Dear Dropship Advisor,

My husband and I planned to start an eCommerce business that dropships products for babies and toddlers, but we are wondering how do you know what products sell the best online?

Thanks!

-eCommerce Enthusiastic

Dear eCommerce Enthusiastic,

This is a very important question for you to be asking with regard to your dropship business.  Many eCommerce entrepreneurs fall in love with the ‘idea’ of eCommerce – for its flexible work schedule or its promise of ‘overnight Internet millions’ (a fable)..others simply have a passion for a particular product and decide to dropship it.  Not too many dropshippers consider the viability of the product(s) they want to dropship.

There are many, actually, of a particular industry or product choice that will affect a dropshipping business’ potential profitability:

• Is this a branded product, a commodity or a uniquely new idea?
• Is it being searched for online?
• Are customers willing to buy it online?
• Are companies successfully retailing/dropshipping the product online right now?
• How competitive is the market for your potential customers?
• What is the average profit margin for a dropshipper of this product?

You’ll want to spend some time finding the answers to these questions and more in order to determine the viability of your dropship business idea.

What Products Sell Well Online?

One of the great things about the Internet (for marketers, at least) is its ability to track and store data.  You’ll want to analyze search metrics and sales data in order to determine if a particular product you’re hoping to dropship is likely to work well for your business.

Here are some of the most helpful resources available to you on the Web:

• Search Metrics:  See what keywords/keyphrases searchers are using related to your chosen products and how often by visiting the Google External Search Tool.  See how web traffic for searches related to your products has changed over time with Google Trends.
• Sales Data:  It’ll require a small financial investment, but it is well worth it.  Terapeak, an eBay company, tracks sales data across eBay’s entire network of used and new products.  The data is considered to be a good cross-section of overall eCommerce activity by the foremost eCommerce experts.  It’s a must-have for eBay sellers.  The data is quite amazing and the search feature is robust.  You can view data such as sales price, % of listings sold, % auction/% buy-it-now, avg # bids and much, much more – by item or by category.

We hope this points you in the right direction – at least to start with..