How to picking the right eCommerce product can save your brand $$$ & make your brand $$$?
This is so vital because this is the second impression a customer will get with your business after the initial sale and is what ULTIMATELY decides if they’ll shop with you again or not.
Because the most common reason why most “legit” businesses fail is known in startup terms as “product-market fit”.
It basically means:
Most businesses fail because no-one wants their stuff, or they don’t know how to market it properly.
Even if a product exists on Alibaba.com doesn’t mean anyone actually wants to buy it. And even if people exist who want to purchase the product, it doesn’t mean you’ll be able to effectively market to them.
So if you like to save $$$ & make $$$, the first step in any eCom project is not to start an eCom store or product division.
It’s to generate a lot of ideas for potential eCom stores or product divisions, then find the idea out of all of those that are most likely to win.
Step 1: Write Your Potentials
You should start by sitting down at a computer and create a list of every area of “stuff” that you know something about.
By “stuff”, I mean anything that you could theme an online store around:
• Your hobbies or interests.
• Past hobbies – even back to childhood if those hobbies would be of interest to people with credit cards.
• Family’s hobbies and interests. If your mom’s very interested in bowling you probably know more about that than you’d think!
• Past job fields or interests.
You do not need to be currently passionate about any of these things.
Now take a moment to think about your current problems. Think about problems your friends or family have had too.
Any problem that could potentially be solved by a physical product?
Write it down.
• Car won’t start in the morning? Sounds like it needs a spare… something. (I don’t know a lot about cars.) Write down “car parts”
• Lamp flickering in your living room? “New lightbulbs”.
• Just moved into a new place and you and your partner are arguing about decoration? “House decorations”.
OK, you should have a big list at this point.
You should now have a list of 30+ ideas. Time to narrow them down.
Step 2: Creating A New Spreadsheet Called “Shop Ideas” & Head off to Alibaba.
For each of the interests on your list, spend some time -10 min or so – exploring the available options for things to sell to them.
There are a couple of things to be aware of here:
• Don’t sell things that people eat. Its just not worth the potential legal liability.
• Don’t sell things that are too heavy, as the shipping will be a nightmare.
• Don’t sell things that are priced over $75 or so on Alibaba, unless you have a very big budget to test with.
• Don’t sell stuff that’s obviously associated with a big non-Chinese brand.
If you can find at least 10 things you could potentially sell to people with that interest or problem, and that don’t fall out of one of the problems mentioned above, add the interest to your spreadsheet.
Next, go looking for places where people with that interest or problem gather.
Look for Facebook groups, magazines, forums, and note the name of the group and their size.
If you’re seeing groups that are huge -1 million or more – you’ve probably defined your interest too broadly. Try to niche down.
For example, the interest “cooking” is way too large.
But you could target people who like “Baking” or “Korean BBQ”.
Now, based on that information and what you already know about the niche, add the following information to your spreadsheet: whether this problem/hobby attracts people with money, and whether the problem/hobby is one where people usually spend money regularly.
Example: Golf enthusiasts generally have money, and spend it regularly – they need a subscription to a golfing club, and they’ll often pay for things like coaching, which are recurring costs.
Step 3: Pick The Best Product To Market Fit.
Now we’ll make the final decision. Look over your list, and pick out the three or four hobbies or problem areas for it that most closely match the following:
Look over your list, and pick out the 3 or 4 hobbies or problem areas for it that most closely match the following:
• Plenty of appropriate products on AliExpress to sell them.
• Lots of medium to large communities for the hobby or interest.
• Communities aren’t TOO large.
• People with this problem or interest have money to spend.
• People with this problem or interest are actively interested in discussing products to purchase or looking for products for their problem or interest.
• The problem or interest isn’t seasonal.
In all this guide should help you pick your next product to scale in your marketing campaigns and/or for your brand. As well as save $$$ & make $$$ while doing it!
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