How to Sell on Amazon and Product Research: Product Research Tips and Practical Guide on How to Find a Winning Product to Sell on Amazon Fba

HOW TO SELL ON AMAZON

Product Research Tips and Practical Guide on How to Find a Winning Product to Sell on Amazon Fba

Table of Contents

Introduction........................................................................................................................8

Chapter 1: Before you pick a product........................................................................9

Search Terms....................................................................................................................11

Amazon Product Restrictions.........................................................................................12

Chapter 2: Initial criteria for product selection.....................................................14

Selling price over $10......................................................................................................15

Small and light ProductS.................................................................................................15

Not a hazardous material................................................................................................16

Non-perishable..................................................................................................................16

Consistent and non-seasonal........................................................................................16

A price range of $10-$200...............................................................................................17

Sold at 100% markup.......................................................................................................17

Fair seller volume.............................................................................................................17

Non-essential item............................................................................................................17

Specific products..............................................................................................................18

Non-mechanical item.......................................................................................................18

Durable products..............................................................................................................18

Products without trademarks.........................................................................................18

Products serving passion or pain...................................................................................19

Consumable or disposable items....................................................................................19

Scalable products.............................................................................................................19

Products with a growing market....................................................................................19

Products in high demand..............................................................................................20

Not fragile.......................................................................................................................20

Not a lot of moving parts or electronics.....................................................................20

Avoid Outdated items, like dated CDs or old iPhones................................................21

Avoid products that would complicate your shipping process..................................21

Sell something that you can sell twice as high for what you bought it for, if not more...............21

Chapter 3: Know Why you want to sell that particular product.................................22

Chapter 4: What makes a great product.................................................................24

Amazon allowed category.............................................................................................24

4x, 5x Rule.......................................................................................................................24

Minimum Sales Price is $10, or $20 for those who want to make more money...24

Light, relatively small and easy to ship.......................................................................24

Can be private labeled...................................................................................................25

Best Seller Ranking........................................................................................................25

It’s not a me too product...........................................................................................25

Evergreen Products.......................................................................................................25

Reviews............................................................................................................................25

Is there room for improvement?..................................................................................26

Chapter 5: Arbitrage vs Private Label............................................................................27

Online Arbitrage.............................................................................................................27

Retail Arbitrage..............................................................................................................28

Amazon-to-eBay Arbitrage or Vice Versa...................................................................28

Private Label...................................................................................................................29

Chapter 6: Identifying products to sell......................................................................30

Steps How to Find Good Products.................................................................................30

Check the Amazon Best-Sellers..................................................................................30

Find Products with Good Reviews and Less Sellers................................................30

Categories you’re better off entering............................................................................30

Accessory-Heavy Niche Categories...........................................................................31

Buyers with Great Passion or Problem......................................................................31

Products over $10 to $200..........................................................................................31

Difficult to Get Locally.................................................................................................31

Slow Upgrade Products...............................................................................................32

Disposable and Consumable Products.......................................................................32

Specific Niche Products...............................................................................................32

Continuous Streams of Customers.............................................................................32

Small and Light-Weight Products...............................................................................32

100% Markup Products...............................................................................................33

Categories you’re better off avoiding............................................................................33

Mechanical Products....................................................................................................33

Power Seller Products..................................................................................................33

Trademarked Products................................................................................................34

Fragile Products............................................................................................................34

Chapter 7: Finding product suppliers........................................................................35

Types of suppliers.............................................................................................................36

Pick a product from your list and start looking for sources.......................................36

Ways to find suppliers......................................................................................................37

Step-by-step process in finding factory suppliers.......................................................38

Establish Trust..............................................................................................................38

Determine What You Are Looking For......................................................................38

Make A Deal................................................................................................................38

Techniques that most suppliers use............................................................................39

Laser engraving..........................................................................................................39

Screen printing...........................................................................................................39

Embossing...................................................................................................................39

Debossing....................................................................................................................39

How to Work with Factory Suppliers............................................................................40

Communication.............................................................................................................40

Equal Bargain Negotiation..........................................................................................40

Learn The Language....................................................................................................40

Be Reliable.....................................................................................................................40

Show Your Options.......................................................................................................41

How to Produce Private Label Products.......................................................................41

Search for OEM manufacturers.................................................................................41

Email OEM manufacturers..........................................................................................42

Choose the best manufacturer....................................................................................42

Test the product and create some improvements...................................................42

Order your final product..............................................................................................42

Purchase unique EAN and UPC barcodes.................................................................42

How to Ship Inventory to Amazon Fulfillment Centers..............................................42

Find a reliable freight forwarder................................................................................42

Chapter 8: The process of Product Research..................................................................44

The initial search..............................................................................................................45

Starting your list...............................................................................................................46

Narrowing down your list................................................................................................46

How can you improve on the product?....................................................................47

Profit calculation........................................................................................................48

Validation Steps- How well do these products sell on Amazon?.............................49

Check rank.....................................................................................................................50

Tools to evaluate rank..................................................................................................50

Check reviews...............................................................................................................50

Check the competition.................................................................................................50

Check the price history................................................................................................50

Check the market search volume...............................................................................51

Check the selling fees..................................................................................................51

Market Research Factors................................................................................................51

Is there enough demand in the market to sell at least 10 units a day?................51

What price range will the product sell for and will you be able to make $10 profit on each product sold?...............52

How tough is the competition?...................................................................................52

ExerciseS to start your product research.....................................................................52

Chapter 9: Product Research Tools............................................................................53

Jungle Scout Web App http://bit.ly/JungleScoutPL......................................................53

CamelCamelCamel: www.camelcamelcamel.com.......................................................53

Google Trends and Google Keyword Planner: https://www.google.com/trends/ and https://adwords.google.com.au/KeywordPlanner................54

Merchant Words: www.merchantwords.com...............................................................54

Jungle Scout......................................................................................................................55

What to Look Out For......................................................................................................56

Chapter 10: Where to get Product Ideas.................................................................58

Magazines........................................................................................................................58

Niche Retailers...............................................................................................................59

Retailers...........................................................................................................................59

Supplier Reverse Engineering......................................................................................59

Promotional products....................................................................................................59

Houzz.com.......................................................................................................................59

Look at Consumers Reports............................................................................................60

Join Facebook groups related to your niche and lurk.................................................60

Go shopping.......................................................................................................................60

Go to Trend hunter.com and browse through articles................................................60

After a trade show, search for reports and roundups on blogs.................................60

Look for ideas on Etsy.....................................................................................................60

Figure out what your interests, hobbies, and passions are and write down a list of them...............61

Watching TV......................................................................................................................61

Visit online stores and drill through their categories.................................................61

Google................................................................................................................................61

Visit product fairs.............................................................................................................62

Chapter 11: Private label basics...................................................................................63

Deciding if your product is a good fit for a private label........................................63

Design the right logo....................................................................................................63

Choosing a name...........................................................................................................64

Know what’s popular....................................................................................................64

Consider related words................................................................................................65

How to Find Private Labels.............................................................................................65

Worldwide Brands http://www.worldwidebrands.com/..........................................65

Alibaba http://www.alibaba.com/private-label-manufacturers.html.....................65

Alibaba - Reselling........................................................................................................65

EBay................................................................................................................................65

Walmart http://www.walmart.com.............................................................................66

Chapter 12: Outsourcing Product Images..............................................................67

Chapter 13: Listing optimizations...............................................................................70

Title.....................................................................................................................................70

Description........................................................................................................................71

Chapter 15: Creating your first FBA Shipment.......................................................72

Variations of shipping label creations:..........................................................................72

Merchant Fulfilled........................................................................................................72

Collection.......................................................................................................................72

Factory to FBA Warehouse.........................................................................................73

Negotiation Tactics..........................................................................................................73

Product Confirmation.......................................................................................................75

Quality control..................................................................................................................76

Dealing with Delays.......................................................................................................77

Samples and Test Marketing........................................................................................78

Chapter 16: Selling the product...................................................................................81

Blog posts..........................................................................................................................84

Facebook ads.....................................................................................................................84

eBay....................................................................................................................................84

Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest.........................................................................................84

Chapter 17: Mistakes to Avoid When doing Product Research.........................86

Not creating expandable brands and product lines from the start...........................86

Underestimating the holidays.........................................................................................86

Not considering the demand up front.........................................................................87

Not listing products, the right way..............................................................................87

Not taking full advantage of images...........................................................................87

Not using enough bullet points....................................................................................87

Not pricing products properly......................................................................................88

Not treating it like a business......................................................................................88

Not doing enough research..........................................................................................88

Having too many similar products...............................................................................89

Chapter 18: Tips for Success.........................................................................................90

Using dunnage for shipments.........................................................................................90

Free boxes from grocery stores for shipment..............................................................90

Lighter fluid to remove price stickers...........................................................................90

Free inventory from Freecycle.org................................................................................91

Boxes from arbitrage purchases....................................................................................91

Productivity tools..............................................................................................................91

Time saving hacks............................................................................................................91

Have a business credit card and checking account?..................................................91

Run your business like a business.................................................................................92

Know a good deal when you see one.............................................................................92

Care about your seller rating.........................................................................................93

Consider each purchase carefully..................................................................................93

Don’t forget about social media.....................................................................................93

Chapter 19: Settle in for the Long-Term...................................................................94

Understand your audience..............................................................................................94

Ask for customer feedback..............................................................................................95

Set the right goals............................................................................................................95

Become an authority......................................................................................................97

Do your homework.....................................................................................................97

Limit yourself..............................................................................................................98

Know your competition..............................................................................................98

Create a guide.............................................................................................................98

Grow your reach.........................................................................................................98

Make friends...............................................................................................................99

Create email blasts.....................................................................................................99

Conversions by source...............................................................................................99

Conclusion...........................................................................................................................100

Introduction

Product research, in my opinion, is the most important part of your whole e-commerce business. A great product with a great market demand can allow your business to grow.

If you’re a business that sells online and wants to ship, you may want to consider using the Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) to handle your products for packaging and shipping.

This book covers choosing a product and finding a supplier. In this book, you’ll also find some incredible insights into how to find the right product to sell online, from deconstructing which qualities it should have to choosing a supplier and finally selling it.

I’m also going to give you a checklist to follow for choosing products that you may want to consider adding in your e-commerce business.

Please take your time in doing your product research. Don’t be lazy and just look at Amazon’s top 100. It does take some time to do proper research but I would rather spend hours and hours on product research and evaluation than regret losing money in the end.

In this book, I’m going to demystify the process of writing a product listing for your physical products.

I’m going to teach you how to write a product listing that sells products. Also, it’s going to be cut and dried training, do this – do that kind of instructions.

You don’t have to spent weeks writing your listing. Don’t get me wrong, it is important to make sure that you have a great listing.

Happy reading and good luck on your search of the right products to sell.

Chapter 1: Before You Pick a Product

This is what’s ultimately prompted people like YOU to take an interest in this industry. Maybe you heard of selling products online from friends or you read about it on a blog. How hard could it be? you wonder. Doesn’t it seem like an easy way to make money?

It can be a worthwhile endeavor as long as you plan for it. Unfortunately, because selling products online is virtually accessible to anyone that has a computer, people can get the misconception that it’s easy. And unfortunately, there are several missteps you can accidentally take that can reduce the risk of your products or online business making you any decent money. True, it’s easy to put a product online and have a space to sell it...but to sell product after product efficiently? That takes some strategizing on your part. Not every product will sell as quickly as you’d like it to, but there are steps you can take to make sure that the products you invest in will not only sell in a timely manner, but self consistently.

Something that may help you before you embark on the mission of selling your products online is to clarify your intention. For instance, are you interested in selling a product or two and seeing how it goes? Or are you more serious about this and absolutely determined at all costs to create your own storefront? Simply put, will selling products online be a career for you or a hobby? The distinction between the two is important because the investment you’d put forth for a career would likely be much greater.

If you’re more interested in pulling out the occasional household item and seeing if it’ll sell online, then you’d likely have no interest in researching what’s hot on the market and where you can order from a supplier in bulk. That doesn’t mean you have to put down this book, because I address selling products online for both individuals who are trying to make it a hobby and others who are trying to make a career for themselves. And regardless of whatever path you embark on, it’s still critical