Product Testing: Examples and Tips for 2025

Product testing is critical for bringing any new product to market. Think of it as the final rehearsal before the big show. Whether it’s a new lip stain or a type of chocolate chip cookie, proper testing ensures your product is ready to hit the market in its best form. 

Since product testing requires upfront time and resources, retailers often skip it. To create the best products for your audience, however, you need to test them before launch. 

Testing new products doesn’t have to be overly complicated or expensive. Ahead, you’ll learn the various product testing methods and tips to ensure your products meet the highest quality standards.

What is product testing?

Product testing helps retailers evaluate a product’s performance among target markets. It lets you find the best products for consumers, identify cost savings, and meet regulations, ultimately allowing you to launch the best products.

Product testing also helps you meet regulatory compliance and reduce returns—both expensive issues to fix if you discover flaws after the non-tested product has launched.

The importance of product testing 

Retailers that want to launch new products quickly tend to overlook product testing. Thorough prelaunch testing offers the following advantages:

• Develop new products. If you’re taking a new product to market, you need to know if it will resonate with potential customers. Product testing helps you launch products people will actually buy. You’ll learn what customers think of your product, what they like or dislike about it, how they use it, and influential packaging options.
• Meet regulations. Extensive testing can help you ensure a product complies with government standards and protects your company from lawsuits. For example, if you sell candles, you must ensure they meet fire safety standards for candles and their accessories, such as maximum allowable flame heights, stability, and secondary ignitions. 
• Identify cost savings. To avoid upfront costs, some small businesses avoid product testing, but in doing so, they miss out on long-term gains and put their company at risk. Testing products can result in lower costs as a result of reducing the chance of defects and product failures, fewer repairs, and fewer returns and warranty payouts.
• Improve existing products. Creating a product people love is hard. Sometimes, you need to make continuous improvements to meet new expectations and market trends. Regular product testing gives you valuable qualitative data to renew existing products faster and uncover hidden use cases from the customer’s point of view. 
• Discover new use cases. Businesses develop products to solve specific problems but the ways customers sometimes use products can vary. The success of a product depends on its ability to meet its promises and fulfill its purpose. Rigorous testing ensures a product satisfies customer needs and builds brand trust before it hits store shelves. 

Types of product testing

Concept testing

Concept testing takes place once you start creating your product. It helps you test a product idea and try different concepts on potential customers before you invest in a prototype. The goal is to understand if a customer would actually buy your product. 

Prototype testing

A prototype is the first model of your product. It acts as a minimum viable product (MVP) to test with people and use as a sample for production. You can create a prototype on your own if you’re skilled in a particular discipline—like pottery if you’re a home interiors brand. If you own a fashion label, you may want to work with a seamstress or pattern maker to develop an MVP.

Quality testing

Quality testing helps identify any defects, issues, or areas for improvement. It typically involves functionality testing, which ensures the item works as intended, and performance testing, which checks how well it performs under certain conditions.

You can see this in action with a clothing retailer testing a new line of denim jeans. They might:

• Test the fit on different body types.
• Play with the zippers and buttons to test their durability.
• Run a shrinkage test to see how the material changes after being washed.
• Test the fabric for color retention after it’s ironed.

Usability testing

Beta testing or user testing phases are vital for understanding how real users interact with the product. For instance, users might struggle with an interface that seemed intuitive to the designers, revealing a need for a redesign. 

Perhaps the printed insert with instructions for assembling a children’s furniture set is too complicated, so you produce a short video to demonstrate the process instead.

Price testing

Price testing helps uncover your target market’s willingness to pay for the product. Instead of relying solely on competitor research or predetermined profit margins, price testing takes the product’s unique features, use cases, and opinions from the target market into consideration to determine the optimal retail price.

Product testing strategy

Without a well-defined product testing plan, teams can become reactive instead of proactive, addressing issues haphazardly as they arise rather than systematically. Clearly define what needs to be tested, who will do it, when, and how with this product testing strategy:

1. Conduct market research.
2. Assemble your focus group.
3. Choose a product testing method.
4. Launch the product test.
5. Soft-launch the new product.
6. Continually seek feedback.

1. Conduct market research

First, you need to decide on your target audience and the market needs. Understanding buyer preferences and interests allows you to validate and refine product concepts before investing in development. 

Business owners often hire market research firms or consultants, but given their love of spending time with customers, many retailers often conduct their own market research. 

2. Assemble your focus group

A focus group is the testing team interacting with your new product. This should be as diverse as possible—each member should bring varied perspectives that can catch issues that might not be obvious to others. For example, cultural differences can affect how a product is perceived, and what might be acceptable in one culture could be problematic in another.

A product testing website offers a broader audience and structured feedback opportunities. With them, you can reach testers who might be inaccessible otherwise. Be sure to vet these sites and understand their tester pool, data handling, and privacy policies.

Some of the best product testing websites include:

• Influenster
• Vocal Point
• Ipsos iSay
• UserTesting
• BzzAgent
• Home Tester Club

Before giving your product away for free, ensure everyone understands the testing protocols, assessment criteria, and ways to score the tested attributes. It also helps to host a session before testing starts to discuss any uncertainties or questions. 

3. Choose a product testing method

Researchers use two product testing methods to assess a product: central location test (CLT) and in-home use tests (IHUT). Both have their pros and cons.

Central location test (CLT)

A central location test (CLT) is typically used in conducting qualitative research. Tests take place in a controlled environment, like a room in a shopping mall. The goal of CLT is to get feedback on products in a face-to-face environment with reduced bias. 

There are a few ways to carry out your central location test:

• Monadic. Everyone focuses on one product and assesses how it would work if taken to market.
• Pair comparison. People compare two products and choose which one they like best. 
• Sequential monadic. People assess one product using the monadic model. Then, they assess a second product and compare the two. 

The main advantage of CLT is that testers monitor everyone in the same environment, eliminating outside influences and presenting material in the same way. You can also monitor and observe body language and reactions. 

People may ask questions in person that they might not have answered online. This works both ways: a researcher can ask questions based on a participant’s actions in real-time. As a result, researchers can test tangibles and intangibles together. Taking notes on participants’ sensory impressions is easy for testers.

Plus, CLT is a cost-effective method of testing. Market researchers can book a location and test many people in the same place, saving time, money, and resources.

In-home usage test (IHUT)

In-home usage tests are another popular market research methodology. As part of testing, you ship products to participants so that they can use them at home in a natural environment. IHUTs are common in product research where consumers use the product at home, like a Dirt Devil vacuum cleaner or Annie’s organic soup. 

The goal of IHUT is to understand the impression, appeal, and purchase intent of a product. It’s ideal for one-off or multi-usage products that require long feedback periods.

IHUTs let consumers fully test a packaged product before launching it to the public. This lets you work out any kinks and improve using feedback from an uncontrolled environment. Because IHUTs happen in a consumer’s home (versus a test environment), the results are more realistic regarding product satisfaction, usage, and improvement areas. 

You can collect feedback over the phone, through customer surveys, video calls, or in person. Or, with IHUT market research software, you can collect in-the-moment feedback remotely and ask consumers questions while they use the product. 

4. Launch the product test

Once you have a product prototype in place, it’s time to test it on real people. 

Be crystal clear on what you’re testing. Excellent tests start with a strong question, like, “Does our target audience find our product innovative?” Be as specific as possible.

Common metrics retailers test include:

• Purchase intent: Will people buy your product?
• Innovation: Do people find your product innovative? 
• Value: Is your product valuable to users?
• Relevancy: Does your product meet users’ needs?
• Uniqueness: Is your product different from others in the market? 

Use a Likert scale to assess the opinions and attitudes of product testers. Then, turn these insights into actions to guide development and consider new solutions. 

The easiest way to gather this data is through customer feedback surveys. You can use a free tool like Typeform to collect product concept feedback and then use it to send a prototype out for testing. Be sure to ask no more than 30 questions per product concept test, or you’ll risk people dropping out of your survey. 

5. Soft-launch the new product

A soft launch refers to releasing a product with little or no marketing push. Think of it as a rehearsal for the full product launch—a good time to get feedback from early adopters. 

Soft launches present a great opportunity to build stronger relationships with your customers. Invite VIP customers, or those participating in your loyalty program, to be early testers of the new product. 

These VIP testers get insider access and an opportunity to influence your product assortment, which builds a sense of ownership. It can turn VIP customers into brand ambassadors—even if the product you’re testing hasn’t yet been perfected.

6. Continually seek feedback

Whatever method you choose to test products, remember that testing is key to every part of the product lifecycle. You want to continuously collect customer feedback and use it to make product enhancements. 

How long does product testing take?

Product testing should take place as early as possible. When product development teams wait to test products, they miss out on discovering flaws and uncovering new insights. Maybe they are trying to save money or polish a certain feature set before launch, but delaying testing usually leads to launching a product that doesn’t meet a user’s needs.

How long it takes to run the test depends on factors like the focus group size, the test method, and whether you need to retest after reconfiguring the product based on your initial round of feedback. 

If speed is a priority, run a central location test. It brings your testers together in a single location, often giving you feedback within a day or two. This is not always the most accurate way to test a product. In-home usage tests, where the focus group has the product in their usual environment, can highlight usability or quality issues that weren’t present in a simulated test environment.

Product testing tips for retailers

Product testing is prone to mistakes that can alter results and waste your time. Follow these tips to deliver a high-quality product that meets user expectations and works properly:

• Document the procedure. Document every step of your product testing process clearly. That way, you can easily replicate it. Consistency in testing is key for getting comparable results.
• Keep an open mind. Expect unexpected feedback, and don’t dismiss it if it doesn’t match your expectations. The best insights come from unanticipated feedback.
• Encourage real-time feedback. Encourage testers to provide feedback while they’re using the product. This yields more accurate and authentic insights than if they try to remember their experiences after the fact.
• Prepare for variability. Be OK with variability in your results, especially when working with human testers. Differences in perceptions, preferences, or habits can lead to variation. Plan to include a wide range of testers to capture and account for this.
• Have a data management strategy. Collecting data is only half the battle. Managing it is equally important. Put systems in place for storing, analyzing, and interpreting the data you collect during testing. Qualtrics is an excellent product experience management software to manage the process. 
• Communicate your results. Data is only as good as your ability to communicate insights. Translate your product testing results into actionable, understandable reports for your team. Whenever possible, use visual aids like charts or graphs to illustrate key points.

Can your store benefit from product testing? 

A product testing process is a critical part of your company’s success. Do your research, plan accordingly, and continuously test your products with people. It’s the best way to understand what works and what doesn’t to stay ahead of the market.

More than just a point-of-sale (POS) system, Shopify has many features that help retailers run product tests. Use built-in analytics tools to conduct market testing, collect customer feedback, and unify your data into a centralized repository to get a single source of truth when testing new ideas.