How to choose products to sell on Amazon?

When considering starting your journey on the Amazon platform, the absolute foundation is choosing the right product that you will be selling. The question one might ask themselves is, what products to choose to sell on Amazon to succeed on the platform? That is the question I will try to answer today and highlight a few points to consider when selecting a product.

High quality and originality of the product are essential.

Firstly, as someone interested in selling, you should already have several product lines selected. Effective selling on Amazon should be based on certain and proven products.

Any replicas or products that may infringe on the intellectual property rights of other brands are not an option! First, do good research and ensure that your product does not violate Amazon's intellectual property policy. Amazon, due to its customers and their safety, may ask you for certificates or proof of originality of the product in the form of purchase invoices, certificates confirming registration, composition of the product, and similar.

The product you choose to sell on Amazon is the most important and it will be your business card. The price sensitivity of Amazon customers is not as important as the "perceived value", which is the value the customer expects (high) versus the actual value of the product. It is better to follow the principle of "underpromise - overdeliver", meaning promise a lot but deliver even more.

If you are not a brand owner but base your business on distribution, we advise focusing on producers whose products can be described as Premium.

Less or more - that is the question.

Having selected products, you should check whether a particular item is already available on the Amazon platform. You can find it by the EAN code, or by the manufacturer's name of the brand and keywords describing the product and its uses.

If the product is not yet available on Amazon, the road to listing it is open. Conversely, if it is already on Amazon and you will be its next seller, you do not need to create new product listings. You only need to connect to existing products.

A common question our clients ask us is how many products from their offering should initially be listed on Amazon. There is no definite answer here, but you should follow the guidelines below:

Do not focus only on currently best-selling products. Their sales in your current sales channel may differ greatly from how they will sell on Amazon.

More products, more data. Data does not lie. The more products we list for sale, the greater knowledge we will gain about their popularity, sales, and the entire category.

If you are unsure about any product (stability of quality, continuity of supply, formal requirements), do not list it on Amazon.

If the margin after Amazon costs is less than 10%, that is too little. Unexpected costs related to storage time, returns, and running campaigns can fluctuate +/-10%. The ideal margin buffer after Amazon costs (referral fee, FBA fees, logistics) is 50%.

Your initial offering should consist of proven, high-quality, and high-margin products. Are you unsure about any of the products? Do not take risks!

You must know what you are selling!

Knowledge about your product, the category you want to sell in, and the industry is essential. It may seem trivial, but do you really know all the answers?

Often, this knowledge can determine your subsequent sales or help avoid mistakes on listings, as well as impact quicker resolution of various sales complexities with Amazon.

Often, customers themselves verify your knowledge of the products even before purchase. Questions about various details regarding the goods, warranty, applications, delivery, possibilities of customization, product composition, instructions for use, etc. are possible. You must be ready for any question before you start selling. It is worth preparing a ready compendium of questions and answers for potential customer inquiries. Selling on Amazon requires you to know your products.

From order to customer.

Amazon places significant emphasis on the timely execution of orders and their quality. If you are wondering what this has to do with the choice of product for sale, let me hasten to answer.

In the case of shipping goods via Amazon, you must be 100% sure that the goods are not only properly secured but also:

Whether its dimensions will not be too costly to ship.

Whether your carrier has no objections to the contents of the shipments.

Whether there is a necessity to secure them appropriately.

Each of us wants to receive well-secured shipments and, above all, to receive them safely and quickly. The same must be ensured for Amazon customers, and this must be "arranged" at the stage of creating the offer for Amazon. Do not leave this for later.

This is a very important issue, also in the context of possible later sale of goods in the FBA model or establishing cooperation with Amazon under Amazon Vendor Central.

In summary, the most important issues to consider when choosing a product are:

Choosing an original, proven product.

Conducting research on Amazon regarding the selected items.

Checking whether you know absolutely everything about the product - that no customer question will surprise you.

Ensuring that you can deliver your product efficiently and safely on time, all within the assumed costs.

If your offer meets the above conditions, you are ready to start in the World of Amazon.

This article is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to product selection. Do you have other questions? Do you want to share your insights with others? At Go2Market, we share knowledge and encourage everyone to do the same - add a question or entry below.

Happy Product Research,

Bartosz Kazimierczyk

Head of Technology