Mastering Dropshipping with Google Trends: A Comprehensive Guide

Mastering Dropshipping with Google Trends

The world of dropshipping provides us with a unique and expansive opportunity to leverage the increase in popularity of online shopping. The dropshipping market has been increasing this size of its piece of the ecommerce pie over the last few years. And dropshipping profits are forecast to reach $476.1 billion U.S. dollars by 2026. 

But achieving success in dropshipping means following product trends and catering to customer demand. As such, using Google Trends for dropshipping is a great idea - not least because it’s a completely free of charge research tool that’s readily at our disposal.

In this blog post, we’ll explain what product trends are and outline how to identify customer trends for dropshipping. We’ll also take you through how to use Google Trends to expand your current product catalog and identify best-selling products effectively. Read on to learn more.

Understanding Google Trends

Google Trends can be used to access to a great unfiltered sample of actual search requests inputted into Google which is by far the market leader in terms of global search engines. This anonymous data has been captured and categorized into different search query topics. It is then grouped together into a graph that displays the current market trends.

Google Trends data is accessible through the free Trends Explore tool. As the data has been grouped into topics, you’ll be able to access a fuller picture of what terms people are searching for most. Individual search term queries can also be raised and as you begin to type in a specific dropshipping product related query, a drop-down list of suggestions will appear to help steer you in the right direction.

Interpreting search interest data is really quite easy once you know what you’re looking for. For evergreen products, usually interest will peak and trough at different periods throughout the year. But what you want to identify is whether or not consumer interest in a particular product is increasing or decreasing YoY (year-on-year). 

To do this, hover over the Google Trends graph to see the number of searches performed for that product at different times of the year. But the real value of Google Trends is that its historic data pulls trends that span all the way back to 2004. This enables dropshippers to see visual representation of how a search is trending over time. If it’s trending upwards over time that suggests an increase in popularity and is a viable option for your business. But if a product appears to be trending downwards, that suggests customer interest is waning over time and that particular product is a less viable option for your dropshipping store long-term.

Seasonal trends are also easy to identify using Google Trends. Significant seasonality can be seen by observing regular annual spikes and lags at certain times of year.

Using Google Trends for Product Research

Using Google Trends for product research is an effective and free tool dropshippers can use to identify product trends. But, learning to analyze product search volumes is key.

Google Trends records and displays consumer search interest through automated analyzation of search term frequencies. This basically translates to the number of times consumers have entered a term in the search bar through Google over a specific date range. This tool is effective at counting full searches and calculating how often that term is searched for when compared to other keywords.

You can also use Google Trends to obtain valuable insight while considering which niche is right for your dropshipping site or to find opportunities to add new products related to your niche. To do this, enter your (established or potential) niche in the search bar of Google Trends. This will load the data linked to the interest within that niche over time. 

You can also utilize Google Trends to expand into a different market or to help you discover new markets in which you’ll find higher demand for your dropshipping products.

With the strategic use of Google Trends, boosting sales is much easier. Start by exploring potential markets. Google Trends allows dropshippers to filter out trending products based on location and discover how a product is trending in that country or region. With the option to track the trend right back to 2004, finding a stable market for your niche is an easier task. Exploring products in this way can help clarify whether demand for a specific product is lessening or increasing. 

Google Trends is also handy for predicting seasonal fluctuations in consumer interest. This term centers around using historical data and Google Trends insights to preempt ups and downs in consumer search interest for specific products or niches throughout the year.

Knowing that a dip in interest is likely imminent can help you better prepare your store. It allows you to seek out alternative products to add to your dropshipping store to help bridge that expected lull in interest.

Trend Analysis for Seasonal Campaigns

Using Google Trends to conduct market research can help you know how best to navigate seasonal shopping periods. Use Google trends insights to help you pick out seasonal product variations to add to your store. Bundling products together could make for an easy win during gift shopping periods such as the lead up to Christmas. 

Planning timely marketing campaigns can also help boost sales during peak shopping periods. A proper marketing strategy will ensure you are targeting the correct audience. This is an integral part of any peak shopping season dropshipping planning, especially if you’re hoping for the season to be a success. Here are some things to remember to work into your dropshipping peak season marketing strategies:

1. Offer exclusive deals

Successful shopping periods are all about upselling. Ever hear the term ATV? That’s Average Transaction Value, and the higher it is, the bigger the profits for the business are likely to be. So, you should think about new and enticing ways to lure customers into spending more through your ecommerce store. Buy one product, get one half price is a tried and tested marketing strategy that incentivizes your customers to increase their ATV. But remember, deals like this require in-depth pricing analysis beforehand to ensure that they’re a viable option for your dropshipping store. 

Another great way to encourage your customers to spend more is to offer free shipping over a specified minimum threshold. That way customers will want to spend more so that their order qualifies for free shipping.

2. Use social media to your advantage

Social media is key when it comes to marketing. So, be sure to make proper use of it! Share your seasonal dropshipping products on major social media platforms in a visually engaging post and attract new customers while encouraging previous customers to shop again. 

It’s important to maintain your social media presence throughout peak shopping periods too. Share new products bundled up with customer-friendly advice such as shipping dates, bundle deals, and promotional discounts. 

3. Consider ad campaigns 

Targeted advertising is a good investment if your dropshipping store has the budget for it. Campaign tools at your disposal during peak dropshipping periods include Google Ads, Facebook Ads, and Instagram. Through their ads, you will reach a higher volume of potential customers specifically shopping with seasonality in mind. 

4. Consider discount codes

Discount codes are another great way to keep your brand relevant during busy shopping events. But remember to name your discount codes something relevant. By using a discount code such as BLACKFRIDAY25, CHRISTMAS15, or EASTER20, you’ll let your customers know that the deals up for grabs are exclusive to the specific shopping period. 

5. Email marketing

Finally, we come to email marketing campaigns. In customer retention, your customer email address collection is priceless. Through email marketing, you can build a long-term relationship with your existing customer base. Plus, actively staying in touch with your customers can help you to boost seasonal dropshipping sales year-round. 

Utilizing Google Trends insights for seasonal products is easy with a little know how. Savvy dropshippers will build a holiday calendar in their specific country of operation and use these holiday names to build a thorough profile of which holidays spike most interest across shoppers and give you invaluable insight into new products you can add from a seasonality perspective. 

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Evaluating Geographic Trends

Identifying regional interest in products is important for continued success. One of the primary benefits of geographic segmentation is being able to pinpoint regional product preferences. This gives you access to the information needed to interpret not only new audiences to target, but also the specifics relating to culture and preferences of one region or country in comparison to another. 

For example’s sake, a homewares dropshipping brand could discover that vibrant and bold colors are trending in one region, and yet in another, consumers seem to prefer colors that are earthy, and more natural. In picking up on these regional preferences, dropshippers can shift their product offerings, marketing messagings, and even store themes in order to better resonate with their intended target audience.

Different marketing strategies work better in different regions and adapting your dropshipping marketing strategies for those different countries or regions can help you drive conversions more effectively.

What’s more, if you identify that a product trend is through the roof in one specific region, use that insight to leverage localized campaigns. Localized marketing campaigns based on trends are a cost effective solution for dropshippers hoping to boost sales.

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Staying Competitive with Trend-Driven Strategies

Analyzing competitor trends is the next stop on our Google Trends journey. A competitor analysis (aka a competitive analysis) identifies your main competitors in your industry. A big part of competitor analysis also involves researching their different marketing strategies. 

Once you have this information, you can use it for comparative analysis to identify your own dropshipping company's strengths and weaknesses. 

Incorporating trend-setting elements in marketing is another strategy you can use to drive traffic to your site. By observing market trends, your business will gain insights that will help you make evidence-based decisions. The benefits of these include being able to use resources wisely, adding trending products to your dropshipping store, and creating effective marketing strategies. All of these will help to improve the overall performance of your dropshipping store. 

Market trend analysis is a key component in market research and proper market research leads to better marketing campaigns.

In dropshipping, you’ll also need to be adept at adapting products and strategies based on industry trends. Tastes change often but essentially, most products in the dropshipping market (aside from seasonal offerings) are evergreen. You just need to know that you’re getting your product messaging across to your target audience effectively. For example, a hat is a hat, whichever way you look at it. But, if your audience are no longer searching for hats and trends are showing a rise in searches for head warmers, it could be time to reframe that product collection to make it more appealing to buyers.

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Google Trends and Keyword Research

You can use Google Trends to help you identify keyword opportunities to integrate into your product listings too. Using trend-backed keywords within product names and descriptions is a great way to expand your keyword universe and increase visibility. Plus, with more competitive keyword terms, going after long-tail keywords is a strategy you can use to rank better within the SERPs (Search Engine Ranking Positions) too.

For example’s sake, let’s take the term “dress”. Now we know from experience that the term “dress” is going to be extremely competitive. 

But, let’s also say that our keyword research also indicated that red dress was trending and you decided to name your product “red dress” as a result. By reducing the competitiveness of the keyword you’re targeting (if only slightly), you’ll be more likely to rank for it than before.

Going even more granular, we could say that “red, racer back, high waisted dress” “red dress with raw hem” were also trending particularly well. Our first point would be that they’re both far too long a product name - customers seem to favor short and snappy product names. But it's a valuable insight. And, if your red dress matches any of those details, you should absolutely work them into your product descriptions. And work them in exactly as they have been recorded in Google Trends. Doing so could provide you with the unique opportunity of pugging a gap. What this means is any easy win in those SERPs. 

Optimizing and then re-optimizing content should be a continual task for dropshippers. Just as artists often say, your product pages will never quite be fully finished. Writing content for trending keywords, and keeping up with those trend changes is a job all in itself. But there are many benefits of enhancing SEO with trend-driven keywords including improving your site’s visibility, boosting brand awareness, and reaching new demographics of target audiences.

Trend Monitoring and Adaptation

Establishing regular monitoring practices is essential. This will help you stay on top of swings (which come thick and fast) in the ecommerce market. There are several steps involved in establishing these regular monitoring duties, but we’ve simplified them below:

1. Identify and understand the importance of KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) on your dropshipping store.
2. Choose the right monitoring tools - ensure they record the data (both current and historic) that you need and that your subscription grants access to that data.
3. Implement regular trend checks using Google Trends.
4. Monitor your KPIs.
5. Optimize your product pages and create blog content to continue to expand and strengthen your Keyword universe.

Then it’s a case of eat, sleep, repeat. These trend monitoring and adaptation tasks will be ongoing for any dropshipper that is striving to succeed.

Adapting inventory and marketing to shifting trends is also an essential step if you want to keep your dropshipping store relevant. As trends shift, if you want to ensure your marketing campaigns continue to target the right audience, you’ll need to shift your strategy in line with the trends. The same applies with products. Using Google Trends to keep track of any relevant changes can help to prevent you losing your existing customer base.   

You’ll also need to learn how to recognise the difference between long term and short term trends. Recognising the differences between long-term vs. short-term trends is fairly easy after a bit of practice though. Short-term trends will be displayed as a spike seemingly coming out of nowhere on a Google Trends graph. 

Short term trends are great if they align with your current dropshipping catalog. They are a quick and easy way to boost sales for a short period of time (or until the next dropshipping fad lands). 

But long-term trends are evergreen. These are the types of products we need in our store to keep turning profits year-round. Long term trends will show peaks and troughs throughout the year but search interest will appear to be growing (generally) over time too.

Utilizing Google Trends in Social Media Marketing

Staying relevant is essential to a brand’s survival and that’s where Google Trends can come in handy too. Not just for product and marketing research, Google Trends can also be used to define social media trends too. And by integrating trending topics into social media content, your marketing campaigns will make more impressions and help you to grow your following.

Capitalizing on viral trends is great for brand exposure. Leverage influencers to help your brand capitalize on a viral moment, trend, or big event. This has the potential to generate a lot of free publicity and exposure, plus will help your site to earn backlinks which can, in turn, lead to better domain authority with Google. This then leads to a higher domain rating and ultimately better rankings in the SERPs. And all of that is without mentioning the increased brand awareness, website traffic, and sales that could ensue. Basically capitalizing on viral trends that align with your brand’s values is a win-win scenario.

But there are some challenges your brand could face by engaging in trend-driven social media content. Not least of those being dividing your following. In some cases, social media trends are more political than you think. Imagine a trend that called out lovers of the avocado. If you choose a side during a trend like this, you could potentially alienate a large percentage of your target audience. And, while you might hope that audiences wouldn’t be so petty as to not shop at your dropshipping store due to whether or not you like avocados, in these times we wouldn’t be so sure!

Case Studies

There are many examples of dropshipping entrepreneurs that have been able to build successful businesses with a little help from Spocket and Google Trends. One of the best examples is Marc Chapon. Marc started up his online dropshipping store partnering with Spocket and utilizing Google Trends. And through Google Trends, Marc was able to identify product trends and market them effectively.

And through Spocket, Marc was able to source high-quality products from European suppliers offering faster shipping times resulting in higher levels of customer satisfaction. On one single day, Marc made over $10,000 in sales.

There are many challenges that need to be overcome in dropshipping, and indeed in ecommerce in general. But by understanding Google Trends insights and utilizing them to your advantage, you can be up, running and turning a profit in no time at all.

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Best Practices for Effective Trend Utilization

The best practices for effective trend utilization are sure to see your dropshipping store soar to new heights of success. Here are our top tips for anyone learning to use trends more effectively:

• Balance evergreen and trending products. With evergreen products, your dropshipping store should be viable pretty consistently all year round. But jumping on both short and long term product trends can help to boost profits and turn your viable dropshipping business into one with a considerably higher turnover.  
• Diversifying product portfolio based on trends. Spreading your product offerings across different markets and target audiences by diversifying your product offering helps you minimize the risk of relying on a single product niche or market. Not only that, doing so will also better position your dropshipping business for long-term success.‍
• Managing inventory and suppliers in dynamic markets. Dynamic markets can be hard to keep up with but doing so will help you stay relevant with your target audience. As new trends appear, new opportunities arise to expand your product offering. And as old trends fade, you should look to remove stagnant products from your dropshipping store too. Keeping your product offering up to date and aligned with recent trends is essential. But so too is managing inventory levels. And as you’re not holding any of the stock, you’ll be reliant on your dropshipping partner to keep you informed. At Spocket, we only partner with reliable providers.

Conclusion

Google Trends is a great, free tool that dropshippers can utilize to help them make informed business decisions. From trends to incorporate into your marketing campaigns and identifying products to add to your catalog to helping you optimize content, grow audiences and beyond, there are plenty of benefits to understanding the value of Google Trends.

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FAQs

How Often Should I Check Google Trends for my Products?

Checking Google Trends can become addictive, but it’s important to understand that checking it daily isn’t any better than checking it weekly. Proactive data tends to update on a weekly basis. With that in mind, we’d recommend checking product trends using Google Trends once a week.

Can Google Trends Predict Long-Term Market Shifts?

Essentially, yes. But with 100% certainty? No. Google Trends has a wealth of data at its disposal. And repeated Y-o-Y increases in search volume relating to a specific product gives us enough information to forecast what we think might happen in the next year or two. But long-term market shifts are much harder to forecast. Trends are ever changing and in the world of dropshipping, the daily challenge is keeping up.

What if My Product Doesn't Align with Current Trends?

If your product doesn’t align with current trends, go back to the drawing board. Before deciding whether or not to remove a product from your dropshipping catalog completely, it’s best to look at a Y-o-Y comparison of how interest in that product has changed. If it still appears to be trending upwards, it could be that seasonality has caused a dip in customer interest. Either way, you’ll need to see the full picture to understand what’s best for your business. 

And if, over time, the product appears to be trending downwards, look to similies instead. It could be that your product just doesn’t have an optimal name. Look for alternative keywords to bolster product descriptions and if the product has been stagnant for a while, you could even look to rename it. 

How Can I Use Google Trends for Evergreen Products?

In Google trends, evergreen products tend to spike and dip repeatedly throughout the year. But the main thing to try to understa nd is whether consumer interest in a particular product is growing or lessening YoY. If Google Trends indicates that search interest is growing YoY, it’s likely a great product to consider adding to your dropshipping store.

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