11 Trending Products & Niches for 2016

I’ve discussed trending products and how to find them several times, on this blog, as well as Shopify’s blog. In this post on trending products, I showed you all the resources I use to uncover niches and products that are exploding in growth. Using many of these resources last year, I wrote a blog post on the Shopify blog showing you 10 products that were trending at the time. This year, I’ve been continuing to watch the market, trends, and consumer behavior to put together an updated list of trending products for 2016.

Without further ado, here they are:

BONUS: Check out Chapter 4 of my free guide to finding a product to sell online for a list of 10 product ideas that were trending last year.

Trending Products for 2016

1. Green Tea

Green Tea – Not only has green tea consistently been climbing as a trend since the early 2000’s, but it’s  been growing for good reason. Green tea is generally healthier than other beverages in it’s category, it contains less caffeine, and most importantly, there are so many uses and variations of the product allowing the possibility for you to come up with new product ideas that incorporate green tea or green tea extract.

What does Google Trends say about green tea as a trending product?

2. Matcha

Matcha – Matcha tea, is an increasingly popular variation of green tea, and considered to be a premium product. Ultimately, it’s very high end green tea that has been ground into a fine powder. Because you actually consume the whole leaf as oppose to just steeping it, you get a much higher concentrate of good things in tea. Much like green tea, this product can be used as an ingredient in many other products.

In fact, my team and I at Shopify created an online store selling matcha tea in the middle of 2015 and made nearly $1,000 in just 3 days. If you haven’t read that detailed case study, check it out.

What does Google Trends say about Matcha?

3. Detox Products

Detoxes (Tea based) – Detoxes fit into the health and nutrition category and because of that there’s always a new trend in detoxing. Right now, the detox trend is tea. Tea based detoxes aren’t just trending, they’re Instagram famous. I’m sure you’ve likely seen them plastered all over your Instagram feed in recent months. While some of these products advertised may have additional ingredients in them to help you “detox”, from what I’ve seen most are nothing more than… tea with a marketing spin.

4. Coffee Scrubs

Coffee Scrub – Switching gears (a bit), it’s not just tea that’s trending. Tea’s ache nemesis, coffee, is also making a trending appearance lately in the form of a body scrub. It appears that Frank started the trend, with a bunch of other players entering the market closely after. This is a classic and smart example of someone taking a current product on the market and re-purposing it for another market. Don’t just think about coffee, also consider what other products can re-purposed after their initial use and resold.

5. Coconut Oil Based Products

Coconut Oil based Products – I wrote extensively about coconut oil last year on the Shopify blog, not because I like cococut oil, but because I spotted the trend early and knew it was going to be huge. Originally, I found through a post on Pinterest and discovered that coconut oil was essentially a Swiss Army knife of an ingredient.

Considered healthy and functional, you can use coconut oil for everything from cooking to making your own soaps, toothpaste, deodorant, sunscreen, to improving sleep, and even preventing Alzheimer (See 101 uses for coconut oil).

But the middle of 2015, couldn’t stand hearing about coconut oil anymore. Then,Shopify announced the winners to the Build A Business contest, and BAM! A coconut oil based product makes the list. Even though I’ve heard enough about coconut oil and it’s magical properties, as an entrepreneur, I can’t neglect the trend, a trend that’s still continuing.

6. Nootropics (Smart Drugs)

Nootropics – Also referred to as smart drugs that help you focus better, think clearer, and work harder were big this year. Popular faces like Tim Ferris introduced many people this relatively new term in 2015 and it looks like that is just adding fuel to the fire for 2016. One thing to keep in mind is that nootropics are a mostly unregulated market at the moment. You’ll want to carefully consider this as a product and do your research before blindly selling unregulated pills to the hopeful public.

7. Niche Specific Branded Apparel/Hyper Local Apparel

Niche Specific, Print-On-Demand Apparel – 2015 might be known by historians as the year of ecommerce apparel businesses. I don’t see this slowing down for 2016, in-fact, I see it increasing. Companies like Printful are making it increasingly easy to create an apparel brand. As they continue to increase the number of ecommerce platform they integrate with along with the apparel and customization options they offer, creating your own custom apparel brand is only going to become more popular.

Hyper Local Niches – Along the same lines, within the apparel category, I see the hyper local trend continuing. Hyper Local refers to creating products that cater to a very defined audience in a certain geographical area. For example, when I launched my 24 hour t-shirt business as a fun side project, I targeting a hyper local audience by creative designs that appealed to commuters that frequented local subway stations. Additionally, even within my own city and others, I saw many lots of other brands finding success also targeting a hyper-local market.

Here’s some examples:

• Detroit vs. Everybody (Detroit)
• Drake General Store (Toronto)
• Peace Collective (Toronto)
• OneMeth (Canada)

OneMeth (Airport Codes T-Shirts)

8. LED Lighting

LED Lighting (White/Colored) / LED Flashlights – I’ve been investing in LED lighting for several years now. While I’ve toyed with the idea of opening an online store dedicated to serving this niche, I don’t now yet how I would differentiate myself and add value. However, this industry has massive opportunity and the market is huge. In the coming decade, nearly all lighting eventually will be converted to LED lighting. It’s much more energy efficient, lasts exponentially longer than regular bulbs, is a lot more controllable, and safer for the environment.

This trend is only going to keep getting bigger and bigger and in particular, I think there’s really big opportunity with colored LED lighting for ambiance.

9. Beard Oil/Men’s Grooming Products

Beard Oil – Beard oil has been trending for the last few years and it appears that the trend is continuing. Lately this market has become pretty saturated with a lot of new companies but there’s likely still room for those that get a little more creative and tighten their focus to serve narrow niches within the beard grooming category.

10. Drones & Drone Accessories

Drones & Accessories – If you watch the news, you likely have heard more and more about drones. Whether it’s about the military using them for missions, Amazon using them to deliver products to homes, or civilians playing with them as a hobby, drones were huge this year. Looking into 2016, it appears they will only be getting bigger.

11. Adult Coloring Books

Adult Coloring Books – This one surprised me, but once I heard about it, I started seeing it everywhere. Apparently coloring books made for adults are really popular on Amazon’s bestselling books list. Books with calming, meditative and spiritual themes appeal to adults looking to unwind.

Conclusion

There you have it, 11 products and niches I see trending going into 2016. Don’t forget to check out my post on all the different resources I use to discover new trending products and leave a note in the comment box below with your thoughts on the trending products I listed, or what you see trending for 2016.

For more trending products that I discovered, as well as ideas that other people are seeing trending, join the free private Facebook community for ecommerce entrepreneur. Click here to join and see additional trending products.

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About The Author

Richard Lazazzera is an ecommerce entrepreneur, author and speaker. Learn more about Richard or get more from him on Twitter.

Life on board an American aircraft carrier off the coast of Iran

When the aircraft carrier USS John C Stennis returns to the placid blue waters of the Gulf with her strike force of 70 jets in the next few days, she will be ready for action off the coast of Iran.

The nuclear powered Nimitz-class aircraft carrier has been described as the finest warship in the world.

Screaming jets land and take off from a heaving flight deck, the length of three football fields. Most are flying daily combat missions over Afghanistan.

Rear Admiral Mike Shoemaker, a wiry man with a navy buzz cut, says that there could be a threat from Iran, but that would be manageable.

If America is drawn into another war in the Middle East, a key nerve centre for operations will be the admiral's bridge on the ship. There are only two computer screens, a big telephone, and an old-fashioned ship's compass.

Hawkeyes see over the horizon with radar; Prowlers blind the enemy's electronic eyes; and Hornets do the damage by dropping precision-guided bombs as heavy as one ton on any target.

Iran's nuclear sites are within easy range. The bombs are nearly all precision-guided by laser and GPS. The biggest can be carried by a jet, but landing with a one-ton bomb is too risky so they are dropped at sea if they are not used against an enemy.

Flight and Deck personnel prepare F-18 Super Hornets for take off as the sun sets

F-18 Super Hornets take off for their missions

The crew claim to be ready for any mission, 24 hours a day, but there is little enthusiasm for a new war with Iran

Crew of a C-2A Greyhound preparing to land on the carrier

RAS or Replenishment at Sea with oil and supplies

Supplies, including fresh fruit, in the hangar after RAS.

Enlisted sailors sleep 100 to a dormitory and eat in canteens.

Hangar Personnel relax practising skills with a soccer ball

Hangar personnel relax with a guitar

You will find tons of beautiful pics at > http://tinyurl.com/zmu5xph

The Higher Education Services Corporation (HESC) is New York State’s higher education student financial aid agency.

HESC Administers:

• New York’s Tuition Assistance Program (TAP)
• 20 State scholarship and loan forgiveness programs
• College Access Challenge Grant (CACG) Program
• New York’s 529 College Savings Program, with the Office of the State Comptroller (OSC)
• Financial aid outreach programs for students and families

Employment Opportunities

HESC Board of Trustees

HESC News, e-Library, Annual Reports, and Financial Information

Personal Privacy Protection Law (PPPL)

Procurement Opportunities

Regulatory Activity

Link to HESC

Incorporate hesc.ny.gov into your Web site, making it a convenient click away for students and parents.

Visiting HESC

Coming to HESC headquarters? You'll need travel directions and information about accommodations in the Albany, NY area.

https://www.hesc.ny.gov/about-hesc.html

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CORPORATION WIKI

Corporation Wiki promotes corporate transparency by being a historical archive of corporate data, creating a valuable resource for people interested in discovering and understanding connections between corporations and executives. Corporation Wiki serves over 300 million page views per month to visitors and search engine web crawlers. Over the past few years, Corporation Wiki has grown into one of the largest corporate directories on the web. They have created a corporate directory of over 90 million officers and executives and have successfully mapped and connected these companies and individuals to each other.

BUSINESS:

Providing insight into the executives and entities behind a corporation, and promoting corporate transparency  by being a historical archive of corporate data.

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What's in your wallet?

Diamonds Are Bullshit

 

American males enter adulthood through a peculiar rite of passage -- they spend most of their savings on a shiny piece of rock. They could invest the money in assets that will compound over time and someday provide a nest egg. Instead, they trade that money for a diamond ring, which isn't much of an asset at all. As soon as you leave the jeweler with a diamond, it loses over 50 percent of its value.

Americans exchange diamond rings as part of the engagement process, because in 1938 De Beers decided that they would like us to. Prior to a stunningly successful marketing campaign 1938, Americans occasionally exchanged engagement rings, but wasn't a pervasive occurrence. Not only is the demand for diamonds a marketing invention, but diamonds aren't actually that rare. Only by carefully restricting the supply has De Beers kept the price of a diamond high.

Countless American dudes will attest that the societal obligation to furnish a diamond engagement ring is both stressful and expensive. But here's the thing -- this obligation only exists because the company that stands to profit from it willed it into existence.

So here is a modest proposal: Let's agree that diamonds are bullshit and reject their role in the marriage process. Let's admit that as a society we got tricked for about a century into coveting sparkling pieces of carbon, but it's time to end the nonsense.

The Concept of Intrinsic Value

In finance, there is concept called intrinsic value. An asset's value is essentially driven by the (discounted) value of the future cash that asset will generate. For example, when Hertz buys a car, its value is the profit they get from renting it out and selling the car at the end of its life (the "terminal value"). For Hertz, a car is an investment. When you buy a car, unless you make money from it somehow, its value corresponds to its resale value. Since a car is a depreciating asset, the amount of value that the car loses over its lifetime is a very real expense you pay.

A diamond is a depreciating asset masquerading as an investment. There is a common misconception that jewelry and precious metals are assets that can store value, appreciate and hedge against inflation. That's not wholly untrue.

Gold and silver are commodities that can be purchased on financial markets. They can appreciate and hold value in times of inflation. You can even hoard gold under your bed and buy gold coins and bullion (albeit at a ~10 percent premium to market rates). If you want to hoard gold jewelry however, there is typically a retail markup so that's probably not a wise investment.

But with that caveat in mind, the market for gold is fairly liquid and gold is fungible -- you can trade one large piece of gold for 10 smalls ones like you can a 10 dollar bill for 10 one dollar bills. These characteristics make it a feasible potential investment.

Diamonds, however, are not an investment. The market for them is neither liquid nor are they fungible.

The first test of a liquid market is whether you can resell a diamond. In a famous piece published by The Atlantic in 1982, Edward Epstein explains why you can't sell used diamonds for anything but a pittance:

Retail jewelers, especially the prestigious Fifth Avenue stores, prefer not to buy back diamonds from customers, because the offer they would make would most likely be considered ridiculously low. The "keystone," or markup, on a diamond and its setting may range from 100 to 200 percent, depending on the policy of the store; if it bought diamonds back from customers, it would have to buy them back at wholesale prices.

...

Most jewelers would prefer not to make a customer an offer that might be deemed insulting and also might undercut the widely-held notion that diamonds go up in value. Moreover, since retailers generally receive their diamonds from wholesalers on consignment, and need not pay for them until they are sold, they would not readily risk their own cash to buy diamonds from customers.

When you buy a diamond, you buy it at retail, which is a 100 percent to 200 percent markup. If you want to resell it, you have to pay less than wholesale to incent a diamond buyer to risk their own capital on the purchase. Given the large markup, this will mean a substantial loss on your part. The same article puts some numbers around the dilemma:

Because of the steep markup on diamonds, individuals who buy retail and in effect sell wholesale often suffer enormous losses. For example, Brod estimates that a half-carat diamond ring, which might cost $2,000 at a retail jewelry store, could be sold for only $600 at Empire.

Some diamonds are perhaps investment grade, but you probably don't own one, even if you spent a lot.

The appraisers at Empire Diamonds examine thousands of diamonds a month but rarely turn up a diamond of extraordinary quality. Almost all the diamonds they find are slightly flawed, off-color, commercial-grade diamonds. The chief appraiser says, "When most of these diamonds were purchased, American women were concerned with the size of the diamond, not its intrinsic quality." He points out that the setting frequently conceals flaws, and adds, "The sort of flawless, investment-grade diamond one reads about is almost never found in jewelry."

As with televisions and mattresses, the diamond classification scheme is extremely complicated. Diamonds are not fungible and can't be easily exchanged with each other. Diamond professionals use the four C's when classifying and pricing diamonds: carats, color, cut, and clarity. Due to the complexity of these four dimensions, it's hard to make apples to apples comparisons between diamonds.

But even when looking at the value of one stone, professionals seem like they're just making up diamond prices:

Full review > http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rohin-dhar/diamonds-are-bullshit_b_3708562.html