Do you want to sell on Amazon or start another e-commerce business but have no idea what to sell?
Amazon allows you to build a sustainable online business and reap the rewards for years to come.
According to 2024 Jungle Scout statistics, 57% of Amazon sellers see profit margins higher than 10%. 28% see profit margins over 20%. Only 13% of sellers say their stores are not yet profitable.
So how do you become a successful Amazon seller? It all starts with the right product. And finding the right product starts with product research.
Over 2 million active sellers are on Amazon (2024), and countless niches are oversaturated. If you enter a niche with thousands of competitors, you increase your chances of failure.
However, several strategies will help you find products with high demand and low competition. In this post, you’ll learn the best product research tactics for 2024.
Let’s jump right in.
The Basic Product Research Strategy
The ABC Strategy is an effective product research strategy.
Enter one single letter into Amazon’s search bar and see what Amazon suggests to you. For example, type in the letter “C”:
Amazon suggests “can opener”. Type it into the search bar to take a closer look:
You can see that there are several different types of can openers. You need to analyze all these products with Jungle Scout’s Extension to find out about the product’s selling potential.
Enter more letters to research additional products. For example, here’s what happens when we enter the letter “R”:
As you can see, there are lots of results. However, you need to find the winning products out of these. You have to type in every letter from A-Z and then analyze the keyword niches of every product suggestion with Jungle Scout’s Extension.
Here’s are the steps you need to take:
1. Get Jungle Scout’s Extension with a 20% discount.
2. Type in a keyword, e. g. “can opener rust-resistant”.
3. Analyze the keyword niche with Jungle Scout’s Extension.
Based on the results, I would not recommend this niche. As you can see, Jungle Scout tells you that the competition is very high.
We have a detailed guide explaining how to use Jungle Scout Extension for product research. You should definitely check it out here.
The Advanced Product Research Strategy
If you’re serious about selling on Amazon, you have to do more product research to get new product ideas and find profitable products.
The product research strategy explained in this section works via keyword research. You will need Helium 10 to go through the process. There’s no other Amazon product research tool that has the functionality you need for this strategy.
Here’s how it works:
Use this 20% discount to sign up for the first 6 months. You can also sign up for free, but you’ll then have limited use. However, if you’re just starting, the free plan is definitely worth it.
After signing up, log in, open Helium 10 Black Box, and select “Keywords”:
Then, open “ADVANCED FILTERS”:
Now, type in the parameters to find the products you’re looking for. I highly recommend reading this post on what to sell on Amazon to understand what kind of products to search for. Enter parameters that indicate high demand and low competition to determine the best products quickly.
Helium 10 analyzes the entire Amazon marketplace to find products with those parameters.
Go through the results and eliminate keywords that refer to a big brand. When people are searching for Adidas sneakers, they want to buy ADIDAS sneakers. They don’t want to buy YOUR sneakers. Therefore, you should avoid big brand keywords.
Go through the list again and put the potential products you may sell on your watchlist. The first product I saw was this lock picking practice set:
There’re only 36 results and the keyword has a search volume of 621. Let’s check this keyword with Helium 10 XRay.
As you can see, all products in this niche have a solid revenue and a low review count.
But you shouldn’t stop here. You need to run all products in this niche through Helium 10 Cerebro.
Cerebro is a tool that shows you all the keywords a product is ranking for. This is super useful because you’ll know exactly which keywords generate product sales. Check out these keywords to decide whether you can compete.
The technology provides a TON of useful data including:
- Search Volume
- Sponsored ASINs
- Competing Products
- CPR 8-Day Giveaways
This niche is not bad, but not great either. There are a few not-so-competitive keywords with decent search volume. But this niche is hard to beat for sellers that are starting out.
The Offline Product Research Strategy
Online product research is not the only way to find successful products. Sometimes, you get the best product ideas by analyzing existing products and thinking of ways to improve them.
To gather new product ideas, it’s essential to explore products in various locations. While online research is valuable, visiting physical locations can provide unique insights. Here are some excellent places to discover new product ideas:
- Trade Shows: Attend exhibitions to find out about the latest products. These products may be up and coming so they are not yet in a competitive space. However, there could be a lot of demand for them once they enter the market.
- DIY stores: DIY stores may provide insight on unique products makers are creating that could yield high demand and low competition.
- Retail stores: Retail stores are an ideal setting to learn about customer behavior and identify high demand products. Visit fashion stores, furniture stores and other retail venues to familiarize yourself with competition and demand across various industries.
- Galleries: Galleries often feature innovative products that are not mass marketed. You can browse galleries to pick up on ideas for products that may sell. You may even collaborate with artisans to sell their products.
- Second-hand shops: Second hand shops may carry unique, low-competition items that have passed under the radar. These goods may be in demand on Amazon and other seller markets.
- Supermarkets: Like retail stores, supermarkets can familiarize you with competition and demand patterns in the food space.
The Normal Product Research Strategy
Instead of setting parameters for keywords and then searching for products related to those keywords, you can also use Helium 10 to search for products directly.
Here’s how it works:
Use this 20% discount to sign up for the first 6 months of Helium 10 or sign up for free. If you sign up for free, you’ll have limited use. However, that may be enough for new sellers.
After you’ve registered, head over to Black Box:
Then, set all parameters to find the products you’re looking for. Read our guide to what to sell on Amazon to understand what parameters you should set.
Focus on high demand, low competition products. Don’t enter a niche where thousands of sellers are selling the same thing.
Sort your results
Next, go through the list and sort out all results that refer to a big brand. Put all potential products on your watchlist.
Check the competition
By now, you should have tons of products on your watchlist. But there are two important factors to consider:
- How many competitors are there?
- Which keywords generate sales?
Run your keywords through Helium 10 Cerebro to determine this information.
If there aren’t many ranking products, the product is low competition. Several ranking products means high competition.
You should also use CPR-8-Day Giveaways to determine the competition level. CPR-8-Day Giveaways is a Helium 10 score that shows you how many sales you must make within 8 days to land on the first Amazon SERP for a given keyword.
Here’s a vacuum stealer that I ran through Cerebro:
Now, let’s check if these keywords are competitive:
The first keywords are highly competitive. But when you go deeper, you can see that there are several keywords with less competition and a decent search volume:
The Easy One
Amazon suggests similar products to you based on your behavior (e. g. what you buy or what you type into the search bar):
The easiest product research strategy is to check out these suggestions and click through the product listings.
It’s just that simple.
But don’t forget to check all relevant metrics like monthly revenue, profit margin, and seasonality with product research tools like Jungle Scout or Helium 10.
If you use this strategy, you will find lots of trash. However, if you do extensive research, you will be able to discover some high-potential products.
A Simple Hack
Jungle Scout’s Extension will help you apply this strategy. You can get it here for $29.
Then head over to Amazon and search for a product. You can check out the bestseller list or use the ABC strategy, whatever you prefer.
For example, let’s choose this rack set here:
Then, identify the most important keyword. In this case, it’s rack set.
Put the keyword into the search bar and press “search”.
Now, open Jungle Scout’s Chrome Extension and start the Keyword Cloud:
Keyword Cloud shows you all the keywords related to the main keyword.
Choose another keyword that sounds interesting to you:
Type this keyword into the search bar again and repeat the whole process until you find a very specific product. Let’s type in “wood”:
Amazon suggests “wooden dish rack and drainboard set“. There are only 398 search results which is okay:
However, Jungle Scout tells me not to go for this product because it’s highly competitive:
Don’t forget to validate your product idea. You must also analyze sales-relevant data. Use Jungle Scout’s Product Tracker to analyze demand fluctuations. This allows you to find out whether a product sells consistently throughout the year.
Keyword Product Research
This strategy is another effective technique you can utilize to discover potential product opportunities.
First, select a specific product you are interested in. Next, use Helium 10 Cerebro to analyze the product. Cerebro will provide you with a comprehensive list of all the keywords that the product is ranking for on Amazon.
Compile a list of these keywords and input them into Helium 10 Magnet. Magnet will generate an extensive list of related keywords. Now, you can take this list and go though out.
If you see an interesting keyword, you should check it out on Amazon and analyze sales relevant data of the products that are appearing in search results. Maybe you’ll find your next winning Amazon product with this strategy.
This approach is similar to the previous strategy but significantly amplifies your results. By generating a much larger pool of keyword ideas, you can explore many more niches.
Use AliExpress
This strategy is effective for generating new product ideas, but it’s crucial to validate sales relevant data of your product ideas using a reliable product research tool.
When looking for products on AliExpress, you need to find out which products are popular on the platform. For example, you can check out AliExpress’s Best Seller Page. It will highlight the best selling products across its 13 categories.
Check out these products and look for them on Amazon. You can then analyze sales relevant data and find out what’s selling best to determine what you should sell on Amazon.
You can also filter search results by searching for a specific keywords. Thousands of products are likely to pop up, but you can narrow your results by adding the following criteria:
- Filter according to Orders instead of Best Match
- Country the product ships from
- Minimum four star rating
- Free shipping
AliExpress is also an excellent source of inspiration for product development ideas, offering a diverse range of trending products that can help you identify gaps in the market and discover new opportunities.
Check Out These Sites…
Customer review sites allow customers to purchase Amazon products at deeply discounted prices or completely free in exchange for a review. You can sign up for these sites to receive Amazon products and try them out at home.
Doing so will provide insight into the products’ use, quality, functionality and other factors. In most cases, these are fairly new products. Therefore, it’s a good idea to check out these sites to gain new product ideas.
This article lists 26 Amazon Review Sites and goes into more depth on how they work. If you as us, here are the top three Amazon review sites that we recommend:
- Rebaid: A platform that allows consumers to receive substantial rebates on a wide range of products. Most discounts are between 90% and 25% back.
- Snagshout: This platform offers exclusive discounts and promotional deals on various items. There are also discounts of 95% on the platform.
- Deal Go!Go!Go!: This platform provides daily deals and flash sales on a diverse selection of products. Most products are 50% to 99% off.
Out-of-the-Box Strategy
This strategy is more suited for advanced sellers or sellers who have more budget to launch their business.
Why?
Because it involves selling products, that most sellers can’t sell. They are often oversized, have striking colors, or a higher price point than other products.
The main advantage to out-of-the-box products is that there are fewer sellers and less competition. Most new sellers don’t have the budget for out-of-the-box selling, but if you do, it could be a worthwhile investment.
When we analyzed the number of products by price range, we found interesting results:
The out-of-the-box strategy might be a great opportunity for advanced and high budget sellers.
Here are some things to consider when searching for out-of-the-box products:
- High priced products: Most Amazon sellers sell cheap. High priced products may mean less competition.
- Eye-catching shapes/colors: Most sellers and shoppers play it safe when it comes to color and design, but if you choose products with eye-catching aesthetics, you will enter a low competition, high demand space.
- Over-size products: These products cost much more than standard-size products and the shipping is also more expensive. Some sellers avoid these products, but if you carry them, you will beat out the competition.
Out-of-the-box selling is a good strategy, but it should be reserved for sellers with bigger budgets. Remember, you will need money to promote your product. If you can’t promote it, you will not be able to make your first sales.
You will need money to stock your product, ship it, and advertise it. If you don’t have the budget to do so with out-of-the-box items, stick to selling less expensive products.
Conclusion
Here’s a summary of all the product research strategies:
- Basic Product Research Strategy – Don’t skip out on this strategy
- Advanced Product Research Strategy – The most advanced strategy
- Offline Product Research Strategy – You should do this all the time
- Normal Product Research Strategy – Just the most basic one
- Easy Strategy – You should do this all the time
- The Simple Hack – You should try this strategy
- Keyword Product Research – Search for products using keywords
- AliExpress – Great source for inspiration
- Review Sites – Useful if you are looking for ultra new products
- Out-of-the-Box Strategy – The best strategy for advanced sellers
