Best Products to Sell on Amazon to Kickstart your Business

Around 200 million people visit the Amazon marketplace every month. It’s the biggest selling platform in the world, and millions of sellers take advantage of its massive “footfall” every day. 

You can find almost any product on Amazon. Sellers fall into a variety of categories, including beauty, furniture, books, and more. Users flood the site for reasonable prices, good quality, and trusted service. 

When starting an online business, it can be difficult to know where to begin. You need to pick products that will sell, to avoid dormant inventory, and that sell with a good profit. Profit drives growth for further sales, so it’s important to make the right investment. 

So, what are the best products to sell on Amazon? You need to identify products that you think will sell easily, and consistently. However, you also need to consider shelf-life. Focus on products that never go out of date, and rarely go out of style.

Own Brand or Reselling?

One of the first steps to kickstarting your online Amazon business is identifying your business model. You need to consider whether you’re going to source and sell your own products or re-sell other manufacturers’ products for profit. Both models have their benefits and drawbacks. 

If you’re going to set up your own brand, you will need to research good sources for your goods or raw materials. There may be manufacturing costs involved. If not, you need to ensure that you can source full products at a low enough price to turn a profit. You will also need to differentiate your products from brands already available on Amazon, that users might already be familiar with. 

However, despite the challenges, selling your own products provides an increased level of control over your business and its growth. You can make decisions around suppliers, manufacturing (if necessary), administrative costs, logistics, and more. As a result, own-brand products can have a higher profit margin. Your available profit is entirely dependent on your inventory spend. 

Alternatively, you might choose to join Amazon as a reseller. In this model, you source products made by other manufacturers. You might be able to find items in retail stores at discounted prices, or from suppliers, and sell them on Amazon for a profit. 

This ecommerce business model provides less control over your profit margin. Ultimately, the products will only sell for a certain price, and it’s tough to increase your revenue. Therefore, it can be difficult to scale this model. However, reselling does reduce your business costs. You do not need to pay for manufacturing, complex supply lines, or expensive logistics.

It’s important to choose the right Amazon business model for you, before investing in great amounts of inventory.

Important Considerations

There are a few key considerations when searching for products to sell on Amazon. These should help you to decide what kinds of products work better for your business. 

First, consider the condition of your chosen products. New products typically have a higher demand. The majority of products sold on Amazon are new, so this is expected by a lot of buyers. However, there is less of a profit margin to be made, as you need to compete with similar sellers.

Used products are less common on the Amazon marketplace. Despite this, there are some product categories where people would prefer a discounted version to a brand-new one. Books are a perfect example, where the new price can be over double that of a used version. Used items are also cheaper to source. 

Next, consider the sizes of the products you wish to sell. Ultimately, the bigger the product, the bigger the overall costs to both you and your customers. Small items are generally lower in price. This means that your initial investment in your business is lower. Also, smaller items are cheaper to ship, both to you and your customer. Cheaper shipping allows you to maintain a better profit margin.

It’s also important to note that the Amazon FBA service, if you choose to use it, charges higher fees for larger items. The more space your products occupy in the Amazon warehouse, the more you will be charged for the storage and logistics. For ecommerce business growth, it’s important to minimize your expenses where possible.

Finally, pay attention to the pricing of your chosen products. While the price specifically isn’t the key, it contributes to your available profit margin. The more reasonably priced your goods, the more profitable your sales. Ideally, you need to aim for a happy medium between an appealing price and a good profit margin.

What to Sell

Ultimately, some products sell better, and with a higher profit margin, than others. It’s important to find your niche. Consider whether there is a category that you’re more passionate about, or are more familiar with. This might be a good place to start. 

Some of the most popular product categories on Amazon are:

• Exercise equipment
• Books
• Toys and games
• Homeware 
• Kitchen appliances
• Garden equipment or accessories
• Baby equipment
• Jewelry

The most sellable categories of products are ones that aren’t bound by trends. Each of the items above always has plenty of interest. Items like books, kitchen appliances, and baby equipment are less likely to become outdated. There are only so many ways a toaster, diaper, or yoga mat can evolve. 

Items like jewelry, especially with valuable stones, are always sought after. Similarly, certain brands of toys and games (like Monopoly, for instance) have remained popular for a long time. Choosing a niche, and purchasing items that sell regardless of trends, ensures a continuous and steady cash flow.

What Not to Sell

The products to avoid are those where you might get stuck holding excess inventory. For a strong and continuous cash flow, you need products that stand the test of time and won’t go off or fall out of fashion.

Products to avoid selling on Amazon include:

• Beauty products
• Electronics
• Supplements
• Food/Consumables
• Cellphones and accessories
• Glassware and antiques

There are two factors that make these products a poor investment. Firstly, items like food, supplements, and beauty products are all perishable. They have a use-by or sell-by date. This puts a time limit on your sales. 

If you cannot move the stock before those dates, the inventory is wasted. Shipping expired items isn’t worth the risk. Customers will complain and return the items at your expense. Ultimately, you’re just wasting profit. 

Secondly, it’s crucial to avoid oversaturated markets when starting your online business. The market for cellphone accessories has so much competition. As a result, many sellers have had to reduce their profit margins just to compete and secure a sale. Similarly, electronic items are always being upgraded, and have a small margin for profit.

Avoiding items like glassware and antiques is fairly self-explanatory. These items are fragile, and you cannot guarantee that they will remain intact in the warehouse, or during shipping. You’re likely to make a considerable loss in returns. Overall, the key components of the best products to sell on Amazon are goods that aren’t perishable, are reasonably priced and small, and will maintain their value regardless of trends. Consider what you think you can source for a reasonable price, and what you’re interested in selling.

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