Private Label
This involves creating your own product/brand. You’ll be selling a unique product since you’re the only one who has that brand. Influencer merchandise falls within this category.
Wholesale
Reselling
If you’re good at hunting bargains, you can buy these discounted items and then resell them for a profit.
Dropshipping
Dropshipping involves buying directly from manufacturers who handle fulfillment straight to your customers.
Handmade
To start this route, you need to:
How do you find such products? You need to invest time in thorough product research. You must not sell a product solely because you like it. You should rely on data when making decisions. Product research takes time. Rushing it might lead you to make hasty decisions you might regret later on.
Profitable, High-Demand, Low-Competition Products
When doing product research, there are three things you need to consider: profitability, demand, and competition.
A – Profitability
To quickly determine if a product will be profitable, you can follow the “rule of 3s”. This rule states that a product’s selling price is divided into three equal parts:
Landing costs Platform fees Your profit
If your product’s selling price is $27, the profit should be $9. Less than that, and it might not be profitable to pursue. When looking at costs, there are three kinds you need to know.
Landed Costs
Inventory costs Inspection fees (if any) Shipping Duties (if any)
Other business fees and costs
It’s not enough for a product to be profitable. You must also look for those that are trending and in high demand.
B – Demand
Product sales are key indicators that there’s demand for a certain product. When looking for a product, look for something that answers a customer’s pain point. Does the product answer a customer’s need? Can they use it to fulfill that need or solve a problem? Again, check the data to make sure you’re answering these questions objectively.
C – Competition
When doing product research, it’s also important to determine how many similar products already exist and how good they are rated. This will help you determine if there’s room in the market for a new player. Competition is good as it tells you there’s demand for a product. Be wary of too much competition, though. It would be hard to stand out if the market is already cluttered.
Home & Kitchen – 32% Beauty & Personal Care – 23% Toys & Games – 20% Clothing, Shoes & Jewelry – 18% Health, Household & Baby Care – 17% Sports & Outdoors – 16% Arts, Crafts & Sewing – 15% Books – 15% Kitchen & Dining– 14% Baby – 14%
Focus on the top 10 categories above and make sure that any product you decide to sell isn’t in an overly-saturated category.
Getting Started on Product Research
Here are suggested filters according to Jungle Scout:
Price ($20 to $70) Sales (at least 300 units monthly) Number of Reviews (average 500 reviews or fewer) Rating (maximum four stars only) Listing Quality Score or LQS (5 to 7 LQS)
Your goal is to find profitable product opportunities with proven demand and manageable competition. These filters will help you look for those. Your product must be at par or better than what’s already on the market. Don’t reinvent the wheel. Just create an opportunity to stand out. A simple hack to find improvement potential for products is to check customer reviews. Find the common pain point and work towards improving it. You can also purchase competitor products and learn how you can improve them. Dedicate at least 2-4 weeks to observe product trends and performance, so you know it’s not a fluke or inflated figure due to a one-time sale. Finally, before deciding on a product to sell, consider also ease of sourcing, shipping, and importation. When doing private label, your product must require only simple changes (such as logo or packaging printout). It must be light and easy to ship but also sturdy enough to withstand shipping conditions. If importing from a different country (a common case among FBA sellers), be aware of importation rates and rules. Freight forwarders can assist you with this.
Finding the right suppliers to manufacture your product
Looking for suppliers may seem daunting at first, but in recent years, it has become an easy process. Even reaching out and working with international manufacturers is a breeze with advancements in communication and modern technology.
Step 1: Research and compare suppliers.
There are websites like Alibaba.com that can show you products you can sell and their manufacturers. You can also work with sourcing agents who can help you find the best quality products from any country. Qualities of a Good Supplier: When looking for a supplier, work with someone who possesses the following qualities:
Easy to talk to Creates high-quality products Has proven experience Prices fairly
Work with a factory that responds within a reasonable timeframe and is easy to talk to. Observe how fast (or slow) they respond to your initial email asking for a quote. There are mass-scale factories that create low-quality items. Avoid these factories. You can get the items for a cheaper cost but risk losing your business quickly due to bad customer reviews. Always go for high-quality suppliers. They may be a bit expensive, but you won’t be embarrassed by the quality of their products. Ideally, you’d want a factory that has been operating for at least three years making the products you selected. This alludes to their expertise and capability to deliver your orders. Finally, choose a factory that has a reasonable and fair price. You don’t want to work with overpriced factories or underpriced ones as these could indicate potential quality issues.
Step 2: Ask for quotes from suppliers
Create a list of 5-10 suppliers and reach out to them individually. Tell them about the products you have in mind and request a quote on how much it would take for them to create your products with their modifications. If you’re using Alibaba.com, you can send a request for quotation to a lot of suppliers in one go. Observe how quickly your suppliers respond. This is an indicator of the ease of doing business with them.
Step 3: Request product samples.
Once you have quotations, narrow down your list of suppliers. You can consider costs and speed of communication. Order samples from each of these suppliers. Most samples cost between $50 and $150 and are shipped by air. Product samples are important because they allow you to personally vouch for a supplier’s workmanship. There can be a modification fee, but it’s better to be fully satisfied than sorry. As the seller, you should believe in your products first before getting your first customer. Packaging and Branding Your packaging design should be ready when you request samples from suppliers. They can give you the dimensions of the box ahead of time, and you can let your graphic artist adjust the design layout. Send this over to your suppliers so the packaging can be part of the sample product.
Step 4: Decide on one supplier and place the order.
Once you’ve evaluated all the samples, it’s time to decide which supplier you’ll get. At this point, you should have considered the qualities that make a great supplier and decided on the best one based on that. Let the supplier know you’ve decided to proceed with the order. Place your initial order quantities and decide on pricing terms. Settle the invoice and wait for the items to finish manufacturing. Typically, it takes 2-6 weeks to manufacture orders. During this time, communicate frequently with your supplier and ask for periodic updates.
Use the right keywords.
Select specific product categories and subcategories.
Using the appropriate categories will increase the visibility of your products. Do your best to match it as specifically as you can to the right categories. You can also check your competitors to see what categories they’re listed on.
Purchase UPC barcodes.
Draft a keyword-rich but not keyword-stuffed product title.
When creating product titles or listing titles, make it as descriptive as possible using the right keywords. Make sure the title flows naturally and is not stuffed with random keywords. It must be easy to read and use as many characters as is allowed.
Highlight features and benefits in the product description.
Maximize the product description area to talk about the features and benefits of your product. Avoid long winding descriptions. Focus on the main features and use bullet points as needed to make it concise and easy to read. Be truthful and don’t embellish. Use keywords naturally across your product description. You can write serious or fun product descriptions depending on the products you’re selling. If it’s a tool, briefly explain how the product works, what problems it solves, what it’s made of, and other details that will help the customer decide. If it’s a toy, write a playful description that helps the reader paint a picture of the fun the toy will bring. Always include relevant information about your products in the product description. Your goal is to help customers decide that it’s the right product for them and not leave them guessing what your product is.
Upload high-quality images to your product listings.
The majority of customers purchase using their mobile devices. They look at photos before reading the product description. Your photos should be enough to grab their attention. You can take your own photos, but it’s better if you can engage a professional photographer. Aside from standard product photos that show the different product angles, take lifestyle photos. These are shots that show how to use the product. It helps customers imagine how they will use the item. Make sure photos are clear and simple. Mobile devices are smaller than desktops, and any small elements across a photo may go unnoticed.
Use product videos if you can.
Brand-registered accounts are allowed to upload product videos. These are a great way to capture the interest of your customers and increase their conversion rate.
Getting Consistent Sales Through A Strong Product Launch
To make sure you enjoy high rankings, you should:
Always have inventory. Avoid out-of-stock scenarios because this causes your listing to disappear from search results and impacts your sales and rank. Always use the relevant keywords. Using the right keywords will determine your relevance to a customer’s search query and help with your customer metrics. Always monitor and aim to improve your customer success metrics. These metrics will tell you how well your products are performing and if they’re resonating with your customers. These are conversion rates, click-through rates, add-to-carts, reviews, and purchases.
You can always use PPC Management Software and Tools to help you run highly converting PPC ads. The same general guidelines on creating highly-converting product listings also apply to creating PPC ads. These are using the right keywords, high-quality product images, relevant descriptions, and so forth. As soon as you can, run PPC campaigns. They take some time to optimize, and at first, you’d run automatic campaigns. But the more data you gather about your customers and what they want, the more you can optimize your campaigns to match their needs. You can’t rely on PPC ads forever. Eventually, you’ll need to invest in other forms of marketing, such as content marketing or influencer marketing, to drive traffic to your listing. Whatever marketing methods you use to get customers to view your listings, you need to make the views convert to actual purchases. Here are some tips to help improve your conversion rates.
1 – Continuously optimize your listings and PPC campaigns. If there are customer questions about your listings, answer them. Take note of customer reviews, especially those suggesting product improvements. Always make sure your ads are hard working. They should constantly be top performers delivering on the required sales. Remove poor-performing keywords and adjust your bids as necessary. 2 – Build your brand 3 – Expand your product line Continue doing product research and creating new products that complement what you already have. By creating new products, you build better credibility in your chosen niche and acquire greater market share. 4 – Keep a balanced inventory Remember there’s a cost to over inventory (storage fees and inventory costs) as well as lost sales opportunities for out of stocks. The recommended inventory level is 3 to 6 months’ worth at any given time (except holidays). 5 – Hire a virtual assistant By delegating these tasks, you can focus your energy on other strategic and high-level tasks to drive your business growth further.
