The most important step in making money with Amazon FBA is choosing the right product to sell.
When you pick the right product, you can generate consistent income for years — sometimes even longer. But if you choose the wrong one, your business can collapse and lead to losses within just a year.
The good news is: you don’t have to rely on guesswork. There are tools that allow you to analyze the market in a clear and structured way.
In this article, I’ll walk you through how to use Jungle Scout to find the right product and build a profitable Amazon FBA business.
Criteria for Choosing a Product to Sell on Amazon FBA
Before we dive into the specific criteria, there’s one thing I want you to keep in mind: flexibility.
What I’m about to share is mainly for beginners who are just getting started with Amazon FBA. If you already have experience or a strong competitive advantage, you can absolutely take a different approach based on your situation.
For example, some of you may have solid capital or direct connections with manufacturers in Vietnam. In that case, your strategy can — and should — be different.
So don’t treat these criteria as rigid rules. Use them as guidelines, and adjust when needed.
Now, here are the key factors you should consider when choosing a product for Amazon FBA. Ideally, you want products that meet the following conditions:
Factor #1: Products with Medium to High Demand
The first step in product selection is using a product research tool. Two of the most popular options today are Jungle Scout and Helium 10.
In this guide, I’ll focus on Jungle Scout. However, you can also use the Black Box feature in Helium 10 to do similar research.
Inside Jungle Scout, go to the Product Database to start analyzing potential products.
If you’re new to Amazon FBA, I recommend targeting products that sell around 300 units per month — roughly 10 sales per day.
Many beginners start with limited capital and little experience. In that situation, the smartest way to get early traction is to focus on the mid-level segment.
This means products with moderate competition — not too crowded, but not completely empty either.
Highly competitive products are usually dominated by experienced sellers. These products can generate strong profits, but they attract skilled players who are not interested in low-return opportunities.
When using Jungle Scout to analyze competitors, look for listings that are consistently selling around 300 units per month. These are solid entry points where you can realistically compete and start generating revenue.
Factor #2: Products with Low to Moderate Competition
When analyzing the market on Amazon, pay close attention to the number of reviews your competitors have.
If competing products have relatively few reviews but are still selling well, that’s a strong signal. It means there’s demand — and more importantly, there’s still room for new sellers to enter and compete.
In many cases, you’ll find products with fewer than 100 reviews that are still generating around 300 sales per month consistently.
With Jungle Scout, you can simply apply a filter to find products with under 100 reviews. This makes it much easier to identify opportunities where competition is still manageable.
Factor #3: Products with Healthy Profit Potential
You also need to make sure the product has enough margin to cover all your business costs — and still leave you with a sustainable profit.
A simple rule of thumb: target products priced between $20 and $70.
Products below $20 often come with very thin margins, making it harder to stay profitable after fees and expenses.
On the other hand, products above $70 are generally harder to sell. Customers tend to trust established brands at that price point, and they take more time to consider their purchase decisions.
Factor #4: Products with Room for Improvement
On Amazon, new sellers enter the market every day. That means competition is constantly increasing — and if you want to stand out, you need an edge.
One of the most effective ways to do that is by choosing products with room for improvement.
When you identify such products, you can work directly with manufacturers to upgrade the design, improve quality, or fix common issues. Even small improvements can make a big difference in how your product performs compared to competitors.
To find these opportunities, you can use Jungle Scout filters to look for products with lower ratings.
On Amazon, products are rated from 1 to 5 stars. I recommend targeting products with an average rating of 3 stars or lower.
If a product is still selling well despite having low ratings, that’s a strong signal. It means there is clear demand — but the current offerings are not fully satisfying customers.
This creates a perfect opportunity for you to step in, improve the product, and outperform existing sellers.
Factor #5: Simple, Easy-to-Sell Products
If this is your first product on Amazon, it’s best to start with something simple and easy to manage.
Look for products that meet these basic criteria:
- Easy to manufacture
- Durable (not fragile)
- Small and lightweight
These types of products are safer to ship from China to the US, and they also help you save on Amazon fulfillment and storage fees.
In Jungle Scout, set the Product Tier to Standard so the tool filters for regular-sized items (not oversized products).
For Seller Type, select both FBA and FBM. These represent products sold by third-party sellers like you.
Avoid selecting Amazon as the seller. When Amazon itself is selling a product, it’s extremely difficult to compete due to their scale and advantages.
Next, you’ll need to choose product categories. For beginners, I recommend focusing on the following:
- Automotive
- Beauty & Personal Care
- Cell Phones & Accessories
- Home & Kitchen
- Kitchen & Dining
- Office Products
- Pet Supplies
- Sports & Outdoors
- Toys & Games
- Arts, Crafts & Sewing
- Baby
- Health & Household
- Industrial & Scientific
- Musical Instruments
- Patio, Lawn & Garden
- Tools & Home Improvement
Other categories can be more complex and challenging for beginners. However, if you already have experience or a specific advantage, entering those categories can become a strong competitive edge.
Factor #6: No Legal Risks or Liability Issues
Jungle Scout doesn’t have a filter for this — but this is one of the most critical factors you should never ignore.
When choosing a product, avoid anything that is protected by patents or trademarks. Just because other sellers are listing similar products doesn’t mean they’re safe — it often just means they haven’t been challenged yet.
You can check intellectual property using these tools:
- USPTO: Use TESS for trademarks and Patent Public Search for patents
- Google Patents: Easier to use and good for quick global searches (but always double-check with USPTO for accuracy)
Beyond intellectual property, you should also avoid products that could pose safety risks or health concerns — such as unregulated electronics or uncertified cosmetics.
If something goes wrong, you — as the seller — can be held responsible. In strict markets like the US or Europe, this can lead to complaints, account issues, or even legal action.
Litigation culture in these markets is very real, so it’s better to be cautious from the start.
Even if you’re based in Vietnam and think you’re out of reach, your business entity (like an LLC) can still be affected — including account suspension, fines, or forced shutdowns.
Factor #7: Products with Expansion Potential (Niche Scalability)
This one is a bit more advanced — but it’s important to understand early so you can plan ahead.
When choosing a product for Amazon FBA, think beyond a single item. Don’t just look at one product — think about the product ecosystem you can build around it.
Once your first product succeeds, you’ll have the cash flow to launch your second, third, and more — all targeting the same customer base.
For example, let’s say you’re selling an insulated water bottle. Customers who buy this product may also be interested in:
- Carrying sleeves or insulated bags
- Specialized cleaning brushes
- Reusable silicone or titanium straws
- Anti-slip mats or accessories
When customers like your product, they’re more likely to visit your store and buy related items.
These complementary products can also appear in Amazon’s “Frequently Bought Together” section, helping you increase your overall sales.
In Jungle Scout, after setting your filters, you can enter your target keywords in the Include Keywords field, and filter out unwanted ones in the Exclude Keywords field.
Then click Search to start finding product ideas.
Note: If Jungle Scout doesn’t return enough results, go back and loosen your filters.
Next, we’ll move on to analyzing the results and identifying the best opportunities.
Analyzing a Product Niche
When reviewing the product results from Jungle Scout, if you find something interesting, click the “A” icon to open the product page on Amazon.
After opening the product page, install the Jungle Scout extension. Once installed, log in to your account and refresh the Amazon page.
You’ll then see a keyword icon — click on it:
Jungle Scout will show you all the relevant keywords related to that product:
Next, you can click on the Amazon icon (as indicated by the arrow), and it will take you to the search results page for that keyword.
Once you’re on the search results page, click the Jungle Scout extension icon again. A data panel will appear:
Here, you’ll see most of the key metrics you need, such as:
- Monthly and daily sales
- Monthly revenue
- Estimated profit
- Average product price
Now, it’s time to analyze the demand of this niche. Focus on the top 10 products on page 1 — these will give you the clearest picture of the market.
Analyzing the Top 10 Products on Page 1
The reason we focus on page 1 is simple: most customers buy from there. It’s also where the strongest competitors are concentrated.
Your goal is to make sure competition on page 1 is not too intense — and that your product has a realistic chance to break into that page and generate sales.
Look at the “Mo. Sales” column — this shows the average number of monthly orders. Ideally, you want keywords with around 3,000 total sales per month, which means roughly 300 sales per product.
Next, check how sales are distributed across the top 10 listings.
You want to see sales spread relatively evenly among these products. This ensures that even if your product only reaches the top 10, you can still generate consistent sales.
However, if you notice that 1–2 top products dominate most of the sales, it’s usually a red flag. It means customers are heavily favoring those listings.
In that case, even if your product ranks in the top 10, you’ll still face another battle — competing to break into the top 1–3 positions, where most of the revenue is concentrated.
Analyzing Price and Product Ratings
Now, take a look at the Rating column. This shows the number of reviews each product has.
In an ideal scenario, the top 10 products should not exceed a total of 1,000 reviews, and at least 3–5 products should have fewer than 100 reviews.
This indicates that competition is still manageable, and new sellers have a fair chance to enter the market.
Next, we move on to estimating profit potential.
As mentioned earlier, you should target products priced between $20 and $70. You can quickly check this by looking at the Average Price column, which shows the average price across all products for that keyword:
Now, pick a product and click on its price in the Net column.
Jungle Scout will then open a very useful tool called the FBA Profit Calculator — which helps you estimate the potential profit for that product.
Estimating Potential Profit (If You Sell the Product)
The Profit Calculator interface looks like this:
With this tool, you can estimate the potential profit you could make if you decide to sell that product.
All you need to do is enter the product cost into the Product Cost field, then click Calculate Profit. The tool will handle the rest.
At a basic level, Product Cost means the cost of the product itself. You can check Alibaba to get a rough idea of the average price for similar products.
For example, on Alibaba, this product may cost around $4:
So in that case, the basic Product Cost would be $4.
But in reality, it’s not quite that simple. Now I’ll show you how to calculate the cost in a more accurate way.
This next part may feel a bit complicated if you’re new, but once you get used to it, it becomes very fast.
Stay focused.
Estimating Total Costs
To better understand your profit potential, you need to break down the two main types of costs in Amazon FBA: Landed Costs and Amazon Fees.
Landed Costs refer to the total cost required to get your product into Amazon’s fulfillment system. This typically includes:
- Manufacturing costs (in China or Vietnam)
- Shipping costs to Amazon’s warehouse
- Packaging costs (sometimes handled by the supplier)
- Inspection costs (to ensure product quality)
- Import duties and customs fees
In most cases, the bulk of your landed cost will come from manufacturing and shipping to the US.
Amazon FBA Fees are the costs you pay to Amazon in order to sell on their platform. These include:
- Referral Fee: Usually up to 15% of the product price. This is Amazon’s commission for bringing you customers.
- Fulfillment Fee: If you use FBA, this covers storage, packing, and shipping. It depends on the product’s size and weight.
There are also some additional costs you should be aware of:
- Long-term storage fees: Charged if your inventory sits in Amazon’s warehouse for over a year
- Seller Central subscription: Around $40/month for a professional seller account
Now that we’ve outlined the cost structure, the next step is to calculate your ROI (Return on Investment).
Your goal should be at least 100% ROI — meaning for every $1 you invest, you aim to get back $2.
The Rule of Thirds
To keep things simple, just remember this principle:
Divide your selling price into three parts:
- One part goes to Landed Cost
- One part goes to Amazon Fees
- One part is your profit
Now, go back to the FBA Profit Calculator. Let’s say you plan to sell a product at $21. Your target Landed Cost should be around $7 (which is one-third), and you enter that into the Product Cost field:
Then click Calculate Profit. If the tool shows an ROI above 100%, that’s a strong signal the product has good potential. You’ll also see your estimated earnings in the Profit section.
If the ROI is too low, it’s best to skip that product and move on to the next idea.
But if the ROI is above 100%, you’re looking at a solid opportunity. At that point, click the “+” icon to save the product into your tracking tool.
Jungle Scout’s tracking feature is called the Product Tracker, and it helps you monitor and compare different product ideas over time.
Once you’ve found one potential product, don’t stop there. You should continue researching and aim to collect at least 10 product ideas.
The more, the better.
This process takes time. You’ll come across many different ideas — and your job is to carefully filter them down to the ones that truly fit your situation.
This is the most important stage in your Amazon FBA journey. Your product is the foundation of your business — it can generate income for years if chosen correctly.
So take your time. Spend days, even weeks, researching and analyzing the market before making a decision.
Conclusion
Product research is the most important step — it’s the foundation of your entire Amazon FBA business.
Once you’ve selected a product idea, the next step is to contact manufacturers and request quotes. This is when you’ll get a clearer picture of your actual costs.
As for how to approach suppliers and negotiate effectively — I’ll cover that in upcoming articles.
Wish you success, and I’ll see you in the next one.