**Finding Your First Product To Sell**
I notice a lot of people are struggling with how to brainstorm ideas for products to sell or niches to market to. What products sell well, what are hot selling products, what should I sell, what can I sell and make 50% margins...you get the point
The fact is nobody online is going to tell you what to sell. If someone is selling something and making good money doing it the last thing they want to do is invite in competition so you're going to have to find this information on your own. Many people don't even know where to begin.
Before we get into ways of finding products and brainstorming products we must first touch on how to research or vet the ideas that we do have. There are a number of tools which allow us to do this.
Terapeak eBay Analytics Tool PAID BUT FREE TRIAL
Jungle Scout Amazon Analytics Tool PAID BUT FREE TRIAL
UnicornSmasher Amazon Analytics Tool COMPLETELY FREE
**HOW TO BRAINSTORM IDEAS WHERE TO GET THEM IN FIRST PLACE**
**SELLING RANDOM PRODUCTS**
When it comes to ecommerce and selling on eBay and Amazon most people fall into one of two camps. The first camp sells random products. They may be selling a kitchen spatula, a hoverboard charger, and a tactical pen.
**STICKING WITHIN A NICHE**
The second camp tends to stick within a niche. Someone who sells a spatula for their first product would then roll out a bowl and then a mixer. Someone selling tactical bags would sell water filtration straws and paracord.
While there isn't necessarily a right or wrong strategy most people seem to find that working within a niche you have less competition, higher or better margins and better chance at getting loyal and recurring buyers.
**IDEAS FOR BRAINSTORMING PRODUCTS OR NICHES**
Once you sit down to try to find potential products to sell or niches to enter first think of products you personally buy regularly. I'll give you an example. I'm a dude but I have long hair. My girlfriend also has long hair so our shower drain gets clogged quickly. She buys a ton of [these expensive drain wigs from Amazon](Amazon.com: DrainWig Shower Drain Hair Catcher (TWO 2-Packs) - Never Clean a Clogged Drain Again!: Bedding & Bath) for $10.99. I can find the [exactly same product on Ali Express](Bathroom Hair Sewer Filter Drain Outlet Kitchen Sink Filter Strainer Drain Cleaners Anti Clogging Floor Wig Removal Clog Tools-in Drain Cleaners from Home & Garden on Aliexpress.com | Alibaba Group) for 0.55 cents.
I don't know how well it can sell but that's a pretty good margin and Ali Express isn't even the cheapest place to buy, you can probably get the drain wigs for about a 1/3 of the price buy purchasing a larger quantity on [Alibaba](http://click.alibaba.com/rd/5l8q8ido) which is more of a B2B and wholesale platform as opposed to Ali Express which is more a B2C and retail type platform with smaller or single quantity orders versus larger ones.
**REPLACEMENT PARTS SELL WELL**
In addition to looking at products you yourself buy on a regular basis another great area to look is replacement parts needed to fix or replace broken items on things you own. Think things like replacement blades for a nutribullet, replacement plastic tab that goes on top of brita filter, volume knobs for your car, etc.
If you still don't have any product ideas look to things your interested in or knowledgeable about. If you work at a vacuum store for example you may have some insights there. If your into sailing you may know some parts or equipment that may be hot sellers.
**TRENDS AND FADS AND CURRENT EVENTS**
Lastly if your still striking a blank look at current trends and fads. I'm not a huge fan of these as the nature of them they are short lived. Think hoverboards, trump stuff, the NES Classic Nintendo put out. Money can be made if you get in early and move quickly but it comes to an end fast.
**THE VETTING PROCESS WILL IT SELL?**
Once you begin to compile a list of potential products then comes the vetting process. Search them on Ali Express, Alibaba, and DHGate and see if the margins are there. If they are the next step is assessing how well they sell and the competion.
**TERAPEAK**
You can do this using the tools mentioned above, Terapeak, Jungle Scout and Unicorn Smasher. Terapeak and Jungle Scout are website softwares and phone apps which allow you to check prices and a whole lot more. Terapeak for example tells you how many units are sold, how much in overall sales, the sell through rating, the best keywords to use, day of week and time of day most people buy, most searched keywords, etc. It's designed for eBay although the data can be applied to Amazon or your own Shopify
site.
**JUNGLE SCOUT**
Jungle Scout is a browser extension, web app and phone app and gives sales data specific to Amazon. IMHO the data isn't as much or in depth as Terapeak as Terapeak has access to eBay data and is a partner of them where as Amazon doesn't have partners so no analytic program is 100% accurate they are estimates based on amazon sales rank of products but not 100% accurate.
**UNICORN SMASHER**
Lastly Unicorn Smasher is very similar to Jungle Scout but is completely free and is a chrome browser addon you can download for nothing. I'ts not completely accurate but neither is Jungle Scout and this one is free.
**WHAT TO LOOK FOR TO KNOW A PRODUCT WILL SELL AND YOU WON'T BE STUCK WITH INVENTORY AND LOSING MONEY**
When we check one or all of these tools we want to look for number of units sold, overall dollar amount sold, sell through rate, and the competition.
There's really no concrete numbers to look for, many factors come into play. I'll accept a lower sell through rate or overall sales if there's great margin on the product. Typically however I'd like to see $8,000 or more per week in sales. Next I look for sell through rate. Anything above 40% is decent, 50% or 60% good, 80% or above very good and 90% plus you have to sell that product!!! Lastly I look at competition. In the case of Amazon I like to see 3 listings on first page with under 60 feedback. In the case of eBay when looking at top 20 sellers I like to see sales evenly split and not one seller dominating 90% of the sales in the category.
I think that's a pretty good couple things to look for to get you started.
I notice a lot of people are struggling with how to brainstorm ideas for products to sell or niches to market to. What products sell well, what are hot selling products, what should I sell, what can I sell and make 50% margins...you get the point
The fact is nobody online is going to tell you what to sell. If someone is selling something and making good money doing it the last thing they want to do is invite in competition so you're going to have to find this information on your own. Many people don't even know where to begin.
Before we get into ways of finding products and brainstorming products we must first touch on how to research or vet the ideas that we do have. There are a number of tools which allow us to do this.
Terapeak eBay Analytics Tool PAID BUT FREE TRIAL
Jungle Scout Amazon Analytics Tool PAID BUT FREE TRIAL
UnicornSmasher Amazon Analytics Tool COMPLETELY FREE
**HOW TO BRAINSTORM IDEAS WHERE TO GET THEM IN FIRST PLACE**
**SELLING RANDOM PRODUCTS**
When it comes to ecommerce and selling on eBay and Amazon most people fall into one of two camps. The first camp sells random products. They may be selling a kitchen spatula, a hoverboard charger, and a tactical pen.
**STICKING WITHIN A NICHE**
The second camp tends to stick within a niche. Someone who sells a spatula for their first product would then roll out a bowl and then a mixer. Someone selling tactical bags would sell water filtration straws and paracord.
While there isn't necessarily a right or wrong strategy most people seem to find that working within a niche you have less competition, higher or better margins and better chance at getting loyal and recurring buyers.
**IDEAS FOR BRAINSTORMING PRODUCTS OR NICHES**
Once you sit down to try to find potential products to sell or niches to enter first think of products you personally buy regularly. I'll give you an example. I'm a dude but I have long hair. My girlfriend also has long hair so our shower drain gets clogged quickly. She buys a ton of [these expensive drain wigs from Amazon](Amazon.com: DrainWig Shower Drain Hair Catcher (TWO 2-Packs) - Never Clean a Clogged Drain Again!: Bedding & Bath) for $10.99. I can find the [exactly same product on Ali Express](Bathroom Hair Sewer Filter Drain Outlet Kitchen Sink Filter Strainer Drain Cleaners Anti Clogging Floor Wig Removal Clog Tools-in Drain Cleaners from Home & Garden on Aliexpress.com | Alibaba Group) for 0.55 cents.
I don't know how well it can sell but that's a pretty good margin and Ali Express isn't even the cheapest place to buy, you can probably get the drain wigs for about a 1/3 of the price buy purchasing a larger quantity on [Alibaba](http://click.alibaba.com/rd/5l8q8ido) which is more of a B2B and wholesale platform as opposed to Ali Express which is more a B2C and retail type platform with smaller or single quantity orders versus larger ones.
**REPLACEMENT PARTS SELL WELL**
In addition to looking at products you yourself buy on a regular basis another great area to look is replacement parts needed to fix or replace broken items on things you own. Think things like replacement blades for a nutribullet, replacement plastic tab that goes on top of brita filter, volume knobs for your car, etc.
If you still don't have any product ideas look to things your interested in or knowledgeable about. If you work at a vacuum store for example you may have some insights there. If your into sailing you may know some parts or equipment that may be hot sellers.
**TRENDS AND FADS AND CURRENT EVENTS**
Lastly if your still striking a blank look at current trends and fads. I'm not a huge fan of these as the nature of them they are short lived. Think hoverboards, trump stuff, the NES Classic Nintendo put out. Money can be made if you get in early and move quickly but it comes to an end fast.
**THE VETTING PROCESS WILL IT SELL?**
Once you begin to compile a list of potential products then comes the vetting process. Search them on Ali Express, Alibaba, and DHGate and see if the margins are there. If they are the next step is assessing how well they sell and the competion.
**TERAPEAK**
You can do this using the tools mentioned above, Terapeak, Jungle Scout and Unicorn Smasher. Terapeak and Jungle Scout are website softwares and phone apps which allow you to check prices and a whole lot more. Terapeak for example tells you how many units are sold, how much in overall sales, the sell through rating, the best keywords to use, day of week and time of day most people buy, most searched keywords, etc. It's designed for eBay although the data can be applied to Amazon or your own Shopify
site.
**JUNGLE SCOUT**
Jungle Scout is a browser extension, web app and phone app and gives sales data specific to Amazon. IMHO the data isn't as much or in depth as Terapeak as Terapeak has access to eBay data and is a partner of them where as Amazon doesn't have partners so no analytic program is 100% accurate they are estimates based on amazon sales rank of products but not 100% accurate.
**UNICORN SMASHER**
Lastly Unicorn Smasher is very similar to Jungle Scout but is completely free and is a chrome browser addon you can download for nothing. I'ts not completely accurate but neither is Jungle Scout and this one is free.
**WHAT TO LOOK FOR TO KNOW A PRODUCT WILL SELL AND YOU WON'T BE STUCK WITH INVENTORY AND LOSING MONEY**
When we check one or all of these tools we want to look for number of units sold, overall dollar amount sold, sell through rate, and the competition.
There's really no concrete numbers to look for, many factors come into play. I'll accept a lower sell through rate or overall sales if there's great margin on the product. Typically however I'd like to see $8,000 or more per week in sales. Next I look for sell through rate. Anything above 40% is decent, 50% or 60% good, 80% or above very good and 90% plus you have to sell that product!!! Lastly I look at competition. In the case of Amazon I like to see 3 listings on first page with under 60 feedback. In the case of eBay when looking at top 20 sellers I like to see sales evenly split and not one seller dominating 90% of the sales in the category.
I think that's a pretty good couple things to look for to get you started.
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