Choosing a Product: Part 1

In my last entry I wrote about capitalizing on your passion.  The truth is there is a continuum of beliefs about this.  From “Do whatever you love!” to “Screw what you love – do what will make money!”  I sought out various viewpoints, and while I still believe you can make money doing ANYTHING (even something like a passion for Bug Eating – isn’t there a TV show about that??) I also know that when you are setting up a store online to sell a product, things like market size, and ease to market can make a BIG difference.


Little did I know, the product selection phase can be the most difficult for people.  Many an entrepreneur-want-to-be has stalled out here after months of searching.  I don’t think it needs to be that hard, but you will be throwing your time and energy into this, so it’s worth a second thought.


A couple of good friends put on the Hot Seat this morning, as I threw out ideas.  The conclusion, start with your target market, not the product.  Who is going to be searching for your product?   Who is going to spread the word and be your biggest fan?  Who are you going to draw in from the World Wide Web?  It’s not going to be everyone, and it’s not going to be someone searching for your unique new thing (at least not at first).  Who is your market and what problems do they turn to the Web to solve?  (Thanks Alan and Doug!)



Now, given that the textile and home goods markets are highly saturated, and given that it would require a great deal of time and energy and capital to bring to market what I would like to, and given that it would take a lot of upkeep and energy to keep it going, I have decided that this idea does not fit the model I am trying to build.

In FACT, when I ran a Google keywords search to find out how many other people in the United States  searched for items similar to what I wanted to provide, I found that last month there were a Grand Total of . . . drum roll please! . . . .   28!  Total. 

This means that either, people don’t want what I was thinking of offering.  Not likely!  (Ha!)  OR, they aren’t searching for it because they primarily shop off line, or through major retailers they already know.  Yup, that’s it.

Here is The Criteria (for now):

1.  Have a niche market generating local (ie national) related Google search terms of 3,000-6,00 or so.  (This means you have a big enough market to drive traffic, but small enough not to have as many other dominate players to compete with for page 1 on Google, and the strong national market helps reduce international shipping issues at first while you are building your business.)

2.  Main product to have a price point of $100-$300 or so.  (This means that you can still turn a profit as a little guy, can more easily scale as your profits won’t be eroded as fast, and you won’t have to put in as much time and money towards customer support as you would with a product at a higher price point.)

3.  Product is easily brought to market.  (This means there are already 2 or more distributors in the states offering your product and willing to drop ship, OR you can search out a manufacturer to make a product with minimal variations and parts sourcing.)

4.  Product selection has minimal turnover.  (This means you won’t have to search out and manufacture new product 2-4 times a year to keep up with seasons and trends.)

The best source for information about HOW to do this, that I have found so far, is a guy by the name of Andrew Youderian, who blogs and wrote an e-book you can find at www.eCommerceFuel.com.  He also wrote a wonderful blog (with lots of ideas I have adopted, as you will see) at Shopify.com.  Click here - Andrew's Cool Blog Post.    Andrew leans towards the do-what-sells end of the spectrum, and offers a realistic perspective that is very useful.

This post may leave you wondering how long it is going to take me to come up with a target market and product.  Have no fear!  I’m well on the way!

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