Share the latest methods for product and market validation

[Geekour]

I have a few ideas in mind for Ecommerce physical products.

Curious what you all think as to what the most current and latest effective methods to validate and test a product/market need.

I feel landing pages might piss people off / feel spammy when they find out you don't have stock and ask for an email. I want to build trust from the start if I am to create a brand.

I have seen some threads discuss this but either some links were broken or it is outdated (some good ideas though) so I figured I would start a new thread to see the latest methods being used by the community here.

 

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[RazorCut]

There is no better validation than someone willing to part with their money. Does it matter if you don't have stock? Better having no stock and loads of willing customers than a warehouse full and no interest.

If you give your customers the option of being notified once stock arrives how is that spammy? I purchased a product from Amazon last month that was out of stock. Had to wait 2 weeks and then an extra unanticipated delay before they finally shipped. Didn't bother me a bit.

At the end of the day until someone wants to part with their money you won't know if you have a saleable product. It doesn't matter how many people say they would buy a fictional product, they usually disappear into the ether as soon as you say you are ready to ship and ask for a credit card.

If you really want to validate your product first then do the prep and run a Kickstarter or Indiegogo.

 

[SRathwell]

I have to agree that the only real way to get product validation is by making sales, real sales where someone is willing to pay you for your product.

I have to disagree with the Kickstarter and Indigogo route. Speaking from experience it is not a good method to validate a product. To properly do a crowdfunding campaign you need to A LOT of upfront marketing. It takes both a lot of TIME and a lot of MONEY, more than I would say is reasonable for just validation.

Don't get me wrong, I think crowdfunding has its place. I just do not think it should be used as a tool for validation.

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