What to Sell on Shopify: Top Trending Products & How to Find Them

Building an online store that looks just right is just one part of becoming successful in ecommerce. You also need to sell products that the people really want.

Figuring out exactly what to sell in your Shopify store comes from many different places—passion for the craft, a keen eye for quality, a penchant for invention, and understanding where the demand is.

While passion is super important for growing your business, you won’t get too far without consumer demand for that product you love so much. It can’t be a target audience of one.

Ideally, you can sell a product you are passionate about that is also in high demand. But, how do you find what products are trending?

#cta-paragraph-pb#Once you've figured out what to sell, you're going to want to learn how to sell on Shopify. So, when you are ready, head over to read our Ultimate Guide to Start Selling on Shopify.

In this post, we'll cover:

• How to find trending products
• Popular niche markets
• Trending products to sell now

Let's get right into it with the how.

Finding the right products to sell that really capitalize on the trends of the moment can be difficult. 

Luckily, there are tools that you can use to reveal the shopping habits of your fellow humans and future customers.

First, let’s talk about how those future customers search online. That’s key to what they are likely to buy.

Research search trends and keywords

Google is a massive search engine that calls up millions of websites every second in response to the various phrases that pass through the minds of the masses and into the search field.

So, they have a lot of data about what people are searching for. And you can use that information for free with Google Trends (which you will see throughout this post in the form of primary-colored charts).

Just type a product idea into Google Trends, choose the time period you want data for, and it’ll reveal a simple line chart showing you how popular (or not) it is. 

Add other ideas in to compare them and change the timeline to get a longer or shorter view of what you are researching.

Scroll down further and you’ll find what regions it is most popular in and related search queries with their own trends. So, when you have found that product you want to sell, you’ll know what states it may do best in and other search terms you may want to utilize for SEO.

Another great tool is Exploding Topics, a website (and weekly newsletter) that shows trending topics as they come up, so you aren’t just stuck typing whatever you are thinking about into Google Trends.

You can also look to SEO tools for their keyword research capabilities. Platforms like SEMrush, Ahrefs, and Moz have powerful keyword research tools that can help you find trending product topics. 

Not only that, but you can look for some of the most-searched-for questions that will reveal what consumers would like to see in the market. 

For example, if you search “alternatives to coffee” or “coffee alternatives”, you’ll find a whole market dedicated to non-caffeinated beverages that keep you alert.

What’s getting crowdfunded these days?

Crowdfunding websites can give you great insight into what people really want to see in the market. Think about it—they are throwing cash at projects that may not ship for several months.

That’s excitement there.

The big one is, of course, Kickstarter. To find out what’s doing well, just click Discover (upper left corner) and then Trending. 

There you’ll find projects ordered by popularity. You can even narrow it down by category if you already have some idea what vertical your product will be in.

The most popular projects will already be funded and then some (some even exceeding 10,000% of their goal). You can also choose to order the list by Most Funded or Most Backed, which will show you the projects with the most funding or most backers of all time (but they may be dated).

Another site to investigate is Indiegogo. Just click Explore > Explore All Projects to find a comprehensive list of projects.

#cta-visual-pb#<cta-title>Create a truly custom store for your great product idea<cta-title>You can build the store your product deserves with Shogun Page Builder.Start building for free

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Look at what’s selling on Amazon

Where better to get market insights than the largest ecommerce platform on the planet?

They make it easy to see what’s selling well on the site. Just click Best Sellers in the navigation bar near the top and you’ll find the best selling products by category.

From here, you can also see other helpful product lists (clickable along the top):

• Movers & Shakers – Biggest sales rank gainers in the last 24 hours
• Most Wished For – Products that are most often added to Wishlists and Registries
• Gift Ideas – Most popular products ordered as gifts

If you’d rather have a more curated list, Canopy.co has you covered. You can see Trending, New, and Most popular products from the main page. They also have curated lists to help out gift-givers.

Peruse eBay for trends

Then there’s that other massive marketplace—eBay. 

They span the globe and sellers have just about anything you can think of. You can even buy boats, cars, and motorcycles on eBay. I can’t imagine the shipping costs.

To find the most popular topics in each main category of the site, just click Shop by category next to the logo and then All Categories. 

Under each category, you’ll find all the subcategories for each and their top products. Even better, each category has a Popular Topics section to show you what performs best.

So, if you were thinking about selling men’s t-shirts, you could be onto something there. Men love to wear shirts.

Wholesale marketplaces

While direct-to-consumer brands are all over the place these days, there is still a lot of money to be made through reselling products found on wholesale marketplaces.

Alibaba is one of the biggest global B2B marketplaces out there and you can find trending products that other businesses are buying. Fair warning: it’s not easy to peruse.

Other top wholesale marketplaces are DHgate, Worldwide Brands, and SaleHoo.

Another option is to see what is trending on Alibaba’s B2C marketplace, AliExpress. While you can search through that site directly, Thieve.co has already done much of the work for you.

Publications

Staying up on the latest in product design and development requires a bit of passive reading. 

Luckily, there are magazines that specialize in what’s new and exciting in the world of physical products.

Trendhunter has it all in the name. They find the latest and greatest trending products out there. While it may not all apply to what you are looking for, you’ll be entertained during your search.

Cool Material is another online publication that covers neat new stuff—anything from smoky bourbons and slick pocket knives to Japanese denim and futuristic coffee machines.

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Related products

As you’ve started to hone in on what you will be selling, looking to related products on platforms like Amazon can help you understand how you could broaden your product offerings.

For instance, if you started a brand that sells bespoke bike seats, you might find that shoppers are also looking for bespoke panniers to match their fancy seat. 

And voila, your second product offering comes into focus.

A big part of understanding what products will sell well is knowing the reasons they sell well. For this, we look to niche markets.

These serve as larger categories for what you end up selling and what other products you may want to pair with your initial offering. 

By knowing the central reasons for consumer trends, you can better predict their trajectory and react accordingly. Here are some of the more popular niche markets at this moment.

Sustainable living

As the effects of climate change become increasingly obvious, consumers are looking to change their shopping habits to reduce their own environmental impact.

One of the bigger trends in this space is products that use little to no plastics in their packaging. Brands like HiBar and Ethique are responding by developing shampoos, conditioners, and lotions in bar form and packaged plastic-free.

There’s been a steady increase in popularity for these terms in search and companies have taken note of this demand.

This goes for other products in this niche as well. Bee’s wax wraps and unpaper towels have entered the market to replace plastic wrap and paper products.

Home exercise

With so much more time spent at home and many of us questioning the safety of gyms, home exercise equipment has become big business. 

We all have heard about Peloton and their wildly successful exercise bike. But that’s only the beginning. Tonal is doing Peloton for weight lifting, Mirror is bringing exercise classes to your wall, FightCamp is for the boxers among us, and CLMBR is delivering the climbing experience.

Of course, treadmills have gotten smarter too.

But, the home exercise market isn’t all about the big purchases. 

Resistance bands, dumbbells, jump ropes, pull-up bars, yoga balls, and foam rollers are all still extremely popular and there are plenty that would like to stay in shape without the expense of larger equipment.

Fitness & nutrition

Nutrition trends can be quick to come on and quick to die, but there’s no doubt how big these markets can be, if only temporarily.

Once upon a time, the Atkin’s diet was everywhere. Then, interest in it tanked quickly, uprooted by other diets promising weight loss, happiness, and world peace.

As you can see, the keto diet and the paleo diet started gaining popularity after Atkin’s had fallen out of favor. These trends help to dictate what new sellers might want to offer—be it keto-friendly protein powders or paleo snack bars.

One thing is certain, there is no longer a market for Atkin’s related product lines.

Remote working

When the world came to an abrupt halt in early 2020, so did the concept of in-office working. 

Many companies responded by going all-in on remote working—providing stipends for home offices, moving toward more asynchronous workflows, and relying on video conferencing for that face-to-face interaction.

In response, the market for B2C office equipment has soared. Brands like Fully and Autonomous have grabbed onto this opportunity completely—helping home workers build their perfect office setup at home.

There’s a great opportunity here to create products that enhance the home office. The prevalence of this type of work may drop a little but it is certainly not going away.

Men’s grooming

Women’s beauty products have always been a sure bet, but men’s beauty products are becoming all the rage. 

The hipster enclaves (Brooklyn, Portland, Seattle, Austin) made mustache waxing and beard care into something that guys would spend their cash on. 

Beardbrand saw this niche emerging and jumped on it. It helps that the founder was already a beard guy, so the passion was there from the start.

#cta-visual-pb#<cta-title>Your store could look this good<cta-title>Try Shogun for free and start building out your perfect store to create a totally unique customer experience.Start building for free

Smart home

Life is busy. Increasingly, consumers are looking for a way to automate their daily routines and technology has risen up to meet that demand. 

Brands like Wyze and Arlo are joining the likes of Amazon and Google in providing a host of smart gadgets that can keep watch over your home, turn lights on and off based on rules, cue the morning coffee, lock up the house, monitor your sleeping child, track your vitals, and more.

We’re all very busy and we just need technology that helps us keep our lives together.

Travel 

Despite the fact that COVID slowed travel significantly, people’s interest in packing into a flying metal tube is only increasing. 

Brands have popped up over the years to help travelers globetrot more easily, so they can pack with ease, stroll through the airport in comfort, make short work of the security check, and snooze their way toward their next destination.

Travel bags have gotten more compact and with an enviable quantity of specialized compartments. Slip-on shoes and comfy sweatpants are making security checks easier and faster. Neck pillows hug onto your neck, helpfully staying out of your way until necessary for the sky nap.

With some understanding of the niches you might want to appeal to and many research methods at your disposal, you are certain to find trending products as they emerge.

Nevertheless, let’s cover some of the current trending products that you might be interested to sell right now.

Home improvement

Since we’re spending so much time here at home, we might as well make it nice.

Storage containers

The people want to be organized and you can be the purveyor of the containers that help them get there. 

Home improvement isn’t just about putting up shelves and opening up walls. It can be as simple as reorganizing that insane cabinet situation you’ve got there.

This encompasses many different types of storage, from sealable food storage and sturdy plastic clothing containers to woven totes and fabric-wrapped boxes for toys (so many toys!).

Smart home products

Alexa and Siri, our own personal AI bots, are ubiquitous in households throughout the world. Obviously, we didn’t heed the science fiction warnings of 2001: A Space Odyssey. 

Spoiler alert: The artificial intelligence computer (HAL 9000) was not the good guy.

Nonetheless, the smart home is only becoming more complex and more popular. 

You can lock your door from across the country, yell through the front door camera at supposed intruders, set your lights to go on when you walk in the door, add items to your shopping list by telling your speaker robot, and more.

If you can get in on this market with an innovative product, you will want to have a reliable payment processor to take in all the sales.

Home office gear

Our home offices have become our work nests, where we collect both functional and decorative trinkets to make working easier and more comfortable.

Whether they are working through a stipend from work or are just buying their own, individual consumers have definitely entered the office equipment market.

The ability to stand while working has gotten very popular over the years, but people want the choice to sit down if they need to. We all need to sit down sometimes. 

So, whether operated by crank or automated thanks to electric motors, sit-stand desks are here to stay.

Along with that comes monitor arms that allow you to freely move your display, ring lights that help you look sane during Zoom calls, noise-canceling headphones so you can’t tune it all out, and an array of ergonomic chairs and stools.

Rugs & doormats

Home is where the sarcastic doormat is. At least that is what the trends suggest. 

We can’t deny the utility of doormats to clean off our dirty shoes but they can also serve to deliver a distinct first impression to visitors, delivery drivers, and solicitors. 

Rugs have also become more popular, likely a result of carpet falling out of favor.

You’d think that innovation in this space would be impossible, but shoppers are always looking for something that makes their lives easier. 

Therefore, you get the idea of washable rugs and the internet goes bananas for it.

#cta-mini-pb#Create a totally customized Shopify store for those washable rugs.Start building today.

Fitness

Staying fit is important for many reasons—to achieve longevity, to attempt to look like Marvel actors, to keep up with your toddler, to make your Fitbit less disappointed, to go grab takeout because meal delivery fees have gotten ridiculous, etc.

Home exercise equipment

Who needs a gym when you have a living room?

HIIT exercise apps have given us an affordable way to make ourselves very sore the next day (and stay strong). Affordable add-ons to this digital experience like resistance bands and jump ropes are big business right now.

Big ticket items like Peloton and Tonal are all the rage too, but creating these products as a business is a bit more of a challenge.

Bikes

While exercising at home has been enjoying heightened popularity lately, people are still jazzed about getting outside to raise their heart rates as well.

During the pandemic, bike sales went through the roof and sellers were having a hard time keeping up with the fresh and sudden demand. That demand has abated some since last year but it’s still greater than the past several summers.

The world of biking comes with a ton of accessories, so you don’t just have to sell bikes. You could sell water bottles, phone mounts, baskets, panniers, bike saddles, and on and on.

Health & wellness

Staying fit also entails eating well and taking the right supplements. This niche has tons of potential if you find something that people really love.

Coffee alternatives

Coffee will always be popular but many consumers are starting to look elsewhere to get their mornings started. Both no-caffeine and low-caffeine alternatives to coffee are cropping up in the market and gaining popularity.

Mushroom coffee, chock full of adaptogenic fungi, is quickly gaining steam. Golden milk, a turmeric-based beverage, and matcha, the powdered green tea drink, remain strong contenders in this space. 

These aren’t the only three alternatives to coffee, so there are plenty of opportunities to make a splash with something totally different and new.

Gummy vitamins/supplements

Children aren’t the only ones who go for gummy supplementation these days. Adults have taken to these chewy little treats in a big way.

As you can see, gummy vitamins have been on a steady incline for several years now. Melatonin, that harbinger of sweet dreams, is having its heyday in the form of sweet gummies.

What else needs to be made into gummy form?

Healthy drinks

Just as the coffee world was in need of shaking up, so is the world of drinks. While traditional sugary soda is out, bubbly drinks are definitely in. La Croix knows this all too well.

We all know about probiotics by now, but what about prebiotics? These are the fibrous things that feed the probiotics and keep our guts healthy. 

A new brand, poppi, has come in with a prebiotic soda to sate our desires for bubbles while adding something a little healthy to the mix.

Protein shakes have long been popular, but they haven’t always been the purest of products. More recently, brands like Après have created clean protein products that use only whole plant proteins for a healthier resulting shake.

#cta-paragraph-pb#Learn how Après built their beautiful Shopify store with the help of Shogun Page Builder.

Gaming

Humans find some of the most inventive ways of entertaining themselves. Once you think we’ve come up with everything, something else comes out that’ll blow your mind. 

Tabletop games

For many years, there were just a handful of board games—Sorry!, Monopoly, Trivial Pursuit, Trouble, Yahtzee. We all played them because that’s all there was.

Recently, there has been a renaissance in the board game industry, with small outfits coming out with blockbuster tabletop games like Settlers of Catan, Ticket to Ride, and Pandemic.

Deck building games have also gotten huge, following in the footsteps of Magic: The Gathering.

If your passion is tabletop games, now’s the time to create one and start selling. The most popular projects on Kickstarter are largely tabletop games, so finding the startup cash may not be an issue.

Video games

Gaming isn’t new but the world of indie gaming has blown up in recent years. 

Small development teams are now creating hugely popular indie video games, without relying on super high-end graphics. They are just really great games.

Shopify is a great place to sell games, be they physical tabletop games or the digital variety.

Travel gear

We all want to get out of our homes, then keep going to get out of our cities. Travel took a massive hit in 2020, necessarily, but it is coming back in a big way and people want to do it smarter.

Minimalist wallets

Increasingly, people are trying to simplify their lives. One way they are attempting to do this is by simplifying what’s in their pockets. Nobody wants to end up like George Costanza.

Everyday Carry (EDC) is the umbrella topic under which minimalist wallets fall, with tons of adherents sharing the contents of their pockets and writing up buying guides for products that will simplify their daily lives.

Brands that have really taken off in this space are The Ridge and Bellroy.

Other items included in this category are key rings, watches, pocket knives, multitools, phones, and more. 

Travel bags

Packing for travel is hard. So, obviously, this is a space ripe for entrepreneurial innovation. Find pain point and solve for pain point, right?

The issue is organization and accessibility. We have more things than ever before and we need to have places to put those things without worrying about them getting buried beneath all the other very necessary things.

Companies have come up with a variety of solutions for these organizational problems, providing easy access to your laptop, cell phone, baby wipes, passport, keys, water bottle, etc. 

Bath & beauty

Beautifying ourselves with the help of products has always been important to us. Finding the next big thing in bath and beauty products can mean big business.

Male grooming products

Men haven’t always been the biggest buyers of beauty products, but in recent years this has changed. 

Fancifying facial hair with the help of oils, balms, waxes, and clippers has grown in popularity and that means there is much to be made in this space.

#cta-paragraph-pb#Who knows, you could be the next Beardbrand! After switching to Shogun Page Builder they saw a 40% increase in conversions and a 19% increase in average order value.

Apparel & accessories

Clothing is a sure bet if you are looking to have a successful Shopify store. But, you have to sell the right type of clothing to really find that success.

Loungewear, athleisure & shapewear

We’re all about the comfort these days. We’re sticking around home more and we only really see our co-workers through our laptops. Why not stay comfy?

That’s why loungewear and athleisure has found a permanent home in our dressers. 

But, when you do leave the house, comfort can also be about looking your best in that dress. Shapewear, like Spanx, has you covered there.

Men’s essentials

Your product doesn’t have to be revolutionary. It can be simple and commonplace. Just make sure it’s high quality.

Just as men are taking more care with their grooming routine, they are also spending more to make themselves comfortable. Men’s shirts, underwear, and socks have steadily gained popularity over the years. 

They are branching out from the big brands and looking for something truly comfy. You could be there to outfit them.

Minimalist watches

In much the same way that wallets have slimmed down to the essentials, watches are going back to the classics. 

Some like their watches smart, but many are opting for the traditional and stylish timetelling accessories of yore.

Brands like MVMT are proving out the popularity of this niche in a big way.

Sustainable products

Shoppers are increasingly worried about the state of the environment and their impact on it. Many products have cropped up to meet this growing consumer demand.

Menstrual cups

Instead of relying on disposable products like tampons and pads, some are moving towards a reusable option instead—menstrual cups. These rubber or silicone cups last for years and will save you money compared to tampons in a short time.

Some of the big brands in this space are DivaCup, Cora, and Lena.

Reusable kitchenwares

One big place that we can all reduce waste is the kitchen. 

These days, finding reusable replacements is easy. There are tons of zero waste marketplaces that serve as one stop shops.

A few major products in the reusables market are silicone reusable bags, reusable coffee filters, reusable straws, reusable travel utensils, washable paper towel replacements, and much more.

Ready to start selling?

Now that you’ve got the tools to research your next big product and a bunch of trending product ideas, it’s time to make it happen.

While there are many more trending products to find, I hope this list has helped you narrow it down and find your perfect niche market.

Whatever product you decide to sell in your Shopify store, you’ll need a beautiful storefront to drive customers to buy. When you are ready to customize your store, Shogun can help you make fully optimized store pages that really drive conversions.

#cta-visual-pb#Start customizing your Shopify store todayGive your customers the best possible shopping experience by building a powerful, optimized Shopify store that really tells your story.Start now for free