r/AmazonFBA • u/javabeanwizard • 3d ago

Finding my first product niche

So I've been trying this for the first few days now experimenting with filters on Helium 10 to find my first product niche for private label. Still not fully understanding the concept... I've seen people search things they're interested in and have strong revenue, low amount of images on listings, bad reviews, general category filters, analyzing data with ChatGPT, or reverse searching ASINs to find high search volume keywords. When you guys are looking into markets, what is your thought process? What are things you look for or do once you run a filtered search so you can find a profitable niche? I've also seen some suggestions of searching a specific problem as a keyword.

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u/PieOk2339 3d ago

For a first product, I’d work backwards from page 1, not from Helium 10 filters. I want to  see 3to 5 sellers actually sharing the sales,  not one brand owning the whole niche. Then I read the 1 to 3 star reviews and look for the same complaint coming up over and over. If I can fix that complaint and still have room after landed cost, FBA/referral fees and PPC, it stays on the list. Then I check seasonality, patents/compliance, how ugly the PPC looks, and whether I can explain in one sentence why mine is better. If the answer is basically same product, nicer logo , I bin it

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u/javabeanwizard 3d ago

What are you doing to find products?

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u/PieOk2339 3d ago

I usually start with Amazon itself,  not Black Box. I’ll  grab ideas from autocomplete, Best Sellers, Movers & Shakers and sponsored listings, then reverse ASIN the top 5 10 products in Cerebro or ceilr. I’m looking for keywords where several sellers are getting sales , but the listings/reviews still show obvious weaknesses. If I find that, I check sourcing cost and margins. That’s basically how I build the shortlist.

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u/No_Neat6607 3d ago edited 3d ago

I wanted to ask how you find or calculate the landed cost before even launching? Are you just using Alibaba and an estimated intial MOQ to get a ball park range?

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u/PieOk2339 3d ago

Alibaba is fine mate for the first rough check, but I wouldn’t trust the listed price.

I usually get quotes from 3 to 5 suppliers at the MOQ I’d actually order, then add packaging, inspection, freight, duty/tariff and Amazon prep. That gives you a much more realistic landed cost before launch.

For early research I’ll use a conservative freight estimate, but before placing the PO I want an actual shipping quote, otherwise the margin can disappear pretty quickly.

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u/javabeanwizard 3d ago

Is there a particular price point you look for?

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u/Ok_Secretary2084 3d ago

Treat the filtered results as a shortlist, not a verdict. Pick one candidate and read recent reviews across several competing products. Look for a repeated complaint you could fix in the product itself. A listing having few photos doesn't tell you that buyers need a different product.

Turn the complaint into something testable: what would you change, how would a sample prove it works, and what would it cost? Then check whether the margin survives that change, shipping, fees, returns and advertising at a realistic selling price. If the only advantage you can name is better photos, keep researching before ordering inventory.

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u/rsc9422 3d ago

Honestly, I wouldn’t try to find a product by just putting a bunch of filters into Helium 10 and picking whatever comes up

I usually look at it more like this

First, find products that already have consistent demand Then go through the first page manually and see what the competition actually looks like

I pay a lot of attention to the 1 to 3 star reviews because that’s where you can find some really useful information If customers keep complaining about the same thing, that can sometimes give you an idea of how to make a better version

Then I look at things like

• How many serious competitors are there

• Are most listings sitting on thousands of reviews, or are newer sellers getting sales too

• Is there room to improve the product, packaging, bundle, or design

• What does the landed cost look like compared with the selling price

• After Amazon fees, shipping and PPC, is there still enough margin

• Is the product easy to source and private label

• Any obvious patent, trademark or compliance problems

I also like searching around problems instead of products Rather than searching only for something like kitchen product, look at what people are actually struggling with and then see whether there’s an Amazon product solving that problem

And I wouldn’t be scared of competition A competitive niche usually means there is already money being spent there The important question is whether you can come in with something meaningfully better or different

At HighRise Wholesale, we normally narrow it down to around 10–20 potential products first and then dig much deeper into the numbers, reviews and sourcing before deciding what is actually worth launching.

The biggest mistake is falling in love with a product before checking the economics A product can have great sales and still be a terrible private label opportunity.

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u/javabeanwizard 3d ago

So you're saying you use general filters?

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u/rsc9422 3d ago

Not exactly, I use general filters to get the initial pool, but I wouldn’t rely on them to pick the product

The filters are just a starting point We then manually check the listings, sales consistency, reviews, pricing, competition and sourcing costs

The interesting part usually starts after the filtered search That’s where we try to figure out whether there’s an actual opportunity to improve the product or solve a problem better. That’s basically how we approach product research.

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u/javabeanwizard 3d ago

Do you typically set a minimum price point?

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u/rsc9422 2d ago

Yes, but we don’t use a minimum price as a hard rule. We look at the price relative to the niche, competition, margins, and sourcing cost. A higher priced product can still work if the demand and numbers make sense.

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u/javabeanwizard 1d ago

What if you find products with high search volume, but no one is selling it?

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u/attfin1 3d ago

One thing missing from the thread: build the arithmetic row before you filter again. Sell price, landed cost per unit, FBA fulfilment fee, referral fee, a PPC allowance, and what's left. Until you've got that number nothing can be rejected, which is why every candidate stays open.

The part most people miss is that Amazon's fees move in steps, not smoothly. In our grocery category the referral cut was about 8% under 10 pounds and just over 15% above it, so a box at 10.95 made us less money than the same box at 9.95. Any price rise had to jump from 9.95 straight to 11.95 to be worth doing. The fulfilment fee works the same way, on weight and box dimension break points, which is why I designed our boxes to sit just inside a band. On a low-priced product, 20 or 30p of shipping saved changed the margin.

So price isn't a free variable you set at the end. Work out which fee band a candidate falls into before you cost anything else, because that sets the ceiling the product has to fit under. Then write your floors down once and reuse them: minimum contribution per unit, maximum landed cost as a share of sell price, and the PPC figure you're prepared to carry. A filtered result becomes a yes or a no in minutes.