Winning products hunt in 2023: How to spot them first

There are many things that can indicate a good product. If we discuss technicalities, it should come from a trusted supplier, have convenient delivery time and shipping cost, and more. However, here we’ll focus on some fundamental characteristics that winning products have and things that you should consider first when searching for one.

1. Problem-solving

We’ve all seen dropshippers making a lot of money by selling cute puppy clothes, watches, or swimwear, which certainly works at some point. Still, it takes a lot of effort to build a brand, time to gather a community around your store, and creativity to design ads and other promotional material. And while it for sure doesn’t mean that you can’t find a winning product with provoking different emotions, the shortcut to (almost) overnight success are problem-solving products.

With problem-solving products, you offer value to your customers by meeting a real need or giving a better solution than existing alternatives. When people see an ad that aims directly to the core of their problem, it’s much easier for them to make a decision supported by reasoning, which is not a case with a lovely dress or a pair of shoes that you just like and might be cool to have in your wardrobe.

Problem-solving products are the ones that can provide you purchases even from the cold traffic since customers immediately engage with the product if it is advertised properly. 

2. Exclusivity

The next thing you’re looking for in potential winning products is their exclusivity. Yes, people do need umbrellas when it rains, and they all (hopefully) use toothbrushes, but you need to give them a good reason not to go to the closest shopping mall and buy the same thing there, at an already familiar and trusted place.

The potential winning product shouldn’t be widely available and easy to get offline. When your customers see your ad or visit your website, the feeling they should get is that it is the only place they can find it. That’s why common winning products have some unusual characteristic, something new and unique for that type of products.

For example, when you need a new pair of sports shoes, you’ll probably buy them in some of the sports stores existing in your city. But who can resist Indestructible Ryder Shoes with so many amazing possibilities that none of our shoes had before?! Still, it is possible that they might be available in some offline stores too, but that’s not the first thing that comes to your mind when you see them.

3. Wow factor

In the world of scrolling and giving no more than a few seconds of a chance to ads appearing on the internet, a winning product should be able to say everything in just a couple of seconds – why you need it, and what is so special and unique about it. It should stop you, impress you, and make you say – WOW, I want it.

Some of the dropshipping products with the “wow factor,” which were winning products for many dropshippers a few years ago, were Watermelon slicer, Quick makeup bag, Anti-Gravity Phone Case… They had memorable video ads which emphasized their wow effect and managed to draw huge attention on the internet.

Once you find such a product with the “wow factor,” use that advantage and invest in having a good video material that can quickly grab customers’ attention, be creative and make the most out of those few seconds that the crowded advertising world has given you.

4. Profitability

After assuring that your potential winning product solves some problem, it is unique in a certain way and grabs the attention quickly, there comes the checking of its profitability. 

For a highly profitable dropshipping business, it is strongly recommended to search for less expensive products on AliExpress. Whether the product is defined as “expensive” mainly depends on its perceived value.

An excellent example of it is jewelry since there’s generally accepted belief that a luxury pair of earrings is worth a decent amount of money. On the other hand, a pair of socks need to blow you away in order to make a purchase if their cost is higher than usually expected.

The problem with “expensive” products is that you can not easily set a price that is 2 or 3 times higher than its cost, which means that after adding all marketing costs, shipping costs, costs of other platforms or apps you use for your business, there’s not much left for your actual profit. 

When setting a price, a quick checklist should include:

• Cost of the product – the cost of the product itself and all the additional expenses like shipping, ads, website maintenance, etc.
• The perceived value of the product – the value your customers believe that the offered product has.
• The purchasing power of a target market – by researching the market you aim for, you should set prices according to that target group’s purchasing power. Take into consideration impulsive purchase prices too, which differ around the globe and can affect your profitability.
• Competition prices – it’s always helpful to know what else exists out there: in which ways competitors advertise that product, where and how they sell it, along with their price for the same product. However, don’t be afraid to have prices higher than your competitors. We talked more about branding in this post – and it all comes down to the way you sell it and the brand you make out of your store. With a little bit of branding and marketing tricks, you can add value to the product and make it worth more – increase its perceived value.

Keep in mind that if you are a beginner in e-commerce, it’s usually better to start with the products that have lower costs because it is proven that your initial costs for marketing and market testing would also be lower in that case.

After considering all of that, and setting the final price, check if you get at least a 3x profit margin. If the answer is yes – you’re on the right road to launching a winning product.

5. Validate your idea

Once you think you have a winning product, there comes the time for validation of your idea. AliInsider is a tool that can help you verify your idea without stepping into the market and risking your investments.

It is a Google Chrome extension that gives you precise dropshipping statistics for AliExpress products.

With AliInsider, you can check the demand for your product because it tracks the current average daily orders and the number of its average daily Dropshipped orders. That will reveal whether it has a lot of purchases because it had already been popular 6 months ago or is a trending product, selling crazy these days.

In this way, you can be among the first ones to recognize a winning product.

Additionally, you can check the competition and their profit, their landing pages, prices, the date when they started to sell it, and more. Then, with your knowledge, skills, and creativity, you can just surf the trend and use the opportunity given.

To help you start with the winning product hunt, AliInsider also gives you the exclusive list of top 30k products on AliExpress at the moment and all the analytics mentioned above for each of them.

AliInsder winning product case study

A mini portable air conditioner was a product that achieved its peak in June 2019. AliInsider recorded a giant leap in this product’s daily sales and the number of orders shipped to France. It also recorded that at the beginning, there was just one dropshipper selling more than 280 units per day with an estimated profit of $3500 and $15,000 daily revenue.

That was a dropshipper who knew the circumstances and used the moment – the heatwave spreading across France, with historically high temperatures that caused a massive demand for this product. 

Soon after, more dropshippers joined the party, following the trend that was set, and even in July, this product was still successfully dropshipped by more than 13 dropshippers.

• The mini portable air conditioner was an easy and affordable solution to indoor high temperatures – problem-solving ✔
• It was new and not present in every home appliances shop – exclusivity ✔
• The video material was showing in an entertaining way conditioner’s effortless utilization and the value it offers – wow factor ✔
• The perceived value of home appliances is generally high. AliExpress price of this product was reasonable too for setting a good profit margin – profitability ✔

With all four attributes checked, we can claim with confidence that the mini portable air conditioner was a real winner.

Of course, finding a winning product is not the end of the story. It has happened many times that poor advertising and pricing, bad timing, and wrong market contributed to product failures even with the right products.

That’s why it’s up to you, your creativity, marketing, and sales skills, whether the winning product is going to reach its full potential or not. Yet, for now, knowing how to recognize the products that are worth time and money investments is already a good start.