A target audience is the group of people who are most likely to show interest in your store and buy your products.
Knowing your target audience will guide your decisions as you build your store. It will help you look for customers in the right places and tailor your website’s content to their needs and preferences. A store that’s designed with a target audience in mind is more likely to attract interested shoppers and make sales.
You can target an audience of any size or attribute. However, there are three main audience categories to consider:
- Demographics: Your audience’s age, gender, occupation, education, income, and other characteristics.
- Location: The geographic markets where your audience lives.
- Interests: The hobbies, beliefs, lifestyles, and other psychographic qualities of your audience.
Compile these types of information about your audience into a buyer persona—a data-generated profile of your ideal customer. A buyer persona helps keep your audience in mind as you design webpages, write product descriptions, and create ads.
Discover your niche
As a new online store, you’ll likely be competing for your audience’s attention with established rivals. One way to side-step competitors is by catering to a niche within your audience.
Niche markets are segments of an audience defined by specific needs. For example, running shoes are a niche within the general footwear market. Trail running shoes represent a more specific niche for customers who need a certain type of running shoe.
Niches become increasingly specialized wherever there is market demand: you might sell waterproof trail running shoes, waterproof trail running shoes for snowy conditions, and so on.
If you’re planning to start an online store within a saturated industry, consider “niching down” until you find an audience in need of a go-to shopping destination.
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