Product Testing: It’s Price Investing

From my expertise serving to hundreds of ecommerce manufacturers over foundr’s historical past, one of the vital generally missed areas is product testing.

Many founders are comfortable to put money into creating ideas and advertising and marketing merchandise, however only a few spend even a fraction of that funds really testing their product first.

“It’s not a sophisticated product” or “I didn’t suppose there can be any points” are two frequent excuses I hear on a regular basis.

However consideration to element will separate your model from the competitors, guarantee buyer satisfaction is just not solely met however exceeded, and assist you construct a model that has all of the groundwork laid for long-term success.

So, with that in thoughts, let’s dive into what product testing is, and why it’s price investing.

What Is Product Testing?

Product testing is the time period used for the method whereby you analyze a product idea in additional element, testing out options or performance to know how prospects could use or work together with it.

You’d be amazed at how usually merchandise have been created previously for a desired objective, solely to rapidly notice that buyers don’t see it the identical approach.

Now, that’s not a difficulty when you will have a few prototypes in your storage from the testing part, however 5,000 of them sitting there ineffective is a giant downside.

Don’t Skip: What Is MOQ (Minimal Order Amount)? 

Why Product Testing Is So Essential

Other than stopping sleepless nights spent dreading monitoring notifications for a big cargo on its approach of a product you now know is defunct, product testing additionally has a number of different advantages.

It helps you acquire insights early on.

Product testing is crucial for any entrepreneur to achieve worthwhile insights into what a buyer wants and needs (to not point out what they completely don’t need!), which lets you tweak services accordingly. Bear in mind, you would possibly suppose you will have probably the most revolutionary, game-changing product ever. But when there’s no goal market for that product, then there’s no enterprise there.

Some entrepreneurs skip this facet for concern of destructive suggestions, however I like to inform them to strive reframing their considering. If it isn’t an in-demand, viable product now, what’s going to alter earlier than you’ve spent hundreds getting it into manufacturing? You’re higher off slicing your losses and both tweaking what you have already got or utilizing what you’ve saved to strive one thing else.

It improves merchandise.

This facet ought to go with out saying, however product testing improves merchandise, time and time once more. As an entrepreneur, you would possibly suppose that your merchandise can’t be improved and that they’re 100% excellent as they’re, however likelihood is you might be too near the idea to see the larger image.

By testing your product and getting suggestions out of your audience, it’s possible you’ll discover one thing you didn’t even contemplate.

On the very least, you’ll acquire affirmation that your product is 100% excellent and that you’re a genius, so what’s the hurt in checking?

You’ll save a ton of money and time.

At first look, you would possibly suppose that product testing will really value you extra money and time, given that you’re paying for one-off deliveries and spending time including new steps to your manufacturing course of.

However in the long term, this method will prevent a ton of effort and time.

5-time ecom founder Gretta van Riel herself fell into this very lure within the early days of SkinnyMe Tea, which she dives into as a part of the Begin & Scale course.

“With SkinnyMe Tea, we as soon as had a horrible expertise the place we positioned a big order with our producer in China,” admitted Gretta. “I used to be considering I used to be fairly sensible by ordering an enormous amount of tea directly for the reason that expiration dates are good for some time on tea, and we may decrease our transport prices by getting it achieved in a single huge order. So, I ordered $1M of tea from a Chinese language producer. By the point we opened the cargo in Australia, it wasn’t even the kind of tea we wished and was completely and completely unusable. For sure, we needed to throw out your entire batch instantly. It was even an extra $14,000 simply to throw the tea out!”

The Totally different Varieties of Product Testing

Whereas the idea of product testing might sound fairly easy, there are literally a number of alternative ways that you would be able to go about it:

A/B testing: This type of product testing happens by growing two variations or a product with one differing characteristic and asking your audience which one they like. With A/B testing, it’s vital to maintain the variations to a minimal so to clearly set up what your viewers does and doesn’t like.

Idea testing: The method of exploring the feasibility of a possible product concept of idea and the way it may carry out within the market. This idea tends to contain reaching out to your audience earlier than any manufacturing takes place. This can be a nice possibility for any established model with a loyal buyer base to name upon for suggestions.

Market testing: Market testing is one step farther from idea testing, the place you really ship your new product to some prospects to get their direct suggestions and ideas. This can be a nice option to establish situations you didn’t contemplate, reminiscent of transport points, earlier than investing closely in a big inventory of the product.

QA testing: High quality assurance or QA testing happens while you check the performance and options of your product earlier than releasing it publicly. That is the stage the place you’ll run your product via totally different potential shopper situations to check if there are any obtrusive points that must be amended, reminiscent of defective zippers on tops, sophisticated opening mechanisms on packing containers or bottles, and so forth. Fortuitously, most competent producers have QA testing constructed into their manufacturing course of.

Person testing: The ultimate stage of testing is consumer testing, whereby you launch your product to the general public and thoroughly observe how prospects work together with it. This info will not be actionable in your first product batch, however it may be used for future deliveries.

Ideas for a Profitable Product Testing Course of

After I’m advising aspiring founders on their product testing course of, there are three key rules that I inform them to stay to.

• Go into it with an open thoughts: When product testing an idea you might be very assured in, it may be straightforward to make assumptions about how prospects will react to it, which might cloud your judgment. Attempt to enter testing with no assumptions, as this can can help you consider the suggestions objectively and make the most effective selections.
• Use a wide range of testing strategies: This ensures you might be product testing all through each part of growth, persevering with to tweak your product till it’s excellent in your market.
• Proceed testing: Even after a product has launched with some success, it’s important that testing is on the forefront of your thoughts. In any case, profitable merchandise have the potential to be much more profitable, and adaptableness is essential for ever-changing markets.

Hold Studying: The right way to Value a Product – The Definitive Reply

Check, Make investments, and be the Greatest

Now that you’ve got all of the perception you want into the significance of product testing, it’s time to place it into follow and take your merchandise to the following stage.

To raise the remainder of your ecommerce model alongside your merchandise, obtain our FREE 500 product concepts information.

Discover your successful product concept, even if you happen to really feel like all of the “good concepts” are already taken, and set your model other than even probably the most aggressive marketplaces.