I outlined what the desirable traits of an Amazon FBA product include, along with things that we want to AVOID in a previous article on Amazon FBA product research.
You essentially want to identify products that are in high demand and have relatively low competition.
We also want to avoid certain attributes in our product search:
- Fragile (thinks break during transit)
- Print on demand items (Amazon is flooded with POD items & even has its own POD platform called Amazon Merch)
- Oversized items (the shipping costs & inventory storage fees are much higher for larger items)
- Items made from chemicals (Amazon will make you include a SDS with each product listing & shipping could potentially be higher)
- Items that include batteries (there are additional shipping regulations for products that include batteries - avoid the headache)
- Patented products (it doesn't take long to check, & Chinese suppliers don't care if something is patented in the US)
Using product research tools like Jungle Scout & Helium 10 will, at the very least, eliminate products from contention that are way over saturated and/or not in high enough demand to make sense investing in.
After using product research tools to build your list of products, we need to do further due diligence to hone in on which products will be most profitable out of the remaining ones.
DS Amazon Quick View
Product research tools are not perfect - they use data points that Amazon makes available to attempt to project traits about various niches and how high the demand is for those products, as well as evaluating competition.
But no one is a better judge of these things than YOU!
Before spending money on product orders, you should take a look for yourself and decide if the demand is high enough to justify launching a product in any space, as well as doing an audit of the existing sellers offering similar products!
DS Amazon Quick View is one of my all-time favorite Chrome extensions because it shows you product BSRs right in the search results page!
Check out how quickly I was able to evaluate garlic presses on Amazon by performing a simple keyword search:
* click to expand
DS Amazon Quick View is a must have for anyone selling on Amazon in my opinion. Oh and did i mention it's FREE?
Understanding BSR
Here's a quick refresher on how Amazon's BSR works:
- BSR = Best Seller Rank
- Every category on Amazon has its own #1 best seller, so keep in mind that the actual numeric BSR's true value depends on the category it's in (#1 in Home & Kitchen is more valuable than #1 in Industrial & Scientific)
- Lower BSR = More Sales
Tracking BSR is important because we want to make sure that we enter a product category that is in high enough demand that it can support multiple profitable products.
I typically look for niches that have at least 6 products in the BSR range of UNDER 10,000. It's also a good sign to see 12 products under the 20,000 range.
With these ranges, we can project to at least achieve some level of success early on, with our long term goal being to overtake the #1 organic spot on the primary traffic driving keywords.
Now that we've refreshed ourselves on the important role that BSR plays in Amazon FBA product research & validation, we can move on to historical BSR information.
Helium 10
Helium 10 has a FREE tool that essentially replaces Keepa, which many sellers used to rely on to evaluate historical product data.
Understanding a product's historical BSR is great for projecting inventory levels throughout the year. It's not secret that some products are seasonal!
In order to use it, you'll first need to sign up for a free Helium 10 account & install the Chrome extension.
Then, navigate to an Amazon product listing page & scroll down slightly below the listing images.
If you're logged into Helium 10, you should see the spark chart load in after a few second:
Each dip represents a sale.
You will want to expand the chart out to the past year (or all time) and look for times where the spark chart climbed high - this is bad, it means that sales were slow.
- When you see a limb followed by a steep drop, this could mean it was out of stock and then re-stocked inventory
- When you see a more gradual climb followed by a gradual drop, this could be an indicator of a seasonal product
Ideally you want to find products in a niche where BSR is stable year round. It's OK if this isn't the case, but you'll need to remember any seasonal decreases in sales volume while projecting inventory levels throughout the year.
If you're a fan of Helium 10 and want to sign up, make sure to use my coupon code & save 50% off your first month or an additional 10% off your annual plan!
RYANHCS50
- Doesn't expire
