My biggest Amazon FBA success story of 2018 has to come as a bit of a surprise.
Hear me out-
The product that generated me the most revenue in 2018 was NOT what I'd consider to be my most successful product.
Technically, my "best seller" did 9% more in revenue than my top profit generator.
revenue vs profit is an incredibly important concept to grasp! Revenue is how much sales you do. Profit is how much money you keep from those sales.
Here's the backstory behind my most profitable product of 2018!
How To Find Successful FBA Products
Here is the FULL, unadulterated story behind how I found my top selling FBA product of 2018.
It was the 3rd FBA product that I launched.
I began my product research by using JungleScout
Sign up for Jungle Scout today »
Check out my full writeup about my high-level approach to finding winning private label products here: Amazon FBA Product Research.
I used the product research database and enter in these parameters:
- Marketplace: United States
- Categories: Arts, Crafts & Sewing | Automotive | Home & Kitchen | Kitchen & Dining | Office Products | Patio, Lawn & Garden | Pet Supplies | Sports & Outdoors
- Price: minimum $16
- Est. Sales: minimum 150
- Est. Rev: minimum $1,900
- Reviews: maximum 150
* click to expand
* This isn't definitive, it's absolutely flexible - this is just what I used at the time.
After spending hours combing through the list of suggested products and recording the ones with potential, I eventually launched one that my coach & I felt checked all the boxes of what makes an ideal FBA product.
It was in high demand without oversatured competition levels, and I'm was confident in my ability to make kick-ass product listings :)
It typically sold in 10-packs, so I tried launching a 20-pack which left room for me to increase my profit margins. This was my first ever product launch.
While it did generate profit when it sold, the demand just wasn't high enough.
My 2nd product launch was the exact same product, packed into 10-packs, which appeared to be in highest demand.
I would eventually scale this product to the organic #1 spot on Amazon, but surprisingly it would eventually be de-throned by none other than my third product launch!
How I Ranked On The First Page Of Amazon In 2018
Both my 2nd and 3rd product launches ranked as high as the organic #1 and #2 spots - AT THE SAME TIME!
As of writing this, I currently have the #1, #4, and #5 spot on the primary keywords for this product... as well as a 4th product on the first page of search results!
In my Ryan's Method: Amazon FBA course, I talk in-depth about this strategy of doubling & tripling down on what works.
What makes my top organic ranking product so special is something that can't be taught: customers absolutely LOVE this variation of the product!
I've launched 12 different SKUs that were variations of the same product:
- Different colors
- Different quantities
- Different brands
But none of them can touch my best seller! (Well, only one of them really... the 2nd product I launched is pretty close).
If customers are truly happy with your product, your reviews will reflect that & Amazon will make sure your listing is seen. They understand that happy customers is what makes their business model so successful!
How To Get Amazon Product Reviews
My 2018 success story on Amazon is spearheaded by a product that is seemingly locked into that top organic ranked spot because of how much positive feedback it's received.
Check out this Efficient Era alert I got earlier in the week about another 5-star review posted on the listing:
I use the tool to automate certain processes & stay on top of a number of things for my FBA business. You can read more about how I use Efficient Era in this article, including how I automate honest feedback requests from customers via email.
As you can see in the notification, my product averaged 4.7 out of 5 stars after received 44 reviews!
It even averaged 5-stars for MONTHS before a few jealous competitors dropped a few bad reviews, bringing my star graphic to 4.5/5 for the time being.
p.s. if you want to see what a fake review looks like, look no further:
Broken English + complaints about the packaging? this is a pretty obvious tell. Anyways, I survived their petty attempt at hurting my organic product rank regardless.
Defining Success On Amazon FBA In 2018
Everyone's definition of success varies a bit.
The products I chose to target are not behemoths that would make me 6-figure annual profit should they succeed.
Often times when you hear FBA horror stories, it's related to people who have those massively successful product listings that become targets for hijackers and scammers...
Instead, I chose moderate products that I could realistically see myself taking over the #1 spot for.
Here's a chart of the revenue generated (grey) vs profit generated) in 2018 for my top 3 best selling FBA products on Amazon:
I mentioned that the positive organic product reviews vastly helped the #1 product succeed on Amazon, but that doesn't paint the full picture of what made it my biggest success of 2018.
The profit analytics (the per-unit production costs, inbound shipping costs, and PPC required) also heavily factor into the story.
Here's a closer look at the data, courtesy of Fetcher:
Sign up for fetcher & stay on top of your profit margins »
* click to expand
* These results are not typical *
Amazon is continuing their trend of squeezing sellers' margins every chance they get, from referral fee increases to inventory storage fee rate hikes.
You have leverage over the competition when you hold the top organic spot on primary keywords for a competitive niche, which allowed me to see the numbers pictured above:
- Sales: $84,479.40
- Costs: $56,497.92
- Profit: $27,981.48
- Units Sold: 3,459
- Margin: 33%
Before I close this article I'd also like to mention that I'm brand registered for this product, allowing me to protect it from hijackers & helping it stand out amongst increasing competition.
Looking forward to 2019, I believe that protecting your listings via Amazon's brand registry will be imperative, as well as rolling out enhanced brand content to improve your product listings.
