One of the hardest things to do when starting your own online store is to find products that will sell. Here are 4 tools that will help you conduct your product research in an easy and efficient way.
1. AMAZON BESTSELLERS
Amazon is kind enough to share what are their best selling products in each category. Since they are the largest online retailer in the western world, this is an invaluable resource.
To view Amazon’s best-sellers go this address: www.amazon.com/gp/bestsellers.
Choose the category you’re interested in and you will get a good idea of which products from that category are good products to sell.
If you are trying to choose your niche, it is a good idea to navigate down to a more specific subcategory and choose that subcategory as your niche. For example, if you are interested in the Home & Kitchen category, you can choose a more specific sub-category such as Kitchen Knives & Cutlery Accessories. This could be a good niche for you to start in, and Amazon will show you the best products from that niche, which currently include knife-sharpeners, vegetable slicers, and cutting boards, among others.
Then you can go and source your competing products from ebay, AliExpress, or a wholesaler/drop-shipper in that area, for your own store.
2. ALIEXPRESS BESTSELLERS
AliExpress is also generous enough to share their weekly bestselling list from several popular categories. You can find it here: http://bestselling.aliexpress.com/en
So, you can find quality products and suppliers all in one go.
Make sure you check out the ratings and feedback on each product and its supplier before you decide to purchase it for resale, or do drop-shipping.
3. WATCHCOUNT.COM
WatchCount.com shows you what the most watched items on eBay are. eBay members can choose to watch any item they may be interested in by clicking “watch this item”. This is the source of the data used. Furthermore, you will see how many sales each item has received.
This is an invaluable resource for finding out which products people want, and they are validated by the number of actual purchases, which you can see.
4. FORUMS
Every niche has a forum online where you can ask persons what products they are most interested in, or simply browse the forum and observe what people want.
For example, if you want to research the Fishing niche, a simple Google search of “fishing forum” will provide a list of many such forums. Also check out www.findaforum.net, which is a search engine specifically for finding forums.
The advantage of doing your research in forums is that the forum members represent the most passionate persons in that niche, guaranteed. If you can learn which products these persons want, then you will figure out the best products to sell. It’s that simple. And it isn’t hard at all, just ask!
If you use any of the previous tools to find products, it’s also a good idea to validate them here by asking the forum members.
You can even get customers from these forums. But, it’s always better to check first before you post about your products for sale, so that you don’t violate the forum’s advertising policy.
CONCLUSION
I recommend that you use all of these tools to verify your products, especially the last one.
This is the first step in creating your profitable online store. Then comes setting up your store, creating ads, finding a supplier, and much more. If you want to learn more about these aspects, then keep following this blog.
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