One of the biggest announcements coming out of the yearly Amazon Accelerate conference is the Product Opportunity Explorer which finally gives access to real search volume for different keywords (way more than the search rank that Amazon currently gives with Brand Analytics). It’s not quite a total replacement to Jungle Scout and Helium 10, but it’s getting close.
Product Opportunity Explorer helps sellers identify new products to sell on the platform and find unserved demand on the marketplace using real-world search data. The tool provides valuable insights to sellers such as which products customers are purposely searching for, which products they click on, and which ones they ultimately buy.
This new tool is currently in beta and will be made available to all 3P sellers via Seller Central in 2022. To check if you have access (by default, access is granted to the primary user on each account), navigate in the Menu to Growth > Product Opportunity Explorer or go to this link: sellercentral.amazon.com/opportunity-explorer.
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Product Opportunity Explorer Uses Real Search Data
Amazon’s new Product Opportunity Explorer is very similar to third-party product discovery tools like Jungle Scout and Helium 10. The biggest difference is that Product Opportunity Explorer uses real search data on Amazon, whereas third-party tools use keyword estimates to determine product opportunities for sellers. However, on the downside, search data is fairly limited, with Amazon currently giving sellers access to just the top 25 search terms for a product.
Product Insights Gives Some Very Valuable Data
Along with real search data, Product Opportunity Explorer gives some extremely valuable information for product research.
For example, under the Product Insights table, you can see what percentage of advertisers are using Sponsored Products. A niche where a sizable number of sellers aren’t using sponsored ads gives new sellers an opportunity to essentially buy their way to the top, and often at lower prices than more competitive product categories.
Two other valuable data points, not available in any other tool, are the Average Brand Age in the product niche and Average Stock Out Rate.
A complete list of the data points available is shown in the table below.
Customer Needs and Sales Data Selection are Bundled Into Niches
Amazon bundles customer search data into niches, which they define as “collections of customer search terms and products representing a customer need”. Niches include the top related Amazon customer search terms and the top related clicked or purchased products. This means that it’s possible to find products and keywords that meet more than one customer need and can thus be found in multiple niches.
Using the search function of Product Opportunity Explorer yields high-level information like Top Search Volume, Search Volume, Units Sold, and the Total # Of Products within a particular niche.
From there, you can drill down into ASIN-level data, which include valuable information such as Click Share, Average BSR, and Average # Of Sellers and Vendors.
Perhaps the most important tab is the Insights Tab, which shows you niche-level stats to help determine the launch potential and profitability for new products.
Is This Bad News for Jungle Scout and Helium 10?
Whether this in-house tool from Amazon will eat into Jungle Scout and Helium 10’s market share will remain to be seen, as it won’t come out of beta until next year. As it stands, given the limited search data and lack of complete product sales history Product Opportunity explorer would appear to be more of a compliment than replacement to these tools.
At the very least, it could be a potential alternative that shows you real-world customer search data to find product opportunities. It’s launch could also force the hand of third-party tools to adjust subscription rates or improve their features.
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This tool also comes shortly after Amazon suspended the API privileges of RebateKey and EliteSeller, perhaps hinting at more similar tools within Seller Central in the future.
Product Opportunity Explorer Launched as Amazon Is Coming Under Fire From Congress
Amazon has had an on-again/off-again relationship with giving sellers real search data—and now it seems to be on again. The timing seems convenient for Amazon, as it has been facing antitrust pressure from Congress throughout the year, one point of contention being its willingness (or lack thereof) to share customer search data to third-party sellers and rig its algorithm to favor Amazon-owned products.
Giving sellers more access to relevant information could take some heat off Amazon, but it could be ultimately good for third-party sellers who’ve been aching for a level playing field with Amazon for years.
Just last week, Amazon’s Small Business Empowerment Report revealed that third-party sellers now account for over 60% of the company’s total retail sales.
Product Opportunity Explorer Will Officially Roll Out in 2022
As earlier stated, Amazon’s new opportunity finder will come out of beta and be made available to all sellers in 2022, presumably for free on Seller Central. As of writing, sellers who have access have the ability to request more metrics and provide feedback to help make the tool more useful. Amazon says you can request early access by contacting Seller Central.
