How To Find a Product to Sell: 17 Proven Methods (2026)

A great idea can spark a new business. You might have invented something innovative, added a fresh twist to a classic product, or spotted a trending item with market potential. With ecommerce now accounting for more than 20% of global retail sales, there’s plenty of opportunity—but also more competition. When you find a product to sell, it’s worth taking the time to validate your idea to ensure market fit.

By digging into product research, tracking trends, and sizing up customer demand, you can uncover profitable opportunities and build a brand people truly want to buy. Here’s how to find the right product and the right audience to sell it to.

What is product research?

Product research is the process of determining what to sell, who to sell it to, and how likely it is that you’ll profit from selling it. Product research helps you spot gaps in the market, avoid oversaturated ideas, and focus on products customers already want (and are willing to pay for). It involves understanding customer demand, evaluating profit potential, and sizing up competitors so you can choose products with a real chance of success before investing your time, energy, and savings in development.

For beginners, product research replaces guesswork with confidence, helping you validate ideas before going all in. For established brands, it’s a smart way to expand into new categories, protect margins, and stay ahead of shifting customer expectations.

17 ways to find a product to sell

1. Solve a pain point
2. Spot trends before they emerge
3. Appeal to niche interests
4. Address an underserved market
5. Follow a personal passion
6. Consider your professional experience
7. Find product opportunities in keywords
8. Leverage social media trend tools
9. Browse online marketplaces
10. Improve an existing product
11. Research products with higher profit margins
12. Embrace sustainable and ethical products
13. Attend trade shows and fairs
14. Consider personalization
15. Analyze international markets
16. Get inspired by social change
17. Test products through dropshipping

1. Solve a pain point

Many profitable products aim to solve a customer problem or pain point. When assessing demand for a product, pay attention to the challenges customers face with existing products. Social media and customer review sites are excellent sources for these insights.

Solving a pain point doesn’t always mean inventing something entirely new. Sometimes you’ll identify gaps in your competitors’ product design or patterns of poor customer service in an industry.

Consider how you can improve an existing idea to address common frustrations. Gloria Hwang did this when she built her brand, Thousand. She discovered many cyclists avoided helmets because they didn’t like how they looked. Her brand focused on combining style with safety to reinvent an everyday product.

“If you can make a helmet people actually want to wear, you can help save lives,” Gloria says on a Shopify Masters episode.

2. Spot trends before they emerge

Recognizing an emerging trend gives a significant advantage, letting you establish yourself as a leader before the competition intensifies. However, once a trend is widely recognized, it’s often already peaking. The goal is to anticipate trending products before they become mainstream.

Here are ways to identify products with trend potential:

• Social media. Scan trending hashtags and follow influencers in specific niches. Most platforms have a trending section. Social listening tools can help you monitor trends over time.
• AI product research tools. These analyze large datasets using artificial intelligence and machine learning, providing more comprehensive insights than single-platform data.
• Google Trends: View trends’popularity over time. Trends often cycle back, and Google Trends can help predict the next wave.
• Trade publications: Industry publications often share insights or trend predictions based on research and historical data.
• Current events and pop culture: Follow media coverage of world events. Trends frequently emerge from popular TV shows or current events.
• Technological advances: New technology can create demand for products that incorporate it. Consider the surge in “smart” appliances and devices driven by advances in AI.

Miguel Leal identified that supermarket Mexican food wasn’t evolving alongside restaurant trends. He took concepts from popular restaurants and brought them to grocery aisles when creating Somos.

“We wanted our first line of product to be all plant based, with clean ingredients, because we felt we needed to really differentiate ourselves from the rest of the Mexican food that was in the market,” Miguel says in a Shopify Masters interview. “Only by starting at the very top of quality and taste, then we could tell consumers that there was a different way to enjoy Mexican food that would really nourish you.”

3. Appeal to niche interests

When people are passionate about a hobby or interest, they’re typically more willing to spend money on products that match their needs. Understanding your target market becomes easier when you’re part of the community you serve. Do you play pickleball or attend a weekly knitting circle? Talk with fellow enthusiasts to discover their preferences and pain points.

While focusing on a niche means a smaller market, it can lead to a loyal customer base if you nail the product-market fit. This approach works particularly well when you find a niche underserved by current products.

For example, Chomps doesn’t just sell beef jerky to everyone. The brand targets health-conscious consumers by promoting that its products are high in protein, low in carbs, and keto-friendly.

“Focusing on a very niche community allowed us to make waves and to be known within that small community for a very small dollar amount," says founder Peter Maldonado on a Shopify Masters episode. “For us to cast such a wide net would have required a lot more funding, but because of that, we were able to go to these early influencers, and it was a great way for us to build brand recognition."

4. Address an underserved market

Underserved markets extend beyond hobbyists with niche interests. They can include entire demographics overlooked by current brands. Identifying these gaps can help you find products customers want but can’t easily find.

For example, LGBTQ+ people may discover the wedding industry doesn’t always cater to their needs, more often offering products designed for heterosexual couples.

Human Beauty launched its own line of accessible and inclusive cosmetics after founder Millie Flemington-Clare, who was born with a rare genetic condition called cystinosis, noticed a gap in the market for makeup products suited to people with disabilities. 

Human Beauty’s cosmetics are sensory-friendly, use anti-roll packaging, and include QR codes in their packaging to provide audio descriptions for makeup palettes. Founder Millie has since won innovation and entrepreneurship awards for her designs.

5. Follow a personal passion

Choosing a niche based on your own interests is a common path to entrepreneurship. Many successful businesses have grown from hobbies, including those started by makers scaling their craft to sell handmade goods online.

Founder-market fit matters. When you’re deeply invested in what you’re selling, you’re motivated to overcome business challenges. You’re also more likely to understand your target market when you already fit your ideal buyer persona.

When Sarah Chisholm’s dance career ended unexpectedly, she turned to a passion to create a new path. She transformed her love of food into Wild Rye Baking Magic, a brand selling premium cake, frosting, and pancake mixes. Sarah built her business using her existing knowledge and contacts. “Nobody is going to know your local community better than you,” she says.

6. Consider your professional experience

Your past work experience can be a powerful shortcut to a strong product idea. In 2025, 57% of established merchants surveyed by Shopify reported using personal experience—as customers, former business owners, or industry professionals—to validate their business idea. Notably, higher-revenue merchants were more likely to rely on prior business experience or industry expertise rather than intuition alone.

Think about where you already have an edge. Did you leave a career as a coach? You’re well placed to create products for amateur athletes because you understand their challenges firsthand. Spent years teaching? Online courses or digital resources could be a natural fit. When you build on your own experience, you’re better equipped to understand your audience, tap into existing networks, and earn trust.

That’s exactly what happened with RetroSupply. Founder Dustin Lee transitioned from running a freelance web design business to selling vintage-inspired fonts and design assets for graphic designers and illustrators. By turning his industry knowledge into digital products, he created a scalable passive income stream.

7. Find product opportunities in keywords

Generating organic search traffic is a great way to grow your business. While search engine optimization (SEO) may seem challenging for new store owners, keyword research can reveal valuable opportunities.

Look for keywords with high search volume (indicating customer demand) and low competition (making them easier to rank for). Several keyword research tools and browser extensions can help you with this research—some at no cost:

• Ahrefs
• Moz
• Keywords Everywhere
• Keyword Surfer
• Answer The Public

On a Shopify Masters episode, JJ Follano, founder of Zero Waste Store, explains that he discovered his business idea after finding a domain name that wasn’t being used—despite being a term people searched for 15,000 times every month.

“People were actively looking for that keyword and variations of that keyword, and I said, ‘Well, we just started, we’re about a few months in, and I think there’s a really strong play here, so why don’t we rebrand as Zero Waste Store? We can use the acronym ZWS, and we’ll probably grab a lot of that market share.,’ JJ explains. 

“Almost instantaneously, sure enough, by making the switch and redoing the brand, we went from initially doing a few hundred orders a month at most to doing over a million dollars in sales within the first year of doing that rebrand.”

8. Leverage social media trend tools

Google isn’t the only place where people begin their search. Increasingly, social media platforms are where consumers—especially younger Gen Alpha and Gen Z shoppers—discover products. Pinterest, Instagram, and TikTok search data can provide excellent product ideas for these demographics.

Social commerce product research can also help you test ideas, learn about audience behavior, and find inspiration.

For example, Mush Studios co-founder Jacob Winter discovered his business idea when his rug-making TikTok videos went viral. The interest in his creations showed him there was a market for his hobby. Having already built an audience as a creator, he understood how to connect with—and sell to—them.

Beyond your own observations, most platforms offer trend analysis tools to show what’s popular. Here’s how to use them to find trending products on social media:

• TikTok Creative Center. Provides free access to top product lists and year-round ad performance insights. It’s helpful for understanding product trends among younger crowds and developing a TikTok marketing strategy.
• Pinterest Trends. Uncovers what Pinterest users are searching for, including trending topics over the past 30 days, filtered by country.
• BrandWatch. Uses generative AI to analyze the world’s largest archive of consumer opinions and identify trends.
• Meta Ads Library. Lets you see which products brands are actively promoting. If you notice the same product or angle running consistently across multiple ads, that’s often a sign it’s profitable.
• TikTok Shop sales rankings. Acts as a powerful validation layer. Seeing products climb the charts shows what’s already converting at scale.

9. Browse online marketplaces

While you can sell on Amazon, Etsy, and eBay alongside your Shopify store, these marketplaces are also powerful research tools on their own. Each platform publishes curated lists that highlight what shoppers are actively buying, making them a great way to spot product opportunities and demand patterns.

Here are a few links to get you started:

• Amazon Best Sellers
• Amazon Most Wished For
• Amazon Movers & Shakers
• Etsy Best Selling Items
• Etsy Most Popular Item
• AliExpress Top Selling Products

Once you’ve shortlisted a few ideas, use these platforms to validate suppliers too. Look for products with:

• Consistent sales across multiple sellers (not just one outlier)
• Strong recent reviews and repeat buyers
• Reliable shipping times and clear product specs
• Variations or bundles

Beyond marketplaces, dropshipping can be a low-risk way to test products before committing to inventory. Shopify Collective lets you sell products from other Shopify brands without holding upfront stock, giving you access to ready-to-sell items across categories like clothing, beauty, and electronics, with product details, pricing, and fulfillment already handled.

Dropshipping offers several advantages for product research. You can test market demand for different products without upfront investment, quickly pivot between product categories, and validate ideas before committing to inventory. Dropshipping apps like DropCommerce and Syncee connect you with verified suppliers, making it easy to experiment with different products and niches.

This approach works particularly well when combined with other research methods. Use social media trends and keyword research to identify promising products, then test them through dropshipping before scaling up with your own inventory.

10. Improve an existing product

Customer reviews can be a goldmine for finding profitable products. They show you exactly where existing products fall short, from quality issues and confusing features to pricing frustrations. Once you’ve narrowed down a product, category, or niche, reading reviews of top sellers helps you spot gaps you can turn into differentiation (and healthier margins).

To go a step further, competitor research tools can speed up the process. Tools like ad libraries, SEO research platforms, and ecommerce intelligence tools show you which products competitors are actively promoting, how they’re positioning them, and where demand is strongest. This helps you validate whether a product has staying power and whether there’s room to compete profitably rather than racing to the bottom on price.

This approach works for existing businesses, too. If you’re planning your next launch, your own customer reviews are often the clearest road map. 

That was Brightland’s approach. With grocery shelves full of generic olive oil, founder Aishwarya Iyer saw an opportunity to stand out through thoughtful branding, customer education, and carefully chosen production partners.

“There’s got to be something here where we can build a brand that people feel really excited by, and people want to put it out on their countertop,” she shared on an episode of Shopify Masters.

11. Research products with higher profit margins

Products with healthy margins are a great place to start, but only if you understand how those margins are really made. Many new merchants focus on product cost alone and overlook the full cost structure.

When pricing a product, you need a clear picture of your cost of goods sold (COGS), a calculation far beyond what you pay a supplier. COGS can include:

• Product manufacturing or wholesale costs
• Packaging (boxes, labels, inserts, branded materials)
• Shipping supplies and fulfillment fees
• Storage or warehousing costs
• Payment processing fees
• Marketing and promotional costs tied to each sale

A product that looks profitable at first glance can quickly become a low-margin headache once you factor in all the costs. Understanding your full cost structure upfront helps you choose products that can scale without squeezing your margins as volume grows.

A simple margin calculation looks like this:

Profit margin (%) = (retail price – total COGS) ÷ retail price x 100

For example, if you sell a product for $50 and your total COGS is $30, your profit margin is 40%. That margin gives you room to cover marketing, absorb rising ad costs, and still grow profitably.

According to Shopify’s November 2025 merchant survey,* high-revenue merchants earning more than $1 million are far more likely to track advanced financial metrics: 57% track profit margin, 52% track average order value, and 30% track customer acquisition cost (CAC). By comparison, only 5% of merchants earning less than $100,000 track CAC. 

When evaluating products, look for options that keep costs predictable and margins flexible. Categories that often offer stronger margin potential include:

• Clothing
• Children’s items
• Specialty or niche products
• Candles
• Private label products

12. Embrace sustainable and ethical products

Consumer trends in 2026 increasingly show demand for brands that do good. This includes everything from sustainable business practices to eco-friendly products.

Meet this customer demand by selling sustainable products. For example, you could:

• Design a sustainable version of an existing product
• Make something new from recycled or otherwise wasted materials
• Start a resale business

“We ourselves are part of a demographic that is very aware of our impact on the planet,” says Phantila Phataraprasit, founder of Sabai Design in a Shopify Masters episode. “The climate crisis is such a top-of-mind issue for us. And so being part of a demographic that’s younger, and so, we’re also on a budget, we wanted to create a solution that spoke to those values, but then also took into account accessibility and budget as well."

13. Attend trade shows and fairs

Understanding the current landscape and your potential competitors is a key step in product research. 

If you already have an industry or product category in mind, trade shows, markets, and industry events are ideal for hands-on competitive analysis and product discovery. Pay attention to which booths generate the most buzz and how products are positioned.

These events are also valuable for business-to-business (B2B) sourcing. Beyond spotting trends, you can meet manufacturers, wholesalers, and logistics partners face to face, ask detailed questions about minimum order quantities (MOQs), lead times, customization options, and pricing, and assess whether a supplier is a good long-term fit. 

Here are some key dates to add to your trade show calendar for 2026:

• Small Business Expo. Various dates and locations throughout the year
• Groceryshop. September 22 to 24, Las Vegas
• The Business Show US. April 29 to 30, Miami
• TechCrunch Disrupt. October 13 to 15, San Francisco

As Nancy Twine, founder of Briogeo, shared on Shopify Masters, “Large trade shows can be really overwhelming. There are lots of different sections. The first thing that you want to do is really understand the lay of the land and where it makes sense for you to show up in a part of a show. It can make all the difference as it relates to the types of people who will come to your booth and the types of people that you’ll meet.”

14. Consider personalization

One way to stand out from the competition is to offer customized, one-of-a-kind products. A print-on-demand model allows you to execute this concept for merchandise such as t-shirts and mugs without manufacturing products or carrying inventory.

Pluto Pillow capitalized on the sleep hygiene trend to reinvent a product found in everyone’s home. Their pillows are custom-designed to buyers’ specifications, including sleep position and preferences.

Remember: Personalization can extend beyond products. If you’re selling an existing product in a competitive market, stand out by offering a personalized shopping experience around your brand.

15. Analyze international markets

International markets may be the key to the next big thing in your region. Trends in other countries often catch on beyond their borders. Consider the boom of Korean beauty products in North America in the early 2010s. Look at regions that typically influence the culture where you live: Can you spot a trend before it gains popularity locally?

You can create your own products inspired by those popular in other regions, or become a local distributor or reseller for an existing brand. That’s what Gillian Gallant did when she discovered Paper Shoot Camera on TikTok and knew it would be a hit in North America.

16. Get inspired by social change

Sustainability is just one of many ways for companies to demonstrate their values. Social impact brands can build loyalty with customers who share their values. If you’re selling a common item, tying it to a cause can be a strong differentiator for your brand.

Hippy Feet, for example, sells socks and other accessories and donates 50% of profits to nonprofit partners. Customers buy the brand’s socks for their creative patterns and wide variety of options—they also do so because it feels good.

17. Test products through dropshipping

Dropshipping allows you to test product ideas without the financial risk of buying inventory upfront. It’s an excellent method for product research and validation, especially for new entrepreneurs.

Start by identifying products that align with your research findings, then use dropshipping to gauge actual customer demand. Popular dropshipping and product sourcing apps offer access to different supplier networks:

• Shopify Collective. Sell products from established Shopify brands with built-in quality assurance.
• DropCommerce. Access North American suppliers for faster shipping to U.S. and Canadian customers.
• Syncee. Connect with over 12,000 global brands for international market testing.
• AI Dropshipping. Source from US and EU suppliers with delivery under seven days.

Use dropshipping data to inform future product decisions. Track which items generate the most interest, have the highest conversion rates, and receive positive customer feedback. This real-world validation is more valuable than theoretical research alone.

Once you’ve identified winning products through dropshipping, you can consider transitioning to holding your own inventory, developing private label versions, or expanding into related product categories.

Data-driven product validation techniques

Product validation truly happens when you make a sale and confirm your hunch. Still, there’s plenty you can do before choosing a product to determine if it will sell:

• Conduct product research. Evaluate the market and your competitors with product search tools.
• Do market research. Try focus groups, surveys, or social media callouts to gather feedback from potential customers on product details. Ideally, identify underserved audiences in the market.
• Run the numbers. Does the product have potential to profit? Understand your costs and determine a competitive price that still offers a decent margin.
• Try a crowdfunding campaign. Securing interest and investment from potential customers before you launch your store is undeniably valuable.
• Run a pre-sale. Similar to crowdfunding, you can gauge genuine interest from customers by selling the product before manufacturing.
• Create and sell an MVP. Instead of perfecting a product before making it available to buy, create a minimum viable product. This lets you gather customer feedback on the product, including areas for improvement, before you invest further in product development.

“I say that absolutely the first thing when you’re starting to embark on one of these projects is, how do you just get the product out in the world and get some real, genuine feedback?” says Nick Wiseman, co-founder of Little Sesame, on a Shopify Masters episode. “You don’t have to start by launching your fully built-out ecommerce experience, but do people actually want the product you’re selling?”

A systematic validation framework

Many successful businesses grow through action and iteration rather than formal planning. Shopify’s November 2025 merchant survey found that 46% of established merchants didn’t write a formal business plan because their businesses started as side projects and grew over time. Notably, profitable businesses and those earning more than $1 million in revenue were less likely to have written a business plan.

What does help is a simple, repeatable validation framework you can run ideas through quickly:

1. Look for demand signals. Start by confirming people actually want the product. Signals can include strong search interest, social media engagement, waitlists, repeated questions in forums, or products consistently selling on marketplaces.
2. Analyze the competition. Competition is usually proof of demand. The goal is to understand how crowded the space is, what competitors do well, and where customers feel underserved. Pay close attention to positioning, pricing, and recurring complaints in reviews.
3. Check financial viability early. Before getting attached to an idea, pressure-test the numbers. Factor in your full cost structure (product costs, packaging, shipping, fees, and marketing) and make sure there’s enough margin to support growth.
4. Test on a small scale. Instead of going all in, run a low-risk experiment. Options include selling a small inventory order or preorder, conducting a dropshipping test, or creating a landing page with paid traffic.
5. Iterate based on real feedback. Use what you learn from early customers to refine the product, pricing, or positioning. 

Common validation mistakes to avoid

Even with good intentions, it’s easy to trip up during validation. Here are a few common mistakes and how to sidestep them:

• Relying on gut instinct alone. Personal experience is valuable, but it works best when paired with data. Successful merchants balance intuition with demand signals, competitive insight, and financial reality.
• Confusing interest with willingness to pay. Likes and comments are nice, but they don’t always translate into sales. Validation should include evidence that customers are willing to part with their money.
• Underestimating true costs. Many products fail because margins are thinner than expected. Ignoring packaging, shipping supplies, returns, or ad costs can make a “winning” product unprofitable fast.
• Trying to validate everything at once: Testing too many variables simultaneously can muddy the results. Focus on validating the biggest risk first, which is usually demand or margin.
• Waiting too long to launch: Over-planning can be just as risky as under-planning. As Shopify’s survey data shows, many high-revenue businesses started small and evolved over time. Speed and learning often matter more than polish.

Best product research tools

Keeping your finger on the pulse of product trends and customer preferences is essential for long-term success. Product research tools help you go beyond guesswork by uncovering market demand, pricing benchmarks, and early signals of what’s gaining traction.

AI tools, in particular, are becoming mainstream: 75% of business owners now use them, with content generation (69%) the most common use case. But fewer than one-third use AI for data analysis, according to Shopify’s 2025 merchant survey. That gap creates a real opportunity: merchants who use AI-powered research tools for analysis can gain a meaningful edge.

Here are some of the best AI product research tools to consider, along with their strengths and trade-offs:

Shopify Sidekick 

Get expert, tailored advice directly within the Shopify Admin. Ask Sidekick a question, like “What are my bestselling products?” to surface insights from the data you already have.

• Pros: It’s fast, and it uses your real sales and customer data (not estimates). Plus, it’s built directly into Shopify with no setup required.
• Cons: It relies on existing store data and is not yet useful for brand-new businesses without sales history.

Exploding Topics 

Exploding Topics uses AI to scan the internet for trending products and topics. Its product database and pro features help you stay ahead of product trends—perfect for developing new products and outpacing competitors.

• Pros: Excellent for early-stage trend discovery and helps you avoid saturated markets.
• Cons: Doesn’t confirm profitability on its own and requires follow-up research to validate demand.

Jungle Scout

A popular tool for Amazon sellers, Jungle Scout offers sales forecasting, manufacturer verification, and seasonal trend tracking. It also supports post-research tasks such as customer review requests and listing optimization.

• Pros: Strong sales and demand estimates, useful for supplier vetting and validating profitable categories. 
• Cons: Best suited for Amazon sellers and less helpful for direct-to-consumer or non-Amazon brands.

Insight7 

Insight7 analyzes conversations you’ve had with customers (e.g., in focus groups or customer support calls) to summarize key themes. It can even build insights around desires, behaviors, and pain points discussed on the call.

• Pros: Turns qualitative feedback into clear insights, great for product differentiation and messaging.
• Cons: Requires existing customer conversations and is not designed for market sizing or trend discovery.

Semrush Market Explorer

Use this Semrush Market Explorer to create a list of your top competitors and analyze the industry—this will help you determine market potential and audience size.

• Pros: Strong for understanding competitive landscapes, helps gauge market size before launching.
• Cons: More market-level than product-specific and can feel complex for non-marketers.

Crayon

Crayon is an AI tool that can run daily competitive analysis reports, including summarized news reports and personalized intel to get ahead.

• Pros: Continuous monitoring of competitor moves, useful for pricing and positioning insights.
• Cons: Overkill for early-stage founders, less focused on product ideation.

ChatGPT

ChatGPT’s search experience now displays product carousels for queries with shopping intent. For research, you can run buyer-style queries such as “best dog beds under $50” and note which items appear in the carousel. You can spot trends at a low cost (ChatGPT is around $20 per month) and quickly benchmark feature or price expectations.

• Pros: Low cost and fast for exploratory research, great for benchmarking features and positioning.
• Cons: Doesn’t provide proprietary sales data, works best alongside other validation tools.

Successful product launches

Here are some brands that have successfully launched products after conducting research. 

Diaspora Co.

Back in 2017, Sana Javeri Kadri bought a one-way ticket to Mumbai, India. This was the starting point for Diaspora Co., a multimillion-dollar spice business that supports farmers with an ethical supply chain the industry traditionally lacked.

“Starting the business took about seven months of research,” Sana says on a recent Shopify Masters episode. She visited approximately 50 farms to understand the impact of the spice trade on local farmers—many of whom were receiving only a small fraction of the profits large corporations earned from selling their spices.

Sana’s business revitalized the entire supply chain. Diaspora Co. pays farms up to 10 times the commodity price, with equity available to farming partners who provide the business with specialized spices.

“The hope is that it’s better for the land,” Sana says. “It’s better for the farmer because we’re paying them better. And it’s way better for the home cook and the chef because they’re getting things that are more delicious.”

Kloo

Kloo started with one goal: to sell a premium coffee concentrate. But its founders knew their product had to be right from the start, given how difficult it is to change consumer perceptions of a premium brand after launch.

On a Shopify Masters episode, founder Claudia Snoh explained that a pre-launch was the best approach. “Instead of waiting for the rest of the infrastructure that is common for an ecommerce business—like social media channels, email, and even some part of the packaging—to be all set up, I thought it would be smarter to just start selling right away as a trial run,” Claudia says.

“This way we can practice our day-to-day operations, and if there’s anything that we can adjust before we officially go public and do any sort of marketing, we can really learn and pivot.”

Kloo sold exclusively through family, friends, word-of-mouth referrals, and review-testing websites in the early days. These sales generated valuable feedback, which led the brand to fine-tune its product offerings, focus on brand storytelling, and develop a strategic pricing model with subscriber discounts.

It proved a smart move: Just six months post-launch, Kloo was already exploring product line extensions, backed by proven demand from its pilot launch.

Polysleep

Polysleep shows that you don’t need only product research to generate new ideas. The company was struggling to decide between three names for its new mattress. So, it turned to its social media followers for support in making the decision.

As Polysleep’s followers were watching an Instagram Story, they encountered questions like, “We’re launching a new mattress: Which should be the next name? What would you suggest?”

As Jeremiah Curvers, co-founder and CEO, explains on a Shopify Masters episode, “We started using that data to make business decisions driven by real people, consumers in the market.”

“I would invite any business right now to consider a content strategy, not just to drive hard KPIs such as sales traffic, but to really go back to what engagement means,” Jeremiah says. “It’s not just comments and participation when you do a contest, and how many likes you have. Are you really able to communicate with your audience to get real data that could be applicable in your day-to-day decisions?"

Launching soon? Make it a success with Shopify’s product launch checklist. 

*Based on a 2025 survey of 500 Shopify merchants conducted in English across Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland, New Zealand, and the United States. Respondents were established merchants with two or more years on the platform. Results reflect the experiences of this specific sample and may not be representative of all merchants.