How to Find the Best Products to Sell on eCommerce Marketplaces

The digital era has transformed the way we conduct business, giving rise to a thriving e-Commerce market. It's now easier than ever to sell products online, whether it's on established platforms like Amazon or on your custom-built e-Commerce website. From best-selling beauty products to digital products to sell on Etsy, the opportunities are boundless. But how do you find the best products to sell? What steps can you take to identify profitable items that meet the demands of your target audience? That's precisely what this guide covers.

This article is designed as a comprehensive guide for online entrepreneurs to navigate the dynamic e-Commerce landscape. From conducting in-depth market research and spotting industry trends to identifying profitable product categories and analyzing sales channels – the article covers it all. But there’s more. Each section will also include practical tools such as Google Workspace, Semrush, Canva Pro, etc. 

By the end of this guide, you will be armed with all the knowledge and tools necessary to confidently find and sell the best products online. In other words, you will be completely ready to take your online selling journey from an idea to a profitable reality.

So, let's get started with the first step - understanding market research and trends.

A. Conducting Market Research

To effectively sell products online, understanding your target market is critical. You’ll want to start by defining your target audience and niche. For instance, if you intend to sell digital products, you'll want to identify the kind of audience interested in such products and tailor your offerings to their needs. Utilize tools like Google Workspace for collaborative brainstorming sessions and audience segmentation.

Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides facilitate real-time collaboration, allowing teams to work together simultaneously, no matter where they are located. This can be particularly useful when brainstorming, as teams can collaborate to discuss, annotate, and visualize different market segments.What’s more, Google Workspace's integration with Google's search capabilities allows for quick and easy research into different potential market segments. 

Identifying market gaps and opportunities is equally important. For instance, you may discover a high demand for a specific category of products on Amazon, but with limited supply. This gap could be your opportunity to enter and dominate the market. 

Tools like Semrush boast an array of features that can help you conduct thorough keyword research and discover untapped niches. For instance, the Semrush Keyword Overview tool gives you detailed analysis of a keyword, including its search volume, the number of results, the level of competition in paid search, and more. This can be incredibly useful when identifying niche markets, as it can help you discover keywords related to your niche that have a high search volume but low competition. Semrush can also help you analyze the organic keywords of competitors in your niche, and discover valuable niche keywords that can help drive traffic to your site.

Analyzing consumer behavior and preferences is another crucial aspect of market research. Understanding what drives your audience to make a purchase can significantly influence your product selection and marketing strategies. 

Hotjar is an excellent tool for this purpose. Its heatmaps and session recordings can provide insights into how visitors interact with your website and what elements catch their attention. The tool can give you granular details such as where users click, move their mouse, and scroll, providing insights into what content is drawing user attention and what is being overlooked. In fact, Hotjar can also show you which form fields take the longest to fill out, which are left blank, and where users drop off. This can help you improve your forms to increase form completion rates.

Armed with such detailed information, your next steps in the journey of finding and selling the best products to sell online will become far easier.

B. Monitoring Market Trends

Keeping abreast of industry trends and innovations can give you a competitive edge. Regularly check the top-selling products on Amazon or the best-selling products on eBay to identify patterns or emerging trends. Google Workspace (with all of its helpful features mentioned earlier) can help keep your research organized, and its alert system can ensure you stay updated on the latest industry news.

Market research tools and platforms like Kissmetrics can provide insightful data to understand current market trends and predict future ones. For instance, Kissmetrics  can group your customers into cohorts based on shared characteristics, such as the date they first visited your site or the source from which they came. By comparing different cohorts, you can see trends in how different groups of customers behave. This can give you insights into how different segments of your market are changing over time. The result? A data-driven power to predict where the market is headed, in terms of the best products to sell through e-Commerce platforms. And in doing so, to stay miles ahead of the competition. 

Finally, observe your competitors through competitor analysis and benchmarking. Analyze their best-selling products, marketing strategies, and customer engagement. As mentioned in the point earlier, Semrush is perhaps the most powerful tool on the market today, when it comes to finding, analyzing, and strategizing consumer insights. 

A. Researching Popular and Evergreen Niches

The first step in finding profitable product categories is exploring trending products and emerging markets. For example, the best selling products on Amazon can offer insight into what consumers are currently interested in. 

Tools like Semrush can provide you with detailed trend analysis, highlighting popular keywords and the top selling Amazon products. What’s more, by integrating with Amazon's marketplace data (and with other e-Commerce platform data), Semrush allows you to explore the best-selling products across various categories. This is crucial in understanding what products are currently in high demand. For example, if you notice a trend of increasing sales in eco-friendly products, it might be an indicator of a growing market segment interested in sustainability.

Additionally, Semrush provides trend data over time, which means you can track the popularity of certain keywords or products and how it changes. This is essential for distinguishing between temporary fads and long-term trends. By using these features, you can ensure that the products you choose to focus on have enduring appeal, rather than being momentarily popular. Or what is otherwise known as evergreen niches. These are markets that consistently have demand regardless of the season or year. These may include personal care products, health and wellness items, and digital products on Etsy and other e-Commerce platforms. 

The potential for recurring sales and customer loyalty is another critical element to consider in the pursuit of sustainable business growth. The idea here is simple: if customers appreciate the quality and value of your product, they'll likely return for repeat purchases. This behavior forms the basis of customer loyalty, creating a steady stream of income and a degree of predictability in your revenue.

Consistent customer engagement and recurring sales help create a strong foundation for your business. In a world where acquiring a new customer can be five times more expensive than retaining an existing one, fostering customer loyalty becomes a cost-effective strategy.

A great way to leverage this potential is through subscription models. They work by offering customers the convenience of regular product delivery or access to services without the need for them to place orders repeatedly. It's like setting an autopilot for your customers' needs. 

A good example of finding and selling the best products on an e-Commerce platform through the subscription model would be a monthly supply of skin care products. Or even regular access to exclusive digital content. These subscriptions can serve to enhance customer loyalty, as they provide ongoing value and create regular customer touchpoints.

Moreover, subscription models can help smooth out revenue fluctuations, as they promise a steady, recurring income. They also allow for better forecasting of future revenue, inventory management, and resource allocation, making your business more resilient and efficient.

B. Analyzing Profit Margins and Competition

Understanding pricing strategies and how to calculate profit is essential when you're trying to identify profitable products. What you're essentially looking for are products that will give you a high return on investment (ROI). This is where the concept of 'profit margins' comes into play. A profit margin represents what percentage of the sales price is profit. The higher the profit margin, the more money you'll make on each sale.

However, it's important to remember that just because a product has a high potential profit margin doesn't mean it's the best product to sell. Competition plays a big role in this. If the market is oversaturated with similar products, it might be harder to make sales, even if the potential profit per sale is high. On the other hand, a product with reasonable competition and a decent profit margin might end up bringing in more overall profit because the sales volume could be higher.

QuickBooks can be an excellent tool to assist in managing your business finances and calculating profits. It offers a wide array of features designed to streamline financial management, from tracking expenses and income to generating detailed financial reports. With QuickBooks, you can closely monitor the cost of goods sold (COGS), operational expenses, sales revenue, and other crucial financial data.

Using this data, QuickBooks allows you to calculate your profit margins accurately. You can use these insights to adjust your pricing strategies, ensuring they're in line with your financial objectives. For example, if a product's profit margin is too low, you might need to consider increasing the selling price or finding ways to reduce the cost.

When assessing competition intensity and market saturation, remember, a crowded market isn't always a bad thing - it indicates a strong demand. However, you'll need a unique selling proposition (USP) to stand out. Look at the best selling products on Amazon and ask yourself how your product could offer more value or solve a problem better.

Identifying product differentiators and unique selling points will help you compete effectively. For instance, can your digital products be customized more than what's currently available on Etsy? Or perhaps you can sell products online with faster shipping times or superior customer service. 

Having identified these USPs, you can use various tools to highlight them visually. Canva Pro is an outstanding resource for creating engaging visuals that effectively highlight your product's unique selling points (USPs). USPs are the features or aspects that distinguish your product from its competitors. They're what make your product special, and they give customers reasons to choose your product over others. Visuals can be a powerful way to communicate these USPs to potential customers.

A. Identifying Product Sourcing Options

Once you've identified what products to sell, the next step is sourcing them. If you're considering local or international suppliers, ensure that they are reputable and reliable. Websites like Alibaba can connect you with manufacturers worldwide, allowing you to compare prices and reviews. Don't forget to factor in shipping costs and customs duties when calculating your total costs.

If the idea of dealing with inventory doesn't appeal to you, models like dropshipping or print-on-demand could be an ideal solution. These models are based on selling products online without the need for you to physically stock, handle, or ship them. So, how does this work?

In dropshipping, when a customer places an order on your online store, the order details are forwarded to your third-party supplier. The supplier then ships the product directly to the customer. This means you don't have to worry about maintaining inventory, warehousing, or shipping logistics. This model can work for a wide array of products, ranging from clothing and home decor to electronics and more.

Print-on-demand operates on a similar premise, but it's typically used for customized items such as t-shirts, mugs, posters, and even digital products. When a customer orders a product, the order is sent to your print-on-demand service, they print the item, and then ship it directly to the customer. The beauty of this model is that each item is made to order, which means you're not left with unsold inventory.

A mix of these two strategies can help you sell custom made niche products online on a wide variety of e-Commerce platforms from Amazon to Etsy and everything in between.

Tools like Printful and Oberlo can streamline the process of dropshipping and print-on-demand, respectively.

Printful is a print-on-demand platform that automates the printing and shipping process for businesses. You simply upload your design, add it to the products you want to sell, and list them on your online store. When a customer places an order, Printful prints the design onto the product and ships it to the customer.

Oberlo, on the other hand, is a dropshipping tool that integrates with your online store. It allows you to source products from various suppliers and add them to your online shop. When a customer purchases a product, the order is automatically sent to the supplier via Oberlo, and the supplier then ships the product directly to the customer.

Another option is to explore private-label and white-label products. Here, you sell products produced by someone else under your brand name. This option gives you more control over branding, packaging, and pricing. It also allows for a higher profit margin.

B. Evaluating Product Viability

After you've identified potential products and suppliers, it's important to evaluate the viability of these products for your business. There are several key steps in this process:

Analyzing Product Quality and Reliability: This is the first step and it's crucial. The quality and reliability of your product directly influence customer satisfaction and repeat purchases. Start by ordering samples from your supplier. This allows you to assess the quality first-hand, check for any defects, and determine if the product meets your standards and expectations. You should also consider the reliability of the supplier: Are they consistent in their quality? Can they handle the volume you need?

Estimating Production and Shipping Costs: Next, you need to get a clear idea of all costs associated with bringing your product to market. This includes production costs, but also shipping fees, packaging costs, customs duties, and any costs related to returns or defective products. These costs can significantly impact your profit margin. Be sure to get detailed quotes from suppliers and shipping partners, and factor in all possible expenses to ensure you can price your product competitively while still making a profit.

Testing Market Demand with MVPs and Prototypes: Before going all in and investing heavily in inventory, it's smart to test the market demand. This can be done by creating a minimum viable product (MVP) or prototype. An MVP is a stripped-down version of your product that includes only the core features necessary to solve a customer's problem. By offering this MVP to a small segment of your target market, you can gauge the response and validate demand before scaling up. For example, if you're planning to sell digital products on Etsy, you might start by creating a small selection of products and monitor how they perform. The feedback and sales data you gather during this testing phase can provide valuable insights and help you avoid costly mistakes.

Tools mentioned earlier in the article – such as Google Workspace, Quickbooks, and others, can help you on each step of this journey of selling the best products online.

A. Assessing E-commerce Platforms

After identifying viable products, you'll need to decide where to sell them. There are numerous online marketplaces available, such as Amazon, eBay, Etsy, and so many more. Amazon, being one of the most popular online retail platforms, offers access to a massive customer base. With the right strategy, your product could become one of the top selling products on Amazon. But don’t just stop yourself there. Because it’s crucial to understand the pros and cons of different selling channels. For instance, selling on platforms like Amazon can give you access to a large customer base due to its established reputation and vast reach. This means that your products could potentially be seen by millions of people. On the flip side, you're likely to face significant competition from other sellers, which can make it challenging to stand out. Moreover, selling on Amazon offers less control over your brand's presentation. Unlike with your own website, where you can control every detail of your branding and customer experience, on Amazon, you're limited to the formats and features that Amazon provides.

Using dedicated e-commerce platforms like Shopify or WooCommerce can offer you a substantial level of control over your store's design and functionality. These platforms are ideal for those who want to create their own e-Commerce websites to sell the best products online, as they provide you with a range of customizable templates and plugins to enhance your store's features.

Shopify is a comprehensive e-commerce platform that allows you to build and manage your online store. It provides a wide array of customizable themes and advanced features such as inventory management, SEO tools, marketing tools, and more. Additionally, Shopify supports various payment gateways and offers 24/7 customer support.

WooCommerce, on the other hand, is a free plugin that turns a WordPress website into a fully functional e-commerce store. It's incredibly customizable, making it a popular choice for businesses that want greater control over their store's look and feel. With WooCommerce, you can choose from thousands of plugins to extend your store's functionality.

For those who are not comfortable with coding or do not want to hire a web developer, website builders like Wix can be a good alternative. Wix is known for its user-friendly, drag-and-drop interface that lets you build a professional-looking e-commerce store without the need for technical skills. It offers a variety of templates, easy integration with various payment solutions, and options for SEO optimization.

In short, there are dozens of ways to find and sell the best products online. But you must weigh the pros and cons of each platform before finalizing on the one that suits your business’s needs best.

B. Leveraging Social Media and Influencer Marketing

In today's digital age, leveraging social media platforms for product promotion is essential. Platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok can help you reach a broad audience and showcase your products creatively. You could even sell products directly from these platforms.

Collaborating with influencers and brand ambassadors can give your products an extra boost. Tools like #paid can connect you with influencers relevant to your niche. For example, if you're selling beauty products, collaborating with a beauty blogger could significantly increase your visibility and credibility.

Harnessing the power of user-generated content and reviews can also be powerful. Encourage customers to share their experiences with your products online. This could mean asking customers to leave reviews on your Amazon product page, helping to boost your product up the ranks of best-selling products on Amazon.

Overall, assessing your sales channels and understanding how to leverage different platforms, like Amazon, your own e-Commerce store, or social media, is key to successfully selling your products online. Whether your goal is to have the best-selling products on Amazon or the best digital products to sell in 2023 on your e-Commerce store, choosing the right sales channels can significantly impact your success.

A. Developing a Brand and Unique Value Proposition

The importance of building a unique brand and value proposition cannot be overstated when it comes to selling products in the crowded online marketplace. Your brand should clearly communicate your business's identity, values, and positioning. After all, your brand is not just your business name or logo; it's an expression of your business's identity, values, and position in the marketplace. It's what sets you apart from your competitors and helps customers understand what you stand for and why they should choose you.

Your value proposition, on the other hand, is a clear statement that explains how your product solves customers' problems, delivers specific benefits, and why you're a better choice than your competitors. It is directly linked to your brand and should be communicated consistently across all your marketing channels.

A strong brand and value proposition can help you:

Stand out from competitors: In a marketplace full of similar products, a unique brand can set you apart and make your business memorable.

Build customer loyalty: Customers are more likely to stick with brands they trust and identify with.

Justify pricing: If customers perceive your brand as high-quality and valuable, they may be willing to pay more for your products.

Attract like-minded customers: A clear brand can draw in customers who share the same values and beliefs.

Tools like Tailor Brands Logo Maker can assist in creating a professional logo that embodies your brand's essence. This tool uses AI to create custom logos based on your preferences. You just need to input some information about your business and design preferences, and the tool will generate a logo that brings out your brand’s ethos in visual form. It's a simple, cost-effective way to get a professional-looking logo, even if you don't have any design skills.

For a compelling online presence, invest time in creating engaging product descriptions and visuals. The product description should highlight the features, benefits, and the unique selling points of your product. If you're looking to sell digital products on Etsy or physical products on Amazon, high-quality images and product descriptions can significantly improve your sales. Use Canva Pro to design appealing graphics for your products.

Building customer trust and loyalty through branding is also crucial. Providing excellent customer service, ensuring product quality, and being transparent about your business practices can help build trust. Integrating live chat features on your website using tools like LiveChat can improve customer service by addressing queries in real-time.

B. Implementing Digital Marketing Techniques

Digital marketing techniques, such as search engine optimization (SEO), can improve your visibility on search engines, making it easier for potential customers to find your products. If you're selling on your website, optimizing product descriptions, images, and other site content is crucial. Semrush and Morningscore are useful tools for tracking your SEO progress.

Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising campaigns, such as Google Ads or Amazon Sponsored Products, can help you reach a more targeted audience. For example, if you're selling products on Amazon, using Amazon's PPC can improve your product visibility amongst top selling Amazon products.

Email marketing and content marketing are also highly effective strategies. Email marketing tools like Mailchimp can help you reach out to your customer base with product updates, promotions, and more. Regularly creating high-quality content related to your niche can also draw potential customers to your site.

A. Analyzing Sales Data and Metrics

As your business grows, regularly tracking sales performance and customer analytics becomes paramount. This will help you understand what’s working well and what needs improvement. Tools like Quickbooks can assist in managing your financials, while analytics tools like Hotjar and Kissmetrics can provide insights into your customers' behavior.

Tracking your best selling products, determining which are the most profitable products to sell online, and understanding why certain products are doing well, can inform your future product selection. If you're selling products on Amazon, take advantage of the detailed reports provided in Seller Central to identify your top-selling products on Amazon and understand customer buying habits.

B. Expanding Product Range and Diversifying

Diversification and expansion can take several forms. One way is to introduce complementary products or product variants to your existing lineup. For example, if a particular product is selling well, consider introducing related products or different versions of the same product.

Cross-selling and upselling are also effective strategies for increasing your average order value. For instance, if you're selling digital products on Etsy, you could offer bundled packages or premium versions of your products.

You could even consider expansion into new markets or demographics. If you started by selling products from home on platforms like Etsy or Amazon, you might consider expanding to your own e-Commerce store or exploring international markets.