Find New Product Ideas with this Simple Yet Effective Exercise

Do you have trouble finding products to sell? This is something that a lot of people struggle with. I'm working on my ideation masterclass right now, so I thought I’d give some quick tips on how to find opportunities in the things that you do every day

One of the biggest things that I hear from people is “Amy, I'm not creative, I can't figure this out. I don't know what products to pick. I don't know what to do.”

Here’s a simple exercise that is going to allow you to find opportunities in things that you already do every day

Step 1: Make a List of Your Purchases Over the Last 30 to 60 Days:

·       Go in your Amazon account or go look through your receipts or your credit card statement, and look at what you've purchased in the last 30 to 60 days and make a list of those purchases.

Step 2: For Each Purchase, Answer Three Questions:

·       Why did you buy that specific product? Because of Need, a trusted brand purchase or impulse buy?

o  Was it because it met a need that you had?

o  Was it because you trust that brand and you always buy their products?

o  Was it because it was an impulse buy? Maybe you got targeted with an ad or you were up late watching QVC or something

·       Next write why you chose that specific product over other products. Why did you make that choice?

o  Was it because it was the lowest price in the market?

o  Was it because it was differentiated in a way that mattered to you? For example, I recently bought an iPad keyboard case because it had 360 degree rotation, and it has awesome light up keyboard. It had a differentiation that mattered to me.

o  Was it the price?

o  Was it simply at the top of search? You just needed it real quick or it was impulse or the first thing on the shelf that you grabbed

Step 3: Define whether there is an opportunity to improve or serve another market with this product?

Go back through to from the top of the list, down to the bottom and think about the opportunity in this market, if any.

For example: Here’s where I saw opportunities in the list of recent products that I bought.

o  iPad keyboard case, I really liked the color of it. I like that it was rotating 360 degrees. It was rechargeable, but I don't really see anything that I personally would improve. It's fine. I don't I don't need a better iPad keyboard case.

o  Powdered peanut butter. I buy that for my protein shakes I buy from a specific brand on Amazon because of the price and quality so I don't really see any opportunity there either.

o  Compressed towels. These are these little pill towels, and I found them for the first time in China. I got them as a sample and I started using them. And I really liked them because they're just like a little pill and you put them under water and they expand and they make a really nice heavy towel. And they're biodegradable. A lot of people use them for camping. But my daughter who's 12 years old, face washing is just becoming important to her. She really, really loves these little compressed towels. It encourages her to wash her face and really take good care of her skin. So I actually noticed an opportunity in the market for this product, because it's mostly marketed to the camping and beauty markets, but it's not marketed for kids or teens at all. I think it's really fun for kids and my kids really love it and proper hygiene is a pain point that parents struggle with. So right there, I see an opportunity to take an existing product and bring it into a new market.

o  Magnetic hooks. We took a cruise and I read a blog to prepare, and I learned that the cruise ship walls are magnetic. So if I bought some hooks, I could hang up things to organize our stuff in the small cruise ship cabins. I bought these hooks because they're strong and they're metal, and it looked like they can hold a lot of stuff. But I didn't really see an opportunity in the marketplace. I wouldn't choose this product because I can't make it better and there's already plenty of them that are in the market. But what I did see is after I got back from the cruise, I don't need these magnetic hooks anymore. I'm probably not going to take a bunch of cruises in the future. My first instinct is actually to return them. I'm not really sure what to do with them, so I actually see a business opportunity there. What about a rental business for cruise ships? Could you give people an opportunity to rent and return and just use the cruise ship hooks, the cruise ship plugs, those kind of things that you that everybody buys for cruise over and over and over again that sell really well? Could you provide a rental opportunity? Or maybe a bundling opportunity?

o  Phone charging cable. I can never have enough of these. I basically looked at price and I don't really see a lot of opportunity in the market. But I'm always losing my phone charging cables. And that was the reason I bought this one is I lost it. I don't know what the heck happened with it. My kids run off with them. It might be good to have a phone case for something close to your phone with a built in cable holder or retractable cable! That way I always have my cable right next to my phone where I need it. Opportunity? I think so.

I hope that these exercises have really helped you in finding opportunities in the marketplace. In summary, make a list of your purchases over the last 60 days, write down why you bought the product and then why you chose that specific product. Then write down if you see any opportunity in the marketplace for that particular product.

To learn more about how to identify products to sell, validate that people will actually buy them, source manufacturers, and build a brand people will be raving fans over, sign up for our ideation masterclass at https://amazingathome.com/ideation