How to Find Products to Sell on Amazon?

As an Amazon seller, your major task is selecting the right products to offer. With Amazon's vast marketplace filled with endless opportunities, how can you identify products that will stand out and be profitable?

In this post, we'll walk you through proven strategies and tools to help you discover products that are both popular and profitable, and don't have selling risks. 

Note. Finding products to sell on Amazon involves a lot of research. To simplify and automate the most complicated and time-consuming steps of this process, we use a popular seller tool –Seller Assistant.

Seller Assistant is a comprehensive product-sourcing software that helps Amazon sellers quickly find high-profit deals. It combines two extensions: Seller Assistant Browser Extension, and IP-Alert Chrome Extension by Seller Assistant, Amazon seller tools: Seller Spy, Price List Analyzer, Bulk Restrictions Checker and UPC/EAN to ASIN converter, and features: Side Panel View, FBM&FBA Profit Calculator, Quick View, Stock Checker, IP Alert, and Restrictions Checker.

How the Process of Finding Products for Amazon Works

Selecting the right products to sell on Amazon is critical to your success as a seller. This process involves several strategic steps designed to help you choose products that not only have strong demand but also offer good profit margins while minimizing risks.

Here’s a breakdown of the key steps involved in this process, with a more detailed explanation of each to follow in the post.

Steps to finding products to sell on Amazon

• Step 1. Select a product category

Begin by choosing a product category that interests you and aligns with your business objectives. It’s important to pick a category you’re passionate about, as this will keep you motivated and enhance your expertise in the products you offer. Additionally, some categories are more competitive than others, so it’s essential to weigh the pros and cons of each option.

• Step 2. Choose and research a brand

Once you’ve chosen a category, the next step is to find a resale-friendly brand and conduct thorough brand research. Typically, it’s advisable to avoid highly popular brands like Nike or Apple due to their high Minimum Order Quantities (MOQ) and strict reseller networks, which make them difficult to approach. 

Brand research ensures that the brand’s products are popular, capable of generating the expected profits, and not overly competitive with Amazon or other sellers.

Tip. To automate brand research, you can use Seller Assistant’s Brand Analyzer. You type in the brand name, and get all necessary data about the brand to understand if it’s resale-friendly. You can also download a report with all brand’s products and their detailed metrics.

• Step 3. Identify a product to sell

After researching the brand, the next step is to pinpoint a specific product within that category. There are several strategies you can employ.

• Supplier to Amazon / reverse sourcing

Approach suppliers and review their price lists to find profitable deals, which often involves negotiating bulk purchase prices. This method is primarily used by wholesale sellers.

Tip. To automate research of supplier price lists and efficiently identify the most profitable products to sell on Amazon, you can apply Seller Assistant’s Price List Analyzer, a bulk Amazon product analyzer tool that finds profitable deals. The tool automatically matches your supplier products to Amazon, calculates profitability for each product, and shows other essential metrics. You can filter the results by any metric you need.

• Amazon to supplier / direct sourcing

Identify popular products on Amazon and locate suppliers offering them at lower prices. This strategy focuses on capitalizing on price differences across retailers by buying low and selling high, commonly used by online arbitrage sellers and dropshippers.

Tip. To do product research on the supplier website, compare Amazon and supplier products side-by-side, and calculate profitability you can utilize Seller Assistant’s Side Panel View. To activate it, you simply need to select the product title on the supplier website, right-click, and choose “Search with Seller Assistant” in the context menu. The tool will show all product offers and their essential metrics.

Related: Seller Assistant Extension Review

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• Competitor research

Study your competition to find gaps in the market. Look for products with high demand but limited availability, or identify popular brands that your competitors sell but you do not, and consider adding them to your store. This approach is useful for all sellers.

Tip. To automatically track your competitors and estimate what new brands and products they started or stopped selling, and how they price each product, you can use Seller Assistant’s Seller Spy. This data allows you to add the same or similar products to your portfolio and adjust prices if necessary. To use the tool, add your competitor to Seller Spy and download a report.

Related: How to Dropship on Amazon with Seller Assistant

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• Step 4. Verify if you can sell a product on your account

Before purchasing inventory, verify that you are eligible to sell the product on your Amazon seller account. Some products and categories require Amazon’s approval due to restrictions, while others you can’t sell on your account and Amazon will not allow you to list them.

Tip. To check product restrictions and if you can sell it on your Amazon seller account, you can use Seller Assistant’s Restriction Checker tool. It shows a green open lock icon if you can sell a product, a red closed lock if a product is restricted, and a red closed lock with an exclamation mark if you can’t sell a product on your account. The icons appear on the Amazon search or product pages, and on the supplier website side-by-side.

Another tool, Bulk Restriction Checker tool, allows you to check restrictions for up to 5000 ASINs simultaneously. You can upload a list of ASINs to the Bulk Restrictions Checker and receive a report detailing the restrictions, helping you manage large inventories efficiently. 

• Step 5. Do product research

Perform comprehensive product research to confirm that the product is in demand, profitable, and free from significant selling risks. This includes evaluating the following key factors.

• Demand analysis

Use Seller Assistant to assess the product’s sales volume and trends, ensuring there is consistent demand.

• Risk assessment

Identify potential selling risks such as intellectual property complaints, restricted categories, or issues like products being meltable, large, or bulky. Make sure the product complies with Amazon’s policies and regulations to minimize risks.

• Profitability check

Calculate potential profit margins, taking into account the cost of goods, Amazon fees, shipping expenses, and other costs. A profitable product should maintain a solid margin after all costs are considered.

Tip. To quickly research and find winning products to sell on Amazon, you can apply Seller Assistant Extension. It appears on the Amazon search, product, and inventory pages, and conveniently shows you key product data to decide if it’s worth selling. It also provides quick links to find product suppliers. It shows product demand, flags and alerts, and lets calculate product profitability in a couple of clicks.

How to Select the Right Product Category for Amazon?

Choosing the right product category is a critical step when deciding what to sell on Amazon. Below are some tips to help you select a category that aligns with your business goals and maximizes profitability.

Evaluate category popularity

Certain categories are naturally more popular among buyers due to the nature of the products, such as electronics and clothing, which are everyday essentials frequently purchased by consumers. According to the research by Jungle Scout, here are some of the most popular categories among Amazon sellers.

Top Amazon seller categories

• Home & Kitchen (35%)
• Clothing, Shoes & Jewelry (20%)
• Toys & Games (18%)
• Health, Household & Baby Care (17%)
• Baby (16%)
• Electronics (16%)
• Sports & Outdoors (16%)
• Books (14%)

Related: Amazon Sellers Competitors Analysis: Guide

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Consider competition intensity

While popular categories like electronics and clothing attract high demand, they also come with fierce competition. It's important to assess the competition within each category to determine if you can compete effectively or if a more niche category might be a better choice.

To estimate the average competition level in the category, you can use Seller Assistant’s Quick View. Open the category on Amazon search pages and look into the FBA and FBM product offer count and whether Amazon sells many products in the category. 

If the FBA and FBM seller count on many product listings in more than 15, it’s a highly competitive category. This can often mean price wars and thinner profit margins due to high competition. Also, if Amazon sells more than 30% of the products, it’s difficult to compete.

Related: 13 Rules of OA Product Research Tested by Pain and Gain of Amazon Seller

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Take into account your expertise

Select a category that you are passionate about and have knowledge in. This will keep you motivated and help you better understand and meet your customers' needs.

Check for restrictions and eligibility

Some categories on Amazon have specific restrictions or require approval to sell. Be sure to research any requirements and confirm that you can meet them before committing to a category. Also, verify that you have the necessary permissions to sell in that category on your account.

To verify restrictions and selling eligibility, you can also utilize Seller Assistant’s Quick View. Open the category on Amazon search pages. The feature shows a green open lock icon if you can sell a product, a red closed lock if a product is restricted, and a red closed lock with an exclamation mark if you can’t sell a product on your account. 

Related: Best Product Ideas for Amazon FBA in 2024

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Estimate category profitability 

Consider the potential profit margins by factoring in the average selling price, and Amazon fees. While some categories may offer higher selling prices, they may also come with increased costs and fees.

How to Select a Brand to Sell on Amazon?

When selecting a brand to sell on Amazon, it's essential to ensure the brand is resale-friendly, its products are popular and profitable, and you will not face excessive competition from Amazon or other sellers when selling it.

To effectively research a brand, consider the following criteria.

Criteria for brand research

Minimum product range

Opt for brands that have at least 200 products listed on Amazon. This is important because typically, more than half of a brand’s products may not fit your resale criteria, so having a wide range of options is crucial.

Potential revenue

Calculate the total monthly revenue from the brand’s products to estimate potential earnings and assess whether reselling the brand is worthwhile. Additionally, consider the average Buy Box price of the brand’s products to help develop your pricing strategy.

Competition analysis

Evaluate Amazon's share of the Buy Box for the brand’s products to gauge competition levels. A share exceeding 30% indicates high competition. Assess the average number of FBA sellers for the brand’s products. A count above 15 suggests high competition and potentially lower profit margins.

Brand should not sell directly on Amazon

Ensure the brand itself does not sell directly on Amazon. Brands that sell their own products on the platform usually do not welcome competition and may restrict you from reselling their items. Also, avoid brands that have an exclusive distributor on Amazon, as they are unlikely to allow other resellers. If a brand is sold by more than one seller, this means no exclusivity and you can resell it.

Customer feedback and brand reputation

Look at the average customer rating of the brand's products (on a scale of 1 to 5 stars) to gauge customer satisfaction. Consider the total number of reviews to understand the brand’s popularity and the volume of customer feedback. A low number of reviews may indicate a new brand or potential sales issues.

Eligibility, restrictions, and IP issues

Verify that you can sell the brand on your Amazon seller account and that the brand and its products are not restricted on Amazon. Avoid brands with intellectual property (IP) alerts, as they may be selling trademarked products under a private label, which you cannot resell, or they may frequently file IP complaints against other sellers, indicating they do not welcome resellers.

How to automate brand research?

To automate the process of brand research, you can utilize Seller Assistant’s Brand Analyzer and Bulk Restrictions Checker.

Brand Analyzer

With the Brand Analyzer, you simply enter the brand name to access all the essential data needed to determine if the brand meets your criteria for product count, profitability, competition, and customer popularity as outlined above. Additionally, you can download a comprehensive report detailing all of the brand's products and their specific metrics.

Brand Analyzer data

• Products

Provides the number of products offered by the brand, giving you insight into the brand's market presence.

• Potential Revenuesome text
  • Brand Monthly Revenue Estimation

Calculates the monthly revenue generated by all of the brand’s products, helping you estimate potential earnings and assess the viability of reselling the brand.

• Average Selling Price

Shows the average Buy Box price for the brand’s products, aiding in the development of your pricing strategy.

• Average FBA Fees

Displays the average fulfillment fees charged by Amazon for the brand’s products.

• Competition analysissome text
• Amazon In-Stock Rate

Indicates Amazon's share of the Buy Box for the brand’s products, which helps you gauge the level of competition from Amazon. A share exceeding 30% suggests higher competition.

• Average Number of FBA Sellers

Shows the average number of FBA sellers for the brand’s products, where a count above 15 may indicate high competition and potentially reduced profit margins.

• Customer feedback and brand reputation some text
  • Average Rating

Reflects the average customer rating for the brand's products, ranging from 1 to 5 stars, providing insight into customer satisfaction.

• Total Reviews

Shows the total number of reviews for the brand's products, which indicates the brand’s popularity and the volume of customer feedback. A low number of reviews could signal a new brand or potential sales issues.

Bulk Restriction Checker

To check selling eligibility and brand restrictions, use Seller Assistant’s Bulk Restrictions Checker. You can upload the product list from Brand Analyzer to the Bulk Restrictions Checker.

The resulting report will indicate whether products are restricted or if there are other reasons you cannot sell them. A green open lock icon means you can sell the products. A red closed lock indicates that the products are restricted and require Amazon’s approval to sell. If a red closed lock with an exclamation mark appears, it means you are not eligible to sell those products on your account.

How to Identify Products to Sell on Amazon?

Once you've completed your brand research, the next step is to select a specific product to sell within that brand. As mentioned in the beginning of this post, there are several strategies you can use.

Supplier to Amazon / reverse sourcing

How it works

This strategy is ideal for wholesale sellers. Wholesale sellers typically approach brands or their distributors to obtain price lists that include hundreds or even thousands of products. These supplier price lists are a valuable source of new product ideas, though finding profitable deals can be challenging.

Tools to use

To simplify this process, use Seller Assistant's Price List Analyzer. Upload your supplier's price list to the tool, which automatically matches your supplier’s products to Amazon listings, calculates profitability for each product, and provides essential metrics like ROI, BSR, Buy Box price, and Amazon fees. 

This allows you to quickly identify profitable products to sell. You can filter the results by profitability or other relevant metrics to find the best deals.

Tip. If you are an online arbitrage seller or dropshipper without existing suppliers, you can also use this strategy. You can extract product data from any supplier or e-commerce website and then upload it to Seller Assistant's Price List Analyzer to evaluate product profitability. This helps you filter out and identify the most profitable leads for resale on Amazon.

Amazon to supplier / direct sourcing

This strategy involves identifying popular products on Amazon and finding suppliers who offer them at lower prices. It’s commonly used by online arbitrage sellers and dropshippers, focusing on taking advantage of price differences across retailers by buying low and selling high.

Places to find popular products on Amazon

Amazon Best Sellers

Highlights the most popular products on Amazon, showcasing items with high demand.

Amazon Movers & Shakers

Displays products with the largest sales increases over the last 24 hours, helping you find trending products.

Amazon’s Hot New Releases

Lists newly added products on Amazon, enabling you to discover new and innovative items.

Amazon "Most Wished For"

Features products frequently added to wish lists, indicating high customer interest but not yet widely purchased.

Product supplier search

After identifying potential product ideas on Amazon, you need to find a supplier that offers these products. Open the product listing on Amazon and use Seller Assistant’s Lookup Links. Choose your preferred search engine, and Lookup Links will show you supplier options.

Next, conduct product research on the supplier’s website, compare the Amazon and supplier products side-by-side, and calculate profitability using Seller Assistant’s Side Panel View. To activate this feature, select the product title on the supplier’s website, right-click, and choose “Search with Seller Assistant” from the context menu. The tool will display all product offers along with key metrics.

Competitor research

How it works

Analyze your competition to identify market gaps. Look for products with high demand but limited availability, or consider adding popular brands that your competitors sell but you do not. This approach can be valuable for all types of sellers.

Tools to use

To automatically monitor your competitors and track which new brands and products they’ve started or stopped selling, as well as how they price each product, you can use Seller Assistant’s Seller Spy.

This tool provides you with data to help you add similar products to your inventory and adjust prices as needed. To use Seller Spy, simply add your competitor to the tool and download a report.

Seller Spy product tracking details

• Date a product was added or removed from the competitor's offerings;
• Product's status (added or removed);
• Product image;
• Product's ASIN (unique Amazon product identifier);
• Competitor's current selling price for the product;
• Product link.

How to Do Product Research?

After you find a potential deal, you must conduct product research for the items you plan to sell to verify their demand, profitability, and potential risks. This is because non-compliant or poorly selling products can result in financial losses. 

Seller Assistant helps you do in-depth product research quickly and effectively. Here’s how.

If the product meets the criteria described below and your selling targets (amount of profit and ROI %), you found a deal to sell on Amazon. Go ahead and list it. If not, look for another deal.

Steps to research products for Amazon

Step 1. Remove the referral from the product link

Delete the referral part of the link (starting with ref=). To do it, click the ASIN in Seller Assistant

• Purpose

This ensures you receive accurate information about the product.

Step 2: Assess product sales potential

Use the Sales field in Seller Assistant to estimate product sales based on BSR (Best Sellers Rank).

• Indicators

Look at the average BSR over 90 days and observe the trend (upwards or downwards).

• Trend arrows

Green arrow down indicates increasing sales; red arrow up indicates decreasing sales.

• BSR Drops

Shows the number of times BSR is recalculated downward, indicating actual sales over 30, 90, and 180 days.

• Top Percentage

Indicates the product’s sales velocity. A Top of 0.5% or less means the product sells well; 1% or more means it's a slow-mover.

• Sales

A calculation showing how many products you can potentially sell based on BSR.

Step 3. Assess competition by FBA seller count

Check the number of FBA sellers. Recommended count - 2 to 15 FBA seller offers.

Seller Assistant displays FBA and FBM seller counts on product and search pages. The number on a blue background shows all FBA or FBM sellers; the number on a white background shows sellers offering the Buy Box price +5%.

Step 4. Check if Amazon is a seller

Look for the red Amazon icon on product and search pages.

If Amazon is a Buy Box seller, Seller Assistant will alert you with this icon.

Step 5. Review listing history

• Verify that the product listing is at least six months old. Use the Keepa chart integrated within Seller Assistant. Ensure there is sufficient data to understand sales history. New products will lack this data.

Step 6. Determine the product’s selling price

Check the average Buy Box price (Avg BB), lowest FBA (Min FBA), and lowest FBM (Min FBM) prices. Use these prices to calculate product profitability. 

Step 7. Identify if you can win the Buy Box some text

Use Seller Assistant to see the Buy Box percentage per seller. Understanding if there is a dominating seller in the Buy Box (Featured Offer) helps in strategizing to win it. Seller Assistant shows the Buy Box share by seller on the Offers feature. Analyze if any competitor dominates the s are out of stock soon or if you can beat their price.

Step 8. Identify best-selling variations

Use Seller Assistant’s Variation Viewer. Look for variations with the highest rating percentage and total ratings. Select the most profitable variation based on these metric

Step 9. Research product reviews

Check the product's review data via the Keepa chart in Seller Assistant. A successful product typically has a 4-5 star rating. Minimal negative reviews are preferable.

Step 10. Confirm selling eligibility

Check Seller Assistant for eligibility status. Green open lock means you can sell the product. Red closed lock means you cannot sell the product without Amazon’s approval. If approval is needed, submit an authorization letter from the brand.

Step 11. Check product for alerts

Look for flags on the Amazon product pages. IP alerts, heavy and bulky, fragile, meltable, hazardous materials, adult products, and other flags.

Step 12. Calculate product profitability

Use Seller Assistant’s FBA&FBM profit calculator. Aim for a Return on Investment (ROI) above 30%. Enter Cost of Goods Sold (COG, price at the supplier), and logistics costs to get Profit, ROI, Margin, and FBA or FBM fees.

FAQ

How do I find out what products to sell on Amazon?

To find products to sell on Amazon, research popular categories, analyze market trends, and use tools like Seller Assistant's Brand Analyzer and Price List Analyzer to evaluate profitability and competition. Additionally, study your competitors and explore Amazon’s best-seller lists to identify high-demand products.

How do I find profitable items to sell on Amazon?

To find profitable items to sell on Amazon, use tools like Seller Assistant's Price List Analyzer to assess potential profit margins, ROI, and fees for various products. Additionally, research market demand and competition by analyzing Amazon’s best-seller lists, Movers & Shakers, and competitor activity.

Where can I buy my products to sell on Amazon?

You can buy products to sell on Amazon from various sources, including wholesale suppliers, manufacturers, and online marketplaces like Alibaba. Additionally, you can explore liquidation sales, local distributors, and even retail stores for opportunities to source products at competitive prices.

How can I find top selling products on Amazon?

You can find top-selling products on Amazon by exploring the Amazon Best Sellers, Movers & Shakers, and Hot New Releases sections, which highlight items in high demand. Additionally, tools like Seller Assistant can help analyze these products' performance metrics to identify trends and potential opportunities.

Final Thoughts

Finding the right products to sell on Amazon is key to making profits. By carefully selecting a product category, researching potential brands, employing strategic methods to identify profitable products, and doing thorough product research, you can position yourself for long-term success. 

Utilizing tools like Seller Assistant's Brand Analyzer, Price List Analyzer, Seller Spy, and Seller Assistant Extension can greatly enhance your efficiency and accuracy in this process, allowing you to make informed decisions that maximize profitability and minimize risks. 

Seller Assistant is a popular product sourcing software that helps sellers quickly find high-margin deals and estimate product profitability. This all-in-one software incorporates all features vital for product research: Price List Analyzer, Seller Spy, Side Panel View, FBM&FBA Profit Calculator, Quick View, ASIN Grabber, UPC/EAN to ASIN converter, Stock Checker, IP Alert, and Restrictions Checker.