One market research challenge for e-business is the fact that, at times, e-businesses are creating entirely new markets that have not existed before. As an example, consider the online bookselling market pioneered by Amazon and the online travel mark?

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Monica Stott answered
It is absolutely vital to conduct market research before launching an online e-business. It would be unwise to invest money into anything without first formally establishing whether or not there is a market for it. It can, at times, be easy to become carried away with a new idea and overly zealous entrepreneurs may want to begin working on their new e-business immediately, but any sensible business person will first do as much market research as possible.

It is important to remember that even if you believe something is a fantastic idea, it does not mean that everyone else will agree or even that there are enough customers to ensure that a business is profitable so it is important to work out how much of a certain product needs to be purchased in order to make a reasonable profit.

It can be difficult to conduct market research into a unique business idea; one of the first questions you should ask yourself is whether or not it genuinely is unique. If the answer is no, this is not necessarily a bad thing (as long as the exact same thing hasn't been done before) as a unique idea doesn't guarantee success.

Begin by researching online businesses that are similar to your idea or have the same target audience. Do not be afraid to contact them directly and ask why they do not sell the product and service that you intend to offer. There may be a genuine reason why they don't sell it and it is important to acknowledge this early on.

It would seem sensible to conduct your research online as it would be an online business. Surveys and questionnaires are old fashioned and largely ignored by the majority of people who are too busy to fill them out. Join online forums that are related to the product you intend to sell. There are forums for virtually everything so find the most suitable one and start talking to your target audience. These are the people who could potentially buy your product so ask them what they think about your idea. Place a gimmick advert somewhere online and see how many responses you get for it.

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