--
inovio-logo.png

9 tips for finding the perfect products to sell online.

Are you itching to make a splash in the world of ecommerce? Do you want to put your knowledge of technology and your whip-smart business acumen to work by founding and running a top-flight internet enterprise? Before you get too excited, take a few deep breaths, take a moment, and decide upon the optimal products to sell.

Use customer pain points to your advantage.

Many of the best products gain popularity because they address a frustration or solve a problem.Put this “pain point” phenomenon to work for you by keeping your eyes and ears open in your niche of choice. If you can come up with an angle that can assuage buyers’ complaints and ease their concerns, you just might have come upon a compelling new twist on an existing item.

Use your personal passion as a springboard.

Do you have a hobby that you’re obsessed with, something that you would happily do all day, every day for the rest of your life? If so, why not translate that into money in your pocket? Use your insider’s knowledge of your favorite sport or activity to come up with unique product offerings. Then you can start selling them online.

Capitalize on professional knowledge.

All right, maybe you don’t have a hobby that you are crazy about. Does that mean you should give up on the idea of selling products online to customers in your own country or even internationally? Absolutely not.

When you stop and think about it, you may actually have a storehouse of professional insights and information gleaned from years of corporate toil that you can use to your advantage. While you may be more than ready to say goodbye forever to office politics and global business-speak, you can definitely translate your expertise about digital products, design. or virtually anything else into a lucrative opportunity for yourself. Best of all, your specialized abilities will be difficult for competitors to replicate.

Find items that will garner high profit margins.

Focusing on selling things that mesh with your passions or professional knowledge is all well and good, but the bottom line is that you want to make money at the end of the day. Before you decide to market a particular piece of merchandise, analyze how much of its sale price will actually turn into profits. If it costs a lot to produce, store or ship, that appealingly high price point might be an illusion.

Jump on the latest trend.

One of the best ways to come out ahead in ecommerce is to sell the trendy products that everyone is talking about. However, there is a big difference between a trend that will become a long-term fixture in popular culture and a fad, which is nothing more than a flash in the pan. Your job as a savvy entrepreneur is to discern between the former and the latter.

Thanks to the internet, you have many tools at your disposal to help you in this process. Your research can involve everything from looking at trending Twitter hashtags and Facebook posts to visiting sites like Google Trends or Trend Hunter for data about what people are talking about and searching for. It’s all about putting your ear to the digital ground, hearing the buzz, and determining whether it represents a fad or a potential trend you can capitalize on in the long-term.

Peruse customer feedback.

One of the most useful sources of information about the best online products to sell comes from the people who have bought similar items in the past. If you already have an online store that sells similar merchandise, begin by scrutinizing the reviews your buyers have posted. Then expand your research to encompass your soon-to-be online competitors.

This might seem like a waste of time. However, it is a golden opportunity to obtain a firsthand idea of what people love, what they hate, their most fervent wishes for improvements, and even pitfalls that they have encountered in the past with similar merchandise. The key is to pay attention and innovate by using the direct information that customers provide in their own words.

Learn what consumers are searching for.

As someone who probably searches for products or services online as a consumer, you may already recognize the power of keywords. Savvy ecommerce entrepreneurs use tools such as Helium 10, Keywords Everywhere, EtsyRank, and KeywordInspector to get a handle on exactly what search terms are popular. Once you have gleaned this knowledge, you are in a terrific position to tailor your products to match with what people are seeking.

Browse online marketplaces.

Another way to sniff out what customers want is to hang out where they do and see what they’re buying. Large marketplaces like Amazon and eBay sell virtually every type of item under the sun, but you can narrow down what is popular by focusing on each site’s bestsellers and most wished-for items. If you want to take a deeper dive, there are additional tools such as Jungle Scout that allow you to search by category, sales, price, and other attributes.

Never stop listening.

Even after you have homed in on a group of items to sell, your search should never be over. The secret to success in business is constant innovation, creativity, and the ability to pivot in response to market changes. Even when you are not “on the clock”, keep your radar on and maintain a list of ideas and observations on your phone that you can update at any time.

Appealing to your customers with products that meet a need, minimize a concern, reduce a frustration, or capitalize on a person’s passion should be one of your highest priorities as you work to launch your online store. Devoting time and care to this important step will boost the odds that your ecommerce site becomes a resounding success.

Let's talk.

Learn more about the industry’s most intelligent payment gateway.