The Difference, The Data, And Which Product To Launch First Onto Amazon
Hey! Welcome back. So this past week we were helping a client onboard his products into our Hybrid System for a new launch onto Amazon. This question came up:
”Hey, how do you know which out of all of these supplements I have, to launch first?”
So, we’re going to answer that here…
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Now, the good news is that this brand owner has been around for a while and they have great products (very important). So the opportunities are huge.
Yet, there was a deep understanding behind that question. Namely, that we all have FINITE resources. Meaning…
- We don’t have an infinite supply of money
- We don’t have an infinite supply of time
- We don’t have an infinite supply of attention
Because of that, if you’ve got a huge inventory, then you’ve got to be able to focus your Amazon launches in a way that makes sense for you and for your business.
In this case, the client really wanted to launch all their products on Amazon at once. But there’s a cost to that.
- There’s a cost to market research
- There’s a cost to paid advertising.
- There’s a cost to the shipments into Amazon.
All of these things cost time and effort.
So, I guided them through the 2 main questions I ask when deciding what products to launch first…
The First Question:
“Can we have a point of distinction on Amazon?”
If you go back to Marketing 101 they call this differentiation. Meaning “Is there something that’s different in what I have to offer that’s not already represented in the marketplace?”
In this case, the team conducted market research to see what products were already in the space. Then we take that data and compare it to what the client had to off with an eye to see if we had any differentiated products. Meaning what are the vacancies, the voids, the holes in the marketplace that no one is filling.
And if we don’t have differentiated products, we look to see if we can we combine products to come up with some form of DIFFERENTIATED OFFER that’s not already on Amazon. In other words, can we solve a bigger problem by combining products and make the new Selling Proposition obvious to shoppers quickly.
One of the things that we’ve seen over the years of marketing on Amazon that I find always sort of intriguing is that Amazon shoppers are willing to pay more to click one button versus two (or multiple).
Meaning if shoppers were going to buy two products, they’re actually willing to pay more to click the one button to buy them together, even if they could have saved money by hunting them down individually.
- Amazon shoppers are all about convenience.
- Amazon shoppers just want to click and have their purchase arrive immediately.
That’s why sellers who are competing on price are missing a lot of opportunities by not solving bigger problems.
So, I try to lead all my clients to become sellers who solve bigger problems…
- You can charge more for it.
- Your margins stay thicker.
- That makes you smile.
So differentiation is the first question. What can you offer that’s different from what others already have in the marketplace?
And, if the product has no point of differentiation, then we dig to see if there is a way to market it so it can become differentiated?
I love doing this…
I love finding a point of differentiation that other sellers aren’t speaking to, and or combining SKUs together to create a new and unique offer that is differentiated on Amazon — and then building brands from there.
The Second Question:
“What does our data tell us?”
Most of my clients have products on other platforms, meaning they might have their own Shopify or their brick-and-mortar locations, or they’re in multiple retail outlets.
This means they’ve already got data.
We currently have a client that is bringing on a huge SKU-list that’s currently selling in huge retail beauty outlets like Ulta.
With that kind of data, we like to dig in and ask…
- Which products are people responding to?
- Which products have return shoppers?
- Which products have great reviews in other spaces?
- Which products do people subscribe to you?
I often find that business owners ignore this wealth of offline data.
I think this attitude towards existing data really speaks to the myth that e-commerce is somehow different from regular commerce.
I think that this is because Amazon SEO services use weird terms like SEO optimization, and Algorithms, which makes it seem like we’re hacking a mainframe instead of selling to a human being.
But in reality, you’re doing the same kind of transaction that’s been going on in marketplaces such as Greek Agora 2000 years ago and beyond.
- There is a marketplace
- Business owners sell customers
- Customers give money to the business owner
Nothing really changed in all these years, except, Instead of the Greek Agora being the marketplace, today it is Amazon, Walmart, Costco, but the process is still a very human transaction.
There are actual human beings responding to your products, and if they love certain products more than others, then that truth will be universal even on Amazon or Walmart or Rakuten, or on your own Shopify store.
No matter where you’re selling your product you still have a human on the other end that will respond to it.
So look for where you already have humans responding to your products — meaning, you already have chemistry in the marketplace where there’s something that people just enjoy about your products.
So asking those two questions and then putting those two answers together, can oftentimes lead you in the right direction to deciding what to launch first on Amazon.
ACTION STEPS WHEN LAUNCHING EXISTING PRODUCTS ONTO AMAZON
Ask yourself:
- Do I have something that people are responding to that they ‘totally love’ and are saying this particular product is “the greatest thing that I’ve ever experienced” because it is solving problems and making people happy and putting smiles on their family’s faces’.
- Is this product different enough from what’s already offered in the space? Or can we differentiate through marketing?
So, working through those two questions is really the key to deciding what to launch on Amazon. Then picking the product, or combination of products that gives you the best probability of doing really well on Amazon, that’s the strategy.
If you have limited funds, then pick that product (or handfuls of products), then launch and push the profits back into more launches.
ONE LAST NOTE ON BRINGING PRODUCTS ONTO AMAZON
So if you’re bringing your products on Amazon you have to realize that with certain products you just can’t jump on Amazon today and start selling.
You may have to go through category approval, let alone the fact that it just takes time to launch correctly on to Amazon from a marketing standpoint. It takes time to find the right data, do the research, craft up the positioning and messaging as well as clear category approval, and set up logistics, paid ads management, all that stuff that takes time.
If you’d like to talk to us about Amazon account management, or look at our Amazon Ads Agency services, just reach out.
Until next time, I hope your sales are booming and your business is blessed.
Sean
