Sell Printable Planners in a Saturated Market?
The answer to this is both yes and no. For simplicity sake, if you are only just now jumping into making planners and your designs are very general generic planner printables then yeah, you'll likely to struggle for sales. But let's take a closer look at what you can do to be successful in this seemingly saturated niche.
STAND OUT FROM THE CROWD
When joining an already crowded market, and this applies to any product or service, in order to be seen and chosen your best option is to stand out in some way from all your competitors. There is a variety of ways to do this with planners, from style and aesthetic to pricing, selection and detail or some other format that isn't being offered.
You need to ask the question "what can I do differently"?
KNOW WHAT YOUR CUSTOMERS WANT/NEED
If you are starting to design digital planners and have no experience using them or have knowledge on what customers are looking for and needing; you are going to be at a critical disadvantage.
You need to understand your product niche and your target customer base well enough to anticipate what they will benefit from, what they are looking for and the value they place on different features.
Don't just copy what other sellers are offering, do the research to understand the product inside out so that you can provide something better or unique that customers will actually want.
RESEARCH BEFORE YOU DESIGN
Before you even begin designing your planner printables to sell on Etsy you'd be wise to do some thorough research. Not only will this aid you in achieving the above two points but you'll also be able to uncover less competitive niches within the category.
This is also a good time to be thinking about possible keywords. Most sellers tend to keyword their products after they've made it and are uploading it to sell. But by thinking about keywords from the outset you can create products to fit gaps in the market and to specifically take advantage of lower competition keywords.
IS THE SATURATION REAL?
I'm hearing a lot of people talk about saturation with planner printables and that only established shops can do well anymore. Newcomers to the category are often experiencing difficulty making sales but not all stories are of failure to succeed. There are still new sellers starting their journey into this category today who are finding a way to make it work.
Ultimately, a category is only saturated if there aren't enough buyers to support the number of products being sold. Because so many planner printable shops are actually doing very well, the buyers are definitely there.
So let's take a closer look at different niches within the planner printable category and see what the product numbers actually look like. I've created a list of as many planner types as I could think of, it's not comprehensive I'm sure, but it will give you some ideas on how to niche down and perhaps where best to focus your efforts.
I also wanted to show just how far down you can niche and that there are still plenty of ideas that haven't been fully explored. Often, people don't know they need a product until that product exists, so thinking creatively about how and why people need these types of printables may lead to new ideas.
THE PLANNER LIST
planner printables = 476,049
planner templates = 271,030
wedding planner printable = 13,461
wedding planner template = 15,708
digital wedding planner bundle = 1,927
destination wedding planner printables = 1,063
bridal shower planner printables = 2,195
honeymoon planner printables = 499
vacation planner printables = 6,584
cruise ship planner printables = 491
camping planner printables = 2,094
disneyland planner printables = 1,249
travel planner printables = 9,801
road trip planner printables = 1,887
party planner printables = 404,335
event planner printables = 4,998
birthday party planner printables = 15,285
reunion planner printables = 1,177
retreat planner printables = 147
parenting planner printables = 2,131
family planner printables = 17,685
mom planner printables = 12,454
chores planner printables = 13,445
meal planner printables = 29,060
grocery shopping planner printables = 6817
pantry planner printables = 1,187
cleaning planner printables = 10,090
school planner printables = 60,589
homework planner printables = 3,349
student planner printables = 25,400
college planner printables = 17,669
kids planner printables = 84,918
bucket list planner printables = 3,281
mindfulness planner printables = 4,637
meditation planner printables = 1,481
pcs military palnner printables = 232
fitness planner printables = 15,788
exercise planner printables =5,210
diet planner printables = 5,676
habit tracker printables = 26,475
yoga planner printables = 1,482
wellness planner printables = 11,936
health planner printables = 19,671
self care planner printables = 16,369
finance planner printables = 16,594
budget planner printables = 46,042
savings planner printables = 21,822
investment planner printables = 435
spending tracker printables = 6,662
job search planner printables = 238
career planner printables = 1,058
retirement planner printables = 1,446
moving planner printables = 2,542
business planner printables = 19,417
sales planner printables = 2,396
blog planner printables = 2,633
side hustle planner printables = 799
wardrobe planner printables = 434
social media planner printables = 5,427
facebook planner printables = 1,450
instagram planner printables = 2,312
twitter planner printables = 347
youtube planner printables = 1,588
pinterest planner printables = 1,699
garden planner printables = 3.290
plant care planner printables = 779
renovation planner printables = 442
project planner printables = 9,144
house maintenance planner = 590
car maintenance planner = 659
emergency planner printables = 4,109
end of life planner printables - 842
care giver planner printables = 475
pet care planner printables = 1,958
christmas planner printables = 18,890
halloween planner printables = 11,856
holiday planner printables = 11,789
reading planner printables = 7,811
writing planner printables = 7,020
craft planner printables = 69,450
sewing planner printables = 2,257
bible planner printables = 7,299
christian planner printables = 5,521
spiritual planner printables = 2,790
manifestation planner printables = 9,586
law of attraction planner printables = 1,951
goal setting planner printables = 7,639
disclaimer: numbers are 'as of publication'. these numbers also include ads and 'related' products that etsy now includes into searches where keywords don't match exactly, as well as products where sellers have used the keyword for a similar product that maybe isn't quite on target for the search.
CONCLUSION
So what to make of these numbers? These serve as a guideline for what categories are the most popular and the most populated. If you want to sell in one of these bigger categories you're going to have work hard to stand out from the competition and build fabulous products.
On the other side, there are many categories that haven't got as much competition. Making products for these keywords can help get a little bit of traffic into your shop. They may not be the biggest sellers but they may be easier to compete with for those few customers who need something highly specialized.
Having a broad base of keywords in your shop is instrumental in being able to put your products in front of buyers. While you may not immediately get to page 1 of a search for wedding planners it might be easier to hit the top of the list with something like a renovation planner.
I hope you found this useful. Let me know in the comments if you want to add anything to the list or if you've recently started a printables shop let me know how it's going!