During Accelerate 2021 conference for U.S. third-party sellers, Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) announced the Search Analytics Dashboard, a new tool that will help sellers registered in Brand Registry derive insights from the search performance of their products. The new tool will track metrics like search term volume, sales history in a given category, and pricing trends. Amazon said it plans to roll out the Product Opportunity Explorer to all sellers in 2022, and it will live for free on Seller Central.
Identifying and launching new products is key to retail success, but it can be costly and time-consuming. Amazon’s new Product Opportunity Explorer tool helps take the guesswork out of identifying which products to launch by providing sellers with rich insights into what customers are searching for, clicking on, and buying, as well as not buying. The tool helps sellers identify niches of emerging product opportunities by providing detailed data on search volume and growth, sales history, and pricing trends, so they can identify and act on customer demand.
“Amazon has a long track record of inventing for sellers, and our Product Opportunity Explorer tool is our latest innovation that provides them with insights to help them bring new products to market faster and more efficiently,” said Ben Hartman, Vice President of North America Selling Partner Services at Amazon. “This is another example of how we empower small businesses and entrepreneurs by providing them with powerful capabilities to reach more customers and grow.”
Product Opportunity Explorer was developed with product research and development in mind, offering rich, accurate data to help sellers understand, gauge, and evaluate product opportunities on Amazon. Sellers can assess the likelihood of a new product gaining traction with customers and forecast sales potential.
“We have built our business on Amazon, and our growth strategy is based on increasing the number of products we offer,” said John Broadbent of Silver Onyx, a seller with seven brands in Amazon’s store. “Product Opportunity Explorer will give us data and recommendations specifically relevant to our business, fueling our ability to develop and offer dozens of new products to our brand portfolio this year, such as successful new additions to our Nature’s Nutrition line.”
Amazon offers a range of tools and services to help sellers launch new products. When sellers identify new products they want to launch on Amazon, they can use the FBA New Selection program that offers benefits on storage and advertising costs to help them accelerate their early sales. Sellers enrolled in Brand Registry can use Amazon Vine to help them build a foundation of insightful customer reviews on their new selection for as little as $200 per enrolled product. On average, brands have found Amazon Vine helped grow their initial product sales by more than 15%.
Amazon is initially testing Product Opportunity Explorer in a beta program, with plans to make the tool available to all sellers in 2022. The tool is available at no charge in Seller Central, Amazon’s online business management resource for sellers.
What is Product Opportunity Explorer?
Product Opportunity Explorer allows you to understand Amazon’s customer search and purchasing behavior to evaluate if there is unmet customer demand and an opportunity for you to meet that demand through new products. You can explore up-to-date and accurate data on customer needs and the current selection on Amazon.
Customer needs and selection are bundled together into niches. Each niche has a unique set of characteristics, which determine the economic potential for new products in the niche.
To find your new niche, you can enter search terms, or browse the store taxonomy, as a customer would. Summary data is included in the search results to help you compare related niches of different sizes. Each niche has a detail page where you can view additional tabs of data including current products, top search terms, and statistics about the launch potential for new products.
To access this tool, go to Opportunity Explorer or navigate in the Menu to Growth > Product Opportunity Explorer.
What is a niche?
A niche is a collection of customer search terms and products representing a customer’s need. Customers demonstrate their purchase needs when they enter search terms on the store. Amazon combines these search terms into clusters based on the products that customers view or purchase. Search terms and products can meet more than one customer need and can be in multiple niches.
How is niche data constructed?
Niches include the top related Amazon customer search terms and the top related clicked or purchased products. The number of search terms displayed is currently capped based on which search terms have the greatest search volume. Likewise, products in a niche are limited to those receiving the majority of the clicks and purchases from the search terms shown.
Use the following glossary to better understand the data presented to you in Opportunity Explorer:
Search Results page: The resulting page after searching, browsing, or filtering for niches, The results page shows summary metrics for each of the returned niches.
Niche Details, Products Tab: This tab provides ASIN-level details on the products within the niche.
Niche Details, Search Terms Tab: This tab provides search term-level details on the search terms within the niche.
Niche Details, Insights Tab: This tab provides niche-level statistics to help you assess the launch potential for new products.
FAQ:
How can I request additional metrics to be added?
On any Niche Details page, click Request a Metric link on the top right side of the page. You will be asked to provide some basic details and to submit the form. You can ask for metrics that may apply to any part of the Opportunity Explorer experience, and not just limited to the detail page you are viewing.
How do I provide feedback?
On any Niche Details page, click Provide Feedback link on the top right side of the page. You will be asked to provide feedback about the niche you are viewing and your overall satisfaction level with the niche. This feedback is very valuable and will be used by Amazon to improve the overall usefulness of niches over time.
My account seems to have access, but only for the primary user. How do I grant access to my other users?
By default, Opportunity Explorer is provided to only the primary user on each account. To grant permissions, navigate to Settings > Global User Permissions, and provide View access for “New Product Opportunities”.
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