The Amazon marketplace is competitive. Multiple sellers are vying for customers in every category and niche. That is why product research is critical. Selling the right product is usually the difference between a successful and a failed venture.
You need to stand out from the crowd and sell a product that is in demand. Additionally, you need to make sure there isn’t any entrenched competition in that category. That’s why product research is an indispensable part of the Amazon selling process.
Let’s take a look at how you can find the perfect product for your Amazon business.
Product research 101: Things to keep in mind
These are factors that you need to consider while looking for the ideal product.
- Good demand: The higher the demand, the better. Ideally, this should be year-round demand. Selling seasonal products is risky because of irregular cash flow.
- High margins: You need to take into account various fees and logistics costs when calculating profitability. Amazon FBA sellers can use SellerApp’s FBA calculator to quickly find product margins.
- Low competition: It is difficult to penetrate a saturated market. When customers have fewer options, they are more likely to buy your product. Moreover, your organic ranking is easier to improve and maintain. Therefore, the lower the competition, the better.
- No barriers to entry: Unless you already have Amazon’s approval to sell in a gated category, it is better to avoid it. The same goes for products that may occupy a legal grey area.
- Small and light: Products that fit this description are easier to handle. They are also cheaper to store and ship.
- Encourage impulse purchases: Every buyer has a price threshold for making impulse purchases. Expensive products are often bought after careful consideration. When it comes to expensive goods, customers often prefer established brands and sellers. That’s why it is important to keep the product price under $60.
Product research in four steps
Start with a product idea
The first step is to identify potentially profitable products. Find a niche that you want to specialize in. Keep an eye out for the latest product trends and opportunities. You can do this by tracking Amazon’s best sellers list. You will be able to find the top-selling products on the platform and sort the results by category.
You can also use SellerApp’s Product Ideas feature to find profitable products. SellerApp’s machine learning algorithms analyze each product listing and provide an Opportunity Score. This will give you an overview of how likely you are to succeed with a product. The higher the opportunity score, the better your chances of finding a winning product.
Lay the groundwork for product research
Once you have come up with a few product ideas, it is time to do some market research.
The first thing you need to do is identify similar products on Amazon. Use SellerApp’s Product Research feature to narrow your search with advanced filters. This will let you refine your search based on category, price, ratings, reviews, BSR, competition, or even weight.
After you initiate the search, SellerApp will display all the relevant results along with relevant data. To get more information about product keywords, listing quality, competition, and product trends, hit the Start Tracking button.
Analyzing the data
Once you have tracked all the relevant products, it is time to dive into the data. First, you need to analyze the demand and the estimated revenue. For the products you have tracked, monitor the following KPIs.
- Orders: A great way to gauge estimated revenue. There should at least be ten sales a day. Let’s do some quick math. Assume that you are selling a product for $40 with a 25 percent margin. This means that you make $10 for every unit sold. If you sell ten units, you make $100 per day. That is the bare minimum of how much you need to sell. You will need a seller tool like SellerApp to get this data.
- BSR: A higher BSR means higher demand and sales. The lower the BSR of similar products, the better! You can track BSR trends by visiting the Amazon product page and noting down the values.
- Product price: Monitoring the number of orders means nothing if you don’t track the selling price alongside it. A massive discount may bring in more customers, but it will impact your margins. So, track both metrics simultaneously.
If you’ve tracked the products using SellerApp, you can get all this data using the Product Intelligence feature.
Estimate your margins
By now, you should have weeded out most of your product ideas. This is the last leg. You need to find whether you can sell the product for a healthy profit.
You can find the cost price of the product by using SellerApp’s Chrome extension tool. You can use it to gather detailed product information from all the major suppliers on Alibaba.com by using the Product Sourcing feature. To estimate your margins, you need to note down the price range and minimum order quantity. Do this for all the relevant suppliers to find an approximate cost price.
You also need to find the logistics costs and other selling fees on Amazon. Now, keep the following information handy:
- Product price.
- Estimated units sold.
- Product cost.
- Ship to Amazon fee.
- Advertising budget.
If you are an Amazon FBA seller, you can use the Profit Calculator on the Chrome Extension to find the net profit and net margins.
Is selling on amazon worth it?
Conclusion
Found the perfect product? Don’t celebrate yet, there is plenty more to do. You need to find a reliable supplier, create an optimized listing, run profitable Amazon PPC ads, and more. Finding the right product to sell on Amazon is only the first step.
If you are looking for a tool that will help you every step of the way, try SellerApp. The free trial will let you test run its features at no cost!
