It’s no secret that Amazon is a tech giant, the go-to place for many sellers looking for ways to make their sales skyrocket. The astounding number of products and millions of sellers on Amazon can make you feel like getting your piece of the Amazon pie is impossible. We are here to tell you that it is actually possible.
The first question that entrepreneurs have when starting a business on Amazon is: “What product to choose for sale to get the maximum profit with minimal risk?” This question can be overwhelming. It requires careful analysis because your business success depends primarily on what kind of product you sell.
We will analyze what sales strategies to take up and how to select a promising item. Also, we will consider a selection of popular categories, among which you can find good ideas for a strong start.
The Impact of COVID-19 on Product Demand
The pandemic has greatly shifted consumers’ shopping habits on Amazon, which eventually boosted Amazon’s market share and sales. Amazon already controlled 50% of the U.S. e-commerce market, but during the COVID-19 outbreak, traffic on Amazon increased by as much as 20%.
As people stay at home to reduce their risk of infection, several categories have become extremely popular. During these turbulent times, sales of certain products on Amazon have experienced a downturn; particularly items such as clothing and luggage. Similarly, sales of certain categories on Amazon have grown significantly and will continue to sell well in the near future.
Top-Selling Categories
We’ve identified six successful and high-potential categories for sellers to keep an eye on:
Home Office
Since the start of the pandemic, about 40% of working adults in the United States have switched to remote work. This means that a large number of these people needed to purchase items that would enable them to be productive and stay healthy while working from home.
Patio, Lawn & Garden
Having spent more time at home, people want to enhance their outdoor living spaces, which led to a 40% increase in time spent gardening and growing fruits and vegetables.
Moreover, millennials who hold a huge amount of trust and loyalty toward Amazon get more interested in gardening, which causes a shift in market share away from brick-and-mortar incumbents. As a result, Amazon sellers today have the opportunity to capture a new audience – an audience that is going to be the major Lawn & Garden buying power for years to come.
Tools & Home Improvement
With an increase in demand, Amazon’s assortment of tools and home improvement products now rivals that of big box retailers. Locked in their homes, people realized the need for their upgrading or repairing. In this way, products with moderate cost and minimal installation can become successful in this niche.
Sports & Outdoors
The Sports & Outdoors category on Amazon saw significant sales growth year-on-year spurred by the global pandemic. As the pandemic forced gyms to close and social gatherings became smaller and less frequent, consumers invested in home gyms and outdoor recreation. More have become comfortable exercising away from the gym, thus at-home equipment categories are popular in 2021 and are expected to remain so throughout 2022 and beyond.
Beauty & Health Products
By 2026, the global health, beauty and personal care market was set to hit €1.14 trillion in sales, and just over 50% of that growth would come from e-commerce. And Amazon as one of the dominating online marketplaces is perfect to target consumers in self-improvement categories – one-third of all beauty bought online happens on Amazon.
Pet Supplies
We also need to mention the industry that supports our furry friends. The pandemic has driven consumers to spoil their pets more than ever before. Besides, with huge queues at pet stores, many customers have opted for the convenience of going online, and products that continue to sell in huge quantities include pet beds, pet bowls, clothing, and automatic feeders.
6 Products to Avoid Selling on Amazon
Before we go on to consider the qualities of the best products, here are a few important criteria of the products you should steer clear of on a starting point:
- Items with a big competition. Most consumers will give preference to sellers with a good rating and a lot of positive reviews. Thus, you don’t need to consider products at the top of the Amazon Best Sellers list.
- Bulky items that require high transportation and storage costs;
- Products containing hazardous elements that require a separate special permit (for example, batteries);
- Items violating copyright (e.g., a cheap Chinese counterfeit with the “Nikey” label is definitely not worth it);
- Too expensive products (since you may not have any money left for advertising and emergencies);
- Items that are complex from a technical point of view.
6 Characteristics of the Best Product to Sell on Amazon
Hundreds of thousands of product names are sold on Amazon. Thus, the ranking of the best-selling positions on the marketplace is quite impressive. In order not to get confused and narrow the search circle, we recommend focusing on what you are better at. There are several criteria that a promising Amazon product must meet are as follows:
Size and Weight
Less is better. It is much more convenient to order small goods in bulk than large ones. You will be able to save on delivery and storage of goods. The maximum size is 18 * 14 * 12 inches (shoe box) and weight up to 2kg.
Average Selling Price
For high revenues from sales on Amazon, you don’t need to set too high a price, but you shouldn’t make it too low either. The optimal price is within the range of $ 10-40. This value doesn’t exclude the possibility of impulsive buying, and with sales of 20-30 units per day, you will receive tangible profits.
Fragility
The best products for sale are the ones that won’t break upon delivery. This reduces the risk of a defective product received by the buyer and the percentage of returns in the future.
Low Cost
High margins (sales revenue subtracting the cost of goods) will allow you to get good profits, taking into account shipping, storage, and other types of costs.
Low Competition
Competition is one of the major criteria because even if your product meets all the previous requirements, it can get lost among the already existing popular products. Thus, you need to find the balance between the popularity of the item among Amazon users and the number of sellers of an item.
Stable Demand
The product must be in consistently high demand or be an emerging trend that hasn’t yet reached its peak in popularity. It’s better if the item doesn’t depend on seasonality factors. This simplifies planning and logistics and eliminates the chances of unclaimed stocks of goods in the warehouse.
If your products meet all of the above criteria, then you will be able to generate large profits selling the products you’ve chosen.
5 More Factors to Keep an Eye On
1. Take Care of Reviews
According to research, 91% of respondents said they read at least one review before making a purchase decision. The goal of Amazon as a marketplace is to sell products, which is why they like to show the best-performing products at the top of their search rankings. And there is an obvious correlation between lots of positive reviews and high search rankings.
Looking for a product, make sure you’ve checked its reviews. If all items on the first page of the results for your primary keyword have more than 50 reviews, this can be challenging for you.
Thus, the markets with higher sales volumes and lower number of reviews or poor reviews would be a better choice. In addition, if you choose products with fewer than 10 reviews, it will certainly get you on the first page of the search, even if you manage to get at least 2 reviews.
2. Choose Products with High BSR
The performance of your product on Amazon depends on market demand, so the BSR is a fantastic indicator of how well an item is selling on Amazon. The lower the product’s BSR, the better its sales.
If similar products are at the top of the list (Bestseller Rank 1 is the best-selling product in the category), then there is a high demand for them. Remember that the best-selling products on Amazon also require large start-up investments. So, you don’t need to consider items at the very top of the Amazon Best Sellers list.
3. Avoid Categories with Dominating Brands
Brand dominance can also be an important factor on Amazon. In some cases, it’s just hard to break through among the really big brands that own the category. If the top results are dominated by well-known names, you should probably continue your search.
4. Product Listings Optimization
The product page should provide all the necessary information for users to make a purchase decision. The products on the first page of the search usually have optimized listings. However, there are still the ones that need upgrading.
Here are the most widespread mistakes that don’t let listings function well:
- Few images or low-quality images;
- Vague product name;
- Useless markers;
- Insufficient description.
So if you see a lot of sellers on the first page who make these mistakes, it means you can choose these products, optimize your listings based on the weak spots of others, stand out from the crowd and get high revenue.
5. Speed Up Product Research With Sourcing Tools
It may take weeks to analyze Amazon products if done manually. With an increased number of sellers and rigorous selling policies, it is important to understand that manual methods of analyzing products are no longer suitable in today’s circumstances.
That’s why, leveraging product research tools will be a go-to choice in this tedious and time-consuming task, as they streamline the analysis of huge catalogs and provide sellers with more accurate results. We suggest taking the advantage of ScanScout, a top-notch analytics tool that provides sellers with the necessary information within a couple of minutes.
The free version allows sellers to leverage the full range of its functions, limiting only the number of inquiries. The full version has no limitations and sellers can check as many catalogs as they want to get a complete picture of what items are viable. To achieve it, the tool is equipped with 50 parameters on the basis of which it provides high-quality accurate results.
The process of utilizing the tool goes like this: First, you choose the supplier catalog whose items you are planning to sell on Amazon. The catalog uploaded, ScanScout analyzes hundreds or thousands of items and in a minute you can already see which products are feasible to sell and which ones are not.
In addition, you can install ScanScout Chrome Extension which also has 50 parameters and a built-in FBA calculator for a detailed analysis. As soon as you choose the best items that suit your needs and wishes, you can add them to the Seller Panel. If any data on the product changes, you can keep up with the real-time information by using Product Tracker.
The Takeaway
Finding the right type of product for sale is critical to business success. The research process is exhaustive and time-consuming, but it is a necessary step to make sure that you are doing everything correctly.
We hope this guide gives you some good ideas of what products you can sell in 2021 and 2022. If you follow these tips and use the tools offered by ScanScout you shouldn’t have any problem finding awesome items to sell online.
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