Surprising Sources: Finding Winning Product Ideas on Flippa
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Have you ever considered online business marketplaces as a source of information for your future projects? For us, platforms like Flippa and Acquire.com are essential tools for market analysis, product idea generation, and discovering unconventional solutions such as unique user acquisition sources and conversion rate hacks.
Why Are These Marketplaces So Valuable?
The answer is simple: by covering a wide range of niches, Flippa and Acquire.com provide detailed and sensitive performance data, such as revenue, profit margins, and traffic sources. This data helps you make informed decisions, understand what drives success, and find new opportunities in the online market. In fact, these platforms are among the few sources where you can find such crucial information.
What Is Our Research Goal and Search Criteria?
Currently, we aim to find listings that we could potentially replicate, where the products have a proven market fit, are in demand by the audience, and demonstrate positive unit economics, meaning the business is profitable.
Search Criteria:
SEO Is Not Our Forte: We primarily rely on paid traffic. Therefore, we exclude content-based projects that grow through search engine optimization (SEO) and prioritize projects with paid promotion. We will either look for sellers already using paid traffic or identify potential projects where paid traffic could work. We will focus more on this aspect later in the post.
Profitability: We select projects that are already generating revenue, setting a minimum monthly profit threshold of $2000.
Project Age: We will consider all options but give preference to websites aged 1-2 years. Older projects may be established brands in the market, making it difficult for newcomers to compete.
Getting Started with Research
First, register on Flippa.com. A free account will suffice at this stage. Navigate to the main menu and select the following settings:
Next, we need to identify listings promoted through paid traffic. Use search terms like "Meta ads," "Facebook ads," "Google Ads," and "Paid ads" to filter the listings to those relying on paid traffic.
Example Listings:
While I cannot provide specific links to listings due to NDA agreements, you can easily find them yourself by following the instructions above. For instance, we found an e-commerce store with the following financial metrics:
This store operates on a dropshipping model, meaning you can find suppliers and sell this winning product based on the provided financial data.
Using the Facebook Ads Library, you can find creative ads and identify the countries the seller is targeting. We recommend adding value for users with your unique perspective on the product, advertising, store design, etc. This can significantly boost your profits.
Exploring Acquire.com
I applied a filter to exclude listings that do not generate revenue or operate at a loss:
You will find many listings, so use the same method as for Flippa: enter terms like "Meta ads," "Facebook ads," "Google Ads," and "Paid ads" to narrow your search.
Example Listings:
Unfortunately, I cannot provide specific URLs due to NDA constraints, but you can easily find them on your own. Keep in mind that accessing detailed information (URL) requires a subscription, which starts at $390/year. However, sellers frequently list their competitors, enabling you to identify the products they are selling.
To analyze a competitor, let's examine https://www.saloncentric.com:
First, visit the Facebook Ads Library, and boom, you'll find active ad campaigns.
By clicking on the link in the ad, you are redirected to this page: https://www.saloncentric.com/pureology
An interesting observation: you can sort products by "most popular." This e-commerce store is built on the Shopify platform, and it's rare for sellers not to hide this feature.
This indicates that Hydrate Conditioner has the most sales, suggesting that an e-commerce store from Acquire.com likely sells a similar product.
Pro Tip: Shopify Store Hack
Shopify store owners don't always want to share information about their top-selling products, but there's a clever way to find out. All Shopify stores have a built-in feature that lets you view best-selling products. To sort by best-sellers, add the following URL parameters to the collection URL: /collections/all?sort_by=best-selling. This trick works for any collection within a Shopify store and helps you identify winning products.
Next Steps
To ensure the product you found will succeed in the market, read our article on niche testing and verify your idea with real traffic in just a few days.
Personally, I wouldn't move forward with the conditioner product as it doesn't sound interesting to me. The niche is rather saturated, and the cost per customer acquisition would likely be high, leading to very low margins. This guide should be read as a direction for analyzing and researching each listing one by one to find the best product for you. This can include not only e-commerce products but also mobile applications, SaaS, and more.
Conclusion
Pros:
Valuable Insights: Marketplaces like Flippa and Acquire.com provide detailed data on revenue, profit margins, and traffic sources.
Diverse Niches: These platforms cover a wide range of niches, offering numerous opportunities for product ideas.
Proven Market Fit: You can find listings with a verified market fit and positive unit economics.
Competitive Edge: Identifying successful products and strategies gives you a competitive advantage.
Cons:
Complexity: Analyzing data and replicating successful models requires careful research and understanding.
Risk of Outdated Information: Some listings may not be up-to-date, leading to potential investment in outdated or less profitable niches.
Market Volatility: The online market is dynamic, and trends can change quickly, affecting the profitability of products found on these platforms.
By considering these pros and cons, you can make informed decisions and effectively use online marketplaces to inspire and guide your product choices.
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