This Story About The Next Amazon Viral Products Is About To Go Viral

We’re always hearing about items that go “viral” on Amazon. First there was a mysteriously perfect puffer coat that slowly took over New York City; then a ’90s-style maillot that magically flattered nearly everyone. A few months back, we filled you in on the $3 $2.65 pack of pearl barrettes that started appearing on influential heads all over our IG feeds. And in May, there was the DIY tiny house. You heard that right — a structure that provides shelter to human beings was available for purchase on Amazon. And not only that — it kept selling out! SMDH.

We don’t cover tons of breaking news here on the shopping team — not as much as our Kardashian-hawk compatriots over in Entertainment or the newshounds monitoring AOC’s every move. What we do constantly monitor, however, is Amazon. It’s become one of our favorite pastimes to scour the site for “hidden gems” — we even have a reader-sourced column devoted to it — and we’re always on the lookout for the item that’s primed to go from obscurity to ubiquity overnight; racking up tons of reviews and customer photos, in addition to appearing everywhere IRL.

To suss out some potential contenders for this distinction, we turned to some friends whose tastes and shopping habits we trust, including home-goods designer Jonathan Adler and Orange Is The New Black costume designer Jenn Rogien. We also consulted some expert R29ers, like our content strategist Melissa Katz and global editor-in-chief Christene Barberich. We wanted to know their predictions for that soon-to-be-trending item, and more importantly, the reasoning behind their choice. And, as with most things Amazon-related, their answers may surprise you, and leave you wondering how you ever lived without the item in question.