A product assortment is that the sort of services and goods a corporation or an entrepreneur offers to customers. In simple terms, it’s both what and the way many products one offers.
Why is it important? you’ve got probably heard repeatedly how a corporation brags about its big choice of products in a billboard . It’s because consumers wish to have a choice, especially when it involves certain sorts of products likeclothing, shoes, furniture, etc.
Be it individuality or functionality, by offering a wider range of products than competitors, one can attract and convert more customers.
In addition, different products behave differently on the market. for instance , goods of prime necessity usually sell fast but cost relatively few minutes spoils of affluence sell slow but can bring more profit.
It works an equivalent way in dropshipping.
But hold on! You can’t just grab random goods from AliExpress in hundreds and call it an honest product assortment. Remember, it’s how ‘many’ and ‘what’. A product assortment is that the combination of two basic parameters.
What is a product assortment width / breadth?
Assortment width, or breadth, is that the number of product types a mercantile establishment offers. Simply speaking it’s what percentage categories and models you’ve got. For a dropshipping store, it could mean the amountof product pages: with a minimum of one product page within five categories, you get assortment width of 5 product types.
What is a product assortment depth?
This parameter reflects how deep you accompany the variability of products by adding new variations. Each sort ofproduct can have sizes, colors, or styles. With each new color available for a given product, your assortment becomes deeper.
Thus, a product assortment is formed from what percentage product types and variations you’ve got to supply , i.e. the depth and breadth of your inventory.
How many products should a dropshipping store have?
In most cases, you’ll need about 3-30 products to start out dropshipping. However, this amount depends heavily on what sort of store you’re getting to build – a distinct segment or a general shop.
Niche Store
A niche store is an ecommerce website with products associated with one and therefore the same niche. Theoretically, it can contain both several dozens of products and a number of other hundreds. albeit you sell thousands, it’s still a distinct segment store as long as they’re all related.
If you’re a beginner, you’re getting to need about 50 products to start out . Why not 3 as I suggested above? Because it’s really hard to predict which goods are getting to sell well.
The idea here is to select 10 most promising products which you’ll treat because the flagships of the shop . Before the web site grows famous enough, you’re getting to promote these things through social media, PPC or other channels. Often entrepreneurs try each of them until they find the best-selling product.
The other 40 approximately products are required for 3 purposes. First of all, they’ll sell albeit immediately the shopattracts only a few customers. So, having these products within the inventory won’t hurt.
Second, clients love it once you offer a good sort of products because it gives more choice. Of course, 50 goods don’t sound so great, but it’s great for a start.
General Store
General stores require a special approach. Unlike niche websites, they contain goods from categories unrelated to every other like clothes, accessories, merchandise, art, books, garden supplies, smartphone cases, etc.
Consequently, if you are trying to fill each category with a minimum of a dozen of products, you’ll find yourself with quite 100 directly . And that’s just the minimum you need! Ideally, a country store should offer hundreds and thousands of products.
However, there are two things to stay in mind. First, you continue to need to import new products from AliExpress manually. Second, promoting a country store is far harder compared to a distinct segment website.
Single Product Stores
As the name suggests, such websites can only have one product, be it a flagship you would like to spotlight or the sole item your business sells.
On the one hand, of other shop types. On the opposite hand, it allows you to focus all of your attention on this particular item. So, if the standard is high enough, such business can succeed.
Besides, one can launch new single product stores, thus increasing their overall revenue. In other words, it’s possible to start out a dropshipping business with only one product.
Conclusion
As you’ll see, one can start a business with only a couple of products within the inventory without having to create a very deep assortment. Later on, you’ll add more goods and increase their number to hundreds and thousands.