It’s no surprise that ecommerce is growing by 23% year-over-year in the U.S. And with brands like Etsy, Shopify, and Amazon Handmade expanding, the online shop world is booming like never before.

With such a surge, how can you come up with ecommerce Business Ideas that break through? Enter piggybacking — a concept you may know about from our previous post on service business ideas.

What is a Piggyback Business Idea? 

Piggybacking refers to the concept of creating products around successful businesses and trends that are already out in the world. In other words, it’s cleverly jumping on the bandwagon of products that are popular.

For example, IKEA is a successful brand that sells furniture and home goods in all different shapes and sizes.

Because of its huge customer base, piggyback entrepreneurs have been able to cash in by creating and selling IKEA accessories — things like couch legs and custom couch covers that are made for some of the more popular styles in store.

Source: Etsy

Successful piggybacking requires an understanding of what’s hot at any given time and determining the longevity of a brand and product. IKEA, for instance, has been around for decades, so it’s safe to say that creating accessories for its products isn’t a flash-in-the pan idea.

And we only have to look at the explosion of phone covers that emerge every time Apple releases a new model to know that there’s revenue waiting to be snapped up for piggyback businesses.

The great thing about piggybacking is the pre-built audience you have for your product. This means you can skip the part where you figure out if there’s an audience for your product and jump straight to the part where you figure out how popular your idea is among those fans.

How to Find Piggyback Business Ideas

1. Find a trending product to create a piggyback business idea around. Ideally, you want to launch a product around a brand or trend that’s successful, has been around for a while, and continues to be popular.You can start your search by using a range of free tools:

• TrendHunter and Product Hunt provide insights into currently trending topics, as well as a regularly updated lists of viral products.
• Google Trends has a feature that lets you discover what people are searching for, and it has an “explore” option that dives into top trends.
• Instagram is the most visual social media platform. You can use hashtag research and the “discover” feature to determine what products are currently popular and to get a feel for the kind of crafts and accessories that people are piggybacking with at the moment.
• Keyword research gives you an insight into what consumers are currently searching for and the volume of searches for certain products.

2. See if your idea will cut it in the real world. This requires validation from potential buyers and to see if you have a place in the market you’re looking to get into. Find out where the customers of the business you’re piggybacking on hang out.

For example, owners of FitBits are likely to hang out on fitness sites and forums, as well as certain Instagram hashtags related to health and wellbeing.

3. Start testing the water. Create a landing page for your “coming soon” product and direct people through to sign up for updates from the platforms you’ve identified as relevant. From there, you can figure out how well your product is converting.

4. Evaluate results. If conversions aren’t as high as you like, it might be time to rethink your idea. You might want to create a survey to send out to potential buyers to learn what it is they want from a spin-off product.

5. Rinse and repeat. Follow steps 1-4 until you find a product that people are excited to buy. Don’t get discouraged if it takes some time!

6. Determine longevity. Once you have a solid idea or shortlist, ask yourself: Does this idea have longevity? The trickiest part of coming up with a list of businesses that piggyback off others is choosing something that has long-term potential.

A lot of trends pass in a few years, so it’s important that your idea can evolve with the times.For example, the businesses that create IKEA accessories will always have product ideas because IKEA will always be releasing new pieces of furniture.

It’s also worth thinking about whether your idea can be expanded into different areas — if you make watch straps for Fitbits, can you expand your products to fit other emerging brands in the same category.

7. Check the competition. If you’re piggybacking on another brand, it’s useful to check if you can sell related products without stepping on the brand’s toes.Take the Instant Pot, the now-famous electronic pressure cooker.

The brand has an official accessories store and in its product literature, it warns customers not to buy accessories that aren’t officially “Instant Pot.” That said, there are other products that are complementary to the Instant Pot, but also have other uses — see this article for examples.

Examples of Piggyback Ecommerce Business Opportunities

Wearables

The growing trend of wearables (a.k.a. Wearable technology) has made room for an entire industry of accessories for wearables. The online store WITHit is a prime example:

Source: WITHit

The number of people searching for “wearables” has increased significantly in the past three years. As mentioned above, think of Fitbit and Jawbone, and the array of businesses that cropped up selling watch straps and charging docks for these devices.

This wearables trend doesn’t seem to be going anywhere as new watches and trackers enter the market for 2018.

Turmeric Products

The health and fitness industry is always a good place to find unique ecommerce business ideas.

Take the turmeric trend — we’re talking turmeric pastes, smoothies, moisturizers, and spot treatments, all of which tout the power of this bright spice.

Bigger brands have piggybacked on this trend, as well as smaller shops like this one:

Source: Etsy

Coconut Oil Products

This is another health-fuelled trend that’s been sweeping the food and beauty markets.

Piggyback business ideas have included coconut oil body butters, face oils, toothpastes, and more.

Skinny & Co. jumped on this trend in 2013 and has built a super successful business on Shopify. The brand even sells a peppermint-flavoured coconut oil that aligns perfectly with another health trend: oil pulling.

Source: Skinny & Co

Research Your Way to Product Success

Piggybacking on trends is a great way to find product ideas to sell online in an area that interests you. And when you’re offering products that piggyback on another brand or trend, you know there’s a built-in audience already there.

The key to success is research — research on brands and trends, research on viability, and research on whether you can launch a product that doesn’t compete directly with the brand you’re piggybacking on.

Once you’ve landed on an idea and are ready to launch a store, be sure to check out our picks for the best ecommerce platforms.

The post How to Come Up with Piggyback Business Ideas [Ecommerce] appeared first on Logojoy.