Lesson 3: How to Measure market demand on ecommerce channels

Liberty Jane Clothing, founded by Cinnamon and Jason Miles, was formed through first-hand market research—their daughters. They began designing and making doll outfits at home, as well as testing ideas. They then brought their concepts outside of the house to gain a better sense of what market demand may be like in the real world. “Every mother and daughter would ask, ‘Where did you get that?’ and ‘How can I obtain it?’ when we went to dancing lessons and Brownie troop meetings.” Cinnamon brings up a memory.

They eventually expanded their horizons by beginning to sell on eBay in 2008. They began releasing the patterns as an extra cash stream just 18 months later. They’ve now capitalized on that market need to build a profitable ecommerce firm that generates up to $600,000 each year.

While certain items are seasonal and so have varying demand, others have consistent demand all year. One such example is matcha, which was one of the reasons why several of us at Shopify tried selling it online. Our store made over $900 in sales in only three days.

We used Google Trends to check if the product was gaining traction, then combined it with further market research to confirm demand. Because matcha isn’t a seasonal product, we were able to forecast consistent demand.