An 18-year veteran in cross-border business will tell you how to select products during the epidemic period that 90% of sellers don’t know!

A while ago, there was a saying in the cross-border circle: "In 2020, the worst industry is the foreign trade industry, no doubt about it", which touched the hearts of countless cross-border people. Looking at the declining orders and the nearly stagnant logistics, cross-border people fell into anxiety and confusion.

On the other hand, relevant statistics show that due to the home quarantine of European and American people and the hot sales of epidemic prevention products on Amazon, the traffic of Amazon's US site in March this year was equivalent to the traffic in the peak season of September and October last year. It should be noted that March in previous years was relatively slow.

Many sellers will ask, what’s the point? Now many categories of FBA cannot be replenished, the delivery time is so long, and delivery is a problem.

But in fact, most sellers have overlooked a shipping method - the overseas warehouse self-shipping method , which may be a breakthrough opportunity for new sellers.

Reasonable use of overseas warehouses for self-delivery to achieve category filling

Overseas warehouse self-delivery is a logistics service between Amazon FBA and domestic FBM. The logistics cost is slightly higher, so few people choose this delivery method, unless they are larger sellers.

But this time it may be a savior for new sellers. If they make reasonable use of overseas warehouses for shipping, it will be an opportunity for new sellers to fill the category vacancies left by old sellers.

The biggest impact of this epidemic is on big sellers, because their delivery plans for the whole year have been disrupted. Among them, the categories most affected are outdoor, party, festival, 3C , etc. These are the products that big sellers plan to promote after the new year.

However, due to the epidemic, they will begin to shrink categories and concentrate funds on the main profit-making categories. This means that a lot of traffic positions will be vacated in many categories, which are exactly the positions that small sellers can fill.

Some sellers may worry that self-delivery will affect their performance. There is no need to worry about this. Amazon has previously announced that all delivery delays before May 13 will not be included in the store performance evaluation.

Seize the golden period of product selection and seize the opportunity

So what can new sellers do at this stage?

1. Choose products normally, don’t worry about the issue of FBA release

2. Connect with overseas warehouse FBM

3. Select products according to the consumption trends in Europe and the United States, and fill in the gaps quickly. If a listing has good sales, register an overseas trademark immediately, because Amazon will launch many preferential traffic positions for trademarked stores in the second half of the year.

Now is the golden time to select products. If you don't do a good job of product selection now and waste this golden opportunity, then if the epidemic situation abroad improves, everyone returns to normal, and the market picks up, then you will lose the opportunity and the competition will be extremely fierce.

Category analysis method for product selection

During this special period of the epidemic, consumers' shopping needs are different from usual, and the product selection ideas at this time are also slightly different from usual. Sellers should find ways to tap into high-demand products during the epidemic.

1. Check out the Hot New Release list

During this period, sellers can pay more attention to Amazon's Hot New Release list , which is equivalent to a new product ranking list. Through this list, they can explore categories with faster demand growth during this period, as well as categories that have been vacated because large sellers have reduced their product lines and cash flows.

2. Look at the big categories first

So how should we look at it? First, look at the major categories to see if there are any products that have grown particularly fast, that is, products with relatively high demand during the epidemic. This will help to discover easily overlooked epidemic-like products (demand has grown relatively fast during the epidemic, but they are not epidemic prevention products that are strictly controlled by Amazon).

At the same time, this is a relatively safe product that will not be easily removed from the shelves or have its account frozen. It also has a certain profit and the competition is not too high. Since many people are focused on selling masks during this period, many people have ignored this type of product.

3. Look at the ranking of major categories

Next, look at the product’s ranking within the major category. If a product enters the top 5,000 in the major category during its new product period, it proves that the sales volume of this product is increasing very rapidly.

If there are many products with high reviews in the list, it means that the competition in this category is too fierce. If there are many such products in the new product list, it means that old products are used to promote new products. Such products can be discarded directly.

During this special period, sellers should also be flexible in adjusting their product selection methods. At the same time, they should also establish the awareness of treating product selection as a long-term job, rather than completely ignoring the product selection work. Don't wait until you miss the opportunity and then regret it.

Source: Seller Growth Academy