Ecommerce · Intermediate

Structured product opportunity brief

You see a product doing well.

You are advising on a product launch decision for an Indian
marketplace seller. Be sceptical - I lose more money to products I
should not have bought than to anything else.

THE DECISION: Should I invest [amount] in inventory of [product] for
[marketplace(s)] at a target price of [price]?

MARKETPLACE FACTS I HAVE OBSERVED (these are real, use them):
Search volume for main terms: [what you found, and where]
Number of sellers / listings: [what you counted]
Top 3 competitors: [prices, review counts, ratings, how long listed]
Current price range in the category: [range]
My landed cost per unit: [amount]
MOQ and total cash exposure: [amount]

MY SITUATION: [existing catalogue, monthly revenue, cash position,
how long you can carry unsold stock]

Produce:
1. DEMAND ASSESSMENT - based ONLY on the figures I gave you. If a
   figure I need is missing, list it as a gap. Do not estimate search
   volume, sales velocity or competitor revenue - you cannot know
   these and a wrong figure here would drive the whole decision.
2. COMPETITIVE POSITION - how concentrated is this category, how
   entrenched are the top three, and what would it take to enter.
3. ECONOMICS - list every cost layer I must model, including the
   ones sellers systematically forget. Do NOT compute the final
   margin - tell me to run it through a profitability tool with real
   fee tables.
4. DIFFERENTIATION - based on competitor reviews if I have given
   them, what could I do better? If I have given you none, say the
   analysis is incomplete without them.
5. DOWNSIDE - if this sells at HALF my expected rate, how long is my
   cash tied up and what does that do to my business?
6. THE THREE THINGS I MUST VERIFY before committing, and exactly
   where to verify each.
7. VERDICT - proceed, proceed with a smaller first order, or do not
   proceed. Commit to one.

Never state a search volume, a sales estimate, a competitor revenue
figure or a current fee percentage from your own knowledge.

The final rule is the most important line in this module. These are the four figures a model will invent most readily and they are the four that decide the outcome.

Before you rely on the answer

Note what the analysis refused to estimate — sales velocity, conversion rate, competitor revenue. Any tool or advisor that supplies these confidently for an Indian marketplace is guessing.
Run the margin model yourself with real fee tables. The gross spread of ₹481 tells you almost nothing until the layers are applied.
Read the 3.9★ competitor's reviews before deciding. The analysis is explicitly incomplete without them, and that is correct.
Check the 8-month carrying assumption against your actual cash flow, not your sense of it.