To choose products for online sales, make a short list from your own assortment. Check each item against sales, customer need, costs, delivery, and available stock. Use search interest as additional information: it does not show actual purchases.
The result should be a table with a decision for each product. If you are missing the packaging price, shipping terms, or stock data, record exactly what needs to be clarified before offering it online.
Compare products using your own sales
The owner or the employee responsible for bookkeeping should gather sales data for the candidates over the same period. For each item, record the number of units sold, revenue, and returns. Note the period alongside the data so that the next review compares like-for-like time spans.
You can use ABC analysis to organize the list. It ranks products by their share of revenue and divides them into groups A, B, and C. Use this order to decide which items to review first. Then check the costs, delivery, and stock for each one separately.
Review returns together with their reasons, if your store records them. For example, if a product is returned because the size is unsuitable, add a check of the size description to your preparation plan. That is a specific task to complete before listing the offer.
Find out what the customer needs and what they use now
Talk to customers about their experience. Avoid asking for general opinions such as “Would you like a product like this?” Ask them to describe their most recent actual purchase and the circumstances behind their choice.
- What task was the customer trying to accomplish when they bought the product?
- What solution did they use before buying it?
- What did they find unsatisfactory about the previous solution?
- What other products or ways of solving the problem did they consider?
Record the answers next to the relevant item. State the need specifically—for example, “keep lunch in a bag without leaks.” Then check whether the selected product’s features meet that need. Do not generalize one customer’s answer to the whole assortment.
Use Google Trends to assess search interest
Google Trends shows search interest in topics. Check product names and queries related to the customer’s need. In your table, record the query, region, period viewed, and date checked.
Compare these observations with your own sales and customer responses. Do not use search interest to estimate the number of future orders. A zero in Google Trends also does not mean there are no purchases: the service displays terms with low search volume as zero.
Check packaging, delivery, and costs
Prepare packaging for each candidate, weigh the product, and measure the package. Accurate product weights and package dimensions are needed for delivery pricing calculated by the carrier. Separately check with the carrier you choose whether the product can be shipped, its packaging requirements, and the cost for the delivery method you need.
To calculate margin, include all costs for the product: manufacturing or purchasing, storage, delivery, and selling. Record which costs the store pays. If some costs have not yet been determined, clarify them first and then decide on the price.
Illustrative example. A store is evaluating a food container priced at UAH 600. Suppose all per-unit costs in this example are: purchase — UAH 350, storage — UAH 15, packaging — UAH 20, delivery paid by the store — UAH 45, and selling costs — UAH 30. That totals UAH 460. The difference between the price and the costs included: 600 − 460 = 140 UAH.
All amounts are illustrative. For this candidate, the owner should check the actual costs, packaging suitability, and stock. The calculation itself does not determine how many units customers will buy online.
Bring the assessment together in one table
Create a separate row for each product or SKU. Use these columns without universal scores or thresholds:
| What to record | What to check before deciding |
|---|---|
| Product, period, number of sales, revenue, and returns | Whether the periods are comparable and the reasons for returns are known |
| Customer need and current alternative | What specific task the product is meant to solve |
| Search query, region, period, and date checked | What search interest shows when compared with sales |
| Packaging, weight, dimensions, delivery method, and cost | Whether the product can be shipped under the terms you checked |
| Price and all costs | What amount remains after the included costs |
| Stock and replenishment options | What quantity can be offered and when to check supply |
| Decision and basis | Offer online, clarify a specific term, or postpone |
Analyze stock for a selected date in Torgsoft
Before making the final selection, check the candidates’ stock. In Torgsoft, you can run an analysis of product stock on a specific date. Choose the date to which you are tying your assortment assessment.
Use the result to fill in the stock column. Then compare the data with the actual availability and separately confirm whether the stock can be replenished before deciding what quantity to offer online.
Use stock on the selected date only as stock data. Assess customer need, total costs, and delivery terms separately. In the table’s final row, record the decision along with a specific reason or next action.
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