Market research is one of the most important things required to succeed in any business: online or offline. That is because it helps you figure out what is the best product or service you can offer for the target market.
When you are in dropshipping, you can literally sell thousands of products. This is because you are not holding any inventory and the cost of starting the business is minimum.
As such, it is easy to be tempted into selling anything that you come across. However, blindly picking up a product is one of the quickest ways to fail.
So how do I select the best product? You may ask.
Detailed market research is your answer.
Table of Contents
What is market research?
Market research is done by collecting information from various sources. This is not just any information, but one that can help you decide whether a particular product is worth dropshipping on Shopify or not.
There are two ways to collect such information. Primary research and secondary research.
The former is the method by which you gather information on your own, without depending on any resources. For example, data gathered from interviews, focus groups, and other similar resources.
On the other hand, secondary research, as the name suggests, is done via secondary means. In other words, you are depending on other resources to get data related to your business or industry. For example, collecting data from journals, research papers, data gathered by consulting firms, data shared by the government, etc. As a result, if you use market research tools, it means that you are making secondary research.
3 market research tools for dropshipping on Shopify
Now that you know the different methods of market research to find a winning product for dropshipping on Shopify, the next question is how to carry it out?
Some of the common ways to carry out market research are via phone interviews, face-to-face interviews, focus groups, or questionnaires.
Though these ways are not bad, they consume a lot of time and financial resources. Moreover, if you are selling in the international market, the above strategies would be difficult to execute.
Therefore, below we show you some of the ways in which you can use technology to carry out market research without spending a lot of time or money. Best of all, these methods allow you to carry out market research for almost all the markets in the world without spending a lot of resources.
1. Google Trends
We are all aware of how massive the Google search engine is and the amount of data it holds. According to an estimate, 7 billion searches per day are performed on Google.
The best part is that you can access a lot of this data free of cost and that is via Google Trends. Google Trends tells you how popular a keyword is in a particular region over a period of time. For example, you want to sell security cameras in the USA. Just enter the keyword in Google Trends and see its trend over the past few years.
From the above trend, it is clearly visible that security cameras have a healthy demand for the past many years and are worth dropshipping on Shopify.
There is also an option of compare via which you can compare the trends of two keywords. Other features of Google Trend such as related queries and related questions are also worth exploring.
2. Sell The Trend
This is another effective tool for finding winning products for dropshipping on Shopify. The tool shows those products that are trending on Amazon, Shopify store, and Ali Express Store.
You can then import any of the products to your Shopify store saving you the hassle of spending hours uploading them manually and creating the listing.
The best part about this tool is that it also allows you to up your marketing game by creating compelling product videos with the help of few clicks. This is something that you will hardly find in other Shopify market research tools.
Still not sure, if this is the right tool? Check out their free trial.
3. Niche Scraper
This is another tool that allows you to import products from AliExpress and Shopify stores. But you might be wondering what makes it different from other tools that do the same task?
The answer is that Niche Scraper has a section where top products are posted on a daily basis. So if you want to save time, you can simply choose products from this section.
That will save a lot of time. Isn’t it?
3 dropshipping niche markets on Shopify with profitable products
Now you know what tools you can use to conduct market research and find winning products to dropship on Shopify, let’s explore a few hot niches that are worth exploring.
For each niche, we also mention one possible product that is worth exploring. However, we suggest you conduct your own research before finalizing anything
So let’s get started
1. Health and personal care
How many of you don’t want to remain fit and healthy? I am sure no one would raise their hands.
Staying healthy is the need of every person on the planet. Especially after the COVID-19 pandemic, more people than ever before are extra cautious about their health.
Therefore, the demand for health and personal care products will never dry out.
- Fitness Trackers
The fitness tracker industry has been booming way before the pandemic. This was primarily due to large technology giants such as Apple, Microsoft, and Google, among others, launching their own fitness trackers and wearables.
This is in addition to the trackers by dedicated fitness companies like Garmin and others. Worldwide revenue from fitness trackers is forecasted reaching to $3.33 billion in 2022, an increase of 1.3 times compared with 2018.
The reason for the rise in popularity of these trackers is twofold. First of all, they allow you to measure those things for which previously you had to go to a doctor. For example, heartbeat.
Secondly, the trackers give you health-related data which was previously impossible to gather, even if you went to the most advanced hospital in the world. For example, the number of steps taken or distance traveled on a particular day.
- Face masks
It is a no-brainer that face masks are in hot demand nowadays and will continue to remain so for years to come.
Now you might be wondering that there are already hundreds (if not thousands) of sellers who are dropshipping masks on Shopify. So do I still stand a chance?
The answer is yes.
And that is by targeting a niche. For example, kids’ masks.
Instead of selling general masks, you can sell masks for kids that have different design patterns on them. Kids love colors and designs and in this way, you can stand out from the competitors and increase the chances of sales.
2. Wardrobe and accessories
The best thing about wardrobe and accessories is that one uses these products almost every day. Therefore, these products are the need of everyone.
Moreover, there are hundreds of things that come under the wardrobe and accessories niche. As such it is easy to find a winning product.
- Blue light glasses
Ever since the lockdown, people are spending more time in front of the television and laptops as they work from home. As such, they are being exposed to blue light at a much higher rate than ever before. Blue lights are the one that is emitted from screens.
This increases the chances of eyestrain, headache, and other complications.
Blue light glasses can be the savior here. These glasses are expected to rise in popularity for the coming many years. According to Market Watch “The global Blue Light Blocking Glasses market is valued at 22 million USD in 2020 and is expected to reach 38 million USD by the end of 2026, growing at a CAGR of 8.0% during 2021-2026“.
3. Office products
What is the first thing that comes to your mind when we say office supplies? Stationary right?
But that is not the only thing that is included in this niche. Below we share one hot office supply product that you can dropship on Shopify. And that too without getting into a fierce price war.
- Podcast Microphones
Podcasting has been on the rise since March 2017. However, during the pandemic, the demand skyrocketed for obvious reasons I.e. people had more time to learn and they turned to a podcast (among other things) to increase the quantity of grey matter.
Therefore, podcast microphones saw increased sales during the past 2.5 years. The best thing about this product is that you can even sell related products.
For example, if anyone is looking for podcast microphones, he might require a mixer, pop filter, headphones, etc. as all these equipment are necessary to set up a podcast.
Half the work done
Selecting the right product is half the work done. Therefore, you should spend ample time in market research and finding a winning product rather than launching your store in a hurry.
However, one thing should be kept in mind that apart from the selection of a good product, it is also important to focus on essential things for successful dropshipping on Shopify. For example, effective marketing, making sure of inventory, etc. Make sure you don’t neglect these things.
At Happy Points, one thing that we focus on the most is the right product selection via detailed market research. This ultimately increases the chances of success of the Shopify store.
Remember, a wrong product with the right marketing strategy won’t be of any benefit.
