How to Create a Product that Sells Itself

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These days, Shopify's team includes a vice president of marketing. But in the beginning, co-founder and CEO Tobias Lütke depended on the platform's users to be its champions.
So what are Shopify's secrets to developing a successful product?
1. Create something you need.
When Lütke couldn't find an e-commerce platform that met his needs and expectations, he created one himself.
"It is incredibly powerful if you solve the problem you actually have yourself," Lütke says. "It's really tough to develop a good product when you don't have very close proximity to the people who actually use your product. The closest proximity you can have to those people is to be that person."
2. Make something unique.
Find your niche: There should be a need in the marketplace for your idea, product or service. Shopify wasn't the first e-commerce platform, but Lütke and his team developed it to give retailers a new option in the e-commerce world.
"[Using] our product is probably the first time that people who actually ran an online store built an online store," Lütke says.
3. Make something better.
Even if it's not unique, make your product the best version out there. Lütke knew the original platform he developed for his online snowboard store wasn't necessarily what every e-tailer was looking for, so he spent a year and a half improving Shopify before launch. He continues to emphasize product development: In response to a 2,000 percent increase in Shopify stores' sales through mobile devices, the company recently released features for users to create designs specifically for tablets and iPhones.