Selling on international digital markets is more profitable than ever, even with all the fees and costs associated with storing, packing, and shipping products.
Hence, offering products on top online marketplaces like Amazon is an excellent opportunity for entrepreneurs to expand their businesses and generate considerable revenue.
The only downside is that online markets are heavily saturated, so you’ll face tough competition regardless of the product category you choose.
Adding some of the best-selling products on Amazon isn’t necessarily the right choice for your store because it may be challenging to reach the audience interested in buying those products.
In this article, we’ll walk you through all the aspects you need to consider when conducting product research for Amazon’s international markets to help you identify the items that will attract buyers to your store.
Key takeaways
- Pet care supplies, health and wellness technology, and home office equipment are among the trending product categories that will continue to attract the attention of Amazon shoppers in the future.
- Singapore, Brazil, and the United Arab Emirates are some of the fastest-growing Amazon markets.
- Approximately 94% of Amazon sellers fulfill orders through Amazon FBA.
- Product quality is one of the key factors Amazon shoppers consider before purchasing an item.
- Reselling products on Amazon can be as profitable as offering unique items.
The overview of Amazon’s international marketplaces
The world’s largest marketplace spans over twenty countries across five continents. Moreover, Amazon delivers products to more than a hundred countries through its Global Shipping program.
The US, its largest market, is also the most competitive, with 1.1 million active sellers. Due to the high level of competition, expanding to this marketplace and finding products that would attract a vast customer base can be difficult.
The same is true for other large Amazon marketplaces such as the UK, Japan or India. However, this doesn’t mean you should only target smaller Amazon marketplaces, as you’d be missing significant sales opportunities.
Instead, you should identify in-demand product categories with relatively few competitors to increase your chances of reaching a large number of potential buyers.
Amazon continues to expand, so joining a new marketplace like Amazon Ireland could be a major opportunity for international sellers.
The introduction to product research for international sellers on Amazon
Expanding your business operations beyond your domestic market creates numerous challenges you have to overcome before you can start selling internationally. Most importantly, you must get familiar with Amazon product research strategies to choose the products that sell for your new Amazon store.
Researching the market will give you an overview of popular product categories, best-selling products, shopping habits, local sales events, and other parameters that can help you determine how profitable an item can be.
Aside from understanding the market trends, you should also pay attention to product quality because it is one of the most common reasons shoppers return products.
Before you conduct product research, it’s vital to estimate your business’s capabilities to deliver specific types of products abroad. Hence, if you don’t have a robust shipping solution at your disposal, it’s best to opt for smaller and lightweight items you can relatively easily deliver to a storage facility.
It is worth noting that reselling bulky products like furniture can increase shipping costs and make it difficult to turn a profit.
Choosing the target markets and products to sell on Amazon
Amazon offers a variety of tools that help sellers and resellers identify in-demand items they can add to their stores on domestic and international markets.
Bestsellers and movers-and-shakers lists offer an overview of the trending products based on sales and other vital parameters.
Additionally, the Product Opportunity Explorer tool offers a wealth of information about the product’s search volume, pricing, seasonality, and other metrics that can help you choose the potentially profitable products for your store.
Let’s go through the product research process and see how you can identify unique product ideas:
Brainstorming Amazon product ideas
Putting product ideas on paper is a great way to start researching items you can sell on Amazon. Start with the things you’re interested in. For example, if you love basketball, you can use your passion for the sport to generate product ideas.
Selling products you know about will make creating listings and finding unique selling points easier. Still, don’t focus exclusively on items you like. Keep an open mind instead, and try to think of categories or specific products that can generate buzz around your Amazon store.
Browse online marketplaces and look for items you can get below their selling price on the Amazon marketplace you’re targeting.
Doing so will enable you to identify good deals and find products you can resell at a profit. Ideally, you should aim for in-demand products with a low level of competition that you can source easily,
Once you have jotted down several ideas, try pitching them to your friends or business associates and listening to their feedback.
Monitoring other Amazon sellers and following market trends
Keeping a watchful eye on the trending products in a specific category doesn’t have to be hard work.
Bestsellers and Movers and Shakers sections on Amazon provide you with an overview of the most popular products in a category. Moreover, you can use the Movers and Shakers section to monitor which items have the highest increase in the sales rank within the last 24 hours.
This section tells you which products are surging in sales and offers insight into shopper behavior and long-term sales trends.
The Movers and Shakers lists are available for all major Amazon marketplaces. They can make choosing inventory easier by allowing you to monitor what shoppers are looking for at a particular moment.
Don’t forget that trending products often lose sales momentum quickly. That’s why it’s important to avoid overstocking items to avoid having to deal with dead stock.
Researching the competition and reading the reviews of the best-selling products
Customer reviews are a goldmine of information that can help you choose profitable products in a particular category that offer the solution to the problems customers have with a specific type of product.
Moreover, reading the customer feedback will help you understand which features are important to shoppers, which will, in turn, make choosing the items for your Amazon store easier.
This section tells you which products are surging in sales and offers insight into shopper behavior and long-term market trends.
The Movers and Shakers lists are another useful product research tool available for all major Amazon marketplaces. They can make choosing inventory easier by allowing you to monitor the Best Sellers rank for the high-demand products and grant you insight into what shoppers are looking for at a particular moment.
Don’t forget that trending products often lose sales momentum quickly. That’s why it’s important to avoid overstocking items to avoid having to deal with dead stock.
Estimating the profitability of Amazon products
The first step in determining an item’s profitability is finding a reliable supplier and estimating the cost of purchasing it.
If you can find a product on a different marketplace, such as eBay, at a price lower than its average on Amazon, you should also consider the maximum quantity of a product you can purchase from a supplier that listed the item on that marketplace.
It’s also advisable to order samples of a product you’d like to sell on Amazon’s international marketplaces and validate its quality before purchasing it in larger quantities.
What’s more, the product should fit your broader Amazon pricing strategy, allowing you to decrease or increase its price to reflect wider market trends while preserving the profit margins.
Online shoppers spend roughly $300 per month on impulse purchases. Bear this in mind when determining your product’s price and profitability, as keeping the price in the impulse purchase range can considerably boost sales.
Finding suitable shipping and delivery solutions
The costs of shipping and fulfilling orders on a foreign Amazon market will play a significant role in determining its profitability.
Enrolling in one of Amazon’s FBA programs is the simplest way to start selling on a new market because you’ll only have to worry about delivering your products to a fulfillment center.
However, participating in an Amazon FBA program can be expensive due to the wide range of fees sellers must cover. Finding a 2PL or 3PL solution may be a more affordable option that could help you save on packaging, shipping, and fulfilling orders.
Check out Webinterpret’s full-stack solution for international sellers to learn more about how it can help you reach new customers on foreign markets.
Planning the marketing strategy
Entering a new Amazon market involves developing an extensive marketing strategy that encompasses listing localization and a well-planned advertising approach.
Knowing how you’re going to promote a product and which keywords you’ll target improves your chances of reaching its target audience and generating a profit.
Analyzing your competitors in a specific category will help you understand how you can make your products stand out and attract shoppers.
In addition, you should try to determine whether the item you’d like to add to your international Amazon store is marketable on social media and explore ways of promoting it on Instagram, Facebook, and similar platforms.
Don’t hesitate to consider alternatives if your preliminary research shows that marketing a product you’d like to offer on a new market would be costly or complicated.
Using product research to expand your Amazon business
Selecting the items you’ll list on Amazon’s international markets can be tricky because a product that sells well in the UK won’t necessarily perform well on Amazon’s Far East markets.
Various factors, such as seasonality, overall quality, market demand, or cultural nuances, can affect a product’s performance on a new market.
Hence, the item’s profitability is far from being the only factor you must take into account while scouting for new products you want to add to your store.
Dedicate time to researching the Amazon market you’re entering to understand the shopping patterns and which types of products can attract the attention of shoppers.
Contact us to learn how our solution for Amazon sellers can help your brand expand internationally.
About Webinterpret
Webinterpret supports merchants selling on big, international ecommerce platforms, such as eBay and Amazon.
Our AI-based solution enables more effective selling through automated listing localization, advertising, and logistics (shipping and returns).
By giving your international customers a full, end-to-end local shopping experience, Webinterpret improves your conversion and helps establish your business globally.
