How do I find out if people will buy my product again before I scale up?
Answer
Watch the second week, not the first day. Whether people buy again is decided after the novelty fades, so the honest way to find out is to put your product in the homes of people who fit your buyer, let them use it in their normal routine for about two weeks, and then ask whether they would buy it again, at what price, and why. Launch sales and early ratings mostly measure the first purchase.
Why first impressions mislead
- Online ratings make most products look better than they are: in a study of Amazon reviews of books, DVDs and videos, 72 to 78 percent of ratings were four stars or more, yet when everyone who used a product had to rate it, ratings came out roughly normal. (Hu, Pavlou and Zhang, 2009)
- Stars are a weak guide even when they differ: the product with more Amazon stars was rated better by Consumer Reports only 57 percent of the time, and when the gap was under 0.4 stars, it was a coin toss. (de Langhe, Fernbach and Lichtenstein, Journal of Consumer Research, 2016)
- People can like a product overall and still have one small problem that stops them buying it again. In a home-use study of a sauce with 207 people, most qualities were rated “just about right”, yet 42 percent found it too thin. (Foods, 2024)
Why the second week matters
Habits take time to form: a median of 66 days in one well-known study, anywhere from 18 to 254. (Lally and others, European Journal of Social Psychology, 2010) The first week sells the novelty; the second week shows whether the product fits a real routine. First purchase is conviction. The second purchase is the truth.
What to ask
- Would you buy it again?
- At what price?
- Did what the pack promised hold up?
- What would you change first, in your own words?
Who should answer
People who fit your buyer, using the product in their own homes and routine, not your friends, staff or existing fans. Their answers count only if they really received and used the product, and they should gain nothing by being kind.
The options a brand has
| Option | What it costs | What you learn |
|---|---|---|
| Launch and watch sales | A full launch | Whether it sold, rarely why |
| Online ratings and reviews | Little | A view tilted toward happy reviewers |
| Friends, family, WhatsApp groups | Little | Mostly people who already like you |
| A custom research study | Priced per project | Built around one question, over weeks to months |
| A standard in-home read (what Foydy does) | ₹25,000 founding pilot for 50 completed responses | Repurchase, price, claims and what to fix, after two weeks of real use |
What this means for your brand
Before you scale production, spend on ads or list on a new platform, find out whether the people who used the product would buy it again. See what that answer looks like in the sample report.
Sources
- Hu, Pavlou and Zhang (2009) (opens in a new tab), online ratings distribution.
- de Langhe, Fernbach and Lichtenstein, Journal of Consumer Research (2016) (opens in a new tab).
- Torán-Pereg and others, Foods (2024) (opens in a new tab), home-use study of a hot sauce, 207 participants.
- Lally and others, European Journal of Social Psychology (2010) (opens in a new tab).