A serial entrepreneur reveals four easy ways to test your e-commerce product idea

Since 2014 I have been deep in the trenches of e-commerce — fascinated by its capabilities and amazed at the opportunities.

After kicking off my watch brand Uncle Jack in late 2014, we reached seven figures of revenue in the first full year. It was a combination of timing, clever marketing, and a lot of luck. To do it again a few years later with Athletikan was less luck, and more systems.

Was it a matter of simply two good ideas? No. What people don’t see are the ideas that never make it to production. The ideas that never even make it past the idea list. Ah, the idea list. Let me explain.

Since I was 18 I’ve had an ‘idea list’. A literal list of all my business and product ideas. No matter how small and silly, or large and naive. They all go on the list. It started as just a fun way to keep a record of all my crazy ideas and that one day I might start one, or a few. Now, I use it religiously to track my ideas and thoughts. Being able to go back 12 months, or 5 years, and see where what my brain was conjuring up is priceless.

What makes an idea go from a thought to a real brand or product? There must be a systematic way to justify it. Otherwise we’re just gambling. Gambling our money on stock, gambling our time and energy on potentially redundant new products.

Over the years I’ve come up with a number of ways to test and validate brand and product ideas before attempting to bring them to the world.

We need to be asking questions like;

• Is this solving a problem?
• Do people actually want this?
• Is it scalable in the future?
• Can we build a community around this?
• Are there viable means of distribution?
• Is it profitable?

Here are some of the methods I’ve used to validate new product and brand ideas.

Pre-launch landing page

Ten years ago when I was getting started in e-commerce, I had a strong advantage in being able to whip up websites quickly and cheaply. These days, there are no excuses. Website creation is code-free and at your fingertips.

The key here is to create a simple landing page to collect email addresses. People don’t like to give their email away ‘willy-nilly’.

Provide a headline for your product, some information about what it is and how it solves a problem for your customer.

Then make an offer.

Something like:

‘Sign up to get first access to the launch’

‘Get 15% off when X product launches’

‘Enter your email to be the first to know it drops’

‘Become a VIP to get X extra when it launches’

This is purely a numbers game. We won’t know the quality of the signups yet as there’s no transaction. But it’s a simple way to gauge interest. If you get a number of signups you know that at least there’s interest.

This is the method that I used to launch my two most successful brands. Put the word out on social media, try and get some PR attention, tell your friends and family, even run some Facebook ads to get traffic to the page.

My first brand launched with 500 pre-launch signups. The second with 3,000. That’s a huge advantage to validating and launching a new brand. Both had exceptional first launch days.

Landing page pre-order

Building from the first validation method, this approach allows the potential customer to ‘pre-order’.

There is no better way of validating a product than checking to see if someone is actually willing to part with their hard-earned cash for it.

Perhaps this method is a little cheeky, but it’s a surefire way to know if there is a clear demand for the product.

The method remains the same — create a landing page and collect email addresses with a basic offer.

However, this time we’ve got an extra step.

After the user submits their email address they think that’s it. They’ve done it. But we’re going to surprise them with a redirect to actually purchase the product via pre-order. You can set a delivery date 2 or 3 months from the date.

If you convert 10%+ of the email subscribers via the instant pre-order you should consider that a very good result. Those that don’t convert straight away, well you’ve got their data for the actual brand/product launch.

Traditional pre-order

If you’re an existing brand or business with a community/following/customer base, one of the best launch methods is the pre-order.

I’ve personally used this method with great success over a number of years.

Why is it so good? Cash up front.

Cash is king in any business, and when you can get the money upfront from your customers to then place an order from your supplier without any risk — that is gold.

Here’s an example.

If you’re an environmentally-friendly coffee cup brand and you’ve got a devoted audience of environmentally-conscious consumers that love what you do, you’re primed for the pre-order model.

Perhaps your research has said that there’s a market for a reusable ice cream cup. Instead of using a plastic cup at your local gelato store, you can bring your own to enjoy a couple of scoops.

The company would create a sample, produce some imagery and visuals, set up a landing page and send out an email blast and social campaign to generate traffic to their product landing page. Assuming they get 500 pre-orders of the reusable ice cream cup, they go and place an order for 500 from their supplier, they’ve taken no risk, got the money upfront, validated the product and created a new product that has immediate demand.

Facebook Groups are gold

If you’re not in Facebook Groups for your niche, you’re missing out big time.

First of all, you’re missing out on cues. Your target customers are already there talking about the problems they have, discussing products in your niche (maybe even your product) and discussing issues and events around your niche. It’s a marketer’s gold mine.

Maybe you think it’s scrappy and unscalable.

I would say it’s scrappy, provides a wealth of knowledge and enables you to build raving fans and community.

Here’s what you want to do.

First of all, find the key groups that are relevant to you.

If you’re a company selling tennis racquets for beginners, you’re going to want to find a group for beginner tennis players — not rocket science.

Then, just listen. See what people are saying. What questions keep coming up again and again? What are their frustrations? Where are they going to learn? What products are they using?

Then, start creating content of your own. Create 4-6 really good blogs or YouTube videos based on what you’ve been hearing. Provide some really top-notch value.

Over time, start commenting genuinely, and every now and then link to one of these really good content pieces. You’re going to build authority and position yourself as an expert in the group. You’re not spamming, but providing genuine value.

Now, it’s time to get the community involved to help you.

Create a post addressing a particular problem and ask for the group’s feedback.

‘Hey it’s John, you’ve seen me around trying my best to help! Now I would love your help. I’m thinking about creating a new product (insert what it is), I would love your feedback on what would make the perfect (insert product) for you?

Let’s bring this to life!’

All of a sudden you’ve engaged the community in a non-salesy way and built a genuine connection. If there’s merit in your new product idea — they’ll tell you. If it’s a horrible idea and no one will buy it — they’ll tell you.

But now you’ve got them engaged. If there’s merit and people are interacting, you go ahead and create the product you’ve got an audience watching you build it and will be highly likely to purchase it.

Remember these four methods of validating your next product idea or brand before jumping in head first! You’ll be able to avoid money wasted on unwanted stock, time and energy in developing products that nobody wants and you’ll likely build a strong community and fanbase while you’re at it.

Robbie Ball is an award-winning entrepreneur and the co-founder of Athletikan, Uncle Jack (acquired) and Runly. This article was first published on LinkedIn.