How 100 Pairs Of Eclipse Glasses Generated Over 2,000 Enquiries In 2 Days

A few days before the recent solar eclipse, I realised that I hadn’t bought eclipse glasses for my children.

I did what most people would probably do and went onto Amazon. The problem was that the small packs I found wouldn’t arrive until after the eclipse.

There was, however, another option.

I could get a box of 100 pairs delivered in time.

I only needed a few, but I ordered the box anyway. We kept enough for ourselves and decided to put the rest on Facebook Marketplace individually, at a price that left us a margin.

Then something rather unexpected happened.

More Than 2,000 Enquiries In Two Days

The response was extraordinary.

Within about two days, we received more than 2,000 enquiries from people in the local area wanting eclipse glasses.

We sold every pair we had available and, judging by the number of enquiries that continued to arrive, could probably have sold at least five times as many.

People weren’t just interested. They wanted them now.

We ended up delivering glasses around the local area and people were genuinely grateful that we’d been able to get them.

It was a tiny, short-lived business opportunity, but it demonstrated something much bigger.

The Customers Were Already There

Like many people involved in business, I spend a lot of time thinking about how to find customers.

• How do you promote a product?
• How do you get more website visitors?
• How do you improve conversion?
• How do you persuade somebody to buy?

This experience was completely different.

We didn’t have to create the demand.

The demand already existed.

Thousands of people locally wanted something at roughly the same time, but normal supply wasn’t meeting that demand quickly enough.

The opportunity existed because of the gap between the two.

But there was another side to it too. For the people trying to buy eclipse glasses, knowing earlier that supply was going to become tight would also have been useful.

That got me thinking.

See What Demand Hunt Is Finding Now

Current demand signals, potential shortages and emerging opportunities across the UK.

Demand Hunt Live contains the strongest signals we are seeing right now, including products, services, local and regional demand and possible supply shortages.

See Demand Hunt Live

How Many Other Demand Gaps Are Hiding In Plain Sight?

An eclipse is obviously unusual. It created a deadline, sudden demand and a temporary shortage.

But the underlying principle isn’t unusual at all.

Every day, people search for products they can’t get quickly enough.

• Customers struggle to find somebody willing to provide particular services.
• Events suddenly create demand for certain products.
• Weather changes what people need.
• New regulations create requirements that didn’t previously exist.
• Products sell out.
• Local suppliers become overwhelmed.
• Trends emerge faster than established businesses can respond.

Spotting Demand Before The Shortage

Some of the most useful signals may appear before a shortage becomes obvious.

Christmas toy crazes are a good example. Every so often, a particular toy suddenly becomes the must-have present. Demand accelerates, shops begin selling out and parents start searching everywhere for remaining stock.

Spotting that early could potentially be useful in two completely different ways. A business might be able to respond to the additional demand, while a parent might simply want to buy the toy before it becomes difficult to find.

It wasn’t the first time I had seen what happens when demand suddenly races ahead of supply. Back in 2020, I had a rather different experience during the great toilet roll shortage. Fortunately, I was already well prepared early, earning myself the nickname “The Bog Roll King”. Read the Bog Roll King story and what it taught me about spotting shortages early.

The important word is early. Once everybody knows there is a shortage, much of the value of knowing about it may already have disappeared.

That’s why the Demand Hunt won’t only look for shortages that already exist. We’ll also look for emerging demand, including rapidly growing interest, early stock problems, increasing delivery times, approaching events and deadlines, seasonal changes, new regulations and other signals that demand could be starting to run ahead of supply.

These early signals won’t be presented as proven shortages or opportunities. Where the evidence is interesting but not yet strong enough, they’ll go into our WATCH category so we can see what develops.

Sometimes a demand gap might last months. Sometimes it might disappear within days.

The difficult part is spotting it while it still matters.

So I’ve decided to conduct an experiment.

Introducing The FMI Demand Hunt

Free Marketing Ideas will search across the UK for unusual evidence of demand, potential shortages and situations where supply appears to be falling behind.

Sometimes that could reveal a business opportunity. Sometimes it could simply give you the chance to get ahead of a potential shortage before everyone else starts looking for the same thing.

Instead of guessing what’s popular or trying to manufacture a story, we’ll look for evidence of people already trying to buy something, services people are struggling to find, stock becoming tighter or demand beginning to accelerate.

The research will cover products, services, shortages, local and regional demand, events, seasonal changes, emerging trends and other situations where demand appears to be running ahead of convenient supply.

We’ll then investigate the most interesting findings and separate them into four broad categories.

NOW

Unusually strong or time-sensitive demand, or a shortage where acting quickly could be important.

TEST

Evidence of unmet demand that appears interesting enough to warrant further investigation or a small-scale test.

WATCH

Something appears to be developing, but there isn’t yet enough evidence to say that a significant shortage or opportunity exists.

NO

Something that initially looked interesting but where further investigation found plenty of supply, weak demand or another reason why the original signal does not appear significant.

That last category is important.

Want to see Demand Hunt in action? See our retrospective Demand Hunt example, where we applied the research process using only the signals and information available on an historic date to see what it would have identified.

We Won’t Manufacture A Story Just To Publish Something

There are already endless articles predicting shortages or promising things such as “20 amazing side hustles you can start today”.

That’s not what we’re trying to create.

Some searches may uncover several strong signals. At other times there may be nothing worth reporting.

We only highlight a Demand Hunt signal when we find something we think is genuinely worth sharing.

The objective is to identify genuine situations where demand appears to be moving ahead of supply, whether that information is useful because you might be able to supply the demand or because you simply want to get ahead of it yourself.

It Won’t Just Be National

Some findings will potentially apply across the UK.

Others may be extremely local.

A shortage in Glasgow might mean nothing in Brighton. A service that is readily available in Manchester might be surprisingly difficult to find in Eastbourne.

So the Demand Hunt will look for signals at national, regional and local level.

UK Demand

Interesting demand, shortages or emerging trends with potentially national relevance.

Local Demand

Unusual demand or shortages affecting a particular town, city or local area.

Regional Demand

Interesting pockets of demand or constrained supply occurring in particular parts of the country.

Over time, I’d also like readers to contribute. If you’re seeing something unusual where you live, a product nobody can get hold of, a service everyone seems to be searching for, or some other strange pocket of demand, I want to hear about it.

Follow The Hunt

Demand Hunt is now live and continually developing. You can see the strongest demand signals, potential shortages and emerging opportunities we are finding across the UK on Demand Hunt Live.

It brings together the latest NOW, TEST, WATCH and NO findings, covering products, services and national, regional and local demand.

See the latest findings on Demand Hunt Live.

The first box of eclipse glasses happened almost by accident.

The next unusual demand signal might not.

Let’s go looking for it.