How To Choose a New Product for Your Business
When business is going well and you’re looking for ways to grow your company, one of the best options is adding another product to your lineup. This can be a stressful process, especially for smaller businesses that don’t have as much experience launching new items. There’s always the chance that it won’t sell well and you’ll be left with too much stock and a depleted bank account. So how do you go about choosing a product you’re confident about? Get started with these tips.
Customer Requests
Using customer requests to formulate a new product is a great way to launch something new with a clear interest from your audience. This won’t guarantee sales, and you should always assume that not everyone in your comment section asking for something new will actually buy it, but when you see enough interest over time, it’s a good sign of a new opportunity. You can even include your audience by asking for feedback or help on deciding some of the details. You might run a contest or a giveaway so one of them can name the new product or choose the colors you use.
Consider Costs
Decide early how much of your time and money you can realistically dedicate to a new product. If you’re currently overwhelmed with orders, you may want to prioritize satisfying your existing customers before trying to sell them something else. This can be frustrating for creatives, but keeping production and shipping times short will help keep good reviews flowing. Once you settle on a budget, don’t forget to include any sneaky extra costs a new product might require. If the size and weight is different from your current products, you might need to look into different shipping solutions to keep costs low.
Follow Your Excitement
At the end of the day, if you don’t enjoy what you’re doing, what’s the point in running a business? When you’re passionate about the products you offer, your customers can tell. If you’ve earned their trust already, many will want to support you just because you made it. Is there a specific design you’ve been wanting to try that you can make a limited edition? Has your experience as a professional in the industry given you insights to new products that no one else in your niche is pursuing yet? You don’t have to choose the wildest idea you come up with, but refusing to limit yourself in the brainstorming stage can lead you to some interesting places.
Utilize Trends
If you’re going after trends, do so with caution, and make sure you jump on early. They can be a big opportunity if you can get new products on the market quickly, but there’s no telling how fleeting specific trends will be. You could end up with a viral video and more orders than you can handle, or you could end up having to run a sale for the stragglers to the waning trend who aren’t willing to pay full price. If you’re really determined to hop on a trend, make sure you do consistent market research, or even hire a marketing consultant to give you realistic advice.
Complementary Products
Is there a product that would complement the ones you already make? Things like cases, display stands, or accessories can all be popular. Sometimes even smaller, simpler products are easy to add on to orders when customers are already planning to buy something else. For example, when people buy a phone, they often buy a case, a screen protector, and extra charging cords at the same time. The sheer convenience is often enough of a reason for people to buy, even if they could get something cheaper elsewhere.
It’s exciting to expand your business with new products, but it can be difficult to get started. While weighing the different risks and rewards can be overwhelming, when you follow your values and align your processes with your goals, you’re likely to launch a product that you and your customers are excited about.