Brainstorm product ideas with ChatGPT

What you'll make

A filtered list of 15–20 product ideas for your Etsy or ecom store, scored on demand, competition and fit with your skills — so you can pick 2–3 to research further instead of starting from a blank page.

What you need

• A ChatGPT account
• Your interests or skills (e.g. "I'm good at design", "I know a lot about fitness", "I enjoy writing")
• A platform in mind (Etsy, Shopify, etc.)
• 25 minutes

Steps

1. Tell ChatGPT about yourself and ask for ideas:

I want to start selling products online. Here's what I know about myself:

My interests: [list 3–5 things you genuinely care about]
My skills: [list 2–3 things you're good at — design, writing, research, etc.]
My platform: [Etsy / Shopify / other]
My budget to start: [low / moderate / flexible]
Time I can spend: [hours per week]

Based on this, generate 20 product ideas that fit my skills and interests. For each idea, tell me:
1. The product (specific — not "t-shirts", but "t-shirts with [specific theme] designs")
2. Why it fits my skills and interests
3. Who the target buyer is
4. Whether it's a physical product, digital product, or print-on-demand
5. What makes this idea different from what's already common in the market

Don't suggest generic dropshipping products (phone cases, generic mugs, plain t-shirts with text). I want ideas with a specific angle.

2. Ask ChatGPT to filter the ideas:

Now score each of the 20 ideas on these factors (1–5 scale):
- Demand: is there evidence people search for this? (based on what you know about trends and search behaviour)
- Competition: how saturated is this on [Etsy / Shopify]? (5 = very saturated, 1 = wide open)
- Skill fit: how well does it match my skills and interests?
- Effort to start: how much upfront work before I could list the first product?

Give each idea a total score and rank them from best to worst. Then tell me the top 3 and why.

3. For the top 3, ask ChatGPT for a first-step action plan:

For the top 3 ideas, tell me the very first thing I should do to validate each one before investing time in creating it. Not a full plan — just the first step. Something I could do in under an hour to check if this idea has legs.

4. Pick one idea. Do the first-step validation for it. If it checks out, move to the next step (researching competitors, creating a prototype, or writing your first listing).

Check your result

• The 20 ideas are specific (not generic categories) and each has a clear angle
• The scoring considers competition, not just demand — a high-demand, high-competition idea is not automatically good
• The top 3 match your actual skills and interests, not just what's trending
• Each top idea has a concrete first validation step you could do in under an hour

ChatGPT can't see real-time market data — its demand and competition scores are estimates based on what it knows, not live search volumes. Use the scoring to prioritise, then validate with real tools: search Etsy for the product and see how many results come up and how many sales the top shops have.