Welcome to YourMarketingPodcast. This is Series One – How to Start a Successful eCommerce Business in Less than 30 Days. In this step-by-step guide, you will learn how to quickly launch an eCommerce store and start seeing those sales roll in! And here’s your host…Ishani DePillo.

Hello everyone, Welcome to Episode 5. I hope you are feeling good about the progress you have made thus far with your eCommerce business. Today we are going to cover how to design and build your custom product. Now, if you’re going to be reselling an existing product, feel free to skip ahead to the next episode, since this episode will not apply to you.

But if you’re designing a custom product to sell, you’ll want to listen close.

But before we get started…if you missed last week’s episode, I urge you to take a listen before tuning into this one. The last episode covers how to develop your brand and tell your story. This is super important to keep in mind as you build your product.

Okay, let’s dive in. 

I’m going to start with a warning: Product development is hard. You will get frustrated at some point during this process.

You will want to pull your hair out; I remember my business partner, Alisha almost going bald over developing products for Roam Often. But stick with it – and it will be rewarding, I promise you. So get in that mindset now – plan for challenges, be patient, and you can overcome it. And we’re here to help.

Skip to 1:44 Step 1 in product development is drafting up a cohesive idea of the product. This is the phase where you come up with your great ideas as solutions to your customer’s problems. Basically, what problems will your product solve? 

Create a bulleted list of all the problems your target audience is facing and how your product will address each of the problems. Jot down the solution next to each bullet. 

For instance, let’s say you are designing a new chalk for kids, because you’re tired of your kid getting chalk all over their hands and clothes, then they go about the house touching everything and getting chalk all over the furniture, beds, etc. Can you tell I’ve had this happen to me?! The goal of step one is to figure out what problem your product needs to solve for your customers before you make it. But what else?

How about figuring out what your customers think about this goal? Ask other parents! Look to your target audience to learn their pain points and feedback on what’s currently on the market. 

Parents may say that the colors are dull and boring and they wish it was brighter. Mark those problems down and prioritize which ones you really want your product to address and fix. 

The easiest is to find friends and family members that fit your target audience and create a focus group. More than likely they will be happy to give you feedback and it’s all FREE market research! You could also put a listing out there, on Craig’s List or a post on Facebook. You will be surprised by the number of people who will provide good feedback.

Step 2 – Let’s narrow down to product features. What features does your product need in order to help solve the problems you’ve listed? 

For instance, for the chalk, you might want to add a plastic case around it to make it less messy and offer brighter chalk color selection. 

Make a list of all the bells and whistles that you want your product to have to entice customers to buy and solve their pain points. This list will come in handy when the product is being manufactured and for when you are marketing your product.

Step 3 – Keeping your bells and whistles list in mind, look at your competitors. Go back to the competitor list you created and hone into those who are making a similar product to yours. Review their products –  make note of the positives and negatives of each product. You’re going to use this information to shape your product design. You may eve