Product Evaluation Checklist
When developing new products for consumer or business markets, these are the important factors that you want to consider before and during the new product development stages. The focus of this list are factors that are related to selling via direct channels, but they also apply to some degree to all products.
- Marketability
- How large is the potential market?
- How important is the need that the product fills?
- Can the customer buy the product easily in a store or from your e-commerce competitors?
- Profitability
- Who is the total and yearly profitability estimate?
- Can the product be sold at 3 to 4 times your product costs? This is important for solo product offers such as those sold through infomercials or solo direct mail.
- Does the product lend itself to repeat business?
- What is the ratio of total profit to total investment?
- Investment
- How much investment will the project require?
- How many units must be sold before the investment is recouped?
- Legal
- Is the product strictly legal?
- Is the product completely safe?
- Can there be any legal repercussions through use or misuse of the product?
- Mailing/Shipping
- Can the product be shipped and mailed?
- Is the product breakable?
- Can the product be shipped at low costs?
- Purchasing
- Does the product require long lead times to purchase?
- Can the product be reordered?
- Will the vendor accept product returns for defective or returned product?
- Are there high refurbishing costs associated with the product?