Amazon is the #1 product marketplace and search engine. If you sell a product, you can’t avoid Amazon. But how do you know what’s trending on Amazon? What are tricks, tips, and hacks to learn what’s selling and what’s not? Let’s investigate.
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AMAZON IS THE NUMBER ONE PRODUCT SEARCH ENGINE
People do not always think of Amazon as a “search engine,” but it is. Often, when a consumer is looking for a product like a “cat toy” or a “new book,” they start at Amazon. Not at Google. Definitely not at Bing. At Amazon and they search (or browse) to find products that interest you. Fortunately, Amazon is very open about what’s trending and what’s “hot” on Amazon. You – as a marketer – can use Amazon’s information for your advantage, even if you do not actually sell on Amazon.
TIPS, TRICKS, AND HACKS FOR AMAZON TRENDS
Amazon gives you a TON of public data, if you know how and where to look.
- Find Keywords. Just start with a “seed” keyword such as “dog toys” and then pay attention to the search suggestions. Hit your space key for more, or start typing “a,” “b,” “c,” etc. This is an easy way to mine Amazon for keyword data.
- Enter a Blank Search. Go to Amazon. Select a product category that looks interesting to you or is relevant to your company. Just hit “enter” on the blank search and “presto” you’ll get some key data. For example, try it on “Garden and Outdoor” here. Then drill down into sub categories such as “Outdoor Lighting Products“. This provides clues as to what the Amazon “product engine” thinks are the strongest, most relevant products by category.
- Best Sellers. You can also browse by category to see the best sellers. Just click on “best sellers” in the top navigation or click here. The opens up a cornucopia of product listings at the far left menu – and again you can drill into a product category to see the best sellers by that product. Such as the best-selling for dogs, here. On the left, you can also go from ALL to new releases. Play around with the menu and you can find hidden gems of information.
- Trending or Hot Products. Amazon will also share with you which products at “trending,” meaning that they are new and have “momentum.” These are not necessarily the best-sellers; these are the trending “hot” products. To get here, go to ALL > movers and shakers in the menu or click here. Again, you can browse down the left menu and see what’s trending. For example, here are the “movers and shakers” in the “baby” category, and then drilling into new releases (in the baby category) and most wished for.
- Books. Books are very special products to Amazon. You can find best-sellers and more on Amazon within that category, and within the Kindle e-Book format you can see the top-selling paid and free books on Kindle, here. Amazon has special data on books such as Amazon charts which can also sort not just be “best selling” but “most read.” Even more interesting, it has lists of best-selling books by year, and via that link you can drill down into other media categories such as CDs.
- Gift Ideas. I’m not sure where these come from (maybe items that are being given as gifts?), but there is a category for “gift ideas,” here. And you can, again, drill down by category as in computers and accessories gift ideas, here.
PRODUCT INFORMATION ON AMAZON
Amazon also shares a wealth of information on each product being sold. Identify a product of interest (check out advanced search for instance), such as this best-selling dog toy, for example –
- Identify its Categories. Drill down into the product and find the categories. It’s #1 in dog squeek toys, for example. Some products will have more than one category and for any category you can then sort it be best-selling, or hot / trending as for example, here. Note: sometimes the product categories do not match up.
- Reviews. Read the reviews by the product by clicking on ratings. You can also sort by “newest,” which I find is useful to see more accurate, non-faked reviews or at least not the “most popular” which might be ancient.
- View Reviewer Profiles. You can click on the name of any reviewer and then review their profile, as for example, here.
Finally, if you aren’t already selling on Amazon, you can find out more, here. It has its pros and cons, but if you are selling product anywhere on the Internet, Amazon’s data and its openness cannot be matched!