6 Strategies to Finding the Right Products to Sell Online

Coming up with new business ideas can seem overwhelming, however, it is a crucial step that will inevitably shape your entire business. 

Imagine for a moment that finding niche products to sell online is like solving a math problem. At first, it may seem impossible; how can we find a numerical value for X? Until you realise by following a few simple rules you arrive at the correct answer. 

Think of the strategies that will cover in this article as those rules and following them will lead you to the right products. 

Online competition is only getting fiercer and choosing the right products to sell will help you put your best foot forward. 

Choosing Between Niche and Commoditised Products 

Commoditised products –  These are the products that everybody needs and buys. You will most commonly find them on Amazon and will be supported by well-known brand names. 

Niche products- These are often one-of-a-kind or handmade products that are made on demand. 

Offering only the commoditised products puts you in direct competition with big stores such as Amazon who can buy these items in large quantities and sell them for cheap. It’s highly unlikely that your business would be able to compete. Instead, we recommend selling both commoditised and niche items. In this way, you could aggregate commoditised products from across the web with your unique products. 

Now comes the tricky bit, finding a niche product. Below are the strategies that will help you come up with killer ideas.  

Uncover Opportunities in Keywords 

This approach can prove fairly technical and involves a strong working knowledge of keyword research and SEO. 

At its most basic, this process involves looking for a product based on the search queries that people commonly type into google.

These results are then compared to the number of websites currently providing answers to those searches. The key to is to find a high-volume search query with a comparatively low number of website responses. 

This will reveal a gap in the market that your product could potentially fill! Finding opportunities in keyword searches can be an effective strategy for capturing consistent organic traffic from Google. 

Build an Interesting and Captivating Brand that Resonates

The key behind building an interesting and memorable brand is to understand your target audience and to choose a product that can be positioned uniquely in their minds and lives. 

When you create a brand that resonates wholly with your target audience, it will soon become part of their lifestyle. 

An example of this is an Australian brand called Milkman Grooming Co, who produce “Beard Oil” they self-describe the tool as the way to “keep you fresh between the ears.” It’s certainly an exciting brand and because it fits in so well with their target audiences needs and values using a beard oil is sure to become a staple part of every male hipster’s daily routine. 

Identify and Solve a Customer Pain Point

This is pretty self-explanatory, solve a problem your target audience is likely to have and sell it to them. This is as simple as something like the creation of aspirin for headaches.

Try focussing on your everyday tasks and pinpoint things that might make your life harder but could have an easy solution. 

Take for example The Australian boutique hotel Art Series Hotels that created “Overstay Checkout.”  

They found that a major pain point for leisure travellers was the 11:00 am checkout which was standard across the industry. In response, they developed the "Overstay Checkout', which meant guests would only have to check out when the next guest checked in. 

Follow Your Passion While Referring to Your Experience and Expertise

Realistically you’re going to spend many long days and nights working on your online business so it only makes sense that it should involve something you’re passionate about. Plus, passion is contagious, if people can tell you have a genuine love and appreciation for what you’re selling they are more likely to want to get on board with it too. 

Capitalise on Trends as Quickly as Possible 

This is not an easy task, the key to your success lies within the speed you’re able to hop on a trend and mobilise your ecommerce site. Making sure you stay-up-to-date on any trending products and services and capitalise on them before they hit their peak popularity. 

This business angle can be tricky, with the very nature of trends suggesting that they won’t last long. However, the upside can be tremendous for a small business owner, as you’ll have a leg up on SEO and establish yourself as a leader within the industry. If your business grows quickly, you might be able to up and sell the store before the trend becomes irrelevant. 

Start thinking of products or services that have been trending recently, some examples include R.I.P Coffin Nails, Crystal healing, Wedding DJs and Fluorescent Donuts… just to name a few. 

Getting the Right Support 

The niche and products you choose will shape your entire business, but you can't get anything donewithout the right online business partner and ecommerce systems.Joining the online business space can be both tricky and daunting. 

Finding the right product to sell is one of the most difficult, yet most important factors in creating a successful ecommerce business. Understanding the guidelines above should help get the ball rolling on this exciting new adventure of yours.