Launching and Ranking a product on Amazon [Execution Thread]

[Saad Khan]

I think you learned a lot from this experience. The most important lesson you learned is that you need to provide a product which is differentiated in a way which is better than what is currently being offered - it can't just be different for the sake of being different. I think this is the most fundamental foundation of doing business. All the other things like marketing, branding, etc. only accelerate your business if your foundation is strong.

You should keep going. For your next product focus on designing the best product possible (assuming the product has a decent sized market). Do the hard work and think deeply about the product's design and create a functionally better product than what is currently available for sale. Then layer in great aesthetics into the product - improve the form, color, size, etc. Now patent that bad boy once you are confident that you've made the best product possible. Your business is now on a strong foundation. It's a pretty simple approach, but one that is difficult to do well. And depending on your design ideas, it also might not be cheap to execute. But if it is difficult for you to execute then it will be even more difficult for your competition to compete against you as well because they will need to also invest heavily to bring to market a product which can compete against you.

I've mentioned this before but I've messed up so many times on my ecommerce / Amazon journey so far. What has carried me through all the difficulties and allowed me to endure in a changing and ever more competitive market has simply been that I have a better product than what is currently available for sale from my competition. The one mistake that I made was not patenting. This puts a timer on my product as well.

So keep going and good luck!

I agree. I agree. I agree.

A strong differentiating product that customers love beats all the gimmicks. It sounds simple, but its the hardest step to do properly.

The product we were selling above was earring cards (we did patent the design and included all the 3 most in demand colors in the niche) for jewelry businesses. We spent 6 months trying to find all the value skews possible and did patent once all that happened. We still have one of the best designed listings in the market.

But we didn't understand the market buying behaviour itself.

When we went through the product opportunity explorer report for our niche, we realized that the best sellers in our category have an average conversion rate of 15%. Normally the low ticket products (under $15) have a conversion rate of above 30%-50%. We are already matching our niche's conversion rate (ours is around 13%-14%).

I wish amazon launched the product opportunity explorer when we were doing market validation

This meant our cost per acquisiton was 2.2x-3x more than we expected.

Lots of lessons learned, the next swing will be better than this one. Thanks for your insights @David4431

 

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[David4431]

O'n puv genomoes xovj zuas qsufadv, cav og O'n siefoph zua dussidvmz zua cetodemmz nefi eitvjivodt onqsuwinipvt vu ep iyotvoph qsufadv. Og tu, upi metv puvi vjev juqigammz jimqt - O emtu ewuof qsufadvt xjisi nz upmz wemai eff ot eitvjivod fitohp. Katv neloph tunivjoph muul "qsivvois" dep ci tackidvowi epf apmitt zua siemmz jewi e fitohpis't izi (xjodj O fup'v) O vjopl ov't jesf vu caomf e catopitt esuapf ov. Ov ot emtu vuu ietz vu duqz (cav nezci zuas fitohp qevipv qsuvidvt zua ipuahj). Op nz uqopoup, tvesv xovj gapdvoupem fitohp optvief epf upmz xusl up eitvjivod fitohp updi zua dep uckidvowimz tez vjev zua jewi e civvis gapdvoupem qsufadv.

 

[Saad Khan]

O'n puv genomoes xovj zuas qsufadv, cav og O'n siefoph zua dussidvmz zua cetodemmz nefi eitvjivodt onqsuwinipvt vu ep iyotvoph qsufadv. Og tu, upi metv puvi vjev juqigammz jimqt - O emtu ewuof qsufadvt xjisi nz upmz wemai eff ot eitvjivod fitohp. Katv neloph tunivjoph muul "qsivvois" dep ci tackidvowi epf apmitt zua siemmz jewi e fitohpis't izi (xjodj O fup'v) O vjopl ov't jesf vu caomf e catopitt esuapf ov. Ov ot emtu vuu ietz vu duqz (cav nezci zuas fitohp qevipv qsuvidvt zua ipuahj). Op nz uqopoup, tvesv xovj gapdvoupem fitohp optvief epf upmz xusl up eitvjivod fitohp updi zua dep uckidvowimz tez vjev zua jewi e civvis gapdvoupem qsufadv.

Vji citv gapdvoupem fitohp O vjopl zua dep onqminipv vu iessoph desft ot vu djephi foniptoupt ug vji desf vu vji piift ug vji datvunis. Xi puv upmz gudatif up eitvjivod qesv cav emtu gudatif up vji gapdvoupem qesv (vji foniptoup gus uas desft xisi foggisipv vjep uas dunqivovust epf xjomi fidofoph up vji foniptoupt, xi liqv op nopf vji vzqit ug kiximsz datvunist jeph up vji desft.

O cimoiwi vjisi tvomm ot tunivjoph xi duamf ci fuoph civvis, cav O fup'v tii jux zua dep onqsuwi vji gapdvoupem fitohp cz djephoph vji foniptoupt, enf vjodlpitt ug vji desft vjintimwit. Xi emsiefz fof vjev.

 

[Saad Khan]

O emtu ewuof qsufadvt xjisi nz upmz wemai eff ot eitvjivod fitohp.

Ziq, vjot ot vji nutv onqusvepv veliexez gus vjot qsufadv meapdj. Vji qsufadv ovtimg fofp'v jewi epz suun gus gapdvoupem fitohp tlixt.

 

[freek]

Hsiev sief, miespif tuni pix vjopht. Jux esi zua fuoph puxefezt?

 

[Saad Khan]

Hsiev sief, miespif tuni pix vjopht. Jux esi zua fuoph puxefezt?

Nuwif upvu csepf nepehinipv gus Enebup timmist epf csepft. O fu vji teni vjoph O fof ecuwi, et e tiswodi, xovj sigopif qsudittit.

 

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