Your Next Bestselling Product Could Come From Google Trends

The earlier you are to a trend, the less competition you’ll face. Checking Google Trends for products can help you spot what’s gaining popularity at this early stage and get your store first in line for profits.

Head to Google Trends and hit the “Trending now” tab at the top of the screen. This pulls up a list of the top trending keywords from the past week.

The results are jumbled and overwhelming, but you can filter them by:

• Location 
• Time
• Categories
• Trend status (filter out trends that aren’t currently active)

To find the most relevant results, I recommend filtering by the location you’re selling in and the closest category to your industry.

Even with filters, what you see here won’t always give you direct product ideas. However, you can keep track of what people are talking about within that category and find pain points that your products could solve. I recommend looking for words that relate to:

• Products
• Shopping
• Seasons
• Pain points

For instance, in the “pets” category, “AC” is trending in the US. This indicates that the weather is too hot for animals, and that pet stores could benefit from selling summer products, such as water bowls and cooling vests.

Once you’ve got an idea of what your target audience is talking about, head to the “Explore tab” to research related product keywords.

First, type in your product idea into the search box. You’ll then see a graph representing the interest in that product over time.

To read the Google Trends graph, first look at the shape. You want to look for:

• Spikes: A steep incline in product demand
• Dips: Interest in the product has declined
• Gradual slopes: Shows a steady increase/decrease in product interest

Spikes and dips often point towards seasonal trends, so they’re perfect for finding summer products to sell. A relatively flat line around the middle of the graph shows a steady interest in the search term. While this might look promising, I’d avoid selling these products, since the level of demand often isn’t high enough to see substantial sales.

Hover your cursor over a point in the graph to see the date range and level of interest at a certain point.

Scrolling past the graph reveals more useful data about the trending products. Two areas that you don’t want to skip past are:

1. Interest by subregion: A breakdown of search activity by region – perfect for local businesses and creating a targeted marketing strategy.
2. Related queries: Other keywords searched around this product. This is useful for finding high-demand variants and complementary products.

It can be difficult to narrow down your focus once you’ve got a few products in mind, especially since Google Trends doesn’t show the direct search volume.

That’s where the comparison tool in the “Explore” tab comes in. After you type in your first product keyword, you can directly compare it with another by clicking the blue “+Compare” box to the right.

This pulls up a graph, subregion interest, and related topic data, which directly pits the two search terms against each other.

The comparison feature is great at spotting hidden factors that may determine which product is most suited to your customers. For instance, fleece blankets and heated blankets were both extremely popular winter products to sell, but when directly comparing the two, I was able to deduce:

• In winter, heated blankets are the more sought-after product
• Fleece blankets retain popularity all year
• Fleece blankets are more popular than heated blankets in Hawaii

Whether you’re searching for new product colors or you’re looking to expand your dropshipping inventory, understanding how to use Google Trends to find products to sell will get you ahead of the competition, especially during peak ecommerce seasons.

While not everything you find will be useful, check Google Trends for products frequently – especially the “Trending now” tab – for the best chance at finding the needle in the haystack.