I was a part-time entrepreneur that had no clue what they were doing. I made a ton of mistakes and lost a lot of money in the process. But what I’m most proud of is how much I learned in the process and how much I’ve changed for the better since.
Just like there are many ways to skin a cat, there are also many ways to launch an amazing product. What I’m going to teach you depends on several factors, including the amount of money you have allocated for development, how much time you can dedicate to creating your product, etc.
Being a novice, opportunities to make mistakes will be inevitable. However, don’t worry, you will not need to do everything alone. This step-by-step guide will help you out in making your first product selection.
#1 – Price of $20 – $50 on Amazon
As a beginner, your focus is on selling as much of your products, and as fast as possible. Fail early. This way, you’ll know what works and what doesn’t. Imagine trying to sell a $500 product. Perhaps you will make more money with a high price product but you won’t really get any conversion every day. (Thus, you won’t have enough data to review).
For most consumers, a product priced at $50 or more requires a lot of decision making. Also, at that price point, most customers tend to be more brand-focused. For instance, you would likely not buy a smartwatch from a random brand. Your choices are most likely Apple Vs. Samsung, and then the other smaller smartwatch brands (that relatively speaking, still have a quite big name). In this case, selling a private labeled $150 smartwatch might not be the best idea. This is why I suggest selling products within the $20-$50 price point. The price headroom is enough to make a decent $10-$25 net profit per sale but it’s also reasonable enough that most people can still afford it. A product that requires less decision making – something that you might be buying in a snap – is better for beginners, generally speaking.
FBA products, on average, tend to give an average of 30%-40% net profit after all the product expenses and fees. So a $30 product will likely provide you a $10-$15 net profit. Sell 5 of those products every day and you are building a part-time income of $1500 per month now.
#2 – The 7x Rule
This rule states that you shouldn’t invest your time on a potential product if you can’t import or produce for 7x less its Amazon price.
In simple terms, if a product on Amazon sells for $35, you should be able to import or produce that for only $5 per item. Why? When it comes to selling on Amazon, there are several fees that you need to pay. In general, those fees will hover around 35% of the total price on average. So if a product on Amazon sells for $35, then you can safely assume that $12.25 will go to the fees. If you produce it for $5 apiece, then your total expense will be: $17.25 $35-$17.25 = $17.75 is your net profit. If you pay for advertisements, then that will add up as well. Plus, remember, shipping fee (from production to Amazon warehouse) may also add up to the price. In reality, your total net profit, in this case, would be at around $10 – $12.5. So to be on the safe side, you should only choose products you can sell for at least 7x its production cost. By following this criteria, you can safely assume that you’ll be getting at least 0% net profit. Which is actually pretty good – especially if you’re doing a lot volume-wise.
Bonus – FREE FBA Profitability calculator
Let me introduce you to our FREE FBA Opportunity Calculator. It’s probably the most elegant way for you to calculate product profitability with ease – and it’s totally free!
#3 – Lightweight, Relatively Small and Easy to Ship
If you stick to selling light and small products, then you can get your item shipped from a different country to your customer’s doorsteps cheaply. By selling a large number of products, you can get the unit prices very low. It’ll be much easier to scale up because your cost of doing business is much lower.
#4 – High-Potential for Private Labelling as a Beginner
Private label business model will give you the green light to sell your own for as long as you like. You have to find a product that you can sell even without having a mega-brand. When done right, you definitely can compete with the other private labels or bigger brands. Remember, private labelling is when you hire someone to produce the product for you and then put your own brand in it. Make sure that the product you chose is worthy of being private-labeled.
So how do you find the best-selling products to private label? There are two main ways to do it: market research or just plain old random guesses. You can’t just go on Amazon and type in random keywords and expect results. It is very difficult to market products that are ranking poorly in Amazon’s search results. So it’s important that you look for highly competitive keywords before coming up with product ideas. Checkout our Product Database page to get more information.
#5 – Evergreen
There will always be a time of year when a product has a spike in traffic and sales, but finding a product that sells well all year round is much easier to do. It’s also much more sustainable for your business.
Am I saying that seasonal products won’t sell? No, of course not. But I think what it comes down to is choosing something with a less competitive niche for your keyword; something that isn’t super popular. Or you could make a seasonal product and tweak it to be an evergreen product that will sell day-in and day-out. Something that people use regularly. For example, a baby utensil is something that most new parents would need to look for. Babies are born at any time during the year, their need is not something that families will have to wait for Christmas to buy.
#6 – Room for Improvement
The first thing I notice is that a product that can be improved must be a product that people would love to use, or there is a good Product-Market fit. The good news is every product out there can still be improved. In order to improve a product, you must have the perspective of a detective. Someone who can turn problems into opportunities. For example, a baby utensil can be improved through a – Adding better ergonomic design so babies will love to grab it. b – Find the material that will make it dishwasher safe. c – You can add colors so parents have more choices. The point is that improving a product requires that you put yourself in the position of the consumer. You have to find what they hate and what they love about the product.
#7 – Verify Customer Demands
Customer demand is the most important criteria. If you want to become a successful seller on Amazon.com, understanding product demand is everything. That’s right, I said everything. Find out what customers really want to buy from the total amount of the keywords from the Amazon Search Page.
To give you a clearer picture, let me give you an example. Let’s say that you are trying to sell a hunting backpack on Amazon. The keyword “baby bibs” has 475,000 monthly searches on Amazon. If the conversion rate is 10%, there are 47,500 sales every month for this kind of product. Check our Chrome Extension to get the products’ Search Volume while you are browsing on Amazon.
We are just starting here …
I’m going to walk you through a couple “Aha!” moments that will help explain why I do things a certain way in the other blog. I’ll also explain why understanding product demand is important, and what it means for your business, and your business only.
