Before you can set pricing rules for products, you need to have the right items in your inventory. RepricerExpress is here to help by giving you the ultimate guide to product research so you can maximise revenue and profits, all while gaining visibility and competitiveness. Keep reading to learn how to source products that people actually want to buy.
Creating a Checklist for Product Research
When you start to research products, you should be applying a set of criteria to each one so you can ascertain its worthiness.
- Customer Base: Knowing who your buyers are will help you decide if a product is something they’d be interested in. If your audience is middle-aged men, then items like hosiery and makeup probably won’t do very well.
- Customer Needs: Once you’ve determined exactly who your audience is, learn about what their needs are and if the product fits into that. For example, new mothers would do well with a monthly subscription for diapers and formula.
- Category: Some Amazon categories are gated, which could mean extra work on your end. Think about if it’s worth it, or if you want to be able to sell right off the bat.
- Competition: Who are your competitors? What do they do well? What are they lacking in that you can compensate for? Find out what metrics you’ll need to succeed.
- Price: There’s no right answer when it comes to profit margin. But calculate your operating costs, product costs, potential revenue, and what that comfortable bottom line is. A good tip is sticking to products that sell for $10 to $50, as they usually do best on Amazon. For more details, check out our article on how to figure out a good profit margin on Amazon.
- Listings: How much work will it take to create a truly quality product listing? Are you familiar with the kind of images, keywords and copy you’ll need to stand out?
Narrow Things Down Even More with Goldilocks Product Characteristics
Some products naturally lend themselves to being sold on Amazon much better than others, and it’s because they tend to congregate in the Goldilocks area of item traits like:
- The top handful of sellers are moving around 10 or 20 items per day.
- Each of the top sellers doesn’t have more than about 100 reviews.
- Try to aim for evergreen products so you don’t have to deal with seasonal swoons or spikes in popularity.
- Currently selling products usually retail in the $10 to $50 range.
- Items shouldn’t be too large or heavy, or else storage and fulfilment could potentially be a can of worms.
The Best Places You Can Find Products
Now that you’re armed with the knowledge to create product shortlists, the next step is knowing where to look for them.
There are three main ways:
- Amazon Best Seller Page: Updated hourly, the Amazon Best Seller Page shows the products with the current highest-selling volumes in each category and sub-category.
- Your Future Competitors: Why not go straight to the source and check out what your potential rivals are selling? Narrow your search down to the top 20 sellers in categories you’re interested in — don’t let the sheer number of sellers in a category put you off, as you won’t be competing with all of them, but rather trying to imitate and exceed what the top ones are doing. Look at their images, read their descriptions, check out what their reviews say. And use it all as tools on what to do and what to improve on.
- Automation: Although the first two methods can be highly effective, they can also be a bit labour intensive. If you’re valuing the latter a bit higher, then turn to automated tools in your search. Some of the top ones include Unicorn Smasher, AMZ One or AMZ Tracker, KeywordInspector, Jungle Scout, and Amachete.
The Final Details: Standing Out From the Crowd
Congratulations, you’ve got a list of products you’re ready to sell! But you’re not quite there yet — the last step is to develop a solid strategy for getting them noticed. And one of the most surprising ways of doing that is by combing through reviews.
When you think about it, customer reviews are the perfect source for learning how to market successfully to buyers: consumers tell you what they loved or hated, they give honest feedback about what can be improved, and they describe how they use the item in real life.
Although it may seem a bit counter-intuitive, try to stick to reviews with 3 stars or fewer because that way, you’ll get a more honest idea of how to make people happy. Look for patterns among what’s written, then work on solving those problems. And then compare it against the 4- and 5-star reviews to see what already makes people happy so you have a solid base to go on.
Market Leading Amazon Repricing Software
Conducting Amazon product research should be based on science and data, so take the emotion out of it to find the most success. This is how RepricerExpress operates — the app runs on rules and information and doesn’t get sidelined by subjective factors. Arm your new product list with the top repricing software by signing up now, and enjoy a free 15-day trial.
