Best Practices to Find the Best Products to Sell on Amazon

October 19, 2022

Amazon product research is the cornerstone to a successful brand on and off of the Amazon marketplace. Without the ability to find the best products to sell on Amazon, your brand is left with me-too products that don’t garner enough clicks or sales, and before you know it, you’re scrambling to find the next best product trend.

Almost every Amazon seller – beginner or experienced – has trouble sorting through the expensive Amazon marketplace to find the perfect product category to invest their time and effort into. So, no, you can’t just pick any random product, create a listing and cross your fingers, hoping that you make hundreds of thousands of dollars in profit selling on Amazon. Before you start selling, due diligence is needed to determine a product's sales potential and market demand, if there's even any. 

Understanding what kind of products you should sell on Amazon will go a long way in helping you succeed in this competitive marketplace. And that's why you need to get it right from the beginning, which is only possible if you research and analyze the market and your competitors. 

In this blog, we'll discuss what factors you need to consider to pick the best product and whether that product can be profitable in a healthy lifecycle.

What kind of products do well on Amazon?

Finding the best products to sell on the Amazon marketplace can feel like searching for a needle in the haystack. But the truth is with a little ingenuity, research, and social listening, there are, in fact, opportunities to strike it big with the next best product in 2022.

• Small and lightweight consumable products: Products that are small and don't weigh much are cheaper to buy, easier to import, and easier to ship. Tapping into the consumable market means consistent high-demand as new and returning shoppers purchase these products to solve their everyday problems.
• Products that retail between $25 to $50: Selling products at this price range makes it easy to cover incurring costs like the cost of items sold, advertising costs, and Amazon fees. Usually, products that retail at more than $50 have a lower conversion rate, and you won't make significant sales. You’ll want to factor total costs into your margins, as high-cost products can mean more expenses for shipping and storage fees.
• Products with less than 200 reviews: The number of reviews on a product also determines how well the product will do. Look for products with between 100 to 120 reviews with healthy competition, but where your brand can compete.
• Easy to manufacture products: The last thing you want when selling on Amazon is to run into manufacturing and quality control problems. Avoid overly complex and fragile products like glass and electronics and opt for items that are easy to manufacture. It's wise to avoid electronics as your first product, as the regulatory requirements, insurance, and defect rate can be challenging to navigate.
• All-season products: If you want to scale your online business, avoid seasonal products that traditionally make sales during specific periods like Christmas or Halloween. Instead, go for products that you can sell all year round. 
• Products that you can improve: When selling on Amazon, you don't need to develop an entirely new product. So many sellers are already doing well by improving already existing products. Differentiatiion is your best friend on Amazon. Market research can help you determine what consumers love and hate about existing products. If you pay keen attention, there may be a gold nugget for your next product within that research.

How do you find the best product to sell?

To start selling on Amazon, you must first conduct product research to narrow down the best products to sell. Here are simple ways to find products to sell on Amazon. 

#1 Amazon keyword research tools

A data-driven keyword research tool will show different products' search volume and demand. Such tools help you see how many people are searching for a specific product and whether the search volume is worth investing your time and money into. 

One of the best ways of knowing what products to target is by determining what Amazon shoppers are looking for. Keyword research is at the center of Amazon product research and can help narrow down the most searched terms for a particular keyword. The higher the number of searches, the higher the product's sales potential. 

But here is something about high-volume keywords; you need to consider the competition. To stand a chance, you need to target low-competition keywords. Low competition keywords have fewer companies and brands competing for high organic rankings with SEO.  

#2 Use Amazon reviews 

When deciding on the items to purchase to sell on Amazon, it's vital that you know what the actual customers want. Big-time sellers and vendors have the budget for target group research to get a feel of what customers think of a product. But when you are starting, you neither have the budget nor the time for that. Your best bet is to use what is available to you. 

Amazon customer reviews provide a cost-efficient way of determining what you should sell on Amazon. If you already have an idea of the product you want to sell, go through the customer reviews on other sellers' listings. What items are customers raving about? Are there dissatisfactions with a specific product? Use the information to modify your product for that market.  

#3 Amazon best-selling categories

Amazon already has some best-selling categories. It makes sense to target products in such categories. After all, the products are already a hit with customers; you might as well make some profit while at it. From electronics and toys to games, knowing what items are already doing well on the platform will point you in the right direction when purchasing inventory to sell on Amazon. But keep one thing in mind; the bestselling category is based on recent sales. Because of that, the results might be influenced by seasonal trends and fads, so be sure to check the yearly sales trend before deciding on a product. Never adopt a trend without thinking about longevity or improvement. Your product needs to stand out and outmatch the competition.

#4 Pinterest & Etsy

Pinterest is a great place to start your product research. The platform allows user to "pin" their favorite images. Most of the time, these pinned images are of products they're interested in, and they may include generic white-label items or brand-name products. The more pins a product has, the more it is trending online. Look for products trending on Pinterest that aren't available on Amazon as an idea for your initial inventory. 

What products serve to solve people's problems on either platform and how can you craft a product that’s unique and in demand?

#5 Forums, Communities & Social Media

Other online forums and communities offer untapped product ideas and data. Scour sites like Reddit and TitTok to unlock what audiences are keenly interested in or conversing about. Social listening can help you determine pain points, trending products, and brands with loyal followings to determine how you can make your mark with a product that serves people in the best way. 

What are the best practices for succeeding on Amazon?

Here are the tips you must consider when trying to find that million-dollar product idea. 

• Go for the most profitable products that will likely generate lots of sales. A product's profitability is determined by popularity, competition, category, durability, shipping weight, and size. Products that meet the maximum of such criteria generate more sales in the end. Profitable products sell at between $25 to $50 and are small, lightweight, evergreen, and with good packaging. Avoid products that have a higher risk of damage, like glass. 

Products with tight margins may start out with a decent profit if you can sell them in high volume. However, changes to FBA fees, logistics, and supply chain can make a serious dent in your profit if you don’t factor in the ebbs and flows of market changes at the outset. Think longevity.

• Go for product categories with the least competition. Unless you are an established brand, you will have difficulty targeting products with high-volume search results. For instance, a product with over 100,000 search results is already competitive to make the kind of sales you want. But you can target another broader niche within that large market with less competition. 
• Look for a gap in the market. Even with millions of products selling on the platform, there will always be a gap; it's just a matter of knowing how to uncover these gaps. A good way of doing that is to improve already existing products. Go through customer reviews, find reasons why customers are unsatisfied with current brands, and see if that's a feature you can incorporate into your product. 
• Choose a product that can cross-sell. Don't just pick a product without considering the bigger picture. When choosing a product, think about what's next should the product succeed. Don't limit yourself to products that can't scale your brand. For instance, selling diapers can branch into baby bags, wipes, toys, and even lotions.  

Top product categories to consider in 2022

Here is a list of product categories for you to consider in 2022, in no order of importance.

1. Pet products
2. Hobbies
3. Baby and postpartum
4. Toys and games
5. Home office

Check out this important research by eMarketer in which all five of the above-mentioned suggestions are listed in their comprehensive report. The report details A breakdown of Amazon’s US ecommerce sales at the product category level in 2022. 

Summary

When starting a business on Amazon, your biggest challenge is competition from other third-party sellers and big brands. You must nait it from the beginning to stand out and make significant sales. That means choosing a product that can competitively increase conversion and help you scale your brand. Looking for gaps in the market and differentiating beyond basic consumer requests can help you find a winning product that consumers may love now and in the future. But remember, the brand must be as strong as the product, so create a strong brand by differentiating the whole way through.

Questions about finding the best products on Amazon? We can help. Book a Free 30-minute consult with one of our dedicated Amazon experts who can help you navigate Amazon product research.

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