Excellent product research is central to the success of a dropshipping business. No amount of marketing or website design will result in sales conversions or a good return on investment without winning products!
Accurate product research takes many hours, right?
It is a challenge to identify products that have the potential to "go viral" without accurate sales statistics. So selecting a top-performing product research tool results in a continuous flow of new products for testing.
This article will review two commonly used dropshipping product research tools that will help you find profitable products for your store; Sell The Trend vs. Niche Scraper.
The main difference between Sell The Trend and Niche Scraper is that Sell The Trend is a more extensive but expensive product research tool, while Niche Scraper is aimed at people on a budget and has daily hand-picked products.
I'll explore the pros and cons of each tool and conclude with who each product research tool suits best.
But before that, let's quickly go over what exactly a product research tool is!
What is a product research tool & why should you use one?
A product research tool is a piece of software that helps you scan and identify the best products to sell in your niche. With a product research tool, you can:
- Access trending products and niches by inputting keywords.
- Drill down into product price, profit margin and competitor stores.
- Make decisions based on data to drive profitability and save hours of your time.
- Access marketing guidance from ads insights and targeting.
- Integrate the product research tool with your store's ecommerce platform to quickly import products.
To start, let's take a look at Niche Scraper:
What is Niche Scraper?
Niche Scraper is a product research tool trusted by most dropshippers to assist them with scanning and searching for winning products on AliExpress and other Shopify (dropshipping) stores.
The tool shows you products already proven to be best sellers on other stores with revenue estimates.
A big attraction for beginner dropshippers, in addition to its functionality, is the fact that there is a free version. Let's examine some of the pros and cons of the tool.
The pros of Niche Scraper
This tool has a lot to offer! Let's start with what makes this integrated product search engine a good choice.
Provides extensive data on winning products
Imagine a time-saving tool that will enable you to scan and access trending products in your niche across Shopify and AliExpress.
With the Product Scraper feature, you'll be able to view useful data like the sales trend from the past 7 days, the rate at which sales are increasing or decreasing, and even the level of competition.
The tool's filters allow you to:
- Search for products within over 20 categories.
- Search for products from AliExpress or Shopify stores (specifically Dropshippers).
- Search for products using a keyword.
- Target your search to specific countries.
- Analyze the product using the tool's own "AliScore".
- See if there is a video available.
The "hand-picked" feature provides you with a daily selection of 1-2 products hand-picked by the Niche Scraper team, complete with a ton of product data and ready for immediate testing.
The only downside to this feature is that other dropshippers are, of course, accessing the same products. (Which you can learn more about here)
Competitor store analysis
Because dropshipping is so competitive, Niche Scraper's ability to analyze competitor stores is priceless. You can select from both stores selling the product or stores that are dropshipping specifically via the Shopify platform.
To do this, you can enter keywords to search for:
- A particular product
- Store popularity or relevance
Niche Scraper makes it easy to analyze a store's monthly traffic and revenue, the number of orders, the average price of a product, and the latest products added.
Video ad generator
For beginner dropshippers, a useful feature of Niche Scraper is the ability to easily create simple but unique ad videos using product images, text, and music. The tool allows you to create several versions of the video ad in just a few clicks:
Targeting ideas
Another handy feature of Niche Scraper is their Facebook targeting ideas. We recommend testing these and, of course, using related interests to find your winning audience.
Training
Niche Scraper offers free video tutorials to help you understand the workings of the tool and the basics of dropshipping.
Using the videos on their 'Getting Started' page makes it super easy to get started:
Or you can, of course, take a look at our blog to learn more about dropshipping!
Affordable pricing and free plan offering
Niche Scraper offers 3 pricing plans:
- The free plan. Offers access to hand-picked winning products (after a delay of 3 days) with a limited number of "scrapes" in each category and limited access to the other features of the tool.
- Pro membership ($49.95). Users of this plan have access to all features of the tool.
- Annual pro membership. They offer a massive discount of 60% of the pro membership if you are willing to pay annually.
But that's not all, of course!
Niche Scraper is offering our readers an amazing 75% discount using our discount code: DoDropshipping
This means it will only cost you $13 per month and $99 annually (for as long as you are a Niche Scraper subscriber!).
Amazing, right?
The cons of Niche Scraper
But with everything in life, there are also a few cons that you should keep in mind before choosing Niche Scraper, so let's go over them now:
Could have more sales data
I'd like to see Niche Scraper offering more product data, but beginner dropshippers will find it more than sufficient for the price.
The free version is, of course, slightly limited in its offering.
Tools don't always analyse effectively
Niche Scraper was slightly glitchy at times. For example, when entering my criteria, the tool did not always initiate.
No debit card payment option
This is not that critical because most of us use credit cards or PayPal for online purchases.
However, if you prefer to use a debit card, simply get in touch with Niche Scraper's support.
Free plan is limited
You can sign up for a free account which you can use for as long as you like.
Although this plan offers you limited product scrapes, it's great for beginner dropshippers who prefer to try out the tool without risking any of their cash:
In conclusion, despite some limitations for a beginner dropshipper on the free plan, Niche Scraper is one of the cheapest dropshipping tools and is definitely worth investigating.
What is Sell The Trend?
A newer product research tool, Sell The Trend, contains some awesome features worth checking out.
A winning feature is "The Nexus" search engine which uses an AI algorithm to select winning products across successful stores.
The pros of Sell The Trend
Let's start by analyzing the pros of this all-in-one product research tool.
The Nexus real time trend calculator across ecommerce stores
One of the most powerful features of Sell the Trend is the powerful AI engine which uses an algorithm to show the products trending across all ecommerce stores.
As a result, you'll be able to uncover which products are selling now and which are predicted to grow in demand.
The Nexus has several tabs worth searching:
- Hot products. Are products that are being sold by many stores and have a high number of orders (watch product saturation!).
Clicking on each product will show you the orders trend, number of AliExpress orders, product costs, recommended selling price, profit margin, stores selling the product and top customer countries. - Trending products. Similar to Hot Products, you can click on each product to study the product trend over time and product detail.
- On the rise. This tab contains products with a high growth rate but relatively low sales. Further research is needed here to ensure that the growth isn't due to a short term event or seasonality.
- New products. Products that are as yet untested.
- Hot and trending stores. These tabs allow you to filter competitor stores in your niche that are doing well and gives you the ability to analyse their products and sales including when the products were added. (Plus, you can filter by 'dropshipping stores')
Explorer product discovery
A fantastic feature is the ability to discover trending or high potential products from AliExpress, Amazon, CJdropshipping, or other Shopify stores.
For example, the AliExpress Explorer provides a lot more sales information per product, such as daily and overall growth trends.
By clicking on the product, you can examine it in detail:
You can use the Amazon and AliExpress Explorer in a similar way to research hot products, see what is trending and what products are selling right now.
All of these methods provide a great foundation for a profitable start to dropshipping. You'll cut your product research time right down and find winning products in seconds.
Engagement calculator
This useful feature allows you to analyze an Influencer's followers, likes, and post comments. Be cautious about the legitimacy of these numbers. As we all know, Influencers often buy fake followers!
Store connection and management
Easily connect your Shopify or WooCommerce store and import products painlessly with the 1-click add to store feature.
You'll be notified by Sell The Trend when someone places an order. You can then connect to AliExpress or CJdropshipping to fulfill it.
Yes, this means that you can use this as a DSers alternative if you want!
Store intelligence
I love this feature!
Enter your competitor's URL into Store Intelligence and review its top-selling products, estimated monthly traffic, monthly orders, and monthly revenue:
To stay a step ahead of your competition, you'll be able to see currently selling and recently added products.
Keep in mind that it's all an estimate, but it's still awesome to see!
Video ad generator and Facebook audience builder
Using imported images, you can create a video accompanied by non-copyrighted music for your product in a matter of minutes.
It is pretty basic, but you'll be able to customize and brand it with your logo too:
And if you are looking for help with coming up with interests or demographics for your Facebook Ads, the Audience Builder will do this for you.
Just enter a keyword related to your products, and the tool will give you some awesome suggestions.
Training material
The tutorial section offers useful tutorials to help you use the many features that the tool offers, and the Success Academy provides some useful dropshipping information for beginners.
AI Brand Builder
Boost your dropshipping game with Sell The Trend's AI Brand Builder!
![AI-Generated Dropshipping Product Descriptions and Social Media Ads [ChatGPT for dropshipping]](https://dodropshipping.com/wp-content/plugins/wp-youtube-lyte/lyteCache.php?origThumbUrl=https%3A%2F%2Fi.ytimg.com%2Fvi%2FBhTrx1kr-1s%2F0.jpg)
It generates custom product descriptions and catchy social media ads in the tone of your brand. It's similar to chatGPT but trained and tuned for dropshipping!
Whether you're all about humor or you lean more into empathy, this tool can adjust to your style.
Best part?
It's included in every Sell The Trend plan, so you get all these cool benefits without shelling out extra cash. Talk about a win-win!
The cons of Sell The Trend
Now that we covered all the great things about Sell The Trend, let's go over the things you need to keep in mind before picking this tool:
A lot of data
The tool can feel overwhelming when you're just starting using it (and even if you're using it for a while already).
This is because they have a ton of products but also a ton of data points for each product.
It's great though, because it means you have a ton of data to make decisions, but it could also be too much data for you at times, so keep that in mind.
Their subscription price
Sell The Trend is a little pricey for beginners at $39.97 per month.
However, you'll get 2 free months for subscribing annually. They also offer a 7-day free trial but no free plan.
They have a few upsells
As you can read above, they included a lot of things that you can access with your monthly subscription, but they do have a few additional upsells, which will cost you extra if you're interested in that.
For now, they have a Facebook Ads course and they sell custom Shopify stores:
This is not that much of a con for the Sell The Trend tool itself, but you might be feeling that you're not getting everything once you're 'in'.
So keep that in mind, but do know that it's optional and not needed for your product research.
So, Niche Scraper or Sell The Trend?
Now that we almost came to the end of this article, let's go over a few points to help you make a decision if you're still second-guessing now:
Niche Scraper is good for:
- People on a budget who are looking for a product research tool but can’t spend $40+ per month. Niche Scraper is just $13 per month with our discount code 'DoDropshipping'!
- People that don’t have any money for product research tools. Just use their free account!
- Hand picked products presented to you daily if you are looking for a quick way to find proven products to sell.
Sell The Trend is good for you if:
- You are looking for a more extensive product research tool.
- You are looking for a product research tool with extra features.
- You have the budget for a more expensive product research tool.
If you're interested now in learning even more about these two tools, then take a look at our reviews below:
- Sell The Trend Review: Easily Find Winning Products
- Niche Scraper Complete Review: Best Low Budget Tool?
Plus, if you want to save it for later - check out our infographic below:
Conclusion
These are just two of the many amazing dropshipping product research tools available to help you efficiently find products to sell in your store.
For a comprehensive list of product research tools, you may wish to review this article with 15 more research tools.
Personally, I can recommend both as I use them daily. Niche Scraper's free plan makes it an obvious choice to test, and you'll save so much time with their manually curated suggestions.
Sell The Trend uses artificial intelligence to take product research a step further at a higher cost.
Either way, these tools provide in-depth data and analytics to help dropshippers find winning products to sell in their store.
Then, armed with reliable data and using automation to save time, you'll make informed product selection choices to start driving sales.
Happy product hunting!
