You've probably shopped on Amazon before. At this point, it's hard to find someone who hasn't! More and more people are using Amazon as their #1 search engine of choice, which means that if they want to buy something online, they're probably gonna head to Amazon. For consumers, this means they're becoming more and more used to Amazon as the standard for their online shopping experience- namely fast shipping, low prices and thousands of brands in one place. What that means for online retailers and brands is that, while it's not necessarily smart to make Amazon the only place you sell your product, it is worth it to get your product up there. But Amazon is an extremely competitive market! Not only is it becoming increasingly crowded, but the top players are at the top for a reason. And it's really hard to bump them off their thrones as the most dominant sellers. Which brings up the question: how do you know which product to sell on Amazon? After all, you don't want to start with a product in an extremely saturated category unless you are VERY confident you have the marketing budget, price and ability to garner large amounts of real, positive reviews in a short period of time. If not, then you should consider other categories, or at the very least less competitive key words and search phrases to target instead.
For example, let's say you sell a vitamin C serum and want to get it on Amazon. Well, after just a little bit of research you'll soon see that not only are there a ton of vitamin C serums on Amazon, but a lot of them are ranked very well and sell A TON of units per day. What this means for you as a seller is that you're going to have to spend more money per keyword or customer search term in order to rank and properly compete with the top sellers. Which is just fine if you have the budget for that. But if you don't, then what? If you do not have a huge marketing budget but know you want to sell a product like vitamin C serum, do some search term research to find less competitive key words your product could rank for. These are your low hanging fruit, and could provide you with a less expensive way in to an otherwise very expensive and competitive product category.
If you are less decided on an exact product you want to sell on Amazon, you can apply this same research trick to your product selection. What category would be easier for you to get into in the skincare and beauty sections on Amazon? Perhaps a vitamin C serum is too competitive for you right out of the gate, but what about something like a night cream or moisturizer with SPF? Plenty of people use those products, and there's a good chance it's less competitive than vitamin C serum.
Before you take the plunge and start selling on Amazon, take stock of what resources you have available. What's your budget like? Are you already an established brand? Is there a particular product you know you want to start with? Will you ship out your own product, or do you want Amazon to fulfill for you? Make sure you do take the time to do your own research so you know what the landscape looks like for what you are trying to sell. If you'd eventually like to be in a competitive category but aren't quite there yet, choose a different gateway product and build some brand awareness before choosing a more high demand item like a vitamin C or retinol serum. Or, go ahead with a high demand product and look out for your low hanging search terms and keywords that can help better elevate your product rankings.