Product Research Guide/Tips When You Want to Run an Online Store

For many retail stores, the idea of selling something has come naturally to their minds and they started their selling business straightforward. However, the age of online shopping has lead to the fact that running an online store means jumping into such a competitive market that many other sellers are also trying to get into.

Therefore, it’s increasingly essential that you prepare carefully on what to sell in order to get on top of this right at the start of your journey and set your business apart from the others. Our article provides you with the most essential product research guide/tips when you want to run an online store.

I. What is product research?

Product research is one part of market research, which is the essential and first step in developing and launching a business. Market research can be done by gathering valuable information from your target audience, evaluating ideas and testing product concepts to avoid making mistakes when starting selling anything online.

Conducting proper product research might require a huge amount of time and money, but it’s pivotal to set this stone right if you want to build a long goal business and gain as much profit as possible.

II. The purpose of online product research

As stated above, doing product research might costs you a huge amount of time and money, but it’s of great importance for any aspiring business as:

1. It’s essential to define the market

Even if you believe your product idea is the most brilliant one that no one ever thought of before, it’s still not worth selling if there is no market for it. Product research gives you specific important information you will need to determine which items to sell, such as the current market needs, requirements, and purchasing situation of these specific items. Online product research provides data to help you identify which market is available for you to try, and to make a profit afterwards. 

2. It evaluates your idea for a new product

If there is a market for your products, it’s still mandatory to evaluate the potential of your product ideas, and how you can convert them to an online business model. In case your products already exist, this phrase will tell you how you can do differently to meet the needs and expectations of potential customers, and at the same time stand out from other competitors.

3. It gives you specific requirements of customers

In order to sell, you need customers who are willing to buy, and in order to have customers, it’s your job to understand what they need. Product research is essential to give you gain innovative ideas on how your products can solve certain pain points of your customers, and how they match the exact requirements of and thus, satisfy their needs.  

III. Areas of product research

There are some areas that product research that you can investigate to further your product’s success. Keep in mind that in order to gain a comprehensive view, try to tackle more than one area and make your survey focused on what information you really need:

• New product: It’s evident when you are about to start your business, a new product is the first thing you need to focus on. The product research will be a game-changer for your business at this stage because you can learn what potential buyers are in need of, identify their pain points, and offer them a perfect solution.
• Product improvements: Already having a product to run an online store? Product research still helps you to make strategic adjustments in terms of product features, such as adding new features or make it more accessible to certain customer groups.
• Your target group: If you want to sell your items, truly understanding what your customers need will give you the perfect idea of customer interests and explore other potential customer groups.
• Your competitors: Make a curated list of other brands that have the same market or sell the same products you have your minds on. Discover their strategies, gauge their success and failure to differentiate your future brands.
• Marketing strategy: After gaining comprehensive ideas on how all the above aspects, now you can start your online business with a practical marketing strategy. How can you highlight your product strong points and how to make it appealing to customers?

IV. Product research guide/ tips for online store

1. Research products in high demand

In case you haven’t gotten a specific product in mind, start simply by looking at the high-demand market and product areas to get a general idea of the current online business situation. These popular products featured on Pinterest, Amazon, or eBay can help you identify what customers are seeking and how items are categorized.

Bear in mind that searching for a product or a niche in the high-demand market gives you a holistic idea of product research. You are not looking for something exotic or brilliant, you are looking for something that customers truly need, something that generates sales and helps your business grow.

2. Read reviews on similar products

Once you come up with certain ideas on your product research, now it’s time to go deeper to truly analyze what customers are saying, and how you and your product will be the savior of their burning issues. Go through all comments on similar products and make an analysis of what customers liked and didn’t like about a specific item. Those are a treasure trove of information to define customers’ needs and make recommendations on specific improvements or features that customers are having an eye for.

Researching on customers’ reviews and comments gives you detailed insights into what customers think, and identify how your products might land into some potential issues, and how can you solve them, which greatly differs from the competition

3. Utilize social media

Another product research guide you should look into is to utilize social media. Your eCommerce store aims at making profits by selling certain products to customers, so setting your sights on social media can help you effortlessly identify the market niche, and what kind of products are worth investing in right now.

Tune in your product research on some hot trending topics on top social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok to see which products are being talked about. Making use of social media unlock product ideas and market demand, and millions of active users will allow you to check everything you need before running your online store. 

4. Research keywords

Now that you get a specific idea of your item in mind, how you can make sure that anyone is going to buy your products? Keyword search will be an effective product research tip for you in this case. In able to find a saleable item, utilizing a keyword search function is an essential way to validate demand for your product and will help you to easily move forward to the marketing process later on. 

5. Check market demand

A product research tip that all retail online sellers, no matter having experience or not, will follow is to carefully check market demand. This step is essential because it can define whether your upcoming products will fail to sell any item, or it could straightly jump onto the latest top trend. Everything relies on how the market is responding to your product, and if the market demand is relatively high enough, you still need to figure out if you are competing with a huge range of other sellers on the internet.

Make sure to make market research surveys for in-depth insights, and use these reports to review growth predictions for specific products and market niches. Also, analyzing how product demand can keep expanding or it’s going to end soon, using technical tools as Googe Trends.

6. Test everything

Whether your products are in super high demand, or you are choosing a niche product with various options to consider, it’s always crucial to test everything. This is a crucial tip in product research that people often ignore, but the eCommerce market gives you the ability to test your product on specific markets or customer groups. For example, trying to send product samples and get reviews, or change your target markets on a monthly basis might give you some new ideas on how to make adjustments to the new products to make them more appealing. In fact, there might take a lot of testing, and failing, certainly, before you get the most profitable product for your new online store.

V. Conclusion

Online product research is never an easy task, and it might take you a lot of time and effort before you come to the right decision. Now that everything you need to know about the product research guide/tips when you want to run an online store is in your hand, we believe it’s time you got to each tip and identify which one will be the most suitable for you and your business at the moment.