I see a lot of people are still struggling with launching products in 2018 and getting their first reviews. So, I’ve decided to do a little case study and let people tag along while I launch a new product. I am obviously not going to reveal the actual product, but I will show all other related stats and info. I will be using a couple of different methods to get reviews and gain traction. I am not saying these are the best ones; they are just the ones that work for me. Of course, I will be staying compliant within the Amazon TOS.
Other updates:
- Part 2: Here we started with our Amazon Product Giveaways & also enrolled for the Amazon Early Reviewer Program.
- Part 3: This is where we started seeing the first results! This is also where I started with the PPC campaign.
- Part 4: The last part of the case study, in which I show the final results.
- Final update: Here I share how the product is currently doing and what I am doing to further improve the product.
The product
Ok, so I’ve found myself a nice little niche. There are only a handful of sellers offering the same type of product. They are doing between $1k – $15k in revenue per month and have between 100 – 700 reviews. It shouldn’t be too hard to rank on the first page here so perfect for a little case study!
Product stats
Landed cost ( Production + Shipping ): $6,11
Average sales price the competition is charging: $20
FBA fees: $7,71
Profit: $6,18
So if I decide to sell it for the same price as my competitors I will get $6,18 profit, a healthy 100% ROI. But since making a profit is not my goal at this point ( getting reviews & sales velocity is ) I will probably undercut my competitors.
I’ve spent around $200 on professional product photo’s, and I’ve done my research and made a nice little listing filled with my keywords. I’m not going to cover this here, but this is extremely important! If people are interested in learning more about this they can let me know.
Update: So, a bunch of people have asked me to expand on how I found this product. I have written a separate post about this here.
My Amazon Product Launch Strategy 2019
So, first of all, my goal when releasing a new product is not to make a profit! My goal is to get reviews & sales velocity, which will in turn, increase my rankings and increase my sales even more. Once I am satisfied with my ranking, I will change my goal and focus on making a profit. I strongly believe Amazon is ranking products based on their 7, 30 & 90-day average sales volume. So in order for me to archive this, I will start with the following steps:
- Lower price
- Setup follow-up email
- Product giveaways ( while staying within Amazon TOS )
- Early review program
- GO HARD on PPC
- Increase price
- PROFIT?!?!
Lower price
This is a very basic one that people don’t seem to utilize. I am completely fine with selling my products for breakeven or even at a loss when I am launching them. Since there is a very healthy profit margin on this product this won’t be necessary in this case. I will be starting with a price of $15, this will net me a $1 profit per sale. But most importantly is significantly lower than all my competitors, a great way to get some sales!
Follow-up email
It’s absolutely essential when it comes to getting reviews, in my opinion. I use Jump Send, but I don’t think it really matters which service you use. As long as you make sure your customers receive a follow-up email with you asking how they like the product and a link to leave a review. I try to stay very direct & personal. Here is the message I use:
Hi <NAME>,
I am <MY NAME> and I just started selling my product on Amazon. And I want to thank you personally for purchasing my product! I am just running a one-man operation and every purchase means a lot to me!
I am very curious how you like the <PRODUCT>? Do you like the <Material>? Do you think it is too big? Do you think this is a great gift to give to friends? I want to hear all about it!
If you could please let me know your opinion with a product review that would mean a lot to me!
<PRODUCT REVIEW URL>
Thank you!,
<MY NAME>
So, does this work? Of course, it does! I feel that since you introduce yourself and let them know you are just a small operation, they are more inclined to leave you a review than a faceless corporation. Here is a typical reply I would receive:
Next post I will go over Product giveaways ( while not breaking any Amazon rules! ) & Early Reviewer Program. Let me know if you found this post helpful or if you have any questions let me know in the comments.
Good stuff,
Thanks a lot for sharing!
Please expand on keyword research. Do you continue to optimize your listing after launch?
Kind regards,
Adrian
Yeah I always keep optimising the listing and try to find new keywords. Especially when I get the first results of the PPC campaign I will discover a lot of new keywords that I can use in the listing.
I have had more people ask me to expand on how I do keyword research and what tools I use. So I am planning to another case study to show people exactly how I do my keyword research, right after this case study. Stay tuned!
More discussion & answers can be found in the Reddit thread about this case study:
https://www.reddit.com/r/FulfillmentByAmazon/comments/8r1jsd/case_study_follow_as_i_launch_a_live_product_onto/
You are my favorite fan!
How many products do you order for your first batch?
How soon after the first batch do you order your second?
Do you ship straight to Amazon or to your place?
Sorry for so many questions.
Btw, love your case study!
Thank you.
For this product I ordered 1000 units. You can calculate how much units you sell per day, then based on that you can place your order.
Hello,
I learned so much from reading your write-ups. Thanks a lot for sharing!
Please do you have any one you can recommend that renders amazon outsourcing services?
I need someone with impressive track record that can setup an operational amazon FBA store and run it for me. Would love to maximize my earnings.
I do a 8:00am-5:00pm full time daily job and seriously hope to move into online businesses and amazon Fba seems to be my delight.
I will be glad to hear from you.
Regards.
I also work a full time job and have limited time to spend on a start up but would love to do this full time some day , I once heard of a Amazon investment club where everyone put their funds together to launch a product and the main person taught everyone involved exactly how its done in real time , everyone learned quickly how to do it on their own .
Why would anybody do this for you if they can do this themselves?
Thank you for this! I am particularly interested in how you created your listing, optimized it for keywords, etc. I understand the points about making sure your photos are awesome, but its the “words” parts that have me stuck. Keywords, description, title, etc.
I’m interested in this as well.
I made a post about how I do listing optimization .
Do you send the email follow-up using the @marketplace.amazon.com in the sales report? I am not sure if there is a more comprehensive place to find customer information.
Thank you!
Yeah. However, all of this through a 3rd party service that send the emails automatically for me. I use Jumpsend
Thank you for your response, just finishing up the Jumpsend Webinar. Right now we only have a sale a day, so I would like to start off doing the responses manually. Should I just send them from my business email or through Amazon?
You need to send them through Amazon as they are not giving away the email addresses from your customers.
Could you detail how you determine the Product stats before making a purchase?
Could you give more detail about dropping keywords into your item title?
Do you think Niche Hunter/the chrome extensions in JungleScout are worth it?
Yeah sure, so I have a created a detailed guide on how I pick my FBA products.
What’s your opinion on going for page 2 in a high volume market? For example if page 1 is too competitive but there’s plenty of opportunity to make at least $1000 by having your product on page 2. Would you go for it?
Personally I would not. But there are loads of different ways to make FBA work for you.
HI all your informations you give is for Free or do you charge? curious let me know thanks!
All free
u must 100 products to sell. do u do mentorship as well?
let me know thanks
wes
Right now I don’t do mentoring.
How to deal with a situation where you first get negative review from a competitor or something like this? I am sure that such things happen.
How can you get sales after this?
Don’t worry about 1 review. Amazon will not remove reviews, so just focus on going forward and keep getting more reviews. I have had launched where my first review is a 2-star, and it is definitely not game over.
Hey! Thanks for the content. Really appreciate someone is giving back useful and real infos. Not sure if you still answer questions but concerning the professionnal photos, how do find them? Do you send them the product?
Great question! Yeah I use a freelance photographer. I usually send em 2 units so he can pick the best one ( in case the packaging is dented or something).
hi there
your blog is addictive.
I read somewhere in your blog where you mentioned that you never see your final products, you sent them from the supplier to Amz warehouse, then how do you send your product to the photographer?
thanks for the response in advance.
Create a custom order in Amazon Seller central to ship 1 unit to the photographer.
Thanks for all the information on your site. If you don’t mind shearing, I would like to know how you do your keyword research for your listing.
Thanks
Sure, it’s a bit complicated but I will soon write a guide about keyword research.
isn’t it against the TOS of amazon to leave a URL of the review page in the email follow up sequence?
i heard all product URL’s are not allowed correct me if im wrong.
Thanks
To my understanding this is allowed. Can you link where you read that this is forbidden?
Thanks for the great info! Do you have an article or go over on how to find a packaging designer? Is this within the supplier or do you hire a 3rd party? Thanks.
Hi,
yes I have written an article about this:
https://garlicpressseller.com/manufacturing-shipping/fba-product-packaging-design-best-practices/