If you want to succeed in today’s competitive ecommerce market, then the first thing you need to do is learn how to find products to sell, that will deliver the right results.
It’s easy to assume that this stage of launching your business is simple. However there’s more to choosing winning products than simply selecting a niche you’re passionate about.
You need to carefully evaluate each item you add to your online store, to ensure it can make a profit.
Now that the ecommerce market is more competitive than ever, it’s even tougher to find a product that will make you stand out in the cluttered landscape.
Fortunately, there are still some golden opportunities out there. Today, I’ll be sharing some of the best (and easiest) ways you can look for winning product ideas.
Key Takeaways from this Guide
- Learning how to find winning products to sell means conducting extensive market research, and knowing how to validate products based on their profitability and potential.
- While there are some amazing product opportunities out there, the competitive ecommerce market means you need to work harder to make your brand stand out.
- Leveraging social media can be one of the best ways to identify winning products, offering an insight into trending items and customer preferences.
- When you’re learning how to find winning products to sell, there are various advanced strategies you can use, as well as valuable online tools.
- Once you know how to find winning products to sell, it’s important to continue doing research, to learn from your customers, and expand your portfolio.
Utilizing Social Media and Marketplaces for Product Research
The most successful companies in today’s world thrive because they understand the needs, goals and pain points of their customers.
Social media channels and marketplace platforms are an excellent for giving you an insight into your target market. In fact, 93% of business leaders say social media data and insights are their primary source of business intelligence.
Here are some top strategies to try:
Leveraging Instagram and Influencers
Instagram is one of the top channels in the world for sharing visual content. It’s also where the youngest consumer market (Generation Z) searches for new products.
In fact, 49% of Gen Z customers say they discover products through Instagram Stories.
What’s more, Instagram’s visual layout has made it a hotspot for influencers, who regularly post sponsored photos and videos about their experience with trending products.
Influencers have an incredible ability to spot upcoming trends in their marketplace, as they dedicate a significant amount of time to researching their customers.
Examining what influencers in your niche are talking about can give you a valuable insight into what customers want.
Pay attention to the types of products these influencers promote, what they like about them (such as sustainability or visual appeal), and even the hashtags they use in their captions.
Exploring Pinterest for Female Dominated Markets
Although Pinterest, the visual sharing platform, is home to customers from all walks of life, it’s particularly popular among female customers.
Around 76.2% of all global Pinterest users are female, this makes the platform excellent for learning more about a female-dominated audience.
More importantly, around 90% of the users on Pinterest say that they’re frequently in a shopping mindset.
Many consumers use Pinterest to plan purchases, particularly when they’re shopping for things like event decorations, home products, and outfits.
Monitoring the most popular products on the “Pinterest Trends” section will give you an insight into what customers in your niche are interested in.
Since many customers create collections of pins to share on their profiles, you’ll also learn a little more about how you can expand your product collection and sell various complementary products.
Product Discovery on YouTube
YouTube isn’t just one of the world’s top search engines, it’s also where customers search for reviews of products, how-to guides, and tutorials on how to use the items they buy.
YouTube even has its own “Shopping” application, so you can sell products to customers through your video channel.
YouTube is popular with a wide range of shoppers. Around 83% of millennials have visited the channel, followed by 81% of Gen Z.
Similar to Instagram, YouTube is home to a lot of major influencers in countless markets, from fashion to fitness and technology.
This makes it easier to track down experts who can give you an insight into the kind of products and features customers are looking for.
The in-depth reviews and how-to tutorials on YouTube will also give you a valuable overview of the key pain points customers face when purchasing products, so you can learn how to differentiate your catalog.
Amazon’s Best-Seller Lists
There are some great professional tools that can give you a deeper insight into product opportunities by leveraging data from Amazon.
However, you can start to find winning products on the platform just by checking out the Amazon “Best Seller” page. This page highlights the products with the most reviews and purchases at the time when you’re searching.
It also organizes “best sellers” into lists, based on the categories you’re most interested in exploring. This means you can easily explore everything from top-selling appliances, to books, automotive products, musical instruments, jewelry, and more.
For deeper insights, we recommend diving into the product pages and taking a closer look at the features that customers mention when recommending these products.
You can also take a closer look at the average price products are being sold for, for insights into potential profit margins.
Ebay Watch Count and Popular Listings
Ebay is another incredible marketplace for businesses in search of high-quality products to sell. The platform shares a lot of information about how many people are paying attention to specific items.
For instance, you can examine the “watch” count on each product to see how many people are keeping a closer eye on that item with automated alerts.
Like Amazon, Ebay also has a “trending products” section, where you can look at some of the most popular and best-selling items on the platform.
There are also some great third-party tools to take advantage of, such as “WatchCount.com” which shows you the most popular eBay items in real-time, based on votes from actual customers.
Keep a close eye on how much the products you’re interested in sell for, as well as the range of prices companies use to attract customers to their store.
Advanced Strategies and Tools for Product Research
The strategies mentioned above represent some of the simplest ways to find winning products to sell. However, if you’re struggling, there are some more advanced strategies you can use to refine your options. Here are some great ways to get started.
Monitoring Competitors and Best Seller Lists
If you already have an idea of the niche you want to serve, then you probably know of at least some competitors in your space that are selling similar products.
Monitoring which of these products earn the most sales can give you a great idea of how to build your own product collection.
Many ecommerce companies share lists of their “best sellers” on their platform, in the form of carousels or dedicated category pages, to help inspire customers.
However, if your competitor doesn’t do this, and has a Shopify website, you can look for a best seller in other ways.
For instance, using your competitor’s Shopify website URL, you can add the extension /collections/all?sort_by=best-selling to the website address. This should show you the top-selling products on the store, organized from highest to lowest sales.
Utilizing Google Trends for Market Insights
Google is the world’s most popular search engine, processing more than two trillion search queries per year.
Google Trends draws insights from Google data to show the search interest for a particular word or term. This makes it easy to identify potentially competitive product ideas, and measure opportunities for growth.
All you need to do is enter a term you’re interested in into Google Trends, and track the search volume over the last few months or years.
You can search for niche opportunities, use the graphs generated by Google to pinpoint seasonal trends, and even compare product options.
I recommend being specific with the terms you’re searching for here, and remember that you can narrow your search by focusing on a specific region.
This can give you a deeper insight into what specific “local” customers are looking for online. You can also filter your search results by “Google Shopping”, for more insights into commercial intent.
Trade Shows and Wholesale Opportunities
There’s a reason so many companies worldwide attend tradeshows. They’re not just a great place to showcase your products, they can also give you an insight into emerging market trends and opportunities.
Many tradeshows include speeches and keynote sessions discussing the latest market data, so you can make more educated decisions.
Trade shows also give you a chance to experiment with and test products you might be interested in, by attending demos from competitors.
This gives you a chance to identify the weakness and strengths of your competitors, so you can differentiate your own products.
Plus, you may be able to identify partners and suppliers at a tradeshow that can help you to run your business, by giving you the wholesale opportunities you need.
I recommend having conversations with as many relevant people as possible when you’re attending these events.
At the very least, you’ll have a chance to expand your network, and make crucial connections with valuable groups who can support the future of your company.
Product Research Tools and Software
Finally, there are plenty of software solutions out there specially designed to assist companies who want to learn how to find winning products to sell.
Solutions like Jungle Scout, for instance, give you insights into the top-selling products on Amazon, the price points you should be using to sell your products, and more. You can uncover niche product ideas, and track their profit potential.
There are even weekly Q&A sessions and training options available to help you expand your ecommerce knowledge.
Alongside Jungle Scout, you can experiment with a range of other competing tools, like Helium 10, another solution that offers insights into Amazon opportunities.
Additionally, using search engine optimization tools, like Ahrefs and SEMRush is another good strategy. Searching for trending topics on these platforms will give you an insight into average search volume and competition levels for each word or product you look for.
You can even use your competitor’s store URL to find out which of their product pages get the most traffic.
Criteria for Identifying Winning Products
Ultimately, finding winning products to sell online takes time and patience. You need to be willing to conduct plenty of research into your competitors, audience, and target market.
Aside from simply choosing products you’re passionate about, make sure you opt for solutions that:
- Offer unique benefits: The more unique your products are, the less you’ll need to fight against competitors for market share. Look for solutions that offer specific benefits, such as sustainability, convenience, or unique features.
- Solves customers problems: As mentioned above, the best products should always address a specific pain point your customers face. For instance, Apple’s products don’t just provide customers with cutting edge technology, they’re also simple and stylish.
- Have minimal competition: There will always be competitors in any market or niche you explore in the ecommerce landscape. However, too many competitors can make it difficult to make a consistent profit. Look for products that have high demand, but low competition.
Case Studies: Successful Product Examples
For an example of how effective the right product research can be, take a look at Alexis Jae Jewelry, a company that uses Shopify to sell unique jewelry products online.
According to Shopify, the founder of this website uses Google Trends to analyze search volume and interest when determining which pieces to add to their brand’s jewelry line.
They discovered that “Paperclip bracelet with charm” had a surprisingly high search volume, and low competition compared to other similar terms they looked at. This helped them to determine what would make their new product more profitable.
Another example comes from Lodge Cast Iron, who uses social media listening tools to find out how customers actually use their cookware.
They used this research to discover a new “niche” for their audience – vegan customers, which led them to create vegan recipes and vegan-oriented products.
There’s no one-size-fits-all way to find the best winning products to sell online, but the strategies above will give you the insights you need to start making the right choices.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
A winning product is an item that’s unique, solves a customer pain point, and offers a significant profit margin. The best products have a low level of competition, but a high amount of demand, allowing you to easily capture and retain a wide audience.
Social media is extremely valuable for gaining insights into your customers, their preferences, pain points, and trending product options. The right platforms will help you to understand your niche, and simplify the process of pinpointing winning products.
Most product research tools are designed for people without a lot of technical expertise. You should be able to enter a few details into a system, and the technology will deliver reports, insights, and information in seconds, which you can use to choose the right products.
Customers are searching for solutions that address the issues they have in life. If your product can address a significant pain point, then it will help you to capture the attention and loyalty of your customers, much better than a product with a low price point or lots of features.
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