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A step-by-step guide to the product research process

A strong product research process ensures product teams maximize resources, meet key business goals, and make confident decisions that will deliver successful products and features to create customer delight.

But, how do you conduct effective product research?

Just as there’s no single way to develop a product, no single research process fits all product teams. But there are key steps that will help you balance business goals and user needs for actionable product research . 

This article takes you through the factors you should consider to tailor product research to your desired outcomes and provides a step-by-by-step guide to doing research right.

Use Hotjar to streamline your product research process

Hotjar offers product teams a rich stream of quantitative and qualitative data that keeps you connected to user needs at every stage of research.

What to consider before starting product research

Before jumping into the research process , product managers prepare their team. Take time to consider the why and determine how you can design the process to meet your unique product requirements. 

Reflect on:

Why you’re doing the research

Get connected with the deep purpose of your research: what you need to understand to create a profitable and effective product .

Determine specific outcomes of the research process.

During the early product discovery stages, generating new product ideas for innovation and getting to know your users better will serve as a solid foundation throughout the research process. At later stages, look for concrete feedback on a new product, or possible upgrades and feature updates for an existing product. The why behind the research should guide your process. 

Categorizing your users

Determining customer needs and segmenting users are crucial steps that impact the success of any product research strategy. 

You might use a random sample of potential or existing customers; or segment users according to region, industry, or other criteria to spot patterns across different demographics.

Trial users can give immediate product feedback, which is usually incredibly easy to implement (a new theme, for example) or incredibly difficult, like an entirely new functionality or platform for your product. Your long-time users can give nuanced feedback, but they overlook what doesn't work due to their expertise.

Finding that middle ground of users who like what you offer but aren't stuck to your brand is essential. These users appreciate being treated like their insights matter most—because they do.

Finding impartial user insights can be tricky since many tools track users who’ve been paid or incentivized to click through to your website or product. Product experience insights software like Hotjar can help by providing organic, unbiased user data that gives you a clear picture of your customer experience (CX) .

Pro tip: Hotjar Highlights lets you sort and curate user insights and attributes, and share them with your product team. You can also watch Session Recordings of users from specific countries or industries—or filter recordings to see only satisfied or dissatisfied user experiences, which can provide valuable information on what’s working (and what’s not).

A Hotjar Session Recording

Your core business goals 

The best product research processes overlap with the overall organizational vision, so update your research goals in line with company goals to ensure alignment. 

Designing your research process with cross-functional collaboration in mind is a great way to eliminate any communication issues, ensure all departments collect data that tests product profitability, business goals, and user satisfaction.

 Your team’s methodology

Different product methodologies emphasize different aspects of product research throughout its lifecycle, so it’s important to consider techniques that will fit your team’s working stages.

Teams who use waterfall methodologies usually rely on bursts of intense research before development and again during pre-launch. They also make a clear distinction between the product’s research and development phases. 

Teams who use agile, lean, or DevOps methods usually integrate research with the broader product development process, engaging in continuous discovery methods. 

Whatever your methodology, infuse research into every stage of the product lifecycle to achieve business goals like increased revenue, acquisitions, and user adoption.

Choosing which research tools to use

When you’re deciding how to do product research, you’ll need to consider your budget and company size to pick out your tool stack.

Manual research techniques like user interviews can be time-consuming and cost-intensive, but useful to forge a personal connection with users and ask improvised questions based on their responses.

Automated research tools (like Hotjar 👋) increase speed, efficiency, and cost-effectiveness, and reduce human error. They allow you to reach a larger target audience and ensure you’re getting clean, unbiased product feedback —in person, users are more likely to feel pressure to compliment your product or underplay their concerns, but with tools like Hotjar, you’ll get genuine, in-the-moment feedback from users as they engage with your product. 

Which team members will contribute

Involve different team members at each stage of the product workflow. For example, when you’re validating product ideas, you may want to include marketing and technical departments; and when you’re testing product usability , you may want to rely on the expertise of your engineers. 

It’s also important to consider what research other departments have done before launching your own process, so you don’t waste resources duplicating generic market research. 

8 steps for amazing product research

Amazing product research is all about doing smart research to unearth effective insights without getting lost in an information overload that derails your product workflow .  

Follow these eight steps to guide your product research strategies to achieve valuable, actionable product insights that will inform your product’s entire lifecycle, from ideation to execution. 

1. Define your research goals

First, set your high-level goals, which should test business objectives as well as customer-centric product discovery. These are often drawn directly from the product vision and strategy.

Then, create attainable, specific goals or questions for your team to focus on during each stage of their research. This might include: 

Conducting market research for the product’s adoption before its launch

Identifying areas where key features can be improved after the product launch

Evaluating the product’s performance throughout the product lifecycle

2. Understand your users

User needs are at the center of effective product research processes. 

Engage in user discovery—identify and understand your customer—as early as possible , even before you have definite product or feature ideas. Open-ended user research is a key source of product inspiration and innovation, and an essential step in determining product-market fit .

Then, when you have product proposals, prototypes, or a minimum viable product ( MVP) , you can start seeking more specific feedback. 

User research is all about interacting with your current or potential users and learning what they want and need . Developing a user-centric culture of ongoing research will help you gauge the market demand, position your product against the competition, and generate customer delight .

To create a user-centric research culture, conduct user interviews and create user personas. You can also connect more passively with your user demographic by looking at forums, Facebook groups, or sites like Reddit that are used by your customer niche. 

The more organic the research process, the better. It’s ideal to catch users in situations where they answer by instinct instead of having carefully crafted answers. It's what they say instinctively that leads to better product solutions.

Pro tip: use Feedback widgets to gather user feedback in a non-invasive way. 

Hotjar’s Feedback widgets are integrated into the product interface , so users can give quick feedback and then carry on with their tasks. This means you can survey your users and gain valuable insights by learning what they’re thinking and feeling as they interact with the product.

A Hotjar feedback widget

3. Do market research for your product 

Run thorough competitive and comparative analyses to test the business potential of your product against other solutions on the market , and engage in opportunity mapping to get stakeholder buy-in.

You can also use historical market data and trade reports to predict potential profitability and run keyword research to understand users and what potential customers are searching for to generate product ideas.

Once you’ve validated whether there’s a viable market for your product and determined how saturated that target market is, focus on your product’s unique selling points.

Pro tip: even if you already have a product established in a specific market, make sure to assess the market periodically. Markets and competitors change, and making assumptions because of your initial research processes can be a costly mistake. Work with your marketing team here to validate your ideas and avoid guesswork.

Evaluate your product regularly against the industry by creating a value curve. The value curve plots the product offerings currently available in the market on one axis, and the factors the industry is competing on and investing in heavily on the other. This can help you spot market opportunities, ensure product relevance, and get ideas for features you could add to increase user demand and open up new user bases.

Check out how Gavin increased conversions for his lead generation agency by 42% with Hotjar.

 4. Get to know industry trends

Next, combine your understanding of your users and market with research on technology trends that may affect user expectations of your product or its long-term viability. 

Stay on top of trends by regularly engaging with tech cultures —read trade magazines and news sites, listen to tech news podcasts, and follow key trendspotters on social media and specialist forums. You can also use tools like Google Trends , Trend Hunter , and PSFK . 

Another key source of tech trend information is your engineering team . Chances are, you have plenty of techies on your team who are up to speed on different aspects of technology and what’s forecasted to change.

Pro tip: rigorously analyze trends and put them into context to understand what has staying power, as you avoid jumping on every passing fad. Create a learning culture that embraces experimentation and gives team members the opportunity to share their knowledge. 

Analyze the latest trending topics and projects in mainstream open-source communities across the Internet such as GitHub. These communities are an incredible resource for identifying tech trends that are sustainable, disruptive, and have immense staying power. 

It's also important to subscribe to prominent tech publications and leading technology platforms such as Azure and AWS to get the latest tech news and new feature announcements delivered directly to your inbox. This way, your product team is always in the know about the most important tech trends that are shaping product development and product markets.

5. Validate ideas with current or potential users

Once you’ve developed a strong sense of your users, market, and technology, it’s time to start testing concrete ideas and solutions. 

Based on your early research, identify possible products, features, or upgrades that could meet user needs as well as business goals. Then, run concept testing to evaluate the user experience.

First, identify key users or user types to test. Recruit participants for customer interviews or focus groups, or deploy Hotjar Surveys , Incoming Feedback tools, and Session Recordings to test ideas with existing users. 

Then, ask questions or set tasks and observe user responses. You may just want to explain concepts to users at this stage—or you can use wireframes or mockups; or, at later stages, prototypes or MVPs. 

Make sure you account for confirmation bias and false-positive responses from users when designing the validation process. Include open- and closed-ended questions and use measures like purchase intent to determine customer adoption.

Pro tip: use fake door testing to gauge interest in new features across your existing user base. 

In fake door tests, you show users a call-to-action for a product action that doesn’t exist yet. Once they click to perform the action, they’ll be taken to a page that explains this feature isn’t available yet—you may also choose to include a short survey on this page to learn more about their interest. By reviewing answers to survey questions and the click-through rate , product teams can quickly validate ideas for new features or improvements with users.

6. Test your MVP

The next step in your product research process is to develop a Minimum Viable Product based on validated ideas and run tests to improve subsequent iterations. 

This is a critical stage in product research that you shouldn’t skip. Waiting for the fully developed product before running tests makes it harder to fix software and prioritize bug issues, causing major delays. 

Quality assurance (QA) testing, regression testing, and performance testing check the MVP’s functionality and show developers where they need to make product changes . 

User tests are also key at this stage. Different types of product testing , like tree testing and card sorting, can confirm whether users can easily navigate your product to find the functionality they need. 

A/B tests and multivariate tests , where you split your user base into groups and give them different versions of a product or feature, can help you decide which iteration to run with. Hotjar Heatmaps allow you to easily compare where users click and scroll on different versions of the product.

7. Continue research after the product launch

Consider doing a soft launch—or even canary deployment—where you release new products or features to a small group of users

Gather data to weed out bugs

Finally, adapt the product based on user responses

Then you can roll it out to all users.

But even once you’ve launched the final product, your research isn’t over. The best product teams stay connected with their users and regularly analyze market trends and tech changes.

After the product is released, either through a soft launch or a regular launch, implementing a data-driven approach to the go-to-market strategy is crucial in parsing consumer reports and validating trends and customer opinions.

Continuous research ensures that your product stays relevant and successfully meets customer needs, which will boost user metrics and business metrics alike.

So how can you continue your research throughout the product lifecycle? 

Watch session recordings to spot blockers and bugs where users are rage clicking or dropping off the product journey

Use heatmaps to understand which product elements are most popular—and unpopular—with users

Measure product analytics like click-through rate (CTR) and product conversion rate

Stay up to date on industry and market trends 

Incorporate regular opportunities for cross-team discussions to get different research perspectives

Schedule regular user and customer interviews

Use product experience insights tools like Hotjar to give you a steady stream of user feedback through Surveys and Feedback widgets

8. Turn research into action

The final step in any product research process is to organize your research and turn insights into action. 

Curate your research into specific, actionable themes to cut through the noise and gather valuable, user-centric insights.

Then, use your research to establish a strong product strategy and roadmap to guide your product development process. Make sure you compare the strategy and roadmap with new research at regular intervals and update where needed, though it’s important to strike a balance: these documents should be dynamic but relatively stable touchpoints.  

Your product research should also drive your day-to-day decisions and product backlog management , and form the basis of your product storytelling to help get stakeholder buy-in. 

Why creating a user-centric research culture is essential

Remember: at heart, all product research is user research. 

Product teams who are endlessly curious about their users—who they are, what they need, how they experience your product—can better meet the demands of an ever-evolving market, inspire customer loyalty, and increase their Net Promoter Score (NPS) . With a learning mindset and a commitment to customer-centric product discovery, you can transform research into innovation and sustainable business growth .

FAQs on the product research process

What is product research.

Product research is the process of gathering data about your product’s purpose, intended users, and market to meet user needs and achieve business goals.

What are the steps in the product research process?

The 8 steps in an effective product research process are: 

1) Define your research goals

2) Understand your users

3) Do market research for your product

4) Get to know industry trends

5) Validate ideas with current or potential users

6) Test your MVP

7) Continue research after the product launch

8) Turn research into action

Why is product research important?

Strong product research is critical to product management because: 

It ensures the product will meet customer needs and hit business targets 

It helps product managers (PMs) develop a data-informed product vision, strategy, and roadmap

It helps PMs make confident decisions on the product backlog and day-to-day tasks

It keeps the product team motivated and connected with the purpose of their work 

It helps the product team communicate product value to stakeholders to get buy-in and secure resources

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Product Research: The Building Blocks of a User-Centered Solution

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Product research is a foundational step in building user-centric products. It allows you to understand customer needs, preferences, and market trends, informing the development of successful solutions to user problems. Read on for the ultimate guide to product research, including methods, processes, and best practices—plus our favorite tips from the industry’s leading experts.

Product research 101: Definition, methods, and best practices

You may only build new products once, but you iterate on them continuously. The ongoing evolution of a product’s user experience (UX), informed by user insights, is pivotal to staying ahead of competitors and giving your users exactly what they need. In chapter one of this guide, we’ll explore what product research is, give an overview of key methods (and when to use them), plus best practices to follow.

What is product research?

Product research is any research you conduct to better inform your product and understand your user and market. Unlike user research , product research goes beyond evaluating the user experience and includes market analysis, pricing, feature prioritization, and assessing business viability.

Product research is a broader term than UX research—you can conduct research on the user, the interaction, the market, or your business strategy.

Matthieu Dixte , Product Researcher at Maze

It helps you understand the world you are bringing your product into, and what your users expect to do with a product like yours—so you can use their insights to influence development and design decisions.

Product research can be conducted in multiple ways, such as talking directly to users in focus groups or user interviews , or through product experimentation, usability tests and competitive analysis.

Other research terms you might come across

Ultimately, all research falls under the 'product research' banner if it influences the final product. For some product teams, ‘user research’ and ‘product research’ may be interchangeable. But there are some subtle differences between various research terms that it can be helpful to know. Here are the distinctions between key terms you might hear, explained by Maze's Product Researcher, Matthieu Dixte:

• Market research: Discover who is leading the market, who your direct and indirect competitors are, and what similar products are available to your users at what price
• User research: Understand the user, including their needs, pain points, likes and dislikes, and characteristics—both as a consumer and user of your product
• User experience (UX) research : Learn how your user perceives and interacts with your product—where they click, which paths they follow, and where they search for information on-page
• Product discovery : Uncover what your users’ needs and problems are, validate ideas for potential solutions before development, and apply user insights to your product strategy
• Continuous product discovery : Adapt the mindset of an ever-evolving product and user; conduct research continuously throughout the product lifecycle and ensure all decisions are informed by user insights

For example, let’s say you’re thinking of developing and launching a note-taking app for teenagers. You’d need to conduct market research to see if there are any similar products in high demand to gauge if your tool is something customers want. In parallel, you should run user research to discover who your user persona would be and what their pain points are.

You also have to do product discovery to identify the best way to build and design your potential product to make it appealing for teens. And, if you want to know how your users will feel about your product compared to other options, you need product research .

Lastly, run UX research tests on your mobile and web app to gather feedback, and improve the experience. You should continue to talk with users regularly after launch by adopting a continuous product discovery mindset (and ensure you’re always updating and offering the right product).

Talk to more users without needing to grow your product team

Recruit and test users from Maze’s high-quality panel to get more eyes on your product, without increasing payroll.

Why is product research important?

Are we making the right assumptions? Is this product what users really need? Can they use it effectively?

Research answers all those questions. But product research goes a step further by placing those answers in the context of your niche and the market. It empowers your team—not only to create unbiased, user-centric products—but also to create best-selling products that are based on a robust business strategy and deep understanding of the market.

Product research will also help you:

Head in the right direction

Conducting types of product research like competitive analysis gives you inside information on what your users value in a similar product—and what they’re missing. It ensures you’re heading in the right direction by only working on aspects of your product you know will succeed. This helps you speed time-to-market, reduce the cost of fixing future mistakes, and achieve higher goals.

Product research allows you to “define the total addressable market and north star metric, based on the customer segments that found your idea and product valuable. We would fail at achieving product-market fit without doing customer research,” explains Prerna Kaul , Product Lead for Alexa AI at Amazon.

Make the right decisions at the right time

User data can inform your decisions and help you prioritize them according to the goals of the business. “Make choices regarding the evolution of your product and find the right balance between what you want to deliver to improve the user experience, and the benefits it’ll bring to your company,” advises Matthieu. Without product research, you’re building products in the dark with no idea whether your target audience will like or buy them—which could mean wasted resources and sinking revenue.

Get stakeholder buy-in

You’ve probably found yourself explaining multiple times to stakeholders why you need to prioritize one feature over another. Conducting product research enables you to “clearly articulate the customer value proposition to leadership, tech, and science counterparts,” says Prerna. Having quantitative and qualitative user insights provides reassurance to stakeholders and speeds up sign-off—while ensuring the wider organization is aligned on your product ideas.

In short, product research provides you evidence you need to start evangelizing research among your organization, and get the whole team on board.

Understand the position your users hold in the market

User research is about getting to know your target audience and building ideal customer profiles, but product research is about discovering where your potential customers are located in the market and which trending products to take note of. If your audience is already using a similar product, this means finding out: Which one? Why? Are they willing to switch to a different product? What would it take for you to get them to switch?

“Analyzing the market lets you determine which areas could be ripe for disruption or creation. By analyzing existing products and doing conceptual thinking you can build a picture of how you can get your product to gain traction in the market and offer something new, nuanced, or better than the current options,” says Nick Simpson , Head of UX at Airteam.

Challenge your assumptions and anticipate problems

When Prerna worked at Walmart Labs, her team introduced a feature for users to scan products in the Scan and Go app. “We initially believed that all of our inventory was available in a common database and accessible through the app. However, during research and user testing, we identified that some rare products were not in the online database,” she explains.

This caused test users to drop off the app, so her team had to take a step back and prioritize fixing inventory issues before launching the product. Without conducting product research, you can be left guessing at the cause of user problems, or wondering why they prefer a particular product. Research offers your team a chance to challenge what you think you know, and pre-empt what you don’t.

Product tip 💡

You can use Maze to conduct multiple tests on your product through development, such as Five-Second Tests or Content and Copy Testing , or get insights on your live product through Live Website Testing .

Product research methods

There are many different product research and UX research methods , all of which offer different kinds of data and insight, depending on your objectives. If you’re looking to conduct product research to better understand your users, market, or competitors, here are eight product research methods you should consider to help you build winning products.

1. Customer interviews

Interviews can take place at any take of the product development process and consist of direct conversations with current or potential customers. You may choose to conduct interviews with a market panel during concept testing and idea screening to validate your ideas, or you may want to speak to current users after the product goes live to gather post-launch feedback. Interviews are a varied and flexible product research method.

During customer interviews, you should ask open and unbiased research questions to gather insights about customer needs, preferences, and experiences regarding their pain points, your product, and competitors.

2. Voice of customer (VoC) analysis

Gauge what current and potential customers are saying about your products or competitor products online. You can do this using VoC tools , by reviewing what people post on social media, looking at Google Trends, or reading reviews on websites like G2.

You should conduct customer voice analysis continuously throughout the lifecycle as it can help you gain a competitive advantage. “Review what’s publicly published, check feature requests, and ask sales, customer success, or support teams for feedback coming from the user,” adds Matthieu.

For example, if a competitor gets acquired by a bigger firm and users start to complain about them removing a feature, you can use the opportunity to develop a similar functionality or improve the one you have. You can also make it more visible on-page and get the sales and marketing teams to use the information to advertise your product.

3. Diary studies

Diary studies involve users self-reporting behaviors, habits, and experiences over a period of time. This is often used during the discovery phase with a competitor product, or later down the line with a prototype. By observing how users feel prior to, during, and after using your (or a competitor) product—and their experience throughout—you can gather valuable, in-the-moment insights within a real life context.

You can conduct diary studies on paper, video, or online on a mobile app or a dedicated platform.

Data from diary research can turn into new product ideas, new features, or inform your current project. For instance, if you have a social media scheduling tool and you identify that users open a time zone calculator when they’re scheduling posts, you instantly have a new feature idea, to add a widget with different time zones.

Learn more about the types of diary study and how to conduct diary research here.

4. Competitive analysis

Analyze competitors' products and strategies to identify what works for them and identify any gaps in the market. The idea behind competitive product analysis is to explore your competitor’s products in-depth, sign up for an account, use them for a while, and take notes of top features, UX, and price points. You can run competitive analysis during the discovery, concept validation , or prototyping stages with direct and indirect competitors, or aspirational businesses.

Matthieu Dixte, Product Researcher at Maze, notes the value of competitive analysis is in understanding your users perspective: “We conduct a lot of competitive analysis at Maze because it's really important for us to understand if the market is mature regarding a particular topic—and to identify the current ground covered. This helps us understand the pros and cons our customers perceive when they choose between our product or another tool.”

Surveys can be a great way to get feedback or gather user sentiment relating to existing products or future concepts. You can also use them to dig deeper into the data gathered during other tests, and understand user issues and preferences in context.

For example, if you ran an A/B test and discovered that certain copy was causing potential users to churn, you could follow-up with a survey with targeted questions around their demographics, preferences, and personal views. This would help add qualitative insights to your quantitative data, and help understand what your users are looking for from your product.

Remember, you can create surveys at any stage of the product development to collect data from users in small or large volumes. You can use different types of surveys and survey principles to validate or debunk hypotheses, prioritize features, and identify your target market. For example, you could ask questions about your product, competitors, and prices or even your customer’s preferences and market trends.

Surveys can have a high drop-out rate, harming the validity of your data. Check out our survey design guide to discover the industry’s top secrets to an engaging survey which keeps users hooked.

6. Usability testing

Since conducting product research is also about understanding how well your customers navigate through your product and if they find it usable, you can run usability or prototype tests . Usability testing evaluates the usability of your product by asking test participants to complete tasks on your tool and seeing how they interact with it.

While typically conducted as a pre-launch check, usability testing is now widely understood as a building block of continuous research. Conducting regular usability tests is crucial to staying familiar with users, taking the pulse of your product, and ensuring every new product decision is informed with real data.

Conduct usability tests on a product research tool like Maze and record your participant’s audio, video, and screen with Clips . This offers you a mix of quantitative and qualitative data to learn why participants take certain actions to complete test tasks.

7. Fake door testing

The fake door testing method, also called the ‘painted door method’, is a way to validate whether your customers would be interested in a particular feature. “It works by faking a feature that is not actually available and implementing a tracker to know how many people click on it,” explains Matthieu.

When people click on the feature, they see a message explaining it’s not available at the moment. If the click-rate is high, you can assume there’s interest in the feature and conduct further research to identify how to design and develop it.

While it’s a quick way to gauge interest, fake door testing runs the risk of frustrating users, so if you’re using this method on a live product, you should be cautious and set a short testing period to avoid creating false expectations in your users.

8. Focus groups

Focus groups are when you gather a group of users to try your product and discuss their thoughts on the design, UX, usability, or price. You’ll offer them prompts or ask a series of user research questions to spark conversation, then observe and take notes.

This can be an expensive or admin-heavy method, as you need to rent a space, find participants who are willing to attend, and compensate them for their time. However, you can also conduct focus groups remotely through video conferencing tools. These groups are a good way of generating new product ideas or gaining deep insight in a short space of time, as you can hear directly from your users and adjust your questioning to follow up on important topics or opinions which participants mention.

When to perform product research

Source: 2023 Continuous Product Discovery Report

According to our 2023 Continuous Product Discovery Report , most teams conduct research at problem discovery (59%) and problem validation (57%), with only 36% researching post-launch.

The consensus is that product teams don’t think that’s enough—78% think they could research more often: which means there’s a big opportunity for you to implement regular research at all stages of the product research process .

Here’s when to conduct research on your product:

• At problem discovery stage to outline a hypothesis based on user insights
• During problem validation to prove your hypothesis
• During solution generation and concept development to see if you’re moving in the right direction
• As you’re screening different ideas for prioritization to identify the ones your users value most
• At solution definition and once you have your initial design to test early wireframes
• After developing a prototype to see assess usability and direction
• During validation and testing to review changes made to previous prototypes
• After development, and post-launch to get feedback and plan your future steps
• Before launching a new feature or doing product optimization to gauge users’ perceptions

Best practices for effective product research

If you only have time to consider one best practice for product research, we’ll keep it short. Just start.

Any research is better than none, and there’s a wealth of knowledge out there waiting to be discovered. If you don’t use it, your competitors will.

Now, here are six other best practices to help you improve your results and get the best insights possible:

1. Conduct research continuously

Your product is never done, at least not while the market, your customers, and technology are evolving. So, for your users to keep choosing you, you need to grow with them, adapt to trends, and keep iterating on your product. The right way to make product iterations is by conducting continuous product research, having frequent communication with your users, and actively listening to the market.

Did you know that user-centric organizations achieve 2.3x better business outcomes? 📊

By putting customers' needs front and center, research-mature organizations are driving better customer satisfaction (1.9x), customer retention (2.4), and increased revenue (4.2x). Learn more in our Research Maturity Report .

2. Focus on the business problem when presenting to stakeholders

It’s easy to get so involved in the product that you forget to mention how it helps the business when presenting research findings. To get stakeholders on board and to build great products that are profitable, always keep the business needs in mind. There’s no product without business success, so always align with your stakeholders and bring it back to team KPIs and business metrics. To convey your story, it’s a good rule of thumb to start each cross-team meeting by presenting the business problem, then sharing how adding a certain feature decision will help you solve it, before getting into the data that backs this up.

3. Embrace your curiosity

One of the biggest mistakes you can make in product research is letting cognitive biases take over the process. Work in teams and ask questions out of curiosity—consider research a way to disprove your hypothesis or challenge your assumptions, rather than a way to prove them right. As Prerna Kaul, Product Lead for Alexa AI at Amazon explains, you often gain more insight from an answer you don’t want to hear. “A huge trust-buster is when researchers sell an idea to customers and reinforce their pre-existing beliefs.” Doing so makes the user tell you what you want to hear but not what you need to know. It’s better to know that you have the wrong assumptions early on and build products that solve the right problem.

It’s non-negotiable to ensure that you are solving the right problem for the customer. Your solution is a painkiller, not a vitamin.

Prerna Kaul , Product Lead for Alexa AI at Amazon

4. Focus on the end goal rather than specific features

When you work closely with a product you’re passionate about, it’s only natural to think of all the possibilities, and minute details and features of the product. However, it’s crucial to understand that, while you might be the one making the internal decisions, the user will have the final call. Getting hung up on specific features will get you frustrated if users disagree, or lead you to make biased choices. To overcome this, you can write a research statement explaining the big problem you’re trying to achieve with the product. Come back to this before and after each decision, to keep your choices grounded in what’s best for the user.

“We always ask: Are we solving the right problem by creating this product? Is it going to have a measurable benefit to people?” says Nick Simpson, Head of UX at Airteam. “Then, we try to answer those questions through research methods to determine whether this investment will be worth it, to both business and users.” By thinking of the overall end goal at all stages, you get to build profitable products and features that really respond to that intention.

5. Take notes of everything

This one might go without saying, but it’s crucial to keep track of everything. Not just to inform future research and remind yourself where decisions came from, but to democratize research and bring the entire organization into your research process .

Set up a centralized research repository that anyone can access, and share it with your wider organization. Within the product team, keep a record of all user insights, even if they sound impossible to achieve at first. “These ‘futuristic’ thoughts or ideas are the ones that can either inform future iterations of the product or that you can creatively turn into something more feasible to design and build,” explains Nick. Keeping an organized information bank enables everyone on the team to get to know the user, the market, and why you’ve made certain decisions in the past.

6. Combine user feedback with data

While your users should be at the center of your business, don’t rely solely on their comments without checking other data. In reality, not everything people say is exactly what they do . Research participants can be influenced by any number of factors, mostly unconscious, so it’s important to use qualitative and quantitative data to reinforce each other.

For example, the users you interviewed might tell you they love a certain feature, but when you contrast those comments with heatmap data and time on page, you see that only a small percentage of your customers actually use it. Consider what research can be conducted to ascertain why this is, how you can improve those metrics, or whether it’s more helpful to refocus efforts on a different feature with a higher profit margin.

Keep learning about product research

In this chapter, we’ve covered a lot about product research:

• What product research is (and what it’s not)
• How researching your product is beneficial to your business
• The different methods you can use to conduct product research
• When to conduct product research
• Best practices for your research

Now, it’s time to kickstart your product research process in the next chapter. We’ll also talk about how to conduct product experiments and competitive analysis, so stay tuned.

Product research process

Product Management

How to do Product Research [Step-by-Step Guide]

Associate Product Marketer at Zeda.io.

Mahima Arora

Created on:

January 11, 2024

Updated on:

August 7, 2023

14 mins read

Transform Insights into Impact

Build Products That Drive Revenue and Delight Customers!

An effective and robust product research process increases the chances of product success. 

Seth W. Godin, an American author, once said – ‘Don’t find customers for your products, find products for your customers.’

The quote subtly hints at the necessity of product research. By performing product research beforehand, product managers can create the ideal product for customers. 

Did you know that 90% of new product research focuses on ‘modifications’ and ‘additions’ rather than new concepts? 

But even improving or adding new features to an existing product requires a proper product research process.   

Product research enables managers to understand the current and future needs of the users. Thus, based on users’ pain points and what they are looking for, product managers can innovate products of a higher value. 

Furthermore, organizations with a strong product research process understand the market better. They stay one step ahead of the competition and survive better in the long run. 

Now that you know how important product research is, you must dive into how to do product research right away!

So, let’s begin!

10 Steps to Product Research

There’s no single product research process that fits all the product development teams. But there are certain key steps in the process that product managers must know about. 

Here are the 10 essential steps to perform a successful product research process. Follow these steps to derive valuable product insights that will guide your product development decisions.  

1. Define your research goals

Why are you performing the research?

Once product managers find an answer to the why, they can set the goals of the research. 

Set the high-level goals first. You can set these goals considering the product strategy and vision, ensuring their alignment with business objectives. 

Next, create SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Reliable, and Time-bound) goals for the product development team to focus on during each research stage. This may include;

• Performing market research for product adoption before its release
• Finding out the key areas or features of the product to be improved after the launch
• Assessing the product performance through the product’s lifecycle.

Setting clear, measurable, and time-bound goals for the product research process guides the product team’s actions. It helps them to understand what they need to do. Also, the goals help product managers to measure outcomes and make improvements where necessary.  

2. Understand your customer's needs and pain points

An effective product research process is always customer-centric. So, start engaging in user discovery. 

Understand user pain points. Start your user research even before planning the product features. Interact with your existing and potential users to identify their needs and wants. 

Performing open-ended user research will help product managers to; 

• Measure the market demand, 
• Get inspiration for the new product
• Determine the product-market fit
• Product positioning against competitors, and 
• Increase customer satisfaction. 

Since user research is a vital part of the product research process, you can check out the best product discovery questions list . 

After the user research, when product teams develop prototypes, they can start trials and ask for user feedback. Next, the insights from feedback can be used to improve the product. 

3. Perform competitor and comparative analysis

The next step in the product research process is to know the competition. 

• Start with competitive analysis . It involves reviewing the products that are directly similar to yours. For example, if a company sells smartphones, it is directly competing with other companies selling smartphones (like Samsung and Xiaomi). 
• Next, perform a comparative analysis . It involves evaluating the alternative options for a product. For instance, an automobile manufacturer can compare the safety features of multiple car models to measure the sales of each and identify the features that require improvement. 

Performing the analyses will provide insights that product teams can use to make the product better. 

4. Study the market

Besides performing competitive and comparative analyses, product managers must run thorough market research to map the available opportunities.

Here are a few ways to study the market thoroughly;

• Use the historical market records, and research reports by academic institutions, government agencies, and trade associations. 
• Observe and analyze the competitors’ strategies like advertising, pricing, and distribution of products. 
• Read up on blogs, magazines, social media posts, and other specific content related to your space.
• Run keyword research to understand what your users are looking for. This can help you generate product ideas too. 

Once product managers validate a viable market for the product and determine the market saturation, the development teams can focus on the product's USP (Unique Selling Points). 

5. Conduct research using qualitative and quantitative methods

Further, product managers can use both qualitative and quantitative methods of market research. 

Qualitative methods – The qualitative methods of market research aren’t statistically significant. These methods help product teams to understand the potential customers at a deeper level. Individual interviews, focus groups, observations or follow-me-homes, and interviews with professionals or field experts are a few qualitative methods you can utilize for market research.

Quantitative methods – Quantitative methods include conducting surveys, polls, or sending out questionnaires. Through quantitative methods, product managers study a large enough pool of respondents in their target market to have reasonable confidence in the collected data. For organizations with a limited budget, you can rely on the survey reports of other organizations in the relevant field.

6. Know the industry trends

Stay on top of the industry trends by updating your knowledge regularly. Observe the tech trends that may impact users’ expectations of your product or its viability in the long run. 

Engage with the tech cultures – read blogs, news, and magazines, listen to tech podcasts, follow the latest tech updates on social media platforms, forums, etc. Product managers can also use tools like Google Trends, Trend Hunter, etc. 

The IT teams in organizations also serve as a key source of tech information. Product managers can interact and take regular updates from them. 

The industry trend updates can also help product managers to research future projections, disruptive technologies, and the chances of product category obsolescence. Thus, with these insights, the product teams can create products that are likely to be in demand in the future. 

7. Validate product ideas

After thorough research, product teams can test ideas and solutions.

Based on the extensive research data, you can identify the possible products, their key features, or improvisations that can meet the user's needs. Further, you can perform concept testing to examine user experiences with concrete product ideas.

To start testing, identify the key users to test. Get participants for interviews, focus groups, or implement surveys, feedback tools, etc., to test the ideas with the existing users. 

Product managers can also ask questions and assess user responses. Or, they may simply explain to the users the product concept using wireframes and mock-ups.

8. Build your product and test the MVP

A crucial step in the product research process and the most conclusive market research that product managers can perform to ensure product success. It is only after a lot of effort that product teams get to the point of testing MVP (Minimal Viable Product).

Testing MVP is all about creating the MVP and trying to sell the product or the product idea to the target audience. Several types of product testing, like card sorting, tree testing, etc., tell whether or not users can navigate your product easily, to find the different functionalities they are looking for. 

Further, product managers can run a regression analysis, quality assurance, and performance testing to check the MVP functionalities. Running these tests helps the team to identify the areas where changes are needed.  

Multivariate tests and A/B tests are helpful when the user base is split into different groups and each group has different products or product features. These tests help product managers to choose the perfect iteration.

9. Derive findings and insights from the market research data 

The market research data is of no use unless you convert them into findings and insights. 

Products managers and the product team must analyze the data to find out conclusive outcomes that can support their product decisions. 

The team can then start building the final product or improvise the MVP based on the research insights. 

10. Use the analysis to guide your product strategy

The final step in the product research process is to convert the research insights into action. Cut through the noise and gather valuable customer-centric insights .

Then, you can use the research to create a strong product roadmap and strategy to guide the entire product development process. When you perform new research, ensure to compare the strategy and roadmap to keep them updated. 

Further, the research should also be used to make regular decisions, drive product backlog management , and create the basis for your product storytelling. 

7 Tips to Conduct an Effective Product Research

A strategic approach to performing the product research process is essential. But alongside the planned strategy, product managers must consider a few tips or best practices to conduct the product research successfully. 

1. Research highly-demanded products

At the initial stage, when you do not have a product concept, get inspired by the products high in demand. 

Check out trending hashtags, reviews, comments on review sites, and bestsellers list to find out the most popular products in your space. 

Here, the goal is not to imitate the product in demand. It is to keep an open mind, ascertain the demand level, and evaluate if the product idea is awesome or not. The product manager’s goal is to perform an honest evaluation and get back to brainstorming with the collected inspirations.

2. Read about similar products

When performing a competitive analysis, read reviews and case studies on the products. 

Product reviews are gold mines. You can find out what users like about the product and what they do not. Reading the reviews carefully can give you a list of the customer pain points. 

Similarly, product managers must download or buy case studies from companies that sell similar products. The case studies generally include the product-related challenges and how the company solved them. 

Evaluating reviews and case studies allows product managers to think through the potential issues and keep the solutions handy. Also, they can identify the product features that can be made better than that of the competitors. 

3. Host a focus group

Evaluate your product by bringing in people who fit your target market. Give them a product profile – what the product will look like, its features, and benefits. Then, ask relevant questions concerning what they like and dislike about the product.

Though focus groups aren’t effective all the time, they can help product managers to get an idea of what people would say about the product. 

Providing the focus group with an MVP or prototype works better. The feedback received is more valid and meaningful. 

4. Get expert product engineers

Product managers can hire product engineers to get unbiased opinions on the product prototypes. 

The experts work on a contractual basis. They evaluate the product design, and features, test prototypes, and ensure quality and usability. 

If required, product engineers can also assess the market research, build design ideas, and supervise production. 

5. Consider product marketing

Building the product is not the end of the product research process. Not overlooking product marketing is one of the best practices to follow. 

Product managers must give equal importance to product positioning and marketing strategy. They can check out the competitors to understand;

• How they promote their products
• Whether or not their marketing strategy is successful
• How to make improvements in the strategy

Further, considering the target market is a must. Try answering questions like;

• Where do they mostly shop?
• What are their interests?
• What are the social media platforms and communication channels mostly used by the target market?
• Where do they discover the products from?

Considering these aspects, the marketing strategies, campaigns, and distribution channels must be planned. 

6. Go for a soft launch

A trial or soft launch allows product managers to estimate sales. If the trial results aren’t satisfactory, they can modify the product before spending more on its marketing.

Soft launches need not be expensive. You can create a simple landing page for the product and then run a PPC or Pay per Click campaign to assess the demand. 

You can also provide a form that interested users could fill up. Explain the product to those who inquire, maintain communication, and notify them when the product is available. 

7. Continue product research

Continue your research even after the product launch . Ask for customer feedback, measure the outcomes of your marketing campaign, and track metrics like repeat purchases, new customers, etc. 

Further, track competitors too. Observe their strategies and emerging trends. Also, test new strategies like referral programs or loyalty programs. 

Product Research Tools

Building a user-centric product isn’t easy. Product managers must be equipped with the most effective tools. They must take every bit of help available to them. 

A product research tool is something that can help the product teams a great deal. It helps in making product management a more organized and structured process. Further, using these tools, product managers can get data-backed user insights and accurate research findings.

Check out the best 5 product research tools you can invest in.

Zeda.io is one of the best product management tools that you must invest in. It is a platform where you can; 

• Collect feedback, ideas, and feature requests from customers, 
• Analyze the data from a single dashboard, convert them to actionable insights, identify trends
• Plan product roadmaps , create live roadmaps, and share them with teams and customers
• Prioritize product tasks with prioritization frameworks like RICE
• Execute the product development process in collaboration with teams

In a nutshell, Zeda.io is the all-in-one product management software that allows you to build a product seamlessly and in an organized way. 

Also Read: Top AI Tools for Product Managers and Product Teams

Zendesk is a tool that helps you maintain interactions with your customers. It is a platform that allows collecting, understanding, and responding to user feedback .

Using Zendesk, product teams can listen to customer issues, develop a response plan, and deliver solutions to address their concerns.

Simply said, Zendesk ensures carrying out regular customer conversations as they are an integral part of the product research process. These customer conversations provide direct insights into customers' thoughts opinions, suggestions, and challenges. 

Thus, you can learn from customer feedback and incorporate changes, and better features in the product to ensure an incredible user experience. 

3. ProductPlan

In the product research process, the product research eventually converts to a product roadmap. It is the product roadmap that highlights the present and future priorities, workflows, product vision, and product progress. 

Once you have come across the research stage, the focus is on building the product roadmap. ProductPlan is the platform you can use to build visual roadmaps. The tool helps in maintaining flexibility, team collaboration, and efficient addressing of issues.

Here’s why you should get ProductPlan in your product research tool stack.

• It is easy to use
• It allows customizing roadmaps with lists, layouts, and timelines
• The drag-and-drop interface helps in tailoring the roadmaps according to one’s needs
• You can collaborate with teams, tag the members, and also comment within the roadmap

Another must-have product management tool, Jira ensures a hassle-free product journey from prototyping to product launch.

Jira is a project management tool that primarily helps with;

• Organizing project tasks
• Managing scrum and agile teams
• Capturing and recording software bugs 

With Jira, agile product teams can manage their workflow seamlessly. The tool offers 300+ integrations, is highly customizable, great for managing product issues, and overall effective product management. 

5. Proto.io

After you have built a product, you cannot release it directly to the market. User feedback and validation are required. So, instead of building a full-fledged product, you create an MVP or prototype with the basic features for testing the waters first. 

This is where Proto.io comes in. Proto.io is one of the leading prototyping tools that help you build a prototype quickly and easily. 

• Proto.io has a great interactive drag-and-drop interface that lets you create the prototype to test each product feature or idea based on your research. 
• It is user-friendly with integrated icons and easy image management

Thus, Proto.io increases your research efficiency. It helps you to offer customers an amazing product experience resulting in better customer satisfaction. 

Also Read: Choosing the Best Product Discovery Tool: Top 5 Picks

Final Thoughts

How to do product research is a common but complex question. Not all organizations use the same way to perform product research. But the product research process does have a few key steps that are crucial for its success. 

Throughout the process, just remember that product research is all about user research. The main goal is to understand the users, their needs, and their pain points. 

Once product managers implement the user-centric approach, they can build better products – the products that would meet the ever-changing demands of the market. Further, it will increase customer satisfaction and inspire loyalty.

With platforms like Zeda.io , your product research process can get easier. You can seamlessly perform user research using Zeda.io ’s product features like the central dashboard, prioritization framework, building live product roadmap, easy tracking, sharing roadmaps with teams and customers, etc.  

Suggested Read: The Product Management Process: 6 Essential Steps

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• How to conduct effective product research

Last updated

27 March 2023

Reviewed by

Product research is a continuous process from the early stages of product development through testing a beta product to follow-up once a product is released. It evolves throughout, ensuring the product meets customers' needs and how it can be improved moving forward.

• What is product research?

Product research begins with a concept of the product and helps determine if that product is viable and has a place in the market.

There are certain stages to product research; how many you need depends on whether you are developing a brand-new product or refining an existing one.

Stage 1: Is there a market?

The first step in developing a new product is to determine if there is a market. You must determine who your customer will be and what pain point your product solves. You also need to establish who your competitors are and how their products meet or don't meet your customers' pain points . 

What differentiates your product? If there’s an opportunity, how large is the potential customer base ? Can it do a better job?

Stage 2: Does your prototype/beta meet the needs of customers?

Once you know you have a market, you need to test the concept of your product to determine if it meets the needs of potential customers. This may take several rounds of testing, tweaks, and iterations before people can use the solution without help or prompt. Then it is ready for development.

Stage 3: Soft release

Once you have a workable product, you release it to a targeted group of potential customers to determine how it works in the real world. At this point, you are looking for bugs, feedback, and suggested improvements, so you can make necessary changes before the release of the final product.

Stage 4: Post-release follow-up

After releasing your product, you can't just drop product research. You need to determine how much customers like the product, what improvements they would like to see in future versions, and how their needs might change in the future. In other words, as long as you’re trying to sell your product in a dynamic, fast-paced market, you need to continue doing project research to keep up with changing minds and markets.

What are the main elements of product research?

The key elements of good product research are:

Historical research about your industry

Establishing competitors and their products

Reviewing your concept to determine its validity

Testing your product prelaunch

Surveying following the release of your product to target improvements

• Why is product research necessary?

Developing a product or trying to improve one without product research is like target shooting in the dark—you might hit the target eventually, but your chances are much greater if you have a bright spotlight shining on the bullseye. In the product space, missing the target will cost you more than just bullets. You will spend incredible amounts of time and money while your competitors are getting ahead of you.

Product research creates that bright spotlight by allowing you to:

Learn about your customers

Understand their pain points

Develop a product to best resolve those pain points

Know how to market your product to address those pain points

Without research on those issues, you're making uneducated guesses about what your customers need . You can never satisfy a customer if you don't understand their requirements.

• Types of product research

Product research is conducted through many channels. The more thorough the research, the better your chances of developing a product that will appeal to your potential customers. Types of product research are varied, including:

Sourcing historical data from trade associations and research groups

Running customer surveys , interviews, focus groups , etc.

Having beta and soft releases where customers use your product and provide feedback

Gauging how satisfied customers are with the final product

Looking ahead to improvements that will keep the product fresh in the future

We’ll look at these in more depth later in the article.

What’s the difference between market research and product research?

Let's say you have the idea to develop a calendar app for small service businesses, such as hair stylists or nail salons, that allows customers to schedule their own appointments. Market research will help you determine such aspects as:

What competitors are in the market

How their calendars are serving small businesses

Whether their price point is an issue

Whether glitches allow calendars to double-book appointments

Whether existing calendars work for multi-seat businesses

Once you have a handle on the market you’re stepping into, you can start product research by testing your solution with your potential users. Again, it’s a good idea at this point to also research and brainstorm with your users about what they’d ideally like to see. This way, your concept isn’t just your idea, but one already validated by the very customers you’re hoping to target.

Next, you can test your prototype with users, make the tweaks and eventually release your product to the world, keeping tabs on its validity.

By including product research at every step in the designing and releasing process, you can ensure the user interface is easy to understand and use, and ultimately solves the problem users need it to again and again.

• Benefits of good product research

Good product research guides every step of product development. It gives everyone in your company the necessary tools to develop a product that meets customers' pain points and achieves your business goals.

The benefits of good product research include:

Allowing you to identify potential customers and their pain points

Guiding the development of a product that meets those pain points

Preventing you from wasting time and money on activities that don't meet those pain points

Testing your product in real-world situations to determine if it meets its goals

Saving you from developing unwanted products

Keeping you ahead of your competition by knowing what customers need, direct from the source

The exact method for conducting effective product research will vary by product and market, but following these four methods will lead you to the best results:

Use accurate, unbiased data collection methods

You're starting your product research with the hypothesis that the product you envision will solve your customer's pain point in the best way. But that's just your hypothesis. To test your theory, you must conduct accurate, unbiased research.

Sometimes this means letting a third party handle your customer surveys and focus groups. Survey recipients or focus-group respondents are more likely to give honest feedback to a third party.

A third party can help you craft survey questions that will give you honest answers, not the answers you are hoping or expecting to hear about your product.

Developing a product with inaccurate information is as bad, if not worse, than developing a product with no product research.

Conduct a thorough competitive and comparative analysis

As you enter a market niche, you need a thorough understanding of where your competitors stand and how they are serving and not serving your potential clients. This is a competitive analysis .

Your potential customers may have other options for addressing the same need but not in your niche market. Understanding how those options could affect your product is a comparative analysis .

For example, if you think you can build a better tennis racket to serve players who only play occasionally, you'll need to compare your product with others at a fairly low price point to develop a competitive analysis .

But maybe your potential customers feel their exercise needs can be equally filled by playing pickleball or badminton. Determining how your product would fare against those products would be a comparative analysis.

Leverage existing research material

You don't have to reinvent the wheel to conduct quality product research. Trade associations, academics, research groups, and government agencies may have already done much of the heavy lifting. These groups often conduct thorough research on marketplace analysis, trends, and projected changes.

Studying social media and influencers in your field can help you stay current with product development and gain foresight on when a product might be going obsolete.

Base your research on your business goals

At this point, we hope it’s apparent how critical product research is, but you shouldn’t do research without knowing why you’re doing it. To make research as effective as possible, it must be structured against business goals. These should be measurable metrics with associated dates and timelines, with clear processes or tools with which to check them.

A basic example is increasing the number of visitors to your marketing site. To set a proper goal metric, you should be explicit. For example, “By April 25, new visitors to our marketing site should increase by 10% from the 5,000 we’re currently receiving every month.” If this is announced to your marketing team in January, they can request research be carried out that will determine exactly what would give them this result. Knowing the goal, researchers will know what research methods would work best and the timeline and scope they’re dealing with.

As a bonus, working with metrics can virtually eliminate unnecessary heavy management and ultimately give your team the autonomy they need to succeed. They will know without guidance if they’re off target and will be empowered to determine what steps are needed to realize the goals you want your team to achieve.

• Methods of product research

Many methods of product research are available. Use a range of these to get the full picture of how your product should be developed and/or improved to meet your potential customers' pain points.

Concept testing

Often, before even designing a product, you might want to test the concept before spending money and time developing a non-starter. Once you have identified potential customers or people using a competitor's project, you can pitch the concept of your product to them to determine if they feel it could fill their needs.

Concept testing can be done through surveys or interviews. Bear in mind that interviews could give you more back-and-forth feedback that would be beneficial to growing your product beyond its initial concept.

Price testing

Price testing should be conducted at an early stage to determine where your product might fit in your industry, but it should remain open to further testing down the line as the product becomes more concrete. As you make improvements to your product over time, the market might bear a greater price than your initial research suggests.

Finally, there are several testing methods you could use to encourage purchases, for example, using anchoring to list prices next to more costly packages or products to make them seem more affordable.

Product tests

Once you have developed a beta version of your product, you'll want to begin product testing with some potential customers you discovered in your early research. These customers must test the product in real-world situations to determine if it works as designed, contains any glitches, and meets their pain points.

Their input will guide improvements that need to be made before you launch your final product, with continual validation and checking of analytics post-launch. Your product should stay fluid and your product process iterative.

Focus groups

Focus groups can be used at various stages of product development to give direct feedback about your product.

They can be composed of potential customers or other experts in your field, such as academics, researchers, or retired executives who could give a more defined analysis of your product than potential users. They can also be a mix of users who have or have not had experience with your product to offer new insights and perspectives.

Product surveys

Product surveys provide useful feedback after the release of your product, as real-world users can give more detailed information about the product’s pros and cons. You can better address how your product performs in comparison to your competitors’ and identify improvements in the next version of your product.

What are product research questions?

Product research questions are the questions you ask potential customers through interviews, surveys, or focus groups, to determine their pain points and how a product can meet those pain points.

Having a third party help you develop these research questions will take the bias out of the equation to ensure you are getting accurate data.

• How to measure the success of your product research

With measurable metrics in place, your research efforts will be much more likely to help your team achieve its goals. However, it’s important to remember research in and of itself shouldn’t be measured as successful just because you’re aiming for these metrics. Good research should remain unbiased and seek the truth, rather than continually bringing your team great news.

If you really want to hit your success metrics, you need to focus on using the correct research methods, rules, and tools to seek truthful answers to the questions you’re asking. This is when research can be deemed successful.

Judging your product research will become more clearly defined once you have clear questions based on the business metrics you’re aiming for. Sometimes your first research method won’t find the answers, but it will always show you what you didn’t know before and often lead you to what you should do next. Conduct the necessary follow-up research and let the results guide you.

Once you have the answers you need from the research, the insights should enable you to move ahead with product development.

Ask yourself the following questions to judge whether your product research has been successful:

Have you structured the best design methods so that the resulting data can help the necessary stakeholders work toward the business goals?

Have you been able to make actionable suggestions to teams based on educated and data-backed solutions?

Have you been able to understand the problem statement more clearly after analysis?

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What is Product Research? Methods, Process, and Benefits

Product research is a vital initial stage that starts well before the product development process . Successful product research teaches product teams about 

• how to shape a product idea
• what similar products there are on the market already
• what is the best way to develop and advertise the product
• whether the product will be a success in its market

The process of product research will also teach you about what customers want and how to adjust your strategy to meet their needs. Surveys are a great tool to get this process started.

But product research does not just happen in the initial stages of product development. Well-seasoned product managers know that the process should be continuous. Businesses that perform best conduct regular product research to stay ahead of their competitors .

Without proper product research your chances of success, like your product decisions , will be random. Learn from the market and your customers to perform data-driven and customer-centric decisions.

Product research methods

The optimal method of gathering product research data will vary depending on whether you are launching a completely new product or a product update.

If you are working on new features for an existing product, your goal is to examine product satisfaction

• customer needs and pain points
• how those needs have changed over time
• how users are adopting new features

Then use this information to decide which initiatives you should prioritize and what to concentrate on within the updates.

If, however, you are developing an entirely new product, you likely won’t yet have a customer base or any historical information about user behavior. You’ll have to concentrate on learning about competitors and the existing market your product will fit into.

Let’s have a look at some ways you can obtain this information.

Product surveys are a great way to learn how existing and potential customers feel about your product. 

These surveys can include questions about what consumers think of your product

• what frustrates them the most
• what the most needed improvements include
• what their favorite features are, and more.
• You can also gain insights into how these aspects compare to that of your competitors.

Product surveys can be sent via email or link , in-app , in-product , or through your website . This is probably the most convenient, affordable, and effort-efficient way of gathering information to fuel your product research.

Another kind of survey that can prove useful is a quarterly-basis NPS survey . The open follow-up question can be a great source of new product and feature ideas.

You can also run in-product surveys to see what potential struggles your customers come across. Pair this with session recordings and heatmaps to get a complete picture. Survicate integrates with products like FullStory and SessionCam to facilitate this process.

💡 YOU MAY BE INTERESTED IN: After scenario questionnaire survey template

Customer interviews

At Survicate, we run product research surveys in which we ask customers about their needs. The surveys end with the following question:

“Would you be interested in talking with our team once we work on that feature?”

That way, we can recruit candidates for user interviews and usability testing .

This feedback from sales calls is a great way to get qualitative data on product ideas and concepts.

Lastly, we use Intercom conversations with customers to gather additional feedback and input on silent launches. Respondent attributes identify customers who would be good candidates for product testing .

Concept testing

Concept testing is the process of surveying users about a potential product . You can learn how they feel about it and whether they would be willing to purchase such a product were it available on the market.

This method is very versatile, as it can happen online, over the phone, or through real-life interviews. It can be difficult to obtain a sample of potential clients willing to provide you with feedback, so we recommend using a customer feedback tool to facilitate the process.

Focus groups

You can find focus groups of people who already use a product similar to the one you are thinking of developing. You can enquire about things like an optimal price , the most important features , and features they are missing in their current solution.

This can help you estimate your budget, product development strategy, spending, and profit margins. You can also find out about the qualities of your product that will make it unique and outbid your competitors.

To eliminate bias , choose third-party interviews or online surveys .

Usability testing and demos

Conduct product testing once you create a test model of your product. Show it to potential customers to get their feedback. This can also include having them watch a demo if you don’t yet have a beta version of your idea.

As above, surveys can be a great way of learning about their experience.

When to perform product research

Product research usually happens at these four stages of a product’s (or product update’s) lifecycle.

Before launch

Product research before launch lets you figure out what the competitive market is like, what features are missing but in demand, and what aspects of your product you should prioritize.

Testing and feedback

Once you have a beta version of your product, you can perform testing. This will help you understand how customers perceive your product or its new iterations, what they like and don’t like, and how you can still improve your product.

Soft launch

A soft launch means releasing the product to a part of your customer base to see how it will work in a “real world environment”. At this stage, there is usually still no advertising, so research should focus on usability and value rather than pricing or market fit .

Post-launch

Product research after launch should focus on customers’ behavior, satisfaction , and potential struggles.

Product research process 

Product research is essentially studying users to learn their needs and expectations for your product. Start with general information about the competitor landscape and end with detailed data like pricing , subscription plans, and visual design.

Analyze the competitive landscape

A part of product research should always include an analysis of your competitors' products, audiences, and processes.

Even if you are the first to market, you’ll have some indirect competition you need to be aware of or maybe even drive inspiration from. You’ll also likely need to do extra research to ensure there is in fact a demand for your product.

The existence of competitors is not always a bad thing. It at least confirms that the market has been validated. But you will need to come up with ways to differentiate your product and break through the crowd.

Find out how competitors reach their audience and what they do to retain customers for as long as possible.

Evaluate the size of your market

The first step in determining your market size is defining your potential customer . You have to know who you are going to cater to in order to estimate how large that target market is.

We recommend running a demographic survey among users of your competitors.

Market segmentation research

Once you have an idea of who your customers are or are going to be, you can categorize them into segments based on specific characteristics.

This will help you figure out the optimal ways of reaching them, meeting their needs and expectations, understanding struggle points, and learning about their goals.

Product feedback

Test your product before launching it. Use different marketing strategies, pricing options, and distribution methods to learn what conditions your product will thrive in.

We have many product feedback surveys that can help evaluate key aspects of your idea. Most notably, examine your users’ onboarding process …

… product experience …

…and usability of your product .

Price testing 

The price is a huge aspect of your product. Of course, you want to be as competitive as possible, but at the same time, you want to make the biggest profits possible.

Use a product pricing survey to learn about demand elasticity and the relationship between product demand and pricing.

Customer research

Learning about your customers or who your customers will be can help you make better product development and advertising decisions.

For example, you may find you have an international audience, in which case it may make sense to make your product or service available in multiple languages . 

Find out who your existing customers are to come up with ways to reach new potential clients.

You can also query customers who have recently stopped using your product to learn about ways of preventing churn .

Ask your customers about features they are missing in your product . If they are considering switching to a competitor, you may be able to prevent this by ensuring them you are working on an update.

And always stay on top of customer satisfaction to learn when you need to make changes to your product or its aspects.

Automate your product research

Product research and development should be a continuous process. In the modern world, it’s not enough to develop a great product and call it a day . Use a great product feedback tool to keep gathering customer insights that will drive growth to your business.

With a tool like Survicate, you can automate your surveys to be sent at regular intervals as to reduce your employees’ workload. 

All results are compiled in one place - our dashboard. The analysis panel generates survey reports in real-time.

You can also use ready-made visuals to get information across your entire team.

Segment results

Product research does not end with successfully gathered data. The last step is to use it to fuel product decisions that will realistically improve your product and customer experience , and drive brand growth.

Segmentation of results should be based on business goals and your KPIs. This step ensures data is not wasted and reaches appropriate teams. It will also help plan short-term and long-term goals so you know what data you might need in the future.

For example, tracking user pain points that an update didn’t solve might be helpful in the future when building new features. Documenting what went well during your last product update will help you design your roadmap more efficiently.

Benefits of successful product research

Let’s quickly run through what you can gain through thorough product research.

Identify user needs that your product can solve

Product research will not only help you boost innovation within your product, but it will keep your accuracy in check, too. You’ll be sure that the changes you are implementing actually align with user needs.

Understand the struggles and pain points of your customers

While customer feedback like your CSAT and CES scores are great ways to find pain points, you have to remember they are tied to your customer service and are solicited in nature.

No great business strategy should rely on great customer service to fix issues with the product setup. Make sure you are surveying your customers on the developments they’d like to see. Product research also provides you with behavioral data and insights to build optimal solutions.

Identify potential wins that will differentiate you from the competition

Product research will also help you gain a competitive edge. Researching the market and competitive landscape with help uncover market gaps you can fill with new features or products.

Design modifications in your roadmap to successfully hit KPIs

Successful product research will make prioritization simpler and more efficient. You’ll know what features users want and which ones make them consider leaving you for a competitor.

You can make sure the most important changes are lined up in the near future and your backlog is optimized. The entire team will be aware of which initiatives to work on next to improve customer satisfaction .

Use Survicate to make your product research effective

The best way to learn about your customers’ needs is to understand their behavior in context. Place surveys and feedback widgets in high-traffic visitor points for optimal feedback.

Survicate offers both website and in-product surveys to help you gain insights into customer needs, pain points, and feature ideas. There are over 125 survey templates that go well beyond your usual NPS , CSAT , and CES campaigns.

💡 YOU MAY ALSO BE INTERESTED IN: Product research survey template

Survicate integrations with tools like Slack also make closing the loop an automated process. Set up notifications and communicate with customers immediately after receiving responses.

Wrapping up

Product management centres around product feedback . If you don’t take advantage of this process, you are at risk of missing users' needs and wasting your product development budget.

Understand what will make your customers happy and build a customer-centric product that will break through the competition. Organize your product research with Survicate to get insightful and contextual customer experience data .

The free trial offers 10 days of access to Business plan features and up to 25 survey responses. Sign up today!

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The Complete Product Research Guide for Ecommerce Market

A vital aspect of every ecommerce journey is product research and sourcing.  

Think about it; if you don’t have the right product and at the right landed cost, then you have no competitive offer to the marketplace.

To succeed in ecommerce, you need a winning product that solves a specific problem for your target audience.

So you will have to spend time to research for that ideal product, consider the competitive marketplace for the product, and locate wholesalers or manufacturers willing to supply the product to you at a competitive price point.

Therefore, in this guide, I’ll provide you with everything you need to conduct effective and result-oriented product research for your next ecommerce venture .

3. Online Directories

3. newsletter subscription & social media follow, facebook audience insights usage scenario, 3. find out what influencers are sharing, 2. find popular products on ebay, 5. frequently bought together, 10. laptop skins.

• 5. Other's Peoples Hobbies, Passions & Interests

What Is Product Research

According to the Cambridge Dictionary , product research is “the process of deciding which new products might be successful, and the best way to develop and sell them”

When it comes to ecommerce, I take a slightly different approach to understanding product research’s meaning.

Product research for ecommerce is figuring out the current trend in the marketplace and finding winning products that can participate in that trend and sustainably generate high enough sales for you to run a profitable ecommerce operation.

Once you’ve identified the current trend, you need to find a winning product.

You can source the winning product from wholesalers, private label an existing product from a manufacturer, or go all out and develop a custom product to address that market trend.

Product research is a skill that you must learn and develop to be successful.

And I’ll outline several techniques on how to conduct proper ecommerce product research later on in this guide.

Importance of Ecommerce Market Research

I cannot overstate the importance of conducting good ecommerce market research and how the product you’re planning to introduce to the market fit.

Don’t go with your guts, do some research.  

If your gut tells you a product has the potential to be a winner – good, but still do your research.

It doesn’t matter much you like the product or how well you “think” the product will do in the marketplace.

Your thoughts and feelings are irrelevant if real metrics that show the likelihood of product success do not support them.

Ecommerce market research, just like any other form of research, is crucial to get the complete picture of a product’s market viability.

The process of conducting useful ecommerce market research is more straightforward nowadays and supported by the numerous tools and apps that take advantage of big data and available at your disposal.

So why guess?

The good news is that while you’re doing the ecommerce product research, you’ll get a sense of the product’s market viability.

Hence, there’s no need to reinvent the wheel – the product research and ecommerce market research and intertwined.

All you have to do is pay close attention and observe what the data is telling you.

Let’s take a look at some of the critical areas to cover when conducting your ecommerce market research for a given product:

Research Product Market Trends

You may already have a product idea that you want to bring to market. 

If that’s the case, you want to begin by understanding how the product idea is currently performing in the market and if it’s trending.

However, if you don’t have a product idea or have one but are not entirely confident of how the market will receive it, you can always rely on market trends to gauge consumer interests.

There are several resources available to you to gauge the pulse of the marketplace, such as:

1. Print Publications

Publications such as trade journals, newspapers, and magazines are an excellent resource for understanding the market direction and trending products.

You can get product ideas by studying the ads placed in these newspapers and magazines.

Likewise, if your interest or product idea targets an industry sector, consider getting some print trade journals for that industry and observe what’s trending.

2. Local Stores

An often overlooked and underestimated ecommerce market research area is the abundance of information you can acquire by visiting your physical stores in your locality.

Visiting local stores that sell similar items gives you information on pricing, demand, and product portability.

Suppose you notice that a particular product is always flying off the shelf, and you observe people are searching for the product online, and only a few online stores are carrying it. In that case, that’s a product idea worth investigating further.

Visit various only wholesale and dropshipping directories to get an idea of what products are moving.

You can use product information listing on these directories to do keyword research to determine interest.

Furthermore, you can compare products to listings on Amazon, eBay, AliExpress, and other online marketplaces to gauge demand, pricing, and volume movements.

Research Product Competitive Analysis

Understanding the competition is another critical aspect of conducting ecommerce market research for your product idea.

When you understand the competition’s strengths and weaknesses, you’re in a much better position to identify opportunities to differentiate your product offering to give consumers better value.

So it would be best if you did a comprehensive analysis of the competition to get a complete knowledge of the landscape.

Here are some practical methods to go about doing this:

1. Competitor Inventory

The first step is to take an inventory of the competitive landscape. Who are your competitors for the given product idea?

Searching on your favorite search engine will give you ample information on existing online stores selling the product or its variation.

Also, look at online business directories to locate actual and potential competitors.

Overall, your goal is to have an itemized list of your competitors for the product you’re considering bringing to market.

2. Website Analysis

Take out time and study the competition’s websites and answer the following questions:

• What products are they offering, and at what price points?
• Look at their positive reviews and learn what they are doing well.
• Look at their negative reviews and identify areas they are lacking.
• Overall, how does their website look, and how can you do things better?
• What is their search engine ranking for their product, category, and information pages?
• What promotional offers (e.g., free shipping, discounts, etc.) are they offering to entice buyers?

These are some of the questions you need to ask yourself as you study each competition’s website.

Doing so will give you a better appreciation of the product idea, customer, the competition, and the market.

Subscribe to those competitors’ that offer email newsletters and follow them if they are on social media.

Doing this will enable you to see what offers and marketing communications they are sending to their customers.

And having that information is valuable and gives you the insights to better position your product offer for the marketplace.

How to Do Product Research for Ecommerce

Now let’s look at some of the practical steps to conduct product research for an ecommerce venture.

1. Identify Your Product Target Niche

The process of identifying an ecommerce niche should be the first and foremost in the product research.

Having a niche means focusing on an underserved target market segment with low competition or ready for disruption.

To discover a winning product is equivalent to finding the right niche in the marketplace that provides opportunities for sustainable profits.

It’s very tempting to try to do it all – sell everything to whoever. Do not fall victim to this frame of mind.

The illusion of a bigger audience can be tempting, but if you’re starting in ecommerce, it’s prudent to focus on a niche market.

And that niche market is a narrowed down sub-category within a sub-category within a category.

Depending on how wide and deep the product category is, keep drilling down to the narrowest sub-category with sizeable market interest for sustainable profits.

For example, suppose you are interested in  Electronics . 

In that case, you can drill down to  Cell Phones & Accessories , then further down to  Accessories  and further down to  Chargers & Power Adapters  and further down to focus solely on  HTC Phones .

You get the idea.

2. Conduct Product Keyword Research

Keyword research is a vital part of the product research process to identify a product niche for your ecommerce business.

When done correctly, you get insight into what billions of Internet users are searching on popular search engines such as Google.

You’ll also learn of the related keywords, allowing you to expand your initial ideas and discover new ones.

Furthermore, keyword research does not just help you with product research; it also gives you ideas on how to name your products, structure your product website, and generate content marketing ideas.

One popular and commonly used keyword research tool is the Google Ads Keyword Planner.

It’s free to use. All you need is a free Google account, which you can setup by clicking here .

Using Google Ads Keyword Planner:

1. Visit the Keyword Planner page and login

2. Click on the “Discover new keywords”

3. Enter your keywords or website URL

4. Study the search results to discover product ideas

5. Use the “Refine keywords” feature to narrow down further and discover niche ideas for a product

Doing keyword research can enable you to discover the low lying fruits – those keywords with enough search volumes and minimal competition for a profitable product idea.

Similarly, suppose you have some experience with search engine optimization (SE0). In that case, the keyword research process is a segway to optimize your website and product landing pages for proper search engine ranking.

3. Niche Validation with Facebook Audience Insights

Product research for ecommerce is a methodology that calls for constant validation of assumptions and research data.

Facebook Audience Insights is a free tool available in Facebook’s Business Manager [4] that tells you more about your followers on Facebook (if you have existing followers).

You can also use Facebook Audience Insights to research various data points on the over 2.7 billion people on Facebook. [5]

When doing niche validation for product research, you can use Facebook Audience Insights to understand the audience for a target product idea.

Having a better understanding of the audience for a target product idea allows you to design more accurate buyer personas for that product.

Facebook Audience Insights gives you advanced filters to dissect and segment a given audience.

For example, the image below shows that we’re filtering our target audience people in the United States of America interested in the “ iPhone. “

There are about 45-50 million people that meet these criteria.

You can see the demographic breakdown of that target audience on the same screen, as shown below.

We see that 58% of the target audience are women, 61% are college-educated, and 51% are married.

First, I can deduce from looking at this data that this audience has disposable income to spend.

We all know that the iPhone is not a cheap device. If I’m considering targeting this audience, maybe I will look into mobile accessories for the iPhone.

And given that this audience shows signs of having disposable income, maybe I can look at mid-to-high level accessories instead of cheap ones.

Another thing the screen shows is the type of jobs those in the audience have:

As you can see from the image above, 16% of the audience (i.e., 7.2 – 8 million) are in healthcare and medical services – again, they have money to spend.

I also see that 10% of the audience are in the transportation and moving job sector, maybe rugged and tough phone case accessories to protect their iPhone investment might be an ideal product?

Next, look at the location tab to gain insight into the population’s concentration across cities, states, and regions.

So if I’m looking to sell locally and don’t see enough population interest in my locality, it might not be a good idea to offer iPhone accessories.

As you can see, Facebook Audience Insights is a powerful tool to validate your product idea and gauge potential demand.

It’s a free tool available to anyone – so make sure you take advantage of it in your product research.

4. Social Listening for Market Analysis & Trend Discovery

You can monitor social media platforms for mentions of your competition, product ideas, brands, etc., keep track and analyze resultant data to understand the market trends better.

This practice of monitoring social media platforms is also known as social listening and is useful in conducting effective product research.

Let’s look at some practical ways to leverage social media for your ecommerce product research via social listening.

1. Discover Customer Pain Points

It’s always a good idea to bring to market products that address and solve customers’ pain points.

When done effectively, social listing allows you to gain valuable insights on what the competition is doing well and where customers are dissatisfied.

If you can learn about the shortcoming of existing products in the marketplace, you can develop new ideas on how to introduce improved products that address and fix those shortcomings.

2. Uncover Trends with Hashtags

You can search for hashtags on Instagram to discover new product ideas and study how consumers interact with existing products.

As you can see from the image below, I searched for the hashtag #phonecases , and there are over 1.7 million posts related to phone cases – that’s a gold mine of data if you take out the time to study it.

Pay attention to the “ Top Posts ” as those posts show what’s currently trending and how consumers are interacting with those posts.

When you click on any of the posts that appear in the  Top Posts , you get more insights:

The above post received over 1,170 likes within three days of posting. But what’s more interesting is the product itself and the profile.   

First of all, the post shows a picture of a unique phone case concept that I’ve never seen before.

And if I click to view the social profile:

As you can see, this is a tightly defined niche within the phone case accessories space.  

The Instagram profile for this ecommerce business has a lovely 54,000 followers of a tight-knit audience interested in their unique style of phone cases.

If you spend enough time social listing, you’ll be amazed at what you will discover.

Take a look at this post and see the comment a follower made:

Bingo! 

That’s how you discover a product idea that’s worth further exploration.

If I hadn’t logged into Instagram and spent 2 to 5 minutes of my time, I wouldn’t have come across this product concept or discover that opportunity existing for a similar idea for Samsung (Android) phones.

And that, my friends, is what social listening is all about.

Social media is agog with influencers and different brands driving the narrative.

Dive into your target audience on social media and find the key influencers in that space.  

Pay close attention to these influencers and the type of content they are sharing with their audience.

You must keep a close eye on their posts and monitor which posts are doing well – i.e., those posts that get the most likes, shares, comments, etc.

Keep track of all product and service-related posts from these influencers and look for weaknesses and gaps in the offers and opportunities for improvement.

5. Identify & Validate Product Market Trends

Identifying and validating market trends is a vital aspect of ecommerce product research.

Luckily, you can use several tools and methods to identify the market direction over a given period.

In this section, we’re going to take a look at some of these tools:

1. Google Trends

Google Trends is a free service that you can leverage to identify trending topics across different verticals over a given period.

It’s quite simple to use. All you have to do is enter the keyword for the niche you’re researching.

As you can see from the image above, I entered  phone cases  as my keywords, and the result is as follows:

The default resultset is over a 12 months timeframe. It’s a good idea to change this and get a better view of the trend over a more extended period.

For this guide’s purposes, I changed the timeframe to  2004-present , and now we can see the market trend for  phone cases  for the past 17 years.

Notice how the interest was relatively the same from 2004 until around 2010 when interest started ticking upward.

The interest in phone cases crossed the 50-point marker in 2011 and has been consistently above 50 ever since.

So this market trend tells me one thing: the interest in  phone cases  is stable with the usual seasonal spikes.

Keep an eye on interest by subregion.

On the Google Trends’ results page, you can also gain insights into which sub-regions have the most interest in the product you’re researching.

You can also learn which topics are related to your target niche and related searches.

This gold mine of data informs me that if I’m considering the phone cases niche, maybe I need to drill down deeper into opportunities in the Apple iPhone or Samsung Galaxy phone cases sub-categories.

eBay is one of the largest online marketplaces on the planet. And available data shows that there are approximately 1.6 billion live listings on the platform.

Indeed, any number in billions is big data that can be mined and meaningful information derived.

The play here is to find the most popular listings on eBay. And to do that, we take advantage of WatchCount.

Start by entering your product keyword and click the  Show Me  button.

The results page will show you a long list of products and the number of people watching them.

In our product research journey for phone cases, Google Trends informed us that phone cases for the iPhone are potentially a good opportunity worth investigating further.

WatchCount supports Google Trends data points and shows us the types of iPhone cases people are interested in on eBay.

Furthermore, WatchCount shows us the aggregate number of interests for each listing, thus giving us a better idea of potential product demand.

From the WatchCount’s data, we can see more interest in rugged shockproof and luxury slim rubber phone cases for the iPhone.

Having this sort of data available informs our product research effort.

We’re not going with our guts, neither are we guessing. We’re following the data.

6. Explore Amazon and Spot Opportunities

Here’s a fact – you cannot do complete product research for your ecommerce venture without looking at Amazon.

Amazon is the largest ecommerce retailer in the world and commands over 50% of U.S. retail sales .

There are several ways you can use Amazon to conduct product research for ecommerce.

1. Study the Best Sellers List

Amazon’s best-sellers’ list is a categorized listing of the most popular products on Amazon based on their sales volume.

As a result, the list is updated hourly and is continuously updated and fresh with up to date information.

Moreover, the best-sellers’ list provides you with a list of the top 100 best selling products in any Amazon category.

Remember, product research is about finding a well-defined product niche that is profitable.

So to better utilize the best-sellers list, you need to drill down deep into sub-categories within sub-subcategories.

Likewise, you can use Google Trend and WatchCount to investigate further trends and interest-specific products that you may find interesting.

2. Explore the Hot New Releases

The hot new and future best-sellers list is also updated hourly and shows you products that are hot right now and hot new products to be released soon.

Again, play around with the categories and drill down to identify low hanging fruits prime for profitable product ideas.

3. Review Top Movers and Shakers

Want to know which products gained momentum in the last 24 hours? Make sure you check out the top movers and shakers for this insight.

As you can see in the screenshot above, the Binoculars saw a 7,167% increase in sales within the last 24 hours!

Once again, go deep into the categories and sub-categories to review their respective top movers and shakers and gain product ideas you can bring to market.

4. Most Wished For & Gift Ideas

The Most Wished For and Gift Ideas are useful for understanding what Amazon customers add to their wishlists and gifting to friends and family.

This information is indicative of a trend that you can study for further research on ecommerce niche ideas.

Examining the “ Frequently bought together ” section of Amazon’s product pages is another good product research tactic.

For example, when I search  phone cases  and select the most rated phone case on the search results, the product page shows me other products that Amazon’s customers buy along with that phone case.

Having this knowledge expands my product research’s initial assumption, which was to focus on phone cases.

But now I see that there is equally a demand for screen protectors, which warrants further investigation.

With this information, I can consider coming up with a phone case accessory that comes with a screen protector (as a bundled product) to differentiate my offering.

7. Supplier/Vendor Insights

Take advantage of any existing relationships with wholesale suppliers, distributors, or manufacturers.

Suppliers, distributors, and manufacturers have an understanding of the market trend that you ignore at your peril.

They know what people/businesses are buying and where the demand and market trends are heading.

So reach out to these critical stakeholders in the marketplace and gain inside information that informs your product research decision.

And if you don’t have existing relationships with any suppliers, distributors, or manufacturers in your niche, spend some time and build one.

Certainly, you’ll need those relationships in the future as you look for new product ideas to bring to market.

8. Launch a Minimal Viable Product & Prototype Your Product Idea

Launching a minimal viable product ( MVP ) allows you to prototype your product idea, bring it to market and validate its potential.

When you bring a minimal viable product (MVP) to market, you’re introducing a product with minimum features that are adequate to appeal to those customers who are early adopters.

To put it differently, launching a minimal viable product is a litmus test to gauge the interest levels, validate assumptions, and test the waters.

The effective launch of a minimal viable product requires you to work with your supplier to place a test order, get a website landing page up and running, and then promote the product.

It’s beneficial to have an existing audience to target with this MVP product for purchase and validation.

A typical audience for launching a minimal viable product and effectively prototyping your product idea includes email subscribers, blog readers, social media followers, online communities (forums, Facebook groups, etc.).

9. Analyze Online Marketplaces & Find Hidden Gems

Hundreds of millions of people participate in various online marketplaces and leave digital footprints of what they want, like, need, and ready to buy.

How are you taking advantage of these footprints to support your ecommerce product research?

Let’s take a look at some marketplaces and opportunities to come upon new product ideas.

Etsy is a unique marketplace that focuses on the trading of craft, vintage, and handmade products, items, and suppliers.

With popular product categories spanning across jewelry, toys, arts and crafts, home decor, furniture, handbags, and much more, you can find any craft item on Etsy.

Most Wanted List

You can browse through Etsy’s  most wanted list  to learn unique craft products people save to their wish lists.

Best Selling Items

Scan their  best selling items list  to see products that are moving volume.

You can filter the results by  most sold items ,  best sellers , and  best selling in the top  trending categories.

This custom engraved wooden spoon picked my interest.

Exploring the product further and reading the reviews, you can see that this product is suitable for gifting based on the feedback by those who bought it on Etsy.

Most Popular Item

Etsy’s  most popular item listing  shows you the list of hot and high demand items.

You can filter this list by clicking to view the “ most sold items ” and items that are “ trending now .”

2. Popular Projects on Kickstarter

Kickstarter  is a crowdfunding platform. Anyone can list a project and find backers who pledge to assist the project come to fruition.

Available statistics  show that Kickstarter has successfully funded over 195,000 projects at the time of this publication, with over $5.5 billion pledged.

As you do your product research for your ecommerce venture, you need to pay close attention to the Kickstarter platform’s  Popular Projects .

Doing so will give you valuable insights into what project ideas on the platform are popular and getting the most pledges.

This information indicates a market trend where you’re learning what creators are creating to align with what backers are willing to fund.

3. AliExpress

AliExpress  is one of the largest online marketplaces owned by Alibaba and based in China.

The marketplace allows anyone anywhere in the world to buy products at rock bottom prices.

According to China Internet Watch, over 150 million cross-border buyers purchased products on Alibaba in 2018

This figure is probably double at this very moment I’m writing this guide.

So what’s my point?

It would be best if you kept an eye on global market trends when doing product research.

If you’re in the U.S., wouldn’t you want to be the one that discovered the latest trend in Japan and introduce it to the U.S. market?

AliExpress is an excellent platform to conduct such research.

SimilarWeb shows that over  8% of AliExpress’s traffic  comes from Russia.  

I don’t know about you, but it’s worth knowing what the Russians are buying on AliExpress and how it correlates to my country or locality from where I’m sitting.

To use AliExpress in your product research, take the following simple steps:

1. Select a Category or Sub-category

To figure out the best selling products on AliExpress, first choose a product category or sub-category, for example –  phone cases .

As I type the keyword “phone cases,” AliExpress’s AI is already showing me recommendations.

Remember our Google Trends and WatchCount’s data points pointing to iPhone owners being the leading audience interested in phone cases followed by Samsung Galaxy phone owners?

Interestingly enough, AliExpress is also supporting that piece of data.

2. Sort by Orders to Show Highest Sold

Sort the search results by  Orders  to display phone cases with the highest sales volume.

The first listing shows over 106,000 quantity sold. Using that piece of information, we can deduce that the iPhone’s liquid silicone phone cases are popular and in high-demand.

3. Filter Results by Product Rating

We don’t just want to find products with a high sales volume. We want to see those with both high sales and ratings.

You can filter the earlier search results to show only those products with a high sales volume and a 4 and above rating.

As you can observe, one thing remains consistent – silicon phone cases for the iPhone are popular and in-demand!

Alibaba is another important marketplace you can utilize to research product ideas, concepts, and improvement opportunities.

With over $91 billion  sales projection for 2021 , Alibaba is HUGE and surpassed $1 Trillion in gross merchandise (GMV) during the first quarter of 2020.

On Alibaba, you can search for items based on suppliers or product descriptions.

When searching by suppliers, Alibaba allows you to filter results by supplier location, verified supplier, and those suppliers with Trade Assurance certification.

However, for product research, it would be best if you searched by the product description.

Again, you can see the pattern –  phone cases for the iPhone  are top of the list in the phone cases product niche.

On the search results page:

Notably, the option to filter results by different phone case types is an indicator of which phone cases are in demand.

As a matter of fact, Alibaba’s AI recommends that I filter by Shock Proof, Transparent, Thin, Eco-Friendly, Waterproof, Silicon, etc., phone case types.

I can then drill down and research each recommended phone case type to identify new product ideas or product modification opportunities.

10. Research Online Communities

Earlier on, we talked about social listing and how you can use it for successful product research.

Engaging with various online communities is another form of social listing in which you’re not just observing and gathering data. 

Online communities are a useful tool for researching new products. You’re also able to ask questions and interact with community participants.

Let’s look at some of the leading online communities and how you can leverage them for your ecommerce product research effort.

Quora  is a popular online community where people go to ask questions and get answers.

The site has over 300 million monthly active users, and  Alexa ranks  it as the 80th most visited website on the Internet.

As a question and answer platform, Quora users love to ask and answer questions. Many users with considerable knowledge in their field use Quora as a platform to establish authority on a given subject.

To use Quora, begin by asking a question and observing suggestions as you type your question.

Next, you can sort the search results by questions, answers, topics, and spaces.

I highly recommend spending a reasonable amount of time studying Quora for topics, questions, and answers related to your product idea.

You’ll be surprised as to what you may discover.

2. Facebook Groups

We’ve already established that Facebook is the largest social media platform on the planet.

We often overlook Facebook Groups for product research and other marketing, customer service, etc., activities.

It may surprise you to know that over  1.8 billion people  use Facebook Groups every month.

And there are tens of millions of active groups on Facebook, which provides a great resource to the discerning for quality product research.

For the purpose of product research, focus on finding Facebook Groups for passions, hobbies, and interests that align with your niche.

Where possible, request to join the various groups you discover and participate in learning more about members’ particular interests and pain points.

Your goal here is to understand each group’s audience, their likes and dislikes, products they buy, and the specific lingo and words particular to them.

Having this level of understanding of your potential products’ target audience better aligns your product design and market communications to them.

Reddit is another online community you can use in your product research effort.  

The platform is mainly a conglomerate of various forums and sub-forums on every topic imaginable.

With over  200 million users  in the U.S. alone and north of 1.8 billion visits per month, Reddit, just like Quora and Facebook Groups, is a useful product research tool.

You can conduct product research for ecommerce on Reddit by:

1. Find Your Target Audience

You have a product idea and a concept of the ideal target audience, it’s time to find that audience on Reddit.

Finding where your target audience resides on Reddit is the tricky part, but it all begins with a search.

You can use search operators such as:

title:keyword  – for example: title:phone cases

subreddit:keyword  – for example: subreddit:phone cases

While searching, keep a list of the prominent subreddits for your keyword and the questions people ask on the platform.

2. Evaluate The Target Audience

As you spend time searching and browsing through the different subreddits on your niche, you want to gauge and document your observations on how the audience feels about your product niche, category, concept, and idea.

Also, make a list of advertisers on the different subreddits and how the audience responds to their marketing communications.

Pay close attention to comments by Reddit’s valuable users. These are comments that are pushed to the top by Reddit or UpVoted by users.

These are the sophisticated and topic-informed users on the Reddit platform, so their comments, views, thoughts, and feeling towards any topic, concept, product idea, etc., matter.

10 Great Ecommerce Product Ideas

The key takeaway from this guide is that you need to find the right product and the right landed cost (i.e., the total cost of purchase) to sell a high enough price to make profits.

Furthermore, finding the right product is what the product research aspect of ecommerce is all about.

So in this section, I’m going to show you some of the ecommerce product ideas that are trending.

By no means is this an all-inclusive list, it’s a list of product ideas and concept to get you idea bank ticking.

1. Baby Rompers

Baby rompers are a one-piece bodysuit primarily for infants. Parents love them because they reduce the number of clothing items to put on the little guy or gal.

Ecommerce websites like Punkbabyclothes.net are finding success selling fashion-oriented, fun, and stylish baby rompers.

It’s a niche worth looking into and coming up with modification and expansion ideas to make it better.

2. Organic & Natural Skincare Products

Consumers are moving towards organic and natural skin care products as opposed to those with harmful chemicals.

The marketing is growing, and the trend is sustainable.  

Since 2019 the global organic and natural skincare market has from $4.75 billion and is projected to surpass the $7 billion mark by 2024, according to Statista .

You can get starting in this niche by working with a private label or contract manufacturer. Optionally, you can buy wholesale and retail established brands.

Take advantage of resources such as ThomasNet to find U.S. manufacturers and Alibaba to locate China-based manufacturers.

3. Smart Home Accessories

You’ve probably heard of IoT.

Specifically, IoT as in the Internet of Things.

The grand vision to connect all devices on the planet to communicate and talk to each other.

For instance, your car can talk to your home’s HVAC system to turn off the heating, or your refrigerator can re-order your favorite six-pack beer when it notices you’re running out.

Welcome to a brave new world. IoT is the future.  

And don’t for a second think only Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, etc., can partake. You, too, can participate!

IoT is the underlining technology that makes the smart home a reality.

And sales of smart speaker products such as Amazon Echo, Google Nest, etc., are projected [31] to surpass $35 billion by 2025.

Take a look at Amazon, AliExpress, and Alibaba and study exiting brands to identify opportunities you can key into and be part of this new market.

4. Online Courses

Do you have specific knowledge or skill sets that your friends and family have come to rely on your expertise?

Have you ever thought of exploring the possibility of offering that as a course? If you’re not, you should.

Surely the beauty of online courses as an ecommerce product idea is that you can create one on any topic that matters to you. You don’t need significant financial investment for inventory.

If you’re an expert photographer, you can offer a photography course.

Likewise, if you’re a DJ, graphic designer, web programmer, woodworker, etc., you too can offer online courses.

5. Smartwatch

The smartwatch is another tech that presents immense opportunities for ecommerce brands and entrepreneurs.

It’s a portable smart device you wear on the wrist just like a watch. Smartwatches come equipped with touchscreen and apps that keep track of your footsteps, plan your daily activities, monitor your heart rate, and much more.

With a 19.6% CAGR and global sales projections to surpass $96 billion by 2027, the smartwatch is a profitable product idea worth researching.

6. Health & Beauty Subscription Box

The boom in subscription services and direct-to-customer (DTC) ecommerce is an opportunity worth serious consideration.

With its fantastic offering of assorted luxury items, carefully curated by category experts, Birchbox is a leading player in its niche.

While numerous companies are moving into the health and beauty subscription space, don’t let this dismay you.

There are still opportunities to focus on a highly targeted customer segment.

However, you have to think outside the box and study the people and environment around you to identify untapped opportunities.

7. Personal Safety Equipment

In 2020 we saw the rise and demand of the face mask dues the COVID-19 pandemic.

However, face masks are only one aspect of the overall personal safety equipment product mix.

Other protective items such as gloves (latex), face shields, and hand sanitizers are hot at the moment.

For this reason, personal safety pieces of equipment are an ideal product category to add to an existing brand if you’re already business.

They provide valuable cross-selling opportunities in ecommerce and can grow your average order value (AOV). 

8. Fresh Meal Delivery

If you’re passionate about cooking and your culinary mastery is second to then, you should consider turning your passion into an ecommerce business.

Yes, you can, in fact, start and monetize your passion for cooking by turning it into a product and selling it to your target audience online.

Free meal delivery is a growing industry that prepares and delivers fresh home cooking to customers who don’t have the time or skills to cook for themselves.

The meals can be delivered already cooked and frozen or in the form of a meal-making kit with instructions for your customers to follow and complete the cooking process themselves.

When considering starting a fresh meal delivery service, focus on a niche for a specific target audience.

For example, the ethnic food market is a niche worth exploring. Likewise, the same goes for people with unique nutritional requirements; that’s also a niche worth investigating.

To succeed in the fresh meal delivery business, you must provide finger-licking-good meals (if I may use that expression) to your customers.

They must also be healthy, nutritious, and free from any harmful ingredients to the body.

Word-of-mouth is essential in this industry – if your meals are great and service is excellent, you can rest assured the news will travel.

9. Handmade Products

Are you good with your hands and have unique craft skills? You can sell handmade products to those looking for authentic craft items.

Indeed, thousands of people are finding success online selling handmade products such as beauty products, personal care products, toys, pet products, and much more.

It’s important to realize that this is a passion-driven product idea.

So you need to focus on items you enjoy creating by hand and doing the necessary product research to ascertain its audience and demand online.

Laptop skins are covers made out of thin rubber or vinyl used to cover the outside of a laptop.

Available data show that they are trending back up gradually since their last peak in 2009.

The global monthly search volume is at 21,000 searches, with the U.S. accounting for 8,600 of those searches.

As we can see from the image above, people are also expressing interest in laptop skins for HP and Dell laptops specifically.

For the most part, this is a great product idea for ecommerce that you or anyone can research for consideration.

Definitely, the numbers in the data show people are showing buying-intent interest.

Therefore, you need to use the different product research methods discuss in this guide to study the competition, identify gaps and opportunities, and decide if it’s worth the investment.

Effective Ecommerce Product Research Strategies

Hunter S Thompson succinctly said, “ anything worth doing is worth doing right. “

As you embark on your ecommerce journey, the product research component is worth doing, and most importantly, it’s worth doing right.

In this section, I’ll like to go over and reinforce some of the effective ecommerce product research strategies that will ensure you find that ideal product for your niche.

1. Start With Your Passion

Your passion is that strong connection you have to something, idea, concept, activity, etc.

Before you begin your product research, take a step back and take an inventory of your passions and things you love doing.

It is easier to find products to sell online when they come from a place of passion; because the whole process is more rewarding and fun-filled since it’s an area that matters to you.

Likewise, your future customers benefit significantly from the level of quality of service and product they receive because this is a niche you know well more than any other.

When your product research is for a product niche you’re passionate about, the full knowledge you’ve acquired over the years about that passion comes to bear.

And that enables you to find the right products that accurately address your target audience’s needs.

2. Take Advantage of Latest Market Trends

Actively participating in online communities and social listening serves to inform you of the latest market trends.

Of course, knowing of the market trends and not taking advantage of them defeats the purpose.

So it would be best if you took advantage of the latest market trends when researching products for your ecommerce venture.

When you spot a trend, go through the product research methods outlined earlier in this guide to deep dive and understand that trend to learn if the product is worth bringing to market.

3. Target Audience Pain Point

Your target audience’s pain point is that particular problem that you’ve observed them complain about either via online feedback and reviews, online communities, or through social listening.

If you understand your target audience’s pain point, then you’re steps ahead of those who don’t.

When you research and create products that address the pain point, you’re ultimately positioning your ecommerce product for success.

4. Professional Experience/Expertise

Just as with your passion, your professional experience or expertise is a good starting point for researching suitable products for your target audience.

For example, if you’re a financial advisor/stockbroker with years of experience in wall street, maybe you can consider writing an ebook or designing an online course for people looking for strategies on how to grow their wealth.

Similarly, a fitness coach can create and develop a unique blend of nutritional shakes or performance drinks for gym enthusiasts.

One benefit of approaching the product research process from a professional experience perspective is that you already have industry knowledge, understand what’s lacking, and know the customers’ pain points.

So if you have professional expertise in any field and are looking to start an ecommerce venture, all you have to do is look within.

5. Other’s Peoples Hobbies, Passions & Interests

I’m sure you’re aware that you are not the only one with a passion, hobby, or interest in a given topic, area, field, activity, etc.

By the same token, I’m sure you have family, friends, and associates with various passions, hobbies, and interests.  

Therefore, nothing stops you from researching ecommerce products targeted at other people’s passions, hobbies, and interests.

In fact, this is most often the case with many brands in the market.

So take out time to research the plethora of hobbies and interests out there.  

Start by looking at magazines, Facebook Groups, Reddit, Quora, search engines, and other resources out there to find hobbies that you can target for a specific audience.

Then follow the various product research methods outlined in this guide to determine viability, marketability, and profitability.

Product Research In A Nutshell

Spending quality time and making an effort to research your product niche for ecommerce is a crucial step that you take seriously.

As I said earlier, product research is all about going with the data and not your guts.  

If your guts tell you a given product is suitable to bring to the market, prove your gut right by researching that product. 

It’s that simple.

In general, one thing is for sure – if correctly done, the product research process yields a desirable outcome.

And that outcome is a product that you can bring to market to address demand and participate in a market trend.

I hope you found the suggestions in this guide useful. I’ll love to hear your comments and feedback.

How are you currently doing product research for your ecommerce venture? What topic areas would you like us to cover on SpicyCommerce? Leave your comments below.

• Tags: Ecommerce Market Research , Ecommerce Product Ideas , Ecommerce Product Research , How to Do Product Research , What is Product Research

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21 Product Research Tips To Uncover Legit Ecommerce Market Opportunities

Darren DeMatas

February 15, 2024

[show_reviewed_by_link]

In addition to receiving commissions generated through affiliate marketing, we are able to fund our independent research and reviews at no extra cost to our readers. Learn more.

Trying to figure out how to do product research?

When it comes to analyzing ecommerce markets, there’s one thing that matters the most.

It’s a product/market fit.

Don’t get too caught up on specific products, its the product research niche that you need to key in on for your winning product.

Even if you are an idea guru that can come up with 50 good ideas in your bathroom, it is essential that you find a product/market fit to validate demand.

You don’t want to spend money and time on a product that no one or very few people want. That is why keyword research is a good idea.

Demand alone isn’t enough. You need to make sure that your niche has a marketing opportunity for your online business.

I’ve put together 21 tips on researching products to sell online.

1. Research Hashtags On Social Media To Uncover Trending Products

If you have an interest in a particular industry, you can search for posts on it using hashtags.

Step 1: Use Hashtagsforlikes To Get Trending Hashtags

Hashtagsforlikes curates popular hashtags in different categories. While their specialty is Instagram , you can use the hashtags curated to search on other social media sites.

You can either search for a hashtag using the search box or go with the drop-down on the home page. Alternatively, you can go directly to the categories .

You will get a list of popular hashtags in each category here.

Step 2: Search For Posts On Instagram Using Your Hashtags

Go on Instagram and search for posts with those hashtags.

Take note of interesting ideas and anything else that you like. Also, keep a list of those hashtags, they will be relevant for Instagram marketing  later.

Step 3: Uncover Trending Posts On Facebook Using The Hashtags

Facebook has billions of active users. You’ll get not just niche ideas here, but also insights into what your audience is willing to buy.

To start, type a keyword in the search area. You can use one of those hashtags you got in step one or an idea that you are considering.

While typing your keyword, you’ll see other popular search terms.

You could filter the results.

Ensure that you check out groups and Facebook pages for ideas into what people are interested in.

Bonus Tip – Posts with a lot of engagement – likes and comments – are signs that people are interested in that product. You can also check out those with fewer engagements for interesting ideas that you could modify later on.

2. Study Amazon Categories For Product Research That People Sell

Amazon is one of the biggest marketplaces.

There’s no doubt that you’ll see thousands of ideas if you take out time to look at each product.

However, that is too stressful. The best way is to look at the categories.

Step 1: Determine A Potential Product To Sell Or Be An Affiliate For

There is no rule against selling and becoming an affiliate at the same time.

There are other sub-sub-categories under each of those subcategories.

Step 2: Pick One To Three Subcategories That Appeal To You For Your New Product Ideas

From the list of subcategories, pick one to three of them. You can choose based on hierarchy, that is, which you’d rather sell and which you’d rather be an affiliate for.

For example, you can decide to sell a styling product and become an affiliate for hair tools.

Step 3: Pay Attention To Amazon Best Sellers

The best selling products in each category give you insight into what people are willing to buy.

From here, you can predict products that are likely to appeal to your target market for good conversion rates. Take a look and make a list of a few products that are exciting.

Step 4: Still Not Sure? Test The Market

Successful Amazon sellers always test. Don’t jump in with guns a blazing and spend $20K on untested products . If you cannot choose a product to sell, you could test the market for a while as an affiliate marketer. You’ll see what products are selling and consider the market before you decide if you want to put your label on a product.

Bonus Tip: The structure Amazon uses for the categories and subcategories is something you can draw inspiration from when designing your ecommerce website .

Note that Amazon is great for research, but if you want to scale your business, sell on your website instead. It’s not so hard to  set up a website on Shopify  or Bigcommerce. Selling on your own site will benefit your brand over solely selling on Amazon .

3. Walk Around Brick And Mortar Stores For Product Ideas

Brick and mortar stores make up 90% of retail stores . They have been here far longer than any ecommerce business, and people still buy from them. Paying attention to what they sell can spark up ideas.

Step 1: Pay Attention To Product Categories

Local stores are either general stores or specialized stores. Walk into specialized stores and look at what they are selling.

Go to the general stores too. Products are usually arranged in categories here. Pay attention to the broad category and subcategories. For example, food can be a broad category and cooking oil a subcategory.

Step 2: Make A List Of Interesting Categories

After you have spent some time in the stores, you can get a better idea of what they are selling and how profitable products are categorized.

Get a feel of that and note down for a product research you could sell. Then think of ways to adapt those products to an ecommerce business.

Instacart and Postmates are strong examples of adapting brick and mortar businesses into ecommerce brands.

4. Use The Pins and Comments on Pinterest To Source Ideas

Pinterest provides an interesting marketing mix. Getting ideas here is as simple as A, B, C:

• Take a look at your feed
• Search for pins
• Look at the comments on the pins

Your feed will only have pins in your chosen interest areas. If you can’t get anything there, modify your interest or search for pins by using keywords.

For example, handmade soap, or coconut products.

You’ll see interesting ideas and new modifications of old products.

Sometimes the comments on pins also give exciting ideas. Look at this.

A simple pin for making handmade soap

Can give you ideas on new shapes for other items

5. Use WatchCount To See What eBay Products Sell

WatchCount shows the most popular eBay products.

Using WatchCount is very easy.

Input Your Keyword

Your keyword could be your product idea.

Alternatively, you can search in a niche by using the drop-down or both.

A long list of popular products will show up in the results.

Watch Count is the number of viewers or ‘watchers’ of the product. This helps you discover products that have attracted the most interest.

From the most ‘watched’ products, you can get ideas on how to expand on your initial product.

Make a list of popular products and those you think you can combine into one product.

6. Leverage Reddit To See Practical Products That People Want

Reddit describes itself as the front page of the internet. Billions of unique visitors go on the Reddit forum every month. If you can find a product that a good number of them are crazy about, you have found gold.

Step 1: Mine The Gold In The Subreddits

There are thousands of subreddits based on different topics.

In the list of subreddits , there are many categories from automotive to business to law, etc.

Going into each one will take a lot of time.

If you don’t feel like spending so much time on that, use the search on the top right corner of your screen.

Some subreddits are more useful than others in product research.

I like buy it for life . You can see a lot of practical products here that members have used for years and encourage others to buy. Inspiration can come from here.

There are also subreddits dedicated to Amazon businesses and products. Find it on Amazon  is a nice one. People post requests on products they need and ask if they are listed on Amazon.

Step 2: Create A Reddit Account And Get Free Idea Boxes

If you stick around Reddit for a while, you may come across free idea boxes from questions like this one:

I counted 15 ideas from answers.

• Create an account.
• Follow topics
• Ask questions relating to niche ideas, and marketing and modification thoughts .

7. Use Quora To Source For Ideas And Get Feedback

Quora is global. It’s a place where you’d meet others who have tried some industries that you are thinking about.

The great thing about Quora is that people love to share details here because it is promoting their brands; People embrace Quora marketing.

You can ask just about anything and everything. Like business ideas :

Have a new product development? Ask what people think. You can also search Quora to see what others have said about it.

If a lot of people are asking a question that your product idea can solve, you are on the right track.

Create an account and add some industry/product-related topics to your feed.

8. Mine Amazon Reviews For Product Modification Ideas

Don’t have the time or budget for focus groups?

No problem.

One straightforward way to zero in on products to sell is by analyzing customer reviews on Amazon.

Step 1: Look Out For Unsatisfied Customers

Unsatisfied customers are ripe fruits of ideas. They tell you exactly what they want.

Look out for pain points, upsetting or disappointing parts of an online purchase, or what customer experiences are raving about.

It doesn’t always have to be from one-star reviews. Even four or five stars can give you something.

Step 2: Use The Gripes To Modify That Product

Take that pain point of the customer and improve that product.

Do customers wish there is an extra space with more zippers?

Write that down.

You could have product, gripe, and potential solutions to gripe.

Try to get at least two potential solutions to the issues.

You may not be able to satisfy everyone, but simple modifications from reviewers’ pain points can go a long way.

Include a section for additional modifications to the product. This section is for ideas that do not come from customer reviews, just your creative juice.

Ever heard of Amazon FBA?

This service is the process of third-party vendors who store their products in Amazon’s fulfillment centers. This will essentially take product management on the warehouse level away from your duties.

• No shipping
• Tracking returns and refunds are handled by Amazon

9. Use Alibaba To Source For Popular Ideas And Modification Inspiration

Alibaba is a mine for tons of product ideas . Not just ideas only, but also inspiration on how to modify them.

You can either

• Search for items based on suppliers or
• Search for items based on product descriptions

Searching for products based on suppliers is only necessary if you need modification ideas based on what private label product manufacturers  offer.

If that’s not you, start by searching for items based on product descriptions.

When you search based on products, you’d see tons of ideas to work with.

When I searched for leggings, I got yoga leggings as a specific product.

You can decide to narrow your results to the material and age group. From my results, there are different designs of leggings. Those are style ideas. I could decide to mix two of these into one product.

Note down ideas as you go. If you want to go the private label route, use Alibaba, not AliExpress.

10. Narrow Down To Scalable Ideas

A successful ecommerce business has products that are scalable. You have to grow.

Step 1: Think Of Second Sale Opportunities

Reselling to a customer that has already bought an item from you often requires fewer touchpoints. One part of that is upselling and cross-selling.

Think of products that match the ones on your list.

For example, if you plan on selling yoga leggings, yoga mats are an option for cross-selling. If you plan on selling digital downloads  or consumable products like organic shampoo, you can offer a subscription.

Step 2: Get Second Sale Opportunities From Amazon

You can get inspiration from Amazon in the ‘frequently bought together’ area for items you can cross-sell with your product.

Step 3: Check If Your Ideas Qualify For Online Ads

Another thing you should look into is whether your ideas qualify for Facebook and Google ads. These are critical marketing avenues, especially for new brands or products, so you don’t want to miss out.

Some products don’t qualify for Facebook ads; there’s a list, from prohibited to restricted content.

Google also has restrictions . One of them is counterfeit products.

If the products do not qualify for ads, it will be harder to market. As an ecommerce startup, it may not be worth it to stick to those products.

11. Use Jungle Scout To Validate Product Demand

When doing product research, it is not enough to get scalable products. You need to validate product demand.

Jungle Scout  is one tool I recommend for Amazon product research. But there are alternatives.

Before you can use Jungle Scout, you need an account.

When you have set that up, click on Keyword Scout on your member menu.

Type in your product idea. You can specify a category if you want.

The ‘exact match search volume’ is the search volume of your product. This shows you how many people are looking to buy it. Shoot for 5K and above.

You’d also see similar product ideas below with search volume for each of them.

12. Use Jungle Scout To Uncover Products With Low Competition

The more saturated the market is, the lesser your chances are of selling, especially as a new brand.

I use Jungle Scout Niche Hunter for this. The Niche Hunter uses the number of reviews a product has. If a lot of the product listings have lots of reviews, that is a sign of high competition.

This is broken down into numbers in the results on Jungle Scout.

Input your keyword and search. As you can see from my results, there’s information about each product alongside the competition level. The lower the CL, the better.

13. Use Ahrefs To Evaluate Your Keyword Opportunity

It is important to evaluate your keyword opportunity to know what you are up against. You can get part of that through Ahrefs domain rating.

Step 1: Look Out For Low Domain Rating Brands

Domain rating is a metric that shows the link popularity of one website against others on a scale of 0 to 100 for a keyword. I usually look at 65 or under to determine small brands.

So, I typed ‘luxury socks,’ and I can see a lot of low domain rating sites on the first page.

This is a good sign. Small brands are ranking for this keyword.

SEO takes time, but it could take even more time, money, and effort if you are competing against big brands.

Step 2: Note Down High-DR Sites That Are Not Direct Competitors.

Websites with high domain ratings are great for backlinks. They carry a lot of weight.

Note down high-DR sites that are not direct competitors, like bloggers, influencers, business and entrepreneur sites, etc.

Aim them later for backlinks and building your brand awareness.

14. Use Google Trends To Validate Demand Stability

The key to using Google Trends is treating it as an ecommerce market analysis tool and not a keyword tool.

If you are looking for a keyword tool, go to Google Adwords.

You’ll have enough keywords for your ads, but you can’t bank on Adwords  for ecommerce market research.

Google Trends is a useful tool for seeing market growth, stability, or decline. You don’t want to start an ecommerce brand with a product that wouldn’t sell next year.

Step 1: Check The Trends From As Early As Possible

Start from 2004. You need to see if interest has grown over time.

A sudden massive spike in interest may not help you on a long run. A stable trend is fine, a growing one is better. Just make sure the industry is not in decline.

This result shows that the interest in Yoga leggings has grown over time. You can also see that there’s a seasonal pattern in interest.

Step 2: Check Regional Popularity

Beneath the trend of your product over time, you can see the popularity of your idea by region.

For an ecommerce brand, you can target areas where there’s more demand when marketing. That’s if you chose to go forward with that idea. You don’t want SEO to target US audience when your customers are in the UK.

Step 3: Compare Similar Products

You may choose one idea and realize that it is a similar idea that people are up for.

Compare similar products.

15. Research CAGR To Validate Long-term Market Growth

You need some clue on market size before you become an online retailer.

Take it further with a market analysis of financial projections to know the chances of long-term market growth.

CAGR shows you if the projections look nice or not. If the market is dying for your product research, it is not worth selling.

Step 1: Use Google Search to Discover Market Research Documents

On Google search, use any of these words:

• “Keyword market growth”
• “Keyword CAGR”
• “Keyword market trends.”

In my search, I used leggings which is my keyword/idea with ‘market research.’

Any of those results could get the needed information, but it can get really expensive.

Step 2: Pay For The Document Or Dig Deeper For Free Info

It might be worth it for you to spend over $500 on a market report, but for most people, a free report is what they want.

You may not get credible information straight away if you want it for free. You will need to dig deeper.

One way to get it is by looking out for it on the websites of publishers. Sometimes, research firms give a little bit of the information in their research to those websites for PR.

This is the information that I am looking for on this site.

Step 3: Use CAGR To Validate Market Growth And Compare Ideas

When you have gotten the market information, add the data to your ideas. Compare them side by side to see products that you can build a successful brand on.

16. Uncover What Your Top Competitors Are Doing Right

Knowing who you are up against and what they are doing helps you plan your strategy. That is why it is important to identify the top sellers in your niche.

Step 1: Make A List Of Competitors

Start with making a list of all the big brands and niche sites that you know. If you need more, you can get that by searching for top brands in your niche on Google.

I searched for top brands in my example niche – luxury socks. You don’t need so many. You can use one brand to get other top competitors on Ahrefs. From Ahrefs results, you can see the market leader.

Step 2: Use Their Keywords To Validate Your Idea

Look at the keyword that these brands are ranking for to validate your ideas. You can get keywords from low domain sites.

17. Take A Sneak Peak Into Your Potential Competitors PR Strategy

Your competitors’ PR strategies give insight into their brand messages and SEO strategies that help them rank. The more you know, the easier it is not planning how you’ll overtake them.

Step 1: Use Ahrefs To Discover Their Backlinks

Start by studying the backlinks of the top brands in your niche. You can use Ahrefs.

Their backlinks give you an idea of the links doing the most work and the bloggers they are reaching out to. Note down these bloggers, you will need them later.

Step 2: Study Their Content

Take a look at the type of content they post, especially the ones with the most engagement. See what your target audience like. Also, study how often they publish content.

Step 3: Look For Gaps In Their Strategy

One way to overtake a competitor is leveraging on the areas they are not doing so well in. Look for gaps in their strategy.

Is there a type of post that they hardly get out?

Is their frequency not enough?

What about the backlinks?

Look for the gaps and leverage on them.

Think of how to reverse engineer their strategy to draw your target audience and build your brand awareness.

18. Search For Bloggers In Your Niche

Are their bloggers in your potential product niche? If not, there’s probably not enough interest.

The presence of many top bloggers in your niche with a lot of social following is a good sign.

Along the line, they can help with building backlinks, getting social media mentions, and getting sales through credible reviews.

Step 1: Use Google Search To Find Bloggers

To start, enter “keyword intitle:review” in Google search.

You don’t need to get the links of all of them. Get one and use Ahrefs  to get the links of their top competitors.

Make a list of the top bloggers.

Step 2: Check Out Social Following

Then, you can check out a few of them for social following. Check the blogs to see how much engagement they have. If you see a lot of that, it is a sign that people are passionate about that product.

You can take it further by reaching out to the bloggers. Ask them if they would be interested in checking out your product.

19. Find Wanna-be/Established Influencers In Your Niche

The fact that there are influencers or that people want to be influencers in that niche clearly shows that there’s a passionate audience.

Step 1: Search For Influencers On Google

You can find influencers through Google search. Type in your niche and phrases like:

• “Tips from”
• “Advice from”
• “Chat with”
• “Interview”
• “Q&A with”

From my search, I have seen four influencers from the first four results.

This shows potential. Not just in demand, but also a marketing opportunity.

Step 2: Use Heepsy To Find Influencers Endorsing Brands

Influencer marketing is a great way to get on-demand traffic.

You may not need it at this point. However, if you want to do all your research upfront, this is a huge bonus for your brand.

For this, I use Heepsy .

You can do your influencer research using your product idea or your niche competitors to see which influencer they have worked with.

Check their engagement levels. If you can’t find good influencers after a few brand searches – it’s probably not a good niche.

Other research tools you can try out to find influencers include:

20. Identify Your Niche

If you are just starting your ecommerce business, it is important that you don’t start as a general store. You need a niche.

Some people hesitate to niche down because they think it means a smaller audience. The truth is you are targeting the exact people that are most likely to buy from you.

Even the big brands started as niches. Amazon, for example, began as a bookstore.

Your ecommerce niche is the narrow category that your products fall into. This is your:

• Broad niche
• Product category
• Who your product is for.

Identify all three. If your broad niche is beauty and personal care. Your product category could be beard oil, and who your product is for is urban beardsmen.

With this, you can tailor your interactions with your audience by using their persona.

21. Validate Your Selected Niche Using Facebook Audiences

Facebook audiences give insight into how many people in a particular location are interested in your product. You can get that while creating ads.

To Start, Create An Audience

After inserting the interests, which includes the broad niche category (Yoga, Pilates), Niche competitors and my product research (leggings), I got this:

This is way too large to target, so narrow further.

In this case, I chose a gender – female. I added an interest – parenting. That narrowed it down further.

By the time you have narrowed down your audience, you know exactly the number of people to target. As well as the average number of people that are interested in your product.

Set Up A Test Ad

You could set up an ad to test your market.

However, ensure that your customers know that your products will be shipped at a later date or is not ready.

Also, you don’t have to advertise for sales; you could advertise for engagement and getting emails that can contribute to sales when you start selling, through funnels.

Once you get a few sales, then its time to scale up your product marketing.

Product Research And Validation Is An Essential Step

Don’t ever skip it.

Almost every successful ecommerce brand that you know of analyzed their market .

I f you are still in the process of product research, you don’t have to use every tip here . You can pick out a few. Ensure your pick covers brainstorming ideas, finding demand and market opportunity, and competitors. You can check out more product research ideas on our guide for researching products to sell on Amazon .

Have you validated your ideas? Let us know in the comments.

If you still don’t have product research ideas , or how to find your niche , you can start an affiliate marketing site in a validated niche.

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How to Conduct Amazon Product Research: An In-depth Guide

Arishekar N

Did you know that selling on Amazon comes with a potential failure rate of 80%-90%? However, the 10% that do end up making it, make it big! Like they really kill it. One of the core reasons why they make it is their ability to conduct effective Amazon product research.

They fundamentally understand that only decisions backed by data result in success.

After all, in the ever-evolving world of e-commerce , consumer preferences can change in the blink of an eye and successful sellers have no choice by to adapt by staying ahead of the curve.

Use various methods to dive deep into the needs and desires of your target audience, understand their pain points, identify gaps in your competitors’ products, and ultimately, zero in on lucrative opportunities that can propel your business to new heights.

While it can be tempting, simply finding a product you like, creating a listing, and hoping for the best can be ineffective in the long run.

Therefore, we’ve put together this comprehensive Amazon product research guide with effective tips to streamline your Amazon product analysis and research journey.

Let’s jump into it!

Here is a quick peek into the article:

What is Amazon Product Research?

• Four Elements Influencing Your Product Research on Amazon
• Ways to Discover Good Product Ideas

Final Thoughts

Amazon product research refers to finding a “winning product” that could turn a hefty profit when sold on Amazon. Unfortunately, you cannot rely solely on gut feelings or passion when it comes to selling a product on Amazon.

For example, you could spend several hundred hours of time and resources coming up with a proprietary product that you think is amazing.

However, if there’s no market demand for it, then your product simply won’t sell on Amazon. Additionally, highly competitive products result in saturated niches that can be extremely hard to break into.

To effectively zero in on a profitable product, you’ll need to deploy a range of strategies to gather data, and thoroughly analyze and validate its potential for success.

Specifically, you need to consider various metrics such as BSR, estimated daily orders, estimated daily revenue, category and subcategory information, and much more. Of course, manual methods of product research may not result in gathering the same level of information as Amazon product analysis with a specialized third-party research tool.

By understanding this data, not only could you find opportunities in a non-competitive niche or the subcategory of a saturated niche. For instance, breaking into the water bottle niche can be challenging. However, there may be potential in the sports water bottle subcategory.

Four Factors That Influence Product Research on Amazon

To effectively validate a product and find lucrative opportunities, you need to consider the following factors:

Competition

Profitability.

Understanding the demand for the product is extremely important. As mentioned earlier, you could potentially lose a significant amount of money trying to sell a product without any demand or by trying to break into a category with high competition.

Therefore, without understanding the demand, you won’t be able to gauge the success of your product.

Here are some key factors that can help you identify demand for a product:

A minimum of 10 estimated daily orders

Find a product that has a higher average unit sales per day. As a baseline, we recommend you keep it to a minimum of 10 estimated orders per day.

This essentially implies that the product that you are trying to sell should have already been sold by at least one other person and should generate a minimum of 10 sales per day. This would also suggest that the product has a good demand with at least 300 orders a month on average.

Of course, there’s the question of profitability as well. Let’s assume that two products are selling at $30. Product A has an average daily order of 5 and product B has an average daily order of 10.

Now, let’s assume that both products have a profit of $10 after the Amazon FBA fees , shipping, promotions , etc. Essentially, the gross sale you make per month in Product A is $30* 5 units * 30 days = $4,500, and in Product B is $30* 10 units * 30 days = $9,000

The profit you make for Product A is = $10 * 5 units/ day * 30 days/ month = $1,500 per month, and Product B is $10 * 10 units/ day * 30 days/ month = $3,000 per month.

As obvious as this may sound, products with higher average sales units per day have better profits. Therefore, aim to sell a product that can at least bring in 9000-10000 in gross sales and at least 3,000 in profit.

A BSR of 5,000 or less in the category

Understanding the sales frequency of a product can be complicated without the right tool. However, you can find the best seller rank (BSR) for free on the ecommerce platform. Most importantly, the BSR can help you understand the sales performance of a product within its category.

Fundamentally, a lower BSR suggests higher sales. For instance, a product with a BSR of 20,000 has significantly fewer daily sales than the same product with a BSR of 2,000 in the same category.

Therefore, avoid selecting a product with low sales potential even if it has found its way to the top pages.

When zeroing in on a product, it’s advisable to have 3-5 products in the main category with a BSR rank of around or below 5,000. The more number of products you have with a low BSR, the better your chances of success.

Note : When examining the BSR, focus on the main category rather than subcategories. Keep in mind a product with BSR #100 in the Electronics category wouldn’t necessarily generate similar sales as a product with BSR #100 in the Pet Supplies category.

We recommend you use SellerApp’s Product Intelligence Tool to find products that can sell on Amazon . Specifically, use SellerApp’s unique “Opportunity Score” feature, which analyzes the product and gives a score based on the following criteria.

• Demand : It calculates the demand for the product in the category
• Revenue Potential : It estimates the monthly revenue of the product in the category
• Competition : It shows if the competition is higher or lower than the category average
• Overhead Cost : It estimates the overhead cost and shows if it’s higher or lower than the category average.
• Profit Margin : It shows you the estimated profit margin of the product compared to the category average
• PIS Index : This metric measures the scope of improvement in the product.

A high Opportunity Score indicates that the product can be highly profitable if you choose to sell, and vice versa.

The product has keywords with good search volume

Another effective method to gauge the product demands is to understand the various keywords and search volume for those keywords. If the product keywords already attract substantial search traffic, there’s no need to reinvent the wheel.

As a rule of thumb, see if the top 2-3 product keywords have at least a cumulative search volume of 10,000+ to effectively understand the demand for said product. Of course, this may vary based on your product type and niche.

Note : Stay away from a product with a very high search volume, as this niche might be too competitive to capture a portion of the market share and make a decent profit.

We recommend you use the SellerApp Reverse ASIN tool to find all top-performing keywords and search volume for the product.

Log in to the SellerApp dashboard . Go to the , and add your competitor ASINs. Here you can analyze the keywords based on search volume.

A product that promotes repeat purchases.

Selling a product that encourages repeat purchases like cosmetics paper products or packaging materials is a great way to improve customer lifetime value and your profits.

Additionally, selling these types of products can also help you build a brand and even customer loyalty.

Recurring purchases also indicate customer satisfaction and trust. They are also less likely to switch to competitors or substitutes. Most importantly, choosing to sell such a product also results in lower acquisition and marketing costs as you don’t have to spend so much money attracting new customers, as you already have a loyal customer base.

An evergreen product

Unfortunately, you need to consider seasonality as a factor when choosing to sell your product. As you can imagine, the product’s demand can fluctuate depending on the type. For example, demand for snow gloves drastically increases during winter and is non-existent in the summer season.

Some product demands also increase during specific holidays. For example, Halloween costumes or decorations.

Therefore, we recommend you get a general idea of the seasonality of the product using Google Trends. Specifically, to identify if the keyword search volume data of the product is steady across the year.

But if there’s a periodic spike in the search volume, it shows seasonality.

A business built around seasonal products may be profitable for a day or a season but wouldn’t be sustainable in the long run.

Review customer feedback

However, we recommend digging far deeper into the reviews than simply glossing over 3-5 reviews.

One of the best ways to track demand and understand the effectiveness of a product is to head to the customer review section and read the feedback.

Use the SellerApp Chrome Extension and gather all the reviews for a specific product. You can filter by verified purchases to gather insights from the actual buyers and filter the reviews by star rating, text/video/image reviews, and even geography.

More importantly, use the Product Scanner Feature to gather the average ratings and reviews for all the products at the category or subcategory level to understand the overall demand.

Monitor pricing and track competitor inventory levels

Another way to understand product demand is to track competitor pricing and inventory levels. But by understanding the price wars between your competitors to win the buy box or even the fluctuations in selling price, you can understand the demand for the product to a certain level.

Although not amazingly insightful, you could still understand a certain level of demand by tracking your competitor’s inventory level and understanding how often they’re low in stock. Of course, this can take a significant amount of time, which is why it should ideally be an ancillary method to gauge demand.

In addition to Demand, you must deep dive into the niche and understand customer sentiment to understand your product has potential.

Look for Products with a low review count (About 2-3 Products With < 50 Reviews on Page 1)

Studying reviews is a necessary part of product research.

With this research, you can understand whether the product is effectively solving the customer’s pain point but it will also help you understand gaps in the competitive landscape that you can take advantage of.

For example, if you keep reading that Product X would be more easier to use with Feature Y. You could implement Feature Y into your product and sell it to capture market share from your customer.

Of course, reviews also help in more a straightforward manner. By reading the reviews you can understand if there is demand for the product. The number of sellers and the number of reviews split across them also give you insight into the difficulty of entering the market.

A good rule of thumb is to make a list of the top ten keywords for the product and check the top 10 products for each of those keywords. The product is likely to sell successfully if the top 10 products have less than 100 reviews.

However, if there are more than 1000 reviews, it’s best to move on to another product. When it comes to choosing the keyword go from broad to phrase and then to exact.

Identify the Unique Selling Proposition (USP)

Analyzing the product reviews and Q&A section can give you insight into not just the weaknesses and gaps with the product but also help you understand the strengths and unique selling points of the product.

Usually, if the top products already have 4.5+ ratings, there’s a high chance that these products are already “perfected”, and it will be difficult to identify gaps in the product.

But for products with less than 4.5 ratings, you can identify some negative reviews and understand the gaps in the products. Use these gaps to improve your products and tailor your product messaging.

Of course, this isn’t an absolute. You could always try to find opportunities to improve a nearly “perfect product” and launch a new one with additional features or improvements.

Other than Demand and Customer Insights, you must also thoroughly understand the competition. After all, there is no point in spending time and resources on launching a problem, only to be drowned by the competition.

Here are some key factors to consider when it comes to understanding the competition:

The barrier to entry should not be low

Don’t select a product that has a low entry barrier.

As obvious as it may sound, it’s important to understand that everyone can see the potential in this product and you will run into several new competitors, negatively impacting your business.

On the other hand, the more difficult to enter a new market, the fewer new sellers will pose a threat to your product. Therefore, look for products that require a relatively high capital investment, unique features, or strong differentiations from other products.

These types of products can help you avoid direct competition and create a niche market for yourself.

No Big Brands in the product category

Entering a product category dominated by big brands will always put you at a clear disadvantage. Here’s why:

• One, you will need to compete against their large marketing budgets and brand recognition . Capturing market share would be harder than going to the moon. Ok, maybe not. But the point still rests.
• Two, winning customers who are loyal to these brands can be significantly challenging. And if you try to work around their market share, you might be targeting a super narrow demographic, which would restrict your growth and profitability.

If you still want to compete against such dominant brands, ensure that you have a solid marketing strategy , a good product, a great brand story/mission/values, and exceptional customer service.

The Number of Sellers

Tracking the number of sellers should be a no-brainer – it can indicate the level of competition and the demand for that product. Generally, if there are too many sellers for a product, it would mean that the product is highly competitive, and you may have difficulty breaking into the market or succeeding once you’re in.

On the other hand, if fewer sellers exist in the category, it would mean less competition and more growth potential.

Once you’ve evaluated a product’s demand, competition, and customers, you need to ensure that the product you sell is profitable.

Here are some factors to gauge the profitability of a product:

Look for Products Between the $20-$50 Price Range.

Products priced at $20-$50 lie in the impulse buying decision range. Fundamentally, the higher the price tag, the more a consumer thinks about spending the amount.

Meaning, that they’ll conduct more research and try to understand if they need the product, while with less expensive items, they won’t spend as much time comparing them to others.

Additionally, there is an extreme on the other end as well as shoppers may associate the product with cheap quality.

Sellers often tend to get into a black hole when trying to find the right pricing strategy for their products. Ultimately, while the impulse purchase range does have its benefits, it’s important to note that the product price should be set after calculating the expenses and profit. Most importantly, it should address the customer’s perceived value.

For example, a great example would be portable chargers like the famous BlendJet. The cost of manufacturing the product may be less than $10. However, with marketing and branding, you could build a perceived valuation of the product and potentially elevate the cost to $50-60.

Look for Lightweight Products

Yes, the size of the product is important. Especially, since there can be additional fees associated with shipping or storing the product. Therefore, it’s always advisable to look for small and lightweight products , as these types of products can keep your shipping and storage fees down, which usually are based on the weights and dimensions of the product.

For example, it would be much cheaper to source and sell a small product, such as a necklace, versus wooden furniture.

While wooden furniture may be in higher demand, the logistics cost will be humongous, which can eat up a massive chunk of your profit margin.

Key Tip : Don’t go for too light or heavy fragile products, like glass or electronics. Pick something sturdy and easy to ship.

Choose a Product With a Decent Profit Margin of 25-35%

The ultimate goal of your business should be profit.

Unfortunately, there are a ton of fees associated with selling on Amazon. So, it’s not a simple calculation of product cost and selling price. You will also need to factor in multiple factors such as subscription fees, selling fees, advertising fees, storage fees, shipping fees, etc.

Whenever you conduct product research, calculate the gross profit margin to specifically understand the earning potential of the product.

There is no particular profit margin to aim for, as it’s subjective. However, we recommend at least a 25-35% gross margin as this would help you build a successful business with long-term potential.

This will leave you with enough room for your advertising budget to stand out from the competition.

You can easily find the profit margin of a product by using the SellerApp FBA calculator.

Just go to the product listing on Amazon , open the SellerApp FBA Calculator tool , and provide the following information:

• Cost of Goods Sold

And the tool will automatically calculate the profit margin for you.

Amazon Product Research Checklist

Here is a quick checklist to help you easily pick the right product to sell:

• Product prices should fall between the range of $10 and $50
• Products should make at least 10 sales a day
• The product should have a minimum best-seller rank of at least 5,000 in the main category
• The top 3 related keywords have 10,000+ monthly searches on Amazon
• Choose evergreen products instead of seasonal products
• The product must have at least 2-3 competitor products with less than 50 reviews on the first page of the Amazon SERPs
• Small and lightweight products (under 2 to 3 pounds)
• No brand names or trademarks associated with the product
• A product can be set up for 25% or even less than the sale price
• Proper room for product optimization and improvement of present listings
• There should be multiple product-related keyword opportunities
• The product should not be fragile
• There should be a potential to expand the brand with related products
• Can make a superior product over similar products in the market
• The product encourages repeat purchases
• The product should not have any legal or compliance issues

Techniques to Discover Good Product Ideas

Now that you’ve learned the four factors to consider when selecting a viable product, let’s look at some effective methods to discover the products.

Amazon Marketplace

Amazon is the first place you should research to identify good product ideas. Amazon has different categories like Bestseller lists, Movers and Shakers, Most Wished For, and Gift Ideas section, public wishlists all of which can offer countless product ideas to you.

First, visit Amazon’s Best Sellers page. Here, you’ll find the best-selling products for each category. Don’t stop your research in the top category. Go deep into subcategories to identify unique product ideas.

Additionally, you can also look at New Releases, Movers & Shakers, Most Wished For, and Gift Ideas tabs. These products will have high demand but less competition over the best-selling products.

Let’s say in the “New Releases” tab, you go for “Sports & Outdoors.” Now, this is way too broad a subcategory to identify product ideas. But you can go deep into subcategories to identify product ideas that you’ve never thought of.

For example, Sports & Outdoors > Exercise & Fitness > Cardio Training > Exercise Bikes.

Under the “Exercise Bikes” subcategory, you can look through many product types.

Speak with Your Current Supplier

If you’re already an Amazon seller, the best and easiest way to do product research is by simply asking your suppliers what products are trending and selling like hotcakes now.

Your supplier should already have the information and might happily give it to you if you have a good relationship with them.

You can also make it worthwhile for the suppliers by giving them bulk orders for the new products.

Looking at eBay’s Trending List

Even if your target marketplace is Amazon, other marketplaces like Walmart , eBay, and AliExpress can still be valuable sources for identifying product ideas.

Usually, if one product sells well on other marketplaces, it’s more likely to sell well on Amazon too.

So, head over to other marketplaces like eBay or Walmart and view all the trending products in your favorite categories.

Not all products will fit your criteria, but you’ll get a rough idea of the product in demand and brainstorm from there to find a product that makes the perfect sense to you.

Visit Retail Stores

Visiting your local retail stores can also be a great way to discover new product ideas to sell on Amazon.

These local stores often sell unique products that are not available online. These shops also serve as a real-time platform for identifying current trends and conducting price comparisons, which can provide you an edge over the competition.

Additionally, physical retail stores allow you to do a detailed quality assessment and help you make more informed decisions about the products to sell.

Use Amazon Product Opportunity Explorer

If you’re already an Amazon seller, use the Amazon Product Opportunity Explorer tool on Seller Central to find new products.

Log in to your Seller Central account, and navigate to Growth → Product Opportunity Explorer.

Use the search box to enter a broad keyword related to the product or niche you’re interested in.

Alternatively, you can browse niches by category or use the example niche recommendations based on your current product offerings.

The tool will display relevant niches, associated search terms , and key metrics such as customer needs, top search terms, search volume, units sold, average price, and price range.

You can use these metrics to filter and narrow down your search to avoid low-quality products.

Not just that, utilize the Customer Review Insights section to identify improvement opportunities within a product and niche. It shows you all the positive and negative reviews for both niche and product levels.

With this Product Opportunity Explorer tool, you can narrow down profitable product ideas backed by data and are less likely to fail.

SellerApp also offers a comprehensive Product Research tool that helps you research products on Amazon.

Just log in to the SellerApp Dashboard, go to the Product Research tool, and search with a seed keyword. The tool then gives you a list of products based on your search query .

You can filter the keywords based on multiple metrics to narrow your search to the most relevant products.

There you have it, a comprehensive checklist for Amazon Product Research!

As you can see, there are many aspects to consider to conduct thorough FBA product research, Following the steps given in this post will help you get started with your Amazon product analysis.

However, if you’re looking for an efficient way to accelerate progress, consider signing up on SellerApp Dashboard. It gives you free access to invaluable features such as product analysis and tracking to help you find the best-selling products for your next launch .

Leave a comment below and let us know what Amazon product research strategies you use in your business!

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Related posts:, a complete guide to finding best selling amazon products.

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Thank you for explaining best ways of product research Awesome post @Ankitha

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Very useful information for amazon sellers.

I like this blog!! It’s a masterpiece for amazon sellers.

SellerApp blogs are a wealth of knowledge for sellers. You cover everything from product research to marketing, and I’ve been able to improve my sales as a result.

I’ve been able to improve my product research and sourcing thanks to the information provided in SellerApp blogs. They have really helped me find profitable products to sell.

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How To Do Product Research For Dropshipping in 2024

In this article, we’ll share how to do product research to find winning products. Keep reading to learn more.

We’ve done product research using different methods to help find our dropshipping and e-commerce products. 

By doing so, we’ve found that product research tools and our own interests have found our most profitable products.  

The article also includes tons of tips on what to consider while researching.

Keep reading to learn the quickest and easiest ways to find successful products.

Let’s get into it.

Key Takeaways

• A product research tool is the most accurate way to do product research.
• Consider using your own experiences and interests to find winning products.
• Social media is a great place to find trending products.

How to Research Products for Dropshipping (Video)

Join Nawras, our founder and successful 8-figure dropshipper, as he guides you through advanced product research techniques. Watch now and elevate your skills in uncovering profitable products!

Top Ways To Do Product Research 

Here are our top methods to find successful products.

1. Use a Product Research Tool 

Product research tools uncover hidden secrets from other sellers. 

Different tools uncover different secrets. For example, Dropship reveals Shopify store secrets, Jungle Scout reveals Amazon seller’s secrets, and Minea allows you to spy on ads.

The data you want to uncover will determine the product research tool you choose. 

We’ve picked a variety of best product research tools with different data, features, and resources available.

Dropship.io - Best Overall Product Research Tool

Dropship is a Shopify research tool. It is the best option if you want to find dropshipping products.

You can find winning products by spying on Shopify store sales, revenue, apps, themes, and much more. Once you find products and stores that you’re interested in, you can track them over time to make informed decisions. 

Dropship also has lists of the top-performing products and stores, making it easy to find winners, along with tons of other features to help you build a successful dropshipping business.

Jungle Scout - Best Amazon Product Research Tool

Jungle Scout is an Amazon research tool to help you find winning products and optimize your Amazon business.

The research tools uncover sellers' sales and revenue. There is also a keyword tool, opportunity finder, listing builder, profit tracker, advertising analytics, and much more. 

If you’re looking for other ways to find winning Amazon products , we have an article with some of the best ways to do product research on Amazon.

Asify - Best AliExpress Product Research Tool

Asify is a free Google Chrome extension that allows you to spy on AliExpress product information.

It shows sales, top country sales, price, orders, rating, keywords, processing time, and much more.

Searching AliExpress for product ideas is great if you’re dropshipping. As it’s one of the most popular places to source products from, you can find out what other dropshippers are buying and selling.

Minea - Best Ad Spy Product Research Tool

Spy on Facebook, Pinterest, Snapchat, Instagram, and TikTok ads. 

See which ads are converting to help you find products that could be winners. 

Minea allows you to find popular ads, engagement, influencer placement ads, and much more.

You can search for ads by keywords and use filters to find relevant ads.

Dropship Spy - Winning Product Research Tool

Dropship Spy drops winning product ideas from both AliExpress and social media platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok. 

It doesn’t analyze the platforms. Instead, it releases a list of products that it thinks could be winners. 

You can get tons of information about each product, including the profit, margin, ads, engagement, product feedback, and much more. You can also find suppliers to source the product from.

2. Consider Your Interests and Gaps in the Market 

What are you interested in? What do you know more about than most people?

Your own experiences and interests can be a great way to find product ideas. Some of our most successful products have been found like this.

We’ve found it can give you an edge over your competition. You can also test the product correctly and have more insights into the target market. This can help with advertising.

For example, let’s say you’re super passionate about cooking. But you can never find the right-shaped chopping board.

Or you have a friend who is conscious of the planet. And they mention they are looking for a more eco-friendly way to get a takeaway coffee.

Instantly, you have two product ideas. 

And the chances are that if you’re looking for these products, so are other people. 

We can also guess that these products aren’t easily available, showing a gap in the market. This means you’ll likely have low competition.

Low competition and knowledge of the product give you a huge advantage over your competition.

3. Use Social Media

Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook are where your potential customers are. 

You can use these platforms to find, understand, and listen to your potential customers to help you find winning products.

How to Do Product Research on Facebook

• Groups - Use the Facebook search tool to find groups relevant to your niche or target market. 

Look at the conversations, questions, and interactions between members to give you product ideas. You can also join the groups and ask questions to gain knowledge and feedback on the market, niche, and specific products.

• Your pages - If you have an existing fan page, you can analyze the data that Facebook provides. 

Facebook allows you to view insights. These insights include how many people are engaging with your page, popular posts, and other metrics. 

Finding out which posts are most popular can give you an idea of products or categories that could be successful. 

You can also explore your page members' profiles. Their profiles can provide information like location, likes, status , and much more. You can use this information to find patterns and similarities and create products to target your members.

• Facebook ads - Looking at ads can help you find product ideas. We’ll cover how to do this in-depth below.

How to Do Product Research on TikTok

• Search bar - Popular hashtags, like AmazonFinds, can give you tons of product ideas and inspiration. 

Creators create videos with a variety of products from Amazon. T hese are often small gadgets that are perfect for dropshipping.

Look at the comments to see which products the audience is interested in, and then research that product in more depth to find out if it's a winner.

• For You page - The For You page consists of videos from users that you don’t follow. But based on your behavior, TikTok believes you’ll like them. 

Look at each TikTok’s content, engagement, and comments to give you product ideas. 

You can also use the comments to find users who would be interested in the products to help find your target audience.

• Product Reviews - Search for a specific product you might want to sell and watch the reviews. 

Real reviews are a great way to find product flaws and benefits. You can then look for products to help fix the flaws and use the benefits in your own products.

How to Do Product Research on Instagram

• Hashtags - Use the search bar to find posts on the niches you’re interested in. You can then scroll through images and reels to find inspiration for your own store.

You can continually narrow down your search by using more detailed hashtags. For example, you might start with #dog. This could then be narrowed down, based on your research, to #dogsupplements, and then again to #dogsupplementsforeyes, etc. 

• Location - Think about where you want to sell your products. You can then search these locations on Instagram under Places. 

You can find out about the area to help identify location-specific products that could be winners.

Local businesses can also help give you product ideas. You can look at the store's posts, page, engagement, and the demographics of those who engage with the business.

• Research influencers - Take a look at the products influencers in your niche are promoting or using.

This can give you ideas for trending and popular products.

4. Google Trends

Google Trends has the Explore feature. This allows you to see the top and rising products for different countries, date ranges, categories, and search methods.

You can see what topics are highly searched and then look at these topics for product inspiration. 

For example, you can see that Temu has risen 1,900% in interest in the past 12 months. This could then lead you to look at Temu and see their best-selling products to find a winner.

Or you can see that the Women's World Cup is trending. You could then look at products around this, like country flags, women’s footballing products, etc.

5. Marketplace Research 

Marketplaces provide tons of information and data that can help you do product research. 

These are some of our favorite ways to do product research using Amazon, eBay, Etsy, and AliExpress.

How to Do Product Research on Amazon

• Amazon autocomplete search bar - Start typing a product into the Amazon search bar and look at the suggestions it provides. 

For example, we started typing kitchen into Amazon and were given tons of product suggestions. 

It’s not clear what factors determine the suggested terms, but we can assume popularity. 

This gives us a good idea of what products are in demand and being purchased. 

You can then search these suggestions in more depth to identify winners.

• Best sellers - Amazon has a list of its top-selling products.

The lists are frequently updated (we think once an hour), so always check back if you don’t find anything on the first look.

Ignore the big brands, like Nike and Apple, and look at smaller brands that you can compete with. 

For example, under Unique Finds, there are washable underpads for bedwetting. These currently retail at $29.99.

We can then look on AliExpress to see if the product is profitable. We can see that similar products are sold between $1-$5, suggesting that the product could have a good margin.

• Use a research tool - Our favorite Amazon research tools are Jungle Scout, Helium 10, and SellerApp.

How to Do Product Research on eBay

• Terapeak - If you sell on eBay, you likely have access to Seller Hub. 

Seller Hub includes access to Terapeak. Terapeak is a product research tool that shows how eBay products are performing. 

Terapeak provides a report with real sales data. You can search for relevant products and niches and analyze the reports to find winning products.

• Trending on eBay - eBay has a section of trending categories. Currently, these are ‘Back to School’ and ‘Up to 70% Off Certified Recycled.’

You can use these trending sections to see the products that eBay is actively advertising to give you inspiration.

• Use a research tool - Our favorite eBay research tools are ShelfTrend and Popularity Sort for eBay.

How to Do Product Research on Etsy

• Personal interests - As Etsy is a marketplace for handmade, vintage, and unique items, consider your own interests or hobbies. 

This can help you find products that you know more about than your competition. 

For example, you might know that a certain product should be made of metal rather than plastic. But Etsy only has plastic options for sale. 

Your knowledge means you can find the right supplier with the right product and beat your competition.

• Autocomplete search bar - Like Amazon, Etsy also autocompletes the search bar.

It works in the same way as explained above. You can start typing a word, and it will suggest popular products. 

You can then analyze each of these products in-depth to find winners.

• Use a research tool - Our favorite Etsy research tools are Everbee and EtsyHunt.

How to Do Product Research on AliExpress

• AliExpress Dropshipping (DS) Center - AliExpress has a built-in product research tool. 

Anyone with an AliExpress account can sign up for the DS Center. The DS Center allows you to search for products and view the number of sales, reviews, price, and growth rate.

You can then analyze the products further to confirm you’ve found a winner. 

The DS Center will also gather similar product listings so you can easily compare suppliers and choose the right one . The DS Center shows their order volume, performance, and much more.

• Sort by orders - AliExpress allows you to sort products by the total number of orders. You can do this by selecting a category or searching for a specific product and then selecting Orders under Sort By. 

Each product listing will show the number of units sold.

You can use this information to find out which products are selling the best within a certain category. This can indicate popular products and the best suppliers, giving you inspiration for your own store.

• Store search - Underneath each product listing, there are details of the seller. You can click on the sellers’ link and view their storefront.

The storefront can give you more product ideas for your store. For example, this electrical storefront has a tab for best-selling products. This can help you find products with a high volume of sales. 

It’s also a good way to find similar or relevant products to expand your existing store.

• Use a research tool - Our favorite AliExpress research tools are Niche Scraper and AliShark.

6. Trade Shows 

Trade Shows are usually large exhibitions that companies can attend to showcase and promote their products and services.

There are often trade shows for different industries, so look for ones that might interest you.

Attending trade shows can be a great way to find interesting and in-demand products.

You can also connect with sellers and make connections with others in your industry.

7. Facebook Ads

Facebook ads can give you tons of data to help you find winning products.

Dropship.io’s Chrome extension has an ad collector tool. It automatically collects any ads it finds. You can then save and analyze the ads you’re interested in.

Check the ad’s results, engagement, and strategies to give you ideas for your own products. 

Learn from your competitors' mistakes and find ways you can build better ad campaigns that generate more conversions.

What is Product Research? 

Product research is the work that is done before a product goes to market. It is designed to establish the chance of the product’s success.

We usually split our product research into two parts. These are the following:

• Finding a product idea
• Deciding whether it could be successful

Product research can save money, time, and effort in the long run as it reduces the chances of launching a product that will fail. 

There are tons of ways that you can conduct product research to increase the likelihood of success. We’ve listed our top things to consider next.

What to Consider When Doing Product Research 

We’ve made a list of all the main things we consider when doing product research. 

Some of these we recommend considering before you even start researching, and others will be final checks before you launch your product.

All of these considerations should enable you to launch your product with the highest rate of success.

Market Demand

Is the product in demand? How many people do you think will want to buy your product?

Launching a product that no one wants or needs means it won’t make sales.

You want to find a product that is in high demand as more people will want to buy it.

We do a few things to find out what kind of demand our products might have. These include the following: 

• Look at your competitor’s sales using a spy tool like Dropship.io or Koala Inspector.
• If the product is sold on a marketplace, like Amazon, look at the best-selling rank. It will tell you how well they’re selling compared to other products.
• Search for the product on social media to see if people are talking about it or if it has any interest.
• Find ads run by your competition and look at the engagement.
• Run the keyword through a keyword research tool or Google Trends. Keyword tools can show many searches a specific word has, and Google Trends shows the search interest in topics.
• Use a survey to evaluate the interest of potential customers. Surveys can also give you other insights, like how much a customer might spend on the product.

Each product you launch has to be profitable.

Earning a profit enables you to continue your business.

The basic way to work out if your product will be profitable is to subtract your costs from the product price.

In theory, it’s pretty straightforward. Once you’ve found the product you want to sell, look at your competitors and find the average price they’re selling at. Then, contact suppliers to find out the product costs. 

However, there are other things to consider, like seasonality, long-term business priorities, and other fees and selling costs.

If you want more information on how to effectively price your products to maximize profit , we have a full article you can check out with all the details. The article has tons more information about generating profit, adjusting prices, and different pricing methods. 

Competition

How much competition does the product have? Can you compete? And how can you compete?

We always want to find products that have low competition or find ways to beat the competition.

Firstly, you need to find your competition. You can do this by searching for the product on Amazon, Alibaba, Walmart, or any other store. 

If you’re dropshipping, we also recommend searching for individual Shopify stores that sell the products. 

You can do this either through Google or using a competitor research tool. Dropship.io has one that allows you to search millions of Shopify stores for products with a certain keyword. It will display all of the stores that sell the product. 

So, now you know who you’re competing against, it's time to evaluate the competition. 

Is the competition steep? For example, we wouldn’t launch a product like Kitchen Scissors. All of the marketplaces, like Amazon, have thousands of pairs with thousands of reviews, selling as low as $2. There’s also competition from brick-and-mortar stores. We’d just get lost amongst the crowd.

Or is there limited competition? If so, great. 

But you’ve got to work out how to beat them. There are so many ways you can beat your competition. Some of the most common include the following:

• Superior product - Does their product have tons of poor reviews that complain about the quality? Find and sell a higher-quality version.
• Lower price - Can you still make a profit if you sell for a lower price than them?
• Better listing - Often, sellers will neglect their images, descriptions, and key features. If you build a better listing with more information and clearer images, customers could be drawn to you.
• Provide a better experience - Can you throw in a freebie? Do you have superior knowledge of the product that you can convert into blog posts or a leaflet to sell with the product?  

Try to find a product with low competition and ways you can set your product apart from the rest.

Product Availability

You need to make sure you can meet the demand of your buyers. 

There’s nothing worse than running out of stock just as your product starts to generate interest and increase in sales. 

If you’re dropshipping, this is a conversation to have with your supplier. We recommend asking them how many pieces they can pack and ship a month. Then check that this meets your expected demand.

If you want more information on what to consider when you choose your dropshipping supplier , check out our article with all the details.

Customer Base

Who are you targeting your product at? What are they likely to pay? Where will they purchase your product from?

Think about all of these questions when doing product research.

For example, you might find a great product that ticks all of your boxes, but it has a specific target market, let’s say for those over 80. And you only want to sell online. After researching, you find the number of potential customers that would buy online over 80 is limited.

As well as age, you should also consider the location of your customers, financial status, and other demographics, such as gender.

Restrictions and Laws

Always, always check whether your product is restricted, illegal, trademarked, or patented. 

Avoid selling fake designer products or infringing on trademarks like Disney, for example. 

Infringing on anyone else's brand or products can be a costly mistake to make, as well as landing you in legal trouble.

Each country and state will also have its own rules and regulations. So make sure to check these out before purchasing stock. For example, some countries ban the import of real hair for hair extensions.

You should also be mindful of advertising restrictions. Facebook prohibits certain products from being advertised, including tobacco, weapons, counterfeit goods, certain health claims, adult products, and many more.

Product Outlook 

Look at the longevity of the product and whether this will work for your brand.

Consider whether the product is a trend or a fad. If they are, they are likely to have a short span of success before the sales drop off. 

Some of the biggest trending products recently have been fidget spinners, bento boxes, insulated drinking bottles, slides, under desk treadmills, etc.

These types of products might work for you if you want a quick financial turn-around and are happy to look for a new product after this trend is over.

Alternatively, you could look for stable products that are likely to have a longer lifespan.

Consider whether your product will still be in demand in 100 years. Many products have become obsolete, like VHS tapes and phone booths. Other products, like newspapers, road maps, and even mail, are being replaced by the internet and email. 

You should also consider whether the product is perishable. Such as food and flowers (might also include products like supplements, health care, cosmetics, sanitary ware, body care, etc). 

Selling products like these require strict inventory management, as you’ll have to throw products away if they go bad before selling. It is easier to manage products that don’t have an expiry date, for example, clothing, kitchenware, household items, etc. 

Frequently Asked Questions 

Should i use a product research tool .

It depends. You can definitely do product research without a tool. However, it can be more challenging and time-consuming.

For us, it’s a yes. The information a research tool provides allows you to make data-driven decisions before you launch products.

This allows you to launch products with a higher chance of success, saving time and money.

How Do I Start Dropshipping Product Research?

There are tons of ways to do dropshipping product research, including checking out social media trends, searching popular marketplaces, and using a product research tool. 

If you want to test out a product research tool, Dropship.io currently has a 7-day no-commitments free trial. During the free trial, you should be able to find your first product to launch.

Final Thoughts

Hopefully, our product research methods can help you find your own winning products.

If you’re interested in using a product research tool to uncover hidden Shopify store secrets, check out the Dropship.io Product Database tool using the 7-day free trial .

Rebecca Giles

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What is Marketing Research? Examples and Best Practices

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Marketing research is essentially a method utilized by companies to collect valuable information regarding their target market. Through the common practice of conducting market research, companies gather essential information that enables them to make informed decisions and develop products that resonate with consumers. It encompasses the gathering, analysis, and interpretation of data, which aids in identifying consumer demands, anticipating market trends, and staying ahead of the competition.

Exploratory research is one of the initial steps in the marketing research process. It helps businesses gain broad insights when specific information is unknown. If you are seeking insight into how marketing research can influence the trajectory of your SaaS, then you have come to the right place!

• Market research is a systematic and objective process crucial for understanding target markets, refining business strategies, and informing decisions, which includes collecting, analyzing, and interpreting data on customers, competitors, and the industry.
• Primary market research gathers specific data directly from the target audience using tools like surveys and focus groups, while secondary market research utilizes existing data from various sources to provide broader market insights.
• Effective market research combines both qualitative methods, which explore consumer motivations, and quantitative methods, which provide measurable statistics, to create comprehensive insights that guide business strategy and decision-making.

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Defining marketing research

Launching a product without knowing what your target audience wants is like walking in the dark. Market research lights the way, helping you collect, analyze, and understand information about your target market. This allows you to refine your business strategies and make decisions based on solid evidence.

Gone are the days when just intuition or subjective judgment was enough. Objective insights from market research help avoid costly mistakes and meet consumer needs by identifying trends and changes in the market. This is crucial for assessing a product’s potential success, optimizing marketing strategies, and preparing for market shifts.

Market research is a systematic approach that provides essential information, helping businesses navigate the complexities of the commercial world. Partnering with market research companies can offer additional benefits, leveraging their expertise in understanding market demands, trends, market size, economic indicators, location, market saturation, and pricing. Whether starting a new business, developing products, or updating marketing plans, understanding how to conduct effective market research is key to success.

To conduct market research effectively, businesses must determine study goals, identify target consumers, collect and analyze data, and use the findings to make informed decisions. This process is vital for evaluating past performance, measuring changes over time, and addressing specific business needs. It guides businesses in product development, marketing strategies, and overall decision-making, ensuring a better ROI and providing an eye-opening view of the market through various research methods, whether conducted in-house or outsourced.

The purpose of marketing research

Conducting marketing research is more than just gathering data; it’s about turning that data into actionable insights to refine your business strategies. This process helps you understand what motivates your customers, enabling you to tailor your products and services to minimize risks from the start. Importantly, market research plays a pivotal role in measuring and enhancing customer satisfaction and loyalty, which are critical for understanding key demographics, improving user experience, designing better products, and driving customer retention. Customer satisfaction is measured as a key outcome, directly linked to the success of marketing strategies and business activities.

For SaaS product managers, market research, including competitive analysis, is crucial. It evaluates past strategies and gauges the potential success of new offerings. This research provides essential insights into brand strength, consumer behavior, and market position, which are vital for teams focused on sales, marketing, and product development.

A key aspect of market research is analyzing customer attitudes and usage. This analysis offers detailed insights into what customers want, the choices they make, and the challenges they face. It helps identify opportunities in the market and aids in formulating effective strategies for market entry.

Overall, market research equips SaaS entrepreneurs with the knowledge to meet their target audience’s needs effectively, guiding product adjustments and innovations based on informed decisions.

Key components of market research

Conducting market research is analogous to preparing a cake, requiring precise ingredients in specific quantities to achieve the intended outcome. Within this realm, necessary components consist of primary and secondary data gathering, thorough analysis, and insightful interpretation.

Primary research techniques such as exploratory studies, product evolution inquiries, estimations of market dimensions and shares, and consumer behavior examinations play a crucial role in collecting targeted information that can be directly applied. These methods afford a deeper understanding of your target demographic, allowing for customized strategy development.

In contrast, secondary research enriches the specificity of primary findings by adding wider context. It taps into external resources encompassing works from other investigators, sector-specific reports, and demographics data, which provide an expansive yet less particularized landscape view of the marketplace.

The subsequent phase involves meticulous analysis of collated data offering unbiased perspectives critical for identifying deficiencies while recognizing emerging patterns. Technological progress now facilitates examination efforts on both structured and unstructured datasets effectively addressing large-scale analytical complexities.

Ultimately, it’s through expert-led interpretation that value transcends raw figures, yielding strategies grounded in deep comprehension. Akin to decoding recipes using selected ingredients—this interpretative step enables crafting optimal business maneuvers just as one would bake their ideal confectionery creation utilizing proper culinary guidance.

Types of market research: primary and secondary

Now that you know the importance of clear research objectives, let’s explore the different types of market research and the techniques available to achieve these goals. Market research methods can be divided into two main categories: primary research and secondary research . The choice between these depends on factors like your budget, time constraints, and whether you need exploratory data or definitive answers.

Primary research involves collecting new data directly from sources. This process is like mining for precious metals, as it requires using various methods to gather fresh insights.

• Surveys (here – in-app survey templates from Userpilot ).

• Interviews.

• Focus groups.
• Product trials.

This approach gives you first-hand insight into your target audience.

Conversely, secondary research uses already established datasets of primary data – which can add depth and reinforcement to your firsthand findings.

Conducting your own market research using primary research tools can be a cost-effective strategy, allowing businesses to gather valuable insights directly and tailor their research to specific needs.

Let’s look a bit deeper into them now.

What is primary market research?

Market research uses primary market research as an essential tool. This involves collecting new data directly from your target audience using various methods, such as surveys , focus groups, and interviews.

Each method has its benefits. For example, observational studies allow you to see how consumers interact with your product.

There are many ways to conduct primary research.

Focus Groups : Hold discussions with small groups of 5 to 10 people from your target audience. These discussions can provide valuable feedback on products, perceptions of your company’s brand name, or opinions on competitors. Additionally, these discussions can help understand the characteristics, challenges, and buying habits of target customers, optimizing brand strategy.

Interviews : Have one-on-one conversations to gather detailed information from individuals in your target audience.

Surveys : These are a common tool in primary market research and can be used instead of focus groups to understand consumer attitudes. Surveys use structured questions and can reach a broad audience efficiently.

Navigating secondary market research

While marketing research using primary methods is like discovering precious metals, secondary market research technique is like using a treasure map. This approach uses data collected by others from various sources, providing a broad industry view. These sources include market analyses from agencies like Statista, historical data such as census records, and academic studies.

Secondary research provides the basic knowledge necessary for conducting primary market research goals but may lack detail on specific business questions and could also be accessible to competitors.

To make the most of secondary market research, it’s important to analyze summarized data to identify trends, rely on reputable sources for accurate data, and remain unbiased in data collection methods.

The effectiveness of secondary research depends significantly on how well the data is interpreted, ensuring that this information complements the insights from primary research.

Qualitative vs quantitative research

Market research employs both qualitative and quantitative methods, offering distinct insights that complement each other. Qualitative research aims to understand consumer behaviors and motivations through detailed analysis, while quantitative research collects measurable data for statistical analysis.

The selection of qualitative or quantitative methods should align with your research goals. If you need to uncover initial insights or explore deep consumer motivations, qualitative techniques like surveys or interviews are ideal.

On the other hand, if you need data that can be measured and analyzed for reliability, quantitative methods are more suitable.

However, these approaches don’t have to be used separately. Combining qualitative and quantitative methods in mixed-method studies allows you to capture both detailed exploratory responses and concrete numerical data. This integration offers a comprehensive view of the market, leveraging the strengths of both approaches to provide a fuller understanding of market conditions.

Implementing market research tools: Userpilot’s role

Similar to how a compass is essential for navigation at sea, businesses need appropriate instruments to carry out effective market research. Userpilot’s suite of product analytics and in-app engagement tools are critical components for this purpose.

Acting as a Buyer Persona Research instrument, Userpilot’s product analytics provide key quantitative research capabilities. This helps clearly define and comprehend the attributes and behaviors of potential customers, providing you with insights into your ICP (Ideal Customer Persona), user preferences, and product-market fit.

Beyond product analytics, Userpilot offers robust in-app engagement features such as modals and surveys that support real time collection of market research information. These interactive features work synergistically with the analytical tools to enable companies to gather detailed data and feedback crucial for informed business decision-making.

Marketing research process: Step-by-step guide

Marketing research conists of several critical stages:

• Defining precise goals.
• Delving into the knowledge of your target demographic.
• Collecting and scrutinizing data.
• Revealing insights that can be translated into tangible actions.

Following these steps allows you to gather critical information that guides business decisions.

An effective research strategy is crucial and involves:

• Properly allocating funds.
• Formulating testable hypotheses.
• Choosing appropriate methods for the study.
• Determining the number of study participants.
• Considering external variables.

A well-planned strategy ensures that your market research is focused, efficient, and produces useful outcomes.

After collecting data, the next step is to analyze it. This involves comparing the data to your initial questions to draw conclusions relevant to your business strategies.

Userpilot makes your data analysis easier by providing handy analytics dashboards for key user metrics such as activation, engagement, core feature adoption, and retention out of the box:

Finally, you report the findings and the process, providing recommendations based on the evidence. This is like solving a puzzle: each piece helps to complete the overall picture.

Challenges and best practices in market research

Delving into market research comes with its own set of hurdles. Those conducting the research must deliver more profound insights within increasingly shorter timespans, and they need to cultivate strategic, continuous research methods to stay abreast of an ever-changing business landscape.

Ensuring high-quality data can be demanding due to issues such as disjointed tools or insufficient analytical expertise. New solutions like Userpilot are surfacing that make these obstacles less daunting by offering accessible and user-friendly options. Maintaining clear lines of communication with your market research team is crucial for achieving both punctuality and quality in outcomes.

The advantages of engaging in marketing research cannot be overstated.

Real-life examples of successful market research

Real-life examples of market research in the SaaS industry often showcase innovative approaches to understanding customer needs and product-market fit.

For instance, Slack, the communication platform, utilized extensive market research to identify gaps in communication tools and understand the workflows of teams. This led to the development of features that seamlessly integrated with other tools and catered to the needs of various team sizes and structures.

Another example is HubSpot, which conducted market research to understand the pain points of small to medium-sized businesses in managing customer relationships. The insights gained helped shape their all-in-one inbound marketing, sales, and service platform, which has become integral to their users’ daily operations. These examples demonstrate how SaaS companies can employ market research to inform product development, improve user experience, and strategically position themselves in a competitive market.

Choosing the right market research tools

For B2B SaaS product managers aiming to do market research, having the right set of tools can make a significant difference. Here’s a list of valuable SaaS tools that can be leveraged for effective market research:

• Userpilot : A comprehensive Product Growth Platform offering in-depth product analytics, a code-free in-app experience builder, bespoke in-app survey capabilities, and robust integration options with platforms like Salesforce and Hubspot. This tool is particularly useful for understanding user behavior, enhancing user engagement, and gathering targeted feedback.
• Qualtrics : Known for its powerful survey tools, Qualtrics helps businesses gather and analyze customer feedback effectively. Its advanced analytics features are ideal for testing market hypotheses and understanding customer sentiments.
• SurveyMonkey : A versatile tool that enables product managers to create, send, and analyze surveys quickly and easily. SurveyMonkey is suitable for gauging customer satisfaction and collecting feedback on potential new features.
• Mixpanel : Specializes in user behavior analytics, offering detailed insights into how users interact with your product. This is essential for identifying patterns and optimizing product features.
• Hotjar : Combines analytics and feedback tools to give teams insights into user behavior and preferences. Hotjar’s heatmaps and session recordings are invaluable for understanding the user experience on a deeper level.
• Tableau : A leading platform for business intelligence and data visualization, Tableau allows product managers to create comprehensive visual reports that can inform strategic decisions based on user data analysis.

Each of these tools provides unique functionalities that can assist SaaS product managers in conducting thorough market research, thereby ensuring that their products are perfectly aligned with user needs and market demands.

Measuring the impact of market research

The pivotal challenge for market research lies in demonstrating its return on investment (ROI) and overall influence on corporate success sufficiently enough to justify regular financial commitment from company leaders. The worth attributed to a market research firm hinges not only on their ability to deliver relevant and high-caliber information, but also on their pricing structures and their contribution towards propelling organizational growth.

To gauge how effectively business choices made based on market research findings succeed, various metrics and key performance indicators (KPIs) are utilized. These numerical tools act as navigational aids directing enterprises toward achieving objectives while simultaneously verifying that efforts invested in conducting market analysis are yielding fruitful guidance.

Throughout our look at market research, we’ve seen its importance and impact. Our discussion covered the basics of market research, its key components, and different types, including both qualitative and quantitative methods, and the role of Userpilot’s tools. We’ve examined the details of the market research process, tackled challenges, identified best practices, and shared success stories. We also provided advice on choosing the right market research partner and how to measure the effectiveness of your market research.

In today’s data-driven world, comprehensive market research is crucial for companies that want to succeed. It acts like a guide, helping businesses navigate the complex market landscape. Start your own detailed research today, supported by insightful analytics to help you succeed.

Frequently asked questions

What is market research and why is it important.

Understanding your target market, honing business strategies, and making informed decisions are all essential components that depend heavily on effective market research. It offers objective insights to help avoid expensive errors and foresees the needs of customers .

What is the difference between primary and secondary market research?

Primary market research is characterized by the direct gathering of data, in contrast to secondary market research which leverages existing information from alternative sources for addressing research inquiries.

Such a distinction can guide you in selecting an approach that aligns with your precise needs for conducting specific research.

What are some examples of successful market research?

Examples of successful market research are evident in the operations of well-known companies such as Starbucks, Apple, and McDonald’s. They have harnessed this tool to fine-tune their business strategies and make decisions based on solid information.

By employing market research, these businesses have managed to gain insight into their customers’ desires and needs, which has contributed significantly to their success.

How can I choose the right market research partner?

Selecting an ideal market research ally involves identifying a firm that resonates with your project requirements, financial plan, and corporate goals while also verifying their track record of dependability and consistency via reviews from previous clients.

Best wishes on your endeavor!

How is the impact of market research measured?

The effectiveness of market research hinges on the precision, representativeness, and pertinence of its data, along with how successful business decisions are when they’re based on the findings from this research. These elements define the impact of the research conducted.

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Money latest: Gameboys, Sindy dolls, designer shoes, 1950s furniture - the items in your attic that could be worth a small fortune

Gumtree's most popular items include rare stamps, Gameboys and Pokemon cards. Read this and all the latest consumer and personal finance news below, plus leave a comment or submit a consumer dispute or money problem in the box.

Monday 29 April 2024 16:59, UK

• Three of UK's biggest lenders up mortgage rates
• Annual mortgage repayments have increased by up to 70% since 2021
• Higher food prices and shortages warning - as new Brexit checks begin this week
• People on disability benefits could receive vouchers rather than cash

Essential reads

• Gameboys, Sindy dolls, designer shoes, 1950s furniture: The items in your attic that could be worth a small fortune
• Money Problem : 'A company isn't abiding by written warranty for dodgy building work - what can I do?'  
• '£2,000 landed in my account' - The people who say they're manifesting riches
• The world of dark tourism - what is it, is it ethical and where can you go?

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The cost of bread, biscuits and beer could increase this year due to the impact of the unusually wet autumn and winter on UK harvests.

Research suggests that production of wheat, oats, barley and oilseed rape could drop by four million tonnes (17.5%) compared with 2023.

The wet weather has resulted in lower levels of planting, while flooding and storms over winter caused farmers more losses.

The predictions come just as the rate of price increases on many food items begins to slow as inflation falls.

The Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit (ECIU) analysed forecasts from the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHBD) and government yield data.

It found a "real risk" of beer, biscuits and bread becoming more expensive if the poor harvest increases costs for producers, according to its lead analyst Tom Lancaster.

Beer prices could be affected because the wet weather is still disrupting the planting of spring crops such as barley, the ECIU said.

And potatoes might also see a price hike in the coming months, with growers warning of a major shortage in the autumn due to persistent wet weather.

Read the full story here ...

By Emily Mee , Money team

When I think about the toys of my childhood - my pink Barbie car, my Gameboy Micro, my collection of Pokemon cards - I can't tell you where they went. 

Maybe they were shipped off to a charity shop at some point... Or perhaps they're in the attic? 

While my hot pink Gameboy Micro is lost to the void of time (or a cardboard box somewhere in my mum's house), other versions of it are selling on eBay for £100 or more. 

And there are Pokemon cards selling for anything from a tenner to hundreds or even thousands of pounds. 

It's possible you also have items at home that are a collector's dream. 

Gumtree says its collectables category is already proving to be a "hotbed of activity" this year, with listings up 22% in 2024 so far. 

Its most popular items include rare stamps, coins, war memorabilia and Pokemon cards. 

Spring is often the most popular time for buying and selling collectibles, with demand spiking in March and April. 

We've enlisted the help of TV presenter and collectables expert Tracy Martin to give an idea of what could make you an easy buck. 

Old toys making a 'retro comeback'

Tracy explains that while trends change, vintage toys tend to stand the test of time. 

"Toys are always going to be popular because they tap into nostalgia, our childhood memories," she says, explaining that adults like to buy the toys they used to have. 

Perhaps you were into cars, and you've got some old diecast vehicles from Matchbox, Corgi or Dinky Toys. 

A quick look on toy auction site Vectis.co.uk shows a Corgi Toys "James Bond" Aston Martin estimated to sell for between £600 to £700 - while others are likely to fetch £50 to £60. 

Sindy dolls are also particularly sought after - particularly those from the 1960s - and Barbie dolls from the 1990s too. 

Pokemon cards have seen a "massive surge", Tracy says, with people paying "thousands and thousands of pounds" for good unopened sets. 

She's even seen examples of people paying £16,000 upwards. 

Another up-and-coming market is games consoles, such as Gameboys, vintage consoles and PlayStations, which are making a "retro comeback".

What else could earn you some cash?

Tracy says there's currently a surge in people wanting to buy "mid century" furniture, which is dated to roughly 1945 to 1965 and typically uses clean lines and has a timeless feel. 

Vintage Danish furniture is sought after, particularly tables and chairs with good designer names such as Wegner, Verner Panton and Arne Jacobsen.

Prices range from the low hundreds into the thousands.

People will also look out for vintage framed prints by artists such as Tretchikoff, J.H. Lynch and Shabner - these can range in price from £50 upwards to a few hundred pounds plus. 

Vintage clothes, handbags and shoes can fetch a good price - but you can also invest in modern pieces. 

Tracy suggests looking out for good classic designs with high-end designer names such as Gucci, Chanel, Dior and Louis Vuitton. 

Modern designers such as Irregular Choice, Vendula and Lulu Guinness are also collected. 

Collaborations with designers and celebrities can do well as they're often limited edition. 

For example, Tracy says the H&M x Paco Rabanne maxi silver sequin dress retailed at £279.99 last year but now sells for in excess of £600. 

When it comes to shoes, "the quirkier the design the better" - so look out for brands such as Irregular Choice and Joe Browns. 

Converse and Dr Martens collaborations also do well, depending on the design and condition, as well as Adidas and Nike limited edition trainers. 

What's the best way to sell?  

Tracy recommends to always research before selling your items, as they might perform better on different platforms and you can also get an idea of how much they sell for. 

For example, Vinted can be a good place to sell clothes and shoes, while other items might be better suited for sale on Gumtree, eBay or Etsy. 

Tracy's favourite way to sell is through auction - especially if there are specialist sales. 

Vectis is one of the biggest and most popular for toy selling. 

Interests in different periods and items can go up and down, but for the time being vintage pieces from the 1980s and 90s are popular. 

How much you'll be able to get from an item often takes into account its rarity, condition, whether it reflects a period in time, and if it's got a good name behind it. 

You never know - you might be sitting on a treasure trove. 

Annual mortgage repayments have increased by up to 70% since 2021, according to new data from Zoopla .

The biggest impact of rising interest rates has been in southern England where house prices are higher.

Across the South West, South East and East of England, the annual mortgage cost for an average home is £5,000 higher than previously. This rises to £7,500 in London.

But the universal uptick in mortgage costs has been less pronounced in other parts of the UK, with the North East seeing a £2,350 increase.

In a bid to tackle inflation, the Bank of England has raised the base rate from 0.1% in December 2021 to a 16-year high of 5.25% now.

The Zoopla research looked at the average home buyer taking out a 70% loan-to-value mortgage.

This week seems to be starting where last week left off - with three major lenders announcing further hikes in mortgage rates.

Amid uncertainty of the timing of interest rate cuts from the Bank of England  this year, swap rates (which dictate how much it costs lenders to lend) have been rising in recent weeks.

Financial markets currently see two rate cuts by the Bank of England this year.

We've reported on a string of rate bumps from the high street over the last 10 days, and this morning NatWest, Santander and Nationwide moved.

In its second hikes announcement in less than a week, NatWest laid out increases across its full range of residential and buy-to-let fixed deals of up to 0.22%.

Santander, meanwhile, announced increases for both fixed and tracker deals across their residential and buy-to-let products - up to 0.25%.

The same hikes are being imposed for a range of Nationwide deals.

All of these will kick in tomorrow.

Amit Patel, adviser at Trinity Finance, told Newspage it was "not a great start to the week". 

"This is not good news for borrowers," he said.

Where will the base rate go this year?

The majority of the bets, according to LSEG data, are on the first cut coming in August (previously this was June) and the second in December.

This would take Bank rate from the current level of 5.25% to 4.75%.

Disabled people could receive vouchers instead of monthly payments under proposed changes to Personal Independence Payment (PIP).

The changes could see people being provided with either one-off grants for specific costs such as home adaptation, or being directed to "alternative means of support" rather than financial support.

Work and Pensions Secretary Mel Stride is set to announce plans today to overhaul the way disability benefits work.

In a Green Paper due to be published alongside Mr Stride's statement to the Commons, ministers will set out plans to reform Personal Independence Payments (PIP), the main disability benefit, through changes to eligibility criteria and assessments.

The plans also include proposals to "move away from a fixed cash benefit system", meaning people with some conditions, such as depression and anxiety, will no longer receive regular payments but rather get improved access to treatment if their condition does not involve extra costs.

Speaking to Sky News earlier, Mr Stride said: "I want us to have a grown-up, sensible conversation about a benefit called PIP that has not been reviewed in over a decade.

"And I want to ask the question, is it fit for purpose given the world that we're in today, in which mental health issues sadly present more of an issue than they did a decade ago."

By James Sillars , business reporter

A fresh high for the FTSE 100 to start the week.

The index of leading shares in London was 0.5% up at 8,179 in early dealing.

The gains were led by miners and financial stocks.

Dragging on the performance were some consumer-facing brands including JD Sports and Flutter Entertainment.

One other development of note to mention is that stubbornly high oil price.

A barrel of Brent crude is currently trading almost 1% down on the day.

But it remains at $88 a barrel.

The market has been pulled by various forces this month, with hopes of a rebound in demand in China among them.

The latest decline is said to reflect peace talks being held between Israel and Hamas.

A demand for smaller homes has driven growth in UK property prices early in 2024, according to research by Halifax.

Data from the bank's house price index suggests annual property price growth hit 1.9% in February this year - a significant rise from -4.1% just three months prior.

That equates to a rise in prices of £5,318 over the past year.

It follows interest rates stabilising, Halifax says, after a sharp rise over the past two years which squeezed mortgage affordability.

A key driver behind rising prices, Halifax says, has been first-time buyers, who made up 53% of all homes bought with a mortgage in 2023 - the highest proportion since 1995.

And it's smaller homes that have recorded the biggest increases in price growth in the early part of this year - with buyers adjusting their expectations to compensate for higher borrowing costs.

Flats and terraced houses made up 57% of all homes purchased by first-time buyers last year.

This varies by region - for example, in London, flats and terraced homes accounted for 90% of all first-time buyer purchases.

Challenges remain

However, Amanda Bryden, head of Halifax mortgages, said "it's important not to gloss over the challenges" facing the UK housing market, given the "impact of higher interest rates on mortgage affordability" and "continued lack of supply of new homes".

"But scratch beneath the surface and there is a more nuanced story, one which shows that demand for different property types in different parts of the country can vary hugely," she added.

"As interest rates have stabilised and buyers adjust to the new economic reality of owning a home, one way to compensate for higher borrowing costs is to target smaller properties.

"This is especially true among first-time buyers, who have proven to be resilient over recent years, and now account for the largest proportion of homes purchased with a mortgage in almost 30 years."

Every Monday we get an expert to answer your money problems or consumer disputes. Find out how to submit yours at the bottom of this post. Today's question is...

I had a company coat the exterior of my house with a rubberised paint product in November 2022. The original cost was £3,280 - though there was a discount. This came with a written 10-year warranty. The product started to fail after five months (peeling off). I first contacted them one year ago, on 3 April 2023, and the company keeps fobbing me off, blaming bad weather for not resolving issues. They don't come round when they say they will. What can I do? Robert Anderson, 77, Scotland

We asked consumer disputes expert Scott Dixon, from complaintsresolver.co.uk , to pick up this one...

This falls under the Consumer Rights Act 2015 which states that any faults found within the first six months are considered to have been there at the point of purchase (or in this case, application).

You are entitled to one free repair under S49 Consumer Rights Act 2015 which states that every contract to supply a service is to be treated as including a term that the trader must perform the service with reasonable care and skill.

Traders can only have one crack at the same fault - if that fails, you are entitled to a refund/replacement.

You have two options: make a warranty claim/pursue a remedy under the Consumer Rights Act 2015.

How did you pay for it? If you paid (even just the deposit) by credit card, you can make a S75 claim against the credit card provider who is jointly liable under S75 Consumer Credit Act 1974.

If the trader is unwilling to remedy it, seek at least three quotes from other traders to price putting the job right. You can get another trader to remedy the job and invoice the original trader for the work. 

I know what you're thinking: what happens if they refuse to pay?

Options and next steps

If all else fails... You could take your case to the small claims court if it was England, or follow Simple Procedure in Scotland .

Before you file a claim, send screenshots to the company of the court papers setting your case out and demanding a refund within seven days. Tell the company that if they fail to do so, you will lodge a claim via Simple Procedure.

It is a relatively easy, inexpensive route and is designed for disputes such as this. Court fees are based on the amount of money you want to claim.

This may resolve the dispute. If it does not, you can proceed and file the small claim papers online.

Another option is to file for their bankruptcy as a creditor, which is free. It effectively freezes their bank accounts and credit lines and locks their business down until it is resolved. You can find an SD1 form to do this here . 

I have done this before and it works like a charm. You need to send any documents by recorded delivery. This is a last resort if you cannot resolve your dispute.

I would also report this firm to Trading Standards. Ensure that you point out that they are deliberately selling products and carrying out defective work without due care and skill, which is fraudulent and illegal. You have proof of this so make sure you provide it.

Finally, leave reviews online too.

Money team note : We got in touch with the company involved, who said they had agreed to recoat the building at no cost but that dry days were needed before and after to fit the product in line with the manufacturer's guidelines. They said they had contacted Mr Anderson last week. We decided not to name the company as it is a small business - but we'll follow up this case in summer.

This feature is not intended as financial advice - the aim is to give an overview of the things you should think about.  Submit your dilemma or consumer dispute via - and please leave your contact details as we cannot follow up consumer disputes without them.

• The form above - make sure you leave a phone number or email address

Britons could face higher food prices, and even empty supermarket shelves, as new post-Brexit border fees are introduced this week, industry figures have warned.

A maximum charge of £145 will apply on imports of plant and animal products, such as cheese and fish, entering the UK through the Port of Dover and Eurotunnel from Tuesday.

"The fundamental change is huge to the nation's food supply," Nigel Jenney, chief executive of the Fresh Produce Consortium (FPC), told the Money blog when we first covered this story in January.

"I would certainly expect to see price rises because these costs simply couldn't be absorbed by the industry."

James Barnes, chairman of the Horticultural Trades Association, said this month that the policy "feels like it is constructed on the back of an envelope at best" and that the charges would "undoubtedly increase costs" and increase the likelihood of empty shelves in supermarkets.

He said as well as higher prices and a more limited variety of products available in UK shops and restaurants, "we now might begin to observe a decline of EU businesses trading into the UK, simply because they have been priced out".

The new rules explained

The new rules, known as the Border Target Operating Model (BTOM), are intended to protect biosecurity by imposing controls on plant and animal products considered a "medium" risk. These include five categories of cut flowers, cheese and other dairy produce, chilled and frozen meat, and fish.

From 31 January, each shipment had to be accompanied by a health certificate, provided by a local vet in the case of animal produce, and, from Tuesday, shipments will be subject to physical checks at the British border.

There is also the prospect of delays caused by inspections of faulty paperwork, which could derail supply chains that rely entirely on fast turnaround of goods.

The policy has been delayed multiple times and earlier this month the Financial Times reported that the government would not "turn on" the checks this week because border systems were not fully ready. The government said this was not true - but indicated they would initially focus on higher-risk products.

The fee will be charged per type of product imported, and will vary from £10 to £29 depending on the risk products present. It will be capped at £145 for mixed consignments.

A government spokesperson said this was "within and at the bottom end of the range which we consulted with industry on".

They added: "The charge is designed to recover the costs of operating our world-class border facilities where essential biosecurity checks will protect our food supply, farmers and environment against costly disease outbreaks entering the UK through the short straits."

The fees will not apply to goods brought into the UK for personal use, the government said.

EU business 'could stop trading with UK'

Marc Forgione, director general of the Institute of Export and International Trade (IEIT), said there was another risk beyond price rises and potential shrinkflation.

He told the Money blog earlier this year: "There is also a concern that has been raised with me by some UK-based businesses that their suppliers in the EU will frankly take a view that it's too complicated to deal with these changes and withdraw from the market."

Mr Forgione said that over time the UK will have "the most efficient border in the world", due to digitisation and the BTOM's assessment of goods based on risk, but it will create friction for EU businesses where there was none.

What has the government said?

A spokesperson told us when we first covered this story in January: "We remain committed to delivering the most advanced border in the world.

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Product Research

What is product research?

Why is product research important, how to conduct product research.

• Using quantitative and qualitative product research

Areas of product research

• Top product research tips
• Qualtrics’ product research tools

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26 min read Don’t skimp on your product research. The insights you gather and act upon can mean the difference between selling products that are a roaring success or an abject failure.

You’re in the process of developing a new product idea with a view to launch it on the market . Or maybe you’re reviewing and updating an existing product that’s already on the market in the hope of making it better.

It’s a risk – get it wrong and you could make an expensive mistake; get it right and you could have a successful, profitable product, service or experience delivering amazing returns on your investment. So how can you make sure you end up in the second category?

This is where product research comes in. It helps you:

• Evaluate and prioritise your ideas
• Test and validate concepts
• Assess names and packaging designs
• Check out the competition
• Set the right selling price
• Gauge customer satisfaction and monitor product-market fit post-launch
• Continually improve the product

Product research is the term most often used to describe this process, but it’s not just about physical products. The research process we’re describing here could apply equally to a physical product such as a smartphone, a service like cloud storage, or an experience like a tour or hotel stay.

Product research goes hand-in-hand with market research, which identifies a target customer, develops typical buyer personas, and analyses purchasing behaviour. Together, the two help you make informed decisions about how to find the right fit between what people need or want, and what you can offer them.

Get started with our free product research survey template

A product, service or experience idea can be brilliant and original, but if nobody wants to buy it, there’s no way it can be successful. At best, it will be an impressive oddity, and at worst, a total waste of time. Likewise, if you’re proposing changes to an existing product or service but they’re not the ones your customers value, you could end up doing more harm than good.

Product research will tell you whether your idea resonates with potential customers. Because a product is only worth what people are willing to pay for it, you’ll also be able to extend your research process to set a product price accordingly.

And if your competitors are doing better than you, you need to find out why, identify any gaps that they’ve missed and uncover emerging trends so you can get ahead.

Sure, you can start your research online. Amazon, review sites, and social media will give you an idea of what’s out there and how buyers react to products, but if you want to dig deeper and own your niche, you need to invest in user experience (UX) research .

UX research focuses solely on the user of a particular product, looking at how human beings interact with products and services and learning from their experiences.

UX research typically covers the following areas:

Target demographic

Demographic targeting or segmentation helps you understand who your particular product or service is targeting. Demographic information includes everything from gender and age to education and income.

Uncovering a need is one of the main drivers for creating a winning product. For example, if you’re selling into a particular market, your UX research can help you identify flaws in particular products or services and what your potential customers might want from something new. Likewise, researching customer needs helps you to identify what you shouldn’t focus on.

When you research products and UX, you should also examine what your target market wants out of the product or service. Want differs from need as a product need is a requirement, whereas a want could specify certain features of capabilities. They can also differ in priority based on each customer.

For example, this could be improving how your product or service works, or the UX outcomes — e.g. does the product make their job easier or give them more time to focus on other activities?

This should all form part of your UX research and can give you a huge advantage if you get it right.

What do your customers think about you or your product? What do they think about your competitors , and how do you compare to those competitors in their eyes?

What do your customers think about the problem they have? Or how can they solve it? Do you think about their problem the same way they do?

You need to understand how your customers think and what they think if you’re going to convince them to buy your product.

Understanding your customers’ behaviour should form a big part of your product research process. Not just in terms of how they go about their lives or work — which can help you understand how your products fit in — but also how they do their product research when looking for a solution. Do they base their purchase decisions on word-of-mouth? Do they typically buy online, or are they more likely to want to visit a retailer to see, hear and touch their potential purchase?

Think about the use case for your product or service. If it’s a gadget, will they use it in the home or out and about? This consideration might inform whether you build in a battery power feature or rely on a wall socket. If it’s a shoe-shine service, would they prefer to be able to walk in off the street or is an appointment system more appealing?

Understanding their behaviour can help with your product development to meet a need, and also with your marketing strategy and sales messaging.

Motivations

What drives your customers to find and buy products or services? This is something you need in your product research so you can create solutions that further their success.

Customer motivations are either conscious or subconscious, e.g. they’re aware of a problem and need a solution, or driven by changes or demand in the market (for example, a government requirement to implement certain technologies for business operations).

Product research can help you to understand these motivators, subsequently enabling you to tailor your market messaging and create amazing products.

Using quantitative and qualitative methods for product research

Product research relies heavily upon qualitative and quantitative research methods — this includes capturing feedback , observing how people use products, and analysing existing data (or new data) to uncover trends or opportunities.

Combining both qualitative and quantitative research methods will help you to identify the most pivotal market trends, as well as understand the specific thoughts and beliefs of customers. Here’s a quick breakdown of how each product research method works:

Quantitative UX research

Quantitative research is a starting point. It’s all about crunching the numbers that translate into informative statistics. Surveys and polls (online, mobile, paper, telephone) are the most commonly used methods, although you can add data from analytics platforms to the mix.

Qualitative UX research

Qualitative research joins the dots of the quantitative data by revealing what people think, believe, and feel about a product. Rather than ticking boxes, people say or write what they think either in open text boxes on surveys, or during interviews and focus groups. Qualitative UX research provides context, painting a picture using the data.

Breaking product research down into manageable stages will increase its effectiveness. These stages are:

Market research

Understanding the current marketplace can help you not only identify any trends in particular buying habits or fads that are attracting short-term attention. It can also help you identify areas of opportunity that you could exploit.

Market research helps with pricing decisions based on whether your market is stable or growing. From the research, you’ll uncover market size and competition, as well as answers to the following questions:

• What are the best-selling products already in your market and where do you fit in compared to them?
• Is there low competition in your market, or is it saturated?
• Are you selling a product that’s got high demand? And how long does that high demand last?
• Is your product something that can be sold year-round? Or is your product seasonal?

Customer research

We’ve already touched on this, but your product research should include your customers.

For example, research demographics to understand who they are, use psychographic information to understand their wants and needs, and leverage specific customer segmentation to ensure you’re targeting the right section of the market with your product or services. All of this will help you to build a better picture of your audience.

Your customer research should also include where you plan to sell your products based on your customers’ preferences. Will you need to sell online? Or is your product something your customers will want to see in person first?

If you plan to sell online, you’ll need to factor in other elements of your selling and marketing strategy. This will be everything from keyword research for marketing and understanding the search volume for your products, to shipping costs if you’re going to sell nationally, or internationally.

New product development

Finally, you should examine your specific product idea. This includes whether there’s a demand for it, what the pricing landscape is like and where you should position yourself, minute product details like the size and weight, or whether you’re selling perishable goods or consumables.

Furthermore, if you’re selling the same product as the competition, how are you planning to compete? Are you going to compete on price and if so, what will your selling price need to be to gain an advantage while generating a profit margin?

Segmentation Research

Segmentation is the strategic lens through which you view your market landscape. It’s used to identify who to target so that you can develop, maintain, or adjust branding and marketing tactics and identify product optimisation and innovation opportunities. The most profitable products are those that are targeted at specific segments of a market and tackle a particular need or problem.

Ask yourself the following:

• How large is that segment?
• Are your customers early adopters or more traditional? Are they open to new ways to do things or will they need to be convinced?

How people perceive your brand speaks volumes about what they are prepared to buy from you. Just as you wouldn’t buy a computer from a supermarket, you wouldn’t buy your groceries from a technology store (more importantly, it’s highly likely that neither would sell either of those products).

Concept testing

Concept testing should be conducted in an agile environment.

Begin early in the process with an MVP to test on existing and potential customers. A series of small studies done throughout the product innovation cycle will ensure that your new product is refined by customer input.

It is always more cost-effective to refine a new offering as it is being developed than to have to drop or make significant changes to a product that has already consumed a great deal of investment.

This continues as you roll out your new product. You must stay in touch with your target audience as they use the product, and take on board comments and suggestions for improvement. There are many benefits to concept testing:

• It’s cost-effective and flexible: You can send out simple, quick surveys if you want high-level rapid feedback, or longer ones if you want to dig deeper into the detail
• You’ll be able to optimise your product: You’ll gather useful information on things like branding, pricing, and market status that will make a real impact on your development decisions
• Continuous quality assurance: You can use the same audience to give feedback on your improvements, or survey a new audience to get fresh insights on your product development.
• Great brand loyalty: You’ll build up good customer relationships and increase your brand equity by including potential customers in your product’s design and development.

Improve your concept testing with our Introduction to Concept testing eBook

Naming research

What’s in a name? A best selling product, we hope.

Product naming is the process of coming up with compelling, unique names for your new products.

We would always recommend using qualitative research, with its emphasis on verbal expression, to test product names with your prospective customers, and using a text analytics tool to categorise text responses by both topic and sentiment automatically.

When deciding on product names (we recommend between 3 and 15 options) to run past your respondents, remember these six golden rules:

• It should be easy to remember: consumers must be able to recall the name easily
• It should be memorable: There’s a lot of product ‘noise’, and your name needs to be heard above it
• It must be easy to pronounce: Word of mouth is important, and if your customers can’t say it, they won’t mention it to others
• It must be easily understood: It helps if the name hints at what the product does unless you have a colossal marketing budget to explain a more leftfield name
• It must translate well with international audiences: We’ve all heard the apocryphal story that Coca Cola originally transliterated as ‘bite the wax tadpole’ in Chinese. Whatever the truth, make sure audiences around the world can pronounce your product name and it doesn’t mean anything problematic.
• It has to be a name you can own. No one wants to discover after a comprehensive research program that the name everyone loves is not available for use.

Provide your respondents with a product description, and ideally images of the product. Break your testing between:

• Overall name questions: How does each name compare with the others? Rank the names in order of preference, or against criteria such as trustworthiness, appeal or creativity. Do respondents have any names of their own? The results of this testing will give you the top names overall and in every category.
• Individual name questions: Would respondents buy this product with this specific name? How does this name make them feel? Individual name analysis should reveal name sentiment, as well as data about a consumer’s likelihood to purchase or consider your product.

Feature research

You use this to identify which product features your customer’s value so that you can add or improve them.

But you always need to keep in the back of your mind that a product is more than just the sum of its features – it’s how they work together to give a seamless experience that’s important. Research will help you do that.

There are three areas of feature research that you’ll need to undertake:

• Identifying customers’ wants and needs : Customer needs analysis will give you insights into personal values, purchasing decisions, and pricing tolerance . Conjoint analysis, with its multiple product attribute comparison/trade-off scenarios, will inform which features customers consider most valuable.
• Internal development : Once you’ve analysed what customers want, you need to bring your feature back in-house and seek the expert opinion of your product managers, business analysts, marketers, designers, engineers, and customer experience teams.
• Test with customers : You’ve created a feature that customers want, and your in-house teams have approved them. Now you can use product feature prioritisation to understand the features your customers’ value (and don’t). Survey: usage (where and how the customer uses the feature); ‘top of mind’ negative and positive associations with the feature; product categorisation (comparing with the competition to see which features make a product more or less ‘swappable’).

Pricing research

A product is only worth what people are prepared to pay for it. You need to ensure that its price is low enough for people to feel they’ve got good value, and you also make sufficient profit, but not so cheap that its quality is questioned.

You also need to consider how many units you’ll need to sell based on your product prices to have a good profit margin.

When you conduct pricing research , you’ll discover:

• How willing the market is to buy your product
• The highest return on your development investment
• How to maintain your brand’s value
• When and how to alter your pricing effectively
• The costs involved in producing your product

Pricing research is done through a combination of market research, competitor research , market analysis, and testing in the marketplace.

Use product pricing research tools. These use one or more of the following methodologies to ask survey respondents:

• Van Westendorp price sensitivity meter is a type of direct pricing research that asks survey respondents four simple questions to gauge whether your product is too expensive or a bargain
• Gabor-Granger pricing methodology uses predefined price points to determine the highest price a respondent would pay for your product
• Conjoint analysis gives respondents a choice between product packages and then asks them to choose one of the feature/price configurations to create the ideal option. Each option comes with trade-offs and the best time for use

Free eBook: 16 Research Methods to Maximise Product Success

Top new product development tips

You could come up with an amazing product or service, but without product research, you’ll never know if there’s a market for it. Furthermore, you might price it wrong and/or target the wrong customers, severely limiting (or preventing entirely) your sales.

The good news is that there are a lot of product research tips and product research tools we can share with you:

Research existing products on the market

The easiest way to do product research is to examine what products are already available in your marketplace and identify the top-selling products on the market that you’re competing with.

If you’re not already offering this product, you can create your own version, and with the right research, you can identify areas of improvement to differentiate your offering.

Look at product descriptions to see how existing products are being sold and use this to create products that fill a gap.

The easiest way to do product research is to get out and act as a customer. Go to popular online marketplaces like eBay and Amazon to see what people are looking at. Get out onto the high street and visit brick and mortar stores to see what product categories are already on the market.

All of the above will help you understand the current landscape and how you can fit in or disrupt it .

You can also look online at Google Trends and queries for particular products in your marketplace. Understanding these trends and the search volume for a particular keyword related to your products can help with your launch, as well as the optimization of product pages.

These trends can be particularly useful if you’re selling a seasonal product, as you can use real-time search data to see trending products, or changes to your market size when there might be more people looking for your product at certain times of the year.

Look at online reviews

The best feedback on products will always come from customers. And the best place to find honest feedback is by looking at online reviews — whether they’re on Google or Amazon.

Especially if you’re an online business, these Amazon and online reviews are a trove of ideas that can help you with your product research.

For example, paying particular attention to poor reviews can help you identify gaps in a competitor’s offering that you can take advantage of.

Identify gaps in the market

You don’t have to reinvent the wheel with your product ideas, often you can simply take an existing product and improve on it.

Online reviews are incredibly useful for product research because customers will typically share their ideas for improvement as part of the submission.

Quantitative product research

Using quantitative research with online polls or product research tools can help you reach a large portion of your potential marketplace in a cost-effective way.

You can use this as a starting point to understand the market as a whole before drilling down into specifics.

Qualitative product research

As well as analyzing the wider market, you should get specific reviews and opinions of your products from customers using qualitative research .

Through focus groups or individual interviews, you can start to understand the sentiment towards your products and identify opportunities to capitalize on.

In the long run, this data can help you to develop new product ideas, especially if you uncover downsides or holes in your product development.

Ongoing product research

While research can help test and optimize your product idea before launch, it shouldn’t stop once the product is on the market.

You should continue to do your research as an ongoing project.

This will give you more information about how your product or service is perceived and can also help you identify ongoing room for improvement for your products to help you make more sales in the future.

Conducting thorough product research is key to more sales

Researching your products can make the difference between success and failure when it comes to launching winning products and having success in the long term.

It should produce a complete picture of your market, product, and customers and will produce the roadmap for your launch and ongoing sales .

Your research will help with everything from product development, to your marketing campaigns, to selling prices and ongoing development.

By doing in-depth research you’ll be able to make better, more informed decisions about your product ideas and help you create and sell more profitable products.

Find success with Qualtrics’ product research tools

By bringing customers into your product development process, you can identify and solve problems while uncovering new opportunities. Today’s digital tools make it easier than ever.

With the right research platform, you can accelerate your product development cycle using real insights from your customers and easily identify gaps in the market. This enables you to launch new, customer-oriented products, services, and solutions, or disrupt existing categories with offerings that have new or improved features.

You can also get instant access to feedback from multiple channels and data sources like Google Search and other search engines and social media sites.

Then, use smart analysis at every step of the product development lifecycle to launch products you know your customers will love. Concept testing enables you to validate every aspect of your offering, from features and branding to messaging and price, to set it up for success. You can also use conjoint analysis to find your customers’ ideal product configurations, e.g. packing, pricing, design and features.

Finally, close the product experience gap, instantly gather real-time feedback that you can use, and automate the process using automated actions.

Start your PX journey today with our free product research survey template

Related resources

Product feature research 10 min read.

Pricing Research

Product Price Optimisation 12 min read

Buyer Personas

Customer Targeting 12 min read

Product Development

Product development: Definition and process for optimising new development products 13 min read

Product experience

Product Concept 12 min read

Product feedback 101: a short guide to leveraging insight 14 min read, what is a product development strategy 21 min read, request demo.

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How to Prevent a Dryer Fire

Four simple tips to minimize risks

It’s easy to think of your clothes dryer as a set-it-and-forget-it type of appliance. But before you start your next load tumbling and walk away, consider this: When was the last time you cleaned out your dryer duct?

Every year, firefighters across the country respond to around 13,820 home fires caused by clothes dryers, according to the latest figures from the National Fire Protection Association. About 27 percent of these fires are caused by an accumulation of lint, which can constrict the ductwork that expels hot air outside.

Signs that your dryer is malfunctioning include clothes taking longer to dry, clothes being very hot after drying, or the machine unexpectedly shutting down, says Richard Handel, the engineer who oversees CR’s laundry appliance testing.

• Clean the Lint Filter
• Replace an Accordion-Style Duct
• Clean the Dryer Duct Annually
• Handle Chemical Stains With Care

Some dryers, including many in our ratings, have indicators to alert you when there’s a duct blockage. Past testing on these devices, however, revealed that while some are good at detecting completely blocked vents, they aren’t as good at detecting partial blockages.

Dryer fires are responsible for seven deaths, 344 civilian injuries, and $233 million in property damage annually, according to NFPA spokesperson Susan McKelvey. Given these numbers, we asked CR’s experts for advice on reducing your risk of a dryer fire. Below, four simple best practices to ensure safety in the laundry room.

1. Clean the Lint Filter

Not once a month, or even once a week: “Clean the lint from the dryer’s lint screen after every load,” Handel says. “This helps prevent a fire, and it also helps your laundry dry faster.”

2. Replace an Accordion-Style Duct

Generally, dryers are equipped with a 4-inch vent hole in the back, which is connected to the exterior vent with a duct. But not all ducts will do.

If you see a plastic or foil accordion-style duct connecting your appliance to the vent, it’s a good idea to replace it. This type of duct is risky because it can sag, allowing lint to build up at low points and trapping lint in its ridges.

Handel recommends a rigid metal duct. “The smooth walls allow the air to flow, and also reduce the buildup of lint,” he says. “A flexible metal duct should be your second choice.”

One other tip: Use duct connectors and metal clamps or foil tape to join sections of duct rather than sheet-metal screws, which can catch lint and cause buildup inside the duct.

3. Clean the Dryer Duct at Least Once a Year

If you notice that your dryer takes longer to dry laundry than it used to, that’s a clue that there may be a blockage in the dryer vent system. When you’re drying a load, go outside and look at the vent. Do you see or feel exhaust air? If not, the vent or exhaust duct may be blocked with lint.

Start by disconnecting your dryer from the power source. And if you have a gas dryer, also turn off the gas valve near the dryer. “Carefully slide the dryer away from the wall so that you can access the vent that’s typically in the back of the dryer,” Handel says. “If you have a gas dryer, take care not to overstretch or damage the gas line.”

Disconnect the duct from the dryer, and vacuum both the dryer and the duct—as much as you can access. Where possible, separate the duct into shorter sections for better access, then reassemble and attach the duct to the dryer. Be sure all joints in the duct are properly connected and held together with clamps or foil tape. While you’re at it, clean behind the dryer and underneath it—lint builds up there too. Don’t forget the area between the dryer wall to the outside. Air must also flow freely through this obscured area.

Then return the dryer to its original spot and reconnect the power. You can briefly turn the dryer on to blow any residual lint outside. Finally, occasionally check your outdoor vent after windy weather, cold winter spells, and snowstorms to ensure it isn’t blocked by snow, leaves, or even bird nests.

4. Handle Chemical Stains on Laundry With Care

Laundry stained with gas, cooking oil, cleaning agents, or other flammable chemicals or substances needs special care. The Consumer Product Safety Commission recommends washing stained clothing or other items more than once to minimize volatile chemicals, then hanging them to dry.

If you must use a dryer, use the lowest heat setting and a drying cycle that concludes with a cool-down period.

In the event that a fire does start, keep the dryer door closed to limit its oxygen supply—a fire needs oxygen to keep it going.

Keith Flamer

Keith Flamer has been a multimedia content creator at Consumer Reports since 2021, covering laundry, cleaning, small appliances, and home trends. Fascinated by interior design, architecture, technology, and all things mechanical, he translates CR’s testing engineers’ work into content that helps readers live better, smarter lives. Prior to CR, Keith covered luxury accessories and real estate, most recently at Forbes, with a focus on residential homes, interior design, home security, and pop culture trends.

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Key takeaways

• Ahead of this week's Federal Reserve rate-setting meeting, the top APY on a CD across terms remains 5.36%.
• The highest yields have held steady in April, nearly across the board.
• National averages are significantly lower than top rates, so it pays to shop around.

In the final days of April, leading annual percentage yields (APYs) on certificates of deposit (CDs) are between 4.50 percent and 5.36 percent on terms between three months and five years. Top rates have held steady in the month of April, except for some slight fluctuations in the highest rate on a one-year term.

One factor that influences CD yields is when the Federal Reserve changes interest rates. APYs on CDs tend to increase when the Fed raises rates or decrease when the Fed lowers rates. The Fed is scheduled to meet this week, and Fed officials are widely expected to hold rates steady due to persistently elevated inflation.

Bankrate monitors the top and average rates every weekday, and you’ll find today’s top CD rates in the table below.

Today's CD rates by term

Note: Annual percentage yields (APYs) shown are as of April 29, 2024. APYs for some products may vary by region.

N/A: Not available; Bankrate doesn’t track national averages for the 9-month CD term due to limited available data. Estimated earnings are based on the highest APYs and assume interest is compounded annually.

What will the Federal Reserve do with rates this week?

There’s a good chance the Fed will hold rates steady this week, which most market watchers believe will happen . Fed Chair Jerome Powell recently said the Central Bank would likely delay rate cuts due to inflation remaining elevated. After this week’s meeting, the Fed's next rate-setting meeting is scheduled for June 11-12, 2024.

What the current rate environment means for CDs

In 2022 and 2023, the Federal Reserve raised its benchmark interest rate a total of 11 times, bringing its current target range to a 23-year high of 5.25-5.50 percent. However, the Fed has left rates unchanged for five straight meetings, due to inflation not slowing as quickly as it has in the past.

Yields on competitive savings accounts and CDs tend to move in lockstep with the Fed’s interest rate moves . As such, many banks increase their yields when the Fed raises rates, and they lower yields when the federal funds rate drops. While the Fed has held rates steady since July 2023, top CD APYs ended up peaking in late 2023 and have since been decreasing gradually.

Is it still a good time to open a CD? “Even though CD yields have pulled back a bit, you’re still able to lock in yields that are well in excess of inflation and do so for multiple years,” says Greg McBride, CFA , Bankrate’s chief financial analyst. “The declines will likely accelerate as we get closer to the Fed beginning to cut interest rates, so there is no sense in waiting.”

Is investing in a CD right for me?

Whether you should invest in a CD depends on your own personal financial situation and goals. A CD offered at a federally insured bank or credit union can be a safe place to park your funds while earning a guaranteed APY. Many savers turn to CDs to lock in a high interest rate if they believe rates will start to decline soon.

A CD can help you earn interest on money you're saving for a planned purchase. For instance, if you want to buy a house in five years, putting money in a five-year CD can give you a fixed APY on those funds during that term. Likewise, if you plan to take your dream vacation in a couple of years, a two-year CD could be a good place to grow those funds. Avoid an early withdrawal penalty by only committing money to a CD that you won't need access to before the CD matures.

How is CD interest taxed?

The IRS treats interest you earn from a CD as taxable income, whether you receive that money in cash or choose to reinvest it. For CDs with terms longer than one year, interest earned must be reported each year on your taxes, even if you don't cash in the CD until it matures.

An IRA CD is an individual retirement account for which your money is in a CD. Contributions to a traditional IRA may be tax deductible, and they're taxed when you withdraw the funds. Conversely, contributions to a Roth IRA cannot be deducted from your annual income, and they're not taxed when you withdraw the money. You should consult a tax adviser regarding these two IRA CD options before making a choice.

How does a CD differ from a savings account?

Many banks and credit unions offer savings accounts and CDs , and both accounts earn some interest. There are a couple of key differences, however: A savings account generally allows you to withdraw funds any time, while a CD typically charges a penalty if you take out the money before the term ends. This makes a savings account a better place for funds you might need for emergencies.

Another difference between the two is a savings account usually earns a variable APY that the bank can raise or lower at will, while a fixed-rate CD earns the same APY until it matures. As such, savers often choose to lock some funds in a CD when rates are likely to start falling, while many are apt to stick with a savings account if they believe rates will rise soon.

Research methodology

Bankrate calculates and reports the national average APYs for various CD terms. Factored into national average rates are the competitive APYs commonly offered by online banks, along with the very low rates often found at large brick-and-mortar banks.

In June 2023, Bankrate updated its methodology that determines the national average CD rates. For the process, more than 500 banks and credit unions are now surveyed each week to generate the national averages. Among these institutions are those that are broadly available and offer high yields, as well as some of the nation’s largest banks.