One of the most difficult aspects of establishing an eCommerce business, or expanding your existing offering, is finding a product to sell that people actually want to buy.

According to WorldFirst’s Voice of Online Sellers report, more than half of participants claimed that sourcing a product is their biggest challenge.

So, here are five handy tips to help get you on the right track:

1. Review the ‘best sellers’ lists on existing marketplaces and platforms

A good place to start is by scrolling through the items already in demand.  Marketplaces like Amazon and eBay openly showcase their best selling items, which can show you what’s on trend now and where audience interests may be evolving to.

You can also look at these best-selling items to find a spin off product to sell. For example, taking a popular electronic product and offering related accessories.

Bear in mind, however, if you choose to mimic a bestselling item, ensure you have the capacity to actually compete with these existing sellers.

2. Look through customer reviews on products

Looking through customer feedback on existing items will tell you what people love or hate about them.

If they are buying certain products, but are not 100% happy with the final product, evaluate whether you can offer an enhanced version and target these particular customers.

3. Pick a product that’s easy to ship and hard to break

Once you have found a niche product that is already in demand (or increasing in popularity), make sure it will be easy to ship to the customer and is not something that will break on route.

This will also bring down shipping costs and reduce amount of refunds from items arriving to the customer damaged.

It’s time to send the product, use companies like Easyship where you can link your online store (or stores) and ship all your orders in one click.

You can also utilise their range of warehouses across US, Europe and Asia to be closer to your global customers and spend less time handling distribution. Shopify sellers can even use Amazon’s FBA network.

4. Choose a product you understand and that you’re passionate about

If you’re selling an item you’re interested in, you’ll be able to better-relate to what customers want and need.

In addition to this, you can personally identify modifications that could make the product better and analyse it from a consumer point of view. If you aren’t passionate about the product, research and experience the niche until you find your passion!

5. Use product research tools like Jungle Scout

If you don’t mind paying a fee to help conduct your product research, consider investing in database tools like Jungle Scout.

With this web-based application, you can filter products across multiple categories by demand, price, estimated sales, rating, seasonality, dimensions and more to pinpoint the best products to sell.

6. Research your competitors

Using websites like ahrefs allows you to learn why your competitors are ranking so high and what you need to do to outrank them.

It’s okay to have some healthy competition, however, make sure you’re not setting yourself up for failure by competing with big corporations who have deep pockets.

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