Methodology

    How Profit Lab 360 data works

    Every number on this site carries an implicit promise. This page explains exactly what we measure, how scores are built, and where the limits are — so you can judge how much weight to give each signal.

    Last verified: October 2026

    Three kinds of data, three labels

    Observed

    Seen directly on the marketplace

    Data points we read from public listings: how many competing designs exist in a niche, visible price ranges, which tags top-ranking listings use, and how fast new listings appear. If we label something Observed, you can open the marketplace and see the same thing yourself.

    Estimated

    Computed by our scoring models

    Demand Score, Saturation Score and 7-day Momentum are relative 0–100 indices our models compute from the observed signals above plus search-interest data. They are not dollar figures, unit counts or sales numbers — marketplaces do not publish per-niche sales, so no tool can honestly claim them.

    Inferred

    Interpreted by AI

    Buyer personas, design angles, seasonality reads and tag suggestions are AI interpretations of the observed and estimated layers. They are starting points for your own judgement — strong for ideation, not a substitute for validating a niche yourself.

    Where the signals come from

    • Public marketplace listings across Redbubble, Etsy, Amazon Merch, TeePublic, Society6, Zazzle, Spreadshirt, Threadless and Displate (listing depth, visible prices, tag usage).
    • Search-interest signals (Google Trends acceleration) to distinguish real demand spikes from marketplace noise.
    • Social momentum signals (subreddit growth, TikTok hashtag velocity) used only as early-warning indicators.

    Refresh cadence

    Trend signals refresh daily. Saturation snapshots refresh weekly. Niche scores are recomputed on request inside the workspace rather than served from a stale cache.

    What we cannot tell you

    • We do not have access to marketplace sales, revenue or payment data. Any tool claiming exact per-niche sales figures is estimating — including us.
    • Scores are relative within our own index of 500+ niches, not absolute market measurements.
    • Trend signals can lag real-world events by hours to days, and social signals can spike on noise that never converts to purchases.
    • AI-inferred content (personas, angles, seasonality) reflects patterns in training and observed data, not guaranteed outcomes.

    How to use the scores

    Treat a high Demand Score with low Saturation as an invitation to investigate, not a verdict. Open the marketplace, look at the top listings yourself, check whether you can bring a genuinely different angle — then use the workspace to design and list fast.

    Browse the niche indexTry the free niche finderRead the open data report