How to Do Amazon Market Research: A Step-by-Step Guide

Understanding Amazon market research is crucial for sellers aiming for success in this competitive landscape. Well-conducted research allows you to make informed decisions, reduce risks, and significantly boost sales. Let’s dive into a structured approach to mastering Amazon market research using powerful tools like Jungle Scout.

Step 1: Define Your Amazon Business Goals

Start your market research by clearly defining your business objectives so your efforts have a clear direction. Consider whether you want to:

• Launch a new product.
• Expand an existing product line.
• Optimize current listings for better sales.

When your research aligns with specific goals, the path forward becomes evident. For instance, if launching a new product, your focus will be on identifying trends and niches that promise profitability.

Step 2: Choose Your Seed Keyword and Validate Demand with Search Volume

Example: Let’s say you want to launch a new product. You’ve noticed an uptick in interest for eco-friendly kitchen items, so you decide to explore the niche of reusable lunch containers, specifically a “collapsible silicone lunch box.”

Use tools like Helium 10’s Magnet Tool to check how often your keyword and variations of your keyword are searched.

• In our example we would search for keywords like “eco friendly food container”, “reusable lunch container”, and “silicone lunch box”.
• Filter for organic keyword results only
• Sort by search volume descending and review the related keywords with the most search volume. This tells us what customers are looking for.
• If we’re looking to validate if specifically “reusable” lunch containers have enough demand we could add a filter to only show keywords that contain “reusable”

Strong search volume confirms there is active customer interest in your niche. Typically you want to see relevant keywords with 1000+ search volume or at least multiple 400+ search volume keywords. Though the range can vary by category and product. For example: If you’re selling a product where the market price (competitors are all priced around) $2000, you need less orders to sustain sales vs. a $20 reusable lunch container where you would have to sell 100x to get the same amount of $ sales.

Step 3: Evaluate Your Competition

Type your target phrase into Amazon’s search bar. For example, “reusable lunch container”. This search gives you a real-world look at what your potential competitors are doing and what customers are already buying.

• Check the top listings’ star ratings, review counts, and product variations.

Keep your keyword specific enough to reflect buyer intent but broad enough to show demand (search volume). Avoid overly generic terms like “lunch box” at this stage.

Step 4: Export Data Using Jungle Scout Chrome Extension

Once you’re on the Amazon results page for your keyword:

1. Click the Jungle Scout Chrome Extension.
2. Wait for it to load and populate with data including estimated monthly sales, reviews, pricing, and seller types.
3. Click the “Export CSV” button to download all this data into a spreadsheet.

This CSV file is the foundation of your market research report. It includes key performance data on every ASIN appearing in the search results.

Step 5: Build Your Market Research Report in Excel

Open the exported CSV in Excel or Google Sheets and start making sense of what you see. At this stage, you want to focus on the numbers that tell the story, like how much the top sellers are charging, how many reviews they have, and how many units they’re moving each month.

Instead of trying to analyze everything, start by scanning for patterns. Are most of the top sellers priced within a similar range? Are their review counts relatively low or sky-high? What do the monthly sales numbers tell you about overall demand?

The goal here is to get a feel for the market, who’s dominating, who’s struggling, and where you might fit in.

Step 6: Analyze the Data for Insights

Here’s how to interpret your findings:

• High Sales + Low Reviews: Opportunity. Customers are buying but competitors haven’t fully optimized yet.
• High Sales + High Reviews: Saturated market. Tougher to break into unless you have a strong differentiator.
• Low Sales + Low Reviews: Niche too small or underdeveloped.
• Low Sales + High Reviews: Risky. Likely mature but declining.

With our example, let’s say your spreadsheet shows the top 10 listings for “reusable lunch container” average 400 monthly sales and under 200 reviews. That’s a sign of an underserved but active niche.

Step 7: Spot Differentiation Opportunities

Go back to Amazon and read 3-star and 4-star reviews for your top competitors. Look for patterns in complaints and feature requests. Copy these insights into a separate sheet in your spreadsheet.

Common comments might include:

• “The box is hard to clean.”
• “It doesn’t collapse flat enough.”
• “Wish it came with utensils.”

These become your roadmap for creating a better version of the product.

Step 8: Finalize Your Research Summary

In a new tab of your spreadsheet, create a short summary with:

• Target keyword
• Market size (average monthly sales, search volume)
• Competition level (average reviews)
• Pricing range
• Key customer complaints
• Potential differentiators

This summary serves as your decision-making guide. If the numbers look good, you’re ready to start sourcing!

Conclusion: Use Data to De-Risk Your Next Product Launch

Effective Amazon market research isn’t guesswork, it’s a data-driven process that gives you clarity and confidence. By following these steps and leveraging tools like Jungle Scout, you can build a solid product research report in Excel that highlights real opportunities.

Next steps:

• Choose your keyword and run the Jungle Scout export
• Organize and analyze the data in Excel
• Look for gaps you can fill and validate with keyword search volume
• Turn your research into action with a product that meets real customer needs

The sellers who win on Amazon are the ones who research smarter not harder. Let your data lead the way.