Identify in demand products using this simple tool provided FREE by eBay!
A couple of years ago, I introduced you to a brand new tool provided free of charge by eBay. It was launched once eBay realized that when it came to research tools, Amazon was always a step ahead – particularly with their bestseller lists which give
an extremely useful insight into exactly what’s selling and how popular those products are.
I’m a huge fan of using the bestseller lists to check the viability of a product and to this day, even after more than 12 years of researching and sourcing products, it’s one of my main ‘go to’ tools – and it’s free!
Anyway, I digress. The tool that was launched back then is called DataLabs and you can find it here.
Just to recap, ‘DataLabs’ has a function which shows you the bestselling products on eBay and this is proper, hot off the press, as it happens, completely live data on trending products.
Now I have to be honest, the DataLabs tool never really made it onto my list of ‘Go To’ research methods when it was launched. It was new, I was comfortable with my current research methods and I used it a couple of times before returning to my long standing, tried and tested strategies!
That was a bit naughty of me really and I should have given it a chance because two years later, it’s still going strong, and so this week I thought I’d pay it a revisit, reassess it and give it a little test to see whether it could live up to my exact researching standards!
And it did!
I accessed the page, chose UK from the drop down menu, and just to make it difficult I entered a single keyword in the search box – ‘baby’. I waited in anticipation to see what would happen, fully expecting a mish-mash of products that weren’t even trending or actually related to the ‘baby’ category.
How wrong was I!
The first product returned to me, with 2084 searches (over the previous 6 weeks) was called a ‘Munchkin Sprout Drying Rack’ – a strange looking plastic contraption that I learned is for drying baby bottles on. What a genius invention! Now, Munchkin is a brand and as you know, unbranded products (and own branded products) are the key to a successful online business, but clicking through and investigating further I discovered that the Munchkin Sprout is indeed selling very well.
My next move was to search directly on eBay for the keywords ‘baby bottle drying rack’ and whilst it was clear that the ‘Munchkin’ brand is popular, there is definitely scope to bring to the market an unbranded or your own branded version of this. Take a look on eBay for yourself and see the potential.
So, that’s one potential product for further investigation in the space of around 5 minutes easy research.
Next, by clicking on ‘bestsellers’, choosing ‘baby’, ‘sold items’ and ‘yesterday’, I was able to see a veritable host of potential hot products worth investigating further, including: Body Bolster, Mattress Protector, Silicone Teething Mitts
All of these are bestsellers and could potentially lead you to further research, source and brand similar but better products yourself.
What’s more, if you have a specific product in mind – let’s change categories to Pet Supplies and imagine you have an idea to source ‘pet hair remover’ – then you can search bestsellers for those specific keywords and analyze A) whether the product is viable and B) whether a specific type of pet hair remover is more popular over another!
My research here immediately told me that ‘pet hair remover mitt glove’ is extremely popular, however the market is quite saturated, therefore the ‘lint roller’ which also appeared in the bestsellers results may be a more feasible product to research further! So, as you can see, if you have a product in mind, this tool can help you clarify whether that specific product is worth progressing with.
But, you can also use this tool to help you if you’re stuck for product ideas. Instead of adding keywords, simply filter the category – again for example, ‘Baby’ – and then scroll through looking for unbranded products only.
Sticking with ‘Pet Supplies’ for this search, in just a few seconds, simply by scrolling down the page I found three products worth researching further:
Used Tennis Balls for Dogs – contact tennis clubs for potential stock!
Digital Thermometers for Aquariums
Human Tick Removers
How handy is that! So, you can then take that selection of potential products and conduct further research with a view to sourcing similar products yourself, knowing that the market is already a hot one.
So, simply put, DataLabs research tool is now very much on my ‘Go To’ list!
Now, just before I sign off, I want to mention another free research tool which I have also talked about before. Previously I was concerned that the returned products from the search were mostly branded but once again I’ve revisited and this time I was pleasantly surprised.
Go here: Trending on Ebay and you’ll see 10 trending products from random categories. When I checked this out recently, the list included garden toys, inflatable kayaks and Havaianas amongst others – so what you see is quite limited. From the list of 10 trending products I was pleasantly surprised to find that only 3 out of 10 products were branded! The other 7 definitely had potential and these included men’s sliders, a beach bag, cool box, garden storage box and of course that inflatable kayak amongst others!
The important point here is that each of these products is pretty easy to source in an unbranded, similar but better form.
Once again, just like with DataLabs, I collected all this information in a matter of minutes, so adding this quick check to your usual research strategy isn’t going to take up a huge amount of extra time.
You can use these two tools to generally keep a look out for inspiration for new potential products – and all for free!