You decided you wanted to pursue Fulfilled By Amazon (FBA) selling. You’ve signed up for a course to teach you what you need to know (such as
Nine University). You’ve found a great market and an amazing product. You’ve done a victory dance (what, just me?). You’re ready to go ahead and start contacting suppliers! Except...are you? Really?
Mistakes happen when you move too quickly. Everyone wants to get their product up and selling as soon as possible, and while that’s understandable, there are a few things you should do before you start ordering samples and paying money to start production.
The first thing you need to do is simple - study your competition! This doesn’t mean scrolling through the bad reviews of one competitor you’re up against. This means studying all the top ten products in that category, and any other products similar to yours.
Don’t just skim through the reviews - read them from the consumer’s standpoint. Look at it as if you were the person wanting to buy this item. Look at what people like and dislike about each item. Make notes. Go through every results page of your keywords on Amazon, just to be sure there aren’t a ton of new sellers trying to sell the same thing you’re interested in.
After you’ve studied the competition, you can start to consider how to become the top seller for that product. Were you planning to source the exact same product and offer it at a lower rate?<strong>By studying the competition, you’re putting yourself in a position to offer a better product.
Simply offering the same item at a lower price isn’t enough. It leaves you open to be undercut by other sellers in the future. Changing the color on an item may not work either. The top seller is likely the top seller for a reason. The colors they’re offering are clearly successful. Unless you see comments or reviews wishing this item was, say, yellow instead of blue, don’t think you can just introduce the same item in a new color and have the demand be there. That’s a risky move that may not work out for you. This isn’t about you. This is about the consumer, and what they want.