Last month I started a new business with my best friend.
We’re going to do some sort of dropshipping, here in Belgium and The Netherlands — where we’re from (so no Amazon (yet)).
The idea is a bit the same as Fulfilment By Amazon (FBA). We are going to buy products in bulk, in China.
We then have them shipped over to local storage places, and if a customer buys something on a famous web store here (named bol.com — compare it to Amazon.com), then the product gets sent to the customer.
But the biggest question is always: “what are we going to sell?”
What are we going to sell?
Many people in the past did some sort of guesswork, including me.
I started with motivational quotes. Did they sell? Yes, sure. But did I sell SO much, that I could make a full time income from it?
No.
So what should we do instead?
Answer: We need to sell WHAT PEOPLE ARE LOOKING FOR.
It’s that easy.
How we do that, I’m explaining in this article.
Here’s a list of the top 10 Etsy and Amazon research tools that I can use to identify trends, optimize my listings, and increase my sales.
For each of these, I’ll explain why and when I use it.
1. EverBee
Link: https://everbee.io
You can Sign up for free here
Platform: Etsy
What is it? EverBee is a nice and powerful analytics tool that helps me identify best-selling products, analyse competitor performance, and optimize keywords.
It provides insights into sales volumes, revenue, keyword rankings, and more. This makes it easy to find hot trends and profitable niches.
When do I use it? Basically every time before I create new designs. I’ve made some sort of routine for myself where I spend my Sunday mornings on business.
First I start doing some research — I analyse Google Trends, Everbee (and some other tools below), to see if what’s been hot the past week.
Based on that research, I hop over to Canva, myDesigns or Kittl to start designing.
2. Alura
Link: https://alura.io
Platform: Etsy
Overview: Alura offers a bunch of tools for Etsy sellers, including product research, listing optimization, competitor analysis, keyword research etc.
It’s simular to Everbee, but personally I found to like Everbee a bit more.
Anyway what I would recommend is that you just test both of them via the free trials, and see what you like most.
3. PODCS
Link: https://podcs.com
Platform: Etsy, Amazon
Overview: PODCS (Print On Demand Command Center) is designed specifically for print-on-demand sellers.
This is my second favorite tool, after Everbee.
Or maybe it’s just a shared first place.
It provides amazing insights into trending designs, best-selling products, and competitor strategies on both Etsy and Amazon.
Additionally, it offers you a bunch of important tools that you really should use if you want to be successful in this business:
In my opinion, PODCS is a must-have for sellers looking to stay ahead of trends in the POD space.
4. Podly
Link: https://podly.com
Platform: Amazon (Merch by Amazon)
Overview: Podly is a research tool focused on Merch by Amazon.
It helps sellers identify trending designs and keywords, and provides sales estimates for competing products. Podly also filters out big brand designs, ensuring you’re only competing with other POD sellers, which is quite nice.
Why/when do I use it? Honestly I don’t really use it that often. Well, sometimes I sign in to it, to check what’s hot on MBA (Merch By Amazon) or Amazon KDP (which I also do).
I never got into the Merch By Amazon platform. I’ve tried countless times, keep getting rejected.
BUT! That doesn’t really matter that much, because if it sells on Amazon, the world’s largest marketplace, it’ll sell anywhere.
This is why you can still try Podly to find top products for your print on demand business.
5. Roketfy
Link: https://roketfy.com
Platform: Etsy
Overview: Roketfy has a nice product research tool that lets you analyze competitors’ sales, revenue, and keyword performance, which giving me a competitive edge.
However, the main reason why I use Roketfy is to analyze and optimize my own Etsy listings.
With AI, it checks out my listings, product descriptions, keywords, titles etc, and it offers improvements, so that my listings will rank higher (SEO optimization). Quite nice!
As you have already noticed, there are many tools and each offers its own benefits, right?
So I recommend you try and find a combination what works for you.
6. eRank
Link: https://erank.com
Platform: Etsy
Overview: eRank is a really, really nice tool for Etsy sellers.
Below you can see a screenshot, but in short they have keyword research, trend tracking, and listing optimization. A bit of a combination of the above.
While I still mainly use Podly & Everbee, I found myself to have started using eRank more and more.
It makes it easy to improve my listings because I can see detailed reports on competitors, market trends, and SEO performance.
To not make this article too long, I’ll go over the following ones a bit more quickly.
7. Jungle Scout
Link: https://junglescout.com
Platform: Amazon
Overview: Jungle Scout is a great Amazon.com research tool that provides sellers with product research, keyword analysis, and competitor tracking.
I’ve been using this tool recently for my new e-commerce business I talked about in the introduction, because, well — if something’s hot on Amazon, it’s most likely also hot somewhere else.
Plus, the more data I have, the more confident I am in purchasing stock in China.
Let me show you something:
Before buying ANY product, I want to know:
- Is there a good demand for this product?
- How many sellers are offering this product?
- Are these sellers making profit? How much?
- How many sales do they have each month?
- For how much can I buy this product on Alibaba?
- How much is the shipping? Packaging? Taxes?
- And so on.
I need to know EVERYTHING, therefor I need to be able to MEASURE everything.
Tools like JungleScout help with this.
This is why it’s widely used for finding profitable products and estimating sales potential, making it a go-to tool for Amazon FBA sellers.
8. Sale Samurai
Link: https://salesamurai.io
Platform: Etsy
Overview: Sale Samurai is another tool for Etsy sellers that offers keyword research, product analysis, competition tracking, trend alerts, pricing optimization and more.
Basically the same as the previous ones.
You can check it out via free trial — just like the others and see how you like it.
Personally — if I’d be starting all over again — I’d leverage all these free trials first before deciding to purchase any tool, do a bit of cost optimization.
9. Helium 10
Link: https://hel0ium10.com
Platform: Amazon & Walmart
Overview: Helium 10 is a bit comparable to JungleScout, as they both have a handy Chrome Extension.
It’s a very, very powerful tool that can you should definitely check out if you’re planning on starting an Amazon FBA (Fulfilment by Amazon) business.
Here’s some things it includes:
- Xray: Identify successful products
- Review Insights: sort & analyze reviews
- Demand Analyzer
- Supplier finder (Alibaba integration)
- Sales Estimator: No more guesswork
- Profitability calculator: EXTREMELY important!
- ASIN Grabber
- Inventory tracker
- And more.
Basically it’s an all-in-one suite for Amazon sellers.
I’m using this one and JungleScout now for research.
P.S. I’ve got a discount code for you in case you’re interested:
10. EtsyHunt
Link: https://etsyhunt.com
Platform: Etsy
Overview: EtsyHunt is a free-to-start Etsy research tool.
Just like the previous ones, it offers a wealth of information that you can use to find winning products/designs for your own store(s).
Here are some screenshots of the Dashboard:
My recommendation
Personally, I believe all these tools are great.
I can’t say much bad about them, and it all comes down to personal preference.
For Print on Demand, I have subscriptions on:
The other tools I use occasionally to see or confirm whether my research on my main tools is correct.
For my new eCommerce business, at the moment I mainly use:
I use it mainly for research purposes, but once I decide to expand the eCommerce business to Amazon, then I can also use Helium10 for stockkeeping and more.
Personally — if I’d be starting all over again — I’d leverage all these free trials first before deciding to purchase any tool, do a bit of cost optimization.
