Product Sourcing News   

Trouble with Tools...

By: SimpleMarketResearch.com

It'd be swell if there was a market research tool that could do it all - gather product data, interpret the info flawlessly and tell you exactly what to sell. All you'd have to do is add products to your store and watch your new business grow without a hitch. That would certainly be a little bit of alright. Unfortunately, there is no such tool. In fact, even with all of the research tools that are out there, there is no market research tool capable of doing ALL of the research necessary to pick good products to sell.

Tools, research tools in particular, are designed to be an aid to your own market research not to be a crutch.

New sellers will often assume that research software is the answer to all of their problems. They figure, why even mess with learning online product research when a tool can do it all for them. So they buy a tool that that gives all kinds of numbers and statistics and data and everything...then they quickly flounder with making a decision on what to sell because they don’t really understand the research information the tool is showing them. And if you pick a product to sell based solely on the information offered from one tool you have to ask yourself if it's the tools fault or the fault of the business owner.

When you are starting an online business you are starting a real retail business. I don't know of any retail business that bases its financial success on the findings of a tool. A tool can't teach you what you need to know to make educated decisions about your online business. Top online sellers do not rely on tools to make decisions for them, they use tools to help save them time. It's up to you, the business owner, to understand and make good decisions on your business.

Let’s pretend for a moment that market research software is a razor sharp sword. If I handed you that sword and threw you into a room full of evil ninja’s and yelled “Now kung-fu fight!” how well do you think you would do? How long would you be able to stay alive, even though you were armed with a razor sharp sword? Let’s assume you had no training and no experience fighting, just a person with a sword surrounded by trained killers. Yeah…it's not gonna be pretty. Your competition is going to rip you apart.

It's the same way with relying on research tools without the proper knowledge to use them for what they are meant to be used for. Arming yourself with the latest greatest research tool isn't going to increase your chances of competing online unless you understand how to not only interpret that information but also use it to pick the best products to launch your business with.

Of course your competitors won’t be out to literally kill you, but they can kill your sales. Your top competitors (and there will be seasoned sellers in whatever product area you sell in) will know how to research and analyze that market to get the most out of it. Some will be using the same tools you might be using...but they will be using them as a supplement to the additional research on that product. You have to prepare yourself and lean what they already know. When you spend a little time to get up to speed on online selling and product market research then you'll be able to get the most out of any research tool you use for your business.