Choosing what products to sell is one of the most vital and probably the hardest part of starting a business. One mistake could lead to possible investment failure.
The Internet has made selling easier; with social media, you can now easily know what’s trending, and online advertising is an effective and affordable way to easily reach customers. Moreover, Amazon has made selling online easier – millions of people are sifting through it, thus giving your products the chance to get exposed and sold in no time.
How to choose a product to sell
Finding the right product to sell does not happen in a day or two. It requires extensive product research, logic and intuition. Before investing your money in particular goods you are eyeing, answer these questions:
Who’s your target market?
Identify which marketplace has the most people who need or want your products. Say you plan on selling customized chopsticks; obviously, Amazon.jp would be a good marketplace.
How big is the market opportunity?
Drill down and do an extensive market analysis to figure out the size of your market. Identifying the financial stability of a marketplace would be a good start.
Is there a demand for the product you plan to sell?
Really, if you were the customer, would you think your products are worth buying?
How is the competition?
Remember that the higher the demand for a particular product, the tighter the competition. Can your products get along with your competitors or, better yet, stand out?
How much money can you invest, and how much money can you afford to lose?
It is important to know how profitable your products could be and know the feasibility of your investment.
What product to sell on Amazon
Technically, you can sell just about anything that is worth selling on Amazon, but if you plan on selling through Amazon FBA, there are few criteria you need to meet:
Price: This depends on your allotted budget, but since it’s FBA, consider the fees that can come along, including fulfillment fees, taxes and duties, warehouse delivery fee, VAT, etc. Basically, choose a product that is cheap yet can be sold at a potentially large markup.
Competition: Pro-tip, go to Amazon, check every best-selling product, and look for something that sells a lot but doesn’t have too many reviews – this gives you a hint of what products sell well yet are not so competitive.
Weight & Size: Note that FBA isn’t free; you need to pay for picking, packing, shipping, and handling of your goods per unit & pay for monthly inventory storage per cubic foot. Meaning, the bigger your products are, the higher fees you need to pay. To know more about the FBA fees, click here.
Rank: Before purchasing your goods, it is better to check out its sales ranking on Amazon. If it’s one of the best-selling, then maybe it is worth investing.
Technically, checking what’s already selling on Amazon would be your cheat sheet, somewhere within the pages of Amazon lies the answer to your question.
Where to get products to sell on Amazon FBA
China. Yes, one country that offers almost everything. China basically has a wide variety of goods you may sell such as clothes, bags, electronics, shoes, toys, cosmetics, tools — just about anything. In fact, China has been the world’s largest exporter since 2009.
Sourcing goods and suppliers in China doesn’t always mean you need to fly over there. Today, you can find your goods and suppliers right at your fingertips through Alibaba.com. Alibaba is the largest online source of Chinese suppliers. However, among these thousands of suppliers are some bad apples, a.k.a scammers; hence you need to narrow your list down by filtering the search results to those suppliers that are under “gold member” or “verified supplier.” Moreover, reading the reviews is also a big help in order to know your supplier well.
Product Research Tips
- Invest in Amazon Product research tools, such as Junglescout, Cashcowpro, ZonBlast, Splitly, etc.
- Know the trend, know what’s in! Identify the needs and wants of people through social media.
- Learn more about the products you plan on selling. Know how it would benefit your customers, know its advantages over its competitors.
- Use tons of intuition + logic.
- Know your supplier – how credible and how good are their products?
- Identify your own needs – sometimes what we need could also be a need to somebody else.
- Avoid products such as software, video games, mp3 downloads, groceries, movies, and perishable goods. People just don’t go to Amazon for these kinds of products.
- Find products you could definitely make some use of. Why would you sell something useless, anyway?
- Check one best selling product that has a number of BAD reviews. Know its issues, know what people hate about it (color,size, quality, price, etc.) then sell the same improved and innovative item.
- Avoid seasonal products such as winter clothes; make sure your products can be sold all year round.
Bottom line:
Product research could be easy if you put your heart into it. It takes tons of patience plus determination to find the best products to sell.
Drill down through every idea you can think of– the more aggressive you are about product research, the more likely you are to succeed.
