If you have a burning desire to make money selling products online, the Amazon marketplace is an excellent starting point for you. 90% of online shoppers say they are more likely to purchase through Amazon than any other online marketplace.
And over 90% of Amazon sales are powered by third-party merchants, who are bolstered by Amazon’s focus on being a beginner-friendly sales channel for entrepreneurs. However, to build a thriving Amazon store, you must overcome the all too familiar challenge of finding high-demand products to sell. But worry not.
If you want to learn how to find profitable and in-demand products, keep reading because this article divulges all you need to know about Amazon product research and lists 6 high-demand items with low competition that you might consider selling. That said, let’s begin by looking at the criteria for deciding which types of products you should sell…
Criteria to decide which products to sell
When researching profitable and high-demand products, every experienced Amazon merchant looks for these factors:
Demand
Top sellers consider products that generate a minimum of 300 sales per month or 10 per day.
Competition
To increase your chances of making sales, veteran sellers recommend finding products many others aren’t selling. This minimal competition makes it easier to compete and optimize your listing to appear higher in Amazon rankings.
Reviews
Related to the last point of minimal competition, top sellers prioritize few reviews as products with thousands of reviews make it tough to compete. Generally speaking, niches where the top sellers have below 400 to 500 reviews present an easier chance for you to get noticed and make sales.
Weight
Heavy items aren’t exactly e-commerce-friendly as they cost more to ship and store, especially when importing overseas. On the other hand, lightweight items cost less to store and transport, leading to reduced shipping costs and potentially higher profits for your business.
Size by measurement
Weight aside, big products take up more storage space, leading to higher storage and shipment expenses. As a general rule of thumb, look for smaller products below the size of 18”x14”x8” to keep your startup costs low and manageable.
Sales price between $10 to $100 (and above)
As a seller, you want to sell products that are priced high enough to make money for your business, yet not so high that buyers find them too expensive.
Staying above the $10 range as you research products is a good rule because you essentially avoid the low-margin cheap stuff while pricing within the means of a high-potential audience of buyers.
Selling price is X2 or X4 the sourcing cost
Some sellers experienced within the Amazon ecosystem recommend only selling products where the sourcing costs are as low as 25% to 50% of your sales price.
Everyday use items
Lastly, it’s generally a good idea to sell products people use every day or not products people use once in a long time. This is because the more consumers depend on a product in their day-to-day life, the more demand we can assume for it.
With a bit of time running your Amazon store, you’ll want to refine each of these requirements to best suit your strategy and methodology for finding unique products.
But if you’re just starting out, following these instructions will definitely help inform your search. Now that we’re done with the criteria, let’s learn more about tactics for researching the best products to sell on Amazon.
How to Find High Demand Products for Amazon
Here are five ways you can find potential product ideas on Amazon by yourself.
Look at the Amazon Best Sellers page.
Amazon’s Best Sellers page is the best place to find hot products. This page lists the products with the most sales in the previous 24 hours on Amazon; however, it doesn’t display the sales numbers, so take note of that.
To manually research popular products there, visit Amazon’s Best Sellers page, pick a category of your choice, narrow down your search by digging through the subcategories, then compile a list of products that fit the criteria we just mentioned.
Importantly, remember that featured best sellers are based on recent sales, meaning those sales may be based on temporary trends and seasonal data.
This makes it important to use other tools to check yearly sales trends and competition data before considering whether to sell these products.
Check for categories with multiple BSR (Best Sellers Rank) products.
Building off our last point, if you find a category with just one BSR and none of the other items are BSRs, it could mean a single product is dominating the market or that category.
Instead of targeting these categories, you want to search for product categories that feature multiple items with a BSR because it tells you there’s high demand in that segment, meaning there’s more room for you to succeed.
For instance, imagine you want to set up a sports shop, but you find Soccer has multiple BSRs, whereas hockey has only one or two. As a new Amazon seller, it makes more sense to prioritize soccer over hockey in this case because soccer has more items in the best sellers rank.
Discover product ideas through webinars.
Attending webinars is another great way to find ideas for products with high demand. The organizers of these events, seasoned Amazon sellers, readily share their expertise and divulge hidden strategies for finding winning products, meaning you can learn a lot about running your store the right way and more specifically finding product ideas.
Furthermore, you have the opportunity to ask questions about topics you’re interested in such as the best niches to enter, etc. Using the information you get from webinars, you can then make in-depth analysis to select the right product and niche options for your business.
Use keyword and product research tools
Find related products using keyword tools like AMZScout’s Keyword Tool and Google Trends. One of the most accurate ways to gauge what consumers are looking for is by analyzing keyword data to see which keywords receive the most online searches.
While there are a couple of methods and tools to do this, we’ll focus specifically on using Google Trends and AMZScout’s keyword research tool:
Google Trends:
- Open the Google Trends page.
- Type in the name of the niche or product you want to explore, i.e., winter jackets.
- Look at the graph to see its search trends and fluctuations for the past year.
- Click “Related Queries” to view related keywords.
- Then create a list of potential products based on your findings. Just like the image below, you’ll see how Google Trends can provide you at least one product idea.
When we search for “ski shoes” (see above), the search trends make it clear that these are more popular during snow-heavy months. November and December are the two highest months for this product (nearly 100 searches), while the summer months see one-fifth of this amount.
These monthly search changes are a good indicator of how much you can sell during different seasons.
AMZScout’s keyword research tool:
The AMZScout keyword research software compiles real-time data into the number of searches a term receives via Amazon’s search engine. To use the tool, follow these steps:
- Open the AMZScout keyword research tool.
- Type in the name of the niche or product you want to explore, i.e., baby clothing, kitchenware.
- Review the keyword data for those queries and pay attention to keywords with the most search volumes.
- Now, move your attention to the search volume history. Like in the image, click the graph icon to see monthly search data. Focus on high-volume terms that get consistent, year-round searches and not just seasonal terms.
Based on this criteria, make a list of potential products, and you’re good to go.
Analyze external marketplaces:
Other ecommerce marketplaces are a great source of inspiration for your Amazon product selection. You see, the internet doesn’t exist in a vacuum. Rather, trends often overlap across platforms, so when a product trends on one website, it is likely to trend on other marketplaces.
Furthermore, as a nifty Amazon merchant, you can even search for underpriced items from one site to resell for a higher price. This is called online arbitrage. When checking out other marketplaces like AliExpress, eBay, Etsy, Wish, etc., here are some steps to follow:
- Find the section that shows you trending product information. For instance, eBay has a link called “Explore Popular Categories,” and Alibaba has a “What’s Trending Now” section.
- Create a list of potential products using your criteria.
- See how these products rank on the Amazon Best Sellers page.
Now, let’s dive into 6 high-demand products with low competition:
6 High-demand Products with Low Competition to Sell on Amazon
What products are in demand right now? To assist you, I’ve researched and found 6 examples of high demand products you may consider selling on Amazon. Here they are;
Modeling clay:
Modeling clay products is a great product idea even for beginner sellers. During the holiday season, this product becomes more popular among parents looking to sit down with their kids to bond and make holiday-themed clay creations such as Easter eggs or St. Patrick’s shamrocks.
Plus, this niche doesn’t have many top brand competitors, so with an optimized listing and several reviews, you can expect to make a decent amount of sales.
Feeding bottles and nipples:
While baby feeding products aren’t a niche you’d normally think of, the demand for baby bottles and nipples is high and fairly consistent among the millions of families expecting a new member.
Like modeling clay, there’s also little competition from top name brands, so you’ll have a nice chance to generate revenue from this product line. However, keep in mind that you’ll need to gain as many reviews as possible to disrupt your more trusted competitors.
Beginner-friendly telescopes:
As springtime draws nearer and nearer, the clouds of winter are beginning to part and reveal new blankets of stars in the sky. This means that everyone from hobby stargazers to families and anyone looking for an excuse to enjoy the outside after a long, cold winter will have the opportunity to view many new celestial objects as they come into view.
Evidenced by a relatively low number of reviews and product listings, the telescope niche doesn’t have many Amazon competitors. However, to outsell existing ones, you will need to get as many positive reviews as possible because telescopes can be expensive, meaning the buying decision is more nuanced.
Since telescopes aren’t a product you’ll manufacture, you have to test and find a manufacturer or brand with quality telescopes then obtain a permit to sell those goods. The last thing to keep in mind is shipping costs.
Since they have a lot of assembly parts, shipping telescopes might edge on the expensive side, so you’ll need to optimize your packaging and ship from multiple fulfillment centers to minimize expenses.
Play tent for kids:
Kids’ products are an evergreen and non-monopolistic kids niche. Within it exists kids’ play tents, which make an excellent Amazon product idea because they’re lightweight and easy to ship.
By selling this item and related products in this niche, you can generate revenue by capitalizing on low initial sourcing costs and low shipping costs. Regardless, this is also a niche where you’ll need a lot of reviews to outsell existing sellers despite the low number of competitors it has.
Foaming soap tablets:
Foaming soap tablets are becoming a popular Amazon product despite being relatively new. The allure of this product is efficiency and sustainability as they are easy to use when traveling or not at home.
Due to the low competition level of this product, you have the opportunity to capitalize and generate high revenues by offering a safe, high-quality product and optimizing your listing for Amazon search. Overall, foaming soap tablets offer a good option for Amazon sellers looking to turn a profit quickly.
Drink holders for sofas:
Drink holders provide a great means to make spending time at home comfortable and enjoyable. For sellers, their best feature is customizability, which enables you to create a unique brand with unique designs, but without a high production cost.
Furthermore, when the right materials are used, drink holders are hard to break, so there’s little risk of sourcing low-quality products, particularly when you consult experienced sourcing agents.
Final Thoughts
Selling high-demand products on Amazon can lead to increased sales and more revenue for your business. While the actual process of gathering potential product ideas may seem daunting, navigating your search with the right factors or criteria and using the right tools will help make the entire process faster.
Lastly, if you found this guide helpful, then you’ll want to check out our ultimate guide to creating and optimizing an Amazon product page.
