A product opportunity exists for sellers when there is a gap between what is presently available on the Amazon marketplace, and the possibility for new or substantially improved products that result from emerging trends.

What is Amazon Opportunity Explorer?

Amazon’s Opportunity Explorer is a tool that examines shopper demand for new product ideas. It compiles niche-level data in order to help sellers to understand Amazon customer search and purchasing behavior to evaluate the launch potential for new listings.

The Amazon Opportunity Explorer rolled out in October 2021, in limited release for US and Germany-based sellers. Amazon intends to make this feature available to sellers worldwide throughout 2022.

Sellers can access the tool by going to the Amazon Opportunity Explorer inside of Seller Central and navigating in the Menu to Growth > Product Opportunity Explorer.

How Amazon Product Opportunity Explorer Works

Amazon Opportunity Explorer operates around the concept of finding profitable market niches. Niches are search terms or items bundled together because of their similarities which help profile a shopper’s needs. Each niche has a unique set of characteristics, which determine the economic potential for introducing new products into the niche.

The number of search terms shown is currently limited to those search terms that have the largest search volume. Furthermore, products in a niche are restricted to those getting the majority of the clicks and purchases from the search terms shown.

Shoppers reveal their purchase needs as they enter search terms. Amazon merges these search terms into groups based on the products that shoppers view or purchase.*

This detailed niche-focused information allows sellers to see which product clusters are driven by a group of shared keywords. Armed with this knowledge, sellers are better able to focus their marketing efforts into specific customer niches.

* Search terms and products can meet more than one shopper need and can be in multiple niches.

How To Take Advantage of Amazon Opportunity Explorer

The main page of the Opportunity Explorer presents ‘suggested niches’ based on listing categories and sales history.

Sellers can perform specific niche research by submitting keywords in the search bar, or by using the “Browse and Filter” button, which explores the different niches by search volume or total number of products.

Search volume – filters niche based on 10-20 keywords. It delivers results from the last 90 days, or the past 360 days (the total number of times shoppers entered any of the search terms in that niche on Amazon in the past 90 or 360 days). Additionally, it features the option to see percentage changes within those timeframes.

Total number of products – filters the number of products that Amazon identifies as part of a niche (all of the top clicked products and shopper search terms).

After sellers have identified their preferred niches, Opportunity Explorer compiles the data in a “Search Results” dashboard.

Some of the terminology used can be a little confusing - read on for a complete breakdown of the various data points Opportunity Explorer will provide, and what each of them means for you.

How To Read the Search Results Page in Amazon Opportunity Explorer

Each niche reviews and measures the following metrics:

  • Customer needs – similar items that meet users’ needs, compiled as niches.
  • Top search terms – keywords related to a market niche.
  • Search volume – the number of times that shoppers used the search terms within a niche.
  • Search volume growth – the percentage of changes in keyword volume.
  • Sold units – after entering a niche-related search term it is the number of product sales completed.
  • Total products – the number of products within a niche, including top-picked options.
  • Average price – the selling price for all niche products.

Niche Details: Products Data

Next, sellers are given ASIN-level details on the products within the niche on the Niche Details, Products Tab which include:

Parent ASIN Name – the title of the parent ASIN, which is also a clickable link that takes sellers to the ASIN detail page.

Product Brand Name – the product brand’s name.

Category – this rates the product with Amazon’s browse hierarchy, going up to 3 levels.

Launch Date – the date when an ASIN's first buyable offer is available on Amazon.

Click Count – represents the total number of clicks on a product, resulting from niche-related search terms.

Click Share (90 day) – single product clicks derived from the total click count for every product shown in a niche.

Average Selling Price (past 90 days) – the average selling price for all products in the niche during the past 90 days.

Total Reviews – total number of product reviews when customer contributes written feedback.

Average Customer Rating – Average star rating customers gave the product which include written feedback.

Avg BSR – a product’s best seller rank within its specific subcategory on Amazon.

Total Number of Sellers and Vendors – average number of buyable product offers over the past 90 days, from both third-party sellers and first-party vendors.*

* Offers from Amazon retail counts as a single offer, regardless of how many vendors the product may have been sourced from.

Niche Details: Search Terms Statistics

This provides search term-level data on search terms within a niche, giving statistics on the following:

Search term – the name of the search term shoppers entered when they intended to buy products in a niche.

Search volume – the total number of searches shoppers entered for a specific search term in the past 90 days.

Search volume growth (QoQ) – the percentage change in search term volume from a term in the past quarter (90-0 days), compared to the volume from the previous quarter (180-90 days ago).

Click Share – the total number of clicks from shoppers on products found using the search term.

Search conversion rate –  The number of sales, of any product in a niche, after shoppers used the search term and clicked on the product., divided by the total number of times shoppers entered the search term. Applies to the past 90 days.

Top 3 clicked products – products are ranked by clicks after using the search term. Each are clickable links that take the seller to the ASIN’s detail page.

Niche Details: Insights

This provides niche-level stats to help sellers to assess the launch potential for new products. They include:

Number of Products – the total number of products within the niche. It includes top clicked offers.

% of Products Using Sponsored Products – products using Sponsored Products are defined as products shown in this niche, which have at least 1 page view attributed to a seller in the past 90 days.

% of Prime – products with Amazon Prime eligibility for the last 90 days.

Top Products Click Share – based upon click share, these are the top 5 or 20 products in the niche.

Average BSR – the average BSR for all products in the niche at the time of the snapshot.

Average Number of Reviews – reviews of a product in the niche.

Number of Brands – the total number of brands for all products in the niche.

Top Brands Click Share – the top 5 or 20 brands in the niche, based on click share.

Average Brand Age by Niche – brand age in niche defined as the product age of the first branded ASIN in a given niche under a given brand.

Number of Selling Partners – the average number of buyable offers on ASINs in the niche from both third-party sellers and first-party vendors.

Average Selling Partner Age in Niche – the age of the first product offered under a specific seller.

Number of New Products Launched – ASINs in the niche with less than 90 or 360 days of age.

Number of Successful Launches – the number of new launches (in the past 90 days) with an annualized revenue amount > $50K in the past 30 days.

Average Review Rating – the average review rating for all products in the niche.

Average Out of Stock Rate – the average out of stock rate for all products in niche.

Average Product Listing Quality – the average listing quality score for all products in the niche.

When it comes to having success as an Amazon seller, data and insights will always be useful. Amazon Opportunity Explorer gives new sellers to the marketplace an avenue by which they can make data-driven decisions about their inventory, such as what may be the most profitable products to sell.

Experienced sellers can also benefit from the information provided by the Amazon Opportunity Explorer because it can help them to minimize the guesswork involved when choosing which categories and subcategories to specialize in.

If the agency or advertising manager handling your Amazon brand isn’t helping you to explore growth opportunities, consider working with one of the experts at Entourage Management Services. At EMS, we take a holistic, “whole-business” approach to managing your brand, and will be on constant watch for new opportunities to grow your profits.

Entourage: Software to Scale Amazon Ads and Results Driven Management.

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