Product Validation Strategies and Tips for Shopify Stores

Platforms like Shopify have made it easier for virtually anyone to start their own store, and make a profit selling a variety of products. Thanks to dropshipping and print-on-demand applications, you don’t even need to manage your own inventory to launch an ecommerce venture.

Unfortunately, while anyone can launch a Shopify store, not every online shop is guaranteed to be a success. There are numerous factors that can make or break your business in today’s world, from the quality of your website to the marketing strategies you use.

Perhaps the most important factor of all, however, is the products you sell. To ensure your business can make a profit, you need to ensure you’re selling profitable products that customers actually want. That’s often harder than it seems, with studies showing that 34% of small businesses fail simply due to a lack of product-market fit. 

Product validation is how you ensure you’re not wasting your time, effort, and money on the wrong items for your store. 

What is Product Validation? The Basics

Product validation is the process of evaluating a product before you start selling it, to ensure it actually has the potential to generate a profit for your business. The validation process can take place when you’re designing a new product from scratch, or when you’re assessing different product options when working with wholesale suppliers and manufacturers. 

While the process for Shopify product validation can vary, it usually includes:

• Researching your target audience: To choose the right product for your Shopify store, you need to understand who your customers are, and what their pain points and goals might be. The more you know about your target audience, the more you can choose products that fit their specific needs and interests. 
• Running market analysis: Market analysis is a process that involves learning about your target market, the competitors in your landscape, and where your brand and product will “fit” into the existing landscape. You’ll need to find out the size of your potential audience, your competitor’s strengths, and weaknesses, and how much people will pay for your product.
• Assessing demand: Once you’ve found a potential product people in your industry might be looking for, the next step is assessing demand. This means looking at how many competitors are already selling a similar solution, as well as how much need there is for whatever you’re offering. If there’s a low level of demand, and a high level of competition for a product, it’s unlikely you’ll make a profit with that specific item. 

X Product Validation Strategies for Shopify Stores

Product validation can be a tricky process. Many startup companies have launched products because they think there’s enough demand, only to discover they don’t actually get any conversions. Fortunately, there are some strategies you can use to boost your chances of success.

1. Analyze the Competition

Competitor analysis is one of the most useful tools you have for product validation. Your competitors can offer valuable insights into not just which products have the most potential for your target audience, but also how you should price those products to earn conversions. 

Start by deciding what “types” of products you want to sell on your Shopify store, and who your target audience will be. For instance, you might decide you want to sell kitchen utensils to hobbyists in search of professional-grade cookware. 

If that’s the case, you can look for other companies selling similar solution to the same target market. Find out what kind of products they’re selling, and how popular those items are. You can look at the number of reviews a product has, or how long it’s been available on the store for more insights. 

You can also run an SEO analysis using a tool like Ahrefs, to see how customers find your competitors by searching for specific keywords. For instance, you might learn that your top competitor gets most of its traffic from searches like “stainless steel frying pans”. That gives you an insight into the kind of products customers will look for on your store too. 

2. Use Analytical Tools to Track Demand

Analyzing market trends and demand is another way to ensure you’re making the right decisions during the product validation process. While you can always read market reports from industry leaders like PR Newswire and Markets & Markets, there’s a simpler alternative. 

Google Trends allows you to type in search terms or the name of a product, and see how search volume has increased for that term over a specific time frame. If the number of searches for your product is trending upwards, or has remained high for a long period of time, this is a good indication that there’s potential for that product to make a profit.

You can also use SEO tools again here. Ahrefs can show you how much “volume” a specific keyword has, such as “Oat milk” as well as how competitive that term is. A high level of search volume, combined with a relatively low keyword difficulty score, means there’s a lot of demand for an item, but potentially not a lot of competition in your space. 

3. Collect Insights from Customers

Although looking at search trends can give you a basic insight into whether there’s a demand for your product, it’s not always easy to know whether demand will actually translate into sales. A good way to build on your data is to gather direct insights from your target audience. 

For instance, if you’re already running a Shopify store, and you’re thinking about adding a new product to your collection, you could send a survey or poll to your customers asking them what kind of product they’d be most interested in. You could also use social media to ask customers to vote on products they might be interested in. 

Another option is to use social listening tools, to learn what customers are talking about in your niche. You can track mentions of specific terms, competitors, and even your brand using tools like Sprout Social. 

Alternatively, you could consider having conversations with customers in-person. Attending trade shows and conferences relevant to your industry can give you an insight into the market trends that most people in your niche are interested in. You can even talk to potential customers directly, and gauge their initial reactions to your product ideas. 

4. Create a “Coming Soon” Landing Page

Once you have a solid product idea that you think should be profitable for your business, a great way to test its value is to create a “coming soon” page. Basically, this is a type of landing page where you can highlight the features and benefits of your upcoming product. 

It should include an email subscription form, asking customers to sign up to be the first to hear when the product is released. To boost your chances of actually collecting leads, it’s worth offering your customers something in exchange for their email address, like a discount on their first purchase, or exclusive early access when the product is available. 

https://resources.storetasker.com/shopify-examples/duyu-coming-soon 

A “coming soon” page will help you to identify whether customers are actually interested in buying your product. Plus, it means you’ll end up with a huge number of leads you can contact as soon as you’re ready to start selling. This boosts your chances of making a lot of initial sales, without having to invest as heavily in marketing strategies. 

5. Try Selling Your Products

Finally, one of the simplest and most effective product validation strategies Shopify store owners can use involves actually trying to sell their products. Create a product page for your new item on your Shopify store, and allow customers to either place orders, or “pre-order” the item you’re offering. 

A great way to make this strategy more “risk-free”, is to consider a dropshipping or print on demand approach. With these methods, you’re not actually manufacturing your product yourself, or interacting with it directly. Instead, you’re just listing a product on your Shopify website that another company will create for you. 

Since dropshipping and print on demand suppliers don’t ask you to purchase anything until a customer places an order, you can experiment with as many ideas as you like, without the risk of unsold inventory. There are plenty of tools you can use with Shopify to help with this process, such as Printful, for custom print-on-demand items. 

Master Shopify Product Validation

Product validation can be a daunting concept, but it’s a crucial process if you want to make sure you actually make a profit with your products. The more time and effort you put into validating your products, the more likely it is that you’ll end up with a successful store. 

Once you’ve validated your product ideas, all that’s left to do is list your products on your website, and start your marketing campaigns. If you need help bringing your store, product pages, or marketing strategies to life on Shopify, reach out to Storetasker for advice from an expert. 

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