What Should You Sell in Your eCommerce Store?

I recently did a Reddit AMA on dropshipping eCommerce, and the most frequently asked question was “What should I sell online?”

So I decided to write a guide on how to choose the products to sell in you store. And, I mean literally to sell, not to just have in your store.

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You can import dozens of products into your store in minutes, but the tricky part is knowing which products you should use in your marketing campaigns, feature on the front page of your store, and include in your promotional emails.

These main products that you are going to focus on are called ‘Alpha Products’. These are the products that bring the traffic to your store. After you know the Alpha Products, it takes no time to fill in the rest of the store with cross-sell, upsell, and related products.

I have structured this article into two to parts: Generating Product Ideas and Filtering Products.

My goal is to provide a roadmap for brainstorming product ideas and then filtering out the ones that aren’t worth testing.

This article will be useful for all eCommerce start-ups, small businesses, and medium businesses looking for new product ideas.

Generating Product Ideas

Brainstorm

You never start with a blank page. Your head is already full of good ideas: your hobbies, products you like, trends, exciting products that you have heard of.

Write everything down that comes to mind. It doesn’t matter if you think the product will be a best seller or not. Trust me — write it down.

Browse Other Shops

Back in the 1980’s, Sam Walton was arrested for crawling around stores on his hands and knees. He later told a friend he was measuring the spaces between product shelves to determine how they displayed their products.

At the time, Walmart was making $400M+ in sales, but Walton knew that there was more he could learn.

When you browse other stores, look at their offerings, best selling lists, and promoted products. Many stores have a tremendous amount of data and employ entire departments to organize their sales and pick their products. Use that information to your benefit.

Browse a lot. Browse frequently.

Here is a link list that is worth spending time researching:

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by Tomas Šlimas via SitePoint