Business Opportunities: Gourmet popcorn, Angel numbers, Hormone balancing and More

Gourmet Popcorn

Popcorn, the popular healthy snacking option, is taking off in India and worldwide when people look for comfort and entertainment.

According to available data, the market for popcorn in India is set to flourish between the present day to 2022 at a 15% CAGR (1). Due to the increasing popularity of binge-watching and the reemergence of cinema as things return to normalcy, it is an excellent time for small-scale business enthusiasts to venture into the popcorn wave.

Popular gourmet brands like SkinnyPop and PopCorners’s Google search interest are near an all-time high (2). Notably, according to Jungle Scout, PopCorners’ popped corn chips are completely sold out on its online portal and make 1 million USD in revenue every month on Amazon (3).

SkinnyPop, the company acquired by Hershey in 2017 for 1.6 billion USD, is also enjoying similar popularity (4).

While several big names are competing in the market, there is still space for new players:

Popcorn has several health benefits that you can leverage to offer a range of protein popcorns. You can include new protein plus superfood trends like chia seeds, goji berries, pea protein, dried fruits, etc. According to Jungle Scout, pea protein chips makes more than 25k USD a month on Amazon (5).
You can also come up with different flavors and separately sell them (6).
Consider launching a mobile popcorn or pop-up store or food truck, offering limited-edition flavors or a healthy edition of gourmet popcorn slabs (7).
You can also create a healthy range of popcorn snacks for dogs.

Angel Numbers

Angel numbers are the latest fascination among modern mysticism followers (8).

They are a subgenre of countless, unique numbers that repeatedly show up in your life, like a license plate, bank account number patterns, telephone numbers, etc.

The practitioners of angel numbers consider these numbers to have significant meaning. However, similar to tarot cards, which are also trending, there is no comprehensive interpretation of the message.

And the demand for services and products that help with interpretation is soaring.

There is a loyal fan base, and searches are spiking. There is an online site dedicated to interpreting angel numbers, and even though it has not published any new information since 2019, it still gets more than two to three million visits each month (9, 10).

There are a myriad of strategies for you to monetize this trend.

The biggest thing people are looking for is information on the meaning of these numbers. According to available reviews across the internet, people are looking for more detailed explanations and a user-friendly mobile app.

Notably, the demand for apps that connect people with astrologers for live horoscope readings is taking off (11). The same can be true for angel number interpretations too.

If you want to create more traffic for your business establishments, you can leverage this trend by hosting free learning events at your restaurants, websites, bookstores, hotels, etc. Otherwise, you can plan on offering deals and sales around angel numbers, dates like the upcoming 2/2/22, to create buzz.

There is also an ecommerce opportunity for selling products like accessories and jewelry focused on angel numbers.

Functional Music

The interest in functional music like relaxation, concentration, sleep, meditation, etc. is soaring.

Relaxing “lo-fi music” is witnessing an all-time high Google search interest (12). The r/MusicForConcentration subreddit has also witnessed a massive rise in its subscribers, from 37k to 187k over the past year (13).

Similarweb, an online portal, Brain.fm, which allows users to access music for improved concentration, sleep, and meditation, gets more than one million visitors a month (14, 15). In addition, their app has more than 150k users. It costs 6.99 USD a month (16), making about 12.5 million USD in yearly revenue.

The functional music market is still wide open. You can fuse the current cassette tape trend with functional music. Notably, cassette sales in the UK had hit a 17-year high last year and doubled in the initial half of 2020 compared to 2019 (17). A Hong-Kong based company recently launched a retro Bluetooth cassette player that sells for about 88 USD (18).

Chilhop Music, another online lo-fi hip-hop platform with more than 300k monthly site visitors (19), claims to offer the “best and most chill beats for studying, working, and relaxing.” The site also has its ecommerce store that sells vinyl for about 20 USD, vinyl; about 32 USD, and cassette tapes; about 23 USD, all of which often get sold out (20).

And if you prefer to look forward, you can leverage the NFT trend, which has a particularly strong use case in the industry, as we reported last month.

Hormone Balancing

Hormones, vital for our multiple physiological processes, are now drawing significant consideration for their potential role in longevity (21, 22). Hormone balancing seems to be the next hot health trend, especially with the anti-aging market forecast to be more than 88 billion USD industry by 2026 (23).

You can capture the opportunity by bringing hormone therapy to the mainstream. Consider Helix, a bioidentical prescription hormone for “longevity care” that provides concierge at-home services, for example (24).

A phlebotomist will arrive at your doorstep to collect a blood sample, and their app will deliver your results within 48 hours, followed by needed hormone supplementation. Another company called Hormone Therapeutics offers a similar solution (25).

Notably, these businesses are only offering a service and not any products. They only connect people with affiliated doctors, phlebotomists, and network pharmacies. And they charge a monthly fee of about 200 to 750 USD for this, which only covers the cost of tests and scripts. Medication is separately charged.

Apart from mobile phlebotomy and hormone-therapy services, you can leverage this trend by offering nonprescription hormone balancing foods, supplements, and even health drinks, infusing them with ingredients like vitamin D3, DHEA, and herbs.

Cosplay Communities

Cosplay, the act of dressing up to resemble a fictional character, is exploding across the internet.

Subreddits, r/CosplayProps (26), and r/Cosplayers (27) have experienced more than 16 times growth since 2020.

You can monetize this trend by offering dress-up outfits and props for a wide range of popular characters.

The gaming industry is flourishing, there is nothing secret about it, and video game cosplay is among the most popular niche. According to Similarweb (28), Role Cosplay, a China-based company, has more than 160k site visits a month.

You can trawl Google trends and subreddits to keep track of the most in-demand characters and their associated costumes. For instance, a subreddit, r/ComicBooks, closes in on over two million members (29). You can also leverage Pinterest Trends to know more about popular cosplay characters (30).

There are also opportunities for businesses to niche down on this trend. Notably, Epic Cosplay (31), a California-based company, only sells wings and still attracts more than 150k site visitors a month, as per Similarweb. Businesses can also capitalize on the 3D printing trend and concentrate on specific cosplay props.

You can also offer services like make your own costume tutorials, cosplay rental options, and app-based communities to bring cosplayers together and capitalize on this rising trend.

Closing Remarks

Yes, starting a new business requires a lot of time and effort. However, if you have the right tools and guides, you can get your entrepreneurship venture up and running in no time.

Even though your passion and skills are unique to you, we aim at finding the latest business trends and related business opportunities that you can capitalize on. While these stories are for information purposes only, you can use them as a guide to see if any suitable business idea comes up.

You can connect with us if you have a particular trend or business idea in mind and are looking for insights on the same. In the end, finding the right business idea is all about doing something you enjoy, makes others’ lives easier, and finding out a way to capitalize on it.

And who knows? Our stories may get you thinking about niche business opportunities of your own, something you also always wanted to try.

If you already have a business up and running but are looking for ways to acquire more customers or change your business model, read our previous stories, The Best Customer Acquisition Strategies For Startups and Business Models of most successful startups in India. Stay connected for more updates.