Amazon Prime Day 2021 has been launched. Don't be sad for sellers who haven't had time to participate in the Prime Day event. After the Prime Day, the cross-border e-commerce sales peak season of 2021 will also be ushered in!
There are so many product categories that it is difficult to determine which category to focus on, whether it is a new cross-border seller or an experienced old seller. Take Amazon for example, there are 27 categories to choose from. How to narrow the scope of research and find the best market segment? Which product categories are the most competitive? How to find consumer demand? With these questions, start reading this article!
On Prime Day in 2020, Amazon members purchased various products of various categories. According to the statistics, in North America, the categories that members are keen to buy include electronic products, fashion, home furnishing, necessities of life, etc. Among them, more than half of electronic product buyers choose Amazon's own brand. Self operated brands have basically monopolized the market. Third party sellers have a very small market share, and the growth of electronic products in 2021 will be poor. Other markets, such as Europe, Japan and Australia, have shown similar trends.
Data source: statista, 2021
European station: electronic products, furniture, beauty and skin care, office supplies, home furnishings, etc; Japan station: electronic products, toys, video game products, cars and accessories, beauty care, home furnishing, etc; Australia station: electronic products, books, outdoor sports, home furnishing, clothing, etc.
In terms of single products, during the 2020 Prime Day, Echo Dot sales in the global market ranked first. Products with large discounts, including Alexa voice controlled Fire TV Stick 4K, iRobot Roomba sweeping robot, LifeStraw water purifier, and Lego Star Wars themed helmets, ranked top in the global market. Hot selling products in other countries are as follows:
Data source: Jungle Scout, 2020
The purpose of making an inventory of the top selling products last year is to better understand the changes in the selection trend, I What we need to focus on is what are we selling in 2021? If you join in the category that few people buy, the sales volume must not be ideal.
According to the Jungle Scout 2021 report, the top 10 categories that Amazon third-party sellers are selling are as follows:
Data source: Jungle Scout, 2021
When looking at these categories, sellers need to ask themselves: Are these categories too competitive? So many sellers have chosen these categories, will we enter an oversaturated market? Generally speaking, if a novice seller sells the same product with those stores that have been operating for a long time, the new store's product will not even appear on the first page of the search results.
At the same time, joining the above categories also faces Double competition ：
1. Compete with Amazon
50% of Amazon sellers said that their products are directly competitive with Amazon's own products. Amazon will display its own brand products first in the product list.
Amazon proprietary products appear at the top of the search page
2. Compete with other sellers
Usually, in some popular categories such as home&kitchen, many sellers think they can get a share in this big category. But this is not the case. For example, the best-selling "Apple Slicer", which has been popular for 20 years, has a sales volume of more than 100000 US dollars. Seeing such a large sales volume, sellers are bound to be moved, so they begin to sell this product one after another. However, in-depth research will find that this category is very saturated, with serious product homogenization (many sellers directly save and upload pictures on 1688 to Amazon), fierce price competition and low profits.
Some businesses selling apple slicers on Amazon
Obviously, entering saturated categories will make it more difficult for sellers to make profits. Therefore, we need to focus on in-depth mining of various subcategories to find better product opportunities.
How to find better product opportunities?
1. Use Google Trends
First, it is free. If you pay attention to the changes in consumers' interests, sellers can check Google Trends every week or so to see if you can find opportunities to create products. Just enter a wide range of keywords in Google Trends, and it will show the popularity of the topic, and whether it is on the rise or on the decline. For example, search for "yoga mat" and "women's sneakers" to learn about related trends. You can also view related topics, demographic data, and related queries that can be used for keyword research. Once you find a product category with a good trend, you can go to Amazon to look for similar products, see how the competition is now on sale, and whether you have the opportunity to gain a large share in Amazon.
Google trends page preview
2. Monitor consumption trends
Since the beginning of the COVID-19 epidemic, consumers have bought more groceries and cleaning products online (including platforms and independent stations). Although the growth of these types of products can be expected, there has also been a surge in other product categories. It is the smart Amazon sellers who are good at finding this category and responding to demand.
For example, consumers trapped at home have more time to cook, exercise at home, play with their family and children, and work at home. In 2020, cookware, puzzles, children's games, home fitness equipment and home office products will show a very good growth trend.
In 2021, as the epidemic situation gradually tightens, we need to consider what changes may happen to consumers' shopping behavior.
For example, the wedding boom after the lifting of the ban and the purchase volume of travel related categories may increase. The figure below shows the survey of consumers' comfort degree when going out, showing the changes of consumers' comfort degree for various public activities offline since March 2021, including the prediction after 2022.
Data source: statista
Consumers' shopping behavior is always changing. Although it may not be possible to predict the sharp fluctuations of demand every time, it is better to always understand how consumers' demand changes with the times.
To take another example, consumers' pent up travel demand last year has been released this year, but the international epidemic has not been completely controlled, and people cannot travel internationally. Therefore, peripheral travel and short distance travel have become one of consumers' must choose. Therefore, the market size trend of outdoor products in 2021 will continue to rise, and consumer demand will grow steadily. This is the category we need to focus on. For example, outdoor tents and sleeping bags for camping, backpacks for hiking, thermos kettles, picnic supplies, etc.
3. Create brand in competition
When some witty sellers are the first to discover the changes in consumer demand and find new popular categories, how can the sellers who are slower to enter the market shape their own advantages?
Taking the outdoor products mentioned above as an example, the survey shows that many consumers who like camping and picnicking pay attention to environmental protection, so businesses can pay attention to adding environmental protection products when selecting products, emphasize the selling points of their products, convey them to consumers, establish a brand image of green and environmental protection, thus avoiding fierce competition in this field and improving the overall profit margin.
No matter how small the category is, once it is found that the demand is large, it will certainly attract new competitors. Therefore, finding the characteristics of consumers, carrying out brand differentiated marketing, and shaping their own brand characteristics are the long-term development methods.
4. Multi line development
In addition to choosing less competitive categories, many Amazon sellers have begun to seek other ways, transforming or paralleling other platforms and independent stations. 33% of Amazon sellers said they were preparing to launch e-commerce business on other platforms, and 21% said they were preparing to launch their own independent stations. Amazon seller's choice to expand business Top 5:
Walmart
Instagram
Shopify
Facebook Market
Etsy
Finally, whether you are a platform or an independent station, in addition to the category selection method mentioned above, there are some basic elements that you must do.
First, you need to understand your target market. Consumers in mature markets such as Europe and the United States have stronger affordability, and sellers can choose products with higher customer price and some high-end goods. Because the market is relatively mature, consumers in these regions are also more willing to purchase goods from the online market, presenting a wider range of choices for sellers in terms of category selection.
If you are focusing on emerging markets, "low price and volume" is a good choice. Because consumers in emerging markets (such as Southeast Asia) are still in the process of accepting online shopping, they prefer to consume commodities with strong applicability to the public. If you choose high priced goods or high-end goods, such as high priced digital products, sports, jewelry and other products, you may not achieve good sales. However, there will also be good potential if the products (folk products, etc.) are sold in specific regions.
On the basis of understanding the target market, saving costs and improving the profit rate of goods are also essential skills for sellers. Generally speaking, in the initial stage of opening a store, the seller has limited funds and is facing fierce market competition. Choosing to sell smaller goods can save some logistics costs, thus improving the profit rate of goods. At the same time, in terms of inventory, it can also reduce the pressure on the site, use valuable funds for subsequent marketing promotion for the brand, and enhance brand awareness.
(Source: Independent station small U)
The above contents belong to the author's personal views and do not represent Hugo's cross-border position! This article is reproduced with the authorization of the original author. Reproduction requires the authorization of the original author.
(Source: Independent station small U)
