Discovering the Best Amazon Product Research Tool for Australia

Amazon made its much-anticipated debut Down Under back in December 2017, and for a good reason. According to the International Trade Administration, the Australian eCommerce market ranks as the 11th largest in the world and is expected to reach US$32.3 billion by 2024.

Salesforce’s 2020 Holiday Predictions showed how New Zealand and Australia reported th highest eCommerce growth globally at 108 and 107 percent during Q2 and Q3 of 2020, respectively. Experts credited the pandemic as a potential catalyst behind the rapid growth of the industry—a claim which became evident by the recent shifts in consumer purchasing trends towards online retailers.

Irrespective of the reasons behind the boom of domestic eCommerce, transitioning from brick-and-mortar to digital storefronts leads to better opportunities for online sellers, particularly for those interested in doing business on Amazon.

Seller incentivization and lack of competition are all the more reasons to enter into the market today and establish a foothold rather than face fierce competition tomorrow. And as any veteran Amazon seller would tell you, financial success on Amazon is inextricably tied to researching, sourcing, and launching ‘winning’ products.

In this blog, we’re going to educate readers on the importance of product research tools, discuss a few product hunting techniques, and compare various FBA tool providers to discover which one is the best amazon product research tool for Australia. 

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What Is Product Research on Amazon?

Product research on Amazon is the act of observing market trends and using specialized tools to find a ‘winning product’ i.e. any product capable of generating a healthy amount of sales and revenue. To the uninitiated, this may seem as simple as attempting to locate a profitable product that sells at a low price. 

Unfortunately, product research/hunting isn’t that easy. There are numerous metrics to consider, some of which may vary from one product category to another. It also takes time, effort, and the right information to uncover products worth selling. 

The good news is that Amazon Australia isn’t as saturated as its American and European counterparts. It’s an open landscape with relatively low competition and a high potential for both growth and sales. 

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Amazon Product Research – the Manual Method

There are two main ways to go about researching products. The first is the manual—and somewhat outdated—method of research, whereas the second is through the use of automated tools. 

Even though the proponents of the latter are many (ourselves included), engaging in manual research has its own merits. It provides new sellers with the opportunity to sharpen their analytical skills and also gain an appreciation for just how enormous Amazon’s database really is.

Let’s go over these methods one by one.

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Visit Popular Sourcing Platforms

It’s no secret that the majority of goods available for sale on online retail platforms like Amazon and eBay are sourced from manufacturers and suppliers scattered across China. What isn’t as well-known, however, is that these platforms also act as an ideal source of inspiration for generating product ideas. 

Take Aliexpress for example. Even though it’s a B2C platform and not B2B like Alibaba.com where we generally recommend finding suppliers—it’s still a great place to start. 

Check out the various categories that can be seen on the left-hand side. These expand and reveal tons of sub-categories that can be added to your potential products list. 

Aliexpress also has a hot products section that is updated weekly and is definitely worth checking out. It lists popular products across various categories, including Men and Women Clothing, Health & Beauty, Electronics, Home & Garden, Kids & Baby, Sports, and Automotive.

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Ask Amazon

Amazon has a ‘Best Sellers’ option in every marketplace that lists the most popular products in each category. This feature is as beneficial for buyers as it is for sellers as it gives you a glimpse into the products that are performing the best within their respective niches. 

Another benefit of this research method is that it validates product ideas and gives you a clear direction of where to go. For example, let’s say you’re interested in selling a Garden product. By selecting the ‘Garden’ department under Best sellers, you’re presented with plenty of sub-categories and products to choose from. 

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Spy on the Competition

Spying on the competition is another manual method of product research that can benefit you in the following ways:

1. Generate more ideas: Visiting a competitor’s listing opens up new avenues and possibilities. Each listing consists of a separate section under the product description area called “Customers who bought this item also bought”
   
   

Sticking to this method might just cause you to end up with a more suitable product than the one initially you had in mind.

2. Reaffirm Prospects: By visiting multiple competitor listings, you’ll find out whether a product is generally well-received or not. Contrary to what most sellers believe, products with lower-than-average ratings shouldn’t necessarily be discarded as they provide an opportunity to rank higher with relative ease and also have fewer barriers to entry.

Now, let’s move on to the more efficient method of product research for Amazon Australia.

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Using a Product Research Tool

Researching products manually is a great way of getting your feet wet and understanding the fundamentals of product research. However, it cannot be considered as a replacement for automated seller tools. The same rule applies for free Amazon seller tools, which are generally slow, inaccurate, and unable to provide sellers with the insights needed to make the right decisions.

The following are a few reasons why you should be subscribed to a credible Amazon seller tool provider that’s compatible with the Australian market:

• Save time: Why spend hours on end manually researching for viable products or coming up with new ideas when all of that can be accomplished with a single click of a button?
• Make informed decisions: Even the smartest minds are not free from error. Make informed and data-driven decisions to elevate your business to the next level.
• Find out what sells: Product research tools analyze millions of products based on demand, sales, previous market trends, and forecasts to lock on to ideal products.
• Track competitor actions: Failing to adjust to strategic changes made by your competitors leads to a fall in the rankings. Stay ahead of the curve!

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Important Metrics for Amazon Australia

A tool is only as good as its user, and Amazon seller tools are no different. The first step is to understand what constitutes a ‘good’ product. Sell-worthy amazon products are the ones that meet predetermined criteria. The following are a couple of research metrics you need to keep in mind to validate your product hunt:

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Price

Ideally, your product should be priced AUD 20 or above, which allows for a decent amount of profit to be made per sale. In markets like Amazon USA, UK, and Germany, sellers can enroll in the Small and Light program that reduces FBA costs. Since no such initiative is present in Amazon Australia, it’s recommended to go for higher-priced products.

The price point at which you decide to sell (after taking into account all of the costs involved) determines your launch budget, i.e., the investment required to purchase 3-months’ worth of inventory based on the top sellers’ average monthly sales volume. For the Australian market, this figure generally hovers around the AUD 10-15k range.

Note: The bulkier the product, the higher the FBA costs.

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Demand

The demand for a product can be viewed from two different perspectives:

1. Average sales per month: the number of sales the top 20-30 sellers are averaging per month.
2. Keyword search volume: the number of times customers are searching for a particular keyword each month.

For Amazon Australia, we would recommend searching for products that manage at least 300 average sales per month (10 sales per day). Exceptions to the rule would include high-priced products of anywhere from AUD 60 and upwards. 

Keyword search volume for the 3 main keywords should add up to be 10,000 or more. The hallmark of a golden product is high-demand coupled with low competition, relatively low launch budget, and high profitability. 

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Seasonality

Some products experience a higher demand during certain times of the year i.e. seasonal products and those that average a specific number of sales all year round also known as ‘evergreen’ products. If you’re just starting your seller journey, we recommend choosing products that sell all year round as it allows for better sales estimation and consistent revenue. 

Other metrics to keep in mind include:

• 50% or more should be FBA sellers
• The product shouldn’t be fragile, e.g., ceramics and glass
• No existing patents
• Fewer than 4 variations
• Production time should ideally be between 15-20 days

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Popular tool sellers for Amazon Australia

Selecting the right subscription plan from dozens of Amazon tool providers is one of the first challenges sellers have to overcome. Also, not every seller tool is optimized and fully functional for the Amazon Australian market. To simplify the decision-making process, we’re going to list the most popular seller tools available and expound upon their features to find out which one comes out on top.

1. Algopix

Algopix was founded in 2016 and has since then garnered a reputation of being a reliable eCommerce seller tool. Claiming to be an “all-in-one market intelligence engine”, it features marketplaces capabilities for Amazon, Walmart, eBay, Shopify, and more. 

Standard features include a product dashboard with expenses, demand, profitability, product listing, and opportunity score ratings. Users can also view sales performance and benefit from the tool’s ability to track product prices across global markets—a welcome addition for large-scale sellers. 

Boasting an impressive 71,000+ active users with new brands joining in each month, sellers will find little to complain about when subscribing to its $27.99 monthly plan. The only drawback with Algopix is that it spreads itself too thin; multi-eCommerce platform functionality comes at the cost of specialized features needed to provide critical insights for Amazon Australia. 

2. Egrow

Egrow positions itself as a ‘well-rounded’ and ‘seller-friendly’ Amazon FBA software. Unlike Algopix, Egrow’s sole focus lies on equipping sellers with the tools necessary to grow within competitive niches. Not only does it provide functionality within significantly more international Amazon marketplaces (13 to be exact), but there are also a greater number of subscription plans to choose from. These include the following:

1. Basic: Limits to 5 uses and product searches per day. Users can pull up historical data for 7-days and can keep tabs on 2 products and 5 keywords. This is a free package.
2. Standard: 20 uses per day and functionality across 13 markets (4 more than the basic package). Historical data limit extends to 30 days whereas 50 different products and keywords can be tracked. Costs 17 euros/month.
3. Plus: The most popular package is priced at 21 Euros/month. Offers functionality across all 13 markets and increases the historical data, tracking products, and tracking keywords limit to 90 days, 300 products, and 1000 keywords.
4. Premium: Designed for serious sellers, the premium package costs 29 Euros/month and bumps up the tracking product capability to 300, tracking keywords to 1000. 

All in all, Egrow does a decent job of helping sellers get their FBA business off the ground but there are definitely other tools to choose from that deliver more bang for the same amount of buck. Also, the Plus and Premium packages don’t scale all that well and leave sellers wanting more.

3. ZonGuru

When it comes to equipping sellers with powerful product research, tracking, listing optimization, and launch tools, ZonGuru has no equal. Founded and spearheaded by successful private label sellers, ZonGuru has now grown into a leading all-in-one private label toolkit.

Some of our favorite features include:

• Niche Finder: Apply customized filters to research specific keywords and products backed by the most reliable and accurate sales data.
• Love-Hate: A unique feature that lets users generate common words from both good and bad reviews. This enables sellers to differentiate their products from the competition by incorporating features that customers love and eliminating those that they hate.
• Easy Source: Another outstanding feature that’s unique to ZonGuru. Thanks to a collaboration with Alibaba, users don’t have to spend hours finding the best supplier/manufacturer for their goods. Instead, just a click of the button will bring up the ideal supplier based on your needs.
• Sales Spy: Let you take a sneak peek into the sales history of different ASINS to determine seasonality and viability. 

Overall, ZonGuru proves to be the most holistic solution for FBA sellers. In addition to providing valuable learning resources, users can leverage features that are unique to the tool itself. Thanks to a one-of-a-kind partnership with both Amazon and Alibaba, sellers obtain accurate information and powerful insights needed to take an FBA business of any size in an upwards direction.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Let’s wrap up our blog by answering some frequently asked questions.

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What Is the Best Amazon Research Tool?

The best amazon research tool is ZonGuru. It equips sellers with all the features and insights needed to succeed in Amazon FBA AU. There is also a ton of resource materials, including tutorials, YouTube video guides, and updates regarding new developments in the world of Amazon. 

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Does Amazon Australia Have FBA?

Yes. Amazon Australia lets sellers opt for FBA, which has the same benefits as it does in other Amazon marketplaces. We recommend reading up on the FBA storage and fulfilment fees breakdown first to better understand the financials around this particular fulfilment method.