Thousands of brands are turning to online sales, and more and more online marketplaces are emerging. Because it is gaining in popularity, some novice merchants think that selling online is a quick way to make a profit. That's not quite the case these days. If you ask the owner of a million-dollar business on Amazon to describe his path to the top, he will probably tell you about sleepless nights, hard work, a little luck, and a lot of ... research.
Today, you are unlikely to find a seller who has successfully entered Amazon and made millions of dollars overnight. Before you start selling, you need to familiarize yourself with the rules of the marketplace. This is especially true when it comes to Amazon, as it's a highly competitive marketplace with strict TOS. But we're going to talk about the key to success not only for new sellers, but also for those who have been selling on Amazon for a long time and want to maximize their revenue.
The key to success for any seller is the product they sell. Finding products to sell online is done through e-commerce product research. Product research encompasses everything from conducting a market analysis, determining supply and demand for the product and setting a strategic management goal to conducting research on how your product packaging design will affect customer sales.
Simply put, if you want to make money on Amazon, you need to choose a product that people will buy, and you can only do that if you conduct Amazon Product Research.
In this article, we'll describe what an Amazon Product Research is, why it's important, and what to pay attention to when conducting it.
In other words, you’ll need to roam a market, analyze it, and find an item that will be in high demand and will convert to sales and profit. Thus, your target is to search for a product that you can find for a low price and sell with a good profit margin, still being competitive.
In short, Amazon Product Research is an analysis of current market trends in order to select "winning" products – something that can generate high sales. Your product idea must be profitable, have an average level of competition in its category, be in sufficient demand, and have a competitive advantage.
If you don't find a product that stands out, create an optimized ad that your potential customers will find, and promote your product, you're just wasting your time and money - your product won't sell. Given that Amazon charges you a lot of different fees, from account fees to storage fees, especially if you use the FBA method, you can easily lose money instead of making money.
There are several benefits to proper product research. These include:
- Making Informed Business Decisions
Product research allows you to make better business decisions because you have access to accurate data that can guide your decision-making process.
For example, you’ll be able to check the selling price, which gives you an indication of the potential profit margin, along with how much potential profit you can generate from that exact product you were looking at.
- Avoiding Unnecessary Risks
This is because you've already gathered data on customer demand, seller ratings, recent sales, competitor weaknesses, and other important factors before deciding to sell a particular product.
- Increasing Your Chances of Success
Proper deep analysis in product research increases your chances of success because it allows you to focus on products with a higher chance of selling well. This, in turn, leads to more sales and profits for your business.
- Maximizing Your Profits
Product research can help you maximize your profits by allowing you to focus on products with high profit potential. This way, you can make more money for your business while reducing risks.
- Generate Long-Term Results
If you are thinking long-term, choosing a product that customers love is essential. Proper product research allows you to generate a product idea in a category that has not only enough demand or good sales but also positive reviews. And if people love your product, it will last longer on the Amazon, which means you’ll have a sustainable business.
There are various ways to perform Amazon product research to get that golden product idea. These include:
1. Do the Research Manually
The manual search method is likely the most time-consuming, but probably the most effective, since most people don't have the patience to search manually. You will need to search for products on Amazon, as well as other e-commerce platforms and marketplaces.
2. Hire a Product Research Services Company or Freelancer
If you want to find the best products to sell on Amazon without the extra hassle, you can always hire a company that provides product research services.
These companies or freelancers will do all the hard work for you. They will do complete Amazon market research, including finding high-demand items and analyzing your competition.
This will not only save you time, but it will also give you the confidence that you are selling a product that customers are sure to like.
When hiring a company that provides product research services, there are a few things to keep in mind. Make sure the company has experience with Amazon product research. Also, check out customer reviews to get an idea of the quality of their work.
3. Use Product Research Software
There are various software programs that can make Amazon product research much easier.
These programs will provide data on product trends, selling price details, and demand. This information is essential in helping you choose a profitable product to sell.
You have found a great product with high profitability and low competition, but it won't matter if there are no people willing to buy your product. This is why it is very important to accurately estimate the demand for your goods.
Here are 6 things to watch out for when you're evaluating a product. These are great metrics to reduce risk during the product research phase on Amazon.
Price
$15-$50 products are in the range of impulse buying decisions.
In this price range, the buyer won't take the time to choose the best product. As long as he thinks the product is right for him, you win.
To pull in a little more context, let's look at two examples.
Example 1: A product with a selling price of about $25 can be easily sourced from China for about say $5. For sourcing 500 products it would require about $5000. Looks easy, isn’t it?
Example 2: A product with a selling price of about $100 can be easily sourced from China for about say $25. For sourcing 500 products it would require about $12500. A higher initial cost!
Top 3 product keywords together have 100,000+ monthly searches
What is more crucial is to find out the demand for your primary keywords on Amazon since data suggests that Amazon typically has a conversion rate of anywhere between 12 – 17%! So if our top three product keywords together get over 100,000 monthly searches on Amazon, then it is a good sign that there is enough demand for us to sell.
Lightweight – preferably under 3 pounds.
The heavier the product, the heavier the FBA fees. As the size and the weight of the product go higher, the profit margins go lower.
Shipping costs can get very high if the product weighs more than 2 pounds.
The number of reviews of products on page 1
n order for people to buy your products, they need to find them first, which is why increasing rankings in marketplace search results is so important. The search algorithms of marketplaces use positive ratings and reviews as a benchmark to gauge the popularity of a product and seller. The higher the number of positive reviews and ratings, the higher the percentage rating a seller gets. That in turn compels the algorithm to place the seller towards the top of the search results page.
The number of reviews on the first page can help you understand how difficult it is for you to gather sales and secure the top spots.
The more points in the checklist you can verify, the better. Though they are not hard rules to be followed they are the basic criteria that are recommended for a successful start.
Is there Year-Round Demand?
This is important information to know while doing Amazon Product Research. Do you have a product that is only purchased during a particular season? Are people buying this product consistently throughout the year?
The best way to determine this is to head on over to Google Trends and type in the main keyword for your product. Once there you will be able to see if your product is seasonal or not.
Determining if your product is seasonal or not isn’t very hard, but it is important to make sure that you know before you make an order since you may have stocks stuck in warehouses if it is a seasonal product.
No big brands in the product category
This is something that deals exactly with buyer mentality. A shopper will obviously choose a famous branded product over a new product or brand.
Rather than trying to compete for a product that already has famous brands, and competing with them for sales, it is better to start on with a product that has relatively lesser competition.
As you can see, Amazon product research is a vital part of selling on Amazon.
Without doing your research, it will be very difficult to find a profitable niche and make a profit.
However, if you take the time to do your research, you’ll be able to find a profitable niche and start making money on Amazon.
When starting product research, there are several factors every Amazon seller should take into account. Focusing your search to identify a bestselling product utilizing the readily available Amazon research methods helps you avoid wasting time trying to sell items that are non-starters.
However, it is equally important to know what your target audience wants and expects from the product niche in which you operate. If you want to do an in-depth analysis of your existing product before launching on Amazon or other marketplaces, find growth points for your brand and build a promotion strategy - then the next research step - testing your product - will help you. And Good Goods is the best-proven solution for this problem. Contact us through our website and join our community of happy customers with strong, scalable results.
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