For any drop-ship business owner (or someone thinking about starting one), knowing what products to promote and where to find them is one of the biggest hurdles to overcome.
The success of your online store is very much dependent on having products that people want to buy.
Thankfully, there are a few ways in which you can ensure top products form part of your online inventory so that the sales start coming in.
In this guide, we will first look at some of the basics you need to have covered first in terms of product selection, before going on to show the best way to find the right products for your store.
Table of Contents
Issues to consider before choosing products to dropship
What follows are the main issues you should think about before you begin searching for products for your dropship store.
What is your niche?
This is probably the most important area to have clear before you begin looking for products.
Your niche will impact everything from the name of your dropship store, its design, and how and where you market it.
For example, a store full of baby gear for new mothers will look very different from a survival store for outdoor fans. The type of advertising will differ too.
If you have a narrow niche for your store, the products you search for have to be relevant.
If you have gone for a more general approach, you should still aim to choose products that make sense to the overall target market of your drop-ship store.
Being too wide in this regard will make it difficult to appeal to your audience, and come across as a reputable supplier.
Another benefit of having a niche store beyond helping you focus on what products to promote is that marketing will be a lot easier.
Knowing who your audience is when using the likes of Facebook advertising, or Google Ads is more cost-effective.
Rather than sweeping a large “advertising net” in the hopes of finding interested customers, your marketing efforts can be focused.
Conversion rates and therefore sales will be a lot healthier as a result.
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Determine Your Price Range
Being clear on your price range will also help search for products that will be a success. The price range of products should be appropriate to your niche and target audience.
Will you be able to compete with other online providers (and still make a profit), at specific price points for a product.
Remember that shipping rates and supplier pricing will all have to be calculated into the sale price.
If the economics don’t make sense, the product will not be for you or your business.
Choose the Right supplier for Dropshipping Products
We briefly mentioned the supplier above. Successfully finding the right products to sell online is heavily dependent on the quality of your drop-ship provider.
If they do not have a good range of products or the pricing is not competitive enough for you to make a profit, your choice will be limited as a result.
We have reviewed various dropship providers on Vault50 (check out our opinion on Wholesale2B, Inventory Source, and Source of Goods for more on this).
Finding the right supplier is definitely a major step in finding the right products.
Do your research to ensure you are using the right drop-ship provider for your business.
Essentially, a successful dropshipping business will have suppliers that can provide high-quality products, at the right price with a reliable turnaround.
- Related Products: Pros & Cons of Using a Dropshipping Hub
How to find the best products to drop-ship
1. Searching for niche appropriate products
This was our main point above. By niching down with your drop-ship store, you can begin searching for niche appropriate products.
So what is the best way to do that?
Google Trends can definitely be your friend in this regard.
Research products in your niche within google trends to see if the search interest has been there. Are buyers looking for these products online?
Is the volume of interest good enough for you to start promoting the product too?
Think about the seasonal aspect of your niche area. If you are running a baby product dropship store, what products are likely to be popular in the summer?
Research this (again with Google Trends or a tool such as Keywords Everywhere) to see how many people are searching for a product item).
Find something that is gaining traction and you could be on to a winner.
- Related Content: Dropified Review – The Dropship App to Use in 2022?
2. Competitor Product Research
Turning to your competitors for ideas is one of the oldest business practices in the book. Even renowned innovators like Steve Jobs did it.
If a competitor has a bestseller list on their website and looks to be doing well in a particular category, could you do the same, or with a better product, be even more successful.
Look at their pricing strategy, can you compete, and do you have a supplier that will provide the goods?
This is an important issue to be clear on before you start promoting. If you are can’t offer a competing product at a similar price, you will end wasting your time, (unless yours is a significant improvement on the competition, but even then, is it what your audience wants?)
Overall, scanning through the products that drop-ship businesses similar to yours have on offer, is a good way to keep in touch with what is happening outside of your own bubble.
It will also give you inspiration on what new products you could be promoting.
- Related Content: Dropship and Automated Dropshipping Explained
3. Keep up to date with what’s happening on social media
Social media websites such as Pinterest, Facebook, and Instagram can be excellent ways of seeing the types of products that are trending.
Social media Influencers on these platforms will often be promoting “hot” products that could fit your brand image too.
Pinterest is a great place to see what people are pinning. It is normally more aspirational stuff, however, it will provide you with ideas on what types of products people are paying attention to.
These days, people are happy to share their shopping experiences and new purchases on social media.
Likes, commenting, and recommending products are all part of the fabric of these social platforms. Being tapped into the various social media websites will keep you fully in the loop of what trends are, and more importantly, upcoming trends too.
4. Search online marketplaces
Online marketplaces that incorporate a social element with user’s reviews and recommendations are another excellent place to “hang out”.
Etsy, Amazon, and some large brand eCommerce websites can be helpful in this way. Read customer reviews and feedback and check out how many stars a product has.
A successful product will have lots of positive recent reviews. Maybe it is something you could dropship too.
5. YouTube Product Reviews
Youtube is fast becoming the number one place where popular vloggers will promote new products on the behalf of brands.
While you might not be able to get your hands on these products via a dropship supplier (a lot of the time they are so new, a supplier will yet to have them in stock); they will give you an idea of what is currently hitting the market place.
Conversely, if your niche isn’t so reliant on hot new products, you can search Youtube product reviews on established items and can tell from the number of views if something is popular or not.
This in turn can be a starting point for your own research into whether it is a viable product for you to dropship or not.
