As a developer, what are the characteristics of the products you have selected in the past seven years? Why do products developed for high profits often fail?

Let me talk to you about what products I have chosen as a developer in the past seven years, why I chose them, and my recent thoughts.

2015-2019

At this time, the products I developed only needed to consider whether they had sufficient profits and whether the market was large. We would directly click on the BSR to see which market had the highest sales of the product, and then combine it with the data of some peers given by the boss. If the price of the first place is calculated, your profit from shipping is 30% (at that time, even without considering the operating expenses), then we can directly start to think of differentiation solutions.

At that time, I made tents, camera bags, and messenger bags.
It was all because I came up with several differentiated solutions and the boss agreed, so I did it.

Later, when I went to other companies, they basically followed this idea and rarely considered what to do if they couldn’t compete for traffic even if they were differentiated.

Return to Suzhou after 2019

At this time, it felt like no matter what I developed, it wasn't going smoothly. Moreover, after I came back, there were fewer differentiated resources and more standard products to choose from.

I made storage baskets because I thought the profit was high (it’s the rope basket, I don’t know if any operators know that I entered the market when the price was around US$30, following the lead of several American brands), and there weren’t many competitors, so I just went for it.

Garage hook (a set of metal hooks for hanging things in the garage) . At that time, I thought I could make some differences in the combination. There were only a few competitors and not many reviews, so I made it.

grow light , I found that full spectrum plant lights were a differentiator, so I went for it.

I made a fruit storage basket and found that this product had a particularly high overall profit because it was foldable, so I decided to make it (at the time it was still $59.99 per piece in 2020)
 
None of the products became a hit, so I had to operate them myself. Now it seems that the most unsuccessful decision I made was to go into a category with little traffic and volume, the tool category, at this critical juncture in 2021, when Amazon was about to block many big-selling accounts.

Even though I developed dozens of products a year at that time, and some of them were able to rank among the top few in BSR, the profits they brought were really too small.

At that time, I was making step diamonds because there was nothing else to do. The M2 black diamonds had high profits and there were only two competitors. I thought, isn’t this my opportunity?

I made a tapered countersunk drill . At that time, only FTG USA was making it. I thought, this is what I got, so I made it.

I made a hole puncher because I thought I could sell it as a set, a locator and a hole puncher, which would bring high profits. I eventually became one of the top few, but the maximum number of orders per day was only 30.

I made rotary files because I thought I could sell them as a combination of 3mm and 6mm heads. The price would be lower than buying two separately, and the profit would be higher. However, this way of selling was quickly imitated by others, and eventually rotary files became a product that was killed by low prices.

Later, I also made a lot of other products, such as grass burners. I thought that there was nothing special about this thing but the profit was high, so I was attracted by the price. Ten sellers came in and competed with each other. I also made electric squid trimmers. The profit of this product was very high, and there was a certain threshold. No one made it, so I made it. In the end, it was okay and I could sell a few hundred a month.

We made soft shackle because we thought it was light and profitable. But the result was that everyone was trying to raise the price, and the sales volume was slow to increase. The maximum number was only about 20, and it was hovering in the middle. We were killed.
 

So, looking back over the years, products that are only aimed at high profits will fail nine out of ten times.

If the market is not big enough, the long-term value of your work will continue to shrink. Sourcing products is not difficult in itself. If you can find it, someone else can find it too.

My biggest problem is that I don’t dare to make products that have a lot of reviews and have been on the shelves for a long time. This is a demon in my heart, but as a developer, I have this limitation and I can’t choose any products. I will run out of ideas soon. You can’t always make blue ocean products that suddenly emerge. These products are scattered and limited.

And even if you develop fast enough, operations may not be able to seize the opportunity. Once the hype has passed, the market for these products is so small that they can easily become inventory that is counted on your head.

So this is because you are afraid of being poor, and you always want to make up for it by selecting products. You wish you were the only one selling this thing. As a result, there are indeed fewer people selling it, and at the same time, fewer people buying it.

Every company has category planning. If your product selection is always trying to avoid competition and jumping between different categories, you will not be able to meet the company's requirements.
 
Now I want to go back to the starting point. Let's first see if the market is big enough, then whether the previous BSR products are making money, and finally think about whether there is any way to make a little difference. Keep the idea simple and don't use the development zone to solve all the operational problems.
 
In fact, when you develop products, you should find that no matter what market, many BSR products were launched three years ago. In other words, the top of BSR will be replaced every two or three years. It is not the case that if one product sells well, others will never have a chance. New listings and new sellers are constantly entering the market. There are always new products that were NEW RELASE a year ago, and then gradually made it to the top of BSR.

A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. If you don’t dare to face the fierce competition in the market now, you will miss out on the largest and most sizable markets.

If you don’t do it now and don’t try it, you may always be a chaser of hot products in the future.
If you do it and try it now, you will be able to manage some projects from zero to one in the future, or start your own Amazon business.
 
Operations may succeed or fail, but developers need to know what they have gained from their work. Developers should spend more time and energy on following up and communicating with suppliers, rather than using Home Elf to check the latest new products in the market. This is because the former has long-term benefits for developers and can accumulate capabilities and resources. The latter can also be done by young people.