Welcome to issue #1 of the Ecom Product Finders Newsletter!

Today:

🤔 How 27 years-old Marine adopted 3 kids?

🛍️ What is the Product Custom?

💻 How to Identify Client’s Problem?

🔍 How to determine which competitor variation sells best?

📊🔢🧐 Which Three Numbers Should You Look at in Amazon Product Opportunity Explorer When You Validate the Product?

🤔 How 27 years-old Marine adopted 3 kids?

Meet Ivan, my husband. He is the one that did a dance battle with Paul Baron at Omnia during the longest Prosper week back in 2022.

We met in Washington DC during my 5 days trip with kids to look at the Declaration of Independence.

When I was chilling with my favorite glass of prosecco at the bar at the Dupont Circle, Ivan came there for the party with his friends who were visiting him for one day only, and they stayed at the same hotel.

-”Hey!”

I gave him a look. He was too young for me, and short. I was always into tall guys.

-”Hey, I’m busy,” - I was working on my phone and definitely did not want to talk to him.

-”How long do you need to work?”

-”An hour.”

And He waited an hour… till I put my phone away. We spoke for 2 hours and got kicked out from the bar because they closed.

Next 4 days he was texting me, and I was not replying. On day 5, my middle daughter took my phone, saying that someone is texting me and if she can chat with him. I did not care. She set up a date for me. The next day we were leaving back to Orlando.

A year later, we got married.

Six months after, Ivan adopted my children.

Two and a half years later, we got our baby Liam.

Like my uniquely mixed family, let's dive into the fun world of e-commerce customization!

🛍️ What is the Product Custom?

The common assumption is that product customization is merely about changing the color, tweaking the shape a bit, slapping on some labels, and fancy packaging. That's fake news!

Sure, you might strike it lucky with that approach, but let's be real, it’s not a long-term game plan. Hijackers will swarm your listing; if it's trademarked, brace yourself for a flood of copycats.

A non-custom product?

Forget about filing for a utility or design patent. And if you're scratching your head about patenting or trademarking, Rich Goldstein is your go-to guy.

True custom products? They're developed based on customer behavior.

Dive into understanding WHY people are buying what they're buying, and you're looking at a goldmine of product differentiation opportunities.

You don’t need to be a marketing guru or wade through thousands of reviews.

AI's got your back, analyzing your competitors in a mere 90 seconds. Two tools I swear by? DataDive and Shulex.

Take a look at the sneak peek in the screenshot below.

Running these types of reports is a breeze and reveals key product preferences, guiding you to make smarter choices for your product.

In my upcoming issues, I'll be doing deep dives into products. Got a product you want me to put under the microscope?

Drop it in the 'hot seat' request form. I'll pick one to feature in each issue.

💻 How to Identify a Client’s Problem?

What IS the problem? Why are we talking about problems when we develop the product?

What reason do you have to buy the product?

Let’s say you are searching for party decorations. You want them to match the theme, the vibe, yourself and your guests. You are ready to pay a reasonable price as long as you find exactly what you are looking for.

On the screen below that I generated, using Shulex, we can learn about the downsides of the client’s experience when it comes to the products of the competitors.

Negative experience is a huge opportunity to make a product better and valuable.

Buyers will pay top dollar to have something they are looking for. No one wants to waste money on something shitty.

If you want to share this newsletter with friends and entrepreneurs? We've got rewards for you: free services, Starbucks Gift Cards, and cash prizes!

🔍 How to determine which competitor variation sells best?

When you look at the sales via X-ray or any other software, you are seeing overall sales.

However, there is a one-click solution in SmartScout. When you look into the data of the product, you are questioning yourself: which one should I sell?

See below the data, where you can see the sales per each variation and their rating too. Thanks to Scott Needham

📊🔢🧐 Which Three Numbers Should You Look at in Amazon Product Opportunity Explorer When You Validate the Product?

1. Conversion rate per products based on the specific search term should be under 1%.

2. Launches for the past 360 days as of today and a year ago (should be similar or less). It is an indication of the niche stability. If there’s a spike, we have to do more math and build proportion between demand, title density, strong and weak competitors, etc.

3. Number of successful launches. Do you want to know more about how to read this number correctly?

Reply to this e-mail, saying “I want to learn more.”

Answer to Trivia:

“As of December 2022, Amazon sells over 12 million products, and when third-party sellers are included, the number rises to more than 353 million. 

Amazon has about 9.7 million sellers worldwide, with more than 150,000 sellers making over $100,000 annually. In 2023, 70% of these sellers are third-party sellers.

More than 60% of Amazon sales come from independent sellers, mostly small and medium-sized businesses. 

According to Statista, Amazon is the top online retailer in the United States in 2023, with 37.6% of the market share”

See you in 2 weeks,

Izabella Ritz