
Low-Competition Niches In Retail Software - p4bl0
http://successfulsoftware.net/2011/06/08/3-low-competition-niches-in-retail-software/
======
rjprins
Herd mentality is the result of domain knowledge. All programmers experience
problems with ToDo lists.. How many programmers experience retail analytic
problems?

There are many, many more of these niches. If you want to find a good market
start talking to people outside the software development industry. The further
the better:

    
    
      - Doctors
      - Notaries
      - Florists
      - Elementary school teachers
      - etc..
    

You will come across some many problems begging for solutions you wouldn't
know which one to pick.

~~~
kenjackson
And you'll learn how hard it is to sell into these niches. I've met people
that have built surprisingly good software for janitorial services, recycling
centers, among other niches -- who found it really hard to sell, despite the
need being there.

I would love to see some stories about people who successfully sold into these
sorts of niche markets.

~~~
alanfalcon
Sounds like there's an opportunity to create software that will help niche
developers sell to niche markets ...

~~~
mattmiller
I have been trying to figure out how to simplify selling to enterprise. The
problem is sales decisions are made by managers who don't use the software.
Getting the attention of these managers is expensive and the sale takes
months.

I think if you could let the enterprise user try the software first, then let
them push management to buy the software you could sell to enterprise for less
money w/o the sales people.

The idea has holes, but I am working through it.

~~~
EwanToo
I think that's pretty much the model of every "freemium" business SaaS app?
See Basecamp, Zoho, Google Apps, etc.

You can use it yourself (or in small groups, 5-10 people) for free, but if you
want to grow it into a 50 user service, or 50000 users, then you need to speak
to a sales person (or dig out a credit card).

~~~
tluyben2
Those are enterprise? Except Google Apps, which > $100 million rev/year
companies are using basecamp or zoho on a company (not departmental!) level?
Departmental sales are easy, you just need a few users and there is no 'big
manager' involved usually. But to get companies to pick your software as the
company standard... I don't believe basecamp or zoho are there. But I could be
wrong.

~~~
EwanToo
Basecamp's front page lists Kelloggs and Adidas amongst their customers, and
I've seen it in other large corporate environments.

------
programminggeek
What you don't realize is that this happens with ALL businesses and ALL
entrepreneurs. For example, in a college entrepreneurship class our teacher
had to make a rule about not writing a business plan for opening up a chain
restaurant. In fact, most of the ideas from the class were opening a bar,
restaurant, pawnshop/payday loan, rental property website, computer repair
service business, etc. I'm surprised starting a used car lot wasn't a common
idea, but I digress.

It's not just software developers who tend to follow trends. It is almost
anyone who has ever tried to open a business. Most people aren't that creative
beyond "I'm going to open a widget factory but mine will be red instead of
blue" without ever considering any idea that is outside their everyday life
experience.

~~~
astrofinch
This may be fairly well justified. When reading about successful
entrepreneurs, I always try to figure out what the genesis of their idea is.
Typically they seem to have industry domain knowledge _before_ they start a
company and not the other way around.

It might be that learning about a new industry _is_ the best path to riches,
but my guess would be that you're best off doing focused research on that
industry for a while first (ideas: get a job in it, do consulting for it, go
to industry conferences, read books, read industry forums and blogs).

------
zinkem
I have a little experience in retail management. I can't speak to #2 because I
didn't deal with suppliers. I can however tell you that my fortune 500
employers had #1 and #3 in place already; these are basics that every retail
software must have, these features will not sell your software.

In the companies I worked for, middle managers liked using terminal-style
tools and see most upgrades as a huge waste of money. Your system better do
something pretty good to get the attention of some of these guys (and you
better be able to illustrate it in saved wages). I'm young (under 30) and I
felt this way, too. These guys are smart and they know their business.

Now from a software designer's standpoint, the tools they use are terrible.
There is a huge opportunity to improve them in too many ways to enumerate
here. However, this article just covers the necessities retail software needs
to be functional. Most retailers who have POS systems more sophisticated than
a register from Staples will have this stuff already.

~~~
pyre
True, but they are ideas worth pursuing, no? What you say just means that
you'll need to do more research than just this blog post to get yourself
started.

~~~
zinkem
Oh yea, lots of room for improvement. In my experience, the concrete
suggestions (for niche 1 and 3) aren't necessarily potential niches, but
starting points to build more powerful software.

I should note, there is probably a huge opportunity to bring IT services to
"mom and pop" style operations. But it needs to be dirt cheap or they won't be
able to afford it. Lots of these people are struggling as it is and won't see
a direct increase in sales as a result of new software.

------
swlkr
It's not really a herd mentality issue, it's more like if I'm going to quit my
already boring job to start a company, I need to be passionate with what my
new company is going to do. Maybe most entrepreneurial devs aren't into niche
retail software, they'd rather write something that's directly useful to
them... like a to-do list.

~~~
HeyLaughingBoy
I half-heartedly started down the path of researching and developing a couple
of apps with this in the back of my mind. Rental property management software
and janitorial service management sw was where I went. I had experience in
both and areas and I knew that there's boatloads of money waiting to be made
in just these two fields, but finally I realized it was boring beyond belief,
so I lost interest.

And that was a big mistake! The mistake was in focusing on how exciting it was
to write code for that domain but instead I should have focused on how great
it would feel to help _people_ in that industry with their problems.
Approached that way it becomes, for me at least, much more interesting.

Going back to the article, I'm sure that many entrepreneurial devs would love
to start a business in retail software if they deeply understood how much
impact they would have on people's lives and livelihoods.

~~~
patrickk
_"- Look in obscure places- We're often fascinated with the shiny things in
the internet industry. Many overlook the obscure and unsexy. Don't make that
mistake. If your goal has primarily monetary motivations, look at the
unsexy."_

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1447467>

(This is a part of the best comment I've ever read here on HN. Well worth a
look.)

~~~
chc
He later turned it into an article on his blog, which has nicer formatting and
I think some extra content (though I don't feel like comparing the two side-
by-side to confirm it): [http://jasonlbaptiste.com/startups/how-to-become-a-
millionai...](http://jasonlbaptiste.com/startups/how-to-become-a-millionaire-
in-three-years/)

~~~
patrickk
I hadn't seen that. Thank you very much!

