So, you’ve got a niche in mind, and you’ve figured out your profit margins. But before you dive headfirst into selling, there’s one more crucial step: making sure your product will actually sell. It’s all about product viability—the process of validating that there’s a demand for your product and that people are willing to pay for it. This step saves you from investing time and money into a product that ends up flopping.

Let’s walk through the practical steps for researching product viability so you can confidently launch products that people want to buy.

Why Product Viability Matters

Imagine spending weeks setting up your store, ordering product samples, designing a marketing plan—only to hear crickets when you finally launch. No sales. It’s painful, but it happens. The good news is, you can prevent this nightmare by doing a bit of research beforehand.

By researching product viability, you’re checking:

• Demand: Is there a large enough market for this product?
• Customer Interest: Are people actively searching for or talking about this product?
• Pricing Tolerance: Will customers pay the price you need to charge to maintain good margins?

Nailing these aspects will help you avoid offering a product that nobody wants or pricing yourself out of the market.

Step-by-Step Guide to Researching Product Viability

Now let’s get into the practical steps of how to research product viability for your drop shipping store.

1. Use Google Trends to Gauge Demand

Google Trends is an excellent starting point for understanding whether your product idea is trending up or down. It gives you a snapshot of the search interest for your product over time.

Here’s how to use it:

• Go to Google Trends.
• Type in your product idea (e.g., “eco-friendly yoga mats” or “reusable straws”).
• Look at the interest over the past 12 months or 5 years.

What you're looking for: A consistent or increasing search trend. If interest in your product is dropping off, that could be a red flag. But if it’s trending upwards, you’re onto something.

2. Check Out Marketplaces Like Amazon and eBay

Amazon and eBay are treasure troves for checking whether products are already selling well. These platforms let you see exactly what’s popular and what customers are saying about these products. Plus, you get a sense of how much people are willing to pay.

Here’s what to do:

• Search for your product idea on Amazon or eBay.
• Look for products with a decent number of reviews (this indicates sales volume).
• Pay attention to the pricing and product features.

What you're looking for: Products that are selling well with positive reviews. Also, check out what customers like and don’t like about these products, so you can find ways to offer something better or fill in the gaps.

3. Analyze Competitor Sales with Tools Like AliExpress

If you want to dig deeper, AliExpress is another great platform for checking product demand. It’s where many drop shippers source products, and it allows you to see how many orders a product has received. This gives you a direct look into what’s already selling in the drop shipping world.

Here’s how to do it:

• Go to AliExpress and search for your product idea.
• Sort the results by the number of orders to see the top-selling products.
• Check how many orders each product has and the frequency of reviews.

What you're looking for: Products with a good number of orders but not so many that the market feels oversaturated. If a product has thousands of orders, it’s likely in a competitive niche. If there are some products with decent order numbers and positive reviews, that’s a good sign.

4. Spy on Competitor Ads Using Facebook Ads Library

The Facebook Ads Library is an awesome, free tool for checking out what your competitors are advertising. This is a goldmine for seeing which products are being pushed hard, meaning there’s demand for them.

Here’s how to use it:

• Go to Facebook Ads Library.
• Type in a competitor or a product-related keyword (like “yoga mats” or “pet toys”).
• Browse through the ads that show up.

What you're looking for: Ads that have been running for a long time. If a competitor is consistently advertising a product, it’s probably selling well. You can also check the copy and design of their ads to see how they’re marketing the product.

5. Join Niche Communities to Gauge Interest

Another sneaky but effective way to research product viability is by joining online communities where your potential customers hang out. Forums, Reddit threads, and Facebook groups are goldmines for understanding what people are interested in and what products they’re buying.

Here’s what to do:

• Join a few niche communities on Reddit, Facebook, or specialized forums.
• Observe the conversations. Are people talking about your product or similar products?
• Check if people are complaining about not being able to find something, which could be an opportunity for you.

What you're looking for: Conversations where people show genuine interest in your product or express frustration that they can’t find something. This is a sign that there’s demand, and you could swoop in with a solution.

6. Test Demand with a Small Ad Campaign

Nothing confirms product viability better than real-world testing. Running a small Facebook or Instagram ad campaign for your product idea is a fast and relatively inexpensive way to see if people are interested in buying. You don’t need a fully built-out store—just a landing page or a basic product page will do.

Here’s how to do it:

• Set up a simple Facebook or Instagram ad targeting your niche audience.
• Spend a small budget (about $5-$10 a day) and run the ad for a week.
• Measure how many clicks, adds-to-cart, and sales you get.

What you're looking for: If people are clicking on your ad and adding the product to their cart, that’s a great sign. If you make some sales, even better! If there’s little to no engagement, you may need to rethink your product or approach.

7. Use Pre-Orders to Validate Interest

One clever way to check product viability without investing a ton upfront is by offering pre-orders. This lets you gauge how many people are willing to pay for your product before it’s even available.

Here’s how to do it:

• Set up a pre-order page on your website, explaining the product and when it will ship.
• Drive traffic to the page through social media, ads, or email marketing.
• Track how many people place a pre-order.

What you're looking for: If you get a good number of pre-orders, you’ve validated that people want your product. If pre-orders are slow, you may need to tweak the product or messaging before going all-in.

Red Flags to Watch Out For

When researching product viability, there are a few red flags that should make you reconsider your product choice:

• Over-saturation: If every marketplace is flooded with similar products, it might be hard to stand out.
• No search volume: If nobody is searching for your product idea on Google or marketplaces, that’s a sign there’s no demand.
• Low customer interest: If people aren’t engaging with ads or showing interest in niche communities, it may be a sign the product isn’t as viable as you thought.

Wrap-Up: Make Sure Your Product Will Sell

Researching product viability is all about validating that there’s demand for what you want to sell. It’s about making sure people are already interested in and buying similar products, and that your version stands out enough to attract customers. The time you spend on this research will pay off tenfold by helping you avoid costly mistakes and giving you the confidence to move forward with a product that’s poised for success.

By using tools like Google Trends, checking out competitors on Amazon, and testing with small ad campaigns, you’ll gather the data you need to make informed decisions. And once you’ve validated your product’s viability, you can move forward with confidence and start building a store that’s set up to thrive.

Next, we’ll dive into branding and marketing strategies to help you position your drop shipping store in a way that captures attention and converts visitors into buyers!