How to position the product?
First, it is necessary to determine whether the company and product positioning is to build a brand or to increase sales. In fact, brand is the key factor. A good brand can bring more sales and attention, and can even drive the sales of other brands and single products in the store. Therefore, brand building cannot be ignored. If you want to increase sales, you can focus on popular categories and single products; if you want to obtain stable profits, you can pay more attention to some unpopular categories.
Secondly, it is necessary to determine the target customers. After understanding the target customers, sellers can grasp their consumption characteristics, understand their favorite brands, and the market share of these brands and the situation of large sellers. Not only that, but also according to the needs of target customers, they can layout their own product structure, determine which are seasonal products, which are fixed products that should be promoted, and which are explosive products.
In addition to creating explosive products, another way to develop boutiques is to distribute goods. For customers, the richer the categories, the more convenient shopping. However, if the product line is too long, there are also the following disadvantages:
(1) It is impossible to prepare sufficient inventory for all products, so the best-selling products will be out of stock, which will lead to user complaints, order returns, and stagnant sales;
(2) There are too many product varieties, and it is impossible to fully understand the competitors. The price is often lacking in competitiveness based on feelings;
(3) Non-best-selling products are often unsalable. When they are about to expire, promotion and discount become the core work of operation;
(4) The product line is long, the editorial staff is insufficient, and the product description is unattractive. So, how to solve the above problems?
(1) Sellers can adopt the offline on-site procurement model to solve the urgent problem. At present, there are many wholesale markets with a full range of products in the world, such as Shenzhen’s Huaqiangbei Commercial District.
(2) When forming a product line, we simply refer to such a ratio, that is, planning 20% of the products as drainage products; planning 20% of the products as high-profit products, that is, core products; and the rest of the products are normal products.
Of course, the selection of product lines is not a one-time thing, but is constantly adjusted and optimized according to sales. During this period, sellers need to better understand the industry situation of the products, understand the dynamics of competitors in these categories, pay attention to the changes in competitors’ SKUs and prices, and stay competitive at all times. More importantly, through comprehensive comparative analysis of the best-selling brands and products in the industry and stores, and soaring brands and products, and finally systematically, scientifically and reasonably optimizing the combination, finding the most suitable supplier for selection is an important guarantee and basis for the supply of goods.
Different cross-border e-commerce platforms have different product selection methods and best-selling categories, such as Amazon, eBay, Wish, AliExpress, Cdiscount, Lazada and other platforms. The Amazon platform provides sellers with special product selection tools (such as Jungle Scout): Lazada is the largest online shopping website in Southeast Asia, and beauty products are one of its best-selling categories; Cdiscount’s advantage category is home furnishings. In the following chapters, we will introduce a variety of product selection tools, product selection methods, and skills for selecting products using product data from Amazon, AliExpress, and Wish platforms.