Want to know what to sell on Amazon? The better question might be what not to sell on Amazon. Amazon Marketplace sellers list more than 350 million unique products on the platform.
Think about your favorite products. They’re probably all on Amazon. Now, think about a product you wish existed. Search for it—there’s a good chance you’ll find it on Amazon.
Yet, you don’t want just any ol’ product to sell on Amazon. You want the best-selling products that’ll net you a handsome profit for the least amount of work.
Nothing wrong with that. Nothing at all.
However, that’s easier said than done because it turns out finding a low-cost, in-demand product is exactly what every other seller wants. Bummer.
You’re going to have to get more creative. Googling “what to sell on Amazon” was a good first step, but you need to go deeper. Fortunately, you came to the right place.
Below, we walk you through the top-selling items on Amazon (as of 2022). Woah, woah, woah—don’t skip down the page just yet. These aren’t necessarily the products you want to sell, either. We’re just looking for some inspiration.
Let’s look at the common characteristics of these best-selling products on Amazon. Then, you’ll be ready for our 9 tips to help you find what to sell on Amazon.
Top-Selling Items On Amazon (As of July 2022)
You can find top-selling items on Amazon by visiting the Amazon Best Sellers page. Amazon updates this page hourly to maintain an up-to-date list of best selling items.
Bestsellers are broken out into 40+ departments like Baby, Beauty & Personal Care, Electronics, Kitchen & Dining, Sports & Outdoors, and Video Games.
As of July 2022, the top-selling items on Amazon are:
- Best Sellers in Baby: WaterWipes Biodegrable Original Baby Wipes (sustainable baby product trend?)
- Best Sellers in Clothing, Shoes, & Jewelry: Levi’s Women 501 Original Shorts (a classic that never left)
- Best Sellers in Health & Household: Amazon Echo Dot 4th Generation Charcoal (Amazon winning at its own game)
- Best Sellers in Camera & Photo Products: Stick up Cam Batter bundle with Echo Show 5 (Amazon + Ring collab)
- Best Sellers in Software: Norton 360 Deluxe 2022 Antivirus software for 5 Devices (safety first)
- Best Sellers in Video Games: $110 PlayStation Store Gift Card (summertime b-day gifts)
Common Characteristics of Best-Selling Products On Amazon
Best-selling items come and go (apparently hourly) from Amazon’s bestseller’s page, but there are reasons they make it to the top. Let’s look at what these products have in common to see what we can learn:
- Low Price: All of these products are relatively inexpensive. Almost everything is less than $100. Investing in low-cost items also helps you mitigate risk. Imagine stocking up on 100 Beats by Dre—it’d cost you $15K+. However, stocking up on 100 packs of baby wipes might only cost you $1,500. Now, the profit margins on these items widely vary, but so does the level of risk.
- Recurring Purchase: A chunk of these items will likely be repeat purchases. People will need multiple packs of baby wipes, an annual renewal of antivirus software, the latest Echo accessory, and gift cards.
- Evergreen: Products can go in and out of season, but some are more evergreen. Parents are always going to need baby wipes, and households will always need safety items. However, check this list again in December, and you might find holiday decor and toys to be one of the top-performing categories.
- Positive Reviews: All of the products on this list have 4-star or higher reviews.
- High Review Volume: These products all have thousands of reviews, meaning they’ve had thousands of purchases and (given the feedback of) thousands of positive experiences.
8 Tips to Help You Find What to Sell on Amazon
Just because it’s a top-selling item on Amazon doesn’t mean you should sell it. Levi’s shorts are probably not going to be as popular come winter, and it would be hard to compete with Amazon in selling the Echo.
You need to find products that are on-brand. It also helps if you like, care about, and use the items you sell. If you’re a 40-year-old balding man (which there’s nothing wrong with), shampoo products might not be your thing—and that’s OK.
Again, you don’t have to like or use the products you sell, but it helps.
With over 150 million (soak that number in for a second) Amazon Prime subscribers on the platform, you’re bound to find a healthy-sized audience for just about any niche—whether that’s Star Wars LEGO kits or crossfit foam rollers.
With that said, finding what to sell on Amazon isn’t quite as easy as Googling “Best Selling Products On Amazon” and clicking the first link you see.
Let us help you narrow down your search. Follow these tips to help you find the right on-brand, in-demand, not overly competitive products on Amazon:
1. Don’t Compete with Amazon. Just Don’t.
Amazon sells millions of its own products. If the monolith is selling a product, just leave it alone.
They’re going to be able to outprice you, and they’ll almost always have the Buy Box. Save yourself the hurt and go after a different product.
Focus on more niche items instead of generic products. You’ll have better luck dominating a market for ultrarunners than going after your typical runner. And you’ll likely face less competition selling products catered to vegetarian swimmers than vegetarians at large.
2. Find Demand with Keyword Research
When looking for the right product to sell on Amazon, you’re searching for the right Goldilocks balance between demand and competition. Ideally, you want to sell items with high demand and low competition—but you’re going to have to do a lot of research to find those golden opportunities.
To find demand, you’re going to need to look at specific keywords. Here are popular tools you can use:
Amazon Search Bar
Begin typing a product into Amazon and see what comes up. Amazon pre-populates the text with options based on search volume. If other people frequently search for the same thing, it will appear higher on the list. These are the products you want to go after.
For example, “dog toys for large dogs aggressive chewers” is a very specific product. It’s not just a dog toy—nor is it just a dog toy for large dogs. It’s a dog toy for large dogs who happen to be aggressive chewers.
Once you find an in-demand product, you want to search to see what other sellers list on Amazon. If you find a popular search term that doesn’t have products catering specifically to it, then you’ve likely found a golden opportunity.
Google Keyword Planner
Another tool you can use to gauge interest is Google’s free Keyword Planner. Use Keyword Planner to find what people are searching for online.
We could double-check the dog toys keywords to find if it does have significant search volume.
Looking at the results, it does. However, you’ll also notice it has “High” competition. If you plan to go after this product on Amazon, be ready to fight for it.
3. Avoid Categories Dominated by Big Brands
Amazon isn’t the only brand you have to worry about. Big players dominate plenty of consumer goods, and they’ll typically have the reputation, marketing, manufacturing, and budget to beat you.
Avoid them.
Running shoes? Yeah, Nike and Adidas got that covered. Toothpaste? Sorry, Crest and Colgate dominate. Mobile devices? Please, we already have iPhones and Androids.
Remember, niche down. If you want to sell toothpaste, find a niche product where the big players won’t run all over you—like glow-in-the-dark flavorless toothpaste. Sounds good. Now you just need to make sure there’s enough demand.
4. Crunch the Numbers. All the Numbers
Your product needs to be profitable. It doesn’t matter if you beat out the competition and win all the sales if you’re not making enough to cover your expenses.
Crunch the numbers to see if it works. Factor in your manufacturing expenses, storage fees, packaging costs, and shipping fees. Add it all up.
Even if you find a golden opportunity on Amazon, you might not be able to make the numbers work. It happens. Consider using Amazon FBA to lower your overhead—it may be the missing link you needed to make the math fit.
Don’t beat yourself up. Move on to the next product idea.
5. Pay Attention to Amazon Customer Reviews
Reviews are everything on Amazon. Even the most affordable products won’t survive if they’re not consistently bringing in positive reviews.
Look at the feedback before you invest in an item. Customers who love products will likely make more repeat purchases and fewer returns—and those are the kind of customers you want.
You’ll also want to pay attention to the review volume. Ideally, you want to find products with thousands of reviews—that’s how you’ll know it’s a safe bet.
However, some other excellent options might not have as many reviews yet. They may only have 50 or so reviews. Read the feedback and see if they’re fake reviews or genuine. If they’re real, the product still might have great potential.
6. Consider the Dimension and Weight of the Product
Large, heavy items will cost more to store and ship. Consider this when you’re researching products.
Think about selling athletic shorts—these are lightweight and can be compressed into the size of a tennis ball. They’re cheap and easy to ship, which is exactly what you’re looking for.
Now think about selling picture frames. These come in a variety of shapes, sizes, and weights. They also require protection to ensure they don’t get damaged in storage or transit. These factors make them a bit more expensive.
Looking back at our list of best-selling items, most of the products listed are lightweight and durable. You’re not going to worry about shipping or storing items like Crocs or batteries.
7. Pick Products That Cross-Sell Well
When you’re choosing what to sell on Amazon, take a step back and think of the big picture. If you find success on the platform, what’s going to be your second or third product? What about your tenth?
Don’t pigeonhole your brand into selling products that don’t easily scale. If you start selling baby wipes, you could brand off into diapers, lotions, toys, and baby bags. However, if you start selling glow-in-the-dark toothpaste, your options will be a bit more limited.
8. Weigh One-Off Purchases vs. Recurring Purchases
Customers only need one squatty potty (usually), but they need monthly refills of shaving razors or dish sponges. Your audience may only need a single pair of Crocs, but they’ll likely need to get a new pack of batteries every year or so.
Consider this when choosing your items—do you plan on selling single products to many customers, or do you prefer to sell many products to recurring customers?
Become an Amazon Power Seller
Finding what to sell on Amazon is an important step, but it’s only a single piece of the puzzle. Once you find the right item, you’re going to need to nail your copywriting, pricing, cross-selling, financing, and more.
Now, don’t get overwhelmed. You can do this—you just need the right know-how.
Let us help.
We have unlimited access to world-renown instructors, proven frameworks, and like-minded communities. With foundr+ you’ll get ever-expanding courses and experiences to help you learn everything from writing compelling product descriptions to driving traffic through massive Instagram followings.
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