Market Positioning When to Choose Product Variety Over a Narrow Focus

eCommerce sales are surging amid the coronavirus pandemic, and global eCommerce sales are expected to hit $4.2 trillion. So now, you may feel more confident in building an online store than ever, but you may find it challenging to decide whether product variety or narrow focus will bring your brand success.

A common assumption small businesses usually make is that a broad product assortment is a way to go because a wide variety of products can attract a wide range of customers. This idea has been challenged many times. For instance, Iyengar and Lepper demonstrated that consumers who were offered a set of 24 jams were significantly less likely to make a purchase compared to consumers offered only six jams. One of the reasons for such an outcome can be due to uncertainty – it can get tough to select one of many options, so many might choose not to select one at all. Although selling more than one product is what most eCommerce websites do, a massive catalog is not a must for your brand’s success, and sometimes a narrow focus can drive better results.

On the other hand, offering a product variety can cater to many tastes. It also allows room for growth and drives more sales. So you may wonder what will work better for your business, here’s everything you need to know.

What are the Benefits of Narrow Focus Compared to Product Variety?

Better Focus

Narrow focus usually means better focus. For example, when you sell only a single product, you can direct all efforts to promote that product instead of hundreds of others in your expansive inventory. Instead of managing numerous pages on your website, you can invest your energy into optimizing your homepage and product page and have an easy-to-use website for your customers.

It might be a better option for startup businesses.

If you are at the beginning of your eCommerce journey and have a newly launched small business, it’ll get incredibly challenging to produce, promote, test, and sell hundreds of products. In comparison, starting small will allow you to create a

high-quality, well-tested, and well-designed product.

Niche Market

With narrow focus can get incredibly niche, and instead of targeting everyone, you can target a specific audience you think will benefit from your product. In addition, focusing on a niche market increases the conversion, reduces the costs of marketing campaigns, and builds brand loyalty.

Focused Marketing Message

When you sell one product instead of many, crafting your marketing message will get much more straightforward. In addition, with only one product, you can market your single product more efficiently.

Effective Advertising

Your single product advertising will require fewer costs – it’s not rocket science. Instead of creating separate ads for your numerous products, you can divert your budget towards a single product on the platforms where your audiences are.

Fewer products also mean less copywriting for ads, email campaigns, and promotions. It also becomes easier to create engaging and relevant content when speaking to a specific group of customers and offering one single product or just a few of them. Besides, creating high-quality content for your ads becomes less expensive, so you can invest all your resources in promoting fewer products and expecting better results.

Simplified SEO

Narrow focus simplifies your SEO strategy, and you can focus on a few keywords instead of targeting hundreds of them. Moreover, you won’t have to optimize countless pages on your website, so you will have fewer costs for hiring a large SEO team.

How to Market a Single Product?

When you don’t have to market a wide variety of products, you might wonder how to fill in the gap on your website and social media channels. Of course, you have less to work with with a narrow focus, but it doesn’t mean less creativity than more focus and opportunities. With a narrow focus, you can create in-detail content about your product and its invention, production methods, ingredients, benefits, packaging, backstory, client testimonials, videos, graphics, images, etc.

When to Choose Product Variety Over a Narrow Focus?

Although focusing on a single or a few products can have advantages, it usually also means less growth. Sometimes it also leads to business closure when the demand for that product ends. Narrow focus doesn’t always bring success, so you may wonder in what circumstances it’s better to choose a product variety.

Benefits of Product Variety

Having a wide assortment of products can enhance their perceived quality and purchase likelihood. Instead of a single one, you can target more prospects and increase sales by offering numerous products. That’s because when someone doesn’t fully enjoy your single product, sometimes for simple reasons as the taste it provides, they won’t come back for another purchase. When you offer multiple products, customers can opt for another flavor, so they will be more likely to return for another purchase.

Product variety also increases the chances of users finding a good match for their needs and preferences; therefore, more people will buy your products.

Go Big When Your Resources Allow

The product variety is a way to go when your company budget allows creating many high-quality products and market them online. Don’t go too big when you cannot afford it, as having too many low-grade, poorly marketed products isn’t better than a narrow focus. Choose product variety when you have a well-built, solid marketing plan, have enough resources and employees, know your customers’ needs.

Consider Your Target Audience

When your target audience encompasses groups of people with different needs, varying lifestyle habits, and goals, you’ll not solve their problems with a single product, so you will need to sell and market different solutions to them.

Research the Competition

Identifying your competitors is essential for any business, and it’s crucial to study their inventory to know what you have to keep up with and offer to your customers. When they offer hundreds of different product types, it’s unlikely to beat the competition with a single product, so it’s better to think of multiple solutions. If you need help with marketing your products, whether you choose a narrow focus or product variety, at Internet Marketing Geeks, we’ll be happy to guide you to every step that brings your company success. Feel free to reach out to our marketing team today and receive a free consultation for crafting your marketing strategy.