When you’re running a selling business you’re constantly asking yourself what are the top-selling categories on Amazon. If you’re just starting your activity, this is even more important. Picking the best-selling product category on Amazon isn’t a matter of luck: it’s a process that starts from detailed market research.
In this article, other than providing you with the top 5 most profitable product category list, we are also providing the necessary knowledge and tools so that you can understand at any moment what are the product categories that are the best selling on the biggest marketplace in the world.
How to Pick the Most Profitable Category to Sell on Amazon?
These are the most important strategies that you can utilize to conduct Amazon product categories research for the most profitable items to sell.
1. Review the best selling product list on Amazon
Amazon offers a free and comprehensive data review on the best-selling items on its online store. These insights are usually very reliable since they are based on the company’s internal calculations. This is something so simple that it’s too often overlooked by market researchers, but it can actually prove to be extremely useful.
Of course, you need to know where and what to look for. We recommend taking a look at the following pages provided by Amazon:
- Amazon best sellers: it’s a simple list of the best-selling products on Amazon and can provide you with a quick and extensive overview of the most popular items. The list is always updated (hourly) and it’s based on sales volume.
You can also use filters to analyze specific categories: if you already have an idea about your market positioning, or if your business is already running, this can be even more useful since it helps you find the exact information about the items you’re looking for.
- Amazon most wished for: Amazon customers have the possibility of adding items to their wishlists. As a seller, you can have access to the data relative to the items that are being added to the wishlists with a higher frequency. This information is precious since it gives you a sight of what the customers are almost ready to buy. Also, if your strategy is to supply just a few but highly demanded items, these insights are the most useful.
- Amazon movers & Shakers: this type of data is more complex. It shows a ranking of products that have experienced the highest gains based on sales volume over the past 24 hours. In other words, it shows which product sales are increasing (in the very short term).
You can also compare these data with the list from Amazon's most wished for the page to understand what items are currently both highly demanded and equally sold. If a product is highly demanded but not equally sold, try to understand why. Is it a lack in the current market? Can you fill that lack? For example, if an item is highly demanded, but not equally sold because prices are simply too high, can you provide a cheaper version for that item? Or a better value for money?
2. Review the best selling product list on other marketplaces
Other than reviewing the Amazon bestsellers, you should also run an analysis on some other popular marketers. Even though you’re planning to sell on Amazon, you shouldn’t limit yourself to only reviewing its lists. Other marketers' lists can give you precious ideas about what people want or need, and if you find a lack in the Amazon market, then you can fill it and increase your sales exponentially. You can take a look at:
- Etsy best selling products: Here you can find what is trending on Etsy. Etsy is a place where people can find handicrafts or vintage items. If you’re in the same sector, but you want to sell on Amazon, here you can understand what customers are more likely to buy in this market segment.
- eBay trending products: These days, customers buy everything on eBay - new and second-hand items, techs, kitchen tools… - so this list is just as useful as the Amazon ones to get an idea about what are the items that people are more likely to purchase online.
- Popular items on Kickstarter: Kickstarter is a place where new products are launched. People invest in new ideas and wait for them to be realized. By reviewing the popular items on the Kickstarter list, you can understand what people are awaiting from the market, but it’s not yet available. It’s a precious chance to fill a gap and find a strong place in the Amazon market.
3. Find product niches
Other than understanding what items are the best selling on Amazon and online, you should also try to find your place in the market; and your place is usually given by your products’ niche. Also, just like you’ve done with items, you should analyze the market so that you can understand where the most successful niches are and the ones where you can have a chance to stand out from the crowd.
4. Use third-party research tools
There are tons of software tools available online that you can use to analyze the market with specific parameters and - in most cases - automatically. Automation has the advantage of making the work easier and quicker for you, but it could also provide more detailed and precise information and output.
For example, with a few clicks, you could know what products are increasing their sales in a specific reference period.
The disadvantage, on the other hand, is that these tools often have a cost.
Top 5 Most Profitable Categories on Amazon
We’ve already run market research and we can now provide a list of the 5 best-selling categories on Amazon. The information we’re providing is supported by the 2021 State of the Amazon Seller Report redacted by JungleScout.
The report specifies that Amazon profits are rising (+62%), that such increase is due to the COVID pandemic (+44%), that 85% of the Amazon sellers are profitable, and that these are the top 5 best selling categories on Amazon.
1. Home & Kitchen
The Daily Star’s report shows that the sales of kitchen appliances surge on Amazon during the pandemic. People were stuck at home and they spent the time cooking. Furthermore, they avoided going out shopping so ordered all their tools and appliances online. This is how the home & kitchen category on Amazon has become the number 1 bestseller: 40% of items sold on Amazon are from this category (Top Amazon Product Categories, Research from JungleScout).
2. Sports and Outdoors
The second best selling category on Amazon is Sports & Outdoors (21%, according to the same report by Jungle Scout). The pandemic seems to have some responsibility here too. People spend more time at home, and the usual activities they used to do in their free time are now unavailable; many are rediscovering sports and nature. Amazon Sports & Outdoors category is rich and customers know that that’s the place where they can find anything they want.
Furthermore, this sector is expected to grow even further by 2025: as you can read in the Allied Market Reasearch’s report, Outdoor Sports Apparel Market by Mode of Sale, a total 4,1% growth in sales is expected from 2018 to 2025.
This is a great opportunity for drop shippers, since the most important dropshipping platform, such as SaleYee has a Sport & Fitness category to offer to you and your customers.
3. Toys & Games
Toys and Games are another best selling category on Amazon (19% of the total sales). This is perfect for starting an online selling business.
4. Beauty & Personal Care
More than 4th place, the beauty & personal care category is at the same level as toys & games: they share the same percentage (19%) of the total sales made on the platform.
5. Health, House, and Baby Care
18% of items sold on Amazon are searched in the Health, House and Baby Care category. The online sales in this category are increasing of an average of 18% every year since 2018 according to a report from eMarketer.
SaleYee.com Empowers Amazon Dropshipping
SaleYee is a dropshipping supplier of all the main Amazon product categories. SaleYee's quality is essential to comply with Amazon’s high service quality. Here are some of the advantages:
- Fast & free deliveries
As you may know, Amazon stands out from the crowd of competitors for the speed of its deliveries. SaleYee, with its warehouses, spread all over the world, can provide the fastest deliveries as well. The shipping is also free that you can get a great profit margin.
- Never out-of-stock
To offer the best service your items must never go out of stock: with SaleYee this isn’t something you need to worry about.
- Find the profitable categories easily
SaleYee platform offers more than 30,000 SKUs of more than 12 best-selling Amazon categories and it will regularly update the List of Amazon Best Sellers backed by in-depth research and advanced big data so that you can find and pick the most profitable ones easily. There are also subcategories and filters to narrow down your search even further.
- After-sale support
SaleYee offers an efficient after-sale support service. It can be useful to both you and your customers. It can take care of replacements, refunds, and returns on your behalf.
Conclusion
Now that you know how to pick the best selling categories on Amazon and how SaleYee can boost your success as an online Amazon seller. Sign up here with a free membership service and start building your business for free!
