5 Simple Ways To Identify Profitable Items To Sell On Amazon

If you’re just starting out on your Amazon selling journey or looking to add items to your already successful line up you definitely want to make sure you’re making the right choices. Finding items that will be profitable is an important part of making sure you don’t wind up losing money and having tons of unsold stock.

The search for profitable items can seem a little overwhelming especially if you haven’t done this kind of research before. There’s a lot of advice out there and a lot of tools you can use. Luckily, finding profitable items doesn’t have to be as complicated as it appears when you first start out. There are tools out there that are more helpful than others and really make a difference.

The truth is not all Amazon advice related to profitable items is equal. Making sure you put in the right amount of effort while still keeping things as simple as possible is key to making effective decisions. If you’re still trying to figure things out, you’re in the right place. This is a narrowed down and simplified the list of ways you can identify profitable items to sell on Amazon.

1. Use An FBA Fee And Profit Calculator

Using FBA (fulfillment by Amazon) services is a great way to boost your sales. Customers trust the Amazon brand and are more likely to extend that trust to your products when they see Amazon is fulfilling their order. That being said, you still have to keep in mind the fees related to your FBA services.

When you’re figuring out which items are going to be more profitable than others using an FBA or Fulfillment by Amazon fee calculator is an essential step in the process. FBA fees incorporate all kinds of figures from the dimensions of your product to the type of shipping you offer. All of these things are far too complex to leave to rounded numbers and guesswork.

Using an FBA fee and profit calculator will help you see how much each listing is going to cost you, and help you figure out the right price for the listing. It will give you the sweet spot between pricing yourself out of the market and losing money because your price is too low to be sustainable.

When you’re deciding which products to list don’t skip out on this tool. It can be the difference between hard data and a good profit, and rounded numbers that lead to crushing losses overall. It’s not worth the risk, so make sure you use the FBA calculator early in the decision-making process and continue to use it any time you make changes to your listings after that.

2. Think About Simplification

Amazon sellers can lose a lot of money if they offer products that are highly complicated and prone to issues that cause high return volumes. Each time an item is returned, you’re potentially losing more and more money. Amazon charges sellers return fees and you’re risking your review rating with each consecutive returned product.

While every product is going to have one or two returns every once in a while, you don’t want this to be the norm. When you’re choosing a product to sell, think about how simple or complicated the item is. If it’s something easy to use, understand, and not prone to breaking, that’s going to be a better choice in the long run than a more complicated product.

Keeping things simple means a better experience for both your customer and yourself. Try to choose products that have a clear function the customer can see in your product images and descriptions. Don’t choose items that leave a lot of questions to be answered. The clearer and simpler things are, the better chance everyone is going to be happy with the end result.

3. Look Through The Best Sellers Lists

Each category on Amazon has a list of best sellers. Looking through those lists can give you a lot of valuable information. You can learn what items are rapidly rising to the top of their respective categories but may not have been dominated by the large brands yet. This gives you a chance to get in before the competition is too crazy to consider making a real profit.

You’ll have to keep in mind which categories you would be most interested in to use this tip effectively, but it’s worth it. Keeping an eye on the bestsellers lists and watching for trends over a period of time can show you what’s a good item and when it’s a good time to jump in. Getting in before larger brands give you a chance to get established and gain a customer base that would’ve otherwise been lost to the larger brand from the get-go.

4. Consider Your Product’s Mass Appeal

When you’re thinking about what you want to sell on Amazon, think about how many target audiences you have available. Niche items aren’t a terrible idea, but you’ll need to make sure you’re ready to put in the effort to really pull traffic to your listing if you decide to go that route. Otherwise, consider items that have a large appeal and exclude as few people as possible.

Items that fit this criterion would be things that appeal to both men and women have a broad age range target and are relatively affordable. Items that have a larger audience pool tend to bring in more traffic, and more traffic is how you’re going to get more sales. Again, niche items aren’t a terrible thing to try, but they aren’t going to give you the natural traffic flow of a high appeal wide audience product.

5. Use The Tools At Your Disposal

There are tools out there to help you figure out what’s trending right now, and what sells well over time. Both types of products can be a great way to make a profit on Amazon. Check out tools that help you analyze keywords, shopping trends, and popular search terms. Tools like Jungle Scout are meant to do this exact thing and can help you really make a great decision.

Much like the FBA fee and profit calculator can give you hard facts about the cost of a listing, tools like Jungle Scout can give you hard facts about potential product trends and items to sell. Use these tools wisely to make a better decision about what you’re going to list on Amazon and when you’ll list that item for the best profit.

Conclusion:

Choosing the right product or products to sell on Amazon will take some work. You’ll have to invest some time in researching the market and understanding what’s popular. It may seem overwhelming at first, but once you get started, things will make more sense.

The more you research, the more everything will fall into place. When you start selling and making a great profit, you’ll be glad you put in the effort you did upfront. Any frustration or overwhelm will seem like a very distant memory when you’re looking at your new, improved bank balance. Happy selling!

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Also published on Medium.