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Consumers’ needs are on the rise while their patience keeps running out. Ecommerce website speed matters — 57% of customers will leave your website and buy from another retailer if your website loads too slowly, and 21% will never come back.

It’s not just your customers who feel this way — Google uses site speed as a ranking factor. This is why you need to improve your ecommerce site performance, as slow ecommerce searches can kill sales and business growth.

It doesn’t matter how good your customer retention or acquisition skills are if your website is slow. You need to know how to speed up WooCommerce for more traffic, a better conversion rate, and higher SEO rankings.

How Fast Should a Website Load?

Slow ecommerce search can lower your conversion rate and increase bounce rate. Your online store should load within two and a half seconds, according to Google’s Core Web Vitals.

Ensure you increase website speed, so your ecommerce site performance doesn’t fall short of Google’s standards. A faster website can also increase your SEO rankings.

Take a speed test on Google PageSpeed Insights to evaluate and optimize your slow WooCommerce site.

How To Speed Up Ecommerce Websites

1. Reduce HTTP requests.
2. Get a reliable hosting service.
3. Keep your content management system (CMS) up to date.
4. Practice caching techniques.
5. Use a content delivery network (CDN).
6. Optimize website images.
7. Minimize website plugins and webpage elements.

The above are the seven best practices to prevent slow ecommerce searches and boost your ecommerce site performance. 

Keep reading to learn how each of these works in optimizing your website load time.

1. Reduce the Number of Server Requests

Too many HTTP requests can cause your ecommerce site to load slowly. 

Webpages with large or too many elements can reduce page speed. Your content management system (CMS) has software and themes that load several external scripts, media files, and stylesheets that can slow ecommerce search. 

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The best way to improve ecommerce site performance is to reduce the number of server requests sent by these processes. Try the following:

• Disable and trash unnecessary scripts, plugins, and integrated software.
• Merge or minify JavaScript, HTML, and CSS files.
• Delete unused images and files.

By doing the above, you’ll reduce complex codes, lower HTTP requests, and speed up your page load time.

2. Get a Reliable Hosting Service

Ecommerce platforms can have a high amount of traffic and an endless catalog of products and media files. The surge of traffic and too much media content can make ecommerce websites crash unexpectedly.

An effective hosting provider can prevent the loss of valuable traffic and customers.

To speed up your WooCommerce site, you need a dependable hosting provider that can provide your website with more bandwidth usage and reliable web servers.

Choose a web hosting service that is reliable, flexible, easy to use, and affordable based on your budget.

Use an ecommerce host like Hostdedi Managed WooCommerce to save you the trouble of looking for a reliable hosting solution. With Hostdedi, you have everything you need in one place, including hosting, a built-in CDN, and image compression. 

3. Keep Your Ecommerce Site Up to Date

One of the easiest ways to boost your ecommerce site performance is to update your WooCommerce store and any plugins you installed.

To effectively speed up WooCommerce’s functionality, you should also:

• Edit your outdated content.
• Check if Google Analytics is still active.
• Add meta descriptions and keywords to rank higher in search engines.
• Update your WooCommerce theme and layout.
• Clean up your website cache and trash folders.

Keeping your online store up to date will improve your ecommerce site performance by reducing the loading time of your WooCommerce store. 

As your ecommerce store constantly evolves, so does the need to speed up WooCommerce. Evaluate your website performance continually to see what you can do to prevent slow ecommerce search and boost your page load speed.

4. Practice Caching Techniques

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Practice caching with cache plugins or remote and local methods to refresh and increase your ecommerce site performance. 

Caching is the temporary storage of ecommerce search queries to improve site speed and process HTTP requests faster. Caching fixes slow ecommerce searches because your browser only has to process a few resources if some have been cached. 

You can enable caching on your WordPress website, WooCommerce, or your web browser. With caching plugins like WP Rocket and W3 Total Cache, you can store certain information, merge and minify JavaScript and CSS, and get rid of irrelevant code.

When you enable browser caching, static files that remain unchanged across other pages of your ecommerce store are cached for future purposes. 

Caching reduces loading time and enhances ecommerce site performance, as the browser doesn’t have to process these static components every time a webpage loads. 

5. Use a Content Delivery Network (CDN)

A content delivery network (CDN) is a network of servers that help websites efficiently deliver content to users. 

By default, your ecommerce site’s users will experience varying load speeds depending on their geographical location. This is mostly due to the location of your web hosting servers. 

Why You Need a WordPress CDN >>

For example, if your hosting company has servers in New York, it will deliver content faster to a user living there than someone in a distant location.

It’s this “speed of content delivery” gap that CDN bridges. It can speed up WooCommerce load time for all of your website visitors, no matter their location.

With Hostdedi’s Managed WooCommerce hosting, you get a built-in CDN with 22 server locations for effective speed optimization.

6. Optimize Website Images

Images contribute largely to slow ecommerce searches. To speed up WooCommerce, we recommend practicing good image usage.

Image Source

There are two types of image files you’re most likely to use on your website — PNGs and JPEGs. 

For your ecommerce site, we recommend using PNGs because they’re clear and high-quality. These heavier image files will attract more buyers than JPGs that tend to have smaller file sizes but aren’t as high quality.

However, there’s an extra step to take before you upload PNG photos to your website. You need to compress images you want to upload. You can use free tools like Compress PNG Images Online and TinyPNG to reduce your image sizes.

Another essential image optimization hack is to use the right dimensions. Ensure you upload the recommended image dimensions. For example, uploading an image bigger than the product page can cause a slow ecommerce search on the front-end. 

7. Minimize Website Plugins 

While WordPress plugins are essential for running an online store to achieve visible growth, installing too many plugins can destroy your ecommerce site’s performance. 

Plugins add codes to your website. The higher the number of plugins, the heavier your webpages and the more complex it becomes to translate your website code — which can result in slow page loading speed.

It’s not just the number of plugins you have but their quality as well. Delete unused plugins and avoid downloading bad plugins. Bad plugins are poorly coded and will slow down your website significantly. 

Installing too many plugins can cause slow ecommerce searches. It can also:

• Slow your website down.
• Cause crashes.
• Create a poor user experience.
• Reduce website traffic and speed up bounce rate.
• Make your ecommerce website vulnerable to hackers and malware (if you use bad plugins).

Final Thoughts: How To Speed Up WooCommerce: 7 Vital Things To Fix

Whether you’re a new online store owner or an ecommerce entrepreneur who’s been in the game for a while, having a fast-loading website will boost your sales and increase your SEO rankings.

The steps above are effective ways to fix slow ecommerce search and enhance WooCommerce loading speed.

Ready to build a fast, high-performing online store? Get started with Hostdedi Managed WooCommerce hosting for free. Get optimized hosting for fast, high-performing online stores.

Start your two-week free trial of fully managed WooCommerce hosting today.

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It seems like just about every popular site and app is using gated content nowadays, doesn’t it? It’s almost like where don’t you need to put in a login and password anymore?

We all know why it’s a strong practice: the subscription model is a billion dollar industry and it’s only growing. Everyone wants a piece of the membership site pie and with limited oven space, you need a faster, better, smarter, and affordable solution. 

Meet Membership Sites with WPQuickStart 

Whether you’re a dev spinning up websites all day long or a one person show at your agency who just got this project thrown on their desk, every site you build is time consuming.

Membership Sites with WPQuickStart eliminates the tasks of having to choose from more than 50 membership plugins, find compatible add-ons, and select a theme that works with everything. 

We’ve brought together the perfect set of plugins and themes to eliminate the stress and delay of picking products that don’t work together. The solution comes bundled with:

• The leading and fastest growing WordPress theme from Kadence.
• The easiest WordPress membership plugin to use — Restrict Content Pro.
• And fully managed hosting from Hostdedi.

It’s a curated bundle that helps you build membership sites in a fraction of the time it usually takes, for a lot less money than you’d normally spend.

Valued at $349 but with costs starting at only $49, the packages come with a set-up wizard, Restrict Content Pro, Kadence (along with built-in payment integrations), multi-level subscription packages, planned and automated emails, and easy-to-use reporting for insights into member subscriptions, payments, and business performance.  

But wait, there’s more! Because Membership Sites with WPQuickStart is built on top of fully managed WordPress from Hostdedi, users can also count on: 

• Automated, immediate scaling for concurrency during traffic surges.
• Improved page speeds through a built-in 22-location Content Delivery Network (CDN).
• Built-in advanced caching for ultra-fast loading.
• Always-on security monitoring and support from WordPress experts 24/7/365.

How Does it Work?

Using the intuitive Set-Up Wizard, you’ll answer a few questions about members, the type of plans being offered, and what type of content will be provided. From there, your site gets generated and goes live in minutes. 

If you’re migrating from another platform, you can easily import users directly into Restrict Content Pro. There are simple ways to integrate payment options and generate discount codes. With easy navigation and helpful tutorials available right on your dashboard, revenue from membership and subscription-based sites are a few clicks away because it just works.

At Hostdedi our continued goal is to make building sites easier. Our support team is made up of real WordPress experts who can help you get started, answer questions along the way, and even help your clients with their questions.

Ready to go? Get your logo and brand colors ready along with any content you’d like loaded right away. 

Check out WPQuickStart for Membership sites today.

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Many site owners ask this question. Why is my WordPress site so slow?

Our attention spans are getting shorter the more we use technology. The average attention span today is eight seconds. Think about what that means if your WordPress site is slow to load or function.

Why Your WordPress Site is Slow

Your website’s visitors have an attention span less than that of a goldfish. So they’ll click off of your site and find another option pretty much immediately if your site is slow to load.

Various things cause slow loading speeds on websites, including:

• Poor Hosting. Your website hosting server must have proper configuration or your website will load more slowly.
• Page Size. Large page files cause your website to load slowly. Large pages typically are caused by images that aren’t optimized or compressed for online use.
• Plugins. Poorly coded or infrequently updated plugins can slow down your site significantly. Also, just having too many plugins loaded with features you don’t use slows down your site. 
• Browser Cache. If your site is not providing cached pages, load times will be significantly longer.
• External Scripts. External scripts such as ads can negatively impact your site’s performance.
• Core Technology. Updated versions of technology contain improvements that will help better your site’s speed and performance. If you don’t update them, it will slow down your site.
• Bulky Themes. Some themes are just bloated with unnecessary features that slow down your site. 
• Images. Images are likely to impact loading time if you don’t make them as small as possible.
• Video. Streaming video onto your site from other sources like YouTube will drag down your site’s speed.

Beginner’s Guide to WordPress Performance Optimization >>

How to Speed Up Your WordPress Site

There are a lot of seemingly minor mistakes you can make that slow down your WordPress site. The good news is that there are also many steps you can take to speed it up.

Invest in Quality Hosting

Choosing a good web host is an essential step in keeping your site running quickly and performing well. Don’t just go with the first web hosting company you find. Instead, do some research and ask for recommendations. Be willing to invest in a hosting company with a strong reputation that balances speed with performance and cost.

5 Real Differences Between Cheap Hosting and Good Hosting >>

Avoid shared hosting if possible. Shared hosting is when multiple users share space on a single server maintained by the hosting provider. But, if you share, other people’s sites can slow yours down. This slow down is because you rely on them to take steps to keep their sites running quickly.

Update Core Technology

There is a reason that new versions of technology like HTML, PHP, etc. are released. They contain improvements and new features that will help improve speed and performance. The best practice is using the newest versions of these technologies.

Keep WordPress Updated

Make sure your version of WordPress and all of its components are always updated. Each WordPress version includes new features and bug fixes that make your website run better. Updating WordPress core keeps your site running its best and protects it from security issues. Be sure also to update plugins when you update WordPress.

The 15 Most Popular WordPress Plugins in 2021 >>

Choose a Quality Theme

Find a theme that’s just what you need and nothing extra. You should even consider getting a minimal theme and adding the functionality via plugins. That way, you aren’t adding anything unnecessary to your site’s operations.

Maintain the Database

Regular database maintenance is vital for keeping your database operating smoothly. Items to remove from the database include uninstalled plugins and post revisions. Tools and services are available to help you clean your database if you aren’t sure how to do it yourself. Plus, quality hosting companies do their own database maintenance. 

Set Up Monitoring

You can’t change what you don’t measure. Set up monitoring so you know how quickly your site is performing. 

Decrease Server Requests

A server request happens each time your browser asks for a resource (style sheet, script, image, etc.) from your server. The more server requests required to load your site, the longer it takes. Therefore, you want to minimize the things your server needs to do to load the page.

To reduce server requests:

• Decrease the number of posts shown on a page.
• Only show post excerpts on archive pages.
• Reduce the number of visual elements on pages.
• Deactivate and uninstall unnecessary plugins.
• Enable lazy loading to delay loading images until necessary.
• Reduce external resources like fonts.

Optimize Images

Images take up the most space on a page. They are likely to impact loading time if you don’t make them as small as possible. There are websites you can use to compress photos before you put them on your site. There also are plugins you can use to do it automatically. If a WordPress site is running slow, typically images are the first culprit. 

How to Convert to WebP Images on WordPress >>

Avoid Hosting Video

WordPress can host and play videos, but it’s not a good idea to use this feature when it comes to speed and performance. Hosting video on your site slows it down and makes it more difficult to back up. Instead, keep the video on its hosting site where it belongs and just embed it on your site.

Cache Pages

Cache for WordPress means storing commonly accessed data to speed up processing. Caching is the most common way to get your website to load faster and generally perform better.

Run a CDN

A content delivery network distributes the work of delivering content to your web browser. A CDN makes your site more efficient by increasing the number of sources, closeness, and caching. 

Use Minification

Minification reduces website load time by eliminating unnecessary content in HTML, JavaScript, and CSS files. 

Try WordPress Hosting with Hostdedi

Hopefully, this post answered your question, “Why is my WordPress site so slow?”

There are a lot of factors that slow down your website. There also are a lot of ways to fix it. But the most critical factor for website speed is the host company you choose. 

A good host company, like Hostdedi, manages your site, so you don’t have to worry about slow loading times or other performance issues. Contact us today to learn more about WordPress hosting from Hostdedi.

Or, try it for yourself. Start your free 14-day trial of fully managed WordPress today.

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Have you identified specific areas of interest that your audience needs? Are you looking to develop a new source of revenue? Both? A membership site may be the answer.

Creating a membership site does not have to be complicated. Keep reading to learn how to start a membership site in nine simple steps.

What is a Membership Site?

A membership website is an online community that offers content only members can access. The site could consist of various types of membership content, including videos, online courses, or access to coaching.

The key to a membership site is to provide greater value than what you offer for free on your regular site. In other words, potential members have to see the value in paying for the content.

Why Start a Membership Site?

One reason to start a membership site is that you have valuable content to share and your audience is willing to pay for it. But that’s not the only reason.

Other reasons to start a membership site include:

• Continuous Revenue. A membership site creates recurring revenue — money that comes in every month from subscriptions. It’s an excellent way to supplement your income.
• Community Building. A membership site helps you develop deeper relationships with people who have an interest in common with you. It also allows you to help connect those people.
• Establishing Authority. You build a membership site around your expertise. But having a site where people know you for a specific topic helps you establish your authority too.
• Loyalty. The more information you provide and the greater relationships you build, the more loyal your audience becomes. Dedicated audience members stay, meaning you don’t have to spend as much time or money on recruitment or retention. Loyal audience members also are likely to purchase other products you provide in the future. Plus, dedicated audience members will recommend your site to their friends, helping you generate new leads.
• Monetizing Expertise. A membership site helps you give your loyal audience more in-depth information for a fixed fee.

Membership Site Challenges

At this point, starting a membership site probably seems like a no-brainer. But providing this type of next-level content is not without challenges.

Some of the challenges of membership sites include:

• Maintaining Relevance. You have to stay one step ahead of news and trends in your niche to make sure your members get the best content. Thinking creatively, strategically, and proactively about your niche is a full-time job.
• Recruitment. Members may leave your community. There is a constant need to grow your membership list.
• Frequent Updates. You need to continue offering new or updated content. Fresh content means more work.
• Tech Savvy. You’ll need the knowledge to build and run your membership site. If you don’t have this know-how, you have to hire someone else to do it or find the right resources.

How to Start a Membership Site

Starting a membership site today is much easier than in the past. But it won’t happen on its own or without thoughtful planning and technical expertise.

Here’s how to start a membership site in nine simple steps.

1. Brainstorm Membership Site Ideas

If you’re reading this post, you probably have a pretty good idea of what you want your membership site to offer. But perhaps you have multiple ideas or just know you have more to offer. 

First, make a list of your talents, skills, interests, and experiences. Next, think about what membership sites you use. Then, consider the types of content your audience needs. Finally, think about how you can fulfill those needs with different or better content than the competition provides.

2. Plan Your Membership Program

Once you settle on an idea that best fulfills your audience’s needs, think about what your offerings will look like.

Consider membership program details, including:

• What you’ll offer.
• Where will you land on membership pricing.
• What format you’ll deliver it in.
• How often you’ll post new offerings.
• The length of membership.
• How you’ll encourage your current audience to join.
• How you’ll recruit new members.
• How you’ll build community.
• What you’ll do to retain members.

There’s a lot to work to do before you launch a site to make sure it’s successful. Considering these things in advance will help. Of course, you can adjust along the way as necessary.

3. Research Tools

How will you host your membership site and provide the content?

You need three basic things to start a membership site today:

1. A domain name.
2. A web hosting account.
3. A membership plugin.

If you already have an audience, you likely already have a website. Your membership site can run off of it. Make sure your web host will provide your membership site with the support it needs. If you opt for the cheapest hosting, it’s not going to give the best experience. You need a full-service WordPress host company that cares about your site’s performance.

There are many free and paid WordPress membership plugins, including MemberPress, LearnDash, and Teachable. Each plugin has different features. But, the features make them bulky, which again makes having the right host essential to avoid performance issues on your WordPress site. 

To choose a WordPress membership plugin, determine what features you want on your site, then research which plugin does those things best.

4. Price Your Membership Program

Decide which tools you will use for your site. This will help you understand the overhead costs associated with running your membership site. Then you’ll need to decide how much you need to charge for membership and how long the membership will last. Don’t forget to account for your time. And, of course, you must consider how much your audience is willing to pay for the content you’ll provide.

5. Create Content

Once you’ve made the behind-the-scenes plans, it’s time to create the content you’ll deliver. Content creation is the most time-consuming part of a membership site. You need to make at least enough content to launch. Then you need a plan for creating more content as you go. 

Remember that people pay for this content because they expect it to be more in-depth, professional, and visually appealing than what they get for free.

6. Build Your Membership Site

How you build your membership site depends to some extent on the membership plugin you choose. You could go about building your membership site yourself, or you could use Membership Sites with WPQuickStart by Hostdedi. The the intuitive Set-Up Wizard sets up your membership site for you.

General steps for building your membership site include:

• Activating the plugin.
• Adding a payment method, including pricing and frequency.
• Creating membership levels, if you have them.
• Adding a pricing page.
• Restricting access according to plan.
• Adding members-only content.
• Adding signup and user login forms.
• Customizing emails or other membership subscription messages.

7. Market Your Membership Site

You can’t just launch your membership site and expect people to flock to it. Instead, market your site to existing and new visitors before it launches and at the launch. Then continue promoting the site and its various offerings as you add content.

8. Keep Your Membership Site Active

Launching a membership site then failing to keep it going is not only disappointing to paying customers, it’s fraudulent. It’s your responsibility to give members the content they pay for. You also must continue adding members and building community to make the site valuable.

9. Always Seek Improvement

You can’t build your membership site and forget it. You should always look for ways to improve your membership site and its offerings. In other words, you should always be thinking about how you can better serve your audience.

Start a Membership Site With WPQuickStart

A good host is a must-have for a robust and functional membership site. Failure to hire a professional hosting service will leave you with a number of problems including slow site speed, poor performance, and most of all a bad user experience. 

Hostdedi provides fully managed hosting for your WordPress site, including membership sites with WPQuickStart.

WPQuickStart is the ideal membership website builder, combining an intuitive set-up wizard with lightening-fast WordPress and perfect plugins. Use the WPQuickStart Membership set-up wizard to build a membership site in a fraction of the time it would normally take.

For more information, check out WPQuickStart for Membership sites today.

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High-quality product images are an essential aspect of every ecommerce shop.

However, many new store owners simply upload images without optimizing them for their online stores. These large image files slow websites down.

Store owners need to find a way to optimize product images in a way that speeds up WooCommerce. Some ways to do so involve modifying WooCommerce product image sizes and working with tools and programs to convert and deliver images quickly.

3 Components of High-Quality WooCommerce Images

The ideal WooCommerce product image has the following characteristics:

1. Correct dimensions. Clear product images are needed for ecommerce product page listings. Each WooCommerce image size has different dimensions depending on the type. 

Adding an image with different dimensions than what the WooCommerce store theme requires can distort its looks, often leading to image blurriness. 

2. Optimized for website speed. WooCommerce product image sizes often affect website speed and performance. The larger the file size, the longer it takes the website to load, which customers don’t like. 

Ecommerce store owners must optimize product image sizes to speed up WooCommerce. We’ll discuss this in more detail later in this guide.

3. Different perspectives. With online shopping, customers don’t get to see the product up close. They have to rely on the shop page’s product photos to get a holistic view of what they’re buying.

   Add product images with different perspectives to give customers a better idea of what the item looks like in real life.

WooCommerce Product Image Size

WooCommerce product images come in different sizes. WooCommerce image dimensions depend on the theme used, store user interface, and whether the store uses an image zoom plugin. 

A minimum WooCommerce image size of 800 to 1000 pixels is recommended for standard products. If you have more complicated and detailed products, a larger image (e.g., 2000 pixels and above) will let customers zoom in to see the item’s details.

WooCommerce image types include:

• Catalog image. These are medium-sized images used in single product page loops such as the Shop, Product Category, and Related Products pages.

ALT: WooCommerce catalog image from tanksthatgetaround.com 

• Single product image. Also known as the main or featured image, this is usually the first and largest image on the WordPress product listing. The main image width is usually 600 pixels and is uncropped by default.

• Thumbnail image. These are the small images used in the shopping cart, widget, and product gallery. They’re usually square and cropped.

The thumbnail image size can be adjusted depending on usage. The WooCommerce thumbnail size is set to a default of 600 pixels in width, and cropping aspect ratios can be customized by the store owner. 

On the other hand, the gallery thumbnail image has a default size of 100 pixels x 100 pixels.

ALT: WooCommerce single product image and thumbnail from tanksthatgetaround.com product page.

Setting Up WooCommerce Image Sizes

One of the most common problems with ecommerce product listings is heavy or blurry product images. 

When images are blurry, your WooCommerce product image size settings may be too small, or your images need to be higher resolution.

The latest WooCommerce version empowers you to crop, resize, and regenerate images. Images are also compatible with WordPress themes.

Since WooCommerce 3.3 was released, themes can be designed with defined image sizes. If the theme developer does this, store owners cannot change image sizes, and only the cropping option will be visible. 

There are three image cropping ratio settings available. New image dimensions depend on the cropping method and image width.

You can modify image settings with WooCommerce’s Customizer. To do this, go to Appearance > Customize > WooCommerce > Product Images. 

You can also use a product image plugin like WooThumbs for WooCommerce, which lets you change image sizes.

Optimizing Images To Speed Up WooCommerce

There are tricks you can do to your images to speed up WooCommerce. These include:

ALT: WPSmush plugin page.

• Setting up a content delivery network (CDN). A CDN is a network of servers that deliver content closest to the user’s location. CDNs are best for static content like images. 

You can sign up for a separate CDN service, but some web hosting providers like Hostdedi include this feature in its managed hosting plans.

• Converting your images to a different format. The most common image file types are GIF, JPG, and PNG. One of the newer image formats that are optimized for websites is WebP. WebP images are 30% smaller than JPGs.

There are several plugins you can use to convert images to WebP.

Final Thoughts: Best WooCommerce Image Sizes To Speed Up WooCommerce

Product images are an essential part of product pages.

Ecommerce shops require high-quality images, which usually have larger file sizes. However, these large image files tend to slow websites down. 

There are many ways an ecommerce shop can optimize WooCommerce product image sizes, including resizing, converting, and compressing images. 

Investing in a CDN also speeds up WooCommerce, but you have to sign up for a separate one if your web hosting doesn’t include it.

With a Hostdedi managed WooCommerce hosting plan, you won’t need to sign up for a separate CDN, as we include it in your package.

Sign up for a free trial of Hostdedi’s managed WooCommerce hosting plan today.

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Maybe you’ve created your membership site already. Maybe you’re thinking about starting one. Once you’ve got one up and running — then what? 

Building a great site might seem like the biggest hurdle but after you get past that barrier, how do you get your base to keep coming back? In this article I’m going to provide several strategies that increase member engagement for membership sites.

Onboarding Strategies for Member Engagement

1. Modify Your Registration to Deliver Immediate Value

When you’re building your membership registration, the normal approach is going to collect a limited amount of information and then register members. 

You collect their money, create their account, and they get access to protected content. 

But that’s not enough. 

If you want to surprise and delight your members, you’re going to want to ask them a couple more questions. You’re going to want to understand a little bit more about who they are and then immediately deliver additional value to them.

What kind of value am I talking about?

Let’s imagine that you’ve segmented your membership in three or four different personas that sign up for your membership site. That also means you’ll know the four kinds of problems or challenges that they’re facing. 

Your job during registration is to have them self-identify. By getting that information upon creating that user account, you can also immediately send them a targeted download or PDF, something that immediately mitigates that known and major issue.

When a customer feels surprised and delighted, they’re confident that they’ve made the right call and chosen the right community. And that drives engagement.

2. Build Onboarding That Drives Connection 

The second strategy is similar in that your onboarding has to be brilliant. Again, it will require that you collect a little bit more information during registration so that you better understand who signed up. Then you tailor that onboarding to them. 

This means you might end up with three or four different onboarding email sequences (based on how you’ve tagged that member) that you can choose from when sending your initial sequences.

One part of onboarding is where people connect. Could be Slack, Facebook Groups, Discord, or some other community solution. And in each of those, you’ll have several groups or channels that are driven by objectives, characteristics, or even the location of your members.

Your job during onboarding is to figure out, based on what you know about your new member, where to put them. If you know they’re on the West Coast, put them in that channel. If you know their interests, and have a channel for it, put them in there. 

The point is that you should place them or introduce them to their community as part of your onboarding. It will certainly help with member engagement.

3. Create More than a Membership Directory 

For the third idea, I’m going to wrap up this idea that your registration is so critical. Here’s one more way to leverage your enhanced registration.

First, know this: you have to choose and decide what information you’re collecting and what you’re going to show to others. 

You can immediately foster member engagement with a membership directory — more specifically, one that’s not boring.

When you create a membership directory, you should do more than just present the names and the titles and the companies they come from (and maybe their emails). You should do more than that. 

You should highlight their experience or expertise. This comes from collecting that information when they’re registering.

I was once part of a membership site that put information like companies we had worked for, our current role, how many years we’d been in that role, and more into a directory. That became really helpful so that others knew when they should (or shouldn’t) hit me up for advice.

In the last strategy we talked about helping people find their “tribe” in your membership. But sometimes people want to find and connect with people that aren’t like them. That’s where a great directory comes in.

Interaction Strategies for Member Engagement

Now the fourth idea takes us in a different direction. Can we agree that everyone wants more leads, more traffic, and more business? 

If that’s the case, this strategy will do two things at once — help you create content for your site, and put a spotlight on your members that will drive them more traffic (and potentially leads).

It’s the strategy to co-create content together with your members. You do this by asking a question and giving members an area where they can respond. Put out a form. Let anyone who wants to fill it out. Then you use that as part of your digital content strategy.

If you ask, “Has anyone hired more than 25 people in a single month?” and give them the space to tell their story and tips (via a form), you are getting great material for a post. 

You’re also going to be able to publish something with a quote from them or their story in it. Backlinks will be great, and your members will love it. They’ll share it with their friends and associates.

As a result, you might even grow your membership. But the best part is that when other members see the benefits, they’ll be looking to get more engaged. That’s the main point of the strategy to begin with.

5. Invite Members to Connect Live Once a Week

The fifth strategy is one of my favorites.

Just because you build a membership site doesn’t mean you can’t create another place for people to gather. One of the communities that I’ve been helping to build has a weekly Zoom call. The fifty folks or so meet every week and talk about what went great in any given week, along with what was a struggle.

This is one of the most compelling parts of this community. They feel connected and cared for. They get advice from each other and they don’t feel so alone.

So if you can create something like that, you will foster and build more community, which will drive greater engagement inside your membership site.

6. Hold Virtual Events for Your Membership

For number six, I want to shift from Zoom to a different strategy — and that’s to hold virtual events.

I have worked with a membership site for years that used to have physical events. But when COVID hit, they had to shift to virtual events. They used to be called New York Wine Events. They now have a new name: Crush Wine XP.

That’s because they shifted from doing physical events only in New York, and now they do them anywhere, virtually. I’m talking about virtual wine tasting. Think about that for a second. 

You sign up because there’s a limited number of spots. You get access to the Zoom call where other people are going to do this virtually, too. There’s going to be a sommelier or someone who’s going to take you on a tour of one of the vineyards that they’re at. But you also get to order the samples in advance and have them delivered to you. 

So people are in their home and they’re able to participate in this virtual event while learning more about the wines — and they actually get to taste the wines.

So hold a virtual event. 

And if you’re wondering how to pull this off, check out Events Calendar Pro’s extension for Virtual Events. It’s fantastic.

Strategies To Add Value for Members

7. Provide Early Access and Discounts

Idea number seven is to provide early access to buying something. Let’s say that you have created a report and this report is super valuable to your membership, but also to the outside world. So you say, 

“Hey, I’m going to put it on sale on Friday to the outside world. But on Tuesday, I’m going to make it available to members. And in fact, I’m going to also immediately add a discount so that members pay way less and get access to it earlier.” 

I’ll tell you, sometimes in the right setting, simply giving people early access is all you need to keep them highly engaged.

8. Gamify Your Giveaways

Here’s number eight: giveaways. You can gamify all of the interaction and interactivity for a giveaway.

There are tools out there that will help you do giveaways the gamified way. They require that participants take actions to earn “tickets” or a chance to win.

You can drive any kind of engagement that you want — tweets on social, signing up for newsletters, sharing content, and more.

Each time a member takes one of these actions, they get an extra ticket into the raffle. And at the end of the month, you’ve not only driven engagement, but you get to give away a cool prize.

9. Create Courses for Members

The last strategy is all about education. Your members may want or need specific help solving specific challenges. Use that to create online courses or even mini-courses. These don’t have to be huge.

But the nature of adding a set of courses automatically will drive higher engagement by those who are constantly logging in, watching content, and marking it complete.

Additionally, members will love it because they feel like they’re getting more than anyone else anywhere else. In other places, you have to pay for courses. But in your membership, you’re making them available for free.

Launch Your Membership Site With WPQuickStart

The key to member engagement is about value and making sure that you’re delivering value consistently and constantly.

So there you go — 9 different ways to drive member engagement. And they’re not mutually exclusive. You can combine several of these strategies to really help your membership site take off. 

Get started with a membership site of your own. Try our new membership focused solution, WPQuickStart. All you need to do is…

• Answer a few questions.
• Load your content.
• Set up membership levels.

And you can go live in minutes. It’s the only solution on the market to match premium software with premium hosting specifically tailored to WordPress.

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SOUTHFIELD, Mich.  JULY 20, 2021 — Hostdedi, the fully managed, high-performance digital commerce platform built to optimize WordPress, WooCommerce, and Magento sites and stores, today announced the release of the first product in their new WPQuickStart set of WordPress solutions — Membership Sites with WPQuickStart, the fastest and most affordable way to build a membership site on WordPress.

Membership Sites with WPQuickStart eliminates the burden for creators that comes with having to choose from more than 50 membership plugins, the need to find compatible add-ons, and selecting a theme that works with everything — only to find out that something doesn’t work after spending hundreds of dollars up front.

“We’ve designed the ideal solution for people in or entering the membership space,” says Chris Lema, a known membership expert in the WordPress community. “We bring together the perfect set of plugins and themes, eliminating the stress and delay of picking products that don’t work together. Now business owners, creators, and developers can build membership sites in a fraction of the time, for a lot less than they would normally spend.”

This solution comes bundled with the leading and fastest growing WordPress theme from Kadence, the easiest WordPress membership plugin to use — Restrict Content Pro, and fully managed hosting from Hostdedi. 

Starting at $49, the Membership packages come with an intuitive set-up wizard and extraordinary value from Restrict Content Pro, an industry leader Membership plugin provider. A $349 value is included in every Membership Site with WPQuickStart plan with powerful features such as built-in payment integrations, multi-level subscription packages, planned and automated emails, and easy-to-use reporting for insights into member subscriptions, payments, and business performance.  

Because Membership Sites with WPQuickStart is built on top of fully managed WordPress from Hostdedi, users can also count on: 

• Automated, immediate scaling for concurrency during traffic surges
• Improved page speeds through a built-in 22-location Content Delivery Network (CDN)
• Built-in advanced caching for ultra-fast loading
• Always-on security monitoring and support from WordPress experts 24/7/365

Restrict Content Pro and Kadence are part of StellarWP, which along with Hostdedi live under the Liquid Web Family of Brands, powering the online potential of growing businesses, organizations, and the designers, developers, and agencies who create for them.  

Over 40% of the Internet runs WordPress and we’re focused on making it faster and simpler for designers, developers and agencies to build sites and stores. “We’re in a unique position to combine superior WordPress plugins with superior hosting in a wizard-like experience,” says Jim Geiger, CEO. “It’s never been easier to enable fast-growing digital commerce experiences tailored specifically for the WordPress community.”

Learn more about this innovative solution here.

About Hostdedi

Hostdedi has been serving SMBs and the designers, developers, and agencies who create for them for more than 20 years by providing a fully managed, high-performance cloud solution built to optimize WordPress, WooCommerce, and Magento sites and stores. As a company within The Liquid Web Family of Brands, we own and manage 10 global data centers, and collectively serve over 45,000 customers spanning 150 countries and provide unparalleled service from a dedicated group of experts 24/7/365. As an industry leader in customer service, the rapidly expanding brand family has been recognized among INC. Magazine’s 5000 Fastest-Growing Companies for twelve years.  

Learn more about the Liquid Web Family of Brands and StellarWP.

Media Contact

Rachel Martin, Hostdedi VP of Global Marketing

[email protected]

Proper planning is the key to success for any company and especially a new business. 

A 2019 study from Startup Genome found that 90% of ecommerce startups fail within their first 120 days of operation. Some of the reasons for failure include poor search engine visibility, a saturated market, and financial issues — all of which could have been addressed ahead of time with an ecommerce business plan.

It may seem like a daunting task. But learning how to create a business plan is the best step you can take to set yourself up for long-term success. 

In this guide, you’ll learn:

• Why you need an ecommerce business plan.
• What the elements of a business plan are.
• How to create a business plan for ecommerce.

Why You Need an Ecommerce Business Plan 

An ecommerce business plan is just like the business plan you’d put together for any other business. It describes a company’s current status and eventual goals. 

If you’re figuring out how to create a business plan, you’ll need to consider all the details of building your business, including:

• Products and services.
• Financial models.
• Operations.
• Staffing.
• Timeframe for achieving your goals.

Not every ecommerce brand launches with a formal business plan, but there is value in taking time to step back and study the market you’re looking to enter. That way, you can formulate a strategy to launch and grow a successful ecommerce site.

A solid business plan empowers you to:

• Develop a strategy for growing your business.
• Determine potential obstacles.
• Identify the human, physical, or financial resources needed.
• Evaluate the viability of your business idea.

Let’s go over the sections of a typical business plan. 

Elements of a Business Plan

• Executive Summary
• Company Overview
• Market Analysis
• Products and Service
• Marketing Plan
• Operations Plan
• Financial Plan

Business Plan Template: How to Create a Business Plan for Ecommerce 

Writing a business plan is not as complicated as people assume it will be. Here’s how to create a business plan for your online business. 

Sum Up Your Plan With an Executive Summary

As the name suggests, the executive summary outlines the key points discussed in the rest of the ecommerce business plan. It is critical when you’re approaching potential investors with limited time. 

The executive summary is often the last section to be written, but it should be the first thing someone reading your plan sees. The executive summary’s goal is to encourage the reviewer to continue reading the rest of the business plan.

Keep it brief — an executive summary shouldn’t exceed one page.

Introduce Your Company With the Company Overview

The company overview introduces the business. By the time a reader finishes this section, they should know who you are and what you plan to do.

This section should provide an overview of your business in terms of:

• Company and brand name
• Brand mission, vision, and values
• Business history: How did your company start?
• Business structure: Are you a single proprietorship, partnership, corporation?
• Business model: Do you purely sell products? Will you get into ads or affiliate marketing?
• Value proposition: What makes your company unique?

Study Opportunities by Conducting a Market Analysis

In an industry as volatile as ecommerce, it’s no exaggeration to say that choosing the right market can make or break your business — you may continuously struggle to sell if you’re in the wrong market. As such, it’s important to do some market research.

This section of your business plan should discuss:

• Market size: How big is your potential market?
• Market share: What percent of the market have you captured?
• Industry trends and growth: Explore other trends that may arise over time and other markets you can branch out to. A SWOT analysis can identify strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.
• Competitive analysis: How do you fare compared to your competitors? What strategies are you going to adopt? Will you differentiate, segment, or offer competitive pricing?

For ecommerce startups, you should also include the following when doing a competitor analysis:

Get Into More Detail About Your Products and Services

You will mention your products and services in other parts of your ecommerce business plan, but you can dig into the particulars in this section. 

A products and services section is crucial if you sell niche products or provide a unique service.  If you sell a variety of items, you can include general descriptions of each here.

Convince Your Target Audience To Buy With a Marketing Plan

Once you establish that you have a winning product to sell to a promising market, it’s time to determine how you’ll convince customers to buy. This could involve working with bloggers and influencers, sharing branded quips with market leaders on LinkedIn, or by signing up as a retailer with Amazon. 

A marketing plan discusses your strategy to advertise your business and reach potential customers. Your plan will highly depend on the profile of your target market.

Your ideal customer is the foundation of your marketing plan. Visualize what kind of person you want to buy your products or services to create a buyer persona. 

Come up with a set of general demographic characteristics such as:

• Age
• Gender
• Education level
• Salary

You should also consider their specific behaviors — how do they spend their time and money? For instance, a stay-at-home mom has different interests and spending habits compared to a college student.

Additionally, most ecommerce marketing strategies include information on what Neil Borden calls the 4P’s:

• Price: How much do your products and services cost? Why did you price it that way?
• Product: What are the product’s salient features? Why should people buy it? What makes it different from competitors?
• Promotion: How are you getting the word out? Are you going to do it through social media advertising? If so, what platform?
• Place: What ecommerce platform will you use to sell your products?

How to Do SEO for Ecommerce Websites: Techniques, Tools, & Best Practices >>

Share Your Ecommerce Startup’s Day-to-Day With an Operations Plan

The operations plan details how you’ll run your online business. This section should demonstrate to potential investors that there are contingency plans in place if difficult situations arise. It should also define the specific nature of your ecommerce store, such as whether it involves dropshipping or print on demand.

Your operations plan should cover every aspect of the supply chain:

• Suppliers and service providers: Where are your products sourced or produced? What about any raw materials that make them up?
• Production: Are products made, bought, or will they be dropshipped? Are they physical products or digital products?
• Facilities and equipment: Do you plan to have an office, physical retail space, or warehouse?
• Sales channels: Aside from your chosen ecommerce platform, will you also be selling on social media?
• Inventory: How much product will you have on hand? Where will it be stored?
• Delivery fulfillment: What is your delivery lead time? Will you offer both local and international shipping?

How Do I Find the Right Dropshipping Suppliers? >>

Demonstrate Profitability With a Solid Financial Plan

The time or effort you invest won’t matter much to potential investors. Their top consideration is a business’s financial feasibility. 

Your financial plan is one of the most critical sections in your ecommerce business plan. With 82% of companies failing due to cash flow problems, potential investors want to know if a business will be worth their while. Digging into the financials will also help to determine how to fund initial startup costs.

Most financial plans include:

• Income statement: This includes revenue sources and income statements which show whether the business was profitable or not.
• Balance sheet: This provides a snapshot of your business’s equity, which is the difference between the assets and liabilities.
• Cash-flow statement: This is similar to the income statement but provides a real-time report of your revenue and expense flow. More income than expenses indicates a positive cash flow, while the opposite indicates a negative cash flow. Aim for the former to keep your business solvent.

Final Thoughts: How to Create a Business Plan for Ecommerce 

An ecommerce business plan facilitates your business’s success by providing direction for where it should go. Writing an effective plan for your online store does not have to be complicated. 

If you spend time gathering information on your company, competitors, and future plans, then your business plan can be a roadmap to achieving your business goals. 

You handle the business plan, and we’ll handle your website. Jumpstart your ecommerce company with Hostdedi’s managed WooCommerce hosting packages and our online StoreBuilder today. 

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Page speed can make or break you on the internet.

A faster page load usually means better results overall for your site speed. Every aspect of a website’s success is linked to page speed, from SEO to conversions, to user experience and beyond.

From the hosting provider you choose to the application you decide to work with, there are a lot of areas that can be optimized. With so many areas to consider, improving page speed can be a complex process. Learning how to optimize web page load time in easy to implement ways is crucial to success.

So, what can you do to make sure you’re optimized? Let’s look at some ways to make your web page faster, how to speed up page load time, and other best practices for page load time and increasing speed.

Why Page Load Time Matters

Before getting into how to speed up page load time, let’s first understand why it is so critical.

Google first announced that site speed would impact ranking in 2010 and has continued to demonstrate its importance. In 2018, Google introduced page speed as a ranking factor for mobile site speed.

SEO specialists quickly started trying to optimize on-page elements and make the search engine cut. Those that didn’t fell behind. And now, with recently announced core web vitals, speed is more critical than ever.

Want to learn more about how to improve page load speed? Here are some key areas to consider.

Page Speed Significance

Page load time has always been important for a pretty obvious reason: conversions. Simply put, fast sites increase conversions — and slow sites reduce them.

In fact, a 0.1-second improvement in mobile website speed results in an 8.4% increase in conversion rates for retail businesses, Google found in a 2020 study.

Site speed also impacts your bounce rates. When users encounter a slow site, they leave. A two-second delay in page load time could increase a website’s bounce rate by 103%, a report from Akamal Technologies found.

Testing Your Page Load Time

To get a snapshot of your website and create before and after benchmarks for the optimization process, the first thing you will want to do is test your current page speed. A couple of tools you can start with are Google’s Page Speed Insights and Webpagetest.org.

Make sure to run multiple tests and average your results. Web Page Test allows you to do this automatically in the settings menu. It is always wise to pick a testing location that is close to where your site is hosted to ensure you get the most accurate results. 

This is how we usually set up webpagetest.org for basic speed checks.  

Below you can see the results of a page speed test on the Magento demo site averaged out. We’ve picked out three of the most important and significant stats we want to use for optimizing the site.

Load Time	Time To First Byte	Bytes In
2.264s	0.318s	927 KB

The first stat is load time. This shows us the complete time it takes to load our page. Remember, if a page takes over three seconds to load, you may be losing half of your potential traffic. This number is the most important for us to change.

The second stat is Time To First Byte (TTFB). While it can help to provide guidance, TTFB can be manipulated relatively easily and its importance can vary. If you use Google Lighthouse, you can also track First Contentful Paint and First Meaningful Paint which report on how fast your page “paints” the screen with elements of your content.

Ever load a recipe and half of it hasn’t caught up with how fast you’re scrolling because you’re trying to get past all the ads and narrative? That’s because it’s FCP/FMP time is very slow. 

The third stat is the size of the information being downloaded to the page. If this number is very large, it may be useful to take a closer look at how long different page elements take.

Page Speed Waterfall

If you want to learn how to speed up page load time, isolate what elements are slowing down page speed and take a look at the waterfall. An example of what the waterfall looks like can be seen below. 

Once you’ve looked at the waterfall, you should have a better idea of what can be improved. Above, we can see that some of the front end .js files can likely be sped up slightly.

Lower down the waterfall (off the page), there are also some image files that take longer to load and should be optimized. Understanding what elements cause pages to lag is key when your focus is faster page load time.

How to Speed Up Page Load Time Via Web Content

Compress and Optimize Images

When looking at how to speed up page load time, image compression is a great place to start. Too often web designers make images that adopt uselessly high resolutions. High-resolution images take up more storage space on a server and can increase load times significantly.

We highly recommend scaling images appropriately. If an image is only going to take up a 100 x 100 pixel space on your site, there’s no need to make it 1000 x 1000. We recommend a plugin like Smush or EWWW Image Optimizer if you’re running a WordPress site. 

How to Convert to WebP Images on WordPress >>

Image Type Extensions

When saving images, knowing which extension to use is important. Should it be .jpg or .png? Did someone send you a logo in .svg? There is plenty of conflicting information out there about what is best. 

Many say .png (Portable Network Graphics) is the better option because it is designed to compress images as much as possible without losing quality. That is partially true. That being said, there are exceptions to the rule. For example, .JPEG files actually work much better when using photographs. 

Our suggestion is to check how saving your file a few different ways affects size and quality when displayed on a preview of your page. If you notice a clear difference, opt for the better extension. 

Compress Site Content

Images aren’t the only page elements that need a squeeze. You should also be compressing CSS, HTML, and JavaScript elements on your site. GZip is a highly recommended compression tool that Google suggests testing prior to implementing in a production environment. We recommend making use of a Dev Site environment that mimics your own production environment if you’re planning on doing this.

The thing about compressing your site content is that there’s some evidence that it can marginally increase Time To First Byte durations. However, it also dramatically increases the overall page speed load time, which some SEO experts suggest Google may actually prioritize. We recommend testing compression on individual pages rather than making a sitewide switch.

Simplify Web Design

If you want faster page load time, less is almost always more. Instead of adding additional functionality to core pages, how about settling on something simpler and faster? The fewer HTTP requests a page has, the faster it will usually load. 

In addition to improving page speed, simple web design has also been shown to improve user experience in many cases. In a UX study conducted by Google, it was found that users tend to judge a website’s aesthetics within 1/50th – 1/20th of a second, and that visually complex sites were almost always judged as being less beautiful than their simpler counterparts.

The more beautiful a website is perceived as, the better UX and SEO will be, and the more conversions will increase. A simpler website design is one of the quickest methods for improving page speed within a short period of time. However, we recommend running A/B tests in order to see how changes actually perform rather than making a 100% change straight away.

How to Speed Up Page Load Time Via Your Host

Your host also plays a large role in page load time. Here are a few ways to make page load time faster with your host.

Enable Caching

Caching is where repeat visitors are able to load your site much faster thanks to page elements being stored on their hard drive in a cache or temporary storage. For WordPress and WooCommerce sites, we make use of Redis Object Cache to manage caching functions. This will come pre-installed and pre-configured when you purchase a WordPress optimized hosting plan through Hostdedi.   

In order to optimize page speed even more, the Hostdedi Cloud allows for use of the Cloud Accelerator. This can easily be turned on and off with the click of a button under the performance section of the Client Portal.

Unsure whether you should turn on Varnish or NGINX? Find out more about the difference between Varnish and NGINX in our Definitive Guide to Optimizing Magento 2.

Caching and CDN

Caching with a CDN (Content Delivery Network) in place is a more complicated process and can require advanced setup. However, a proper caching configuration with a CDN can help you to reach that global audience as though you were with a local host.

Why You Need a WordPress CDN >>

For WordPress and WooCommerce, check our guide on how to configure the Hostdedi CDN with WordPress and CDN Enabler.

Other Areas To Consider

What Page Are You Optimizing?

Your site structure makes a world of difference when it comes to optimization. Thinking about which page you’re optimizing and how it’s relevant to total site structure is important. If you update one page, the pages it interacts with should also be considered.

For instance, it’s not helpful for us to just simply optimize Hostdedi.net, we also need to optimize Hostdedi.net/magento/hosting and Hostdedi.net/cloud/hosting. 

Before you set out to begin this process, put together a plan for what key pages are drawing in the most conversions and attracting the most ROI. Start here for the greatest impact.

Page Speed and SEO

While page speed and SEO are intrinsically linked, make no mistake that it is not the definitive factor in determining page rank. Google themselves has said that if content is more relevant and people are willing to wait for it to load, they will not penalize that site.

Ultimately, page speed is an important part of optimizing, but content, quality, and user experience should always be the primary focus.

Accelerate Load Time with the Right Host

We’ve come a long way from waiting for images to load line by line. Page speed isn’t just something consumers complain about — it can also make or break conversions, rankings, and more. Doing all you can to increase page speed is ALWAYS a good idea. 

If you’re investing time and effort into improving page load time, you’re protecting your digital business. Match your sweat equity with smart investments. Make your next step choosing a host that has proven scalability, security, speed and support — like Hostdedi.

Hostdedi provides fully-managed WordPress hosting that includes:

• Automatic updates.
• SSL for security.
• Built-in CDN.
• Image compression.
• Caching.
• And more!

See for yourself with a two-week free trial.

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This blog was originally published in July 2018. It has since been updated for accuracy and comprehensiveness.

One of the biggest reasons why small businesses fail is a lack of product strategy.

Too many online shops resemble marketplaces that sell everything. They figure this means they’ll be able to capture a larger market and more customers. However, when you try to sell to everyone, you end up selling to no one.

If you want to brand your online business or be an authority, you have to choose a product niche. Choosing the right niche establishes your credibility over competitors, ensures a more focused business, and opens you up to other income opportunities down the line, such as affiliate marketing.

What’s the result? Profitability.

In this guide, you’ll learn:

• What a niche is.
• How to find a profitable niche.
• How to find a niche product.

What Is a Niche?

A niche is a profitable market segment with a focused audience. It is a subset of a large market defined by its own unique identity.

For example, the furniture market can be segmented according to use (i.e. office furniture, home furniture, or antique furniture), material (plastic, wood, or upholstered), or price.

The specific niche you choose can influence many aspects of your business, including:

• What products you sell.
• How much you sell.
• Which suppliers you work with.
• What kind of marketing strategies you should use.

Choosing the perfect niche is more complicated than it seems — you need to find a niche with products that are high in demand but low in competition.

Only when you find the right niche can you determine how to find a niche product. 

Below you’ll learn how to find a profitable niche.

How to Find a Profitable Niche

• Brainstorm niches you’re passionate about.
• Identify the problem of your niche market.
• Look for profitable niche markets.

How to Find a Profitable Niche Idea #1: Brainstorm Niches You’re Passionate About

To start your search for a profitable niche, make a list of your interests and what you’re good at. This is just the brainstorming stage, so don’t worry about financial viability at this point.

The ideal niche is at the intersection of profitability and your interests. Business is hard work. If you’re in it for the long run, it’s best to create a business you know you’re going to enjoy.

Additionally, if you choose a niche you’re passionate about, you already have an idea of the basics, including: 

• Who to sell to.
• How to sell it.
• What needs to be improved.
• Where to get suppliers.

Who knows — you may even get to develop new products. 

How to Find a Profitable Niche Idea #2: Identify the Problem of Your Niche Market

Good marketers know the key to success and longevity in business is to identify an unmet or underserved need and create a solution.

Analyze your target audience and identify gaps in the marketplace. Your products or services should address a pain point that your audience is currently experiencing.

Here are some websites you can use to seek out that information:

How to Find a Profitable Niche Idea #3: Look for Profitable Niche Markets

Validate your business idea by checking on its value in the niche market. Otherwise, you’ll waste time and effort trying to sell something unprofitable. 

Remember: Not all markets are created equal. Some are more profitable than others. Choose a sector that has anticipated growth.

To start, read articles on ecommerce trends, and look through a list of profitable niches.

How to Find a Niche Product

Now that you’ve learned how to find a profitable niche, it’s time to look for products to sell. 

A suitable niche product should:

• Have a relatively low amount of competitive products.
• Be in demand.
• Have the potential for long-term popularity.

Here’s how to find a niche product:

• Check past and present trends.
• Perform keyword research.
• Study the competition.

How to Find a Niche Product #1: Check Past and Current Trends

To choose the best niche products, analyze past and current trends. Input keywords from the niche you’re eyeing in Google Trends to check their performance over time. 

For instance, the search term “weight loss pills” enjoys relatively stable activity because people will always be interested in an easy way to shed pounds.

Meanwhile, seasonal terms such as “candy cane” only see a surge in searches around Christmastime.

Avoid fads. “Bread baking” may have experienced a surge in search volume during the height of the pandemic. But its popularity has already dropped back to pre-pandemic levels, which indicates bread baking niche products will not be viable long-term.

How to Find a Niche Product #2: Perform Keyword Research

To find saleable niche products, do keyword research on popular ecommerce platforms such as eBay or Amazon. 

Amazon’s bestseller page is a goldmine for keywords you can break down into niches and sub-niches.

Let’s say you want to move into the beauty industry. On the bestseller page of Amazon’s Beauty and Personal Care category, you’ll find subcategories such as bath accessories, fragrances, hair care, and makeup. Explore these categories for new products to sell.

Look at the highest-rated items and their prices to validate what people are willing to pay for them.

How to Find a Niche Product #3: Study the Competition

Although you may want to break into a new niche, competition signifies a healthy business opportunity. 

Be wary of a niche that doesn’t have any competitors. They’re evidence of an existing market. Competition indicates people are looking for the kinds of products you want to sell.

When you study the competition, you can also identify gaps in their current offerings and the markets they’re targeting. Use tools like Ahrefs and SEMrush to research your competitors’ top content, traffic sources, social media, and sales pages.

Final Thoughts: How to Find a Profitable Niche for Your Ecommerce Shop

Contrary to popular belief, it’s relatively easy to make money online, but many small businesses fail due to a lack of a product strategy.

Learning how to find a profitable niche and how to find niche products is vital to building an online business. Use the information to stand out from the competition, establish your credibility, and create a focused business.

Have you found your niche? Get your online store up and running fast — check out Hostdedi’s ecommerce hosting plans today.

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