I hear a lot about the fact that new Amazon sellers are frustrated because they feel like they can’t find any good products to sell. This might surprise some people, but this is the wrong mindset to have for this business.
In this industry, so many things are dynamic: BSR's, sales, trends, etc. We project consistencies when researching products, but again, these are projections and not concrete. Therefore, when we are going through our process, we try and find as many constants as we can. If I had to boil it down to one idea it would be this: good products sell out, but good suppliers don't.
Let me explain.
This industry is more about finding good suppliers rather than finding good products, and our approach should reflect this. The reason for this is simply because products are come and go from the top 100 best selling lists. The popularity of a product, and how much it sells will always fluctuate, that is just the nature of consumerism. So, in response to this, we need to find as many constants as possible. Since the most, we can get out of product research is estimations, suppliers are that constant that we need to make our business thrive.
This business is more about cultivating good suppliers more than anything else, and that is where our hard work and patience needs to be at it's highest. When you find a new supplier, don't expect them to immediately send you a top 100 product right out of the gate. Even if they have one of these best-selling items in stock they may not always send it to us. The issue is that they don't know you yet. They don't even know if your payments will clear. We need to build a good relationship with a supplier as this is the most valuable thing we can acquire as Amazon sellers. This does not happen just because you show up.
What suppliers want to see is that you are serious with both your money and time. If you don't waste theirs, they know that the former is true. So, don't be too disappointed when you get a product list with only a couple of items that only sell about 100 per month and only give you a small profit. Provided the conditions are right, it can be a really good thing to order a product quickly from a supplier to show them you want to do business. It lets them know that you are a potential new revenue source for them, and they will continue to feed you better and better items. At a very basic level, all a supplier wants to do is move product and wrack up sales. If you present yourself as an avenue to do so, you'll gain their trust.
Think about it like this: cultivating one good supplier builds your long term value while selling one good product is good for your short term value.
To conclude, get yourself in the mindset to find good suppliers rather than good products, have patience and dedication with your suppliers, and build up those relationships!
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