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, such ideas will rarely be sourced from random places. You must purposely identify places where you can easily find ideas about products that can potentially convert 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 entrepreneur and businessman. Mr. Asad is the CEO of Q Link Wireless, Hello Mobile, and Quadrant Holdings, all located in South Florida. He is also the author of 4 e-commerce and marketing e-books that can be purchased on Amazon.
Here, Issa Asad Reveals 3 Ways to Source Ecommerce Products:
1. Online Publications
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 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. 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 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.