Launching a new product is exciting, but excitement alone won’t drive sales. You need to find the people who actually need what you’re selling. About 20% of businesses fail within their first year, often because they never figured out if anyone really wanted their product.
When you get product-market fit right, your product solves a real problem that customers care about. Your buyers become your biggest fans, telling their friends and family about you. It’s the difference between a product that takes off and one that never finds its groove.
This guide shows you what product-market fit looks like, how to test if your product idea will work, and how to use customer feedback and marketing strategies to connect with people who’ll love what you’re building.
What is product-market fit?
Product-market fit is when your product meets real demand in the market. You’ve built something that solves a problem people actually have—and they’re willing to pay for it. You get there by testing your ideas, listening to customers, and being smart about product marketing.
How product-market fit has changed
Product-market fit isn’t something you nail once and forget about. It shifts as your customers’ needs change. The pandemic really sped this up. People’s expectations are totally different now than they were a few years ago.
Today’s shoppers want things to be easy, flexible, and personal. They expect smooth online experiences and actually care about whether brands are authentic and sustainable. With AI getting better at personalization, you need to really understand your audience to create offers that click with them.
Remote work and online shopping have completely reshaped how people buy things. Products that used to do great in physical stores need to prove themselves online, where customers give feedback faster and expect more.
You can’t just set and forget your product strategy anymore. You need to continuously monitor how you’re doing, adapt when things change, and listen to what your customers are telling you through their actions and words to avoid costly business mistakes. Getting product-market fit right today means building experiences that make customers happy no matter how they interact with you.
Why product-market fit matters for your business
Product-market fit is one of the best early signs that your business will succeed. When your product clicks with your target customers, growth starts happening naturally. People refer their friends and community, leave glowing reviews, and keep coming back to buy more.
Businesses with strong product-market fit don’t have to throw money at ads hoping something sticks. Their existing customers do the marketing for them. Happy buyers bring in new customers, which brings in even more customers.
Without product-market fit, you might get stuck spending tons on advertising just to get people interested. Your conversion rates stay low, customers don’t stick around, and scaling feels impossible.
Product-market fit also helps you stand out from the competition. The ecommerce market is packed with similar products these days. When you achieve fit, your product naturally rises above the noise, because it solves a real problem better than what’s already out there.
Once you have that fit, you can invest in growing your product with confidence, knowing you’ve built something people genuinely want.
Examples of product-market fit in action
These brands found their sweet spot by solving real problems their founders experienced firsthand. Each discovered strong demand by listening to customers and testing their ideas before going all-in.
LatchLight
When Julie Carty became a new mom, she hit a wall with nighttime feedings. Her top-rated bedside lamps were either too harsh—waking up the whole family—or too dim to see clearly. “I hated my lighting setup at home, and I had the ’best’ bedside table lights,” Julie says on Shopify Masters.
Recognizing the gap, Julie decided to fill it. She created LatchLight, a wearable, soft-glow light made for nighttime baby feedings. It directs light right to where you need it, glows in the dark so you can find it easily, and keeps your hands free for getting a strong latch.
Julie spent two and a half years developing and tweaking LatchLight, getting feedback from other moms and lactation consultants. Her process made sure the product met real needs. The buzz and word of mouth among parents showed that LatchLight had nailed product-market fit—it solved a specific problem with a thoughtful, user-informed solution.
Hero Packaging
Anaita Sakar, cofounder of Hero Packaging, found product-market fit for her compostable shipping bags by becoming her own first customer. The idea hit her while packing orders for her previous business.
“I just wanted to use packaging that was better for the environment,” Anaita says on Shopify Masters. But nothing worked well. “Boxes were way too expensive to ship. I looked into paper, and it was great—it was recyclable and compostable—but not waterproof.” That’s when she got the idea for a waterproof, plastic-like mailer that would break down naturally.
To test her idea, Anaita asked other small business owners if they’d be interested in switching to this type of packaging. “It was a resounding yes,” she says.
Anaita tested the market before launching using search ads: “We targeted people on Google, so we were hitting anyone that was typing in ’sustainable packaging’ with a landing page and they would get a free sample,” Anaita says. “We thought we were going to get about 30 or 40 sign-ups for free samples, and in a week we got a thousand people.”
That test showed Hero’s founders there was already a sizable audience looking for exactly what their product offered.
A growing market of ecommerce businesses needing shipping materials, plus rising consumer concern about waste, equaled product-market fit for Hero’s compostable bags.
Heyday Canning Co.
Heyday Canning Co., maker of flavored canned beans, found product-market fit by shaking up what cofounder Kat Kavner calls “a sleepy category”—canned foods.
“Maybe I’m biased here, but I’m kind of a proponent of looking at the boring, very unsexy categories and stopping to think about why those categories have been overlooked for so long,” Kat says on Shopify Masters. Kat and her cofounder, Jaime Lynne Tulley, had a hunch that the canned-food industry was ready for a makeover.
“There seemed to be an opportunity to take all of the good stuff about canned food—how convenient it is, being shelf-stable—and create food for today’s consumer, who knows great food and really values great flavor and premium quality and doesn’t always have the time to cook completely from scratch,” Kat says.
Before jumping into product development, Kat and Jaime tested their theory by researching what was already out there. “We saw what we expected to be true—that there was this big hole in the category and that there was no startup brand that was pushing the limits to reimagine what canned food could be,” Kat says.
After doing their market research and spotting the opportunity, Heyday’s founders knew they had found product-market fit.
Their Jewelry
When Lauren and Alexander Ludwig founded Their Jewelry, they were filling a huge gap in the market. “I have a metal allergy to anything copper or brass, and in so many jewelry companies that’s the base metal that they use,” Lauren says on Shopify Masters, “So I wanted to create a line that shied away from using those types of metals and things that are a common allergy to so many people.”
They knew other people faced the same challenges, so they saw a chance to create pieces that were both beautiful and hypoallergenic.
But the Ludwigs didn’t stop there. They noticed a growing demand for transparency and sustainability in fashion. In an industry often criticized for environmental damage and murky supply chains, Lauren and Alexander set out to be different. They became the first company to partner with the Artisanal Gold Council, supporting small-scale miners and promoting ethical gold sourcing.
Their commitment to sustainability touched every part of their business. From using recycled materials to ensuring fair labor practices, Their Jewelry built trust with customers who cared about authenticity and responsibility.
The company’s growth, loyal following, and glowing reviews point to clear product-market fit. Brand values, quality, and aesthetics all match what customers want from their buying experience.
How to find product-market fit
Finding product-market fit takes work, but you don’t have to figure it out alone. We talked with Andrew Chen, general partner at Andreessen Horowitz and author of The Cold Start Problem, to get his framework for nailing product-market fit.
- Start with a simple visualization exercise
- Understand the importance of a good market vs. a good product
- Prove your product concept
- Use customer feedback to shape your product
- Position your product correctly
- Leave room for change
1. Start with a simple visualization exercise
To understand what product-market fit looks like, Andrew suggests a simple exercise: Picture a coffee cup.
A coffee cup has clear features everyone gets—it holds hot liquids, has a handle so you don’t burn yourself, and lasts through repeated washing. The clarity means it has product-market fit; people instantly understand what it does and why they need it.
Now apply this same thinking to your product idea.
Product clarity template:
- Purpose: Define your product’s main function in one sentence.
- Key features: List three core features customers immediately understand.
- What makes it different: Identify what sets your product apart from what’s already available.
- Simplicity check: Could someone new to your product instantly grasp its main benefit?
Fill in this template for your product idea. If your answers aren’t as clear or obvious as those for a coffee cup, go back to your concept. Consider simplifying your features or sharpening your messaging until your target audience can instantly understand the problem your product solves and why it matters.
2. Understand the importance of a good market vs. a good product
Finding product-market fit often means identifying a strong market—one that’s big, growing, and looking for solutions—then adapting your product to meet what that market wants. Even the most brilliant product won’t succeed without a market that’s ready for it.
Some entrepreneurs use tools like a business model canvas template to map out their target customers, value propositions, and key activities. Frameworks like SWOT analysis can help clarify how your product aligns with your intended market.
Elad Burko, founder and CEO of accessory business Paperwallet, emphasizes this process. “You mold your product to fit a market by listening to the market,” he says. “Listen to your customers. Take your product to the customer, try to sell it to them. Understand what’s important to them, what’s not important to them. … If there are features in your product that the customer doesn’t care about, get rid of them.”
3. Prove your product concept
So you have a product idea. Before building a minimum viable product (MVP) to share with your audience, Andrew suggests asking some tough questions. “How do you pick a set of features that give the proper ’‘twist’ that exists between two extremes?” he asks. “How do you dial down your fancy new concept and take a few small steps, but not all the way, toward something that consumers already understand?”
Once you consider those questions and create your first version or MVP, you need to prove that customers want to buy what you’ve built. Sounds simple, but until you get your first few sales, you won’t get feedback—which limits your ability to know how you’re doing or what changes might help.
Nimi Kular, cofounder of Jaswant’s Kitchen, a business selling all-natural Indian seasonings, says the best way to validate your product is to start making sales. “Market research, surveys, and feedback from friends and family can point you in the right direction,” says Nimi, “but real product validation only happens when money changes hands. For us, that happened at the first few shows we went to, where complete strangers bought our product. That’s when we knew we were fulfilling a genuine need with a product people would pay for.”
Real sales aren’t the only way to prove that a product will work, though. Here are a few other approaches:
Use crowdfunding to establish proof of concept
Crowdfunding sites provide a built-in audience already interested in supporting new product ideas. It creates a low barrier to try out your idea and see how the market responds.
Elad recommends putting your products on Kickstarter to test your market. Even if your product doesn’t hit your goal this round, you’ll gain a base of backers to help you get it right—which might just mean changing up your marketing messaging.
“It was an amazing way to connect to people who are passionate about what you’re doing with your product,” says Elad. This includes people who are “willing to give you the feedback that you need, be it positive or negative. You interact with them so that you can grow so that you can improve. And that’s invaluable to a business.”
Validate product ideas with organic marketing
The founders of Pantee, a sustainable fashion brand that turns deadstock t-shirts into underwear, used Instagram to validate product ideas from the start.
When Pantee had around 400 Instagram followers, the founders sent out direct messages via Typeform asking questions about favorite underwear styles, how much people were willing to pay for underwear, and how they felt about sustainability. The 200 responses they received helped drive product decisions while the team was still developing samples.
Cofounder Amanda McCourt used Instagram to do “a lot of community engagement. We didn’t just post one thing, we engaged with our audience. We spoke to them, listened to what they’re talking about, and what they liked. We did a lot of that and it has paid off.”
Using organic marketing channels is free, and it’s a great way to start building an engaged audience early. If you’re developing a new product for an existing business, get feedback on your idea from social media followers by posting polls and asking open-ended questions.
If you’re starting a new business, consider creating an account on whichever channel feels right for your brand before your products (or even your website) are ready. It’ll give you a direct line to your target customers who will be most likely to buy your products after launch.
Analyze product effectiveness with jobs to be done
Use the jobs-to-be-done framework to better understand if your product solves a problem for your customers. Think about it this way: Customers “hire” your product to do a job. You might hire a leash to keep your dog close on walks, or hire an umbrella to keep you dry in the rain. These products fulfill a need.
It’s less about what you buy a product to do (say, put a nail in the wall) and more about the result (hang this piece of art).
What “job” does your product idea do? Without a clear answer, it’ll be hard to find product-market fit.
Use AI tools for faster market validation
AI-driven platforms and analytics tools can help you validate your product idea quickly and get deeper insights into your target market. AI speeds up the process of analyzing consumer trends, purchasing behaviors, and online engagement data. This helps you identify viable opportunities and potential pitfalls you might otherwise miss.
Here are a few examples of AI-powered tools you can use:
- Google’s Vertex AI: Uses machine learning to analyze large datasets, uncovering customer preferences and emerging market trends.
- Crayon: Provides AI-powered competitive analysis to help you assess market gaps and competitor positioning.
- MonkeyLearn: Automates customer feedback analysis, using AI to quickly extract valuable insights from reviews, surveys, and social media.
4. Use customer feedback to shape your product
Building an open feedback loop with your customers, especially early on, is crucial for developing products your target audience loves. Those first customers are more invested in your product, more willing to stick with you while you work out problems, and more likely to give you honest feedback. They’re the best people to lean on as you grow your business, so making it easy for them to share feedback helps everyone.
Aaron Luo, CEO and cofounder of sports bag and accessory company Caraa, remembers his first 20 customers because of the amazing feedback they gave him. The key was being upfront with those customers that Caraa was new and wanted their input, Aaron says on Shopify Masters. He told customers, “Listen, we’re an emerging brand. This is our story. This is what we’re trying to fix in the market space, and here are our products, and we welcome any feedback.”
5. Position your product correctly
Customer feedback also shapes how you position your product. You could have a great product and a strong market, but if your marketing message misses the mark, your sales will too.
You need to understand your target audience and the problem they need solved. Elad shares a good example of this on Shopify Masters: The message isn’t “This wallet is made of paper yet doesn’t rip,” it’s “This wallet is low-profile, durable, water-resistant, and will last a long time.” The first message doesn’t offer a solution to a problem. The second message addresses common issues customers have with their current wallet.
There are several ways to get feedback on your marketing message:
- Meet potential customers in person: Bring your product to farmers markets, trade shows, or other events, and gather feedback on how you present your products. Getting interest—even if it’s only a little at first—helps you understand how you’re doing.
- Use social media to gauge reception: Building a customer base organically gives you product feedback, but it’s also a free way to see how people respond to your product positioning.
- A/B test different messages on paid channels: Paid advertising lets you test different types of messaging against each other to understand what clicks with your target market.
- Give samples to your employees: If your employees, coworkers, or friends are part of your target market, give them samples of your new product and ask what they think. If the language they use to describe the product doesn’t match your messaging, you might need to adjust.
6. Leave room for change
Even after you find product-market fit, both your customers’ needs and the needs of the larger market will keep changing. Maintain your entrepreneurial mindset and change with it. Keep those feedback loops open and keep tweaking your product and messaging. You’ll maintain product-market fit even as the market shifts or your customers want different things.
There are several ways you can keep the same product but adjust the positioning. “I always want to make sure that we refresh and stay consistent with language that’s really competitive,” says Roxana Ontiveros, product marketing lead at Topicals. “Maybe we need to update claims testing or maybe we need to do repackaging or really work on optimizing our product pages.”
Industry-specific considerations
Product-market fit isn’t one-size-fits-all—it changes based on what you’re selling and how your market works. The strategies and challenges you’ll face depend on whether you’re launching a physical product, offering a service, or building a subscription business.
Product-market fit for physical products
Physical products bring unique challenges when hunting for product-market fit. Unlike digital products, you’re dealing with real-world stuff like inventory management, manufacturing costs, supply chain headaches, and getting products to customers.
When launching a physical product, think about production timelines, shipping logistics, and how you’ll scale. You also have less wiggle room to change direction quickly compared to digital offerings, making that initial market validation even more important.
To achieve product-market fit for physical products:
- Prototype and test early: Get real prototypes in front of customers fast to gather feedback you can act on.
- Manage production risk: Start with smaller production runs to validate demand before committing to large-scale manufacturing.
- Build your supply chain: Create relationships with reliable suppliers so you can deliver consistent quality and scale when you’re ready.
- Iterate based on customer insights: Adjust your design, features, or packaging based on what customers tell you.
Product-market fit for services and digital products
For service-based businesses and digital products—think apps, subscriptions, and online tools—achieving product-market fit often looks different than it does for physical goods. These businesses can usually change direction quickly, but they also face the challenge of proving value in ways customers can’t touch or hold.
Instead of shipping something physical, your goal is to show that your service or digital product solves a clear problem and keeps users coming back. Because it’s easy for customers to switch and competition is fierce, customer retention and feedback become crucial.
To achieve product-market fit for services and digital products:
- Launch a minimum viable product (MVP): Release a simplified version of your product to test assumptions and gather early feedback.
- Track retention and engagement: Look at user behavior over time to spot patterns, drop-off points, and signs of long-term value.
- Personalize the experience: Use onboarding flows, AI tools, or dynamic features to tailor the product to each customer’s needs.
- Refine based on feedback loops: Collect user input through surveys, reviews, and usage data, and use it to guide updates and prioritize features.
Product-market fit for subscription-based businesses
Subscription-based businesses rely on recurring revenue, which means product-market fit means delivering ongoing value that keeps customers subscribed.
Retention matters just as much as acquisition. A customer who signs up but cancels after a month isn’t a sign of product-market fit. You need to show that your product continues to meet customer needs over time and justifies the repeat investment.
To achieve product-market fit in a subscription-based business:
- Track churn closely: High churn rates often signal a mismatch between your offering and customer expectations.
- Focus on early retention: What happens in the first 30-60 days is critical. Optimize onboarding to help customers see value fast.
- Deliver continuous value: Whether through new content, updated features, or added services, give customers a reason to stay.
- Use feedback loops to improve: Survey customers regularly and monitor behavior to fine-tune your offering and address pain points quickly.
How to measure product-market fit
There’s no single metric that proves you’ve found product-market fit, but several clear signs and measurable indicators suggest you’re on the right track. These signals often start as gut feelings and get stronger as your customer base grows and behavior patterns emerge.
User feedback
One of the earliest and most powerful indicators of product-market fit is what your customers say. As Roxana, head of brand at Topicals, puts it: “You know you’ve positioned the product correctly when [your audience] can clearly identify the problem that you’ve solved.”
For Topicals, this means running consumer perception studies. In one example, 96% of participants who used its Faded Serum said their dark spots and hyperpigmentation looked less visible after four weeks—strong proof that the product delivered on its promise.
You can gather user feedback through:
- Surveys and interviews
- User testing sessions
- Social listening and comment analysis
- Product reviews
Early signals of product-market fit include customers explaining the benefit your product provides without prompting, repeated praise for specific features, and growing organic interest. If customers describe your product the way you envisioned—and recommend it to others—you’re getting close.
Conversion rate
Your product page conversion rate offers another useful indicator. Roxana suggests looking at how many people visit your product description page (PDP), read it, and then buy. High conversion rates signal that your messaging clicks with what your target audience wants and needs.
Your PDP should communicate the problem your product solves, who it’s for, and what makes it different. If people land on the page and convert consistently, you’ve nailed the positioning and value proposition—key ingredients of product-market fit.
Net Promoter Score
Your Net Promoter Score (NPS) measures how likely customers are to recommend your product to a friend, typically on a scale from 0 to 10. While NPS primarily tracks customer satisfaction and loyalty, it can also signal product-market fit, especially when combined with other metrics.
High scores suggest customers not only like your product but believe in it enough to advocate for it.
Sales
The best gauge of product-market fit is whether people buy your product.
Early stage signs include:
- Products selling out consistently
- High repeat purchase rates
- Low return rates
- Organic sales growth without heavy paid marketing
If your product moves steadily and customer enthusiasm grows without constant advertising or promotions, you’ve found market resonance.
Retention metrics
Customer retention shows people aren’t just trying your product once—they’re coming back because it delivers consistent value.
Tracking retention metrics helps you understand whether your product meets long-term customer needs. Look at repeat purchase rates, subscription renewals, or monthly active users depending on your business model. If these numbers grow steadily (or stay high), your product has staying power in the market.
Customer retention strategies like personalized follow-up emails, loyalty programs, and exceptional customer service can reinforce value and deepen audience relationships. But even the best retention strategies won’t work unless you’ve nailed product-market fit. Customers won’t stick around for a product that doesn’t solve their problem.
High retention often reflects that you’ve reached the right audience, solved the right pain point, and created a product people can’t live without.
Word-of-mouth indicators
Organic referrals, social media mentions, and glowing reviews are word-of-mouth indicators that people love your product enough to recommend it.
When customers advocate for your brand, they’re emotionally invested. They see real value in your product and want others to benefit too. This kind of unpaid promotion is hard to fake and nearly impossible to buy, making it a reliable signal that you’ve struck the right chord with your market.
You can track word-of-mouth impact by monitoring:
- Referral program participation
- Social media shares and tags
- Positive reviews and testimonials
- Direct customer feedback (e.g., “My friend told me about this”)
Tools and resources
Finding and measuring product-market fit doesn’t have to be guesswork. A growing number of tools help founders and ecommerce teams gather insights, validate ideas, and track progress using data and AI.
Here are some of the most useful platforms and resources to guide your journey:
1. SurveyMonkey
Perfect for collecting structured customer feedback. Use it to run product surveys, NPS surveys, or quick polls to gauge whether customers feel your product meets their needs.
2. Typeform + Hotjar
Combine Typeform for customer surveys with Hotjar’s heat maps and behavior analytics to understand how users interact with your store and where they drop off.
3. Mixpanel
A powerful analytics tool designed for digital products, Mixpanel helps you track product usage and retention over time. Visualize customer behavior trends and engagement loops using dashboards—critical for assessing long-term fit.
4. Glew.io
Built for ecommerce, Glew integrates with Shopify and helps you track key metrics like conversion rate, repeat purchase rate, and customer lifetime value.
5. Sprig
Sprig lets you run in-app micro-surveys and gather real-time customer insights. It uses AI to analyze feedback and surface patterns, so you can quickly understand what’s working and what needs adjusting.
6. Google’s Vertex AI
For advanced users, Vertex AI can analyze large datasets, customer behavior, and sentiment trends to inform product development and positioning strategies.
7. Business Model Canvas Template
This simple but powerful framework helps you map out your value proposition, customer segments, and revenue streams—all foundational components of achieving product-market fit.
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Product-market fit FAQ
What is a good product-market fit score?
The answer depends on your specific product and market. A Net Promoter Score (NPS) of six or higher generally indicates some degree of product-market fit, but this isn’t a hard rule. What matters more is the combination of metrics—strong retention, organic growth, and passionate customer feedback all together paint a clearer picture than any single number.
What are good examples of product-market fit?
Strong product-market fit examples include products that solve clear problems for specific audiences and grow quickly through word of mouth. Topicals’ Faded Serum gained traction when 96% of users in a consumer study saw visible results, proving the product delivered on its promise. Another example is LatchLight, a wearable night light for new parents. It addresses a real pain point that resonates deeply with its target audience, leading to strong organic growth and customer advocacy.
How do you know if your product hasn’t achieved product-market fit?
Warning signs include struggling sales, high churn rates, customers who don’t return, and having to constantly push your product through heavy advertising without seeing organic growth. If you’re working harder and harder to get people interested—rather than customers naturally spreading the word—you probably haven’t found fit yet. To prevent this, spend time researching before launching your product. Interview potential customers, conduct market research, and analyze competitors to gauge your potential for success.
What does product-market fit mean?
Product-market fit means your product solves a real problem for a specific group of people, and they’re buying it, using it, and recommending it to others. It’s the point where your product meets strong market demand, and growth starts happening more naturally through satisfied customers and word of mouth.
How do you measure product-market fit?
You measure product-market fit by looking at both qualitative feedback and key performance metrics. Start by listening to your customers: Do they say your product solves a real problem? Are they coming back for more and telling others about it? Then look at the data:
- Repeat purchases or retention rates
- Conversion rates on your product pages
- Net Promoter Score (NPS)
- Organic referrals and word-of-mouth growth
How do you measure product-market fit in the age of AI and big data?
AI and big data make it easier to track product-market fit with precision. You can now analyze huge volumes of customer behavior, feedback, and sales trends in real time instead of waiting months for survey results.
To measure product-market fit accurately, use tools that:
- Track user engagement and retention over time (e.g., Mixpanel, Glew.io)
- Analyze customer sentiment from reviews, surveys, and social media using AI (e.g., Sprig, MonkeyLearn)
- Visualize trends and identify high-value customer segments through predictive analytics
How do emerging technologies alter our understanding of customer needs?
Emerging technologies like AI, machine learning, and predictive analytics give you a deeper, more dynamic view of customer behavior. Instead of relying solely on surveys or support tickets, you can now track real-time interactions, spot patterns, and anticipate what customers need before they even ask.
These tools help uncover hidden pain points, segment audiences more effectively, and personalize experiences at scale. As a result, you can respond faster, test ideas more efficiently, and refine your offerings based on data rather than just gut feelings.
