Our guest on the sellerboard show was Valentina Stashina from AMZScout.
We talked about Amazon FBA product trends in 2021.
Watch the full video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BpHfd3hsMoc
0:07
Today on the sellerboard show, we have Valentina from AMZscout and we’re going to talk about trends on Amazon.
0:20
All right, welcome, everyone to sellerboard. My name is Christopher and I’m really excited today because we have an awesome guest, Valentina from AMZscout. Welcome to the show.
0:32
Hello, how are you? Hello, everyone.
0:35
I’m doing well. I’m definitely excited to just learn more about everything that you’re going to be talking about today. Why don’t you give the listeners a little introduction about who you are and what you’re representing today?
0:47
Yes, I’m Valentina and the co-founder at AMZ scout? The AMZ scout started, its its road in 2016. As a product research tool, right now, I prefer to think of us as a trendsetter. Let’s say we’re a company that provides the trend reports and some insights about the ecommerce trends and Amazon trends. First of all, well, we now have around 500,000, active monthly users. Yes, and I guess, are we really popular, especially among the beginners and those who dream about selling on Amazon and quit their job or just start a passive income?
1:48
That’s great. Yeah. And I think that’s a lot of times, that’s where somebody really gets started is just is just dreaming about a future and a different a different way of making money and, and getting out of the nine to five job they say and so I think it’s it’s a great thing to get started with the with the piece of software like AMZ scout. So I know that we’re we’re talking about all kinds of different things today. But why don’t we start with a different source of trends and hot products? How would you describe the process of finding what’s what’s trending on Amazon today.
2:28
Um, we have what’s a big data at our disposal, because we track almost all the products on Amazon, the emerging ones that start selling something, and all the old ones. So we kind of combine all the data points into the trends or whatever we want, want to combine and collect. So this way, we can find the growing trends in a in particularly small niches, or in big niches, or just a gross, for example, in a big category, like electronics or whatever. So it’s quite easy, having very complicated and sophisticated tool, that’s how we do it. And at one point, we realized that having great tools may be a good thing to have for us and for sellers, beginners or experts. But also, it’s kind of important to have some information at your fingertips without having to you know, analyze a lot of data points. Because sometimes you’re not sure that you found something great. Sometimes you’re not sure if that’s even a trend. And sometimes people just do not know how to analyze all the data points that we have, because we keep adding stuff. So we’ve added this thing that’s called reports, monthly, weekly reports with trends, niches, products, and something that is going on, on Amazon. And Amazon represents the whole ecommerce situation in the world, especially the Amazon us. So it’s kind of a great deal. And today I’m going to share some some trends. And I even want to recommend how to diversify and improve the products in those niches that I’m going to recommend enter in.
4:40
Excellent. Yeah, I’m sure everyone that’s listening and watching. It’s gonna be really interested in this and I can attest, I mean seven years ago, just going around trying to take small data points in real time and figuring out what’s nice or what’s trending. It was a very manual process and lots of spreadsheets involved and when you have All these millions of pieces of data aggregated in one place, I think that’s, that’s such a time saver for every amazon seller. So I’m really looking forward to the presentation. Now Tina, can you talk about this booming shopping habit that you guys have discovered recently?
5:17
Um, yes, we have not discovered it. Very recently, it has been a trend for a while. But still, it’s it’s still growing. And it’s still not clear to everyone. That’s it’s a big deal. And Amazon is focusing a lot on on this thing. And I guess all the sorrows as well. So it’s called a green consumer is more equal products or sustainable products and as you will, and there’s a lot of service that were devoted to this thing. And it turned out that 85% of the Amazon sellers are concerned about the plastic weight. And Amazon knows that. And Amazon has, you know, hundreds of FBS fulfillment centers, and they are trying to influence this problem, the ecology obviously, right, and the event had a pledge to be zero carbon by 2040. And in India, they have eliminated all non-recyclable plastic in packaging. That’s, that’s already happening. So, sellers, put a lot of attention on this new trend, let’s say, because if you look at the Google Trends, or if you look at our keywords, tool that AMZscout has, and look at the search results. Every year, the interest in eco friendly products is growing by 10%. And searches for sustainable products are growing by 8%. So um, I kind of Yes, I kind of looked at the ideas. Um, let me even show this screen.
7:17
Right.
7:18
There’s the exact ideas that I found. So the products are, for example, with straw balls, so eco friendly sponges, bamboo bottles, silicon ball scrubbers, biodegradable containers for food. And there is much much more ideas and products and trends that are becoming more popular as I as I promised, and as I said, it’s really important to diversify yourself. Because Well, I should say that it’s much harder every year, it’s harder to find a new and, you know, non competitive niche on Amazon and in ecommerce. But I think there’s a lot of spots and niches where you can still diversify, because if you look at, for example, these balls that send you not new but very recent trend, you just have to notice the bad reviews and the rating across the niche and realize that there is a lot of complaints about this product. So now for this niche in particular, for example, people complain about the smell, chemical smell, I suppose Yeah, may not be really safe and might not even consist of the material that is a cola, ecologic, so they think that they are plastic, they are made of plastic. So what I recommend is to just improve the quality and probably be the best in the niche. So it’s that easy. So a very popular product product that is growing in popularity, turns out to be bad. And the Amazon is a huge marketplace where people look for products and they can’t find something good. So the niche is not empty you there are sellers in there, but no one provides good product. That’s a really great opportunity. That’s the opportunity of the 2021. And in the previous year. It’s not about finding the empty niche anymore. non competitive niche. I don’t think they exist anymore. Right But a lot of niches with where all the products are bad quality. They are kind of new to the market. They are not improved here. They have bad designs, bad colors, maybe bad photos, they’re not represented well. Or manufactured? Well, that’s what I recommend pay attention to and diversify yourself. become better.
10:11
That’s, that’s definitely a great advice, because you’re already seeing that it’s a popular trend and, and through just going through the listing, you can see all the different ways to improve the product and make it better with the negative reviews that customers are leaving. And when you’re looking at a product listing, and you’re going through the data, Valentina, what are some of the things that seem to always be an issue? You mentioned photos, you mentioned colors? is there other things that you see consistently, that sellers are making a mistake on when it comes to their product listings, that can be improved?
10:49
Um, I wouldn’t talk about mistakes much. I would talk about the things to improve, if you will. Okay. The first thing is, the videos, I think that’s a new step for enlisting and for every ecommerce business, because well, photos do not represent the product. In full, right? Maybe some static objects, like a vase or a lamp, whatever, right can be represented on a photo, like this is the shadow. This is how this is, yeah. This, this is how it looks like. But a lot of stuff is looks better on the videos. Amazon made it really different before 2020, because this feature was only available for those who have in enhanced brand content, saying, right, and I think I’m in in 2020, I think in September, something Amazon sad. This feature is now available for brand owners. So they can use it in any listing. You still have to have a brand. You have to register brand red
12:12
Brand Registry, right?
12:14
Yes. Oh, that’s why I’m being recommended to do.
12:18
That’s a great piece of advice, because, as you said, Before, it was only available to certain sellers. And I think before that it was only available to vendors that had higher end account managers and whatnot. So now it’s available to anyone that’s brand registered. And as we see in all these other mediums, video is really what the consumer wants, because they can get a 360 of the product. And they can feel a lot more comfortable with what they’re buying. So that’s a great piece of advice. And I don’t think that’s obvious, especially to sellers that have been on the platform for a very long time, they might have missed the fact that that’s been unleashed. So great piece of advice.
12:54
What I also would recommend, is using this new opportunity is again, it’s not really new, but it’s something that sellers are missing on. It’s the influencers. Those people can recommend your product on YouTube, Instagram, or anywhere. And I know a lot of stories when the products were just booming, the sales were booming. After some, after some influencer, some blogger announced that they use the product that feels good, and so on. And I even think that you can just talk to them influencer, who is probably an unknown person or half known person, this looks good. And take the video and put it in on your Amazon listing. Probably it will work even better. And there’s one more thing that some sellers probably may forget the mobile part the mobile shopping is, is growing. So I think it used to be like 70% now it’s even more of sales go through the mobile devices. Wow. So yes, sometimes people who work at the desktop and you know use some programs, you know browsers set up their listings on the desktop. We forget that a lot of people will sell or buy sorry, their products on the mobile device. So if you’re selling you need to think how your product your photos, your video will look like on not a small but still immobile. Important thing to think of when you’re uploading pictures.
14:53
Yeah, that’s that’s a great reminder because traditionally, you know, it was all The same because people, the same results would come up in whether it’s a desktop or whether it was a mobile or a tablet. And we’ve and we’ve seen over the years that it’s, it’s changed a lot, and the people are using their cell phones, but then your listing looks different, a lot of times on a mobile device versus a desktop. And so when you’re making those changes as a seller, and as a business, if you’re not optimized on mobile, now that you’re saying that the majority of the traffic’s going through, then you could be losing out on a lot of conversion. So that’s a great reminder. That’s, that’s, that’s wonderful. Because you know, if it’s, if it’s optimized for desktop, not optimized for mobile, and your conversion started going down, and that could be a leading indicator, so great, Excellent, thank you. So let’s talk about some new online customer segments that you’re seeing Valentina
15:56
Yes, we found out that there is a new generation that’s called a generation Zed obviously, we knew that this you know, these type of people were born between 1995 2005 those teams and not only teams people who are 25 2025 1015 years increasingly join this group of people increasingly joining the online shopping and there is 78 million of them in the US and if you think about that, they should spend a lot correct so when I thought about that, I put the words 14 in our keyword explorer keyword search instrument on mZ scout and found a little trance that came came up I found a room decorations teen girl Khloe this vitamins for teens makeup for teens and some others. Let me show a little bit great
17:15
this is great. Oh my goodness I never would have expected that so many teenagers were on Amazon directly so I’m learning something right now.
17:24
Yeah, so I put the words fourteens in the Amazon keyword search that mZ scout once again and I found some ideas. So there is more more of them and the prioritized by the search volume, monthly search volume which means that 40,000 people have looked for coloring books for teens in in in February and there’s even a history of this search results if you click on the graph you will see that the trend is this keyword is growing in popularity or or not. And those are the ideas like desk chair 14 stickers, 14 sunglasses for teens and so on.
18:20
Wow.
18:22
Yeah, I never would have thought that that would be included in this in a search by a consumer on Amazon.
18:30
Um, yes, there is also a product database by AMC scout. And by putting the words for teens or room decorations for teens, you will find a lot of products that are relevant and for example that’s how I’ve also found makeup set 14 which is a booming niche and has been for a while I can a patch 14 hat chalk pants 14 synthetic all happened to color your hair some other stuff and it can easily be found with the keyword search or the product database.
19:16
Great. Yeah, just finding those product categories and then having like a niche within a niche is kind of key to differentiating yourself now so that’s awesome. Thanks for the visual too for those who are watching sellerboard show today.
19:36
So where and when do you recommend sellers to actually sell their products
19:43
um, I recommend start to start selling on Amazon. But if you’re stuck with the ways you can sell your products on Amazon, you should diversify and try omni channel thing because Shopify is also growing And there are some marketplace, places like eBay, Walmart, I think everyone knows about them. And probably some work on marketplaces now your own website, and so on. Just follow the Amazon trends, because that’s a trendsetter. asked for the when I should say that a lot of sellers find the opportunity to sell a little bit more during a lot of holidays that the year has. This is why in December in 20, a we have prepared to become our calendar of events and holidays. Show it real quick.
20:45
Okay, great.
20:46
So here we go, we recommend to probably tweak your listing a little bit if the products irrelevant, you know, and I good things to, to present before these holidays. So just use the calendar. And we also recommend to prepare for some stuff, for example, for the q4, or
21:19
Prime Day, you know,
21:21
timely Yeah, the Prime Day. Yeah, there’s
21:26
those can definitely be big days for Amazon sellers. It’s also it’s also worth mentioning that the advertising spends can can go crazy, and you really want to be locked in to what your goals are for that day. And not just let everything ride like normal because it can definitely fluctuate quite a bit for the positive or for the negative if you’re not paying attention.
21:51
Yeah, I should be really attentive. But still, there are great opportunities and I know, sellers who you know, just only focus on holidays and have only you know, gifts, disposals and only you know, become active before the holidays and during them. That’s not the best strategy for everyone.
22:16
Okay, so Valentina, how should a seller decide whether to start as a retail arbitrage seller, online arbitrage seller, seller or a product, a private label or brand owner? What type of considerations Do you think some of our newer listeners should make?
22:37
I think even if you have a lot of money, if you don’t have experience in that area, you should always start with something easier and less risky, which is the arbitrage or wholesale, any kind of arbitrage. Because when you don’t know the market, the competition how everything is done, it’s really hard to fail with with, you know, your first private label product, especially if you buy a lot of big batch a lot of products, a lot of items, for example, in in a Chinese factory, and you try to try to sell the product. But if it doesn’t work, let’s say you just only have one chance. With the other selling methods like arbitrage you have a lot of chances you have a lot of takes. If something does not work, you just lose a few $100. That’s why I recommend
23:39
That’s good advice. So people can get their feet wet in the Amazon ecosystem before they they spend they spend a good bit of money and learn that way wise will learn on a smaller budget than on a big budget when you’re first getting started. So let’s say the seller got through that first. Six months of doing online arbitrage or retail arbitrage. They fell down on their face a few times. But now they feel confident they’re starting to become profitable. And they realize to really scale they do want to start their own brand and they want to start their own business with their own products and their own manufacturer. What type of niches and 2021 with all the data at your disposal do you think are just are just great for Amazon sellers to be getting in right now.
24:28
What I would say again, that we always follow the growing and falling trends in terms of food categories, main categories on Amazon. So you can always open our monthly trend report and look at the categories they’re growing. It’s usually home and household that has that area that category has continuously grown in 2020 it Always electronics and sports. But again, what I would recommend is, even if you are a little bit experienced in the arbitrage area, and you know what products may work better than the others, private label is always a new thing for you Even if you’re an experienced, you know, arbitrage sellers. So what I would do with my $1,000 $10,000, whatever, I would diversify, I would try a lot of products, I will try a range of products, probably, they will be completely different, like from the sports category electronics and stuff from home, or I will, I would focus on the electronics, for example, and even on some particular needs, like headphones, let’s say, but I would still try different products, like bigger headphones, right? Yes, different probably colors. I would not put all my money into something, you know. In particular,
26:17
yeah, I understand what you’re saying. So it’s basically it’s not like it’s not like an easy answer. It’s kind of back to what we were talking about earlier. It’s improving on the things that are already selling well, the things that already have an audience, and it’s the same kind of evergreen advice is like, improve the products that people want, and try to ride those trends, and then expand your catalog to complementary products that are around your hero Ace and if you will, so that’s great. Okay, excellent. Good advice. Good advice. There’s never just an easy answer. You don’t want to just say spatula, because millions of sellers have already tried that. So what else? Is there anything else that you wanted to end with today? Anything else that you wanted to talk about to the people listening?
27:06
Yes, I would leave a link with the offer for sellerboard from AMZ scout. So the offer includes a free months of the mZ scout to set our reknown Pro extension product database that I was talking about when I was looking for teens products and equal products. The product tracker asin lookup, tool, keyword tracker and a lot of other things like seller scores, and those monthly trend reports I was talking about today. And also the exclusive gifts that are included for free a guide, how to get reviews all the ways. The US a private label suppliers website list for those who are interested in the local suppliers and even the US on the checklist of questions you need to ask your supplier if you want to work with the supplier or not, and even a tricky way of checking your supplier if they are trustworthy, and all of this is at a discount, and it will just cost our $139 for three months package.
28:32
Well, that’s a lot of value. And I think that’s a great resource for people that are getting started or people that might just need some, some new things to boost their business. So we learned a lot today and I really appreciate your time. Valentina, thank you so much for joining us on The sellerboard Show and have a wonderful evening.
28:53
Thank you too. I wish everyone Good luck, and a lot of sales.
29:01
Alright, goodbye.
