Choosing a niche with the catalogue numbers
A niche is a filter, not a hunch. Three figures in the catalogue data are enough to compare one category with another: how many products it holds, how much of it sits under €10, and what an average item costs.
2 min read · Kairós Shop, Portugal
Three filters and what each one does
The count tells you how deep the category is, which is how much choice you have when you assemble a store. The sub-€10 share tells you whether the category is mostly small tickets, where a fixed fee takes the largest slice. The average cost tells you how much capital each listing represents.
Read together, the three describe a shape. A category with 3,000 products, half of them under €10 and an average cost near €20, is a different business from one with 3,000 products, one in eight under €10 and an average cost above €250.
Low ticket, high count: hardware and cabling
Hardware: 3,000 products, 1,448 under €10 (48.3%), average cost €19.57. That is the lowest average cost among the ten largest categories, and almost half of it sits where the €2.50 fee is a quarter of a €10 sale.
Cabling and connectivity: 3,000 products, 1,361 under €10 (45.4%), average cost €67.95. It looks similar in count and in cheap share but the average is 3.5 times as high, which means the category contains a long expensive tail as well as a cheap head.
High ticket, few cheap items: data storage
Data storage: 3,000 products, 359 under €10 (12.0%), average cost €264.74. Few items sit in the fee-sensitive band, and a single listing represents more capital than in any other of the ten largest categories.
Accessories: 3,642 products, 713 under €10 (19.6%), average cost €97.70. Shoes: 3,001 products, 464 under €10 (15.5%), average cost €32.56. Both are broad enough that a narrow niche inside them is possible, and shoes carries the lower average cost of the two.
Test the filter before you commit
None of these figures says whether a category sells. They say what you would be selling, at what cost, and how exposed the price is to a fixed fee. That is enough to shortlist two or three categories and not enough to choose between them on data alone.
Pick three candidate products from the shortlist, price them with the route you expect, and look at what remains after the fee, the shipping and the cost. If the number works at a price a customer would pay, the filter has done its job.
Frequently asked questions
Can the catalogue tell me which niche sells best?
No. The counts describe supply and cost, not demand. There is no sales data in these figures, so no category can be called the best selling one.
Which large category has the cheapest products?
Hardware, with an average cost of €19.57 across 3,000 products, the lowest of the ten largest categories. Hair care follows at €22.42, with 1,152 of 3,000 under €10.
Should I avoid categories with expensive products?
Not necessarily. Data storage has an average cost of €264.74 and only 12.0% of its products under €10, so a fixed fee matters less there, but each listing represents more capital and needs a price to match.
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