40+ Consumer Product Trends: What to Sell in 2022 on Shopify?

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Your Shopify store runs pretty well, but you want to boost sales? Or you are planning to start your own retail business and looking for the right merchandise to kick off? The best approach to begin with is to study consumer trends. With the knowledge under your belt, you have all the chances to not only thrive through peak seasons and survive through off-peak ones, but to grow profits consistently.

As the new year is looming, sales trend data can aid in predicting demand to build an efficient sales strategy or to narrow down an assortment of goods to sell online. The article overviews current consumer trends and items with the potential to become best sellers in 2020, valid both for Shopify and other trading platforms. In addition, it includes brief guidelines on how to find more trending eCommerce products through Internet research.

About Consumer Trends in General

The ability to feel, or rather identify, shifts, and tendencies of retail demand is a key skill for a successful Shopify merchant. It helps visualize a perspective for developing business. Based on the available data, the three major trends are expected to govern the 2020 eCommerce market:

• Consumers are becoming more conscious.

This means people are more meticulous about choosing food to eat, clothes to wear, and things for day-to-day use. Pursuing a healthier lifestyle dictates buying quality merchandise, preferably labeled as organic, or bio, or free from harmful additives. 

Shoppers also pay more attention to how and where goods are manufactured and tend to abandon plastic and other artificial materials in favor of natural options. Customers are also more careful about brands, looking into how they implement sustainability practices and social policy.

• Digitalization is accelerating.

Both business and our daily routines are going increasingly digital. In the world of commerce, global technology expenditures amounted to $3,360 billion in 2019. Major drivers are the Internet of Things, augmented reality, and 5G networks.

Non-business customers purchase more digital gadgets, too. Firstly, because the devices are now more affordable than before and become outdated very quickly. Secondly, hi-tech novelties, such as smart home or robotic technologies, create new niches and shopping opportunities.

• Customer experience is in the spotlight.

Today’s trade is all about personalization, starting from how you complete a purchasing flow to the additional features an item on sale ends up having. Brands are launching entire product lines customized to particular consumer categories (e.g., teenagers, aged people).

Shoppers want merchandise not only to meet personal preferences but also to emphasize individuality. User-friendly, custom, personalization are becoming keywords in online shopping search.

The three trends are like the lighthouse guiding your trade ship thought the sea of eCommerce. However, it is not only the right direction that is important—how you load your vessel matters, too. Therefore, let us investigate more thoroughly into the merchandise predicted to be high in demand next year.

Looking into 2020 Trending Products

This section highlights data on the 2020 best-selling merchandise from a number of sources, including Google Trend infographics. For easier navigation, all items are brought together under wider categories representing specific market niches.

High-Tech Devices and Related Extras

Driven by the digitalization trend, the demand for the following smart gadgets and accessories demonstrates a stable growth:

• Wearables—meaning gadgets that one wears on the body or attached to clothing.  Since the technology has become more affordable, it is gaining popularity among hi-tech fans from year to year. Best-selling examples are a fitness tracker and a smartwatch.

• Screen protectors hit the top of eCommerce sales lists because they are widely used for devices consumers use in large quantities both at home or at work. Mobile phones, tablets, displays in various appliances—the item allows for thousands of possible applications.

• Wireless chargers make people less dependant on the stationary power supply (e.g., through mains sockets). The devices are not new to the market, but it is only recently that they have become cheap enough for large-scale purchasing. The sales proceeds for the gadgets are expected to reach over 22 billion USD by 2022.

Car Add-ons

The type of merchandise sells like hot cakes because a vehicle fitted out with all required options costs a lot more than a regular buyer can afford. A viable solution, in this case, is to order a car of basic configuration and equip it with a variety of accessories. The following items enjoy the most popularity among online shoppers:

• Rear cameras to keep drivers up to date about what’s going on behind their back

• LED lights to replace halogen lamps that have inferior performance and consume more energy

• Car holders and chargers for the convenience of charging and transporting mobile gadgets

Fashion Items

The leading eCommerce segment offers perhaps the widest selection of trending items to sell at a Shopify store. It is notable that consumer choices in this category are rather emotional than rational and highly dependant on regional and cultural peculiarities. Best-selling products comprise:

• Tight-fitting, or bodycon, dresses, gaining momentum since 2013 thanks to female R&B stars

• Apparel with collars—Peter-Pan style, taking up much of the top piece, or of elaborate shapes and designs.

• Polka-dot prints as in designer collections presented during the Spring 2020 fashion shows in New York.

• Neon-colored fabrics are expected to catch your eye in winter 2020 and later according to Paris fashion experts.

• Denim clothes are an all-season hit enjoying unfailing demand. The trick is to keep the stock up to date with the latest styles.

• Fleece items are rather northern-hemisphere specialties and demonstrate peak sales rates in winter.

• Floral dresses celebrating the good old femininity that is never out of demand or style.

• Lace bras—a best seller with a huge sales-boosting potential certified by the success of such Shopify vendors as Brayola and underbares.

• Cardigans—a good example of how an item can be adaptable to different climates, seasons, and localities.

• Crop tops have walked into stores right from the red carpet about five years ago and have been on the best-selling list ever since.

• Tank tops are a big trend for summer 2020. Offering prints on demand can be a good idea to gain extra profit.

• Men’s footwear has been gaining momentum, with the leading consuming regions being the USA and Australia.

• Funny-print or novelty-design socks have been in trend since 2014 and demonstrate stably growing sales rates peaking in the fourth quarter.

Lifestyle and Traveling

Nowadays, living a healthy life involves not only sports and a diet to keep one’s body in shape but also quality leisure time and trips. In terms of eCommerce, the trend is reflected in consumer demand for products, such as:

• Suitcases to keep luggage intact during travels.

• Smart organizers to pack efficiently.

• Sport bottles to hydrate bodies during the day or at a workout.

• Athleisure, including sports bras and leggings, to wear for a yoga class or to enjoy active hours.

• Safety footwear to make long trips as comfortable for one’s legs as possible.

• Posture-correcting devices are special straps or braces to help release the spine muscle tension and bring them into a healthier position.

Beauty Products and Accessories

Modern people have way more time to themselves than, say, a hundred years ago, including to care about their looks. Both female and male customers are willing to spend more on beauty products. At the same time, consumers have adopted a more conscious shopping approach and seek for personalization options. Taken that, the best sellers in the category are as listed below: 

• Beard oil—the item being among the top trending ones is a sign that the male grooming industry is thriving. Actually, the segment is reported to be worth over 29 billion USD by 2024.

• Drying lotion, which is a spot treatment substance for acne skin that you apply before sleep and rinse off as you wake up.

• Vegan cosmetics sales are to demonstrate a 6% growth in the forthcoming 12 months, echoing the green buying trend.

• Nail embellishments are used to create custom nail art. It is one of the top 2020 nail trends.

• Enamel pins—a trending fashion accessory on most eCommerce sites, including Shopify. A popular upselling option for the merchandise type is to offer personalized designs using various handicraft techniques.

• Hair clips and pins have no steep demand fluctuations throughout a year and keep steadily on top of best-selling beauty accessories.

Homeware

Home is a popular place to invest money into when it comes to shopping since it is our innate desire to feel comfortable where we live. In this category, demand is driven by interior and architectural design tendencies. The 2020 predictions on trending items in this class are as follows:

• Bathroom furniture and accessories, such as shower heads and stools.

• Glass utensils—jar sets to safekeep edibles or to create fancy home decor.

• Reusable straws in line with the sustainable consumption concept.

Baby Gear

Convenience, comfort, and conscious parenthood are the major demand drivers in this niche. Trend-setting products to sell online include:

• Baby carriers, enabling easier transportation and a closer bond between a child and a parent.

• Hip seats, claimed to reduce back strain when carrying a baby, keeping his or her weight right off your arms and shoulders.

• Convertible strollers, designed to accompany children through a number of growth stages, while meeting particular age needs.

• Wet wipes—a totally affordable item a store can use as an upselling opportunity. A general trend is to introduce organic or clean product lines.

• Breast-feeding pumps—a topic of heated discussions on specialized blogs, which adds to the hype around it; the idea is to make baby feeding less burdensome for a woman.

• Sippy cups, offered in a variety of fancy designs catering to different needs. Recent marketing know-how is to offer plastic-free or personalized options.

Pet Care Products

For some people, pets are like children, and they would spare no money to get them comfort living. Top sales hits are as listed below:

• Pet beds—the product has been favored consistently by pet lovers over the past five years, and the demand for it is not likely to decline any time soon.

• Slow-feeder bowls—the sales leaders are the USA and the UK mostly, but the worldwide trend for the merchandise is also uprising.

How to Do the Trending Search?

In case you are not satisfied with the trending product lists above, you can conduct research of your own, completing the two easy steps:

Step 1. Get your mindset on what you want to sell in your Shopify store. Look for inspiration in social media, such as Instagram or Facebook, read online blogs and specialized forums to be aware of what’s causing the biggest hype. Browse the catalogs of popular marketplaces.

Step 2. Compile a list of products you believe to be next year’s trendsetters based on the investigations. Check each item against the Google Trends data. From the resulting graphs, you will see how the demand for specific merchandise evolves over a year and multiple years, as well as how figures are distributed geographically.

With the data in hand, you can then make informed decisions about your selling strategy for the year 2020.

To Draw the Final Line

Although having your finger on the pulse of eCommerce trends is a working idea, this might not be the kind of inspiration or background knowledge you actually need. Going for trending items is a seemingly easy way and, unfortunately, no guarantee of success—competitive pressure may be too hard to handle. On the other hand, there are so many examples when merchants would kick off with an idea no one has ever heard of previously. No Google Trends data, no social media hype—and they would still succeed. So, make it your own way into the 2020 New Year!