To explore the initial target market, we can obtain many candidate product markets through “interest-oriented” and “problem-solving-oriented”. However, not every one of these markets is suitable. Therefore, we need a set of standards to screen and find a more suitable target market. Here are a total of 5 standards.
Standard 1: Can the category be sold on Amazon?
Not all products can be sold on Amazon. Some categories need to pass category review if they want to be sold. Some category reviews are relatively simple, while others are very difficult. Sellers must ensure that the candidate categories can be sold normally on the Amazon platform during the initial screening. If they cannot pass, it is recommended to give up early.
For the convenience of readers, I list some common categories that require classification review on Amazon’s US site.
Automotive Parts.
Motorcycle&ATV.
Clothing, Accessories & Luggage.
Collectible Books.
Entertainment Collectibles.
Gift Cards.
Industrial & Scientific.
Jewelry.
Shoes, Handbags & Sunglasses.
Sports Collectibles.
Toys & Games (additional holiday approval may apply).
Video Games.
Camera & Photo.
DVD.
Electronics.
Software.
The above categories that need to be reviewed will change every year. Amazon may cancel the review of some categories in order to simplify the process for sellers.
Standard 2: Consideration of market capacity
According to different product markets, Amazon divides all products in the site into different categories, and each first-level category will have subcategories divided according to the level. So how big should the capacity of the target market be? Let’s start with the classification of the category tree in Amazon.
Let’s first select “Shoes, Clothing and Jewelry” from any category. “Shoes, Clothing and Jewelry” is the highest level category in Amazon. Then correspondingly, “Men’s Shoes, Clothing and Jewelry” belongs to the second-level subcategory under the first-level category, and the next “Men’s Clothing” belongs to the third-level category, and the last “Men’s Socks” belongs to the fourth-level category. The complete four-level category tree should be “Clothing, Shoes & Jewelry-Boys-Clothing-Socks”. Among them, the market capacity of the first-level category is the largest, and the market capacity of the fourth-level category is the smallest. From the first to the fourth level, it is a layered relationship.
It is normal to have four subcategories under the first-level category, but the specific situation of each product is different. Some first-level categories may have five or more categories, and of course there are only three-level categories. We can query the specific different categories through the “Browse Tree Guide” in the background of the Amazon account. For our initial screening, it is recommended to start with the third-level category or below. If there are first-level or second-level categories in the categories to be selected, this is too broad for later deep cultivation or branding operations, and it is very difficult to build a brand, and the target consumers are not very accurate.
Standard 3: Is there a clear target audience group?
Vertical market segmentation is a major trend in future product selection. Whether it is for short-term sales or long-term brand building, it will be relatively simple. Especially today when Amazon’s operation competition is particularly fierce, the value of vertical market segmentation becomes more and more important. The so-called vertical market segment refers to the market space occupied by a small group of consumers with similar interests or needs in a larger consumer market. For example, “Pet Supplies for cats” is a typical vertical segmentation category, and its target audience is a group of consumers who have cats at home. Bluetooth series electronic products do not belong to the vertical segmentation market, but to the mass market, because everyone may use them. At first, most of the products that became popular were products for the mass market, but as the competition became increasingly fierce, the mass market was gradually monopolized by some large sellers. The few opportunities in the future belong to the vertical segmentation market.
So how to judge whether the selected category belongs to the vertical segmentation market? To see whether this category has a clear target audience group, a simple way is to search for the corresponding product keywords on Facebook to see if there are any related interest groups and related recommendation groups on Facebook.
In addition, we can also look for Internet celebrities and KOLs who have deeply cultivated this vertical segmentation market. If this market is a vertical segmentation market, then there must be Internet celebrities and KOLs in this field. The fans of these people are basically the target consumers of this category of products. For example, if the vertical market segment I choose is jewelry, then I will search the keyword on Google: Jewelry Influencers (“Infuencer” is equivalent to Internet celebrities in the Chinese context). It is relatively simple and efficient to use this model to find Internet celebrities in vertical market segments.
There are many Internet celebrities on Instagram. Here we can use Instagram’s Hashtag function to see if we can find Internet celebrities in the field of the selected category. The Chinese explanation of Hashtag is the topic of the tweet (for example, the word with a # in front of it on Weibo indicates the topic of the tweet). We make full use of the characteristics of Hashtag that can be clicked and followed. For example, for sellers specializing in jewelry, we can directly search the main keyword of the product: Jewlery, and see that many similar Hashtags will appear below.
We can also use these Hashtags as clues to find many promotional posts about jewelry on Instagram, and find Internet celebrities who have worn jewelry and bloggers who promote jewelry based on these posts.
In addition to being used to determine whether this market is a vertical market segment, the above methods of finding interest groups, Internet celebrities and KOLs can also help us accumulate available resources for the promotion and evaluation work in the subsequent operation stage. Moreover, these people who are very interested in the product will have a much higher evaluation willingness and return rate than other reviewers.
Standard 4: Is it a popular product?
Once popular product categories, such as fidget spinners and selfie sticks, had a particularly large demand for a period of time, and then quickly went downhill. Sellers should still pay attention when choosing a market. It is best not to touch those markets that are outdated and have greatly reduced demand. Moreover, compared with the market for popular products, we prefer to choose a market for products with relatively stable demand and no major fluctuations. This market is relatively safer and more stable.
So how do you check the general trend of this product category? Here I recommend a free tool produced by Google, “Google Trend”. If we search for the core keywords of a product category in “Google Trend”, we can see the overall demand trend of this product category in the overseas market within a certain period of time. In addition, in addition to seeing the demand trend of a single product market, we can also compare two different product markets, and we can see which one is more popular in the market.
Standard 5: Is it seasonal?
Product markets with seasonal characteristics are more suitable for digging out single products to create rather than as a category to be deeply cultivated. I can sell swimsuits, beach towels, etc. in summer, and I can also sell ski gloves in winter. But it is definitely not appropriate for me to choose the swimsuit category and operate it in a branded manner as described above, unless you run a factory that produces swimsuits. Seasonal products are more suitable for the pan-category selection method I mentioned earlier, and are not suitable for branded selection methods. The reason is simple. Seasonal products have very high operational requirements, especially for novice sellers. If they are not careful, it is easy to cause inventory backlogs or sell out early before the peak sales season is over. The uncertainty and risk are relatively large. Single products can still be considered, but problems are prone to occur when doing the entire product category.