Why Products Fail On Amazon

Daniel Audunsson

Whether you’re new or experienced, there is always a chance that your next product will fail.

Why?

How can we increase the chances of success?

Most sellers consider plenty of data points and access a variety of tools, to choose the right product to launch next. In my experience though, there is one factor that is more important than anything else, when it comes to success vs failure.

This is something that most sellers fail to consider at all. And it can be a devastating mistake.

And now as we head into 2020... with the ever-increasing levels of competition on Amazon, this will soon be your ticket to the stars -- or the nail in your coffin.

HERE’S WHAT WE COVER:

  1. Why most sellers THINK their products fail (delusion)
  2. The real reason why products fail (and my litmus test)
  3. The formula for success with any branded product (art/logic)
  4. Option #1 for succeeding with private label products (small waves)
  5. Option #2 for succeeding with private label products (big waves)
  6. How to add value with private label products (and the 3 stages of evolution)
  7. FREE TOOL: The PPP Framework

If you want to avoid failure with your products, minimize risk and increase success --  then I encourage you to watch this video.

Check it out and then join the conversation by sharing what you think in the comments below?

Here are the resources mentioned in the video:

[+] Click here to access the FREE Product Pain Points Framework.

[+] Click here to access the FREE case study for private label sellers.

[+] Click here to schedule your FREE consultation.

All the best!

- Daniel Audunsson and the team at Into Profits

Daniel: (00:01)
Hi, this is Daniel here. And in this video I'm going to talk about why products fail. And in particular, I'm going to dig in on why private label products fail on Amazon. Now, the same concept applies to any business where you do create and sell your own products. But I'm specifically, going to, explain this from the perspective of selling private label products on Amazon. So the first, well the question here is why do products fail? And I'm sure most of you would say that the reason a product fails is because of competition. So if you've been selling, private label products on Amazon for any amount of time, you know that sometimes products do fail and sometimes you launch a product and it just doesn't do what you thought it would. And the main, the main reason I think, people will, you know, basically explain that failure, by is competition.

Daniel: (01:05)
Then there's too much competition, it's too saturated. , my, advertising was too expensive. I couldn't get ranked and that kind of thing. Right? And that's a valid point. You know, of course that is a massive. , issue and a reason. Products fail, obviously products can fail for different reasons. And it depends on how you define failure. You know, it could be that the vole simply wasn't there or the margin wasn't there and that kind of thing, but obviously, those are the things you should be able to, make sure aren't going to be the case before you decide to launch a new product. But then when you launch the product, what happens? You know, does it succeed or does it actually quote unquote fail and doesn't get, get the traction or the results that you want it. So when that happens, I think the main reason people would mention is competition.

Daniel: (01:51)
And I do agree that that is a part of the reason, you know, that is, or that is, you know, sort of a parent thing. But it's not the real reason a product fails. It's not really because of competition. The real reason the product fails, in my opinion, is because it fails to deliver real value to the marketplace. So, for example, if you basically just add another copy of a product that already exists, there's already plenty of good options for people to buy this product. So that's what we would call saturation. And you just add the same exact product to the market. You don't really add any value because there's no differentiation and there's no improvements that you're providing. So in that case, you are going to have competition. You know, in that case, you're basically just competing head on with identical offers. And the only variables that you have to compete on are things like reviews, the quality of the listing, like you're copying your and , and price and that kind of stuff.

Daniel: (03:02)
So basically there's like bloody, head-on coalition type of competition. And in this case, it really just depends on your skill set. , you're with these things, your persistence and you know how basically far you're willing to go, how much money even you are willing to spend and invest into getting this product promoted and ranked and, and, performing compared to the competition. And if you're entering a situation where a lot of the competition is highly established, they have a lot of grid reviews, they have been able to iterate and improve their messaging and their listings and things like that. You know, you're going to be facing an uphill battle, which you can win. But in that case, you really need to just be able and willing to spend money and to just promote the product until you gain a position where it's actually profitable and sustainable.

Daniel: (04:00)
But even then, you're always gonna have, sort of an uphill battle and you're always gonna have, more potential issues and you're just going to really have to stay ahead of things and there's more higher chance of something bad happening. You haven't like negative competition in the tries to harm you and that kind of thing. And or you or them I should say actually going and using black-hat strategies and that kind of thing to compete because that can give you an edge. You know, those types of things are all you have to compete. So that's really the, the main, like that's the actual reason behind the competition is not adding value. Selling a me too product that leads to oftentimes a lot of competition and a lot of saturation and not bloody battle, so to speak. And you know, in the last seven years I've sold hundreds of different products and not only physical products but also like consulting and coaching services and things like that.

Daniel: (05:03)
, and what I've seen holds true for all of it is that the success you have, especially in the long-term, if it is directly related to the value that you add. So basically what innovation or what, additional value do you bring to the market? Right? So we will talk about how to do this with physical products, but basically, the fundamental concept here to understand is that you need to deliver value. And you can't do that if you're just identical to someone else because there's nothing of additional value that you have to offer, right? So that is not a recipe for success. So what do you have to do instead? Is you have to actually provide value. And I'll again talk about in just a moment how to do this because there's different ways to do it. And it's actually a pretty reliable formula for private label products when it comes to adding value.

Daniel: (06:04)
It's sort of an evolutionary process, but what you need as well is you need the systems, right? So of course it goes without saying that even if you have a product that adds value, you still need to be able to tap into the marketplace on Amazon. You need to be able to generate exposure and traffic and you need to convert that traffic and get sales and know how to really work with a platform to get the most out of it and be optimized for success. So that was, it goes without saying, but when you have great systems and you add value, that's when you really have success. You know, and especially in the long-term big success. And I'm not saying you can't have success by competing head on because you can, but it's going to be much tougher and most likely way less profitable as well.

Daniel: (06:51)
So now how do we actually succeed with private label products? On Amazon and prevent them from being failures? Well, there's two options really. And the first option is to find opportunities that have less competition and then also basically add less value. So if you have an opportunity that has less saturation, less competition, and there's like only a few options of a particular product and there's still good vole there and there's a ton of these opportunities on Amazon, by the way, still today, even if there's a ton of people selling, cause it's so, so West, there are so many opportunities. So you can find products that have low competition and basically just add little value but still succeed. So this might look like, you know, just basically the same product, but maybe you just have slightly better branding or you have something that comes with it. All the classic sort of private label stuff.

Daniel: (07:54)
You know, you might do a bundle or you might have a free gift or you might even just have a better listing and be able to translate the value and resonate better with a market through that listing. So just the classical private label stuff. But that's really only good for low competition, situations really. And this is why, you know, when I started for example, like seven years ago, all you had to do to succeed was really just do a private label product because almost no one was doing it. So just by focusing in on the marketing, you know, creating a really good listing and a really good, in a really good copy and images and having a nice product, creating some better packaging than the market and that kind of thing. I mean, that would be enough to just be a way ahead of the competition.

Daniel: (08:41)
And that is still the case for a lot of products on Amazon, but it is still, you know, before you could do it for some of the biggest opportunities and you would still have a massive edge because no one was doing private labeling even for a lot of the bigger opportunities. So like the super high vole products, $100,000 a month plus in sales, that kind of thing. Right now that isn't the case anymore. So they're low value at approach where you're just doing private label stuff to add value really is only a great fit for the local competition opportunities. , cause if you're going into the higher competition opportunities where you're, identical product number 100, then yes, you're going to have a lot of competition, right? So what do we do instead? Well, option two is to, if you want to do high competition opportunities, really it is to have, or add a lot of additional value, right?

Daniel: (09:44)
So if you want to really come into a high competition, situation or scenario and you don't want to use like black hat strategies and that kinda thing, you don't want to cheat. You just want to compete organically, naturally. Then it goes without saying that you really need to have a product that has some form of added value, you know, something of greater value than, the rest. So it cannot be a total me too product. It needs to be more differentiated and it needs to be more differentiated in a way that resonates with people and it something that people actually care about. Right? So it needs to be, not only, and not only, you know, added value, but also added value in a way that, resonates with people in something that people actually want and care about. Right? So now this could take a lot of different forms, right?

Daniel: (10:42)
It could be basically a product that is completely innovative and new and like a breakthrough transformation. But of course, that is not the easiest thing in the world to do and it's not a given. So that's not necessarily the, the way to go. And especially not right away with a new product, you know, because usually those kinds of innovations or inventions basically come through experience and exposure to a market or you're hearing feedback, you're working with the products and you're basically, you know, learning what actually works and how to iterate your product more in a certain direction. which is what people want and then you can have breakthroughs on it. But before we really do that, it starts with just some more simple customization. So it is private label, but it's really going a bit beyond private label. So it's going into more product customization, right?

Daniel: (11:37)
Where you're actually, changing elements of the product or removing certain things, maybe making things simpler, or adding something or improvement in quality or using a different material, that kind of thing. Right? So that's really when you can create a product that has a true Edge and true differentiation. But again, the key is to listen to the market and understand what problems are in the market currently with products and how can you actually come in and add value here, you know, with this product. And then you can do that properly. Then you have a product that can succeed quite easily if you have great systems to actually get exposure and all of that and translate your message so that people get it, they see the difference. You can highlight how your product is actually better and more of what they care about. You know, now you can come in with way less reviews than the competition, for example, and still can work better than them and that kind of thing.

Daniel: (12:41)
So that's how you can break through into even a very competitive markets. And of course the more you can do this anywhere, the more successful you will be. And the thing as well is that, you know, once you create some form of improvement, you want to continue to listen and iterate and continue to improve because there's always ways to make it even better. And when you can continue to do this over time with a product, that's when you eventually create like a true competitive advantage and a true edge. And so a major differentiation that people really care about. Now when it comes to doing this. So there's basically like these two options, right? You for selling on Amazon, you can come into a low competition markets with low comp, sorry, low competition market with products that add just little value basically. They don't really add much additional value to what is currently out there, but there's just so little competition that just by private labeling it well and selling it well, it can still work really well.

Daniel: (13:46)
But the other option is if you want to compete in more higher competition, it's more higher competition products, more competitive products, then you really need to add more value. So that's option number two. And then there's really three ways to do this with private label products or there's three ways to really add more value in the first stage is by private labeling. So that's the classical stuff. Bundling, packaging, adding things in, that kind of thing. Just simple, straightforward, private liberal stuff. It's a lot of people do. The second option is to actually go on customized products. So actually we sort of changed them and improve the actual product. And when you do this, what do you want to do is you don't want to just add on things. You want to look to again, identify what people care about or at least a certain subset of the niche of the market and then re, you know, get closer to that.

Daniel: (14:43)
Basically appeal more strongly to that subset of the market, for example, or the entire market. Depends on what you're seeing. What do you want to do. But when you do this, the ideal thing is to actually not only add things but also remove things because you want to be creating like true value innovation, right? So you want to be basically able to sell the product at the same price as the competition or lower while still adding more value. So you don't want to just add things and raise the prices because there's a certain point, you know, you have to ask yourself, do people actually care about this? Are they willing to pay this much more to receive this additional value? And sometimes the answer is no. But if you can have clearly improved value and also reduced costs so that you might add some things but also remove some things, then you can have a product that has, you know, it comes in at the same price point but is different and has more value at least to a certain subset of the market.

Daniel: (15:48)
And that's a great thing to do. That's an obvious improvement and an obvious value add for people. And sometimes you can actually do this and decrease your costs and cut the prices. And you know that O Z can be a fantastic value add to the market as well because there's also going to be people that would love to pay less and they don't need all this extra stuff or you know, whatever it may be. They don't want the fancy packaging. So you can also look at it that way. So there's plenty of options for most products to change and adjust things and basically do, States to, of , creating more value with this customization. And then stage three is really the innovation. So this is when you basically create like a completely new design or something like this. And again, I don't recommend doing this right away unless you have like a brilliant idea, because this can cost a lot more money up front and take more time.

Daniel: (16:46)
But once you have feedback, once you've been evolving your product through different status, like you start private labeling perhaps, then you go into customization. Now you might see clearly that here are some things that I can do to take a huge leap forward with this product and had way more value by basically creating a new design or weren't innovation with the product. And that was again put unit leak of your own, you know, you can trademark or patent, I should say that invention and things like that. And obviously if you're looking to build a brand, you can sell. Having those types of things within the brands where we have true differentiation that you own, that is the most valuable thing you can ever do and should be really the ultimate goal if you want to build a really valuable brand that you can sell for a lot of money.

Daniel: (17:35)
, so that's really, how it works. And what I'm going to do just as a free gift for you is I'm going to give you, my product pain points framework. So there's the simple sheet that I use to basically look at feedback in the marketplace and analyze it. So this is just one of many things you can do to get an idea of how you might be able to actually add more value. So I'm going to add a link to this below, below this video and it's completely free so you can go and access it and you can just make a copy and a Google drive so you can actually edit and work with this sheet. But I highly recommend it if you're selling any products right now, use this thing on that product or that product to analyze the current feedback, that you're seeing in the market, the current feedback you're receiving from your customers, potential complaints, product issues, things like that.

Daniel: (18:32)
And see, you know, what is missing. So this is basically looking at the actual product, on a fundamental level and seeing how this product can be made better. And that obviously is adding value. So basically this framework, the product pain points framework is a very simple, fundamental way to find opportunities to add true value with a product, and then obviously be more successful more easily with it. Now, this is just one of many different things you can do and, and one of many frameworks that I have to basically analyze products and find ways to add and genuine true value in the market. But I'm going to give this one to you for free. And again, I'm going to place a link below this video where you can download the free product pain points framework to help you see more opportunities and open your eyes to the opportunities that you might have right now for your products to actually build and create more value and create better products.

Daniel: (19:33)
And that's definitely gonna help you a lot. It's going to be the number one key, the most fundamental things you can do to increase your success and your profitability and the sustainability of your business in the long-term is by actually adding value to people and giving them more of what they actually want. So, I hope that helps. And I'm also going to put a link below this video to a free case study video, which you can watch and access again for free if you want to learn more about this system. And doing this, but also other fundamental things and systems in a private label business on Amazon to make it stronger and more profitable and more successful and more viable and sustainable in the long-term. So again, there's a link below the video if you want to access that free case study. And then third, I'm also gonna put a link below the video if you're looking to scale up and you'd like some more intensive help with, for example, creating compelling strategies for your products and succeeding by adding more value.

Daniel: (20:39)
, because the product pain point, just remember this is one of many frameworks that we use to actually identify and map out compelling product strategies that add genuine value to the marketplace that people care about. And those create a huge competitive advantage. So if you'd like to speak with me or someone on my team about that, there's a link below this video, so you can schedule a free call with us or a free consultation on that and you can see whether or not we can help you with that and many other things as well to basically make your business more, stronger. Fundamentally and to help you scale faster and more profitably. So that's it. I hope you found this really valuable. And again, to summarize, the main, the number one reason I see private label products fail is simply because they failed to add value.

Daniel: (21:34)
They're me to products and nobody cares. And you're competing head on in a bloody collision with other people trying to do the same exact thing. So the way to get around that is to actually find ways to add genuine value that people care about. And if you do that, it's a message shift for you and your business. You're going to shift from being, you know, always competing in this bloody battle head on with just the finite set of variables. There's no real advantage to you actually focusing on and identifying ways to add value, true value that people care about. And when you do that, then all the other stuff becomes way less important because you actually have something special. So that's it for this video and I'll talk to you again soon. Bye for now.