Why no one wants to buy your product

One of the most common bottlenecks startups encounter in their life is the lack of demand. The scale of the problem varies from “we’d like to have more customers” to “no one is buying our product” and everything in between. For a founder who has put their entire heart into developing a product, this may be disappointing at the very least. However, there is always a reason why the market rejects a product. Here are the most common ones.

Customers don’t understand the product

However great a product is, a startup should not expect its customers to figure it out themselves. It is the company’s job to explain what its product is and convince its customers that it will solve their problems.

Startups and their founders are often so engrossed in their product that they assume its benefits are evident to anyone by default.

For this reason, sometimes startups forego marketing or advertising entirely, believing that word of mouth will do the job. Though most commonly, they use wrong messaging, such as:

• they don’t communicate clearly why a product is better than its competitors;
• their ads promise things that customers can’t actually have;
• they use phrases and arguments that customers can’t relate to;
• they use the wrong communication channels.

Alternatively, founders may not fully understand the benefits of their product themselves. For example, a while ago we delivered our services to a SaaS company that had developed an issue tracking platform. It could not scale up or find clients beyond the initial pilot projects because the founders failed to see that it had no killer feature, and it was virtually no different from its competitors. Consequently, their marketing had no leg to stand on, and their customers felt it.

Customers can’t buy the product

Building a great product and marketing it correctly is half the battle. A startup should check whether its customers are physically capable of purchasing it as well. Sometimes startup teams and founders forget about the practical nuances of their business such as inventory, delivery, or shipping, which leads to low demand. For instance, a purchase button on their website may not be working, or their app may not support the payment options their customers prefer. The same issue may arise with product delivery that may be unavailable for regions where a product is advertised.

Customers don’t need the product

This point can be broken down into several reasons. Firstly, customers may not have the problem a product is supposed to solve, or the problem may look differently from how founders envision it, even if the product itself is great. Secondly, founders may be looking for customers in the wrong market. For example, a startup that developed a smart alarm clock may be fruitlessly trying to market it to teenagers who have problems waking up. At the same time, there’s a more lucrative niche they’re not considering; they can offer their product to working adults who forget to take their meds on time.

Thirdly, even if a product is great and solves a problem, customers may not be ready for it. Imagine a startup that developed a babysitter aggregating platform for working parents. While it solves their problem, they are not ready to trust strangers with their children because they live in an area with a high crime rate.

The product is bad

Sometimes, the reason for a startup’s misfortune is that simple: the product is just plain bad. Though before mourning their time and effort, founders should think very carefully about whether they ruled out all of the points above.

So how can a startup fix or foresee problems like that? As you can see, the majority of them stem from not knowing customers, their needs, or their lifestyle well enough. Consequently, for many companies, the most obvious solution would be to research them more thoroughly.

If you know other reasons for the lack of demand that we haven’t mentioned, drop us a message at unicorn@smartstartlab.com — we’re always happy to chat!