How to Choose the Right Products to Sell in Your Dropshipping Store

If you made it this far into the guide, you’ll understand by now that opening an online dropshipping store is simple, but turning your store into a successful, thriving business is a different, somewhat challenging process. Not every online business that uses dropshipping automatically turns to gold. The field is highly competitive, mainly because of the misconception that dropshipping is easy, good money. It can be, sure – but it takes some effort.

In order for you to successfully market your store and its products, it is important to choose a product niche to focus on. The more focused the niche, the better, because it makes marketing and promoting your store much easier. You can have lots of different products in your store, but you’ll just make it difficult for yourself: you’ll be competing with the big online stores, and your marketing will be very generic, increasing the chance of missing your target audience completely.

The following pointers will help you find a niche market that will work for you:

Choose a niche based on your own interests and/ or passions

Passion for and expertise in the niche and the products you’re offering in your store is essential. Hands on expertise will enable you to inform your customers and guide them on their path to purchase. Your hobbies and interests are a great starting point to find your niche market.

Choose a niche based on life’s daily problems (and solutions)

If you have a problem in life, there’s a fair chance more people will have this problem. For example, headsets that only work well on one side, or clogged up sinks in the kitchen or bathroom. Finding a product that solves a problem may lead you to a potential dropshipping niche.

Explore potential competition

Are there many competitors active in the niche you’re interested in? Is the market saturated with stores offering the same products? Do you have better products to offer, or are you selling the same thing? If the niche is densely populated with stores offering the same or similar products, it may be better to look for a different, fresher niche.

Look for a profitable niche

To make opening a dropshipping store worth your while, you need to make sure there is enough margin on the product(s) you are selling. If your profit margin after shipping costs, seller fees and taxes have been deducted, falls below 40%, you have to wonder if it is worth dropshipping that particular product. Since your focus as a dropshipping store is on marketing and customer acquisition, handling a $1,000 product does not necessarily take more time than handling a $1 product. So you may as well look for products that you can make a decent profit on.

Search products with low shipping costs

Even though you are not fulfilling orders, shipping costs are part of the product price and can make a product considerably more expensive and scare customers off. If you can find products that are cheap to ship, you can opt to offer free shipping in your store, which is something people are actively looking for to cut expenses.

Appeal to impulse buyers

Your product should ideally be fit for purchase by impulse buyers. You put a lot of effort in marketing and SEO, driving as much traffic to your store as possible, and you want conversion to be as high as possible, which means selling products fit for impulse purchasing and targeting people that can afford to make impulse purchases.

Offer products people are looking for

Use Google Trends and Google’s keyword planner tool to find search volumes for products in the niche you’re planning to focus on. The products with the highest search volumes are the ones people look for the most, which will give you a good idea of the products to offer in your store.

Create your own brand

Add value to the products you’re selling by rebranding them as your own. Look for products you can white label, give them a makeover including customized packaging. Customers will remember your products and come back for them.

Look for products that are popular, but not easily available locally

When a product is not available in local shops, it instantly becomes more attractive to people. With the right marketing approach emphasizing the fact that it is unavailable in stores, it can become a winner.

Follow social media

In general, social media give you a pretty good idea of what people are interested in. Although platforms like Facebook personalize the content you’re exposed to to a large extent, based on your general internet pattern, you can look for specific pages and profiles in the niches you are interested in. Instagram, Twitter, and Pinterest are also useful since the majority of companies are active on these platforms, either for marketing and promotional purposes, or for customer support.

Stay on top of new trends

Trend watching and trend predicting experts are telling us all the time what new trends we can expect for the coming period, both for the immediate future and for the long term. Websites such as trendwatching.com, trendhunter.com, and producthunt.com can be a great source of information and inspiration when looking for new products to add to your product offer.

Keep your eyes on the leading online stores

The major online stores, such as Amazon and eBay, sell basically everything. You can zoom in on your niche, once you have already decided which niche to cater to, and check what products people are looking for. Or you can zoom out and see what products are selling well in general, and pick your niche based on that information.