Why Google Trends is one of the best product research & eCommerce tools
There is one crucial reason to use Google Trends for eCommerce: to ensure we move with demand, rather than against it. Whether we're doing product research, optimizing existing listings, or a variety of other eCommerce tasks, Google Trends will help us ensure we're always aligned with the market for optimal results.
(If you aren't familiar with Google Trends, get up-to-speed before jumping into this guide.)
Advantages of Google Trends for eCommerce
There are many advantages to using this unique data set for eCommerce, including but not limited to:
The Most Honest Data: Data from Google Trends captures genuine user interests and concerns that are not typically shared in surveys or other research. Many consumers say they’re more honest with Google search than with their own spouse. This provides unparalleled insight into what people truly care about, want, or fear—offering a raw, unfiltered view of consumer behavior that can be invaluable for market research, product development, and identifying emerging trends.
Plenty of Historical Analysis: Access to over two decades of data allows for long-term trend analysis and tracking shifts in consumer demand and preferences. This helps eCommerce brands identify emerging product opportunities, understand the life cycle of trends, and make smarter decisions about which products to introduce, phase out, or promote.
Real-Time Data: Conversely, it also provides up-to-the-minute data, allowing eCommerce specialists to react quickly to emerging trends before they appear in other tools for more time-sensitive opportunities.
Customizable Queries: Users can explore keywords based on their own curiosity, not on select terms that are pre-curated, as is often the case with other trend analysis tools, such as Pinterest or TikTok.
Unrestricted Queries: While Google Ads prohibits certain subjects like cryptocurrencies, alcohol, and medicine, Trends provides unrestricted access to all keywords. Unfortunately, many trend analysis tools only rely on Google’s Adwords API to gather search data, therefore providing limited insights.
Massive Scale of Data: Google processes trillions of searches annually, making the dataset extremely large and diverse. This also means there’s less bias towards a single demographic, so a given analysis is far less likely to be skewed.
In this guide, we'll explore how to apply this powerful tool to product research and eCommerce, beginning with discovering a profitable product opportunity.
Let's get started.
Use case #1: Discover a trending product to sell
Let’s imagine we’re an apparel retailer deciding which product to add to our catalog. Since we understand that so much of a product’s success depends on the market, we want to validate demand before spending thousands of dollars developing anything.
Google Trends can help with this, yet because it’s a search tool, one key question remains: Which keywords do we enter?
If we don’t have a specific product in mind, it’s best to start broad and narrow down based on the data. As an apparel store, we’ll begin by exploring different subcategories within apparel.
Generating subcategories
To determine which category to explore more deeply, we can use Google or an LLM with a prompt like, “top categories of apparel by fashion style.” Adding “by fashion style” helps filter out categories with limited growth potential, such as basic items like shirts or pants, which mainly fluctuate with seasonal demand.
With this prompt, ChatGPT provides the following categories:
Streetwear
Bohemian (boho)
Minimalist
Vintage/Retro
Preppy
Athleisure
Goth/Alternative
Casual/Everyday
High/Luxury Fashion
Glam/Party Wear
We'll look each of these up within Google Trends to find the most promising option, but before doing so, we need to know what we're looking for.
Try it yourself: Use your preferred method to generate a list of subcategories.
What makes a promising trend
While many of the apparel subcategories that ChatGPT provided likely contain trending products, we ideally want a product whose greater category also shows long-term growth potential. This reduces the risk of choosing a short-lived fad and also allows room for future expansion.
Therefore, before diving into any particular subcategory, we need to learn what makes a Google Trends result promising in the first place.
After consistently spotting trends like TikTok, OnlyFans, pickleball, and others before they became the cultural movements they are today, we’ve crystalized a few criteria in Google Trends results that indicate a topic is likely to continue growing exponentially.
Note: these graphs are from the Glimpse extension, which adds the absolute monthly volume, year-over-year growth, and a trend line that adjusts for both the seasonal and noise components.
Continuous increase in search interest over a multi-year time horizon, especially the past year. Here’s an ideal trajectory:
Flatter trajectories like this can seem promising, but are unlikely to build enough momentum to start a meaningful wave soon:
Avoid “rollercoasters” like this as they’re usually not organic growth, but rather impermanent boosts in interest from a media event or advertising campaign:
This includes trends like this that show momentary spikes in interest, yet a flat trajectory overall:
Narrowing our search
Now that we know what to look for, let’s revisit our list of apparel subcategories.
Searching each subcategory on Google Trends and applying the above criteria, “luxury fashion” emerges as the most promising option, with a steady, long-term rise in search interest.
From here, we'll identify specific products within the luxury fashion subcategory that are ripe opportunities. We can use the same approach as earlier and ask Google or an LLM like ChatGPT for subcategories with a prompt like, "subcategories of luxury fashion."
While this is a fine place to start, it's worth noting that this approach has some limitations to be aware of.
First of all, many Google results for searches on anything trend-related will be misleading, as media claims often prioritize novelty over accuracy. Additionally, LLMs like ChatGPT may:
Suggest incorrect terminology, leading to missed opportunities.
For example, GPT suggested “high fashion,” a category in steady decline, while “luxury fashion” has shown consistent growth. Always check multiple variations of a phrase before ruling it out.
Recommend topics that are actually declining as they don’t have a sense of scale or trajectory
Miss under-the-radar opportunities due to their design to produce average results
Hallucinate, or generate incorrect or misleading information
To address these issues, we could use social media to spot timely topics, but this method can be time-consuming and prone to fads.
Glimpse, an extension that enhances Google Trends, offers a simple and reliable method to spot emerging trends by tracking every keyword searched online, categorizing them, and then highlighting those with sustained growth.
For instance, here are the top 5 results for trending keywords within the Fashion & Apparel category, any of which could be ideal product opportunities.
While the focus of this guide is on Google Trends, we’ll reference Glimpse where relevant to highlight additional insights.
Assuming we don't have access to Glimpse, we'll use ChatGPT to generate a list of subcategories that we can then view on Google Trends. This approach reveals that “luxury watch,” “luxury handbag,” “cashmere sweater,” and “loafers” are all promising options.
To determine which is the ripest opportunity, we’ll use the Compare feature to overlay search trajectories and compare relative volumes.
Among these options, loafers come out on top with the highest volume and growth, making them a strong candidate for our catalog.
Instead of manually comparing dozens of products within a category, we could also use Glimpse’s Related Trends feature, which automatically recommends trending keywords related to our exact keyword.
For instance, here are the results for “loafers”, which provide a number of other product opportunities to explore once we're done with loafers.
However, we’re not yet ready to move on from loafers, as we'll first need to pull key insights using Google Trends other features, then find the specific variation of loafers (think style, material, brand, etc.) that’s growing the fastest.
Try it yourself: Apply the trend criteria to your list of subcategories to find the most promising option, then repeat the process with products. Lastly, compare the top products to each other to find the ripest opportunity.
Pulling insights on a product
After identifying loafers as a product opportunity, we can use Google Trends to gather additional insights to confirm it’s a fit before diving deeper.
This first thing we likely want to confirm is that demand is growing in our target market. Google Trends defaults to a worldwide view, but we can use the location filter to focus on our specific market. In this case, we’ll select the United States.
Demand does seem to be growing, although the trajectory has flattened slightly in the past couple of years.
We also notice significant seasonal demand variations in interest, with peaks in spring and fall and dips in winter and summer. Should we choose to introduce a loafer-related product, aligning our launch with these peaks in interest would be crucial.
If these seasonal patterns are hard to detect, Glimpse's Seasonality panel can help us visualize them more clearly and understand what drives them.
If we want to know which areas within the US are the most interested in loafers, we can refer to the Interest by Region section.
Here, we see that New York, Maryland, and DC all rank highly, making them ideal regions for further research or targeted marketing.
It’s important to clarify that this ranking doesn’t reflect the total number of searches for loafers by region. If it did, the most populous regions would always come out on top.
Instead, the ranking is based on the percentage of loafer-related searches relative to all searches in that region (read our complete guide to Google Trends for a more detailed explanation.
If we do want to see which regions perform the most searches for loafers, then we can refer to the absolute volume ranking within Glimpse.
If our market is flexible, then we can use this data to launch our product in whichever region is growing the fastest.
In this case, it looks like demand in the Philippines is growing more quickly than any other top region.
Try it yourself: Confirm interest is growing in your market, check for seasonality, and explore top regions to understand your product more deeply.
Finding our winning variation
Now that we’ve pulled some insights on loafers, it's time to pinpoint the highest-growth variation.
We’ll use an LLM again for ideation on search prompts and then compare results within Google Trends. The Related Queries section of the tool can also help, though results can be hit-or-miss and overlap with common search prompts.
After testing different variations in material, style, and demographic, we discover that “leather penny loafers for women” have the highest growth.
While this specific long-tail lacks enough search volume to visualize, by comparing related terms (e.g., “penny loafers men” vs. “penny loafers women” and “penny loafers leather” vs. “penny loafers suede”), we confirm it’s the leading variation.
To streamline this process, Glimpse’s People Also Search panel highlights the most common attributes people search alongside a product. These results provide a few more variations we could explore, such as loafers with heels or tassels.
Lastly, we find that brands like Loro Piana, G.H. Bass, and Dr. Marten’s are trending upward. Identifying the common thread among these brands can help us better position our product to align with current consumer preferences.
Glimpse includes a “Brand” filter in the People Also Search panel to make this process easier, too.
Try it yourself: Search and compare variations on Google Trends to pinpoint your exact offer.
Conclusion to discover a trending product
And that’s it! Now that we have a winning variation, we can begin the process of understanding the competitive landscape and determining our positioning.
We can apply this systematic approach to any category, starting broad and progressively narrowing down to find the most in-demand product variation.
For example, if we followed the same steps in the "Home tech" category, we could discover that searches for "doorbell cameras" have steadily grown since 2015.
Then, if we used Glimpse's People Also Search or some other tool, we’d uncover the variation "doorbell camera for RV,” which we could use to differentiate our product, craft creative ads, and optimize our SEO for a niche market.
Our imagination is truly the limit.
Now try it out yourself, and use Google Trends to discover your next winning product.
And, if you’re looking for even deeper insights, consider signing up for the Glimpse extension to spot under-the-radar opportunities before anyone else.
Use case #2: Optimize product listings with trending keywords
In addition to product research, Google Trends is excellent for helping us optimize eCommerce listings with trending keywords.
As consumer needs change, new demand can emerge for existing products under different names. For example, searches for “LED light strips” hit a peak in 2020, but some retailers capitalized better than others.
As TikTok creators sought better lighting, a "new" product emerged: TikTok lights. Retailers who added TikTok-related keywords to their listings captured this surge, while others missed out on extra sales despite selling the same product.
Staying updated on how consumers talk about products is crucial—and Google Trends can help.
First, we choose a keyword to investigate, such as “plush toy.” Then, we type it in a regular Google search, followed by “vs” to see the auto-suggest recommendations.
“Stuffed animal”, “soft toy”, and “plushie” all seem like possible terms for our product. We can repeat this process with the results to uncover even more variations, like “plushie.”
From here, we’ll first confirm they are the same thing by searching them on Google (they are), then compare their trajectories on Google Trends.
It seems that “plushie” is an increasingly common term, even topping searches for “stuffed animal.” If we weren’t aware of this, we would miss out on an increasing number of sales every year despite selling the same product.
With Glimpse, an extension that enhances Google Trends, this process is even easier. The Topic Map shows related topics, and the “Vs” section in People Also Search highlights the most common comparisons, helping us spot opportunities to refine our listings and capture more sales.
Try it yourself: Enter your core keywords into Google, followed by “vs”, and see what pops up. Then, compare search interest in those terms to your current terminology and ensure you have related variations in your product listings.
Use case #3: Benchmark internal performance
While internal analytics tell us how our sales are doing, they don’t reveal how we’re performing relative to the overall market. To know this, we can compare Google Trends data with our own numbers to determine if we’re outperforming or underperforming market growth, which will inform product and marketing decisions.
For example, let's imagine we sell luxury watches. We'll begin by calculating the growth in search interest, entering "luxury watch" into Google Trends and setting the location to the U.S.
Eyeballing the graph, we can gauge that Q3 2024 interest was an average of ~50, up from ~40 in Q3 2023—a growth of roughly 25%.
For more precise results, we can download the raw data and calculate the average interest from October 1, 2023, to September 30, 2024, and compare it with the previous year. This gives us values of 51.85 and 43.79, showing a 19% YoY growth.
To make this precise calculation easier, Glimpse provides a yearly, quarterly, and monthly growth rate for every query, along with absolute monthly search volume.
Once we have the market growth rate, we can compare it to our own performance. For example, if our luxury watch sales are flat or up only 5% YoY, it indicates we’re underperforming. However, if sales are up 50%, it shows we’re outperforming the market and capturing demand more effectively than competitors.
Try it yourself: Calculate the search interest growth rate for your core products, then compare it against your internal sales data to benchmark your performance.
Use case #4: Manage inventory
Using Google Trends to guide inventory decisions can help us avoid costly mistakes. Here’s a scenario:
It’s November, and we notice candles flying off the shelves everywhere. Seeing this, we decide to invest heavily in stocking up on candles, anticipating strong demand. The problem? It takes two months to get the inventory, and by then, demand has dropped by 50%.
On the flip side, imagine we’ve been selling candles since March and expect demand to remain steady. Instead, demand more than doubles, and we sell out just before the peak in December—missing out on significant sales.
Try it yourself: Search your core products on Google Trends to measure their seasonality and more effectively plan inventory.
Use case #5: Inform catalog decisions
If we’re unsure about restocking a slow-selling product, trend data can guide us.
If search interest in the product is rising, the issue might be with our positioning, quality, or lack of awareness. On the other hand, if the trend is declining, we might be better off reallocating resources to a different product.
Try it yourself: Search your slowest-selling product on Google Trends to determine if it is an internal or external issue.