Etsy Says This Niche Is Up 228% (I Found the Gap Nobody Is Filling)

About this video

RJ Martinez uses Etsy’s seller trend report for spring and summer 2026 (he notes the searches and sales data in it are as of February 10, 2026) to find rising niches heading into Q4. He highlights mahjong — transcribed throughout as ‘Maja’ — with shirts up 228% and the mahjong set up 178% with Gen Z, alongside other risers he scrolls past such as polka dot phone cases at 835%, needle point kits at 175%, and travel journals. To validate mahjong, he cross-checks Amazon, where he finds a ‘Pause Never Vintage Funny Mahjong Lovers’ style shirt that sold over 100 times in the past month but has only 3.1 out of 5 stars in reviews — which he reads as a quality gap to fill. On Etsy he uses the EverBee tool to compare listing age against monthly sales, pointing to a bestseller sweatshirt with 25 sales in four months and two purchases in the last 24 hours. His workflow: screenshot a top seller, paste it into Claude (transcribed as ‘Clo AI’) and ask for five unique related ideas (examples generated include ‘Wallflower — You Had Me at Mahjong’ and ‘Just Here for the Jokers’), then generate the artwork in Ideogram AI, remove the background and upscale. He warns some report categories are traps for print-on-demand sellers — he would skip Gothic romance and ’treat yourself’ type physical products unless you have a supplier for them, e.g. candles through a print-on-demand supplier. He closes by promoting his Top Research Design Vault, which he says offers over 2,300 niches with keywords and prompt suggestions, plus 20 new niches weekly.

Key takeaways

• Start from Etsy’s published trend report — risers he cites include mahjong shirts (+228%), mahjong sets with Gen Z (+178%) and polka dot phone cases (+835%) — then validate on other platforms before designing.
• Cross-check Amazon for demand plus weakness: a mahjong shirt selling 100+ in a month with only a 3.1-star rating signals demand with a quality gap to fill.
• Use EverBee on Etsy to compare listing age to monthly sales; a listing with 25 sales in 4 months and purchases in the last 24 hours is, in his framing, a high demand signal.
• Turn proven sellers into originals with AI: screenshot the design, have Claude generate five unique concept variations, then render them in Ideogram AI — test fast and get listings up.
• Filter trend reports by fulfilment model: he advises print-on-demand sellers to skip categories needing a physical-product supplier (e.g. Gothic romance goods) unless they have one.

Episode details: published August 24, 2026 · 11:53 long. Summary written by Self Growth Videos from the episode itself. Business results and any income figures mentioned are RJ Martinez’s own claims, shared for education — they are not typical or guaranteed.

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