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Product Ideas: 17 Places To Find Profitable Products

Airsoko Insider

It’s an unfortunate truth that some of your products likely will not make it. The ones that do make it, that earn you revenue and clout, come from the same place as your failed products: an idea.

About 95% of new products fail.

It’s an unfortunate truth that some of your products likely will not make it. The ones that do make it, that earn you revenue and clout, come from the same place as your failed products: an idea.

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As an ecommerce business, you continually want to test your limits and come up with new product ideas to stay competitive and profitable.

Coming up with a great idea for a product to sell online will occasionally strike when you least expect it. Many times though, it’s something you need to be proactively on the lookout for.

The web contains a wealth of ideas and inspiration, but as a new entrepreneur, where do you begin? Aimlessly searching online will only get you so far, so we’ve compiled a list of the best resources to give you direction and get you started, step by step.

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Considerations for brainstorming product ideas

As you go through all the resources listed in this post, it’s vital to keep two things in mind:

While searching for new product ideas, make sure to look beyond the products themselves. It may sound cliche, but there is heavy competition in the most common and popular product categories.

Choosing a different or unique angle can be instrumental to your success. Try not to just look at products—rather, look for potential in the product category. Consider new markets, new features, and new ways to use the products.

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Don't be afraid to look at smaller product categories and niches. Even though a niche is a smaller subset of a larger category with less potential customers, it makes up for that by way of less competitors and a more targeted audience. Less competition makes it easier to get to the top of Google, and it can be more cost effective and efficient to advertise to your customers.

In this post, we’ll go into detail about the best places to look for high quality product opportunities and ideas, whether it's for a line extension or a brand new store. We’ll start with some broad ideas to get your head in the right space to start your search, and then get into more specific resources closer to the end of the post.

17 places to find product ideas

Start with what you have
Pay attention to trends in your local community
Consult online consumer trend publications
Get inspired by industry leaders
Use product trend discovery sites
Take a look at social curation sites
Peruse B2B wholesale marketplaces
Browse online consumer marketplaces
Look through social forum communities
Search social media networks
Read on-site and third-party customer reviews
Review SEO analytics and insights
Read consumer lifestyle publications
Learn from your competitors
Create customer surveys
Crowdsource
Look to the past

As you go through this post and the list of resources, it’s best to capture all of your ideas on paper. Once you have all of your brainstormed ideas recorded, you will be able to return to them later and evaluate them for viability and potential.

1. Start with what you have

Before you begin searching the depths of the web for small business ideas, products, and niches, it’s always best to start with the ideas you already have.

Maybe it’s a product or idea you’ve had for years. Maybe it exists in a half-written business plan sitting in a folder somewhere on your computer. Even if you’ve discounted it at some point prior, it’s worth taking a fresh look at it. At one point you thought it was a great idea, right?

Here are a few questions to consider when making your list of internet business ideas:

What products, niches, or industries are you particularly passionate about or interested in?
What products, niches, or industries are your friends passionate about?
What pain points do you have in your own life?

Identifying problems within your inner circle is a smart way to brainstorm good product ideas. Michelle Ebbin, owner of Jettproof, a sensory clothing brand, finds product ideas through life’s everyday needs. The brand creates calming clothing to assist kids and adults with autism, sensory processing disorder, Down’s syndrome, ADHD, and other conditions that affect the sensory system.

“Some Jettproof staff have family members with sensory conditions,” Michelle says. “When we brainstorm for new product ideas, we ask what their loved ones need for different seasons, circumstances, and activities.”

“When the COVID-19 pandemic hit and face masks became essential, one of our team members came up with the idea of sensory face masks using our proprietary calming fabric, Calmtex.”

The product idea was a success. Now, people with sensory conditions could comfortably wear face masks when visiting therapy centers, clinics, hospitals, and workplaces.

My best tip for finding product ideas is to look from your inner circle first. Consider what your loved ones need and can use to function well within their families and communities comfortably.

Michelle Ebbin, owner of Jettproof

If there’s a problem, solve it. Consider which pain points you have in your life, or even the pain points of those around you.

Say, for example, you stepped in to solve the challenge of dog toys that were easily chewed and destroyed. Dog owners would become frustrated with unreliable products, and the expenses could quickly add up. The market for indestructible dog toys would be based on this one specific pain point.

2. Your local community

Sometimes you don’t need a new idea at all. Traditional brick-and-mortar businesses have been around much longer than their ecommerce counterparts. Paying attention to trends in brick-and-mortar retail and adapting them to ecommerce can be just the ticket you need to create a profitable and unique internet business idea.

Look around your community and take note of what new or interesting retail concepts people are talking about. You can check out different sources for inspiration such as:

Newspapers
Craft fairs
Local markets
Community events

3. Online consumer trend publications

A great place to start your search for product ideas is top consumer product trend publications. Following trend publications helps give a sense of the direction consumer products are going and the trending product ideas other entrepreneurs are introducing to the market.

Following these publications can also expose you to new product categories and industries that you previously didn’t know about. Following what’s trending can help you dream up new goods, services, and experiences for your online business.

There are several popular trend publications online including, but not limited to, the following.

TrendWatching

TrendWatching is an independent trend firm that scans the globe for the most promising consumer trends and insights. TrendWatching has a team of professionals in locations like London, New York, São Paulo, Singapore, Sydney, and Lagos who report on worldwide trends.

Trend Hunter

Trend Hunter is the world’s largest, most popular trend community. Fuelled by a global network of 160,000 members and three million fans, Trend Hunter is a source of inspiration for aspiring and curious entrepreneurs.

Jeremy, the founder of Trend Hunter says, “Like many of us, I was an entrepreneur at heart, but I didn’t know what idea I wanted to pursue. I chose careers that I thought would lead me to my business idea … but after years of searching, I was still hunting for inspiration. It was then that I started Trend Hunter—a place for insatiably curious people to share ideas and get inspired.”

PSFK

PSFK is a business intelligence platform that inspires creative professionals as they develop new products, services, and experiences across retail, advertising, and design. It analyzes research-based consumer trends and insights that you can use as a jumping-off point and validation for ecommerce business ideas.

A great example of someone who noticed a trend from another country and brought it home is Dan Ben-Nun, creator of the product Inkkas. Inkkas are beautiful, unique shoes made of authentic South American textiles.

The idea for Inkkas came to Dan when he noticed the style of shoe trending in Peru. Determining it was a great product that would also do well in the North American market, he brought the idea home and successfully launched a Kickstarter campaign, raising over $77,000 in pre-orders.

4. Industry leaders

If you know the industry or niche market you would like to be in, you can use various tools to discover the influencers in that industry. Following the right people on social media can help inspire new ideas through a constant stream of carefully curated content from people in the know. It’s up to you to uncover the opportunities.

There are several online tools you can use to discover the influencers online for a particular industry or niche:

5. Product and trend discovery sites

Product review and discovery sites can also be a fantastic source for product and internet business ideas. Sites like Uncrate (men’s products) and Design Milk (luxury products) are great ways to see new curated product trends daily. What better way to get inspired than with a daily glimpse into the new and interesting products other entrepreneurs are bringing to the market.

Here are just a few examples of popular consumer product blogs to get you started:

Don’t just look at the big and popular sites but explore niche review sites as well. Consider what types of products and niches you’re particularly interested in and search for consumer product review blogs in those niches.

6. Social curation sites

Image curation sites can be a goldmine for product and niche ideas. Many of the images contain interesting, new, and trending businesses and consumer products. Using the built-in social signals, you can sometimes get a sense almost immediately of their popularity. This could be your first clue if there is a market for the product or niche.

Several of the larger social curation sites that may inspire niche business ideas include the following.

The Fancy

The Fancy describes itself as part store, part magazine, and part wish list. Use The Fancy to find a gift for any occasion and share your favorite discoveries with all your friends.

Wanelo

Wanelo (Want Need Love) describes itself as a community for all of the world’s shopping, bringing together products and stores in a Pinterest-like product-posting format.

7. B2B wholesale marketplaces

What better way to get product ideas than right from the source? This has been a popular option amongst ecommerce entrepreneurs for a while, and this list wouldn’t be complete without it.

Wholesale and manufacturer sourcing sites expose you to thousands of potential product ideas. It can be easy to get overwhelmed with the sheer amount of products available, so take it slow.

Alibaba

Alibaba is one of the biggest ecommerce companies in the world, up there with Amazon and eBay. The platform connects consumers with wholesalers and manufacturers from Asia.

With over 5,900 categories of product offerings, there’s not much you can’t find on Alibaba. Alibaba dropshipping products span all types of categories and niches, so there's plenty of room for inspiration.

Although it’s generally accepted that Alibaba is the largest online wholesale and manufacturer database, there are many other sites similar to Alibaba you can use for inspiration and to find product ideas.

DSers

DSers is a marketplace where you can purchase products on AliExpress to sell on Shopify. These suppliers provide automated order fulfillment services, so it’s a popular turnkey option for many entrepreneurs deciding what to sell on Shopify. Browse what’s available and review Oberlo’s trending products to help you come up with your own ideas.

Some other B2B wholesale marketplaces include:

8. Online consumer marketplaces

Another rich source for product ideas are online consumer marketplaces. Millions of products is probably an understatement, so you may want to begin your market research with some of the popular and trending items and branch out into other interesting categories that catch your eye from there:

eBay: eBay is the largest online consumer auction site. Check out eBay’s bestselling items to find some of the most popular product categories on eBay.

Amazon: Amazon is the largest internet retailer. Amazon Best Sellers shows Amazon’s most popular products based on sales. Amazon Movers & Shakers displays the biggest gainers in sales rank over the past 24 hours. Both are updated hourly.

Kickstarter: Kickstarter is the largest crowdfunding website. Browse all projects by popularity, funding, staff picks, and many other options with Kickstarter Discover.

Etsy: Etsy is a marketplace for handmade items. Look up what’s trending to find the most popular listings.

AliExpress:AliExpress is Alibaba’s consumer wholesale marketplace. which allows you to order in smaller quantities. AliExpress Popular reveals the most-bought products.

9. Social forum communities

Reddit is the largest social media news aggregator. It describes itself as the front page of the web and is enormously influential. Reddit has thousands of “subreddits,” which are sub-sections or niches that cater to different topics and areas of interest. It’s within these subreddits that you can find lots of inspiration for your next product or business idea.

If you have an idea for a particular industry, niche, or product category, it’s worth doing a search and finding a suitable subreddit community to join and actively become a part of.

There are also many product-focused subreddits that are packed with ideas.

Here are a couple of examples:

Buy It For Life: For practical, durable, and quality-made products that are built to last.
Shut Up And Take My Money: Interesting, clever, useful products that people want—badly.

If you’re active on Reddit and pay close attention, occasionally you can come across interesting posts like this one, which asks commenters to share their best purchases for under $50.

No matter which approach you take, Reddit has been and continues to be a valuable source of ecommerce business ideas and inspiration, coupled with a great and supportive community.

Quora

Quora is a community question-and-answer site—“A place to gain and share knowledge,” as the company says. Essentially, users come to Quora to ask and answer questions about pretty much anything and everything.

Like Reddit’s subreddits, Quora has topics you can choose to add to your own customized feed. Consider adding some product- or industry-related feeds, as well as anything else inspired by online business.

Quora also shows which topics and questions are trending, as well as a count of the total number of answers (each with a number of up votes and down votes from the community).

Once you populate your feed, you’ll start discovering questions and answers that may inspire ecommerce business ideas. Here are a few:

Industry and niche forums

Depending on the industry you’re targeting, there may be niche forum sites you can tap into for product ideas to sell. Gaming is one industry that has an active online community, and you can check out forums like GameFAQs or NeoGAF.

Here are a few other industry forum sites for niche product ideas: