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How to Find a Profitable Product to Sell
Here at Your Marketing People, we’re currently running a special podcast series title, “How to Start a Successful eCommerce Business in Less Than 30 Days.” Of course, part of having a winning eCommerce business is knowing what products to sell that will yield you a profit.
But if you’ve never sold a product before, especially online, how do you know what products will be in demand? How do you know what other products are out there that compete with what you’ll sell? And how do you forecast future sales, especially in our ever-changing world?
To get a preview to these questions’ answers, keep reading. Then, check out episode 2 in our podcast series titled, “Evaluate Product Profitability.”
Easy (and Some Free) Ways to Determine Demand for Your Potential Product
When most people want to research a product, they go to Google. In fact, Google averages 5.6 billion searches every single day!
Luckily for you, Google tracks every single search, in large part to adjust their search algorithm to ensure they’re listing the most relevant results for every specific keyword search. And trust us – they have a huge database of keyword searches. In addition to using this data to help them rank content, however, Google provides free tools that help you see what search terms are most popular and how frequently they’re searched.
Taking it one step further, there are paid applications that use Google search data and finesse it even further for you, making it easier for you to find relevant keyword searches related to the product you want to sell, and how frequently those search terms are used.
While tracking these search terms won’t tell you how many Google searches actually convert to purchasers of these products, it will give you an idea of how popular searches are for the product, including how that popularity has trended over time. Listen to our podcast to get our suggestions for free, and some paid, search and trending applications to use to help you determine the demand for your potential product.
How to Do Recon on Your Product’s Competitors (For Free!)
Once you’ve decided there’s a demand for your product, you want to see who else is selling a competing product. But you want to do this discreetly, of course. Luckily, it’s easy to do so through some simple online searches.
When performing competitor recon, you want to see what other eCommerce sites are selling your product, how they position them, how they market them, and how they incentivize consumers to buy their product instead of someone else’s. Some of the most important things you can glean from doing online reconnaissance include:
- What type (and how many) product images do your competitors use? Do they use 3D tours of their products? Do they offer up-close views to see the details of their products?
- How are your competitors using video to market their products, and help people use them after they purchase?
- How are customer reviews being used to evaluate the product and make recommendations? Can customers rate the product, add a comment, or add a photo?
- How are your competitors using social media to promote their products?
For a list of our go-to sites for performing this type of research, listen to our podcast.
Estimate Your Product’s Gross Profit Margin (GPM)
Once you’ve determined you have a product idea that’s in high demand and you’ve learned how competitors are marketing and selling their alternatives, it’s time for you to determine how profitable your product will be for you. To do this, you need to estimate your gross profit margin.
The GPM for your product is found by first calculating your gross profit. You can do so by:
- Summing up all revenue from product sales.
- Subtracting the entire cost of goods sold.
Next, divide your gross profit by your sales revenue, then multiply by 100 to get a percentage. This final number will be your GPM.
Gross profit margin doesn’t calculate all your business expenses, though. To learn more about how to pinpoint GPM exactly, check out the podcast.
Start Listening to Our Podcast to Learn More Details
Are you intrigued by these ideas on how to find and sell a profitable product for your eCommerce business? If so, it’s time to dig into the details. Click here to listen to the podcast on our website, or find it on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, or Google Play. And don’t forget to subscribe to our podcast to learn more tips and tricks for starting an eCommerce business in less than 30 days.
