Amazon sells over 12 million products.
From dog wigs to bacon-flavored floss, if you can think it, it’s probably for sale. But with so many options, comes decisions. As the top e-commerce website in the world, it’s no surprise that more people want to be sellers. Figuring out what to sell is the first step in launching your e-commerce business.
More than 50% of all Amazon sales are from third-party sellers, which means that independent Amazon sellers are dominating this multinational online marketplace. Furthermore, Amazon’s net revenue was $232.88 billion in 2018.
Of course, you want to break into the Amazon selling business, but where do you start? Let’s explore what you should sell on Amazon to make the most profit.
The key to selling on Amazon is picking a low-risk, high-return product. With Amazon at the forefront of global e-commerce, the audience is already there and ready to buy.
It’s best to choose one product category when you’re getting started. That said, it’s difficult to stand out among popular categories.
TIP: Consider selling private-label products. Private label products are goods and services created by one company to then be sold and branded by another company. An example of this is Amazon’s Amazon Essentials.
Follow the five steps below to help you chose what to sell on Amazon.
This research is easy to do, mostly because it’s free. Start by looking at what has the most reviews and scour the top 100 lists provided by Amazon.
Customer reviews can tell you where there’s demand. If there are thousands of reviews, that means a lot of people are buying and talking about that product. You won’t want to compete with that exact product, because they probably have control over that category, but you know that there’s demand for products in that same category.
On the flip side, if there are fewer reviews on a product, this may mean that there’s an opportunity to climb the ranks by listing something similar.
Go to the Amazon Best Sellers - Top 100 in All Categories to research the best-selling niche items. When a niche item pops up on that list, you have an opportunity to infiltrate that category. Also on this page, you can see the Hot New Releases, Most Wished For, and Gift ideas to give you a good idea of what to invest in.
Lastly, avoid selling products that are dominated by big brands. It will be impossible to beat and trying will waste your time and resources.
Finding a product to sell is like looking for a needle in a haystack, but as the steps continue hopefully you can funnel down your potential products to one product to sell.
Researching the shipping costs and Amazon seller fees will help you know how much money you need up front to get started. Lighter products have lower shipping costs, so at first, you may want to avoid selling large, fragile products due to higher shipping rates.
Is there a color missing? A fabric? Customization that people are wanting? These are where the gaps in the market are.
You can find the gaps by reading reviews from unsatisfied customers. For example, if someone bought a helmet, but they didn’t like it because people couldn’t see it while they rode their bike in the dark. There may be an opportunity for you to create a helmet with reflectors, or you could start selling lights to clip onto the helmets.
Hopefully, you have a good idea of how to find the product. Once you pick what you’d like to sell, explore e-commerce wholesale.
Wholesale allows you to buy products in bulk for a cheaper price, so you can make a higher profit when you sell.
If the product you want to sell is not available to buy wholesale, then you have to consider if making your own product or buying it at a higher price is worth it.
This is easier said than done, but this is the final step once you find the best products to sell on Amazon. Selling on Amazon can be intimidating at first, but once you are confident in the product you chose to sell, you can begin the fun stuff and make some money. There are also Tools for Amazon that you can use to make your business run a little more smoothly.
Need a little inspiration? Here are the top selling categories on Amazon today, June 21, 2019. These items are the most popular products based on sales and are updated hourly.
People forget how lucrative the toys and game businesses are. With toy store giants like Toys R Us going out of business, Amazon is the place to go for parents, aunts, uncles, cousins, friends, or literally anyone looking for a toy or game.
The top-selling toy is “The One and Only Kinetic Sand, Folding Sand Box with 2lbs of Kinetic Sand.” Even I would be excited to get this. Toys are great to sell because they can become incredibly niche and unique.
This category is a little tricky, and I’d advise staying out of it if you’re just entering the Amazon selling industry.
Their top selling products in this category are all Amazon products, like the Fire TV Stick, Amazon’s Alexa, and the Echo Dot.
Getting into this category comes at a high-entry rate because it costs a lot to buy electronics in bulk.
This category might come as a surprise, because of the assumption that all photos are taken on the iPhone.
The top-selling product in this category is the "Wyze Cam 1080p HD Indoor Wireless Smart Home Camera." Again with camera’s and photo technology, there is a high cost of entry, but a very high demand too.
An example of a niche product successfully entering this market is Furbo. A camera that allows you to see your dog and give him or her treats. Someone took the idea of an at-home camera and made it niche, resulting in high profits and major success.
If you’re selling books, this is the place to be. Books are predictable in size and weight, they don’t break, and you can buy them in bulk from a wholesaler at very little cost.
The top selling book in this category is Girl, Stop Apologizing: A Shame-Free Plan for Embracing and Achieving Your Goals by Rachel Hollens.
The profit margin on selling books is large because you can sell them for far more than you bought them. Also, the top sellers are easy to find, so if you continually research current top books, you’ll be ahead of the game.
Finding the right product to sell on Amazon can be fun if you’re following the right steps. Amazon is an ever-changing platform, so staying up-to-date is crucial to your selling business. Keep on your toes and be ready for the next big thing.
Amazon not the right place for you? Learn how to sell on Etsy.
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