The wedding industry is an attractive type of business to start, and each year the market grows at a steady pace. Most adults will participate in at least wedding during their lifetime, so that makes everyone a potential customer. Unfortunately, there are several “big box” wedding retailers that have already staked their claim in a large portion of the market, so trying to take them on is almost certain to end in failure. Fortunately, there is still a viable business model left in the wedding industry, and that is starting a company to serve a niche wedding market.
Niche markets are the last frontier of the wedding industry as it stands today. By specializing in a specific area of the market, you can capture a substantial chunk of business without having to spend millions on advertising campaigns. Since you will be a one stop shop for everything within a specific niche, you will be able to supply brides with everything they need for their wedding. This can be very lucrative if you setup your business right, but you need to know what you’re doing. Here are a few tips to get you going.
Choosing a Niche
The first thing you’ll want to do is determine which niche your company will specialize in. You need to make sure that it is specific enough to be easily locked down without a ton of overhead, but widespread enough to be a viable source of income over the long term. For instance, specializing in Cinderella items and supplies is a little too narrow in its scope, but focusing on fairytale wedding supplies and items would be a great fit. The trick is finding a niche that’s viable but not already saturated with competition.
Own Your Market
Like most types of businesses, dominating your chosen market is crucial for the long-term success of your company. However, a niche wedding business is the most susceptible to attack from other entrepreneurs because there is usually far less competition. Of course, that also means that there’s only room for two or three businesses in most niches, so you really need to make sure you’re staying on top. If you want to start a company that specializes in wedding sparklers or wedding favors made from tree bark, you can’t afford to miss a single sale.
Business Model
Choosing your business model is also very important to maximize your profits. Most companies would obviously consider a brick and mortar shop, but for a niche wedding business that can be an expensive mistake. A niche market is so small that either there won’t be enough demand nearby to make a physical store necessary or the cost of the location will be much too high. Consider sticking to web sales only for your niche wedding business to keep your margins up, but you can optionally sell out of your warehouse to capture a small chunk of extra cash.
If you can decipher the right niche of products, completely own the market, and offer your products primarily online, capitalizing on the wedding industry is still a viable business concept. Who knows, maybe the niche wedding business that you start might begin the next fad throughout the world.
