Research Questions

Yes!  Most definitely!  Simply open up your account and over on the right hand side of your screen at the top you will see “Deliver to” - click on that and a pop up box will appear and you can add a US ZIP CODE.  Similarly you could add a UK Postcode if you are searching on .co.uk and you are outside of the UK.

US Zip Codes:  90210 (or the one in the picture)

UK Postcode: BT39 9EB

CA Postcode:  T4A 0X4

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It’s called AMZ SELLER BROWSER and you can copy and paste the below link into your browser.  It is a CHROME extension, so you will need to use the Chrome Browser and install the extension.  If it’s installed and doesn’t work, try refreshing your screen, or turn the extension on and off. It will take a couple of minutes to load.

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/amz-seller-browser/klgpelgeohjghmccooegimcfhanlnngc?fbclid=IwAR08BcpU0-7cigawokGRBxQ4ddcy7youV1WAwioGq5y_R3VI0PReDrmhNpU

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Yes - Amazon DS Quickview is also another free extension that does the same thing.

Here is a handy chart that you can refer to as you start digging into research.  Remember that this is the suggested top range of the categories and we suggest in the course material to also include a buffer of about 20%.

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This is an MPSH Extension made specifically to help speed up the process of adding products into your Researcher Application on the EcoSystem. This extension will save you TIME, TIME, TIME when you are doing your research. This extension will only work on Chrome and will allow you to add Products from the Amazon Marketplace directly into your Researcher Application.

Amazon will occasionally change the categories names.  Don’t let this throw you off. Also, this can change depending on which country you are researching in. For example - Home and Garden category has now changed to Home and Kitchen.  You can still get to the Garden category by simply typing in “garden” and going down to the TOP 100 of that category.

See the Ignite video in the University which gives the recommended categories for each country.

Amazon has certain categories that are “GATED”.  This means you need approval from Amazon to sell in these categories.  Hence why as a NEW seller, we caution you to avoid these types of products and categories altogether!  Remember we are selling BORING products. As you become more experienced AND as you have been selling on Amazon (creating a history of being a good seller), then Amazon will “ungate” some of these categories for you over time.  Some of these categories will still require approval and you can research how to do this through Seller Central.

See the Ignite video in the University which gives the recommended categories for each country.

There are usually some SIGNS that a product is potentially patented!  Look out for these...

1. You have come across a product and it is selling extremely well...BUT there is only one of its kind on Amazon!  This is a big SIGN that this product is potentially patented. If nobody else is competing with it, it could be due to the product having a patent and it is being enforced by the owner.

2. Many sellers will clearly state that the product is patented or “patent pending” in their listing OR in the pictures of their product.  Look very closely at the bullet, description and pictures.

3. Do a search on the patent website www.uspto.gov

Also www.gov.uk/topic/intellectual-property/trade-marks for UK.

And www.wipo.int/branddb/en/ for Worldwide search.

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Refer to the information provided on HS Codes/Commodity Codes

You will score your products based on the criteria outlined in the course.  The software will now rank your products based on this criteria and will automatically get moved into the SELECT PHASE.

Yes, that is still an isolated product.

Your products will automatically move over to the SELECT PHASE.  You will see the products ranked from the highest to the lowest (highest is 14).  You most likely will not have any 14's. Start with your highest scores and work your way down.  Anything from 9 and above are products that you can start Mapping the Market with.

Research is ONGOING!  You are learning a new skill here and this takes time and persistence.  You will NOT master this new skill simply by adding 100 products to your gauntlet.  You will MASTER this skill over time with consistency and watching and rewatching the videos in your university and applying the techniques.  You will go through a process of continually adding and archiving products until you find the right products to move through to the Source Phase.  You need to become a RESEARCH ROBOT (as Robert would say)! Continually filling your “pipeline” with products!  

NO - this isn’t necessary and goes against our philosophy of finding hidden gems that have demand, but low competition.  There are thousands and thousands of people using a tool like Jungle Scout - and hence those same people will be selling the same product in markets that are going to be highly competitive and competing against each other.   At MPSH - our approach is to do our own RESEARCH - and find the hidden gems with boring products that sell consistently under the radar! 

This is your choice.  Archiving is a good idea!  You can always go back to your archived products as a starting point and do a segue search to find more products.

We also suggest that you watch this helpful video from Robert about products that have scored 8 or below! - View video

Not necessarily.  The lower the search results, the better.  This is a good indication of how competitive the market will be.  Results below 1,000 is great and could mean that you are on to a market that could be viable.  The search results number tells us how many listings have that keyword or keyword phrase somewhere in their listing or back end keywords.

Well the answer is no but also....

You must ask yourself - If Amazon are getting involved in branding an item, surely the question you should be asking is - "Is this item boring enough?"

There are also A LOT of posts about this topic in the group.  Type in the search bar - “Amazon Big Brand” and you will see some answers in regards to this!

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In the Researcher Application, for each product you have added, you will see there are sections for you to add in any review feedback, gaps in the market, notes for the samples you have ordered and if your notes don’t apply to any of these sections, you can use the Hero Jotter to add in any other additional information you have found.

Obviously mapping the market is the one area that we get the MOST questions about.  We simply cannot validate everyone’s questions about certain markets in the Facebook Group...so please refrain from asking these types of questions.

However, as there have been a lot of questions asked about this topic in the FB group, we suggest that you SEARCH → “Mapping the Market” in the search bar to read through hundreds of previous posts on this topic.  Most likely the question or slight confusion you have, has been asked before!

The POI and POR is a guideline and of course we want everyone to strive to get as close to this as possible.  But if you had a product with 95% and 28%, would you turn that down? ...HECK NO! Everyone’s risk tolerance for profitability is different and like we said these are guidelines.  However, as was mentioned in the course, we don’t suggest going any less than 10% below the POI or POR figures when first starting out!

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