stores for inspiration to make the changes.
In all scenarios, you have taken a massive step in knowing your competition and are in a better position to act accordingly.
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