Market Research (Reed Menssa 1 of 3) - a podcast by Michael Veazey

We are talking with Reed Menssa of AZAnalyzer.com to talk about market research.







Reed worked in an oil patch in Alberta Canada as an inspector. After20 years, he was tired of being away from home in a job that was not going anywhere so he spent the last year in his job working on his Amazon business.



After that year, it became his full-time job in 2015. Leading into 2016 his business really grew and became self-sufficient. He believes in SOPs and was able to scale his business easily because he structured it well.



These tools were being used in-house to solve their own problems before they packaged them for users. A lot of the software out there today is being built by developers that have a rudimentary understanding of Amazon. You really need to have a background in Amazon to truly create a solid tool.

Using Market Research to Start on Amazon

Reed spent $10k trying to get into drug stores which were a complete failure. Had he done the market research he would have learned that there was no way to compete with the big names that can offer steep discounts.



One bit of advice Reed offers is to stay away from competition but don’t introduce a completely new concept. Look for products that have a few sellers, so you can gather data from them. You can do that by going on Kickstarter and looking for products that you know you can make better. Reed has experience in manufacturing, so he can easily beat them to market. If you’re a new seller, you might not be able to do it, but with the right help, it may be an option.



You don’t want to copy their products because obviously, you’ll run into some intellectual property issues, but you can use their product as inspiration since you can tell there is interest. You could make a peripheral for that product and have it ready for when their product launches. For example, if you find some device that is meant to be used underwater. You know when they will launch because they tell you. You know there is social proof because they have the backers. Now you can go out and create an armband people can use with that device. Look off Amazon before going on Amazon.



Using AZSocial to Validate Your Idea

If you have a concept for a product but want to see if there is anything to is, Reed uses a tool called AZSocial which is part of the AZAnalyser package. It has a research element to it where you can do the research to see who your actual customers are going to be. You can find out how they like to be talked to and, more importantly, sold to. These are the people that are going to buy your product and you can start asking them the questions you need to know.



You can then bring all the information into one spot and see if there is a product there. You can start talking to manufacturers and get their feedback. Sometimes these manufacturers are already working on the product and have some sort of prototype. They are looking for people to sell it to. If you're first in line, you can influence a lot of the details and negotiate a great price.

Testing Product Viability

Once you have an idea of what you want, you need to make sure it’s viable. A lot of sellers want to use moment-in-time data where they take a quick look at an ASIN and determine it’s viable. You need to track it at least two weeks. AZAnalyser has a tool to help with that. It’s not intended to give you product ideas. It’s a way to justify whether your idea will be successful or not. It’ll inform you of whether you have the capital for it. It can break it down based on your risk-aversion.

Use Market Research to find Demand Depth

Further episodes of Amazing FBA Amazon and ECommerce Podcast, for Amazon Private Label Sellers, Shopify, Magento or Woocommerce business owners, and other e-commerce sellers and digital entrepreneurs.

Further podcasts by Michael Veazey

Website of Michael Veazey