It’s every retailer’s dream: the product that everyone is clamoring for—one that boosts both your sales and your brand recognition. Contrary to what you might think, this isn’t an impossible task, even when many markets already seem saturated. All it takes is a curious mindset and an effective approach. In this article, read a comparison of the products winners and those to avoid—we’ve already done the initial sorting for you! Next, we’ve put together some resources that are sure to inspire you to find your winner. You’ll be surprised by the last one, too… Enjoy the read!
How can you tell the difference between a winning product and one to avoid?
Let’s be very clear on this point. Any product can be sold: with effective marketing aimed at the ideal target audience, a profit is always possible. However, it’s wiser to start by setting up a simple online store. Legal, logistical, and practical constraints can be prohibitive and may even cause you to lose money.
So here are a few criteria to guide your brainstorming as you search for a new product winner for your catalog.
Features of the winning product
The winning product is the dropshipping product that sells like hotcakes while minimizing your costs and maximizing your profit margin. It allows you to focus on growing your business rather than on solving various problems.
Calculating High Margins: The Number One Advantage of Your Best-Selling Product
Obviously, the product winner is the one that brings in the most net profit. Starting with the purchase price, take the time to calculate all the costs involved in selling that product. Sales tax and shipping costs are the most obvious, but also be sure to allocate advertising costs (such as Instagram campaigns) and the fees for your WooCommerce or Shopify store to a single product.
Calculate all the additional costs associated with selling this product ( from Amazon advertising to the hosting fees for your WooCommerce site) and add them to the purchase price. Then, add your profit margin to that price to get the selling price.
You can count on a very high profit margin on high-ticket items. These are items that sell for high prices, such as jewelry, furniture, or even works of art. They’re much harder to sell and market, but you could reach your profit goal with just a few customers. It’s up to you to choose the right strategy to ensure your store’slong-term success!
Easy and affordable shipping: the key to peace of mind for your winning product
Your product winner must be easy to ship from the seller to the end customer. So forget about any products that are too heavy and/or bulky, especially when they’re shipping from a place as far away as China. They’d cost you much more, and you’d become less competitive since you’d have to pass on those shipping costs to your dropshipping.
The WOW Effect to Boost Sales of Your Top-Selling Products
Seeing the product should trigger an immediate physical reaction in your prospect. Surprise and wonder are more likely to lead to impulse purchases! It all depends on the product, but showing it in context—whether through a photo or video—will have an even greater impact on the consumer, as they can imagine themselves using the product. If you achieve this goal, the “WOW” effect will go viral, which can also help offset your Instagram or Facebook advertising budget and convert more customers.
It is therefore essential that you know your target audience well so that you can surprise them with dropshipping in your WooCommerce store. This brings us to our final key criterion to consider when finding your winning product.
The main goal of your winning product: solving a problem
The key to a sale is offering a product that solves a DUR problem: Painful (emotionally or physically), Urgent (the prospect can’t afford to wait to resolve the issue), and Recognized (your future customer must be fully aware of the problem). If, on top of that, this product fits into an underdeveloped niche, it’s a real gold mine!
Don't try to reinvent the wheel. Here, too, understanding your target audience's problems will help you find the right product that will succeed that will provide you with a comfortable income and ensure high customer satisfaction. Offer products that will immediately “resonate” with your target audience.
Product Features to Avoid for Your Shopify or WooCommerce Store
While there are certain products you should prioritize if you want to make a living from your online business, there are also products you should avoid, or you risk wasting a lot of time and money. What product categories should you steer clear of when building your dropshipping ?
Food and Beverages
All products intended for consumption—whether food or drink—are subject to numerous legal and administrative requirements. The responsibility you have toward your customers is significant, and you could end up spending more time dealing with health-related issues than making money.
Cosmetics
Cosmetics, hair care, and skin care products from China do not meet the same strict quality standards that are in effect in Europe. You’re taking a big risk by selling products that could endanger consumers’ health. Avoid choosing a product via dropshipping products from the skincare and cosmetics categories, especially on AliExpress, where you’ll find products of all quality levels.
Electronics
If you sell electronic products, you face a number of potential issues. Most of these products do not meet European CE compliance standards. You have no guarantee that these items will work or that they are safe for users. You could be held liable in the event of a complaint. Furthermore, it can be very difficult to obtain a legal warranty from a supplier based in China.
Fragile items
Because they require long-distance shipping under conditions you can’t control, your products shouldn’t be fragile. Otherwise, you’ll literally have to pay the price for this decision… The only way to ensure your fragile items arrive intact is to choose expensive delivery services. In any case, selling fragile products is a financial drain.
Heavy and/or bulky items
If you want to find your best-selling product, you should definitely avoid heavy and/or bulky items. Shipping costs are proportional to the size and weight of the items you ship. Even if your customers are willing to pay high shipping fees, you’ll have to give up part of your profit margin.
Clothing
You might be surprised to see clothing listed among the products to avoid when building a viable dropshipping. However, when you consider that the average return rate in the textile industry is 9%, it’s easier to see the problems with returns and refunds that lie ahead. Your profitability will be seriously compromised. This isn’t a good choice for a product that’s easy to sell and guarantees customer satisfaction.
Ultra-niche markets
Don’t limit yourself to the very narrow market that definesultra-niches. You’ll run out of potential options far too quickly. The greatest strength ofan ultra-niche is also its biggest weakness. This market is very small, so it’s easy to define and market. On the other hand, you’ll quickly notice the limitations on growth for this type of product. Even if it sells well, it’s not very scalable, and you’ll hit a sales ceiling very quickly.
Brand-name products
They certainly catch the eye. Merchandise based on cartoons, franchises, or manga seems to be the ideal niche —just look at the bestsellers on Amazon. But if you don’t invest in licensing rights or choose unscrupulous suppliers, your customers will most likely receive counterfeit dropshipping products. Legally, you could lose everything and be forced to shut down your WooCommerce site, on top of facing serious legal issues.
Analyze Your Competitors
To find your winning product, your first step should be to draw inspiration from your competitors. Not with the idea of copying them without a strategy, but precisely to figure out where to start. They have a head start because they already know their target audience; they’ve likely already built their product catalog after a testing period. Your competitors’ WooCommerce or Shopify stores should be the starting point for your search for a winning product, since they know what sells best. How can you effectively monitor your competitors? What steps should you take and what tools should you use to stay up to date on their latest developments?
Browse their product catalog
This seems like the most obvious solution. Check out their listings: Which products are most prominently featured on their website and social media? What niche have they specialized in? You can also draw inspiration from their promotional upsell products to identify a trend. If you spend enough time observing their content, try to notice which products appear and disappear from the catalog, and use your own insights to build your e-commerce offering.
Keep an eye on their ad library on Facebook
Did you know that you can freely access all of your competitors' active Facebook ads at no cost? In Facebook's Ad Library, you can see exactly which ads your competitors are running.
This way, you'll find out what types of products they're spending their advertising budget on: these will certainly be the winners products from your competitor. Be sure to take your analysis even further by looking into the launch dates and performance metrics of these ads. Then, simply use this list as inspiration to figure out what works and what doesn’t. The next step: launch your own strategy by starting to test your product catalog based on all your findings.
Subscribe to their newsletters
Obviously, getting behind the scenes at your competitors’ businesses will give you access to promotions and industry news, and let you get a feel for the copywriting they use. In addition to giving you another chance to find your own that sell, you’ll discover your competitors’ tips, innovations, and processes .
Get inspiration from best-sellers on marketplaces
Maximize your horizons by browsing all the marketplaces. By definition, these platforms set trends with the products offered by thousands of sellers. How can you make the most of this incredible, cutting-edge database? Explore the different product categories and do your research by filtering by sales volume and popularity. You’ll then have access to results that will help you develop your future product on a silver platter on a silver platter! Which marketplace sites will help you find your winning product?
Amazon
It needs no introduction. Much more than just a marketplace, Amazon is a true powerhouse in the world of digital marketing and e-commerce. Consider browsing in incognito mode (or even with a VPN) to avoid having your results skewed by your previous visits, or clear your cookies in your browser settings. Conduct your search as described above and also browse the current promotions.
AliExpress
The results on AliExpress will be even more striking, since you’ll even be able to find your future suppliers by searching for your best-selling product. As we explain in our article on this topic, be sure to take the time to analyze not only the products themselves but also the number of orders and the ratings for both the products and the sellers.
Read the article: “Does dropshipping with AliExpress still work?”
eBay
Lose yourself in the pages of eBay and discover the latest trending products. Also, unearth the hidden gems of tomorrow to inspire you as you build your product catalog winner.
Cdiscount
On this marketplace, you’ll also have the opportunity to gather valuable insights into the sales trends of your direct and indirect competitors. Whether through product listings or the sales tips provided by the site, a wealth of inspiration awaits you on Cdiscount.
Rakuten
We don't think about it as much, but Rakuten is an excellent search engine for finding your product winner. You may have known it back when it was still called Price Minister—the site has been around for over 20 years! But Rakuten has gradually established itself in the world of online marketplaces. Be sure to add it to your watchlist.
Use advertising analytics tools
Want to harness the power of Facebook’s ad library on a massive scale? Use the best ad analytics tools. How do they work? Artificial intelligence analyzes all existing ads on social media platforms like Instagram, for example. All you have to do is adjust the filters based on your interests and strategy. Engagement, virality… Run your own tests to directly find comprehensive lists of products that could meet all your product’s criteria winner. You’re very likely to come across ads from third-party sellers who are well-versed in trends and know exactly what to sell right when you’re ready to launch your catalog.
Minea
Minea is, of course, the first tool of its kind that comes to mind. Even the most famous dropshipper himself recommends it—that says it all! The site’s message is clear:“Find the winning that are across all traffic sources and launch them on unsaturated markets and channels.” Minea lets you explore Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, and other social media platforms. Plus, it’s available in French!
Adspy
Adspy is an English-language tool that provides in-depth analysis of the data it collects from social media. Keywords, social media platforms, comments, demographic characteristics… Explore this goldmine using its highly precise filters to find your next hit product!
"Pro Tips: Filter your search to show only ads that were launched less than 2 weeks ago in the U.S. market (they’re often trendsetters) and add a filter to keep only those that generated the most engagement!"
SellerPulse
As a complement to your own research, Seller Pulse brings you the bestof Amazon andAliExpress, in French and English. Designed by Abdel Webseller, this app features an easy-to-use Chrome extension. This tool scans all the global marketplaces of the two giants mentioned above. This means you can also spot a trend in the U.S. before it reaches France, for example.
Dropispy
Considered Adspy’s strongest competitor, it’s also less expensive. Grow your dropshipping business by finding your winning product with Dropispy. This tool analyzes numerous criteria, such as demographics, virality, target countries, and more.
Follow influencers in your niche
Influencers, or content creators, make a living from product placements on Instagram or YouTube. Our final tip for finding your winning product is to identify influencers in your preferred niche. That way, you can keep up with trends and draw inspiration from products promoted in social media campaigns to build your catalog. Later on, you might even want to partner with these same influencers to expand your sales channels!
Armed with all these methods and tips, you’ll soon find your winning product—that’s for sure! Consider outsourcing the creation of your e-commerce site so you can focus on this research; our specialized agency would be happy to help you.
