Selecting Stellar Products

You don’t need to invent the next big thing. You need to find a product people already want, and make it clearly yours.

Product selection is where most new sellers either set themselves up to win or quietly set themselves up to struggle. The good news is that the principles are simple. The hard part is having the patience to follow them instead of chasing whatever looks hot this week.

Start with what you know and enjoy

Think about the things you already spend time on. Hobbies, sports, your kitchen, your garden, your kids’ activities, your pets. You carry around years of knowledge about these areas without even noticing it.

Say you love gardening. You already know which tools break after one season, which gloves actually fit, and what frustrates people when they’re planting seeds. That knowledge is a real advantage. You’ll recognize a good product when you see one, you’ll write better listings, and you’ll understand your customers’ questions because you’ve asked them yourself.

There’s a second benefit, and it’s a big one: you’ll enjoy the work. Building a business takes time. It’s a lot easier to stick with a product line you care about than one you picked only because a spreadsheet said so.

Enjoyment alone isn’t enough, though. Which brings us to the second half of the equation.

Be in tune with the market

A product you love that nobody’s searching for is a hobby, not a business. Before you commit, you want evidence that people are already buying products like the one you’re considering.

Some signals worth looking at:

• Search demand. Are shoppers actually typing related terms into Amazon? Keyword tools can estimate monthly search volume.
• Sales history. Are similar products selling steadily month after month, or only during one short season?
• Price range. Is there enough room between your likely costs and the selling price to cover fees and still earn a profit?
• Reviews. What do customers love about current products? More importantly, what do they complain about? Complaints are a map to a better product.
• Competition. Is page one dominated by a few giant brands with thousands of reviews, or is there room for a newcomer?

Tools like Jungle Scout, Helium 10, and SmartScout can help you gather this data much faster than you could by hand. We talk more about them in Pillar 3, and you can read our overviews of Helium 10 and SmartScout. Keep in mind that every tool gives estimates, not guarantees. Use them to make better decisions, not to make decisions for you.

Don’t sell generic products

This is one of the most important lessons on the whole site, so let’s be direct about it.

If you buy the exact same item that five other sellers are offering, customers have only one way to choose between you: price. Someone lowers their price, you lower yours, and before long everybody is working hard for almost no profit. That’s a price war, and nobody wins it except the shopper.

The way out is to put your own mark on your products. That usually means three things:

1. Your own brand. A name and logo that customers can recognize and remember. This is what lets you build a business with lasting value, and on Amazon it’s the key to Brand Registry and control over your listings.
2. A meaningful difference. Something about your product that makes it better for a specific buyer. It doesn’t need to be revolutionary. A sturdier handle, a better size, a bundle that solves the whole problem, clearer instructions, or packaging that makes a great gift can all be enough.
3. A clear reason to buy. If you can’t explain in one sentence why someone should choose your product over the one next to it, keep working until you can.

Remember the gardening example? Instead of selling the same plain trowel everyone else sells, you might offer a set with a comfortable grip and a depth guide stamped on the blade, because you know from experience that people struggle to plant bulbs at the right depth. Same basic product category, but now it’s yours, and it solves a real problem.

For more on this, see 3 Secrets to Selling Private Label Products on Amazon.

Find a niche that works for you

A niche is a focused slice of a market with its own needs. “Kitchen products” is a market. “Tools for home bakers who make sourdough” is a niche.

Niches work well for smaller sellers for a few reasons:

• The customers are easier to understand and easier to reach.
• The biggest brands often ignore them because they’re too small to bother with.
• You can become the go-to brand for that group, then add related products over time.

That last point is powerful. Once customers trust your brand for one thing, it’s much easier to sell them the next thing. A brand that starts with one sourdough tool can grow into a whole line: proofing baskets, scrapers, starter jars, and so on. Each new product benefits from the reputation of the ones before it. That’s how a product line becomes evergreen, earning day in and day out as you add product after product at your own pace.

A few questions to test a niche:

• Can I name at least five related products I could add later?
• Do people in this niche spend money on their interest?
• Are there communities, forums, or social media groups built around it?
• Would I still find this interesting two years from now?

Product traits that make life easier

When you’re starting out, some products are simply easier to manage than others. These aren’t hard rules, but they’re worth weighing:

• Small and light. Shipping and storage costs are lower, and fulfillment fees are usually lower too.
• Durable. Items that don’t break easily mean fewer returns and bad reviews.
• Not heavily regulated. Some categories come with extra testing, documentation, or approval requirements (see the examples below). They aren’t off-limits, but they’re harder for a first product.
• Not trademarked or patented by someone else. Selling something that infringes on another company’s rights can get your listing removed and cause serious legal trouble. You can search the USPTO’s free trademark search to see what’s already registered, which is a great first check. But trademark law has plenty of gray areas, so a lawyer or law firm that specializes in trademarks is essential for doing it right.
• Year-round demand. Seasonal products can work, but they make inventory planning trickier.
• Room for a healthy margin. Account for product cost, shipping, duties, marketplace fees, advertising, and returns. What’s left has to be worth your time.

A closer look at regulated categories

Some categories are much harder to get approved for than others, and it’s worth knowing what you’re signing up for before you fall in love with a product. A few examples of what can be required:

These are only examples, and requirements change. Check Amazon’s category approval pages and the relevant government agency before you commit.

Know all the fees, not just the obvious ones

Margin math is where a lot of product ideas quietly fall apart. On Amazon, the costs go well beyond the product itself. Depending on your product and how you sell, you may pay:

• Referral fees: Amazon’s commission on each sale. For most categories it runs roughly 8% to 15%, depending on the category.
• FBA fulfillment fees: for picking, packing, and shipping each order.
• Inbound placement fees: based on how your shipments are split across Amazon’s warehouses.
• Monthly storage fees, which are higher during the holiday months.
• Low-inventory-level fees when your stock runs too low compared to demand.
• Holiday peak fulfillment fees during the busy season.
• Aged inventory surcharges for stock that sits too long (see Pillar 5).

Amazon updates its fee schedule regularly, so use the current numbers in Seller Central and the FBA Revenue Calculator. If you want a deeper look at the math, read why most Amazon sellers miss out on real profits.

Common product selection mistakes

• Chasing trends. By the time a product is on every “hot products” list, the competition has usually arrived.
• Falling in love too early. Enthusiasm is good. Ignoring the data because you love the idea is not.
• Picking the cheapest product. Low price often means low margin and low quality, which leads to returns and bad reviews.
• Copying a best seller exactly. If you can’t improve it or position it differently, you’re just joining a price war.
• Going too big, too fast. Start with one product and learn. You can always add more.

Putting Pillar 2 into practice

• List ten interests, hobbies, or areas where you have real experience.
• For each one, write down three problems people in that area commonly have.
• Research demand, pricing, and reviews for products that solve those problems.
• Read the one-, two-, and three-star reviews of top sellers and note the recurring complaints.
• Choose a niche where you could build a line of related products under one brand.
• Write one sentence explaining why a customer should choose your product. Refine it until it’s clear.

Once you’ve found a product worth pursuing, the next question is where to get it made, and how to avoid the costly mistakes many new sellers make. That’s Pillar 3: Product Sourcing Secrets.