Editor’s note: This is a guest post from Galina Zagumennova of AMZScout.
Ask any Amazon seller “What is the main challenge that they fight every day?” They will definitely say that it is finding out the right product that will sell well. A few years ago it was a big job to research and analyze thousands of products and get some ideas. But today the process of finding the most profitable product niche has become much easier! Why? Thanks to different online tools!
If you want to start your own business on Amazon you should have a set of tools like AMZScout Pro Extension (which has a special offer of a 2-week trial for Payoneer users) that help you when researching the most profitable niches.
Most importantly, you must understand and know the product. Don’t try selling something that you are not familiar with. When you know the product well it is easier to change its design or add some features that differentiate your product from other products on the market. You will be able to improve an existing product offering potential buyers something completely new, that’s better than what else is out there. That’s a simple way to become a successful seller on Amazon.
Experienced sellers suggest choosing a product that cost $20-$50, at least $12.
There are few reasons for this. First of all, when people buy inexpensive products, they tend to impulsive buy without too much research and comparison. Secondly, products of this price range do not require high investments, so they offer an easier start.
If a product is lightweight and not oversized, this is a plus. Moreover, when the product is lightweight it will be cheaper for you to ship it and pay FBA fees.
If a product is intended for women and children, it is also good, because these are the biggest categories of consumers. It’s also a good idea to avoid complicated products (like electronics) and products that are easy to damage (fragile items, glass etc). So, avoid such categories including: Automotive, Video Games, Electronics, Grocery & Gourmet Food or Paid in Kindle Store.
There are actually two strategies for beginners. You can choose products with high sales or you can choose products with average sales. In any case, you must know how to act.
If you trying to win a big market, you need big investments to reach the top. While researching, pay attention to such indicators as BSR, rank and estimated sales per month. With modern tools for Amazon you can get all this important data directly on your Amazon page. Rank is Amazon’s indicator that shows how well a product is sold within a particular category. Check products with the best rankings (the lower the rank number the better) and think about your strategy. How will you compete? Will you offer better listing quality? Better price? Design?…
The more searches your product has the better. It is always a good idea to check how many people search for your product. Many specialists suggest that the top 3 keywords should have at least 100,000 searches per month, but it actually depends on the chosen niche. Sometimes it is also useful to compare the number of searches and amount of search results on Amazon.
Here are two examples. Cotton belt is being searched only 23,200 times and there are 81,000 results for it. So, most likely, cotton belt is not a very good product to sell. Herb scissors is a more popular product to search on Amazon compared to cotton belt, while there are only about 1,000 results for this product on Amazon. So, no doubt, herb scissors might be a better product idea, but it’s necessary to check other parameters mentioned above and below.
While choosing the ideal product, give preference to those with lower rankings (i.e., closer to top) but lower LQS or lower rating. Popular products have a good rank (closer to the top). The lower the ranking, the more in demand the product is.
The low ranking shows that buyers are not happy with the purchased product. To understand what exactly is wrong with the product you need to read reviews. That way, you can be sure that you’re offering a better product at a similar price and you can move ahead with confidence.
The LQS indicator depends on such factors as descriptions length, amount of images, number of reviews, name length and many other. Just improving some of these factors you will be able to sell the same product more successfully than a competitor.
So, good rank together with low LQS or low rating gives us an opportunity to win the market.
Here we found one product with rank #314 (which is very good) and LQS 70. So, there are certain things to be improved (description length) and we will be able to compete. The only disadvantage here is that the listing is old and there are many reviews.
Obviously, any buyer checks reviews before buying a product. People usually buy products with more reviews and better reviews. So, choose a product niche with a relatively small amount of reviews, since it will be easier to climb the top. Reviews impact on rating, which means the more 5-star reviews you have, the higher position of the product in search results will be.
What would you buy?
We doubt you would like to buy a pig in a poke…
It is better when the demand for your product is quite stable. Check sales history to make sure there is no big fluctuation in sales for the product you selected. It is also required to check price history to understand how much sellers reduce the price of the product. If you have to reduce the price to the minimum, will you be able to avoid loss?
On these screenshots, you can see the price history of 3 different products. The price of the first one drops very often, sometimes by 40-50% less. So, this product isn’t so good. It’s better to choose such product as on the second (where price is constant) or the third screenshot (where the price increases).
The higher margin the higher your profit will be. While searching the ideal product to sell, make sure that you are able to source it for at least 25% or less of the actual sale price on Amazon. AMZScout has very useful tool Profit Calculator, that estimates profit per unit and ROI.
Here are screenshots of profit calculations for two similar products. The first product is more expensive by $2.01, the FBA fee is $0.87 higher, but sales are less (about 100 units less). The cost of the first product on Alibaba is $4.8 and the cost of the second one is $6.4. So, even despite lower sales, the first product can give 8 times higher profit that the second product.
So, these are 8 signs that a product that will be good to sell on Amazon. AMZScout is a very convenient Amazon research tool and all Payoneer blog readers can enjoy a special 2-week trial.
Install the AMZScout Pro Extension now and get a chance to make your business more successful!
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