The multi-platform comparison product selection method refers to the comparison and analysis of similar products on e-commerce platforms such as eBay, Wish, AliExpress, and independent stations, and finally determine the products with more advantages on the Amazon platform. If a product is hot-selling on other platforms, but there is a temporary lack of similar products on Amazon, or the market is still not saturated, then it can be basically determined that this product may have a good sales prospect on the Amazon platform. For the selection of such products, in addition to considering price and sales, it is also necessary to consider issues such as product procurement and distribution.
Take the LED foldable desk lamp as an example. First, find a reference product on Amazon. Its listing time is March 23, 2020. The listing has been in operation for 1 year, with more than 3,800 reviews. The Desk Lamps subcategory ranks 7th, and there are still few similar products in the top 100 of the subcategory. These data prove that this type of product has a broad market. At this time, you can refer to the keywords in its title and description, and conduct a comprehensive search and comparison on platforms such as AliExpress, eBay Amazon, and independent stations to find products with higher sales, and comprehensively compare the selling points of each product.
From the table, we can see that the independent station products have the highest specifications, the most types of light adjustment, and even support wireless charging for mobile phones. The product pricing is also relatively high; the product quality of eBay and AliExpress is relatively average, the specifications and other information are not comprehensive, the number of LED light beads is small, and the timer switch function is not supported, but the price is the lowest. In comparison, in addition to the relatively moderate pricing, the products on the Amazon platform have more advantages in brightness, light color and the number of LED light beads. Its sales also prove that buyers pay more attention to these product elements. Therefore, when selecting products in the later stage, quality factors such as light brightness and adjustability need to be given priority.
After completing the product selection, download the pictures of the corresponding products, and search on the source websites such as 1688 to find similar or exactly the same products. Since the products found by comparing and selecting products on multiple platforms are all existing products, in the actual operation scenario, special attention should be paid to the problem of product infringement. Many products with a high degree of standardization will apply for appearance patents to avoid copycat sales and monopolizing the market. Product infringement mainly includes appearance, technical patents, trademark infringement and image infringement. Amazon’s crackdown on infringement is extremely severe, and once a complaint is made, the store will be directly closed. Sellers selling on the US site can search through the USPTO official website. The specific steps are as follows.
1 Open the USPTO official website, and click Patents-Search for patents-QuickSearch in sequence.
2 In the pop-up page, enter the keyword query in the Term 1 text box, where AND means that both conditions are met, and OR means that one of the two conditions is met. The more conditions you enter, the smaller the scope of the query. At this time, you can enter the other party’s brand name or store name, etc., and click the Search button.
3 After finding the corresponding store brand or product patent, click the images button to view the patent document. The focus is on the scope of protection of the invention patent, which is based on its claims.
Sellers selling on other sites can analyze through the official patent search website of their country. Sellers with conditions can also use Google Patents for search. Searching through the official patent website often requires relatively accurate information. When the information is incomplete and cannot be accurately searched, it will be difficult for the operator to filter out the correct results. If you often need to query patent status during the product selection process, you can also use a third party as an agent.
Finally, multi-platform comparison selection is suitable for products with mature markets, but its essence is still a follower strategy. Once entering the fiercely competitive red ocean market, operators can easily lose their profit margins. Therefore, in addition to analyzing the market, it is also necessary to calculate the profit margin when selecting products.