To succeed in ecommerce you need three things: the best products to sell, the skills to market them, and the drive to succeed.
I know you already have the winner’s mindset. You’re constantly learning, researching and preparing for success.
But 2018 is the year of action. This is the year you need to go all out: the year to test new products, create new ads, and market, market, market. It’s time to start implementing everything you’ve learned over the past twelve months.
To give you a great head start, I have compiled a list of the 6 trending products in 2018 that you can consider selling and what you can do to market those products.
Trending products to sell in 2018
- Shapewear
By 2022, the shapewear market is expected to skyrocket to about $5.6 billion in sales. What started as an undergarment has transitioned to a piece for everyday wear. Fashion retailers are also stocking their stores with bodysuits which help create a slimming silhouette. The shapewear niche offers women a variety of different styles than can either be worn under clothing with different cuts or as a top, though shapewear is still popular within the lingerie industry where it first emerged.
Shapewear trend.
What makes this product a worth considering is that it offers retailers a lot of versatility: whether you sell lingerie, women’s fashion, or want to add this category on a store for general apparel, you’ll be able to find shapewear in different colors, styles, and sizes to meet the needs of your diverse customer base.
Shapewear
- Phone Accessories
The phone accessories industry has been growing for years. By 2022, it should reach $107.3 billion in market cap. Phone cases, grips, screen protectors, repair kits, chargers, and earphones have proven to be consistently popular.
Dropshipping, using the Oberlo app, is one of the most efficient way to start a business in this niche. Since there are so many products you could sell, it allows you to offer a wide variety of product types without having to buy inventory upfront. You only pay for goods when customers purchase from your store. Phone accessories have proven to be a product line with reliable and growing demand, with strong signals towards being an evergreen niche like fashion, home decor, and fitness.
Product Ideas Phone Accessories
Phone accessories like cases and grips work well on visual platforms like Facebook, Instagram, or Pinterest. Running ads and being active on these platforms is a great way to make your first sale. If you’re selling screen protectors, repair kits, or chargers, these products are more search based which will require a deliberate keyword strategy or use of Google Adwords to monetize. However, if SEO isn’t your strong suit, the easiest way to monetize search-based products is by offering them as upsells for your phone cases. For example, if someone purchased an iPhone case, you could upsell an iPhone charger. When creating ads, you can target people based on their device. For example, if a person has a Samsung phone, you might create an ad that says ‘Samsung phone cases for only $19.99’ to entice the person into clicking your ad.
- Athleisure
In fashion, trends are constantly changing. However, athleisure is one fashion trend that’s here to stay. Athleisure is active wear worn as an everyday look rather than for athletic purposes like going to the gym. Within this category you can sell everything from sweatshirts, sweatpants, leggings, sports bras, tank tops, headbands, capris, and shoes, all in countless colors and styles.
Plus, you can take this niche in several directions: as a standalone store, as a product collection within the fashion niche, or you can market your products within one of the many fitness sub-niches. Depending on how you position your brand, there could be an opportunity to expand into other product verticals such as fashion accessories and jewelry or fitness accessories like yoga mats.
Product Ideas 2018 Athleisure
Female millennials are usually the target market for athleisure. Visual platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest are ideal channels to grow your brand, whether you pursue organic growth or use their advertising platforms. We’d also recommend you look into driving growth with influencer marketing. You can find fitness influencers within your niche using Instagram search tools. Influencers can model your apparel and give your brand a shout out for a fee or a commission of sales.
Product Ideas Athleisure
- Maternity Dresses
The maternity apparel industry is a multi-billion dollar one. According to PR News Wire, the maternity growth rate is expected to grow by 2.01%. Maternity fashion stores work well as standalone stores. However, you can also expand into other verticals such as baby products or even information products. You could sell also digital ebooks on pregnancy, create and sell pre-natal workout videos or courses preparing pregnant women for motherhood. These digital products could even be part of your sales funnel for your physical products store.
product trends
When marketing a maternity brand, Facebook and Pinterest are likely your best sources of traffic. The maternity fashion niche is unlike any other fashion niches in the sense that the target audience does a lot of research as they prepare to become a mother, especially for the first time. It’d likely be a great idea to start a maternity blog on your store where you share advice for expecting moms, create content around maternity issues, and even have content around life after childbirth. The reality is many women have more than one child. Creating content for new moms keeps them focused on your brand so that they’ll return to your store when expecting their second child. Create content for the Pinterest platform driving traffic back to your blog. You can monetize this traffic by having a retargeting ad from Facebook running at all times and convert your blog readers at a lower ad cost while having a laser focus on the exact audience you want.
maternity dresses
- Flame lamps
At Oberlo, we’ve noticed a strong sales growth for flame lamps. While few stores are selling this product, they’re selling much higher than average quantities. If you’re looking for a product trend to jump on before everyone else catches on, this may be it. Note: this particular trending product doesn’t work well as a standalone store. However, it’s a great fit for a general store, home decor store, or lighting store. You can complement flame lamps sales with LED candle lights.
New Product Ideas 2018
While lamps are typically search based products, flame lamps work well as an impulse buy. They’re different than other lamps on the market which can entice a person to buy one when they see it. This product would likely work well with Facebook ads. But you shouldn’t dismiss search, as there’s been a growing search volume for these products according to Google Trends. Optimizing your website for search can help you increase visibility. If you’re driving sales with Facebook ads, you can grow your ranking organically in search as it shows Google that your page is popular.
Flamp lamps
- Minimalist watches
Around 1.2 billion watches are sold globally each year. And the number keeps rising. While minimalist watches are trending upward, the reality is there’s a diverse range of watches that are also selling well. Men’s watches, women’s watches, and smartwatches are also showing increasing search volume over time. December tends to be the peak month for watch sales. While you can sustain year round sales with a watch store, it would be wise to include a relevant summer accessory to ensure higher profits.
Product Ideas 2018 Watches
Facebook and Instagram tend to be the most popular channels for growing a watch store. Many retailers have influencers take lifestyle shots from where they are in the world, with the typically outdoorsy and luxurious images being perfect for use on social media. Many top watch brands emulate this style which performs well in terms of engagement. Using these photos from influencers, you can create captivating ads.
minimalist watches
Time to get selling
These are some of the best products to sell in 2018 but there are so many more to choose from. Finding the right products to sell is only one part of the equation. The real secret is figuring out how to market them.