If you want to make money on Amazon, one thing that will continuously worry you is market evaluation.

Most of the beginners explore alternative business methods like retail arbitrage to avoid huge investment as an Amazon seller.

But trust me, every successful Amazon seller has gone through this phase. Deciding on a bankable product is not as overwhelming as it seems.

There are many things to look at when it comes to product research i.e: niche selection, brand restrictions, competition, selling fees, and so on.

Researching for products on Amazon has evolved for the last few years. What used to work before may or may not work now.

This definitive guide will assist you in research products on Amazon properly.

What is Amazon Product Research?

Amazon Product Research is about analyzing the latest market trends to choose winning items.

The idea is that you research products that you are able to source and sell for a profit. Sounds super simple, doesn’t it?

But the process includes numerous important factors that should be considered e.g: your niche selection, any brand restrictions, your competition, costs, and fees will all decide whether your researched products are viable or not.

Why it is essential to do Product Research?

If you don’t spend enough time mastering your research skills, you’ll be unable to spot potentially profitable products.

With an increased number of sellers and strict selling policies, it is important to understand that those old tricks of finding products are no longer going to work.

You need to list down the best selling products on Amazon. Then, do deep analysis if similar items are making enough sales. This step is crucial because you will never want to trade items that people are not even searching for.

Before you even start your research you should know what a good product looks like to introduce to your inventory.

Criteria to select an Amazon Profitable Product

You should definitely know profitable product characteristics when you research products to sell on Amazon. The important point is to research products that sell because you need customers to survive.

But you also must take into consideration the product from your point of view as the seller. For example, you might discover that 50-inch TVs are selling like they are going out of fashion.

Great! But from a practical point of view, as an Amazon seller most likely working from home, you’ll have trouble not only with storage of stock but also shipping fees, not to mention brand restrictions.

So, you need to leave products like that to the big boys and instead concentrate on products that make running your e-commerce business simple and make your research simple too.

Profitable Products should be fit into the following criteria:

Huge demand
Products price > 20 dollars
Decent profit margins
Low competition
Low seasonality
Lightweight or Small items
Products with room for improvement
No legal issues

By keeping these criteria in mind, you will filter out items that don’t meet these requirements and your research task immediately becomes less daunting and more refined.

So, now that you know what you’re looking for, let’s move on to the Amazon product research checklist that will make finding the perfect profitable product a simple process.

Amazon Product Research Requirements Checklist

Here is a quick checklist of what is required to come up with the right product. With these criteria, your job gets easier.

Product prices should range between $20 to $40
Products made at least 10 sales a day
Similar products that feature a best seller rank of at least 5,000 in the main category
The top 3 related keywords have 50,000+ monthly searches on Amazon
Not seasonal products. They can be sold year-round
2-3 products with less than 50 reviews on the first page
Small and lightweight products (under 2 to 3 pounds)
No brand names or trademarks associated with the product
A product can be set up for 25% or even lesser than the sale price
Proper room for product optimization and improvement of present listings
Multiple product-related keyword opportunities
Quick and easy product sourcing from China
The product should not be fragile
The product should not have any legal issues

What are the methods of Amazon product research?

Research is the key to finding winning products to sell on Amazon. So, you must make sure you do it right and know exactly where to carry out your research.

1) Check The Best-Sellers List

The first place you should head to for your research is unsurprisingly Amazon itself.

More specifically, the Amazon Bestseller lists, which not only include ‘bestsellers’, but also include ‘movers and shakers’, ‘most wished for’ and ‘gift ideas’ sections.

All of these can offer invaluable insights into the type of products you should be considering for your inventory.

Use Bestsellers to view the top 100 bestselling products in any category. The trick here is to dig deep into the sub-categories. So, don’t look at the number one seller in the top-level category and choose that as the item you are going to source and sell.

Instead, choose a sub-category and look at the top 100 there instead. Although still popular there will be less competition and you are ‘niche-ing’ down your ideal product. Choose a product to research further and source a similar but better version rather than the exact product.

Once you have an idea about the niche and the respective product, see if the product is in-demand or not through the following ways:

Google keyword planner
Google trends

2) Speak with Your Current Supplier

If you already sell a product on Amazon and have a relationship with a supplier, one of the easiest and most cost-effective product research tactics is to simply speak with your supplier to get the unofficial low down on their best selling products and hottest product trends.

Your supplier should already have their finger on the pulse and will be able to offer you inside information, plus, the more products you purchase from one source, the lower your unit cost will be.

By speaking with your supplier, you can actually achieve big discounts and get new product ideas all at the same time.

3) Spy on Your Competitors

Another superb Amazon product research tactic is to analyze what your competitors are doing to sell the product that you have picked.

You can check for their product listing pages and their official website if available. The insights give an idea of what items are selling the most, the ones that are getting good ratings and customer reviews.

You can also keep an eye on your competitors successfully through Amazon PPC. Amazon sellers spending money on campaigns like this are pretty certain to be profiting from these products otherwise they would not spend the money on the campaigns. When you see the word ‘sponsored’ on Amazon, this means the product is a paid-for advertisement.

Apart from this, you can spy on your competitors outside Amazon by typing the appropriate keyword on Google or other search engines, and see if any results are showing up.

Also, you can purchase the product from your competitor (if you can afford) and check the kind of service they offer. You can always learn those best practices from them and find out ways to improve them while selling yours.

4) Utilize Google Trends

One of the best tools you can use for your Amazon product research is Google Trends. The first way you can use this tool is by setting up alerts so that you will receive notifications about trending or popular topics.

The advantage is that although you are not directly being notified of ‘products’ as such, as a seller you will be able to identify relevant subjects or stories that tie in with your business and product needs. This allows you to explore potential products that you can sell on Amazon.

Alternatively, you can search on Google Trends itself. Simply choose the country where you are selling on amazon, search for a product and choose web search to see results returned for all related products.

Using the earlier example of ‘dog lead’, the search results you’ll see returned are useful for giving you ideas to research even further.

5) Investigate the ‘Customers Also Bought’ and ‘Frequently Bought Together’ Sections

Let’s head back to Amazon now, and a great Amazon research tactic is to view the sections beneath the main listings which can give you insightful product ideas.

You’ll need a rough idea of the niche and product you’re researching, but this tactic will help you not only understand your potential customers thought and buying process, but also give you the opportunity to research and create a unique product bundle.

Products that are frequently bought together on Amazon can be combined into one amazing product that could become a best seller. Products that you see customers also bought are likely to be hugely popular and can be researched further in their own right and either added to a ‘bundle’ or sourced and sold as a stand-alone product.

6) Look at eBay’s Trending Lists

Whilst you may wish to sell on Amazon, eBay can be a mine of information when it comes to your product research. If an item is available and selling well on eBay, it’s likely to sell well on Amazon too! This is where eBay’s lists are useful for your product research. So, head over to eBay and you’ll be able to view all trending product deals across a choice of categories:

Not all products will fit with your research criteria, but it’s an ideal place to spot in-demand products that you can source and sell on Amazon.

7) Browse through AliExpress and Find the Bestsellers

This is a fantastic Amazon product research tactic, yet often overlooked! AliExpress is one of the biggest trade marketplaces that you have free access to, so don’t just use it for product sourcing. Use it for your research as well.

AliExpress doesn’t have a dedicated page for best selling products, but you can still investigate which products are popular in three easy steps:

Choose a category or sub-category e.g. pet supplies
Sort results by ‘orders’ to see the highest sold numbers first
Filter the results to display products with a 4 or above rating

You’ll now see all the top-selling products in your chosen category or sub-category with the added bonus that you can have confidence in that product due to all ratings being 4 star or above from previous buyers.

8) By Using Amazon FBA Tools

This is indeed one of the quickest ways to perform product research. It will save your time and come handy.

Just Imagine Scouring through the bestseller lists, checking the hot-selling items, analyzing the product criteria, images, description, bullets, listings, and competition can be time-consuming and maddening.

Moreover, you will have to check if there is enough demand for the product and see if it can sell easily. Also, is the product seasonal or is it only good if is sold during holidays?

What will be the return or refund rate and how expensive it can be to ship? Do customers want it to work impeccably for years? Would this necessitate proper customer support?

You can either do all of the above, click on all the potential products, put in all the price, weight, and other criteria that are mentioned above, go to all the competitors, go up and down on scrolling through all the products, go back and forth switching tabs and spend hours and hours of energy and you still may not come up with any product idea.

Many software offers these features i.e: Jungle Scout, Helium 10, & Viral Launch. These tools are exclusively designed to give you an estimate of monthly sales, monthly revenue, number of reviews, and a bunch of other useful tools to make the research more enhanced, efficient, and organized. It is a great way to quickly and easily validate your Product Research.

Conclusion

Your Amazon product research will never feel daunting if you always follow the set criteria and remember to ‘niche-down’ your research whilst using competitor information and trends to help you.

There’s no need to waste time trying to sniff out products that are non-starters when you can narrow down your research and recognize a bestselling product using the easily accessible Amazon research tactics detailed above.

Amazon Product Research for FBA Sellers in 2021 – A Beginners Guide