Launching a product on Amazon can be an incredibly exciting yet simultaneously daunting experience for beginners. With millions of products competing for attention, a solid strategy can mean the difference between success and obscurity. Whether you’re a seasoned seller or preparing to launch your first product, a well-thought-out plan from the start is key.
This step-by-step guide on how to launch a new product on Amazon walks you through the essential phases of a successful Amazon product launch—pre-launch, launch, and post-launch—so you can build momentum, capture attention, and grow your sales.
Consider this guide your Amazon product launch checklist. We’ve got plenty to cover here, so let’s dig in on how to launch a product on Amazon!
What Is a Product Launch on Amazon?
To be clear, when we mention a product launch in this guide, we refer to the broad concept of starting to sell a product on Amazon, emphasizing growing a business as a private label seller. This encompasses the product selection process, ordering and stocking inventory, logistics, pricing, and all the sales requirements on Amazon.
Before diving into the specifics, it’s crucial to understand that launching a product on Amazon is more than just listing an item for sale. It involves careful planning, market research, and strategic execution. The goal is to make your product visible to potential customers and start generating sales as quickly as possible so you can minimize your runway to profitability and jumpstart your business.
How Much Money Do You Need to Launch a Product on Amazon?
It should come as no surprise that cost is often the first hurdle sellers worry about when starting to sell on Amazon.
According to a 2024 Viral Launch survey, the average initial investment for starting a private-label Amazon business is approximately $5,750. That includes inventory, shipping, marketing, and fees. When starting, keep a master document on paper or a running spreadsheet, tally up your costs to monitor your budget, and consider other costs when purchasing to avoid going overboard.
The bottom line? There’s no one-size-fits-all budget. Your product type, target audience, and advertising goals will dictate your investment, but planning your finances early will ensure no surprises along the way.
Pro Tip: Our FBA Calculator assists with tracking the various costs associated with selling on Amazon with customizable sections so you can personalize your spending plan with precision.
Pre-Launch Strategies
1. Find A Product to Sell on Amazon
Success starts with choosing the right product to sell. The right product can set you up for an Amazon empire or spell doom from the start, so it pays to be as thorough and meticulous as possible when deciding on a product to sell.
While there’s no one-size-fits-all solution for finding the next great Amazon product, we do recommend pursuing products with a few items in mind:
- Steady Demand: Avoid seasonal products, which are extremely difficult to plan for and sell. When looking into highly seasonal markets, they may change drastically before peak season, which may cause your research to be wasted by the time the highs come around. Products with a steady stream of sales and search volume indicate a regular, steady customer demand.
- Don’t Chase Trends: The 2017 fidget spinner fiasco serves as a cautionary tale about chasing trends. Many sellers jumped on the bandwagon, expecting the demand to last, only to face overcrowded markets, price wars, and unsold inventory. Trends often fade quickly, leaving sellers with significant losses.
- Avoid Household Names: Selling on Amazon allows anyone the opportunity to build a successful brand, but competing in markets packed with household names with the advantage of consumer trust and greater resources stacks the odds against you. Finding markets without a dominant brand is much safer when starting a business.
Finding the right product to sell is part science and part art. It demands patience, analytical thinking, and a deep dive into market dynamics. Your first product idea may not be perfect, and that’s okay. Each step teaches you more about Amazon’s marketplace and refines your instincts. For a more comprehensive guide, check out our free eBook on How to Find Winning Products to Sell on Amazon for detailed insights and strategies to perfect your product search.
2. Validate Your Product Idea with Market Research
Once you’ve identified a potential product that meets your criteria, goals, and budget, validating your idea is crucial. Performing a competitive analysis helps you understand your product’s unique selling points and potential challenges.
Are there any household names dominating sales that will make it difficult to break through and limit your upside? What’s working for them? What price points are driving sales? How can you differentiate your product in the market? These are just a few questions to ponder when entering a product market.
Pro Tip: We highly recommend utilizing Market Intelligence, an industry-leading tool that examines your product market like a pro, complete with data for millions of Amazon products, with sales estimates, search volume estimates, review count and rating, and automated analysis to give you an in-depth look into the product market. As shown below, it provides a rundown of your potential competitors with tabs focused on different areas so you can make sure your product idea is a winner and keep you aware of potential pitfalls.
3. Plan Inventory and Logistics
Proper inventory management is crucial for a successful launch. Determining initial stock levels helps you avoid stockouts or overstocking, which can hurt your sales, seller rank, and bottom line. As we’ll get to later, driving interest and sales from the start will be difficult, but a huge point of emphasis once your product goes live.
For starters, take a look at similar products in your category and estimated monthly sales. The initial goal should be to have enough inventory to cover 30-60 days before reordering more. Keep in mind your organic sales from the start might be slow, but promotional sales will hopefully be heavy. Plan for reordering with your manufacturer to maintain inventory levels, which is crucial for maintaining sales momentum and keyword rankings.
Much of the logistics side will be determined by your selected fulfillment method, Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) or Fulfillment by Merchant (FBM). Be sure to perform due diligence on the two options before you launch an Amazon product, as they play a significant part in your business.
The majority of private-label sellers choose FBA, as it takes a huge load off the sellers’ shoulders by handling storage, shipment, customer service, and returns, among other benefits. If you have more experience selling products online or have a physical storefront, FBM may be cost-effective and within your realm to successfully pull off.
4. Develop Pricing Strategy
Before going live, research your competitors to understand the pricing landscape. Analyze similar products in your niche: what do they charge, and are they using bundles or discounts? Use this data to determine how your product can stand out. Starting with an introductory price slightly below the competition can help attract buyers, boost sales velocity, and build reviews early on. As demand grows, you can adjust upward strategically.
Make sure your price is profitable by factoring in Amazon’s fees, manufacturing costs, and shipping. Tools like Amazon’s FBA calculator can help ensure you’re not undercutting yourself while remaining competitive. Avoid setting margins so slim that you can’t scale or invest in advertising or other forms of investing in your business’s growth in the long run, although again, a reduced price from the start is recommended as the best way to launch a product on Amazon to boost visibility and sales from the start.
Ultimately, you’ll have to find a happy medium between margins and customer satisfaction in any competitive market, which is almost a certainty within the confines of Amazon. As you gain experience, you can experiment with more advanced pricing strategies, but from the start,
5. Optimize Listings Before Launch
Too many times, we’ve seen sellers who can’t wait to start selling once they’ve selected a product and ordered inventory to the Amazon warehouses. While the excitement is completely understandable, don’t overlook the importance of a well-optimized product listing!
Perform in-depth keyword research to target relevant search terms. Use high-quality visuals, including lifestyle images and infographics. Add A+ Content to enhance your listing and improve conversions.
- Product Title: Incorporate primary keywords naturally while keeping it clear and concise.
- Bullet Points: Highlight key benefits and features. Think from the perspective of your customer.
- Images: Use high-quality images that showcase the product in use, including zoomed-in shots to highlight details.
- A+ Content: Leverage Enhanced Brand Content (EBC) to tell a compelling brand story.
We’ve seen newcomers to the Amazon marketplace struggle in this area, and anyone who’s shopped on Amazon has seen their fair share of poorly written and photographed product listings. For a step-by-step guide to make sure you avoid one of those lackluster listings, keep our Amazon Listing Optimization checklist handy while working through each aspect to drive visibility and sales with a strong listing in every way.
Launch Strategies
Breaking into a competitive product market on Amazon can be a slow and challenging process. As a new seller, you’ll start at the bottom, working to climb the rankings and earn organic visibility.
After all, how many of us really look beyond the first few options—or even venture to the second or third page of search results? This lack of visibility is a major hurdle and can cause fleeting entrepreneurial hopes and dreams to be replaced by doubts, fears, and anxieties about their decision.
Because of this, generating buzz during your launch is essential. The next two steps are all about overcoming the obstacle of low visibility and ensuring your product gets eyeballs on it, paving the way for purchases, increased Amazon product ranking, and customer reviews during your e-commerce product launch to fortify your product’s foundation for long-term success.
6. Create a Launch Marketing Plan
Driving traffic to your Amazon listing is the heartbeat of a successful product launch. With millions of competing products, a strong marketing plan ensures your product gets the visibility it needs to generate sales, reviews, and rank improvements. Here are strategies to build momentum:
- Offer promotions such as discounts or coupons: Launch discounts, coupons, or limited-time deals can grab attention and encourage early purchases. These incentives appeal to deal-hunters and create urgency, motivating shoppers to choose your product over competitors.
- Leverage social media: Platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok are powerful tools for generating interest. Share engaging content, such as behind-the-scenes videos, product demos, and customer testimonials, to connect with your audience.
- Partner with influencers: Find niche influencers who align with your product and audience to amplify your reach. For example, if you’re launching a fitness product, micro-influencers in the health and wellness space can create content showcasing your product to your target audience.
- Drive external traffic: Amazon traffic can be fickle, difficult, and expensive, especially for beginners. Drive external traffic by writing blog posts that provide value while subtly promoting your product. If you have a website or Medium page, write a blog post about a topic related to your product and include links with incentives to purchase.
For an additional boost, consider Amazon product launch services, such as our Launch service. These services promote your product at a discounted price to deal-seeking customers, increasing Amazon sales velocity and potentially improving organic rankings and reviews—both critical for new listings. This service puts you in front of more than 390k active Amazon shoppers for just $50 a launch.
Whether you use discounts, social media, or external traffic, these strategies are investments in your business. While they may impact short-term profits, they set the foundation for long-term success.
7. Set Up Amazon Advertising Campaigns
Another way to enhance your visibility for a new product is via Amazon product advertising campaigns.
Think of them as the Fast Pass you buy at an amusement park to skip long, tedious lines. Advertising campaigns let your product bypass the wait, instantly putting it in front of shoppers searching for similar items. This visibility translates to impressions, clicks, and, most importantly, purchases.
Better still, these campaigns can work like a springboard for new sellers who crush this Amazon product launch strategy. Early purchases and reviews generated through ads improve your standing in Amazon’s algorithm, helping you boost organic rankings and build credibility faster. It’s a powerful way to accelerate your journey from beginner to pro.
Starting with Sponsored Products ads allows you to target customers actively searching for products like yours. Adjusting campaigns to maximize Return on Ad Spend (RoAS) ensures that your advertising budget is used effectively. While you might not make a profit initially, investing in marketing and advertising is crucial for stimulating long-term sales and establishing your product in the marketplace.
Pro Tip: Our Kinetic PPC tool simplifies advertising campaigns like never before, with automation that supercharges profitable campaigns and halts unprofitable ones. With enhanced reporting and data from the Viral Launch software suite, it’s an all-in-one solution that lets you make your own rules to meet your goals while eliminating manual adjustments for an effortlessly smooth selling process.
Post Launch Strategies
8. Monitor Performance Metrics
First of all, if you love digging into the nitty gritty by analyzing data to make smarter decisions, selling on Amazon is right up your alley. Once you start selling and creating advertising campaigns, you can access reports to learn more about how customers receive your product and campaigns.
From split-testing different facets to see how customers react to changes to your product listing to monitoring key performance indicators (KPIs) like sales velocity, conversion rates, and customer reviews, there’s plenty of research you can perform to see how customers respond and make data-driven adjustments to fine-tune your offering.
Are there specific search phrases you perform well for? Do customers respond well to infographics or more lifestyle-focused photography? How much can you sell your product for without customers scrolling past your listing or exiting in search of a competitor?
By split testing and monitoring metrics, you can discover the answers to these questions and so much more, slowly optimizing your offering for a more polished and profitable selling experience.
9. Continue to Optimize Listings
Optimizing your listing doesn’t stop once you go live! It’s an ongoing process that should be reviewed periodically to ensure you’re not frozen in a bygone time. Just as you’re looking to enter a product market to disrupt the status quo and climb to the top by filling in gaps and taking advantage of competitor shortcomings, others will eventually come for you using the same general strategy.
You can always stay on top of your game by updating your keywords, refreshing visuals, and enhancing your A+ Content to align with evolving Amazon requirements and capabilities, market trends, and customer feedback. While your high-volume keywords are likely to remain the same largely, the changes in trends and search habits would create opportunities for others to siphon away impressions, clicks, and purchases. Amazon has been known to change things up occasionally, so banking on the same product listing images and copy to get the job done for years could fracture your performance.
Oftentimes, your listing won’t need to be retooled or even tweaked, but remaining relatively vigilant by monitoring keyword performance and split-testing images can ensure you don’t hang on to outdated elements for too long. For these reasons, we created our Listing Analyzer and Competitor Intelligence tools. As its name implies, Listing Analyzer examines your listing’s text, photos, reviews, and pricing for a quick rundown of your listing’s health. Competitor Intelligence offers a similar purpose, but monitors selected competitors’ listing health and keyword performance to spot trends and opportunities to use to your advantage.
This ongoing optimization ensures your product stays competitive in a crowded marketplace and doesn’t fumble away the positive momentum you’ve earned with your hard work.
10. Manage Customer Feedback
Amazon’s mission statement states, “Amazon strives to be Earth’s most customer-centric company.” As a result, customer reviews are a cornerstone of success for those in the marketplace but are often overlooked by newer sellers. Because online shopping takes away the customer’s ability to see and feel the product up close and also because most brands on Amazon don’t have widespread recognition or a reputation, reviews are crucial for building trust with customers and making them feel confident in a purchase.
Remember that customer reviews, from a quantity and quality perspective, are included in the Amazon product ranking algorithm. This means poor reviews or a lack of reviews can sink your visibility. And even once customers find your listing, seeing a slew of negative feedback from unsatisfied customers is reason for the shopper to leave your listing in search of alternatives.
Engage with your customers, respond to reviews, and promptly address complaints. Positive interactions can help build loyalty and improve your ratings, while proactive problem-solving can mitigate negative reviews. Additionally, if you notice common themes or complaints in negative reviews or within your feedback, you can work with your manufacturer to improve the product and address these issues.
Pro Tip: Our Review Automation tool supercharges your review generation efforts by turning the tedious task of requesting feedback through email follow-ups into an automatic process that has been shown to increase review rates by up to five times. It streamlines the task of requesting reviews from customers who have purchased your products on Amazon by leveraging Amazon’s “request a review” feature, boosting your chances of receiving feedback while staying fully compliant with Amazon’s Terms of Service (TOS).
Final Thoughts on Amazon Product Launches
By investing time in research, optimizing your listing, and executing a strong marketing plan, you set yourself up for lasting success. Remember: each phase, pre launch, launch, and post launch, play an important role in successfully launching a product on Amazon.
Now that you know how to launch your first product on Amazon, it’s up to you to make it happen! With the right product launch strategy on Amazon and successful execution, the sky is the limit for your success in the marketplace. As always, our cutting-edge Amazon research tools are here to help you every step of the way, and we wish you the absolute best on your product launch liftoff! Start your 14-day free trial today!
