To start the journey of becoming a successful e-commerce entrepreneur, you must do your homework to figure out what product ideas and target markets potentially represent great e-commerce opportunities. However, you must also realize that such ideas will rarely be sourced from random places. You must purposely identify places where you can easily find vast amounts of information, for ideas about products that can potentially solve the real pains of potential consumers.
“You may already have your own ideas, or even consider adapting some existing brick and mortar business models into e-commerce opportunities, but the Internet provides many sources with unlimited e-commerce ideas,” explained Issa Asad, Florida-based entrepreneur and CEO since 1996. Mr. Asad is currently the CEO of 2 companies located in South Florida: Quadrant Holdings and Q Link Wireless.
To help you avoid getting overwhelmed and defeating the very purpose of your research, Mr. Asad has provided his top 3 places to find product ideas for your e-commerce business:
1. Online Publications Discussing Consumer Trends
There are great publications out there on the Internet tracking the latest consumer trends. Trends are very powerful and the publications therefore provide a critical source of information that you can sift through for some market intelligence gathering. The best of these online publications will give you a clear picture of what consumers are likely to be buying more if not doing that already, and how successfully entrepreneurs are positioning their products to meet the new demand.
Some of the leading online consumer trend publications include:
- Trend Watching
- Trend Hunter
- Springwise
2. B2B Wholesale Online Marketplaces
Where wholesalers and manufacturers converge, you can expect exposure to one of the largest categories of products and markets. You will probably discover industries, products and ideas you have never imagined about before. Alibaba alone will provide overwhelming product categories for you to consider if they have the kind of potential you are looking for. Alibaba is a giant Chinese e-commerce company in the same ranks with as American eBay and Amazon. It will help you find anything wholesalers and manufacturers in Asian countries have to offer. You will need to be highly focused and probably consider a smaller niche. That can significantly help minimize competition while increasing your chances of reaching at the top of Google search results.
You might want to start finding your e-commerce product ideas from the following Business-to-Business (B2B) wholesale online marketplaces:
- Alibaba
- Global Sources
- TradeKey
- Made-in-China
3. Online Consumer Marketplaces
Many e-commerce entrepreneurs have been mining tons of information about new products and ideas from the top online consumer marketplaces. Here you consider names such as Amazon and eBay with millions of products of products and the most diverse e-commerce product categories between them. You can’t succeed in finding your product idea here without a proper way or a strategy to do it.
Fortunately, you can take advantage of lists such as Amazon Bestsellers and Amazon Movers and Shakers which are updated on an hourly basis. On eBay, you will find eBay Market Research to help you know which product categories are the most popular on the marketplace.
Other online consumer marketplaces you might want to check for more ideas you can use for your e-commerce business include:
- Kickstarter – the most popular crowd funding site that will allow you to browse through projects using the Kickstarter Discover.
- Etsy – the online marketplace where you will find trending handmade items using Etsy Trending Items.
- AliExpress – another wholesale online marketplace from Alibaba targeting consumers that order smaller quantities.
About The Author
Issa Asad
Issa Asad is a well-respected entrepreneur, best-selling author and marketing strategist from South Florida. With over 15 years of experience in the telecommunications, technology and marketing industries.
