Seeking Advice on Validating Products for E-commerce

Hi everyone,

I've been part of this forum for a while now, mostly reading and learning from all the great insights shared here.

Currently, I work at a company involved in importing goods from China to Spain. We handle everything from logistics to bringing in small and large quantities of products. We even have an office in China to directly communicate with factories, manage storage, certifications, and oversee quality control.

Every day, I come across a variety of products, and I often think about how some of them could be perfect for setting up an e-commerce store.

This is where I could really use your help. While I have experience with platforms like PrestaShop, Shopify, WooCommerce, and a lot of complementary tools to easily build an online store, I always get stuck when it comes to choosing, validating, and committing to a product or niche.

I'm not expecting anyone to hand me the perfect solution, and I know I won't get rich overnight. But if anyone has tools, processes, or personal experiences that could help me move forward with product validation and selection, I would love to hear your advice.

Thanks for reading this far, and I'm looking forward to your comments!

Currently, I’m posting this in the eCommerce section, but I hope that with all of your help, I can eventually move this post to the IM Journeys section!

EcoTzR

You need to hire QC guy in China to do that.

@RoninTheGreat actually in my work we already have a QC in china, right now it's not my problem but thanks for your answer !

Dude, I was in your shoes around 10 years ago? Maybe earlier.

Look, that's the problem everyone has. Anyone can buy things from China, but the moment you start selling a ton, they'll take over your niche and you're out. I'd say focus on something in your country.

Anyway, this is what you need.

1) Get non-catalog images of your products. Make your QC guy run around, need different backgrounds, different use cases, make each item image be unique.
2) Put them up on your local version of craigslist and Facebook Marketplace.
3) People will contact you (If you price it right, that's for you to decide but I won't do this for at least 40% over costs of importing and business expenses) and you tell them, I'm sorry, this is sold out, but I'm getting a new shipment in 3 months and these items are fast moving. Do you want me to put you down for one? then you can have those as leads.
4) Done. Now you can scale this and then see what sells.

Obviously some items would not be suitable, but there's your idea.

kshatriya said:

Dude, I was in your shoes around 10 years ago? Maybe earlier.

Look, that's the problem everyone has. Anyone can buy things from China, but the moment you start selling a ton, they'll take over your niche and you're out. I'd say focus on something in your country.

Anyway, this is what you need.

1) Get non-catalog images of your products. Make your QC guy run around, need different backgrounds, different use cases, make each item image be unique.
2) Put them up on your local version of craigslist and Facebook Marketplace.
3) People will contact you (If you price it right, that's for you to decide but I won't do this for at least 40% over costs of importing and business expenses) and you tell them, I'm sorry, this is sold out, but I'm getting a new shipment in 3 months and these items are fast moving. Do you want me to put you down for one? then you can have those as leads.
4) Done. Now you can scale this and then see what sells.

Obviously some items would not be suitable, but there's your idea.

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Thanks for the valuable insights kshatriya. Are you still doing this kind of operation today? Would this kind of operation work with a lower budget? That has been a choke point that I always encounter whenever I have an idea of reselling to my local market. It's because often times, whatever this "interesting product" that I see, I always see it already in our local China-owned ecom site. And at 2024, whenever people see a product somewhere like FB marketplace, they would just go straight to this local China-owned ecom site and buy straight from there. Here in Asia, Amazon is still not a thing for the most part since Shopee and Lazada (both Alibaba-owned) have the monopoly in ecom. And the vendors from this site are from China. Therefore making it hard for someone like me to do the good ol reselling route. But I understand that there are literally millions of product available today and infinite ways to apply twists in this. Just have to use my brain lol.

Unchained said:

Thanks for the valuable insights kshatriya. Are you still doing this kind of operation today? Would this kind of operation work with a lower budget? That has been a choke point that I always encounter whenever I have an idea of reselling to my local market. It's because often times, whatever this "interesting product" that I see, I always see it already in our local China-owned ecom site. And at 2024, whenever people see a product somewhere like FB marketplace, they would just go straight to this local China-owned ecom site and buy straight from there. Here in Asia, Amazon is still not a thing for the most part since Shopee and Lazada (both Alibaba-owned) have the monopoly in ecom. And the vendors from this site are from China. Therefore making it hard for someone like me to do the good ol reselling route. But I understand that there are literally millions of product available today and infinite ways to apply twists in this. Just have to use my brain lol.

Click to expand...

Yes, kind of. Now it's just easier to pay for ads and point towards a website, analyze what people are clicking on and are ready to buy. Then you have an idea and leads, so then you work off there.

Sure it can work with a lower budget. Just do as I said, doesn't cost anything but your time.

Correct, what I suggest is differentiating yourself from others when you're selling the "same product". You need to show expertise that you're the right person to ask when people buy your product. You need to show that you're local + have reviews, and have a face, rather than buying it off an e-commerce site elsewhere