To do something well requires "the right time, the right place, and the right people." If this thing refers to "creating a hit product on Amazon," then the three major elements must be "product selection, market, and operation." Product selection and market determine whether a product has congenital defects, while operations affect the product's acquired development. Both are indispensable. If you do these three things well, your product will be a best-seller even if it doesn’t become a hit.
market
First, let’s talk about the “market”
When you decide to become an Amazon seller, I think you must research the national conditions of the target country, the prospects of the industry you are entering, the preferences of the consumers you are targeting, and evaluate the resources you have, so as to firmly believe that you can make a name for yourself in this market.
However, many sellers who fail on Amazon often fail to do these things well. For example, some novice sellers chose the American market, which has the largest market share, at the beginning. However, the demand is huge, the competition is also fierce, and they do not understand the national conditions of the United States and the cultural taboos. No matter how excellent the product is or how strong the operation is, when supply and demand are not consistent, it is basically predictable that no orders will be placed, not to mention the word "explosive product".
Suitable sites and industries
Some novice sellers will choose to enter some small but moderately competitive markets, such as the German site, the Middle East site, the Indian site, the Canadian site, etc., especially the German site. The VAT restrictions and small languages have scared off some sellers from entering the market. European KYC has also hindered many sellers from registering stores. Therefore, under the "high threshold", if the sellers work hard on this site and complete VAT and other legal procedures, I believe they can have a place among the many sellers who have been reshuffled.
In addition, in recent years, the emerging Australian, Middle Eastern and Indian stations have also been gradually opening up their markets, and related logistics supporting facilities are also being improved. Sellers with the conditions may wish to try to harvest a wave of orders.
In addition, the choice of industry also determines the size of the pie. In North America, Chinese sellers have a very high level of participation in clothing and wireless electronics categories. It is well known that electronic products have become a red ocean, and it does not seem easy to get a piece of the pie.
If we shift our focus from these two industries and look at the entire industry, we will find that household and kitchen products have grown rapidly in recent years. However, according to the latest data survey, the participation of Chinese sellers in personal care and footwear categories is not high. This is also an opportunity that we new sellers can seize.
In general, there is no absolutely good product. A product that is in the right industry and in the right market is a good product and has the chance to become a hit.
Product Selection
Choosing the right product will naturally bring in traffic, which can save a lot of effort for subsequent operations. Large factories and large enterprises have their own product supply chains, brand advantages, and their own routines. However, for small and medium-sized sellers who do not have these innate resources, it is particularly important to look at the resources they have at hand and choose the right path to achieve their goals.
1. Sellers with small capital
In the early stages, try to choose products with lower value, and then expand after accumulating a certain amount of capital and resources.
2. Sellers who don’t understand the category
You can use third-party data tools such as 1688 website product selection, Amazon platform BEST SELLER data filtering method, seasonal trend product selection method, Amazon cross-site product selection method, Hot New Release product selection method, Purple Bird Data Cube, etc. to select products.
Here are some specific suggestions
♦The product must have sufficient market demand (average monthly sales of the top 10 products is greater than 250 units)
♦Control of product costs: Sellers need to understand the retail price, purchase price, product weight, first-mile fees, and FBA platform charges. Also calculate domestic shipping costs, Amazon post-sale returns, storage fees, etc. to understand the profit of the product.
♦The product price should not be too high or too low, preferably above US$10 and below US$50
♦Products with strong seasonality are not suitable for year-round sales, but they can also have good results if the timing is right
♦ Choose lightweight and small products to avoid high storage fees charged by Amazon
♦Avoid restricted products, products with legal issues or products that are prone to quality problems. Even if these products have good sales in the early stages, they are likely to trigger censorship later on, and will not last long even if they are on the homepage.
♦Spend a few hours browsing competitor reviews to understand what customers think of competitor products, including their highlights and shortcomings, so as to better perfect and improve your products.
In the early days, we distributed goods in large quantities and put them on the shelves in a low-cost manner such as self-delivery. We selected the best from the rough ones, and those with stable orders and a star rating of 4.6 or above were switched to FBA delivery. With FBA delivery, you can get a shopping cart, access the mobile display, and the delivery efficiency can attract prime membership purchases.
3. Sellers without supply chain resources
You can look for product suppliers on 1688, Yiwugo, and Taobao, but you will also encounter the dilemma of product homogeneity and fall into low-price competition.
There are two suggestions on how to stand out at this time: one is to find a new supply chain, and the other is to make micro-innovations in products.
To find a new supply chain, you can conduct research on offline wholesale markets and wholesaler websites abroad. The easiest way is to use Google search to get the information you need. The search terms could be "resellers," "bulk," or "distributor," etc.
Select a relatively high-quality factory that cooperates with your own production as much as possible to make private molds for micro-innovation of products, and privately print some popular elements on social platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube on the products, then you will be the exclusive model of this product. Of course, the cost of re-molding is not low, and this also requires the seller to conduct accurate market research.
operations
Finally, when it comes to the operation of popular products, the two key words that affect the operation effect are "traffic" and "conversion rate".
Amazon's traffic and conversions satisfy the "flywheel effect". The first driving force that makes the flywheel turn is the CPC advertising on the site and the early support for new product traffic. If during this period, the product performs well and has conversions, that is, continuous orders are placed and a certain number of reviews are accumulated, it is best to have multiple VP reviews. The flywheel will start to rotate at high speed, and Amazon will add more natural search traffic and related traffic to the product to help the product gain more exposure and increase the output of the listing. At the same time, the product's BSR ranking will also increase by leaps and bounds, driving more system traffic.
In addition, the category node selection will also affect the size of product traffic. Large categories have more traffic and more competition, while small categories have less traffic and less competition. Many sellers will place early new products into small categories to improve product rankings. Once the products have a certain amount of orders, they can be placed in large categories to get more traffic.
In order to form a sustainable closed loop between traffic and conversion, listing optimization is essential. The creation of titles, pictures, five points, product descriptions, QA, and keywords all play a vital role in product conversion.
The above should be considered relatively common and routine basic work. In terms of specific operations, no one method is omnipotent, but if you can form your own systematic thinking system, and on this basis, implement different building methods for different products, it will often be easier to get started and even achieve twice the result with half the effort.
For example, some sellers use low-price strategies to quickly open up the market. This is what he does.
Products are put on the shelves and advertisements are turned on. Ads bring in traffic, and low prices can quickly form conversions. With orders and a safe rhythm of posting reviews, the ranking of the listing will rise rapidly. Then, as the ranking rises, prices will be gradually increased, eventually forming an overall increase in the trinity of "price, sales volume, and ranking."
When the BSR ranking rises to the expected position, such as the top 20 in a small category, start to gradually lower the advertising bid and budget to reduce advertising costs. If both the ranking and sales volume decrease in the process of cutting advertising costs, you can make a small price reduction to raise the ranking. After rounds of adjustments, the result is: the product price gradually increases until it is close to the expected price, product sales are growing steadily, and the listing ranking is also gradually improving.
At this point, when you ensure that your price is competitive between 1-10, your ranking and sales will basically be stable. At this time, this listing can bring you dozens or hundreds of orders per day at least, and hundreds of orders at most. A hot-selling product is initially formed.
Of course, the examples here are not applicable to all products. Usually, there are different promotion strategies based on the different characteristics of the product: "low price + rigid demand", "low price + non-rigid demand", "high price + non-rigid demand", and "high price + rigid demand".
The traditional way of selling products is to rely on hot-selling products to survive, but no one can predict popularity. Think from a global perspective and revitalize all the products on hand. One of the ideas is to create your own brand.
