Paper Isn’t Dead: How Two Merchants Found a Niche in a Waning Industry - Shopify

Motivation

Topic summary

Despite digital alternatives threatening traditional paper products, two Shopify merchants demonstrate how niche businesses can thrive in declining industries.

Key Success Factors:

  • Targeted audience: Both businesses identified and served passionate paper enthusiasts who value tactile, physical products despite living tech-heavy lives
  • Strategic technology use: Leveraged digital platforms (like Shopify) to reach and retain their niche customer base
  • Strong brand identity: Created distinctive experiences that digital alternatives cannot replicate—from the satisfaction of crossing off handwritten to-do lists to collectible magazine designs
  • Modern sustainability: Updated traditional materials for contemporary values, such as using 100% post-consumer recycled paper stock

Market Context:

While mail volume declines sharply, overall paper consumption remains steady. The article highlights that certain paper products maintain loyal followings among consumers who appreciate qualities like the smell of library books and the texture of quality paper.

Takeaway: Niche businesses can succeed in “waning” industries by being authentic, embracing helpful technology, understanding their ideal customer deeply, and continuously evolving their offerings.

Summarized with AI on October 24. AI used: claude-sonnet-4-5-20250929.
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In 2009, I bought the last wall calendar I would ever own. 

The same year, Google Calendar graduated from beta, and every day since, new technologies emerge to help us communicate and design and schedule our lives, threatening paper’s extinction with each download. But, although snail mail volume is on a sharp decline, we are somehow still consuming as much paper as we always did, maybe more. (Toilet paper: there isn’t an app for that.)

This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://www.shopify.com/blog/197782985-niche-marketing-paper-business
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Interesting stories!