There’s a myth in ECommerce that’s like glitter at a kid’s birthday party. No matter how many times you clean it up, it keeps coming back. The myth? That all you need is a product people want. Just pick something with demand, slap it on a website, and boom, instant business.
Sure. And all I need to be an astronaut is a helmet and a helium balloon.
What Really Happens
Most people don’t just skip one step. They skip all of them. They don’t check demand the right way. They don’t look at saturation. They don’t check for margin. They just get an idea, fall in love with it like it’s a golden retriever puppy, and start building a business around it without asking if it even makes sense. That’s how people end up six months deep with a beautifully branded, totally useless website that nobody visits and nobody buys from.
This isn’t a game. It’s not a vibe. It’s a business. And you don’t “test” products by tossing them online and crossing your fingers. That’s not testing. That’s financial arson.
Real Research, Not Random Clicking
What you actually need is market research. The real kind. Not the “scroll through Amazon and pick something shiny” kind. I’m talking structured, step-by-step work that tells you whether a product idea is even worth your time. This blog post won’t teach you how to do the whole thing. It can’t. That would take hours. What I’m giving you here is the 30,000 foot flyover. You want the details? Show up to one of my Free ECommerce Zoom Meetings. That’s where the real stuff happens.
Start With Specific Products
Start with six specific product niches. And no, “home décor” is not specific. “Kitchen gear” is not specific. I’m talking about clear, direct product terms like “coffee pot,” “metal detector,” “ceramic skillet,” “drone camera,” “pet water fountain,” or “hiking GPS.”
Plug each one into Google Keyword Planner and look at the numbers. You need a minimum of 5,000 searches per month on the base keyword. If “coffee pot” only pulls 3,200, kick it to the curb.
Check Keyword Depth
There should be at least 1,500 closely related keywords in that niche. Within that list, at least a dozen of those keywords should each have thousands of searches per month. That tells you there’s real, stable interest, not just a one-time curiosity from someone who got bored on a bad date.
Confirm It With Trends
Now open up Google Trends. Yes, it’s free. Yes, it’s amazing. Take those same keywords and look at the long-term trend. You want to see a level or rising line across several years. If it looks like a rollercoaster or a cliff dive, move on. You’re not here to surf waves. You’re here to plant a flag.
Check the Real Competition
Once the demand checks out, it’s time to spy on the competition. But not on Amazon or Etsy or eBay; those are the clown cars of data. You want real ECommerce sites that are actually selling the same products.
Find six per niche. Go full internet stalker and comb through their SEO, layout, content, navigation, checkout. Are they sharp? Are they sloppily glued together with digital duct tape? Are they clearly invested or just collecting dust?
You’re not trying to run from competition. You’re trying to measure it. If every site you find is polished, active, and ranking well, the market might be too tight. If three of them look like they were built in 2009 and haven’t been updated since, you might have some breathing room.
Do the Math or Don’t Bother
Now comes the part people love to ignore: the money. Pull pricing data for the exact same products from those six sites. Average the retail prices. Compare that to your expected wholesale cost and cost of goods sold. Add in what it’s going to take to fulfill the orders.
You want to see an average margin of 45 percent or better across the product line. Not on one item. On the line as a whole. Anything less than that, you can do better. Don’t bother.
Make the Call Based on the Data
After you’ve done all that across all six niches, stack the results. Which one had strong demand? Which one had deep keywords and stable trends? Which one had competitors you can actually compete with? Which one gave you margin?
That’s your pick. Not the one that felt good. Not the one your cousin swore was blowing up on TikTok. The one that passed the process.
This Is Just the Skeleton
And again, this is just the rough cut. There’s way more under the hood. Each one of these steps has a dozen things that need to be done correctly for it to actually work. You’re not going to learn that from a blog. That’s what my Free Q&A Zoom Meetings are for. I do them live, 6 days a week. You can ask me anything about anything. You’ll get real answers. Not vague motivation or recycled Pinterest quotes.
Because this is not about hustling harder. This is about doing the right work in the right order. That’s how real businesses start.
Everything else? That’s just you decorating a brick.
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