Welcome to my in-depth Amazon product research criteria & tutorial! In this video interview, I interview Greg Mercer, the Founder and CEO of Jungle Scout, which is the #1 Amazon product research software on the market. Backed by a remote team of 20+ employees, Greg Mercer has created a collection of amazing tools to empower Amazon sellers, as well as multiple physical product brands.
I am a big fan of Greg’s Jungle Scout software. I’ve used it with my own Amazon product research, and I’ve recommended it to many people, who have gone on to have massive success on Amazon because of it. I’m grateful to be able to interview him again and pick his brain on the topic of Amazon product research.
In this video interview, Greg and I discuss everything from how to get started on Amazon, how to find the best product to sell, the value of product research, to a live training tutorial, where Greg walks you through the many benefits of Jungle Scout, and how to use it. Are you ready to be inspired?
Watch the video below:
(Click here to watch on YouTube)
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Do you want to have access to a tool that will help you master your Amazon product research process? CLICK HERE to receive an exclusive Jungle Scout discount!
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Amazon has been a huge trend and has grown drastically over the last few years. What do you see as the opportunity that exists today with Amazon?
To date, the best opportunity on Amazon is still the private label model. There are more sellers on Amazon than ever before, so it’s more competitive. That being said, the good news is that it is still very feasible to create a successful business on Amazon.
When I talk about the private label model, what I’m talking about is finding an opportunity on Amazon, and then finding a supplier for a product. They are generally in China, and you can find them on Alibaba. When I refer to private labelling, I mean that they are already making a product, but you put your brand or label on it to make it yours.
I would strongly argue that this is the best opportunity in the whole entrepreneurial, make money online type of world. I would go so far as to say that Amazon is the best opportunity of this decade.
Can you talk about the value of product research, and why it's been so important for you?
The biggest hurdle with growing my business when I first started out was with product research. At the time, I was lucky enough to get a few of my products sold, fast, without doing any marketing. Being the engineer, data-driven type person that I am, I thought, “How do I find more opportunities to launch these products, without doing as much work?”
At the time, there wasn’t anything to help with that, and that is how Jungle Scout was born. From that, and from launching more successful products, I’ve been able to figure out which criteria works best. Jungle Scout has data that enables you to make well-informed decisions.
First, you want something with good existing demand on Amazon; that means that people are typing it into the search bar, they are finding it, and they are purchasing it.
Second, you want something with low competition. A great way to gauge the competition is the # of reviews on a listing. My personal rule of thumb is that when I search for main keywords, I want to see multiple listings in the top 10, with fewer than 50 reviews. That signifies that it is a young niche that will be easy for me to organically rank for that keyword, and therefore, make organic sells.
Third, we want something with good margins. I like to sell products that are $18 or more. If you are selling products that are $10 or lower, you aren’t going to make any profit. You don’t know the margins for sure until you connect with suppliers.
Finally, you want to stay away from any product that comes with potential legal issues, like patents, trademarks, etc.
Can you share with people how Jungle Scout came about, and what it does for people?
I'm a numbers-driven guy and the one number that drove me to start Jungle Scout was that I wanted to know how many product listings on Amazon were selling. At the time, there was no good way to figure this out. You are going off of your gut, which I don’t like doing. I wanted to estimate how many units/month a listing was selling on Amazon, and I figured out a way to do that very effectively.
It morphed into a chrome extension, which you can run on any Amazon page that displays products. It gives sellers all of the data that they need in order to make educated decisions as to whether or not a product is good to to sell on Amazon or not.
We also built a web-based application. In the web app you can track any listing on Amazon and it will tell you how many units it sells, in real time. We also have a product database. Essentially, we have e re-built Amazon’s catalogue in a way that’s user friendly for sellers to search through.
You can't go on Amazon and say, “Show me all the products that sell well, that have low competition, and that will make me a lot of money.” That doesn’t exist on Amazon.
Do you want to have access to a tool that will help you master your Amazon product research process? CLICK HERE to receive an exclusive Jungle Scout discount!
What advice would you have for someone that wants to start an Amazon business, but still has a 9-5 job?
I used to be in the same position. I had a full-time job, wife, and other priorities. I get it. I'm a huge fan of just-in-time learning. If you want to take advantage of Amazon right now, do the product research first in order to find the best opportunity, and then find a supplier. The great thing about doing that is that you are building momentum, and then you will be more excited about it and want to work on it more.
What advice would you have for someone that wants to start an Amazon business, but that doesn't have the financial means necessary to do so?
You can start on Amazon for smaller amounts of money. The one thing about selling any physical product is that you do have to invest in inventory, but keep in mind that you don’t have to purchase 1000 units to get started. You can get started with a dozen units, or whatever you can afford. Sell that, make the money, reinvest, and grow from there. You can start for a few hundred bucks.
AT THIS POINT OF OUR INTERVIEW, GREG CONDUCTED AN ONLINE TRAINING SESSION, WHERE HE DID A SCREEN SHARE AND LED US THROUGH EXACTLY HOW JUNGLESCOUT WORKS AND HOW YOU CAN FIND PROFITABLE PRODUCTS ON AMAZON. BE SURE TO WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE TO LEARN MORE!
What advice would you give to someone that is at the beginning stages of their Amazon journey?
If I think back to when I was starting out, my huge goal was to quit my job. I didn’t like my 9-5 and I had a strong entrepreneurial spirit. I got hung up on reading about so many different strategies on how to get started. I would encourage you to pick one thing, stick with it and dedicate all of your time, effort, and mental energy for the next 6-12 months on it. If you do, I'm confident that you can be successful with it, just like me and thousands of other people have been.
I’m so grateful that I was able to interview Greg Mercer again. I hope this in-depth Amazon product research criteria & tutorial has inspired you to build your own Amazon business. Greg has graciously put together an exclusive discount for followers of PLM that are interested in checking out Jungle Scout.
His software has helped thousands of people, including myself. The Amazon world may seem daunting at first, but just commit to starting and work through the process one step at a time. Like anything in life, once you overcome a fear anything is possible. In the words of Nelson Mandela, “It always seems impossible until it's done.”
Do you want to have access to a tool that will help you master your Amazon product research process? CLICK HERE to receive an exclusive Jungle Scout discount!