Ecomm Challenge Day 7 - Selecting test products
So my test category is water bottles and I know need to find products that I think would be suitable for my site. I have been doing some real word research over the last week or so and I think the bottles I’ve seen people using breakout into three main categories:
BPA/BPS & Phthalate Free — This seems to be the key point for people who are concerned about the affects of drinking from plastic bottles. From what I have observed the Yoga community has adopted them quite widely as well as anyone who is concerned about what they are putting into their body. As an extension of this there are other bottles which include charcoal sticks which also purify the water that is put into the bottle.
Stay hot/cold — These seem to be bottles at a higher price point as they have thermo properties that either keep drinks hot or cold for 24 hours. The most expensive variants actually claim to increase the temperature of the contents, but I have yet to experience this first hand. These seem to be more of an overt fashion accessory coming in a multitude of colours and designs. I will need to consider these colour-way variants when I build the site.
Utilitarian & Retro Design — These bottles and flasks seem to be more rugged in design to appeal to the outdoor set. They are produced by established outdoor and adventure brands as well as some very traditional brands like Stanley, which is interesting to me. Their looks particularly appeal to me, probably because I am a man!
Right, so which products should I list on the site?
I think I need to test a couple from each of the sub categories and see which is popular. I am still going to employ my personal filter from Day 2 as well as taking my learnings from finding my niche. It’s back to Amazon to look at reviews and which products are listed as well as those that are not.
The first thing I note is the suggested search for water bottles, gives me some key insights to which products people are really looking for:
Infusers are a sub-category I’ve seen before but discounted.
I replicate the search on Google and appears as though they have dispensed with search suggestions:
Fist Draft Product List
Here’s my first stab at a list of products, I’ve kept it relatively small as I will need to write product descriptions, source images and decide whether to sell direct or use affiliate marketing (All affiliate links):
- Black + Blum Charcoal Filter Water Bottle
- S'well TEAKWOOD L 750ML Water Bottle
- Nava 16018 Water Bottle 700 ml
- Ion bottle Black ION-4 Shigaraki ware
- Shigaraki ion bottle Candy
- Stanley Vacuum Flask
- Stanley 0.47Litre Classic One Handed Vacuum Mug
- S'well Women’s 17oz Mother Of Pearl Water Bottle Multi Coloured
- Klean Kanteen
- bkr birdie Glass Water Bottle 500 ml
- Hydro Flask 24 oz — 709ml New Flex Cap
- Lifefactory 22oz. Beverage Bottle Graphite
- Lifefactory 16oz. Beverage Bottle Graphite (475ml)
- Platypus Unisex Meta Bottle Microfilter 1L
I am quite confident that I now have a good selection of products with good reviews and broadly align with my personal values filter. I need to do some research about each of the companies that produce them, but in particular i am really happy about the ethos of Lifefactory.
For those of you that don’t know the backstory:
Lifefactory was born in 2007 when pediatric feeding specialist, Pam Marcus, and integrative designer, Daren Joy, joined together to develop a line of health-minded, design-forward baby bottles. The Company has grown and the product line has expanded but the purity of their original vision remains.
This is the type of product that I would feel proud to sell and promote.
Outreach
The great thing about this brand is that they also care about telling their story and have lots of video and imagery that they might let me use to promote.
As part of my social research I also noticed that there were quite a few Instagram posts with the hashtag #lifefactory. I might be able to contact people who have used this hashtag an ask whether they would allow me to use their posts and imagery.
Another disclaimer: I first became aware of the brand when my wife bought a bottle when she fell pregnant. I remember she bought it as a bit of an impulse purchase when we were in a Whole Foods Market one Saturday morning. I don’t think she knew about the benefits of glass re-use bottles, but she knew that she didn’t want to have to buy a plastic bottle of water on her commute if she felt sick. Having a bottle of water that she could refill regularly gave her some comfort, especially for hot trains on a Summer’s day.
I dropped Lifefactory and email to ask whether they would allow me to promote their products and potentially come to a drop shipping arrangement and also started direct messaging people on social media who had recently used the hashtag. Here’s an example of one of my DMs:
In total I sent about 20–25 to people who had larger followings and had images that I would like to use. To my surprise four of them got back to me and are interested on giving feedback on the website. Hopefully I can cultivate them into being content creators for the site, but I need to work on a value exchange for them.
Once I test and launch this category I am going to move on to the others as listed in my Validating the right niche article as follows:
- Backpacks
- DSLR backpacks
- Coffee making products
- Outdoor accessories
- Cycling accessories
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