Home » Blog » How to Do Product Research for Dropshipping
Dropshipping offers e-commerce entrepreneurs a lot of freedom by allowing them to sell products without worrying about the expense of buying and storing inventory. For an online retailer, finding the right products with the best profit margin and lowest dropshipping costs to sell in their shops can be one of the most daunting challenges.
Product research helps online retailers narrow down the niche markets they want to target, the products they wish to sell from the millions of items that are available, and the best dropshipping services manufacturers and wholesalers offer. This is essential to the success of any online retailer, especially when dealing with high-ticket dropshipping suppliers.
What Is Dropshipping Product Research?
Dropshipping product research involves looking for products to sell in your dropshipping store and then validating whether there is enough of a profit margin to justify carrying the items in your store.
Product research helps retailers make informed decisions when choosing which products to sell by helping them identify products with high demand and good product margins.
Performing thorough product research will also help you identify oversaturated products and market niches, steering you away from products with too much competition.
Dropshipping without thorough product research is like throwing a ball in the dark and blindly hoping it connects with the right potential customers.
Aspects of Dropshipping to Investigate
Millions of products with a market valuation of $196.78 billion were dropshipped in 2022. Given the scale of the dropshipping sector, there are no one-size-fits-all means for conducting dropshipping product research.
However, here are six essential tips to ensure you do your research effectively:
- Identify Trends
The first step is to identify the products and niches that are currently trending in the market–this is how most sellers choose and price print-on-demand products. You can find trending products on e-commerce websites or use analytics tools to identify products and niches that are prevalent across different categories.
Because e-commerce trends can change very quickly, retailers need to regularly monitor what is happening in the market. With social media now an integral part of our everyday lives, you can also spot product trends using hashtags on popular social media platforms.
All that said, you should make your strategy all about trending products. The one thing that’s certain about trends is that they pass sooner or later. So, the ideal scenario is to have a solid foundation of products that you can rely on to generate steady revenue and jump on trends as they appear.
- Research Market Size
While identifying trending products is great, proper research on the size of different markets will help you spot which offers the most opportunity. Keyword searches are a great way to obtain a rough estimate of actual market size. Tools like Google Trends help you identify how much traction a keyword has gotten over a certain period of time.
- Research Your Competitors
It’s always a good idea to know who you’re up against when selling and dropshipping products. Researching your competitors and the products in their stores will help you benchmark the products you sell. Knowing what your competitors do and sell can help you develop a better market strategy and find products that are more desirable than theirs.
- Research Reliable Suppliers
An unreliable supplier can ruin even the best-made plans. As such, a crucial aspect of effective product research involves finding reliable suppliers who sell high-quality goods at reasonable prices and delivery fees; a reliable supplier should also offer competitive delivery times. In addition, you may be able to negotiate with your suppliers to improve your profit margin for dropshipping.
- Leverage Product Research Tools
Several research tools are designed to help sellers independently find products to dropship. These tools offer insights into keywords used to search products, products trending at different times, the number of products sold, product prices on different platforms, and stores that carry the product you want to sell.
Sellers can use the information provided by these tools to make actionable decisions when sourcing products and scaling their businesses.
- Join Online Communities
In addition to leveraging product research tools, you can join the growing number of dropshipping online communities. These online communities often provide excellent sources of information about which products are needed by certain groups of people or niches. In some of these communities, trending products and winning market strategies are also discussed.
Final Thoughts
Online retail is very competitive, and running a dropshipping business takes time and resources. However, proper product research offers retailers the opportunity to stay ahead of the curve and get the best return on investment. When used in tandem with other sales strategies, product research proves to be the game-changer when dropshipping products.
For guidance on how best to do product research, contact the professionals at Skup. We work with entrepreneurs and established e-commerce businesses to help them boost business results for dropshipping success!
