---
title: "Flares: Peer-to-Peer Learning, Drop-Servicing Shopify, and Bamboo Plants"
description: These quick hits look at rising opportunities in P2P learning, drop-service offerings in Shopify and bamboo products on Amazon
---

<https://www.nlopchantamang.com/trends/signals>

# [Flares: Peer-to-Peer Learning, Drop-Servicing Shopify, and Bamboo Plants](https://www.nlopchantamang.com/trends/signals/signal/flares-p2p-learning-shopify-bamboo)

 Written by [Trung Phan](https://www.nlopchantamang.com/trends/signals/author/trung) | Aug 11, 2020 3:19:34 PM

*Shorter-form Signals based on Google, Amazon, Reddit, and other sources.*

***

#### **Peer-to-Peer Learning **

We recently highlighted how Greg Isenberg is building businesses by [unbundling Reddit](https://trends.co/signal/how-to-capitalize-on-the-unbundling-of-reddit/) (specifically by targeting popular subreddits). One of the fastest growing subreddits has been **r/Student_AcademicHelp, **[jumping 20x since the start of the pandemic (to ~11k subs)](https://subredditstats.com/r/Students_AcademicHelp).

With in-person school clearly in flux, peer-to-peer learning is taking off. The leader in the space is [Brainly](https://brainly.com/), a platform where you can pose questions to 200m+ teachers and students.

[Poor reviews](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=co.brainly&hl=en_CA&showAllReviews=true) for Brainly suggest opportunities to offer comparable products that solve the following problems:

- Too many categories (Brainly offers support for all subjects: math, English, history, biology, chemistry, etc.)
- As community has grown, there is too much spam and moderators are too slow to take down wrong/inappropriate posts 
- Typing interface is glitchy 

***

#### **Drop Servicing and Shopify**

One of our recent popular Signals was on “[drop servicing](https://trends.co/signal/will-online-sellers-jump-ship-to-drop-servicing/)”: Find a customer who needs a service, sell them that service, and then outsource the work to someone else for less, keeping the profit.

A notable opportunity in the space is around Shopify. In [Q2 2020](https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200729005239/en/Shopify-Announces-Second-Quarter-2020-Financial-Results), stores on Shopify spiked **+71% year-over-year (YoY)**.** **To fill the need of Shopify experts, the Canadian ecommerce company has created an [expert portal](https://experts.shopify.com/) that covers all types of needs, including marketing, development, and content.

According to search data from [Ahrefs](https://ahrefs.com/dashboard): 

- “Shopify experts” currently receives **5.5k searches a month** with a keyword difficulty of 15 (medium)
- “Shopify developers” currently receives **1.6k searches** **a month** but with a much more difficult keyword difficulty of 45 (hard)

Based on this, there’s an opportunity to position a drop service related to “Shopify expert” and working with Shopify’s existing offerings to bring together a solution ([Selleo](https://selleo.com/shopify-experts) is an agency that provides such services).  

***

#### **Bamboo Plants Are Shooting Up**

According to [Jungle Scout](https://www.junglescout.com/), one of the fastest growing plant categories is bamboo. The brand JM Bamboo has seen search interest gain **+552%** over the past 30 days (on >3k searches).

The two product types popular in the category are [bamboo bundles](https://www.amazon.com/Stalks-Inches-Straight-Lucky-Bamboo/dp/B005G57IGS/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=bamboo+plants&qid=1596845521&sr=8-1) and [pre-potted bamboo](https://www.amazon.com/Style-Party-Bamboo-Arrangement-Ceramic/dp/B0043T38OY/ref=sr_1_2?dchild=1&keywords=bamboo+plants&qid=1596845521&sr=8-2). Surprisingly, there is not a lot of competition in the space. Based on 1- and 2-star reviews, opportunities may be in ensuring fresh bamboo stocks (many arrived yellow and dying) or better packaging (which helps preserve the condition of the plants).

***Dig deeper:*** If you’re interested in rolling out a plant-based business, don’t miss our [new report on Window Garden, a $2m business](https://trends.co/articles/a-mega-home-business-built-on-microgreens/) built on the back of a Kickstarter campaign. In the report, you’ll learn how to:

- Run a Kickstarter
- Compete on Amazon
- Build a social community around your product

[View full post](https://www.nlopchantamang.com/trends/signals/signal/flares-p2p-learning-shopify-bamboo)

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