Niche demand brief, September 2026
Eight niches measured against live Etsy listing data on 22 September 2026: relevant active listings, median price, price floor pressure and shop concentration, with a deterministic verdict for each. Every number below comes from one measurement pass that took fifteen seconds, and the raw columns are printed so the arithmetic can be checked without rerunning the scanner.
How these eight were chosen
The eight niches our users scanned most between 1 September 2026 and the date of the pass, with variants of the same niche grouped together, and retired pages and test queries excluded. The ranking is on scan count, not on score: this is what people looked for, not what suits us. Every verdict is published, including the bad ones.
Measured over 1,299 scans in the period, 1,049 distinct niches after grouping. 16 scans were excluded: 2 test queries, 7 retired pages, 7 refused by the content filter.
This is a change from August. The August 2026 brief was selected editorially, by hand, and that rule was never written down. From this month the selection is a published rule that anyone can rerun.
The measurement
| Niche | Scans | Verdict | Market | Raw | Rel. | Effective | Median | Under $5 | Shops/100 | Over 1yr |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Freelance client onboarding template pack | 10 | sweet | Strong | 201 | 98% | 197 | $14.99 | 15% | 83 | 10% |
| ADHD planner | 8 | saturated | Crowded | 76,126 | 94% | 71,558 | $6.50 | 44% | 86 | 29% |
| ADHD daily planner | 5 | saturated | Crowded | 32,801 | 94% | 30,833 | $5.99 | 47% | 86 | 32% |
| ADHD morning routine cards | 4 | sweet | Solid | 909 | 96% | 873 | $7.99 | 27% | 86 | 17% |
| Budget tracker | 4 | saturated | Crowded | 172,160 | 84% | 144,614 | $6.99 | 40% | 84 | 45% |
| Coloring book | 4 | saturated | Crowded | 349,873 | 90% | 314,886 | $4.99 | 54% | 79 | 27% |
| crochet patterns | 4 | saturated | Crowded | 956,030 | 98% | 936,909 | $6.00 | 38% | 82 | 49% |
| estate administrator guide | 4 | dead | Thin market | 3 | 100% | 3 | $11.99 | 0% | 3 | 0% |
Raw = active listings returned for the query. Rel. = share judged relevant to the query. Effective = raw times relevance, the competition figure the verdict uses. Shops/100 = distinct shops per 100 listings, a concentration reading. Over 1yr = share of listings older than a year. All measured 22 September 2026, confidence band high on every line.
What the numbers show
Interpretation. Each sentence below restates a number in the table above and nothing else.
- 5 of the 8 most-scanned niches are crowded. The five saturated lines carry between 30,833 and 936,909 effective competitors each.
- The two workable niches are the narrow ones. "Freelance client onboarding template pack" has 197 effective competitors and a 4.99 median; "ADHD morning routine cards" has 873 and .99. Both are longer, more specific phrasings than the crowded lines.
- Price floor tracks crowding in this sample. Every crowded line has a median at or below .99 and at least 38% of listings under . The two workable lines sit at .99 and 4.99, with 27% and 15% under .
- "ADHD planner" was scanned 8 times across 3 wordings and is crowded at 71,558 effective competitors. "ADHD daily planner", scanned separately, is also crowded.
- One line has no market rather than a bad one. "Estate administrator guide" returns 3 listings from 3 shops. That is a thin market, which is not the same finding as a crowded one.
What this cannot tell you
These figures come from one endpoint, Etsy's active listings. They contain no sales, no revenue and no other marketplace. A crowded shelf is a crowded shelf, not a proof that nothing sells there, and a thin one is not a proof that buyers exist elsewhere. The full arithmetic, thresholds included, is on the methodology page.