It is not worth wasting your time and money developing a product that there is no demand for. Although first-movers make the most money, you still need to do your research if you hope to make money.
Admittedly, testing demand is more art than science. Especially if your product does not exist yet. However, this guide will show you three actionable strategies to determine if there is adequate demand for your product.
Observe Search Trends
Observing search trends is the first step in testing demand for your e-commerce product. There are multiple free internet tools to help you monitor search trends that we will discuss below.
Google Keyword Planner
The Google Keyword Planner lets you quickly get an idea of the demand for your product and other related products. This tool will tell you how many people are searching for this product and how big the competition is in the product niche.
For this example, I will use “Water Bottle” as my keyword. The Keyword Planner then pulls up the monthly search volume, the change in search volume, the competition level, and the average cost of ads for my keyword and other related keywords.
Google Trends
Google Trends will show you the interest over time for a particular keyword. This tool will give you insights into whether your product is in a growing market or if people are losing interest in it. It will also tell you which parts of the world search for your product the most.
In this example, I searched for “Water Bottle” again. It appears that the search for water bottles has slowly but steadily increased over the past 5 years. Additionally, we see that New York, Utah, and Connecticut show the most interest in water bottles.
Google Adwords Campaign
One of the most effective ways to test demand for your product is to create a Google Adwords campaign for it. No, the product does not have to exist yet to do this. Below is how you should set up your campaign:
- Create a landing page that showcases your product with the option to buy.
- Spend $500 on a PPC Google Adwords Campaign to drive a couple of hundred people to your webpage
- When someone. attempts to buy your product, collect their email and say that the product is out of stock, and you will inform them when the product is available.
- After your campaign is over, determine if the number of people that tried to buy your product would lead to this product being profitable to manufacture and market.
This method will save you countless hours developing a product that does not sell. I recommend every person perform a campaign like this to test the viability of their product before launching full-scale.
Analyze Your Competition
The final step in testing demand for your product is analyzing your competition. Don’t be discouraged if you are not the first to market with a new idea. The existence of competitors means that there is already an established market to sell to.
When you find a competitor, read through the product reviews and find out how long they have been selling the product. This will give you an idea of what can be improved on their product and how hard it will be to displace them in the market.
Also, do not hesitate to check out their social media. Their social media will show you how they market their products and how well they engage with their customers.
Conclusion
The best ways to test demand for your e-commerce product is to create an ad campaign, investigate trends, and analyze your competitors. By performing these three strategies, you will have a clear understanding of whether it is worth developing your product or not.
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