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Almost every seller has encountered a product that ‘should have been a hit,’ but something went wrong. It is becoming increasingly difficult to predict demand and understand whether a particular product is needed on your website. Whereas e-commerce used to be based on guesswork, today’s winners are those who can quickly test hypotheses and learn from data rather than mistakes. We will briefly describe how to do this in this article.
When research replaces guesswork
Should you include a product in your range? Purchase the first batch? Post a product card on the website to test demand? First of all, calculate the net profit, taking into account logistics, commissions and returns. If the net profit is less than a quarter of the selling price, there will always be a competitor who will beat you by simply lowering the price.
You can do a quick niche test using ChatGPT — build a margin and cost model, recommend Stelvel Bulgaria managers. Enter the initial data: price, country of delivery, marketplace commission, average delivery cost. This will allow you to quickly identify low-margin products and focus on those where the profit is really justified, without unnecessary risk and unnecessary costs.
Demand that returns
For a dropshipper or online store owner, stability is more important than novelty. It is better to earn less but predictably than to depend on random trends. Therefore, first of all, they test not hype ‘one-day’ products, but products with repeatable demand. To understand the demand, it is enough to place a product card marked ‘expected on sale’ on your resource.
Regular customers are the best indicator of a product’s viability. Most often, they return for consumables, care products, and accessories. These are not the most exciting niches, but they are the ones that generate stable turnover and reduce dependence on advertising.
What customers say
Reviews remain the main source of information about the market. They show more accurately than any analytics what really dissatisfies buyers. Repeated complaints such as ‘inconvenient packaging,’ ‘long delivery,’ or ‘no instructions’ signal that the product needs improvement.
To quickly assess the prospects, you can collect several dozen reviews and use ChatGPT to group them by topic: quality, delivery, design, price. This will help you understand which shortcomings are critical for buyers and whether it is worth including the product in your range, and which can be corrected without risking sales.
Understanding market structure
E-commerce in 2025 will not only involve catalogues and logistics, but also constant product comparison. Dozens of similar products compete on marketplaces. The difference is often not in the product itself, but in how it is presented and what expectations it creates among buyers.
To assess the saturation of a category, it is enough to look at the number of reviews and the date of publication of the product cards. If a product has been on the market for more than a year and continues to collect reviews, demand is stable. If there are many reviews, but the card appeared recently, this is most likely the effect of active advertising rather than a long-term trend.
Where to find reliable analytics
Once you have assessed the niche, it is important to move from observations to data. Analytics not only helps to confirm your hypothesis, but also to see what is not visible from within the business. Start with what you already have — website statistics (e.g. Google Analytics), CRM data and sales reports. They show where customers really spend their time and what they buy repeatedly.
Then you can use external tools, according to the experts at Stelvel Ltd. Many of them work on a subscription basis, but even the basic versions give an idea of the dynamics of demand.
- Search analytics
Google Keyword Planner, Google Trends, Serpstat, Ahrefs, or SE Ranking will help you understand what products users are looking for, which queries are growing, and which are losing interest. This allows you to predict seasonality and prepare your product range in advance.
- Social media and review monitoring
Services such as YouScan, Brandwatch, and Mention collect mentions of brands and categories on social media. This is a quick way to hear what customers are talking about and what topics are of interest. Reviews on marketplaces are equally important — they show what is missing from existing offers.
- Price and product range monitoring
Price monitoring services automatically track how competitors change their product range, prices, and promotions. If someone lowers the price of a bestseller, you’ll be the first to know and can respond before it affects your sales.
Research as a strategy
Researching demand is part of an entrepreneur’s daily routine. Over the past couple of years, e-commerce has changed more than it did in the previous decade. Marketplace algorithms change monthly, social platforms introduce new sales formats, and artificial intelligence turns any trend into dozens of similar products in a matter of days. Test landing pages, review analysis, margin calculation, search interest verification — all these tools allow you to manage the process rather than guess.
Stelvel company reminds us that when collecting data, it is important to remember that each specific question requires its own set of indicators, and attempting to ‘analyse everything at once’ rarely yields results. Instead of universal answers, it is worth looking for specific solutions: what to add to the range and what to remove.