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Shopify product research is the hustle behind every store that takes off. The weird stuff in the corner of the internet, the tiny obsessive communities, the products people don’t even realize they are obsessed with yet – those are the winners. Sure, numbers matter and trends exist, but they don’t lead. Digging and noticing patterns nobody else sees – that is the juice.
And that is exactly what we are getting into here. We will show you how to hunt for products that don’t just sell, but sell out. On top of that, we will drop 5 Shopify product research tools that make finding those winning Shopify products way easier.
Shopify product research is the process of finding products that have high potential to sell on your Shopify store. You get to know what people want to buy and make sure your products actually make money before you invest in them.
Why Shopify Product Research Matters:
Shopify product research works best when you start paying attention to what people actually do. The clues are everywhere. The trick is knowing where to look and how to connect the dots. These strategies walk you through exactly that.
Social media is the fastest place to catch products before they go mainstream. New obsessions usually start with hashtags or niche creators showing off something fresh. By the time the big pages or influencers catch on, early sellers are already winning.
TikTok, Instagram Reels, and even Pinterest boards are goldmines for finding products with energy behind them. A video with thousands of likes in a small community says more about customer demand than polished posts with millions of views. The trick is to train your feed to show you what is bubbling under the surface.
How to put this into action:
Nothing tells you what target customers actually need better than their own complaints and frustrations. Product reviews and forums are a direct line to the gaps in the market. Customers rarely sugarcoat their pain points – they write about them in detail. When you see complaints repeating, that is a chance to step in with a product that does it better.
Nordvik did this so brilliantly that we were forced to include them here. Their cube saunas were built on the back of digging through what customers were already saying online.
The team went through endless reviews on Shopify stores, wellness retailers, and even sauna-focused forums, where the same frustrations kept showing up over and over: too bulky, too hard to install, and way too much space required.
Instead of ignoring those pain points, Nordvik leaned in. They took the exact words people were venting – “wish I had one at home, but no space” or “installation is a nightmare.” And then they turned them into design goals.
The result was a minimalist, two-person sauna that fits in tighter spaces and sets up without headaches. It is the kind of product that feels like it was made by someone who actually listened.
How to put this into action:
Some products crush year-round, but many hit peaks based on holidays or events. Google Trends helps you map this out so you are ready before the demand wave hits.
A product may look slow in February but blow up in November. By spotting these cycles, you can time your promotions and stock purchases perfectly. It makes sure you don’t jump into a product just because it looks hot for one week.
How to put this into action:
Competitors give away a lot more than they realize. Their best-sellers point directly at what is working in the market. And don’t just copy them – you study the patterns. During the competitive analysis, pay attention to product features, pricing, reviews, and how they present the item.
The goal of competitor research is to spot what is working for them and then create a sharper offer. This could mean bundling, upgrading quality, improving shipping speed, or marketing the product in a fresher way.
Sure, looking at competitor best-sellers shows you what is hot now, but a smarter move would be to spot patterns across niches because that is where the real edge is. Maybe a feature keeps showing up in completely different categories. That is a signal you can use to carve out niche growth strategies that competitors aren’t focusing on yet.
How to put this into action:
This female mannequin store is a standout example here. Instead of treating mannequins as a single product line, they pulled from competitor catalogs and reviews to see which types of mannequins consistently performed well. Female mannequins kept showing up in best-seller sections and order lists, so instead of offering a generic option, Mannequin Mall went deep.
They carved out subcategories competitors barely touched – headless, realistic, abstract, glossy, matte – and built an entire collection around them. The result is that when someone goes hunting for any variation of a female mannequin, Mannequin Mall shows up as the obvious specialist.
Shopify’s app ecosystem isn’t just about plugins and tools. Buried inside it are signals about what store owners are doing to increase sales.
Some apps share data around trending products or fast-growing categories. When hundreds of merchants suddenly start using upsell apps for a particular niche, that tells you demand is picking up. The same goes for review apps, bundling apps, or pre-order apps – if usage grows in one category, it means sellers are finding products worth going all in on.
How to put this into action:
This sewing parts and accessories store is a sharp example of how to use this insight. They noticed that search and filtering apps were seeing a big uptick in installs among sewing and craft stores.
When they analyzed, they noticed the same requests kept showing up: hobbyists wanted faster ways to sort through very specific machine parts like presser feet and tension assemblies.
That told Sewing Parts Online two things: first, customers were struggling to find these products in cluttered catalogs, and second, there was hidden demand sitting there, unserved.
Instead of just adding new stock randomly, they acted directly on the app signals. They expanded their Shopify collections to highlight these high-demand parts, optimized their product filters around those exact search terms, and promoted those items as curated hard-to-find essentials.
The move worked because app usage data and user complaints had already validated the demand. They essentially let the app market guide their product research and merchandising strategy.
Dedicated dropshipping product research tools scrape data from stores to analyze demand and surface winning items before they hit mass adoption. These tools are like filters – you feed in niches or categories, and they return products that are moving with proof behind them. The beauty here is speed. Instead of relying on manual digging, you can validate interest in minutes.
How to put this into action:
Ads tell you where sellers are putting their money, and money usually follows demand. The Facebook Ad Library and TikTok Creative Center are like windows into what is being pushed right now.
If you see the same product being tested by multiple stores, or one ad with massive engagement that has been running for weeks, you have a proven signal. TikTok Creative Center also lets you see top-performing creatives, so you understand what kind of product angles are actually grabbing the attention of potential customers.
The best part is that you not only get to see the product, but you also see how it is positioned and what kind of storytelling connects with people. This gives you an edge when you adapt those insights to your own digital marketing strategies instead of starting from scratch.
How to put this into action:
The best research ends with proof. Running small tests is how you validate whether a product deserves your time and money. Micro-orders let you see if suppliers can deliver quality and speed.
Micro-campaigns with minimal ad spend show you if people actually click and buy. This keeps you from overcommitting to hype products that don’t convert once real money is involved.
How to put this into action:
Remember, validation isn’t just about CTRs and conversion rates. You need to hear from real people with real intent. Early buyers are often the ones with the most questions, and what they really want is to talk to an actual person who can clear things up.
Here, every missed call is basically lost data and lost demand. Instead of letting those calls go unanswered, you can use an AI call answering service like Rosie to capture every single inquiry, even at 2 a.m. Those conversations double as product validation – if 5 people ask about a certain variation, you know where to place your next micro-order.
A product research tool plays a bigger role than just saving you time. It shows you data you’d never spot by scrolling social media or checking reviews alone. Here are the 5 best product research tools that are worth using.
Sell The Trend is an all-in-one product research and dropshipping platform built specifically to help you find products that actually sell. Instead of bouncing between multiple tools, this one centralizes everything – product discovery, competitor tracking, ad spying, store analytics, and even product importing.
Starts at $29.97 per month (annual plan discounts available). No free plan, but there is a 7-day trial to test it out.
Store owners who want one tool to handle everything – finding products, checking ads, spying on competitors, and importing items straight into Shopify without going through multiple platforms.
EcomHunt is one of the most well-known product market research tools for dropshippers, and it focuses on simplifying the process of spotting winning products. Instead of handing you endless data, it curates a list of trending products daily, with valuable insights like profit margins, Facebook ad examples, targeting suggestions, and competitor store links.
Free version available with limited access. Paid plans start at $14 per month.
Beginners and store owners who want ready-to-use product ideas with all the supporting data without doing in-depth product research themselves.
FindNiche is a data-heavy product research tool built to help you dig deep into profitable dropshipping products. It pulls data from AliExpress and Shopify stores and analyzes millions of products and niches to reveal which ones have high sales potential.
Unlike tools that just give you a feed to discover trending products, FindNiche lets you filter down by categories, keywords, sales volume, or profit margins.
Free plan with limited daily searches. Paid plans start at $12 per month.
Data-driven store owners who want to base decisions on hard numbers. It is especially useful for those who want to explore sub-niches rather than compete in oversaturated categories.
Niche Scraper is a comprehensive product research tool designed to make product research more practical by giving you both winning product insights and tools to uncover new ideas yourself. It mixes automation with manual research and scrapes eCommerce businesses and marketplaces to identify what’s trending.
Free plan with limited access. Paid plans start at $49 per month.
Sellers who want both expert guidance and DIY scraping tools. It is a strong choice if you like seeing curated product picks but also want the option to do their own deep research.
Dropship Spy is a community-driven product research tool that combines data insights with social proof. Instead of just showing you trending products, it uses metrics from Facebook ads, engagement, and real Shopify stores to find products with proven market demand.
Starts at $10 per month.
Dropshippers who want more than just product ideas, especially those needing marketing assets and targeting suggestions to speed up testing campaigns.
Shopify product research hits different when you stop thinking like a seller and start thinking like someone who notices everything. Every bestselling dropshipping business had its moment where someone, somewhere, connected the dots early. So, stay in the hunt, because the next product that blows up is already out there waiting for you to catch it first.
If you are serious about catching those products before they explode, Sell The Trend is the shortcut worth having. Instead of scrolling endlessly, hoping to stumble on a winning idea, you get a clear view of what is moving right now across platforms and stores. Start your free trial with Sell The Trend today and find your next big product idea.
Author Bio:
Burkhard Berger is the founder of Novum™. He helps innovative B2B companies implement modern SEO strategies to scale their organic traffic to 1,000,000+ visitors per month. Curious about what your true traffic potential is?
