How to estimate product demand. Step-by-step instructions on how to conduct demand analysis

It would be wonderful if you could look into a crystal ball to see whether your product will be a success upon release. In reality, everything is not so simple, however, a few simple steps taken before launching a product will allow you to look into the future and save or earn significant cash. Here are some ways to determine the success of a product before launching it into the market.

1. Test the product

You have probably already heard about a similar method, and this option for identifying consumer demand for products you are interested in should not be overlooked. It is impossible to overestimate the benefits of testing. It goes without saying that the data obtained will not completely correspond to the actual data, but at least you will know whether there is interest in your products.

2. Conducting surveys of potential buyers

Analyze customer reviews. Find out what kind of product they need, how they would like it to look and what functions it has, you can also ask additional questions about the cost they are willing to pay for a similar product, etc. The more you learn about customer needs, the better the product you will produce.

3. Find out if consumers are ready to buy the planned products right now

You can talk about your new ideas for a very long time, but this will not help to identify consumer interest. To begin with, offer customers, if they like the idea of ​​a new product, to reduce the cost of the product by 25% and the opportunity to purchase it right now. Look at the reaction, if it doesn't attract their attention, then they won't buy the product later.

4. Conduct consumer market research

This procedure will take time, but will pay off later. Research the demand for your products and your competitors' products, then perform a general market survey for similar products. This will help you learn about the trends of this commodity market, do not repeat someone else’s already implemented ideas, and use the collected information to improve your products.

5. Stay optimistic

A positive attitude and strong intention allow you to achieve your goal with less losses and for a longer time. If you don't like what you produce, why should others like it? So, it is better to arrive in a good mood, which will affect what you do.

6. Put yourself in the buyer's shoes

Instead of trying to sell something, become a buyer yourself for a day. Look at your product from the consumer’s perspective, what attracts you to it and what, on the contrary, needs to be improved, etc.

7. Determine the sales market

It's important to know your target market. Of course, unforeseen situations may occur. It may turn out that they will buy something that you did not expect and not take the product you were betting on. But if you manage to narrow the sales market as much as possible, then you are more likely to be able to find buyers for your products, meet the needs of buyers, and with great success sell goods.

These are just recommendations and cannot determine the success or failure of your new product. It is difficult to calculate and predict all the nuances. But you will have the opportunity to become better acquainted with the target market, thereby studying in more detail the consumer requirements for the products you produce, and accordingly, to some extent, foresee the degree of expected demand.

Based on materials

Runet marketers claim that the volume of goods purchased via the Internet is growing significantly every year. The work of existing online stores and others intensified trading platforms. More and more users are becoming familiar with the opportunity to earn money by organization of new stores.

And this is quite natural, because over the last decade Internet technologies have become closer and more accessible. Almost any person in our country has the opportunity to go online and order what he likes there.

Many people are too busy to go shopping - it’s easier for them to buy something on the Internet, especially since this can often be done in a couple of clicks, without leaving your seat or letting go of a cup of coffee. In addition, your online purchase will be delivered to any convenient location - often free of charge. So is it worth wasting time on tedious shopping if you can buy everything you need online?

It is also beneficial for sellers online trading goods, because in this way they significantly save on rent. This is why the number of online stores is constantly increasing.

Where did you buy the best-selling products online in 2019?

Most often, users make purchases through online stores. These include giants such as AliExpress and Amazon, as well as small and medium-sized online stores with a narrower specialization.

Significantly less often online purchases are made by:

• on online auctions;
• through various web message boards (for example - Avito);
• on other resources whose specialization is the sale of products or the provision of various services.

How to Find Out Which Products Are Selling Best Online

In fact, different services provide different data on the volume of online purchases, so it can be quite difficult to establish the truth. The market is constantly changing, and some segments of online commerce are growing faster than others.

If you want to find out how in demand a particular group of products is, you can check it using the Yandex Wordstat service. It does not show the number of purchases, but it clearly shows the number of search queries, that is, the number of potential buyers who are looking for this product on the Internet.

For example, for the query “Online Clothes” the service shows that more than 20 million people a month are looking for online stores, of which more than 1.3 million are looking specifically for online clothing stores.

But 25 thousand people search for air tickets online every month, and another 12 thousand want to buy cheap air tickets

Only 11 thousand people are looking for laptops on the Internet, but taking into account the fact that Yandex Wordstat generates more than 400 thousand user requests for the request “buy a laptop”, many of them will probably use the services of online stores

Another service that helps determine demand for a product or product category is called Google Trends. If you enter a position you are interested in into the search bar, it will show graphs of the popularity of this query through Google search, as well as other statistics.

True, this service does not show the exact number of search queries on a topic, but only determines the popularity of the query on a scale from 0 to 100

You can refine the request for your country and select a time period for analysis

You can also check popularity by region or city here

Google Trends also allows you to compare the popularity of two different queries.

With the help of Yandex Wordstat and Google Trends, you can determine which online trading niche is the most popular in your region, and perhaps open your own profitable online business. Remember that online shopping is constantly growing, so even small shop may well bring its owner a decent profit.

In 10th place - large household appliances

Large household appliances were not so actively purchased online in 2019, despite the more low prices. As before, people are accustomed to making large purchases in ordinary specialized markets. The main reason is the high cost of purchase and its size.

Buyers tend to buy expensive household appliances with clarification of all the nuances in detail, check the product before purchase for the absence of defects and the completeness of the product. In addition, in the supermarket you can consult with competent staff and ask questions about the operation of the product.

In 9th place - tickets

Slightly more often than large household appliances, Internet users bought tickets for various events and trips in 2019:

• concerts and shows;
• sporting events;
• cinema and theater;
• railway, car and air tickets.

Such purchasing methods helped many people save time on traveling and standing in queues. This method is quite convenient and practical.

In 8th place are cards for paying for services.

Best Selling Cards:

• replenishment of accounts for mobile communications, cable and satellite TV, Internet providers;
• for payment for software;
• to pay for entertainment content of Internet services that sell applications for portable and mobile devices.

The convenience of using these services lies in the ability to make payments from home, sometimes without paying a commission.

In 7th place - clothes

The demand for purchasing clothes has increased; on the Internet you can find any samples, types, sizes of a wide variety of models. But still, for many it is still difficult to buy an item over the Internet in the exact size and without trying it on. Many people hesitate to buy because they doubt that it will fit.

However, this problem can be solved. Most online stores do not require advance payment - if you don’t like the item, you don’t have to take it or pay for it. In addition, the buyer has the opportunity to view product reviews left by other customers.

In 6th place - PO

Software It’s easier to buy than clothes, you don’t need to try it on, it suits everyone. Typically, licensed software is purchased commercial organizations, government agencies, users concerned about the safety of their information.

The most popular were:

• Windows operating system;
• license for antivirus software;
• Microsoft Office application packages, etc.

In 5th place is a product group for children

These products are more versatile, making it much easier to buy them online. The selection of such products is huge, the prices are reasonable. Children's products are structured, which makes purchasing them much easier.

In 4th place - cosmetics and perfumes

The abundance of these goods does not leave women indifferent. In addition, the cost on the Internet is often lower than in retail sales, and the choice is wider. Making online shopping easier is the ability to read product reviews and reviews from professionals.

Perfume is bought less frequently and mostly from trusted brands, since it is difficult to buy a new scent without using your sense of smell.

Download the free checklist 18 ideas for what you can sell on message boards right now

Top three sales leaders

Third place- for mobile devices: phones, smartphones and tablet computers. This is due to the large selection reasonable prices, safe delivery and, very importantly, warranty.

Second place occupied by laptops and their accessories. The benefits are the same as for mobile devices. In addition, while real electronics supermarkets may not have some models or components for them, the Internet always has everything and delivery is fast.

Top seller and the winner of the first place in the TOP of 2017 is electronics and small household appliances. These products are inexpensive, and the choice is huge: curling irons, irons, vacuum cleaners, hair dryers, meat grinders, scales, razors, etc.

• drones and quadcopters;
• LED lighting;
• hobby goods;
• spare parts and accessories for machines;
• green tea.

Although they are not included in the TOP, practice shows that you can make good money selling such goods online.

Conclusions

What makes a product the most purchased online?

1. Price - most often they buy products whose cost does not exceed $600.
2. Universal product qualities - a large segment of buyers can buy the same product (laptops, mobile devices, TVs, etc.).

There will be better purchases of household appliances as they are suitable for both men and women. Basically, this product does not depend on the age of the buyers, their build and other characteristics that make a person interested in purchasing any product.

What makes a product the most purchased online?

First of all, this is the price - most often they buy products whose cost does not exceed $600 (we recommend reading the article “ How to organize a business with China?».

In addition, the universal qualities of the product are important, when everyone can buy the same product, regardless of gender, age and place of residence. This category of goods includes laptops, mobile devices, TVs, etc.

Various fashion trends often make adjustments to online sales statistics. For example, spinners and hoverboards are now in fashion among the younger generation; sometimes it comes into fashion certain types toys or other goods for children. If you “catch a trend” in time, you can also make money from this. But don’t forget that fashion is fickle, so your online store should include not only fashion news, but also goods that are in stable demand among the population.

According to marketing research, women buy more online than men, but different categories of goods this ratio may be different. For example, electronics are more often purchased by men, while clothing and cosmetics are purchased by women. In addition, the fair half of humanity is more prone to impulse purchases and responds more strongly to attractive packaging and tempting slogans. For this reason, sellers often use various marketing ploys to convince women to purchase their product.

As a rule, online purchases are made by young people under the age of 35, living in large or medium-sized cities, with an average or low income. If you want to know more about online shopping, as well as other ways to make money online, go here: 50 ways to make money online

Understanding how interesting the product you offer is to Internet users can not only change the trade development strategy, but also force you to abandon business development if the demand is not great enough. How to find out the demand for a product is the most important question, and we will try to sort it out today.

How do search engines help in demand analysis?

Search engines are designed to provide the information the user needs. The search engine determines whether the information meets the “client’s” expectations based on the query – a keyword or phrase that the visitor types into the system’s search bar. The search engine remembers queries entered by users, which allows them to collect complete statistical information over time about the popularity of a particular query, season trends and the dynamics of changes in user interests for a product. Access to such query databases will allow you not only to determine the demand for your product on the Internet, but also to predict the potential volume, level and geography of sales, as well as prepare for seasonal declines in customer activity.

Analysis of query statistics using the WordStat service

In Russia, in order to determine the frequency of queries (the number of user requests to search engines using keywords), mainly one search query statistics system is used. These are statistics of queries from Yandex search engines.

Statistics keywords search engine Yandex is provided by the WordStat service.

You simply enter the keyword you are interested in into the search bar, and the system displays the number of impressions of this phrase in Yandex search results per month.

It is important to pay attention to the following point. The Yandex statistical tool shows not the number of requests, but the number of impressions of a word or phrase. That is, it cannot be said that, according to the figure presented above, 244,724 people were interested in “wristwatches” in the Yandex search engine per month. In this case, the figure takes into account how many times the phrase “wristwatch” was shown to Yandex users by the system. In order to avoid errors associated with accounting large quantity irrelevant queries, it is necessary to do work related to “cleaning up” queries, i.e. from the total number of requests, it is necessary to subtract all left requests that clearly do not imply the purchase of your product.

Yandex statistics also allows you to “target” requests, that is, determine the number of requests for a particular geographic area:

The service also makes it possible to assess the seasonality of goods on the Internet:

However, thanks to Yandex keyword statistics, you can imagine a fairly complete picture of the demand for your product, which you plan to sell through an online store. Just don’t forget that the total number of users of the Yandex search engine is at the moment accounts for about 50% of Runet users. This means that to obtain the final result, the resulting number of target requests must be divided by 0.5 (50%).

After an initial assessment of demand has been carried out, you can proceed to the sales planning stage, during which it is necessary to make a fairly accurate assessment of the prospective traffic of the online store and, in accordance with this traffic, estimate the sales potential of the product. But we will tell you about this later...

Best regards, Maksimov M.

Any price set by the selling company will one way or another affect the level of demand for the product.

The demand curve shows how much of a good will be sold on the market during a specific period of time at different prices. In a normal situation, demand and price are inversely proportional, i.e. the higher the price, the lower the demand; the lower the price, the higher the demand. So, by raising the price, the company will sell less of the product. Consumers on a budget faced with choice alternative goods, will buy less of those whose prices are too high for them.

Foreign companies constantly measure changes in demand depending on price changes; this indicator is the main one in their pricing policy. Differences in measurement approaches are dictated by the type of market. Under conditions of a pure monopoly, the demand curve indicates that the demand for a product is justified by the price that the enterprise asks for it. However, as one or more competitors enter, the demand curve will change depending on the competitors' prices.

The sensitivity of demand to price changes is characterized by an elasticity indicator. Elasticity shows by what percentage one variable will change as a result of a 1% change in another variable.

If, under the influence of a small change in price, demand remains almost unchanged, then it is inelastic. If demand undergoes significant changes, then it is generally accepted that it is elastic.

The overall demand for many industrial goods is characterized by low price elasticity. What determines the price elasticity of demand? Demand is most likely to be less elastic under the following circumstances: 1) there is no or almost no substitute for the product, or there are no competitors; 2) buyers do not immediately notice price increases; 3) buyers are slow to change their purchasing habits; 4) buyers believe that the increased price is justified by an improvement in the quality of the product, a natural increase in inflation, etc. If demand can be defined as elastic, sellers should think about reducing the price. Reduced price will bring more volume total income. And this approach makes sense as long as there is no disproportionate increase in the costs of production and marketing of goods.

In the practice of foreign companies, a numerical (calculated) assessment of the elasticity of demand (supply) depending on price changes is widely used.

If we denote the quantity of demand (supply) as q, and the price of the product as P, then the indicator (coefficient) of demand (supply) depending on the change in price, or the price elasticity of demand (supply), Ep will be equal to:

where Aq and Ap are changes in demand (supply) and price. %.

Example 1. The price of a product increased by 10%, the demand for it decreased by 3%. The elasticity of demand for a product depending on price changes will be equal to:

Ep = -3/10 = -0.3

Example 2. The price of a product increased by 10%, the supply (production) of the product increased by 1%. The elasticity of supply of goods depending on price changes will be:

Ep > 1 - demand is elastic;

Ep = 1 - demand with unit elasticity.

Positive elasticity values ​​reflect equally directed changes in interrelated quantities: both increase and both decrease; negative - different directions of changes: one value increases, the other decreases, or vice versa, one decreases, the other increases.

The elasticity of demand depending on price changes is usually a negative value, the elasticity of supply is usually a positive value.

Indicators of elasticity of demand (supply) are widely used by foreign enterprises when setting prices for goods.

First of all, knowing the elasticity of demand for a product being released to the market, an entrepreneur has the opportunity to determine in advance the reaction of buyers to price changes.

In addition, the elasticity indicator serves as a measure for assessing trends in the total costs of an enterprise depending on the nature of demand for the product.

Knowing the coefficient of price elasticity of demand, you can quite simply calculate a number of indicators necessary for entrepreneurial activity, in particular, possible price changes.

It is quite obvious that with an increase in the volume of sales of a product (for example, an entrepreneur has expanded his market share or plans to expand it), using the elasticity coefficient for the product being sold, it is possible to calculate the possible change in price.

The elasticity indicator is widely used to predict prices. It should be noted that the demand for certain groups of goods reacts differently (with different elasticities) to price changes. For many goods, demand for them is usually more elastic the longer the period of time for making a decision. On individual products demand may be more elastic in the short run.

Studies of the demand for gasoline and cars conducted in the USA showed that for these two factors the elasticity coefficients depending on the duration of the period of price and income changes are opposite: for gasoline in the long run, the elasticity coefficient of demand for absolute value more than in short term, and for cars - vice versa.

Thus, studying demand is a very important and necessary part of the pricing methodology. At foreign enterprises, this issue is given exceptional importance, since supply and demand are the two main levers of a market economy.

To demonstrate the importance of elasticity of demand, the following example from business practice.

Comments:

Modern world– this is the market. At every step of sales - services, goods. Even getting a job is a sale. A person sells himself for the salary specified in the contract. But in order to sell correctly and productively, you need to study the demand for specific product or service. This is done to understand how much a product or service is in demand at the moment.

How to determine demand for a product or service on the Internet

You can realize yourself through the Internet, as well as start a business. But before you start selling and investing money, you need to understand how relevant the offer is. If it is not in demand or is a new product on the market, then there is a high risk of losing money. Therefore, every startuper should know how to determine the demand for their product or services online.

Demand analysis for a product or service is carried out to understand whether sales will be successful. This is done even before starting a business, at the planning stage and drawing up a business plan. Studying demand will help you understand how much the offer is in demand, whether it is worth increasing costs, abandoning the idea, or adjusting something before launch. It is demand that gives birth to business. Without demand there will be no sales, which means the whole story will only bring losses.

Determining demand consists of several stages:

1. Thorough market research.
   At this stage, the overall demand for a specific product and its analogues, competitors’ offers, how occupied the niche is, and the average price are studied, which will allow one to roughly calculate both profits and losses. The general situation on the market will make it possible to find out what ideas have already been implemented, how successfully they are progressing, and whether it is worth launching something similar. Having made a detailed analysis, you can already understand the prospects of your offer and make a final decision about whether it is worth launching it on the market, or whether you need to reconsider the product or service.
2. Target Audience
   Beginning businessmen do not always pay attention to this extremely important point. Who will be interested in what he offers? And from this we already understand where to offer? It’s definitely stupid to go to “mom” forums with auto parts, just as it’s stupid to go to the biker community with children’s toys. It is necessary to collect as much information as possible about future clients: age group, gender, what kind of education they have, wealth potential client. Naturally, the type of sales also plays a significant role. Will it be outlet or online store. Again, you need to correctly correlate your ambitions and wishes with what actually exists. In other words, carefully analyze supply and demand, as well as the factors that determine them.
3. Clarifying customer needs in the form of a survey.
   At this stage, all the necessary information comes first-hand. The primary needs and purchasing power of people are identified. So, for a businessman who decides to enter the market with exotic sauces, it will be important to know what tastes customers are interested in, what combinations they would like to try, at what price they are willing to buy this product and how often. Thus, this will be another way of understanding whether it is worth entering the market with an existing offer, or whether it is worth abandoning or refining the idea. This stage is especially important for a new product on the market, for which it is difficult to study the demand without going into the field.
4. Testing a product or service
   When priorities are determined and target audience, and the first purchases have already been made or proposals have been created, the test implementation begins. This launch takes place in small quantities. And based on actual demand, the relevance of the supply in a particular market is determined. If the sales process is not going well, then it is worth reconsidering the price, audience or the offer itself. At this stage, you can also determine the coefficient of price elasticity of demand in order to use this data in the future when forming constant prices for goods.

With all possible calculations and research, it is impossible to say exactly how the market will behave at the moment. Forecasts may come true, or they may be wrong. But the right approach will allow you to minimize losses and choose the right strategy for behavior and development of your business.

How to determine the demand for a product in your region

To enter the market only in your region, you need to do all the same work, but with a geographic limitation. This way you can find out not only the demand in the region, but even in the city district. for example, coffee to go or fast food will be in demand on a college campus, but are unlikely to find the same demand among factories, which often have their own canteens with low prices.

Do you want your own profitable business? Get a free Skype consultation on opening an online store

Demand research in the region is relevant not only for offline segment services, but also for online sales, if you need to shorten transport costs, and due to this make more favorable price. Although there are also those who are so excited by the idea that they are ready to buy what they want and take on all the expenses themselves.

How to correctly use Yandex Wordstat to determine demand

The Yandex application for market analysis - Wordstat - allows you to obtain all the necessary information on the demand for a specific product or service. At the same time, do it quickly, but with the highest quality. The program makes it possible to obtain information on demand both throughout the entire network and in a region, city or even district. This is especially true for megacities, where each district is equal to a small city.

Before determining demand using of this service, you need to familiarize yourself with its functionality in detail.

The basic functions of Wordstat that give a correct understanding of the output result are “Quotation marks” and “Exclamation mark”. If you write a phrase in quotation marks, then the data specifically for this request will appear in this wording, and the exclamation mark placed before with the right word, will allow you to see queries with this word specifically with this ending.

Additional functionality of Wordstat includes:

• “Or” is very useful when comparing and selecting semantics for a personal website. Specified by the “|” symbol.
• “Square brackets” - Fixes the order of words in a query, helps to evaluate the popularity of similar phrases and the frequency of the query. Specified by the symbols "".
• “Plus” is useful when searching for queries that use stop words. Specified by the “+” symbol.
• “Minus” - used when excluding some words from the query for a narrower search. Specified by the “-” symbol.
• “Grouping” - makes it possible to group other functions that are described above. Specified by the symbols "()".

Determining the demand for Avito

The Avito service allows you to identify demand for a specific product or service within the required radius or throughout the country. But it is also worth looking at the relevance of the request, which may be seasonal.

Again, with a narrow request, Avito may give a zero result if no one has shown interest in the item recently the right topic. This means that either the niche is empty or the offer is not relevant.

When analyzing demand, you should not rely only on message boards; they do not give the desired result and forecast. Yesterday everyone needed Christmas trees because they were shown on TV, today no one needs them because everyone bought them yesterday and there is zero demand on Avito, but at the same time, in a week these same Christmas trees will be in demand again.

How to determine demand in a city

Demand in a city is determined by requests on services indicating a specific city to search for. The popularity of a product or service in the region also affects whether it is produced locally or imported from other regions, reviews, and search frequency. In the city according to analysis shopping centers you can understand which niches are occupied and which have not even appeared yet and may be of interest. You can ask questions in the city’s communities, asking how interested they would be in such an offer. As a rule, people willingly answer what they are missing and what might work well.

After conducting a survey in various options and by studying Wordstat statistics, you can draw a conclusion about how interesting the offer is in a given city and calculate its approximate payback. If this is a product or product, then it is possible to test demand by opening a temporary point in crowded places, at a fair or holiday.

You need to assess demand not only at the start of a business, but also throughout the rest of the time, in order to understand where the buyer is going and what he is currently interested in. By maintaining constant contact with the client, the entrepreneur receives an almost complete picture of the state of his audience, sees periods of decline and can even determine the reasons for this. By analyzing demand, a customer route from advertising to purchase is created. Knowledge of the market situation allows you to respond to market changes in a timely manner and recover from downturns in demand with minimal losses. Market research is not only necessary for big business, but also for a small entrepreneur, for whom even small losses can be fatal.