Now that you’ve got both feet on the ground as an Amazon seller, the tricky part is finding what products will put you ahead of the pack. You can look at snapshot estimates from a random collection of sourcing tools, piecing together what you hope is an accurate picture of the market and product — or you can improve your chances of sourcing only the right products by making use of the right Amazon market intelligence.
Viral Launch’s Market Intelligence tool gives you the most comprehensive access to Amazon-wide insight across billions of different data points. With it, you can make truly informed decisions and validate any product before you ever launch it.
What Real Amazon Market Intelligence Looks Like
Intelligence is nothing without data, which is what makes our Amazon Market Intelligence tool so valuable. It’s the only tool that can collect and leverage data points from across Amazon’s entire market. With the data the tool gathers for you, you can glean the kind of insight and analysis that can help you almost predict the success of any product launch. For example, the billions of data points you’ll have access to can help you assess markets and products by:
1. Name brands: See whether any big household names or Amazon itself is selling in the market. It will be easiest for you to compete against other smaller brands, so stay away from markets that are dominated by one brand or a few dominant brands.
2. Sales spreads: If a few products are claiming most of the sales in the market, it’ll be harder to claim a piece of the pie, especially as a newcomer. Look for markets where sales are spread pretty evenly between the products on the first page.
3. Competitors’ intelligence: Finding a few products dominating sales spreads isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Use the Market Intelligence tool to reverse-engineer their strategies. For example, track what keywords the dominating products use in sponsored ads and make a list of your own variations.
4. Market trends: Sales trends tell you a lot, but if you want to determine which trends are fads and which are actual depictions of the market, you’ll have to look at data from across a few years. Use market trends to avoid investing too heavily in the next fidget spinner.
5. Price margins: Even with a great product, you won’t make a profit unless you can cover Amazon’s fees and still stay price-competitive. You can research the cost of sourcing units from a site like Alibaba, then plug it into our Amazon FBA calculator.
6. Product reviews: Speaking of being competitive, you can enter the competition a lot sooner in a market where mediocre performance is the norm. Research reviews throughout the market and pay special attention to those that are generally low.
7. Product fulfillment: Finally, stay away from markets filled with FBA (fulfilled by Amazon) or AMZ (Amazon original) designations. If your products are FBA, then you can compete more effectively in markets that are mostly filled with FBM (fulfilled by merchant) products. Data can mean the difference between entering a market and thriving in it — or sinking fast due to poor intelligence. With our Amazon Market Intelligence tool, you can make sure you end up on the thriving side every time. To learn more, sign up for a free trial today!
Performing market research is the first and arguably most important step in selling a product online. This is true across all eCommerce platforms, whether it’s Amazon, Etsy or eBay. But what does market research really mean? And why should you be doing it in the first place?
What is Market Research and How Will it Help Me?
Let’s start with the definition of market research. Market research is the process of compiling, analyzing and interpreting information about a specific market, including its products and the people buying and selling them. Basically, you have to do your homework! Sourcing and selling a product that no one wants to buy isn’t going to make you a dime, and that’s what you’re in this for, right?
Poor or incomplete market research can cost you significant time and money, not to mention result in failed opportunities and even unfortunate PR nightmares. Small startups and big national brands are both susceptible to this.
We know it’s super tempting to get swept up in the selling game. Some people simply get lucky in picking the right products. But to really succeed and not just be a flash in the pan —or yet another marketing fail— you need to invest in market research before you start selling. Here are 5 reasons why market research pays off and how it helps set you up for success.
Reason Number 1: Check Out the Competition
Market research allows you to size up the competition and see how you might stack up. Many US marketplaces are highly competitive, so looking at what your competition is doing can help you get a leg up and compete against them more effectively.
Examining your competitors allows you to:
Identify successful (and unsuccessful) products and business strategies
See competitor sales to determine your potential sales
Identify price points people are willing to pay
Find a profitable market
You’ll get great insight into what people want, how much they’re buying and at what price. This is all valuable information you want to know ahead of time to determine whether your product is feasible and if the market is right for you.
Reason Number 2: Learn About Your Audience
Once you’ve checked out your competitors, it’s time for more market research on your audience. What types of people are buying your product? Millennials, new parents, tech lovers? Make sure there’s a big enough buying pool to be profitable!
Identifying your customers also reinforces that the market is:
Relevant: Start with a simple Google search and see who’s talking about the product. Does it appear on news and social media sites or in chat rooms? You want it to be a topic of discussion.
Fulfills a Need: The more it fulfills a need, the more demand there will be.
Is in Your Niche: Do you know anything about the product? Do you know what its customers want and need? Today’s shoppers are super savvy and want to work with sellers who know their stuff.
Additionally, pay attention to changing consumer behavior and any product restrictions on your platform. And while taking advantage of product fads can be profitable, know that sales will typically fizzle out pretty quickly. If you’re in this for the long haul, fads aren’t what you want to hang your hat on.
Reason Number 3: Determine Operating Costs
When it comes to your hard-earned money, you don’t want to face any sudden surprises. So, keep on doing your homework! Research suppliers and determine your product costs before you start sourcing. What’s your bottom line? How much do you need to sell to meet your revenue goals?
Unexpected costs are going to pop up, but you can eliminate a lot of the guesswork and surprises simply by crunching the numbers ahead of time.
Reason Number 4: Develop a Better Business Plan
So far, your market research has shown you who you’ll be competing against, who your buyers are and what costs are involved. Now that you’re armed with this information, you can create a much better —and more successful— business plan. Use this information to:
Develop a competitive pricing model
Define your daily operations
Identify customer service needs
Determine marketing strategies
Pinpoint opportunities for company growth
If you jump right in, it’s way too easy to make silly errors and costly mistakes. You’ll also be operating based on preconceived and potentially outdated ideas and assumptions, not concrete facts and up-to-date numbers that you’ve actually seen for yourself. Jumping in too fast without doing market research can cause you to miss out on opportunities to make money and really make something of your business.
Reason Number 5: Long-term Sustainability
The popularity of ecommerce marketplaces has exploded over the past few years. Just take a look at this buyer behavior study! More and more people are buying online, which means you have a much easier entry into the marketplace.
Market research is even more essential if you want long-term success. There are countless success stories of everyday people becoming profitable sellers on Amazon, eBay and other ecommerce sites. How did they make it happen? They identified a need and fulfilled it. From there, they continued to grow and adapt with the market in order to make their presence known.
Primary information is first-hand data compiled from original sources. You can do this yourself or hire someone to do it for you.
Secondary information is info that’s already been gathered by someone else and is publicly available. This includes information published in newspapers, reports and journals or is freely available online.
Gathering primary information gives you direct control over the process. Secondary information is typically more readily available, but this also means other people have easy access to it as well.
How Viral Launch Helps with Market Research
Conducting market research can be time consuming, which is why some people skip it. However, there are many market research tools out there to help you! Take advantage of them to streamline and speed up the process.
If you’re interested in selling on Amazon, Viral Launch Product Discovery software helps you find products to sell using a variety of search parameters that are customized to meet your own unique needs. Find what worksfor you.
And if you already have a product in mind, run it through Viral Launch Market Intelligence product validation and market research software. You can see top sellers for your market, market trends, our expert analysis, cost calculations and more. This primary information is very valuable for making product decisions and just may change your mind!
In short, before you commit to a product, stop and do your research! It could validate your ideas or save you considerable time and money, not to mention a huge headache.
Market Intelligence, the Amazon product research tool you know and love, is getting an upgrade.
Making a purchasing decision is the most important aspect of running your own Amazon business. A great product with plenty of potential can lead to huge sales. Conversely, poor products can sink your business before you even get started.
That’s why having a trustworthy product research tool is so important. The right tool can tell you almost instantly how much potential your products have. Market Intelligence has provided sellers with the best product data, and now Viral Launch’s product research tool is even better.
Not only does Market Intelligence have a snazzy new design, but a new cost calculator function gives you a better, more accurate estimate of your costs (and profits!).
Better, More Accurate Product Research Results
The biggest change to Marketing Intelligence is the “Cost Calculator” tab, which features a fully integrated FBA calculator.
Market Intelligence already provides you with the market data and insights you need to make an informed sourcing decision to find a profitable product. Now you can learn:
How much you will need to invest
The number of units you should order to meet your goals
Potential profit you can make in that market
The FBA calculator allows you to change every variable to get a truly customized solution. You can choose:
Whether you want a conservative or aggressive selling approach
The price you will sell your products
Your purchase price, and so much more
As you change each data point, the corresponding results will upgrade to show you how much you can expect to spend up front, how much inventory you should order, and your potential revenue and profit.
Market Intelligence Update
Before:
Market Intelligence provides you plenty of data to make a smart product purchasing decision. The Top Sellers tab shows data about each brand, BSR, historical sales, monthly revenue, price, unit margin, review rate and more.
You can also view market trends and take a look at Viral Launch’s analysis of the product.
Now:
Not only does a new design improve the look, but the Cost Calculator provides more data.
The Cost Calculator allows you to change most granular data points for all of your potential products. Now you can quickly and easily see how much it will cost to enter the marketplace, how much you will sell, and your projected return on investment.
You can view your estimated upfront costs, monthly expenses, monthly profit, and net profitability based on the number of units, sales information, diligence costs, product promotions and software and service expenses.
Run Product Comparisons
Trying to decide between two or three different products? Want to know your potential profit at different landed costs and price points? It’s even easier to make comparisons and decide which product makes the most sense for your Amazon business with the new Market Intelligence.
New comparison capabilities let you run side-by-side tests to see how changes to order size, landed cost, selling price, and more will change your results.
The Best Product Research Tool
Unlike other FBA calculators, Market Intelligence incorporates sales data into searches. What does that mean for you? You are given realistic investment and revenue projections based on the the exact market you want to enter. Sales data integration in the Cost Calculator tab provides with you a more accurate assessment of the investments you will make and the reward you will receive.
The Most Accurate Data
Market Intelligence provides Amazon sellers with the most accurate sales estimation data of any product research tool on the market. Nightly algorithm updates ensure that the data you receive always reflects the most recent info.
Amazon Data Incorporated
It only makes sense to incorporate Amazon data into your decision-making process. Market Intelligence allows you to do just that by leveraging billions of real Amazon data points. So not only can you see the Amazon trends, but you can also predict the future of the market and avoid selling a product with a short lifespan.
Market Intelligence Can Improve Your Business
The wrong product research tool could cost you thousands of dollars, either because of lost income potential or choosing a product that’s a complete bust.
Market Intelligence’s new update ensures you have all the information you need all in one place so you can make the best product decision and start your Amazon business with fewer risks.
