Learning how to find a product to sell on Amazon is both really easy and really, really hard. Anyone can find a bad product to sell on Amazon, but the trick (obviously) is to find a good product to sell… you know, one that people want to buy. It’s business 101: supply and demand. And luckily for you, there are tools that can literally tell you what the demand is.
In this article, we’re going to introduce you to a tool that presents you with a HEAP of data about what is selling on Amazon. Not only that, this tool (it’s called AMZScout, FYI) also gives you data points for how niche a product is, how much profit you stand to make and whether you’re facing fierce competition – so you can make an informed choice about what you want to sell on Amazon, based on what Amazon customers are actually buying.
Sounds good, right?
It is good!
But be warned, Amazon is also also really competitive. This is why finding the right niche, product type and price point is so important. This is the “supply” side of the supply and demand cliché. So, strap yourself in, grab some coffee and learn how to find a product to sell on Amazon.
Before we go any further, you’re probably thinking, “why should we listen to you?” And it’s a fair question.
The honest answer is because we’ve been through this exact process ourselves. We found a product (insulated water bottles), got them manufactured using Alibaba, shipped them to Amazon UK’s FBA (fulfilled by Amazon) warehouse in Coventry, and sold thousands of units in the first few months of trading.
Full disclosure: the business ultimately failed because we ordered way too many units and Amazon’s introductory storage fees were exactly that, “introductory”. And after this period expired and Amazon charged us its full-fat “per cubic meter storage fee” our funds and profits soon ran out. In fact, it ended up being cheaper for us to pay Amazon to destroy our remaining inventory (about 3,500 bottles) than it was to store it in Amazon’s FBA warehouses for another month.
- AMZScout review: Best for Amazon sellers?
- AMZScout vs Jungle Scout: Which should you choose?
How to find a product to sell on Amazon: AMZScout Product Database
First things first, you’re going to need an AMZScout subscription. This will give you access to two hugely helpful tools: AMZScout’s Product Database and PRO Extension plugin for Google Chrome. We get it; it’s not exactly cheap, but this software boasts TONNES of information that will narrow down that search for a profitable product to sell.
All signed up? Let’s start.
When you sign in to your AMZScout account, you’ll be given access to its Product Database. It offers detailed information on over 550 million products on Amazon so that you can gauge the sales of a product and if it will benefit you.
1. Open AMZScout (https://amzscout.net/) in your browser and sign in.
2. Select Product Research on the top taskbar, then Product Database.
3. To find a product, fill in the search criteria and set up filters.
You can select Product categories, Keywords in a product listing and Price range. To discover new and trending products in every category, we recommend selecting all categories and leaving other filters blank.
For the sake of this tutorial, I am going to set the Product category to just Office Products and Price range as $10-$70. I’m also going to add the weight filter (measured in lbs) as I don’t want to pay large postage fees.
4. A list of products will appear. In the columns to the right, you can find the product:
Category: Amazon product category.
Rank: Product’s sales rank.
Subcategory: Subcategory of product.
Subrank: Product’s rank in the subcategory.
Est. Sales: Estimated number of items sold in a month (based on product rank).
Est. Rev: Estimated monthly revenue.
Price: Product price.
Fees: Amazon’s fulfillment fee under FBA.
Net: Final profit after selling one quantity of the product.
DFA: Date when the product became available.
RPR: Ratio of how much revenue a seller makes per review (higher number makes it easier for new sellers).
Reviews: Number of reviews.
Rating: Product rating out of 5.
Weight: Product weight in kilograms.
Sellers: Number of Amazon sellers listing this product.
LQS: Listing Quality Score for how good the listing is out of 100.
5. Under Product Information and next to your chosen product, click the Find Product on Alibaba button to see supplier prices for the product.
6. Select Export to Excel to save the product data listed for future research.
A sure-fire way to find a range of hot and trendy products (like I have with a multi-spray water gun) is with Product Selections option. This will auto-filter search criteria to help you look for other products, such as top 1,000 best selling products, products with low initial costs and new and trending products. Give it a go.
Pretty nifty, right? Use this information to figure out how well specific products are doing in different categories, whether the net profit is worth your time, if you can build up a better LQS and if supplies are within your price range. To narrow down your product search even further, it’s best to use the Product Database with the AMZScout PRO Extension (we’re just about to jump into this).
How to find a product to sell on Amazon: AMZScout PRO Extension
Ready for some magical Amazon data to appear when browsing through Amazon? The AMZScout PRO Extension is a cheat sheet of sorts that can be added to your browser and used to find data on anything you search.
Simply click the extension when searching for products and you’ll get a similar list shown on the Product Database. However, the PRO Extension gives you slightly different data, including a Niche Score, Product Score for Private Labels and Product Score for Reselling.
Once you install the AMZScout PRO extension via Google Chrome, you’re ready to work some magic.
1. Open Amazon (https://www.amazon.com/) on your browser (preferably Google Chrome).
2. Search for a product you’d like to sell. The Product Database should give you a good idea on what to look for, but if you’re still not sure, you can also select Best Sellers.
3. Click on the AMZScout Pro Extension icon located on the bottom left corner.
4. The PRO Extension tool window will open up, showcasing a list of data on each product shown. On the top bar, you’ll find the Average Monthly Sales, Average Sales Rank, Average Price, Average Reviews, Visibility Score, Niche Score and Niche History. The last three are what we’ll be looking at.
- Visibility Score: The amount of users that have searched for this niche. The lower the score, the lower the number of sellers that have searched for this product when researching the market, which means you have a higher chance of making a profit on this item successfully. Hover your cursor over this section to see the percentage of users who have searched for this (the lower the better).
- Niche Score: Scored out of 10, the Niche Score will let you know the Profit potential, Demand for the product and Competition from other Amazon sellers you can expect. The higher the score, the more likely you’ll succeed. Click Niche Score to get an overview.
- Niche History: Gives you information on the number of sales, rankings and price data in the product niche over different periods of time (across one or two years). This is shown in the form of a graph. Click Niche History to check it out.
Through personal experience, I’ve found that the Niche Score is more miss than hit. More often than not, the score will always range from 5 to 7. While it can be a good way to quickly see if the product is worth your attention, I wouldn’t say its accurate.
For example, when researching an accessory for a product that isn’t on the market yet (I put in tablet covers for the upcoming Pixel Tablet), which means there wouldn’t be any competition, the Niche Score still said it was 7. There are barely any sellers for this product, and the only product that did show up were for Samsung tablets and Apple iPads.
With this in mind, I recommend not taking too much notice of the Niche Score when using the PRO Extension, and more on the other data that’s available.
5. Similar to the Product Database, the columns show each product’s rank, price, FBA fees, net margin, estimated revenue and so on. However, you’ll also see:
- Product Score for Private Label (PL): This gives you a score to show if a product has high demand, low competition and good margins for private labelling. It ranges out of 10, with 10 being the best score.
- Product Score for Reselling: This gives you a score to show if a product has high demand, low competition and good margins for reselling. It ranges out of 10, with 10 being the best score.
6. Click on the product you’re interested in. Under the product, you can Add to Tracker to keep tabs on a product performance, use the Profit Calculator to see your estimated monthly profit, see Product History, find Keywords the products use, see suppliers on Alibaba and Google, and copy the ASIN (Amazon Standard Identification Number) for competitive research.
7. Select CSV to save the product data listed for future research.
Like when using the Product Database, we recommend using the Product Ideas option in PRO Extension. Here, you can see the top 1,000 bestsellers, pick a random product idea and see new and trending items. That’s the button to click if you’re still on the hunt for a trendy product or two.
There you have it: how to find a product to sell on Amazon. It’s risky to start selling a product through Amazon FBA without doing the proper research first, so be sure to use Amazon seller software to learn how to find a product to sell on Amazon.
