How to Use Google Trends for Dropshipping: A Dropshipper's Guide (2026 Updated)

If you had a fortune teller who got predictions right every time, you'd bet your money it would be Google Trends. At least when it comes to finding and selling products or running a dropshipping business. Google is the internet's biggest search engine and even ChatGPT doesn't own the data of the world like that powerhouse.

Let's face it, we all depend on Google. Businesses do too, and it turns out that Google can forecast the future of retail by as much as three quarters ahead, based on all the data it holds. All your personalized experiences, past choices, and what you're about to do, Google can guess based on the high volumes of trends and patterns it has collected. So, you have a goldmine sitting right on your fingertips. If you want to learn how to use Google Trends for dropshipping, then our guide will do you justice.

We will walk you through step by step how to use it. You'll know what mistakes to avoid, which products are trending right now, and so much more!

How to Do Dropshipping Demand Research?

Demand research is one of the first places you should start looking into before you even use Google Trends for dropshipping. This is because it will help you spot or get ideas about what products you can start selling online.

One of the best places where you can do that is just by visiting the Amazon Movers and Shakers website. They've got tons of niches you can explore and you can see all the featured products pop up on the first page.

Scroll through the left menu, look at what categories interest you and then pick a few products that you want to look into or research. You will be plugging these into Google Trends for dropshipping research ideas.

Just to get you started, let's take a look at chest freezers and ice makers since that's what we notice currently being featured on the first page especially in the appliances category.

You can do this for health and household and the other categories as well like jewelry, clothing and shoes but let's start with ice makers.

How to Use Google Trends for Dropshipping Product Research?

We go into google trends for dropshipping research now, lets type in the keyword icemaker.

You can see a graph, before you proceed further notice how we have set the region worldwide and the timeline to the past 5 years. This will give you a nice graph and show you the interest over time.

We will tell you how to analyze the graph a little later, but for now just keep in mind that if you want to do research for products specifically in the United States or region then just change the worldwide setting.

As for past 5 years, you can also play around with that but we recommend sticking to longer timelines just so you identify seasonal demand.

Now if you go down to the top queries and rising queries you will notice what's currently trending in ice makers:

• We can see ice cream maker, the ninja ice maker is trending and then we've got silicon ice makers.
• These rising queries and the top ones will give you ideas on what products you can target.
• Currently the search interest looks low and most of them are in breakout points.
• The ice machine maker keyword has seen a 30% plus change along with ice nugget makers which is 250%.

So we have something that we are working with. Ice Nugget Maker has huge search interest. Like this, we want you to pick products you like from the Amazon Movers and Shakers page. Do generic keyword searches for these products and compare the search interest over time to know what products you want to target.

Now you know how to use Google Trends for dropshipping keyword research. Product keyword research to be more specific. But this is just the starting point.

Now what if you want to compare products with each other? This is where the real power of using Google Trends for dropshipping comes in.

We've decided to compare ice makers with chest freezers now. You can see that chest freezers have hit a huge decline and not many people are interested in it.

So even if you write about it, source and sell products or do anything related to marketing chest freezers, you're not going to get as lucky or profitable as ice makers.

These cover the basics of using Google Trends for dropshipping niche research in general and give you a great starting point.

How to Use Google Trends for Finding Dropshipping Suppliers?

Most dropshippers think Google Trends only helps with product research. That’s where they stop. But if you know how to read the data right, Google Trends tells you more than what to sell—it tells you who you should buy from.

Here’s what you should actually do.

• Take a product you’’ve already validated—say, ice nugget makers—and look at the top Google searches today for that item. Not just the keyword itself, but the qualifiers people add. Are they searching “fast shipping ice maker”? “Ice maker replacement parts”? “Commercial ice maker supplier”?
• Those long-tail searches tell you what customers actually care about. If you see a spike in “fast shipping” or “next day delivery,” you know that supplier speed matters more than price right now. That means you don’t hunt for the cheapest AliExpress seller. You hunt for the one with 3–5 day processing, even if it costs you a few bucks more.
• Also, cross-reference with the Google Trends worldwide map. If a product is trending hard in the US but your supplier ships from China with 20-day transit, you’re dead in the water. So I filter Google Trends to the US only, note the peak demand months, and work backward. I ask suppliers directly: “What’s your lead time during October?” If they hedge, I move on.

You can also spot supplier opportunities by looking at Google Trends for dropshipping in USA specifically. When I did this for portable air conditioners, I noticed search interest was highest in Texas and Florida. So I looked for US-based suppliers who could ship regionally. That cut transit time from three weeks to four days. My return rate dropped. My feedback scores went up. Google Trends won’t hand you a supplier list. But it tells you what kind of supplier you need. That’s half the battle. And if you need extra help, you can use Spocket to find trending dropshipping products and suppliers online.

Google Trends for Location Specific Marketing

If you’re running Google Ads or Facebook ads to a generic audience, you’re burning money. Here’s why: search interest for the same product varies wildly by region.

I check the “Interest by sub-region” map on every product I scale. Last winter, I was testing heated blankets. Nationwide, the trend looked flat. But when I drilled into the map, I saw massive spikes in the Northeast and Midwest. Texas? Nothing. California? Mild.

So I shifted my ad budget. I paused spend in warm states and doubled down on New York, Pennsylvania, and Illinois. My cost per click stayed the same, but my conversion rate tripled. That’s not luck. That’s Google Trends telling you where your customers actually live.

You can take this further. Use the regional data to customize your ad copy. For a product trending in cold climates, your creative should show snow, ice, and indoor coziness. For the same product trending in a humid state, you talk about breathability and moisture control.

I also use this for local inventory planning—even in dropshipping. If I know the Pacific Northwest is spiking on rain gear in October, I make sure my supplier has stock allocated. I message them in September and say, “You’re about to get orders from Oregon and Washington.” They think I’m psychic. I just read the map.

How to Find Fresh Insights for Your Store Content

Product descriptions kill most dropshipping stores. Either they’re copied straight from AliExpress, or they’re generic SEO sludge that ranks for nothing. Google Trends fixes this.

Scroll past the main graph to “Related queries.” This is pure gold. These are the exact search terms people type when they’re already interested in your product category. If you sell ice makers, you’ll see queries like “nugget ice maker countertop” or “portable ice maker with self-cleaning.”

Those aren’t just keywords. They are content briefs.

I take those rising queries and build entire product descriptions around them. If “silicon ice makers” is breaking out, I make sure that phrase appears in my H2, my bullet points, and my image alt text. If “ice cream maker attachment” is trending, I create a separate collection or even a blog post comparing standalone vs. attachment models.

You can also use Google Trends products data to refresh old inventory. I had a store selling weighted blankets that flatlined after January. I checked related queries and saw “weighted blanket for summer” climbing. So I rewrote the product page to focus on breathable fabric and cooling gel layers, swapped the hero image from flannel to cotton, and turned the page back on. Sales came back.

Your store content shouldn’t be static. If the search data shifts, your copy should shift with it. Btw, you can use Smartli to write your product descriptions for you, if you need help.

How to Use Google Trends for Dropshipping Business Scaling and Growth

Most people treat Google Trends like a one-time validation tool. They check a keyword, see a line going up, and call it a day. That’s like buying a stock and never checking the price again.

Scaling a dropshipping business means revisiting your data every month.

Keep a running sheet of core products and check their Google Trends for dropshipping products page every 30 days. You should be ideally looking for three things: year-over-year growth, seasonal consistency, and new related queries.

If a product shows steady YoY growth, I increase my ad spend. If it plateaus but has strong seasonal peaks, I plan flash sales around those windows. If I spot new rising queries, I add those as product variants or entirely new SKUs.

Using Google Trends for Product Research

Here’s a real example: Let’s say I was selling a generic “vegetable chopper” that did okay. When I checked Google Trends, I noticed “electric vegetable chopper” was climbing fast. The manual version was flat. So I sourced an electric version, listed it, and ran a small test budget. Within two weeks, it outsold the manual one 3:1.

I also track Google Trends hot search data for adjacent categories. If I sell kitchen gadgets, I’m not just watching “vegetable chopper.” I’m watching “air fryer accessories,” “silicone baking mats,” and “meal prep containers.” When I see one of those spike, I know it’s time to expand my catalog.

Scaling isn’t just selling more of one product. It’s using search data to predict what you should sell next.

Using Google Trends to Test New Markets

Another piece: international expansion. I test new markets by pulling Google Trends worldwide and filtering by country. If a product shows consistent search volume in Australia or the UK, I clone my store, localize the currency, and launch a PMax campaign. I don’t guess which countries to enter. I let the search volume tell me.

You can also use the year-over-year comparison tool to spot fading products before they hurt you. If a keyword peaks lower than the previous year two cycles in a row, that category is dying. I mark those products as “harvest only”—no new ad spend, just collect the last sales and move on.

Google Trends won’t build your store for you. But it will tell you which doors to walk through and which ones are brick walls.

Conclusion

Google Trends gives you a direct line to what customers actually search for, not what you assume they want. You can spot demand before your competitors, choose suppliers that match real shipping expectations, target ads where people are actually looking, and scale into markets that are already warmed up. It’s free, it’s live, and it’s sitting at your fingertips. If you’re not checking it weekly, you’re flying blind.

And yes, you can source these products with Spocket. It will save you a lot of time (and money!) You can also use the app to look up international dropshipping suppliers, not just those in the US and EU alone.