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Key Takeaways Don’t fall in love with the product — passion is not a market research strategy. It’s a bias that makes it harder to read data clearly. Approach the process like a business analyst, not a shopper.
Amazon takes a cut of your profits if you use its platform to sell your products; that’s just how it works. Don’t underestimate how much those fees compound across a product’s cost structure.
One of the most skipped steps in product research is competition analysis, but don’t skip this crucial step. It will help you find which categories are friendly for new entrants and which ones are not.
Build supplier relationships before you need them, and research their pricing before you reach out.
The biggest mistakes Amazon sellers make when choosing products come down to a predictable set of patterns: choosing products based on personal interest rather than market data, underestimating the margin impact of Amazon’s fee structure, entering categories dominated by entrenched competitors with no clear path to buy box share and committing to inventory before validating supplier pricing at real volume.
These mistakes aren’t rare! They are the standard experience for first-time Amazon sellers, and they account for a significant portion of the stores that launch with enthusiasm and stall within six months. Understanding them in advance doesn’t make you immune, but it does make you considerably harder to surprise.
Mistake 1: Falling in love with the product
This one gets people every single time.
Someone discovers Amazon selling, gets excited and immediately starts thinking about what they would want to sell. Maybe they are passionate about fitness. Maybe they have always thought the kitchen gadget market was underserved. Maybe they have a friend who swears their artisanal hot sauce would absolutely destroy it on Amazon.
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