Picking products with data: in season, in stock, trending

In Lesson 5 you went through your store as a first-time customer, fixed what looked unfinished and wrote your Shipping, Returns, About and Contact pages. Your store now looks ready to sell. The next question is what to put in it. Most new stores pick products they personally like. The stores that sell pick products the data says people want right now, in their sizes, at a margin that works. Today we use three filters to choose.

Filter 1: In season

Customers buy for the weather and the calendar they're living in. In November that means:

• Cold-weather pieces: outerwear, knitwear, boots and scarves sell when temperatures drop.
• Gifting: small leather goods, belts, caps and accessories are easy gifts at a price people will pay for someone else.
• Party season: evening shoes and statement bags for December events.

Check where your customers live. If you sell to both hemispheres, one side is heading into winter and the other into summer.

Filter 2: In stock, in real depth

A beautiful product with one size left is a trap. Before you add anything, check:

• Size range: is the piece available across the common sizes, not just the extremes?
• Colours: is the core colour (often black) in stock, not only the seasonal shade?
• Live updates: does your supplier sync stock often enough that you won't sell something that's already gone?

Prefer products with several sizes in stock. If one sells out, the listing still works.

Filter 3: Trending, with evidence

Trends you can measure beat trends you feel. Look for signals from more than one place:

1. Supplier data. If your supplier shows trending or best-selling products, start there. It reflects what other stores are actually buying.
2. Search interest. Check whether searches for the brand or style are rising or falling over the last few months.
3. Social proof. Look at what's being worn and saved by the audience you described in Lesson 2, not by everyone.

A product that passes two of these three signals is a strong candidate. One signal alone is a guess.

Put it together

Score every candidate on the three filters, then run it through your landed-cost sheet from Lesson 3 and your margin floor from Lesson 4. Keep only the products that pass all of them. It's better to launch with 30 products that fit than 300 that don't.

See you Friday. We're marketing on $0 with organic Instagram, TikTok and Pinterest.