When it comes to getting started with finding the best dropshipping niches and suppliers for your needs, you need to start with good product discovery and research first.
After all, it doesn’t matter who you get your products from – if you don’t have a product that you can sell easily or that the market doesn’t want to buy. Product discovery and research is the most important factor that distinguishes successful e-commerce businesses from online shops filled with products that shoppers are simply not motivated to buy. You got into drop shipping to earn and grow your revenue… it makes no sense adding products that are not in demand. Product research takes time and a deeper understanding of the psychological tiers of consumer demand. Is it seasonally trending this year? Are you seeing similar products offered by Big Box stores that are flying off the shelves? Those are the types of questions you should be asking yourself as you look to identify the best dropshipping niches for you. Here are some strategies to consider as you begin your research.Product Research Strategies:
- Your personal passion
- Consider your professional experience
- Solve a customer pain point
- Capitalize on trends (not fads) early
- Other people’s passions/interests/hobbies
Your Personal Passion
The simple fact is, when you are really passionate about something, you’ll know a lot more about that subject than anything else. So when it comes to finding products to sell, if you are looking for products related to your passion, you’ll have a much easier time finding products you know will sell. You’ll also be able to quickly weed out the products that are not high quality and won’t sell well. Even better, you’ll be able to set up your store and market those products better because you know the market well, you know the industry/market terms and it will just come more naturally to you. The nice thing about working with a passion, is that when things get tough, it's easier to dig in and push through it because you like what you’re doing, and you’re less likely to give up.
Consider Your Professional Experience
Similar to having a personal passion, but not exactly the same, is working with products that you have professional experience with. These are products that you have grown familiar with due to using them or experiencing them through your day job, career or profession, so you know all about the products, what they can do for you and how to talk about them. You may not be passionate about the product at all, but you know the products thoroughly and could find them easy to sell regardless. Another unique advantage of your professional experience might be identifying a need or gap in the market you’ve discovered in your job or industry and selling products that can help you solve those needs or fill those gaps. That’s something someone outside that market would probably never uncover being outside of that career or market.
Solve A Customer Pain Point
A pain point could be something that causes your user actual pain, or something that causes frustration for your customers. Products like Aspirin help to solve or at least help alleviate headaches and other physical pains. Then you have products like the Apple iPod that solved a different type of pain point – wanting to have easy access to hundreds or even thousands of songs without having to carry around a huge box of cassette tapes and a tape player. Now, your products don’t have to be revolutionary like these to sell well – they just need to have a large market that feels this same “pain”. Some will solve really big pain points, and some will solve small, daily pain points. None-the-less, they still make the lives of your customers easier and help them do something easier or better. So as you are reviewing products, really take time to consider if the product really helps solve a regular pain point and it’s something people are actively looking for help with when it comes to remedying those pain points.
Other People’s Passions/Interests/Hobbies
So, while you may not be interested in a certain passion or hobby, you can still tap into these areas by selling products related to other people’s passion and interests. The good part is that finding products in these areas is not hard – you just need to spend time drilling down through each area to find niches to focus on. Easy places to begin your searches of hobbies and interests is: Go to Google and do a search for “list of hobbies” and start exploring the results. Go to Magazines.com/all-categories and check out all the different categories and magazines that serve these nice interest groups. Given the shift to digital and how many magazines have closed down, if a hobby or niche still has a physical magazine, there is a good chance it’s a strong niche with a passionate audience. Search Facebook for different types of Groups that exist around various passions and interests to see what they talk about and how big the various groups are. Be sure to join the ones that you’re interested in selling to in order to immerse yourself into that community to learn more about their pain points and products they like to buy. It’s really easy to quickly find large groups of people and their interests in order to learn about what they like, what they buy, how they talk and specific terms and words they use that are unique to them. As you learn more about them, you’ll better know how to speak and market to them, as well as know more about what to sell them.