10 Advanced Strategies to Do Amazon Product Research Like a Boss

Getting stuck in the analysis paralysis stage? (Where you are just stuck overwhelmed by the massive data that pours in)

Fear not, that’s where you are here.

There is one thing that every seasoned Amazon seller agrees on, getting the right product is the first step to a successful FBA business.

Selling products on Amazon is easier done if you have a complete idea of how to find those golden nuggets (Not the actual product!) in the huge jungle that is Amazon.

What is Amazon Product Research?

For starters, there are two ways you can do better when finding and analyzing your next best selling products on Amazon.

The first one is creating your product checklist (Cliche but necessary!) while the other is using a research tool to discover product ideas on this that out performs everything else!

If you do these two simple steps, you will find it easier to succeed in selling your products to your prospective customers.

My Checklist (Or Strategies) for Amazon Product Research

Do not worry, this will not contain the usual checklist of “fits in a shoe box”, “weighs less than the shoes” and “easily found on Alibaba” type of details. We are already in 2020!

Those no longer work anymore with the amount of sellers coming on-board following those exact tips from “gurus” all over.

Can you imagine if you were to follow that outdated tip that thousand others are following, of course there will be thousands of competitors that sell BBQ meat claw, baby hooded towels, metal straws and let’s stand for the winner of the most over-sold saturated market, PHONE CASES!

Following my checklist will ensure you stay well away from the blood bath where PPC cost will kill instantly. (I have not started on shady practices yet, but let’s not go there!)

Let’s dive right in then!

1. Top competitors generate at least US$120/day each
2. 10+ sales per day for each top competitor
3. 3-20 strong competitors
4. Consistent price history
5. Less than half of top competitors are the same brand/seller
6. Selling price anywhere from US$20 – $100
7. Top competitors have low review count
8. Profit minimum of $8 and 40%+ gross margin
9. Top competitors has lousy listing
10. Strong differentiation potential!!!

Noticed that I intentionally left out the shipping size criteria. That was done so as not to limit you to look in the same place as thousands of other sellers! There are even more profitable medium/large size products out there! What we care about at the end of the day is profitability.

Great! Now that you are ahead of the crowd, let’s go deeper into explaining what each of these means.

These 9 points can easily be classified into 6 different reasons for why I used them as my checklist.

1. Great Profitability

Selling price anywhere from US$20 – $100

Profit minimum of $8 and 40%+ gross margin

Top competitors generate at least US$120/day each

Before you go all in for a product, make sure that the selling price is suitable. Because of the Amazon Rule of Thirds where it states that 33% of the selling price will go to Amazon fees, 33% for production & shipping, and 33% as your profit.

This is the reason why you need to choose a selling price of at least $20 so at least $8 will go in your pockets. If you choose below this recommended price, you will have to deal with a low margin.

2. Products with High Demand, but Not Saturated

10+ sales per day for each top competitor

3-20 strong competitors

Top competitors have low review count

Less than half of top competitors are the same brand/seller

If you are aiming to make a profit while selling on Amazon, you should look for products with high demands. (Duh!)

If you want to earn at least $1,000 profit every month, you need to find the products that have at least $3,000 revenue every month if you are going to use the Rule of Thirds (33/33/33) concept.

You wouldn’t want to compete with sellers who earned thousands of good reviews already. So as much as possible, you will look for competitors who only have 100-200 reviews to compete with. It’s easier to outperform them if you are confident that you can get a couple of reviews after selling a few stocks of your items. (The average review rate is about 2-5%)

Following these metrics will guarantee that you will find a product with great demand and not highly saturated at all! (Very important golden rule here)

3. Seasonal or Non-Seasonal Products

Consistent price history

You will only have to deal with two options when choosing a product: do you want a seasonal one or the nonseasonal one? (Oh, non-seasonal products works amazingly well as well, don’t let those “gurus” tell you otherwise!)

If you choose the seasonal products, you need to find out what month it will be most in-demand and milk it to its max!

The price history will tell you exactly that. Helium 10 can also help you find out more about this analysis as well.

4. Differentiation Potential

Strong differentiation potential!!!

Top competitors has lousy listing

I added this because this in fact is the most important metrics out of the entire checklist. You may end up doing all things wrong, but if you manage to get an outstanding differentiation you will end up winning still!

You do not want a product that can be easily copied and hijacked. You do not want to buy products directly off the supplier without making any smart changes and differentiation to it.

A competitor having lousy listing and is still selling well, that just means he/she is inviting you to take their place! That’s a goldmine as well.

Read on here for more creative ways to differentiate your product!

With these factors, you can easily make several decisions on the product that checks the questions such as “can you beat the competition”, “can you get more reviews”, “can you do better when listing your description and photos” and so on.

Now for the reserach tool that will help you find out the exact details for your checklist! (Checklist is yours too!)

Helium 10’s Black Box Tool for Amazon Product Search

Now that you have the product checklist for your future Amazon bestsellers, let’s see how the Black Box Tool from Helium 10 can help you with your product search.

Helium 10 markets its black box tool as an efficient and fast instrument to find the product ideas suitable for every Amazon sellers. This tool has multi-tiered factors that can create a list of the best products based on the selling goals and preferences of the seller.

The base filters of the Black Box contain the following:

• Title keyword search – sellers can put their preferred keywords in the title of the products
• Categories – sellers can select the types of products they want to analyze using the classifications available on Amazon.
• Number of images – there is an option to set the minimum and maximum number of images that can be put during the listing
• Monthly sales (units) – sellers can set the minimum and maximum monthly units sales
• Number of sellers – there is an option to set the minimum and maximum number of competitors who are selling the same product
• Price – sellers can set the minimum and maximum prices of the products
• Review rating – there is an option to set the minimum and maximum number of star reviews
• Best seller rank (BSR)
• Shipping size tier – sellers can choose the size of the products they want to sell.
• Review count – sellers can set the minimum and the maximum number of product reviews in total.
• Fulfillment – there is a choice wherein the seller can select the logistical option, in this case, FBA or Fulfillment by Amazon
• Monthly revenue – sellers can set the minimum and the maximum profit range they are targeting.

There are also advanced filters such as the following:

• Sales to review – this allows the seller to set the minimum and maximum ratio of sales for every review.
• Sales year over year (%) – this allows the seller to set the minimum and maximum sales trends annually.
• Best sales period – in this filter, the seller can choose the time of the year when products are most in-demand.
• Price change – the seller can set the minimum and maximum change in price.
• Sales change – the seller can set the minimum and maximum change in sales.

On top of these filters, sellers can save and load the project and restore the last search for easier access.

The Black Box tool can be purchased as a stand-alone product by sellers. So, if you are new to the business, you can either choose to avail of the Black Box alone or you can be a platinum or diamond member of Helium 10 so you can access the Black Box without additional costs which will pay off handsomely in the near future.

You can click here to read more about this awesome product research tool.

The black box tool has all the answer to your question. Just adjust the filter accordingly to your checklist and you are all set to finding your next profitable and well differentiated best seller on Amazon!