Wondering what to sell?

Taking a look at the best-selling Amazon products helps you decide what items you might want to sell. It doesn’t necessarily mean you should sell the exact same items. But it does mean best-selling Amazon products provide insight into consumer trends. You might want to hop onto a best-selling Amazon category where you think you can differentiate yourself and take advantage of high demand. 

How do you determine what are the best-selling Amazon products? And what do you do with this information?

In this post we look at:

• Best-selling Amazon products by category
• Amazon Best Sellers list
• How to decide what best-selling Amazon products are best for your business

Best Selling Amazon Products by Category

These are generally the best-selling Amazon products by category to consider:

• Books (including eBooks sold in the Kindle store*)
• Camera & Photo
• Clothing, Shoes, and Jewelry
• Electronics
• Handmade
• Home & Kitchen
• Pet Supplies
• Toys & Games
• Video Games

* Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) is a self-publishing platform for digital books (also called ebooks). This is an unusual category for Amazon sellers in the sense that you actually manufacture the product, i.e., you write or co-write content, or hire someone to write the content. While ebooks needn’t be of War and Peace length, it is still time-intensive, even for short ebooks. That said, certain genres—e.g., romance, science fiction, fantasy, and self-help—represent significant potential, assuming you can produce something of interest that can attract a significantly large readership.

Amazon Best Sellers List

Amazon Best Sellers list is available to anyone who browses the Amazon site. It is updated hourly and includes markets for the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Spain, and Germany. This is a good place to start looking for products that are selling as well as what is trending.  

However, this is just a way to “get your feet wet” to determine best-selling Amazon products and get ideas. Keep in mind that everyone has access to this list, which includes your competitors doing the same kind of research—which means that if you and all your competitors jump on the same product, individual sales potential lessens considerably. 

In addition, since the list is updated hourly, what might appear “hot” at one time might not even be on the list two hours later. So if you see a product that interests you on the list, be sure to look at its performance over time before making any final decisions.

Another factor to consider is that not all best-selling Amazon products are necessarily highly profitable. If you pick a product with thin margins, you’re betting you can achieve significant volume to make enough money to justify the effort to source and market the product. While that’s always a possibility, further research and consideration are warranted. It’s good to look at the Amazon Best Sellers list to get ideas, but it is by no means an authoritative source.

How to Decide What Best-Selling Amazon Products are Best for Your Business

Once you have an idea or two about what best-selling Amazon products you might want to sell, take a closer look at the product’s average:

• Monthly/daily sales volume
• Price average
• Customer reviews 
• Sales history

In addition, consider:

• What sales margins you can expect
• How many competitors sell the same product
• Whether product sales trending up or down

There are a number of third-party software programs that can help you perform this research. Once you’ve done your basic product research, think about:

• What are the most-searched keywords on Amazon?
• Potential market niches. For example, “men’s loafers” probably have a number of competitors; “men’s loafers in EEE width” probably do not have as many.
• Is product demand seasonal or year-round? 
• What is the level of competition? Fewer competitors can be an indication of untapped market potential where you can stake a claim as a brand leader.
• How expensive is the product to the source? The more expensive, the greater strain on your cash flow.
• Ensure product quality. Require inspection of product samples from suppliers.
• What are the shipping costs and Amazon seller fees?
• Do you want to private label the product and create a brand to differentiate yourself? The advantage of private labeling is a brand name offers lower prices than bigger name brands. So, first off, you need to be sure you can sell at a lower price and remain profitable (which usually means buying from suppliers in high volumes). In addition, you have to put time and effort into marketing and branding. 
• Can you offer something a little extra, e.g. faster shipping, as a competitive differentiator?
• The bigger and heavier the product, the higher the shipping costs. Small and lightweight products also save you extra storage fees.
• Uncomplicated products avoid potential customer issues.
• Certain products (e.g. foods, toys, batteries, beauty products) may require certifications or paperwork that add time and effort to product sourcing.

Above all, remember one overall guiding principle: Amazon shoppers are looking for the best deal. Whatever best-selling Amazon products you decide on, you must be able to offer them at a competitive price that consumers consider a good deal.

FBA Reimbursement

After deciding on the best-selling Amazon products to source, Amazon FBA sellers rely on Amazon to provide inventory management, order fulfillment, and customer returns. Given the number of sellers and transactions Amazon handles globally on a daily basis, you can expect mistakes to happen. When they do, you are owed FBA reimbursement. But it’s up to you to identify errors and submit claims for reimbursement.  

Unfamiliar with the whole Amazon reimbursement process? Then consider GETIDA. 

GETIDA software reviews the last 18 months of transactions to flag errors that qualify for FBA reimbursement. With your approval, a team of former Amazon employees files the appropriate claims and works to get your reimbursement. 

There is no charge for any of this. The only charge is a percentage of approved claims. And the first $400 in FBA reimbursement is free.