Discover Shopify App Store – A Comprehensive Handbook 2024
Explore the Shopify App Store for tailored solutions to grow your business. Discover your perfect app today!
Summer Nguyen | 06-29-2024
The first step in starting a business plan is to answer the question: What products or services will you sell?
To answer this question, you need to determine the feasibility and potential of the product in the market, as well as the ability to optimize costs and investment resources. This is one of the decisive factors for your business’s success.
In this article, we will analyze 10 proven strategies to find the right product to sell that best fits your situation and responsiveness. Let’s find out right now!
Product research gives you a comprehensive view of the market and consumer trends, understanding your organization’s capabilities, knowing your competitors, and building customer personas. From there, you will make well-grounded product choices based on key learnings obtained from thorough research.
Product research also provides specific answers regarding sales strategies, including business opportunities, viability, and the best sales channels. It also lays the foundation for future brand development, opening opportunities for your business to gradually outpace competitors.
There are countless ways to find best things to sell online, but the following 10 proven strategies will provide you with the core basis to accurately determine which products you should approach. Without further ado, let’s analyze them now.
First, of course, you must understand yourself and your organization before proceeding with further research steps.
You need to know your business’s strengths. In what field are you an expert? What budget can you allocate? What industry does your network support well? How can you use your knowledge and experience to develop products or create value for customers? And many other questions to understand your business.
Answering these questions will help you clearly grasp your core values and competitive advantages in the market, thus helping to narrow down and optimize the search for potential products.
Have you ever felt very inconvenienced by an issue from a product on the market that no one has solved? Then seize this golden opportunity to turn that inconvenience into a new opportunity for your business.
There are still many categories of products with new innovations and improvements that have not been exploited. New brands continue to emerge daily, indicating there is still room for your idea.
Market reports provide an overview and detailed insights into consumer trends, industry developments, and potential business opportunities.
Ensure you have searched for information in reliable market reports. Many organizations and market research companies provide in-depth reports on various industries, and some are even free.
After obtaining market reports, the next step is to analyze data and trends. Focus on factors such as growth trends, consumer demand, and competition assessment.
From there, you can build a business strategy, including product development goals, marketing and promotion planning, product pricing, and determining effective distribution channels to bring products to customers.
The target audience is the group of potential customers you aim for. They are those who need and are willing to pay for your products or services. Understanding your target audience will help you optimize your business strategy, marketing, and sales effectiveness.
You need to grasp basic information such as demographics, psychology, behavior, and their lifestyle. To obtain these key learnings, you need to conduct qualitative research (in-depth customer interviews) and quantitative research (conducting surveys on a large number).
Additionally, you need to understand factors that will influence your target audience’s purchasing decisions to adjust your business and marketing strategy effectively. Identify factors such as customer problems, motivations to choose your product over competitors (quality, price, features, after-sales,…), or information channels they commonly use to learn about products.
Keep in mind that your target audience can change over time due to market, technology, and consumer behavior changes. Therefore, regularly evaluating and adjusting your target audience is very important. Collect customer feedback, analyze sales data, and consider adjusting strategies accordingly.
Today, social media is not just a place to connect friends and share information but also a powerful tool to find product ideas and analyze the market.
Searching on social media can help you capture the latest trends, understand consumer needs and preferences, and choose suitable products for your business.
Don’t overlook potential social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest,… Make the most of the tools and available information on social media to save time and costs significantly. You can also participate in discussions and interact with customers to build relationships and better understand them, helping to find suitable and attractive products for customers.
Don’t overlook product ideas that you can find on e-commerce platforms like Amazon, eBay, Etsy, or Shopify stores.
It also brings many other benefits to your business activities, such as keeping up with trends, understanding customer needs from their reviews and comments, exploring potential market niches, and analyzing competitors’ strategies and activities to build more effective business strategies.
E-commerce platforms often have “Customers also bought” or “You may also like” sections that suggest related products based on consumer shopping behavior. This is an excellent source of inspiration to explore potential products.
Additionally, many e-commerce platforms provide market analysis tools to track trends and analyze sales data. Take advantage of these tools to get a comprehensive and detailed view of the market.
Attending trade shows and exhibitions is a great way to find new business products and understand the market. It is an opportunity to directly contact manufacturers, suppliers, and potential customers, and to update the latest trends in the industry.
Furthermore, these events often showcase the latest trends and advanced technologies in the industry. This not only gives you a better understanding of consumer trends and technology but also allows you to experience new products and technologies firsthand, thus assessing their potential application in your business.
Additionally, competitors may also appear at these events. Take this opportunity to observe their products and marketing strategies and evaluate how they approach the market and meet customer needs.
Leverage this opportunity to find product ideas, take photos to review and evaluate after leaving the event.
During these events, you can also expand future business relationships by connecting with experts and seeking business partners to learn and exchange experiences together. These relationships will also benefit your business in the future, so don’t miss out.
Apart from traditional product search methods, you can also leverage technology resources to optimize your search capabilities.
Keyword tools like Google Keyword Planner, Ahrefs, and SEMrush will help you a lot in doing keyword research . They can tell you the popular words that people are searching for.
Tools like Ahrefs will help you quickly research keywords
By analyzing these keywords, you can identify products in demand in the market. This helps you orient your products to meet customer needs.
One of the creative and trendy ways to find products to sell is to consider personalization. Personalization in business is not only a trend but also a powerful strategy that helps you create products that meet specific customer needs. As consumers increasingly demand personalization, applying this strategy to your products can bring significant competitive advantages.
To implement personalization effectively, you need to understand your customers, allowing you to tailor products to meet their specific needs. You can offer options that allow customers to customize products according to personal preferences, such as color, size, or material, or even enable customers to design their own products.
Besides product customization, you should also create a personalized shopping experience, such as personalized promotions and providing personalized website and email content to engage them.
Applying personalization not only enhances customer satisfaction but also boosts sales and sustainable business growth.
Social changes are a powerful and ongoing source of inspiration for finding products to sell. As the world around us changes, so do consumer needs and preferences.
Identifying and leveraging these changes not only helps you create suitable products but also keeps you up to date with trends and quickly meets market demands.
In summary, when you decide to find products to sell, shaping and clearly defining your plan is a crucial step to ensure your business success. You will need to do a lot before finding the right and effective product.
Determine the product field: Before searching for products, clearly define the field you are interested in and experienced in. This helps you focus on products where you can add the most value and easily adapt to market needs.
Identify customer goals: Understanding your target audience’s demographics, behaviors, psychology, and shopping habits will help you a lot in choosing products to sell.
Search for business opportunities: Research the market and trends, analyze competitors, and find unresolved market issues to identify and develop products.
Analyze business strategy: Build goals and business strategies, evaluate finances and resources, and set performance indicators and plans to adjust strategies when necessary.
Shaping and clearly defining your plan is an important step in preparing for product search. By thoroughly researching and having a clear strategy, you can optimize your chances of success and enhance your market competitiveness.
Choosing the right products to sell requires thorough research and analysis. By applying the 10 strategies above, you can find potential products and effectively develop your business.
Hopefully, this article has provided useful information to start your business journey.
Good luck!