Market Validation Help
I'm trying to find people who buy or sell physical items online frequently in order to validate my idea. My idea revolves around the facilitation of buying and selling products between individuals. A potential area that I think my idea could be applied to is the sneaker market. I'm having a bit of trouble determining what other markets my idea could be applied to. I've decided to limit myself to one specific market to start off with first.
Some areas that I need help on are:
- What other areas have a strong buying/selling presence that I might not be aware of?
- Who or which communities can I ask for product / market validation? (I already have a survey prepared, but don't have anyone to send it to.)
Before looking for more markets, I'd spend time validating whether the problem is painful enough in the sneaker market first.
One mistake a lot of founders make is trying to validate multiple markets at the same time. If you can prove demand in one niche, expanding later becomes much easier.
Beyond sneakers, I'd look at categories where trust, authenticity, and peer-to-peer transactions are already major concerns:
• Trading cards & collectibles
• Luxury watches
• Designer fashion
• Electronics
• Musical instruments
• Photography gear
• Sports memorabilia
For validation, I'd focus less on surveys and more on conversations. Join communities where these buyers and sellers already spend time and dig into their biggest frustrations, trust issues, fees, and current workflows.
A framework like this can also help structure the process: https://foundersbar.com/market-validation-for-startups
The goal isn't to find a market that sounds interesting. It's to find a group of people with a problem they're actively trying to solve and are willing to pay to solve.
Hey man if you can build something like gumroad but for digital products that would be great.
People do sell digital products through gumroad but its not the best experience:
Honestly if someone can solve this problem it would be great.
you can look at fb marketplace or craiglist or browse just ebay and yahoo for more niche stuff ... (there are 3rd parties, paid that have a lot of market research data..)
Yeah for sure! I've looked at Facebook Marketplace as well as Craigslist and considered as potential places where my product could be used. Once I verify that people actually have a problem that my product addresses or there is need for my product, I'll go ahead and start putting more time into it.
Suppose you could post on the r/EtsySellers reddit. There's an r/Etsy as well.
Actually, I looked at how Etsy users sell items and it doesn't seem to work for me. I should have been more specific and said that the area I'm targeting is one where people private message the seller for products they're interested in (not sure if there is a term for this).
"custom made"? "one of a kind"?
Hmm, those are good suggestions, but only encompass some of the products my idea would pertain to. For example, selling a new Nike or Adidas sneaker wouldn't really fit the "custom made" or "one of a kind" terms.
"limited edition" fit the snakers if I'm getting you...
Yeah, that's a good fit for sneakers, thank you!
Thanks for the suggestion! I'll try and post the survey there.
This comment was deleted 4 years ago
Hi! Thanks for the feedback. I think I was probably not specific enough in my original post, which causes some confusion for both you and some other users. My idea is indeed about the buying and selling of products between individuals where there is no specific platform for them to do so. Using eBay for example, the "Buy it Now" button ensures that the person buying will pay and ensures that the seller will ship or deliver the item. Comparing that to selling an item online through Facebook Marketplace, buyers and sellers may "lose" a transaction simply because another user decides to renegotiate the deal or decide they no longer want the item if a cheaper alternative shows up before the transaction is made. I think the difference is that eBay and many other platforms have this "guarantee" that the transaction will go through with the way the platforms for buying and selling are designed. I'm trying to validate whether there is any need for a solution to the Facebook Marketplace scenario. I hope that clears up some confusion.