Wood Crafters Resource

Your Wood Crafting Hobby and Business Resource

Select an article filter below...

Idea Probe - Let's take a look at Coat racks

If you are planning on making and selling coat racks, read about what prospective buyers are looking for and how you can develop a niche craft with a potential for increased sales. #woodworking #woodworkingideas #marketresearch #craftideas

Market segment:

Coat racks range from a simple nail in the wall to more elaborate devices. They provide a handy place to hang our coats, hats, umbrellas and keys and are often found hiding throughout the house.  Whether used in our home's entrance, our kitchen for hanging hand towels, the bathroom for storing our towels and housecoat, the workshop for storing our shop apron and dust mask - coat racks are everywhere. 

One thing about coat racks is that they come in so many diverse forms.  They can be wall mounted, stand-alone and combined with shelves and drawers for storage. The price range can be from a few dollars to thousands of dollars for the more elaborate and decorative models.

The fact that they are used in many places throughout a household also means that it is not unusual for a prospective buyer to already own a few. So, let's dive in and see what people are searching for on the internet.

Analysis:

  • The idea here is that by knowing what people are searching for (keyword) on the internet, this gives us a glimpse into their potential purchase intention. By using various keyword analysis tools, not only do we get statistics about the specific keyword people have entered, but we also get a wealth of information with respect to other related search terms for that target keyword. This gives us an invaluable look into a market and the demand for a product and it's sought after features.
  • Source: Google keyword database (English, Worldwide), Etsy, Amazon (USA)
  • The analysis provided below is based on actual keywords that people have entered into a search.

Initial keyword used:

  • The seed keyword used for this analysis was: coat rack.
  • The analysis was performed on: March 5, 2017
  • The Google keyword analysis accepts a keyword from which it provides a breakdown of similar searches as entered by Google search users

Let's start by looking at the actual top 30 Google keywords searched and their monthly search volumes:

 

Keyword Search Volume
coat rack 73990
coat hooks 33159
coat stand 27100
coat hanger 12140
wall mounted coat rack 8067
coat tree 6600
wall coat rack 5400
standing coat rack 4418
coat hanger stand 4400
cloth hanger stand 3483
coat hook rack 2979
coat rack with shelf 2979
wooden coat rack 2945
clothes hanger stand 2850
clothing racks for sale 2322
modern coat rack 2021
wooden coat stand 1933
hat and coat stand 1900
coat rack stand 1846
coat rail 1408
rustic coat rack 1231
coat pegs 1144
metal coat rack 1144
coat hook shelf 1144
coat rack with bench 1144
wall coat hanger 1095
wall mounted coat rack with shelf 1083
white coat rack 1064
coat and shoe rack 1045
tree coat rack 1000
Monthly searches for above keywords: 213034
Top 200 keyword monthly searches 261701

 

Here are the top 10 web sites for the top keyword searched:

According to "Search Engine Watch", the likely traffic to the Google top ranking site is about 33% of the total monthly searches for a specific keyword. This means that Google users will typically select the first Google search result 33% of the time.  This is therefore where a large number of potential customers will start during their initial product shopping.

Top 10 web sites:

1 https://www.wayfair.com/Coat-Racks-and-Umbrella-Stands-C415919.html
2 https://www.amazon.com/Coat-Racks/b?ie=UTF8&node=3744441
3 http://www.homedepot.com/b/Decor-Furniture-Entryway-Furniture/Coat-Rack/N-5yc1vZc7ozZ1z0u5xi
4 http://www.target.com/c/coat-racks-entryway-furniture/-/N-5xtn2
5 https://www.bedbathandbeyond.com/store/category/furniture/entryway-furniture/coat-racks-umbrella-stands/13532/
6 https://www.overstock.com/Home-Garden/Accent-Pieces/Coat-Racks,/accent-type,/39/subcat.html
7 http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/categories/departments/hallway/
8 https://www.lowes.com/pl/Coat-racks-stands-Hooks-racks-Storage-organization/4294865774
9 https://www.walmart.com/browse/home/coat-racks-umbrella-stands/4044_133012_1043785
10 https://www.containerstore.com/s/entryway/espresso-natural-branch-coat-racks/1d?productId=10028244

 

Sample page of the highest ranking web site for our seed keyword:

Since this is the highest ranking web site for our seed keyword, looking at the products they offer will give you a good idea about what is currently offered commercially.

* click the image to visit the page:

screencapture wayfair Coat Racks and Umbrella Stands C415919 html 1488375670714

 

Micro-niche opportunities:

What you should keep in mind

  • Realistically, it will not be easy to compete against the top ranking web sites if you plan to open your own internet store to sell this particular product. These top sites are recognized by the major search engines as being leaders in their field and a climb to the top of the ranks can be quite difficult and expensive.
  • A visit to these top sites can provide you with a wealth of information regarding product price ranges, product features and customer ratings and feedback. Having access to this information is critical in understanding the market and determining if there is a niche that is right for you. Read our article on "Product Planning - Gathering Product Intelligence" for additional information on collecting competitor information.
  • If, on the other hand, you want to sell your products in other venues such as at craft shows or craft websites (such as Etsy), you have an incredible opportunity to dominate these spaces if your product focuses on features that people are seeking in and outside of those particular venues. Here, not only can you tap into the product knowledge you've acquired online and in our article, but you can also carve out a micro-niche of products for people searching for unique features. 
  • Make sure that if you ever decide to build and sell a particular product with some of the features shown below, that your marketing and sales descriptions include the target words.  This will ensure that prospective online buyers in those venues will find your products more easily.

Let's dig in!

Analyzing the individual words used in popular keyword searches:

Of the top 200 most popular Google keyword search phrases found for our seed keyword, we then performed a word analysis of these to determine the frequency and therefore the potential importance of the various words used in each keyword phrase. This is what we found:

  • Rank: Popularity of a word or "search term" used with our seed keyword
  • Word: Word used (Search term)
  • Entries: Number of keyword phrases that included that word
  • % Use: Percent of the top 200 keyword phrases that included that word
Rank Word Entries % Use   Rank Word Entries % Use
1 coat 181 90.50%   40 heavy 2 1.00%
2 rack 100 50.00%   41 metal 2 1.00%
3 stand 58 29.00%   42 shoe 2 1.00%
4 hanger 26 13.00%   43 duty 2 1.00%
5 wall 20 10.00%   44 pole 2 1.00%
6 wooden 18 9.00%   45 pegs 2 1.00%
7 tree 14 7.00%   46 rail 2 1.00%
8 umbrella 11 5.50%   47 oak 2 1.00%
9 shelf 11 5.50%   48 freestanding 1 0.50%
10 hat 11 5.50%   49 collapsible 1 0.50%
11 hangers 10 5.00%   50 children's 1 0.50%
12 mounted 9 4.50%   51 industrial 1 0.50%
13 racks 8 4.00%   52 expandable 1 0.50%
14 standing 7 3.50%   53 commercial 1 0.50%
15 buy 7 3.50%   54 furniture 1 0.50%
16 holder 6 3.00%   55 portable 1 0.50%
17 sale 6 3.00%   56 vertical 1 0.50%
18 clothes 5 2.50%   57 clothing 1 0.50%
19 hooks 5 2.50%   58 rolling 1 0.50%
20 cloth 5 2.50%   59 folding 1 0.50%
21 white 5 2.50%   60 holders 1 0.50%
22 hook 5 2.50%   61 hallway 1 0.50%
23 hanging 4 2.00%   62 unique 1 0.50%
24 jacket 4 2.00%   63 wheels 1 0.50%
25 black 4 2.00%   64 rustic 1 0.50%
26 storage 3 1.50%   65 sturdy 1 0.50%
27 modern 3 1.50%   66 coats 1 0.50%
28 online 3 1.50%   67 goods 1 0.50%
29 small 3 1.50%   68 short 1 0.50%
30 hall 3 1.50%   69 bench 1 0.50%
31 contemporary 2 1.00%   70 mount 1 0.50%
32 entryway 2 1.00%   71 entry 1 0.50%
33 designer 2 1.00%   72 large 1 0.50%
34 stands 2 1.00%   73 twig 1 0.50%
35 office 2 1.00%   74 cool 1 0.50%
36 corner 2 1.00%   75 tall 1 0.50%
37 mirror 2 1.00%   76 wood 1 0.50%
38 narrow 2 1.00%   77 door 1 0.50%
39 floor 2 1.00%   78 peg 1 0.50%

What's next?

Well, based on the total number of monthly searches for "coat racks", we see that there is significant interest in that product.  The micro-niche opportunities abound for products with some of the features identified above.

Here are a couple of examples of how you can use this information to generate ideas for your next project:

  1. umbrella - coat racks that would include a handy place to store an umbrella (or cane) were sought after at least 5.5% of the time.  This would make this particular feature something interesting and desirable to add to your existing designs
  2. storage - is also a feature that you can expand on in your design that can be either a shelf, small cubbies or even drawers for storing miscellaneous items.
  3. children - this is possibly an under-served market that could benefit from kid-sized free standing coat racks to keep kid's rooms a bit more tidy
  4. mirror - this feature can be quite useful for that last minute glance on your way out

Do not ignore features that might have a low number of entries from the table above.  These could possibly be gold nuggets to make your products unique and desirable.  We are also not suggesting that your product design includes all the features. Not everybody wants a Swiss army knife. It is best that you consider designing variations of the product and sit back to see what sells the best.  Market testing can go a long way in identifying your particular and successful niche.

So, take your time and review the word analysis above and determine if you can include or focus on some of the ideas presented.

Now, let's take a look at some online craft venues to see what popular product searches are:

If we take a look at the most popular unfiltered "coat rack" search phrases on Etsy, we get the folling results: 

Keyword Rank
coat rack bench 1
coat rack mission 1
coat rack shelf 1
coat rack hooks 1
coat rack tree 1
coat rack wall 1
coat rack modern 2
coat rack with shelf 2
coat rack stand 2
coat rack standing 3
coat rack wall mount 3
coat rack with mirror 4
coat rack ski 4
coat rack with storage 5

And lastly, the top ranking search phrases on Amazon (USA) for "coat rack" are:

Keyword Rank
coat rack stand 1
coat rack 12 hooks 1
coat rack z 1
coat rack yellow 1
coat rack in wood 1
coat rack 24 inches 1
coat rack long 1
coat rack hooks 1
coat rack 3 hooks 1
coat rack modern 1
coat rack wall mounted 1
coat rack vintage 1
coat rack numbers 1
coat rack girls room 1
coat rack 48 inch 1
coat rack free standing 1
coat rack 5 hook 1
coat rack 6 1
coat rack over the door 1
coat rack 7 hooks 1
coat rack 8 hook 1
coat rack espresso 1
coat rack umbrella stand 1
coat rack and umbrella stand 1
coat rack prime 1
coat rack quick 1
coat rack black 1
coat rack tree 1
coat rack door 1
coat rack chrome 1
coat rack rolling 1
coat rack kids 1

Conclusion:

So, there you have it.  Coat racks seem to offer a wide range of opportunities.  By using our Google analysis and the popular searches on Etsy and Amazon, you now have a much better idea of the possibilities to design, build and sell items that are sure to please many customers.  What you decide to do is entirely in your control.

Enjoy these opportunities!

Additional information:

In our article "Product Planning - Gathering Product Intelligence", find out how you can gain more competitive information about this niche and how you can potentially differentiate your craft from what is on the market today. Our accompanying article "Pricing - The Human Psyche", find out how you can position your product in the market and price it accordingly.

Pin It