How To Pick A Product Based On Your Interests

By Harriet

Posted 23 Aug 2019

Reading Time: 6 minutes

At ImportXperts, we’re all about helping you build an eCommerce business which is relevant for you. And by that, we mean helping you sell products based on your interests.

Product research is often the area where people struggle the most. But it really doesn’t have to be hard.

Once you start your product research, you’ll be surprised at how much opportunity there is everywhere.

So in this article, we’ll share:

• 7 reasons why it’s so important to pick a product that’s related to your interests
• Where to look to do your product research
• And how to validate your products so you can choose one to sell.

After this, hopefully, you’ll no longer feel stuck with what to sell but will be excited to get researching!

So first things first, here are 7 reasons why it’s so important to pick a product that’s related to your interests…

1. You’ll understand what your customers want.

If you pick a product which is related to your hobbies or interests, you’ll already know what your audience wants… Because you are the target market.

It’s much easier to make a product for an audience – if you are the audience!

2. You’ll be able to make the best product.

You’ll know what to look for in terms of materials, uses, and quality – and find a unique-selling-point that will differentiate your product.

For example, if you’re interested in being eco-friendly, and want to launch a pack of stainless steel straws, you’ll know that you will want them to be made of ‘304 stainless steel’ as this is the premium grade material. If you just wanted to sell straws because you noticed they are a hot-selling product, you might not know to look for this material.

3. You’ll be able to answer your customers’ questions better.

You might receive questions asking ‘how does your product work?’, ‘what’s it made from?’, ‘how do I use it?’, ‘why is your’s better than X’? Having an interest in your product will help you to answer all the questions which might arise.

4. You’ll have the passion to stick at it – even if you come across some hurdles.

As an entrepreneur, it’s likely that you’ll come across a few hurdles along the way.

I’ve heard many people say ‘if you don’t get your Facebook or Amazon account blocked- you’re not trying hard enough!’. And it’s only natural that things like this will happen – so you’ll need that extra motivation to overcome these hurdles.

If you aren’t as interested in your business or product, it’s harder to find the energy to overcome these hurdles.

5. You’ll beat the competition.

Competition is rife and you’ll need to come out on top. If your products start selling well, chances are that other eCommerce sellers will notice and want to steal a bit of your pie. (They do say ‘copying is the biggest form of flattery’!)

In order to stay on top, you’ll need to build a brand and give people a strong reason to choose you over your competition.

6. You’ll have pride in your business.

If you build a business around your interests, it’s likely that you’ll feel more pride about what you’re doing.

Having pride in your business will also mean you’ll probably want to work on it more – and you’ll be excited to tell your friends what you do.

There’s one thing spotting a hot-selling product like a garlic press and selling thousands of them. But when your friends ask you ‘what do you do?’, will you be proud to admit, ‘I sell garlic presses’?

We want to help you grow businesses that you love working on, and are proud to work on too.

7. There will be more chance of long-term success

We want to help you build a successful eCommerce business so that you can quit your 9-5 and work for yourself. This won’t come overnight, though. Doing something you’re genuinely interested in will help you stay in it for the long haul… and who knows, maybe you’ll even be able to sell your company in the future.

Hopefully, you’ve understood why it’s so important to find relevant products.

Now, let’s take a look at how you can go about it.

Step 1: Take a step back and write down the answers to the following questions…

• What do you do in your spare time?
• How do you unwind?
• What are your favorite sports?
• What are your favorite foods?
• How about your friends and family – what do they like? What are they talking about?
• Make a list of the last things you’ve recently bought. What do you love and why did you buy these items? Is anything missing with these products? Do you wish there was an extra X, could it be made of a different material, how is the quality?
• Make a wishlist. What do you want?

Step 2: Now, based on the above, start to look for product inspiration.

Browse all of the following platforms and make a note of any product or idea that jumps out.

• Facebook: Check to see what ’sponsored ads’ you are served as well as any viral videos in your newsfeed.
• Instagram: You’ll be targeted with content and products which are relevant to you, so scroll through your Home page.
• Amazon – Departments: Check any relevant departments for popular products. For example, if you like cooking, use the Jungle Scout web app to find products in the ‘Home & Kitchen’ department. Then you can browse the ‘Home & Kitchen’ department on Amazon.com, and hit the Jungle Scout Chrome Extension to find products with the most opportunity. Likewise, if you like skiing, you can use the Jungle Scout web app and/or Chrome Extension to see what has the most opportunity in this department.
• Amazon – Best-Sellers: Browse the best sellers to see what products are selling the most, right now.
• Watch Count: Check relevant categories here to show you what people are buying on eBay.
• Pinterest: People pin ideas and products that they want, so Pinterest is a great, underrated platform that can be full of ideas. Using your list of hobbies and interests from Step 1, type in a few keywords relating to things which you like doing – ‘best cooking products’, ‘meditation products’, ‘running products’, etc.
  • Top Tip: Create a specific board for your Product Ideas and pin everything to this one board. It keeps everything in one place which you can return to when assessing your ideas later.
• While you’re out & about! If you’re shopping, keep your notepad on you to keep track of any ideas that crop up while you’re in the shops. You never know what products you’ll find!

Write down as many ideas as possible – for now, it’s quantity over quality.

Then, when you’ve got your list of possible products, you can then validate them to spot the potential opportunity…

Here’s a 6-step checklist to validate your product:

• Demand
  • Has to be a product which is already selling well
  • Has to be a “keyword driven” (not brand-driven) product
  • BSR (Best Seller Ranking on Amazon): There must be 5+ listings on pg.1 with a BSR of under 3000.  This shows there is demand for your product, but the quality of the listing is bad so it should be easy to overtake them.
• Price
  • The retail price should be $20-50 (will ensure your products won’t be super expensive initially with a large upfront cost)
• Competition
  • There must be at least 5 products with less than 1000 reviews on page 1
  • Make sure there aren’t too many products (or brands) that are taking all the sales
• Weight:
  • Less than 2 pounds (to keep your shipping costs & fees down)
• Private label potential:
  • Make sure there are no patents
  • Come up with a USP (unique-selling-proposition) to make your product better than the others on the market
• Costs & Profits
  • Follow the 30/30/40 rule to make sure you leave enough room for marketing & overall profit:
    • 30% of RRP: Product cost (unit cost + shipping + any importing taxes)
    • 30% of RRP: Marketplace fees (i.e. fulfillment, inspection, marketplace fees)
    • 40% of RRP: Profit – which you can then put into marketing

If your product ticks the above list – hurrah, you have validated your product!

In short, as long as you can see:

• There is demand
• There is some competition
• Then there is profit to be made

So good luck and have fun in your product research! We know that a lot of people struggle to select a product (is it the PERFECT product?) but if you’ve validated it, then just go ahead and don’t look back. It’s easy to deliberate over it for months and never actually move forward. Don’t fall down here!

To end, here are a few of our top tips:

• Stay aware
• Observe what you & your friends are buying
• Observe what everyone is talking about
• And remember – when you’re starting out, don’t expect to hit a home run. Learn the process, make some sales, and you can go again with Product Number 2. You’ll learn a lot & hopefully have fun in the process!