The key to the success of your online store lies in understanding not just what to sell but also how to uncover the products that will resonate with your target audience.
However, choosing the right product to sell can feel like searching for a needle in a haystack.
That’s our cue — Let us show you how to find a product to sell with the 12 proven strategies.
Ready to turn your ideas into profit? Let’s dive in, then.
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How to Find a Product to Sell: 12 Proven Strategies
From market research to exploring niches and social media, we’ve handpicked 12 strategies to help you find the perfect product for your online store.
1. Conduct Market Research
Conducting thorough market research using tools like Google Trends, Ahrefs, Semrush, Answer the Public and industry reports provides a foundational understanding of the current marketplace.
Google Trends is a great tool to identify current consumer behaviors and market shifts.
Thus, you can:
- Enter relevant keywords related to your industry or specific niches you’re interested in.
- Explore the interest over time and by region to understand where demand grows.
- Look for seasonal trends and spikes in interest to identify the right times to launch products.
In addition, you can compare multiple terms to assess which products are gaining popularity and how they stand against each other.
Google Trends also enables you to check the related queries section for ideas on specific products or market niches that may not yet have direct competition.
As a result, you can pinpoint niches with high potential and low competition.
2. Explore Online Marketplaces
To gain a deeper understanding of market trends and consumer interests, you should explore online platforms such as Amazon, Etsy, eBay, and others.
They aren’t only popular shopping “destinations” but also rich sources of information for best-selling products and trending items.
By carefully examining the different categories and subcategories, you can uncover valuable insights into what consumers currently gravitate toward.
For instance, Amazon regularly updates its best-seller lists based on real-time sales data.
This feature lets you identify high-demand products, clearly indicating consumer preferences.
Similarly, Etsy showcases trending products that can offer inspiration for unique and niche markets.
By analyzing these trends, you can better understand the types of products that resonate with buyers, whether they are looking for everyday essentials, unique gifts, or artisanal creations.
📌 Keep In Mind
Browsing customer reviews and ratings on these platforms can provide further insights into consumer behavior.
Therefore, you can identify the features that customers appreciate the most and any common pain points they may experience, which leads us to the next strategy.
3. Identify Pain Points
Reviews and ratings are invaluable if you look to develop new products or enhance existing ones.
Once you can identify pain points, it enables you to tailor offerings to better meet the needs and desires of your target audience.
📌 Keep In Mind
Look at what competitors sell successfully and review their product listings, customer reviews, and marketing strategies to identify gaps in the market you could fill.
4. Reverse Engineer Successful Products
Another great benefit of combing through reviews and ratings is that you can improve products or offer variations that meet specific consumer needs.
Once you’ve selected the desired products:
- Analyze each product’s design, functionality, usability, and any unique attributes that set them apart from competitors.
- Take note of the aspects that resonate most with consumers, such as durability, aesthetic appeal, ease of use, etc.
- Check how the product was positioned in the market, as well as the branding techniques and the messaging for the target audience.
- Analyze advertising campaigns, promotional activities, and social media engagement to understand how these tactics contribute to the product’s overall success.
- Gather reviews, testimonials, and ratings from various platforms and look for common themes related to customer satisfaction, pain points, and unmet needs.
This in-depth analysis will enable you to brainstorm and identify potential enhancements to the original products.
This could involve:
- Refining existing features,
- Introducing new functionalities or
- Creating variations that cater to niche markets.
For example, consider how seasonal variations, different sizing options, or eco-friendly materials could appeal to a broader audience or specific consumer segments.
5. Follow Personal Interests
Consider selling products that align with your interests or expertise.
It will make the selling process more enjoyable and allow you to be more authentic.
The topic of hobbies and interests is always popular because it creates an emotional appeal and makes it easy for people to relate.
Consequently, it provides a big playground where you can customize products further.
6. Explore Niche Forums and Communities
These vibrant places are gold mines because they can reveal not only the products that are currently in demand but also the preferences of a highly targeted audience.
Participants frequently:
- Share their frustrations with existing products,
- Express their aspirations for new features or
- Highlight gaps in the market that larger retailers often focused on broad trends, may overlook.
Moreover, these forums can help you spot emerging trends that haven’t yet gained traction in mainstream retail.
Consequently, you can capitalize on opportunities earlier than your competitors, giving you a competitive advantage.
7. Experiment with Personalization
It’s safe to say that product customization and personalization are in high demand, with more and more shoppers opting for personalized gifts.
In fact, personalized gifts will grow at a CAGR of 6.7% from 2024 to 2030, with 62% of customers preferring customized items.
This way, by offering personalized versions of existing products, you can appeal to consumers looking for unique items and differentiate your offerings.
💡 ProTip:
Dynamic Mockups combines a robust mockup generator with advanced customization capabilities so you can create fully personalized and customized products for your online store.
With our online embeddable iFrame Mockup Editor, you can browse an extensive library of templates and customize them directly in your browser.
Thus, you can upload multiple colors and designs, see the changes in real time, and automatically get all variations of mockups.
8. Leverage Social Media
Social media are invaluable for identifying emerging product trends and checking the audience’s pulse.
Observing changes in discussions and sentiments across platforms will help you detect interest shifts and tailor products accordingly.
In addition, understanding how consumers feel about specific topics can help you identify what is trending and the underlying consumer attitudes toward those trends.
Social media strategies you can apply include:
✨ Following influencers and competitors
Keep an eye on influencers and competitors within your industry.
Their content can reveal what types of products or trends are gaining traction, allowing you to identify potential gaps or opportunities in the market.
✨ Tracking Hashtags and Keywords
Regularly monitor relevant hashtags and keywords related to your niche to discover what topics generate buzz among your target audience.
✨ Using the Platform’s Built-in Features
Each social media platform has sections dedicated to trending topics.
For example, TikTok’s “For You” page or X’s “Trends” section can provide immediate insights into what is currently popular among users.
✨ Leveraging user-generated content (UGC)
You can monitor UGC on TikTok or Instagram to analyze what products influencers and everyday users showcase.
9. Use Social Listening Tools
Use social listening tools like Sprout Social, Brandwatch, or Hootsuite to track specific keywords, hashtags, and brand mentions.
These tools can help filter out noise and highlight significant conversations around trending topics, informing you about emerging trends.
10. Meet Demand for Eco-Friendly Products
Did you know that 60% of POD customers prefer the sustainability model because it has a lower environmental impact than traditional manufacturing methods?
Furthermore, there is a growing market for sustainable products, with 46% of consumers actively seeking eco-friendly options and willing to pay more.
Therefore, it is a good idea to incorporate eco-friendly practices into your product offerings to attract environmentally conscious consumers.
11. Look for Products with Higher Profit Margins
When searching for products to sell, it’s good to identify and research products with higher profit margins, which have lower production costs but significant profit potential.
Naturally, you should consider the cost of goods sold (COGS).
It comprises all direct expenses related to the product’s creation and delivery, helping you set your retail price and profit margins.
High-margin products include:
- Women’s clothing and apparel
- Fitness equipment
- Kids’ toys
- Candles
- Pet care supplies
- Phone accessories, etc.
12. Test and Validate Your Product Ideas
Before you opt for a certain product, do the testing. If possible, order samples from multiple POD providers to check the material and printing quality.
- Is the material soft and comfortable to the touch if it’s apparel?
- Does it appear to be durable enough for long-term use?
- What about printing quality? Do colors accurately reflect the design?
- Are the colors vibrant?
- Is the text legible and aligned correctly if the product features text?
- Are there any loose threads, uneven seams, or other imperfections?
Investing the time to test and review samples can save you considerable frustration and expense in the long run.
💡 ProTip:
Our iFrame embeddable mockup editor feature puts you in charge of the creation process and printing quality.
It lets your customers create designs without ever leaving your platform, boosting customer experience and engagement.
How to Find a Product to Sell: Final Thoughts
Identifying the perfect product to sell requires a blend of research, creativity, and market awareness.
The above strategies should provide a great exploring point to find and carve your thriving niche.
However, regardless of the product you choose for your store, you can’t skip a crucial step — generating high-quality, custom mockups to showcase your products.
Dynamic Mockups provides just the tools you need to create fully personalized mockups and integrate your store with popular marketplaces.
How Can Dynamic Mockups Enhance Your Online Store Appearance?
Dynamic Mockups helps you create, automate, and scale design mockups with unbeatable customization and cost-efficiency.
Its advanced customization features and embeddable iFrame mockup editor enable you to stay on top of print and design quality.
Thus, with our robust tool, you can:
✨ Create customizable mockups in bulk — 100 designs in 10 seconds.
✨ Explore our Template Library and pick a template from the trending and evergreen categories such as T-shirts, hoodies, wall art, tote bags, pillows, mugs, etc.
✨ Leverage customization tools and:
- Create and switch backgrounds based on your text input without affecting your original designs via our AI generator.
- Do infinite color changes, including built-in Printful and Printify palettes.
- Apply Photoshop-style effects for a more realistic touch.
- Upload Photoshop mockups and customize them further.
- Position, resize, and fit your assets and make additional adjustments automatically.
- Integrate with Adobe, WordPress, Zapier, and Make to automate mockup creations.
In addition to mockup generation and customization tools, we also enable you to integrate your online store with eCommerce platforms like Etsy and WooCommerce to automate your listing updates.
Ready to try Dynamic Mockups yourself?
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Start creating for Free!
Showcase your E-commerce products like big brands, without costing a fortune
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