How To Find Winning Dropshipping Products in 2024? | Part 1
Stacey
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2024-04-16
Today let's talk about how to find winning products for dropshpping. In the world of dropshipping, choosing the right product is like finding the golden ticket! If you pick the wrong one, you are not going to make it work even you do all the other things right.
Table of contents
1.What is a winning product?
Let's get started with what is most important, what is a winning product. Shortly speaking, winning dropshipping products are products that your target audience loves and sell like crazy. Before starting sourcing, you need to know below the main characteristics of a good product:
The "Wow" factor: The “perfect” dropshipping product should make people go “Wow!” You can test this by asking a few friends what they think of the product. If they go "Wow!", so that's it.
Problem Solver: Any product that simplifies people’s everyday lives and solves a clear problem is a great choice for dropshipping.Convince your target audience that your product is the answer they've been searching for!
Not easy to find in local stores: Keep this in mind that scarcity is a dropshipper’s friend. If a buyer can find the product in their local shopping mall, he’s probably going to buy it there. Customers wouldn't wait weeks for something readily available nearby. Competition: When a product is saturated, it’s difficult to sell. There's very little room for new sellers to make a profit because there are just too many competitors selling practically the same thing.
High quality: If you want to build a successful dropshipping store for the long term, you need to make sure you are selling high-quality products, which can build happy customers who buy again, recommend you, and leave positive reviews.
Good profit margin: Focusing on the products that allow for a good profit. High margins ensure returns after expenses and buffer unexpected costs. They also fuel growth through product expansion and hiring.
Shipping time: Shipping time is a critical factor in customer satisfaction. Choose products that can be shipped quickly and efficiently to minimize delays and potential customer complaints.
Seasonality: Consider the timing and market trends when choosing products. Some products may only sell well during certain seasons, so choosing products that are not too seasonal or can be sold year-round is essential. But if you plan well, seasonal sales can also soar.
Small and lightweight: Choose smaller, lighter items that are easier and cheaper to ship. By prioritizing manageable product size and weight, you can significantly reduce your shipping expenses and improve your profit margins.
Generally speaking, a winning product is one that that will sell well and bring in a profit, without being oversaturated in the market. These products are typically in-demand, unique, easy to ship and have a high perceived value to customers. Keep the above criteria in mind. Your chances of finding winning products will increase.
Want to see some winning product examples? Click here for another article!
What are the best dropshipping products?(+Examples)
2. How to find winning products?
Armed with what makes a winning product, let's see how to source them!
Finding profitable products is crucial for dropshipping success. Let's explore these four channels to discover winning products: social media, e-commerce marketplaces, search engines, and product research tools. Each offers unique advantages to fit your specific needs.
2.1 Social Media
Social media's massive user base and targeted advertising make it a goldmine for dropshippers. You can discover hot products, see what competitors are selling and how they advertise, and learn from their best practices. Here's how to find winning products on different social media platforms.
1. Facebook Search
As one of the most popular social websites, Facebook can be a great tool for discovering potential winning products to sell. Here are a couple of ways you can use it for product research:
- Facebook search bar: Open facebook.com, type in some words people would probably use for an AD cope, e.g. "get yours today " , "free shipping only today" or some other normal lines as below:
- 50% / 60% Off (or any other percent off)
- Get Yours Now / Here
- Free Shipping
- Get It Here
- Get It Now
- Just Pay Shipping
- Click Link
- Buy Now
- Limited Supply
You may want to check the video type. Please remember to set the date posted as this month to get the latest items on the right side.
Overviewing the hottest items, you can click on their home page to select about section, press page transparency. If you see that this page is currently running ads, you can go to the Ad Library to check the items they are running ads on. Thus, you can get a ton of inspiration by doing this. If you see someone running an ad like 10 or 20 days or a month, you know they are probably making money on this product.
You can also search for ads currently running on Facebook based on keywords, categories, and even advertiser. Look for ads with high engagement (likes, comments, shares) and those that have been running for a while. This suggests the product is resonating with the audience and the advertiser finds it profitable.
- Your News Feed: While personalized, keep an eye out for ads that catch your eye in your regular Facebook browsing. These could be indicators of trending products or ones that resonate with your interests and potential target audience.
- Leverage Facebook Groups and Communities: Join groups or communities related to your niche or general product interests. See what products people are discussing, what problems they're facing, and what solutions they're looking for. This can spark ideas for new products or identify existing ones with high demand.
The main challenge that you will have with Facebook is the lack of data. As you can see, there are no reviews or anything. Even the seller has no review. Why? Facebook marketplace is not exactly a dropshipping marketplace like Amazon or eBay. Most sellers here post pre-loved products. But it offers one of the easiest free methods to find products to dropship. With this method, you will also condition your Facebook feed to eventually offer you nothing but high-quality dropshipping products that you can test later on.
2. TikTok Product Research
Nobody ever thought TikTok would become a dominant force in the social media industry. Today, TikTok has about one billion monthly users, and that is why many merchants advertise on the platform. You can get inspiration on what to sell as a dropshipper from these advertisements.
- Optimize your feed
The first thing we do is to create an account. Go onto Tiktok search and optimize your feed. Swipe on down, whenever you see an ad for any ecommerce products for dropshipping, favorite it. You can also press the shop now button and go to the selling page to get more inspiration. This is going to help the feed know that, "oh! This person loves dropshipping products". The system will categorize you in dropshipping products lovers group and consistently feed you the similar video. Pay attention to videos with a high number of likes, comments, and shares. This indicates user interest in the product being featured.
- Product hashtags
Hashtags in this category are used by content creators who have discovered interesting products on TikTok that they want to share with their audience. Look for videos with hashtags as below. These hashtags are often used by content creators showcasing interesting products they've discovered.
#TikTokMadeMeBuyIt
#Amazon(favorites/must-haves)
#AliExpress(favorites/must-haves)
The products you will find after this search are potential winning products that you can submit to the selection criteria for winning products seen previously in order to opt for the best product.
If you already have a store that sells in a specific niche, it might be worth searching for products using product category hashtags. You will surely find additional products from your niche that you can “Upsell” to your customers.
#Product for cat / dog
#Beauty product
#Decoration
#Kitchen
You can also combine the two groups of hashtags for more advanced searches.
#AliExpress cooking
#Decoration TikTok Made Me Buy It
In addition, it can be interesting to also search for products using hashtags like #ProductforDropshipping #ecommerce #winningproducts #dropshippingproduct…
- Follow the influencers
Search for TikTok accounts dedicated to product reviews. These accounts often feature up-and-coming products across various categories. Look up some of the most successful influencers on TikTok and see what types of products they post. Simply type the '@' symbol followed by the name of the product you're interested in finding. For example, if you wanted to find influencers who talk about pets, you would type '@pet,' '@cute dog,' etc.
Watch for branded content from influencers. While some might be sponsored, successful campaigns often showcase products with genuine audience appeal. You might notice that certain brands tend to use similar hashtags when posting their videos. This means that these hashtags may be popular among their followers. Therefore, you should consider using them as well.
- TikTok Creative Center
Another great place to find ideas is the TikTok Creative Center. It's a one-stop shop offering inspiration, data, and tools to craft high-performing TikTok videos. This tool allows you to search for top ads, hottest hashtags and phrases related to your brand to discover the new trends on TikTok.
For example, if you sell cosmetics, you can type 'cosmetics' into the keyword box. Then, you can choose whether you want to search for videos that include the word 'cosmetics'. And the best part is on the filters, where you can select the location, industry, objective, like, and duration. Looking at these ads with more likes, you can figure out the potentially profitable products.
There is a very useful AI tool tab called Creative Assistant on this page. You can get answers of below quetions easily: Write a script similar to the ad here on the page. Show me what's trending on TikTok. Show me some TikTok ad examples. Find me some top products on TikTok.
......of course, you can ask any question you would like to know to help you.
- Utilize TikTok's Discover Page
Look for hot products on TikTok's Discover page. Trending videos, hashtags and sounds show what's popular. Check engagement to see if people like it. This can help you to find winning products fast. Overall, TikTok is a good tool with a lot of potential for finding winning products. You can keep digging up the new surprising functions.
3. Pinterest
Pinterest is a social interaction network on which users share content like on other social networks (Facebook, TikTok, Instagram…). Posts on Pinterest are called “Pin”. If you have the concern that the products found on Facebook or TikTok become more and more saturated, maybe Pinterest is good choice.
Pinterest has over 300 million active users each month. Around 80% of Pinterest users are females. Overall, 46% of all users in the US are women. As such, it is a great place to find products that the female market responds well to.
Users can save your pins or share them on their boards. Because of this, there is a likelihood that a product can go viral. It is also how you will come across winning products on the platform.
Here is what you can do:
On the home page, type your product keyword, for example "cosmetics", and you can check all the items you are interested in:
From here, you can choose an image. Click it, and you will see the details and comments of this product. You can also go to the product page to get more information.
From this page, you can also find that this pinner has 63,6k followers, that is a big number, right? You can check out that pinner’s page to see more ideas. Please note that the more followers a pinner has, the more likely that the product has a demand.
Although there are stats here that we cannot see (like re-pin stats and share stats), the follower count can at least give us ideas on what to dropship.
Also there is other options, same functions as TikTok, you can interact more by “Likes” or “Comments” with a type of content, the more you will see similar content in your news feed. For each dropshipping product ad, you see in your news feed, visit the store and add the product to the cart as if you were going to make a purchase. The algorithms will consider you as an internet shopper and will promote more similar products to you.
In this part we have stated the characteristics of winning products, and how to find them through several social media platforms.
Overall, social media is a trendsetter. You can discover new and exciting products gaining traction with specific audiences. Platforms like Instagram and TikTok can showcase products visually, helping you gauge potential customer interest. Social media communities dedicated to dropshipping or specific niches often share winning product ideas and reviews. This can be a valuable source of real-world data. The best part is that utilizing social media for product research is generally free, unlike some paid research tools. Even though it is a time consuming process.
But there is trade-off: Not everything trending on social media translates to long-term sales success. Be cautious of fads and focus on products with consistent demand. If you find a winning product through social media, chances are others have too. The market might become saturated quickly.
Ensure you consistently consider the aforementioned winning product criteria. Let's go to the next section to explore other methods of finding winning products for dropshipping, Such as Ecom Marketplaces, Search Engines and Product Research Tools.
The following is the framework content of the second part of our article. Please click here to keep on reading the next part.
How to find winning dropshipping products in 2024?_Part 2
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