I am considering launching an e-commerce business for the local market. The business is targeted at a certain ethnicity and the market size is around or below 100,000. Obviously, the first step is to validate this idea. My dilemma is, how?
Here is my plan:
- Build a landing page with a few sample photographs of the products I want to sell and place ads on Facebook and/or Instagram to:
a. Build an audience.
b. Judge the demand.
Questions:
- What else can I do to validate the market?
- Based on the data above, what is your opinion about this business?
- Which tool should I use to build this landing page quick and dirty? [ My instinct is to use my React skill to cook up something in GatsbyJS and host it on Netlify, but I'm afraid that it would be a bit time consuming, and maybe there are better tools available in the market which can use to run the test faster]
Thanks in advance!!
If you fancy going down the Shopify route, I run a Shopify app called PreProduct that lets stores capture orders for upcoming and future products.
Email address is captured first, then payment links are sent out later on, once you’re ready.
It can be a good way to test a market, whilst also capturing the demand.
Www.preproduct.io
Maybe try to sell one product you plan to sell with a landing page?
Hi, I'm working on https://www.thisismylaunch.com/ right now, it's a platform for launching new products and services, you can use it to validate your ideas and build your audience before you even launched your product. It's also free to use.
If that's what you are looking for, feel free to check it out and sign-up for early access. Right now, there is only a landing page available, but MVP will be available in a couple of days.
your landing page is amazing, wow
Your best bet is pre-reg groups - asses CTR on ads, dwell time, email sign up % and follow up with customers individually to gauge genuine buying interest. As always a mix of qual and qant is best. Good luck man.
Have a list of problems you think you are solving for them.
Speak to people who fit your target audience.
If you they speak about said problems you know it's real and you can solve it. Think of this like bingo, when a problem you've identified comes up, you can tally it.
Straight up ask them if you think your product will be useful.