We all have read a bunch of success stories on how people succeed on the Amazon seller platform. Making more than 10,000 $ a month on a single product and making it as a passive income. Well, it all may be true, in America but in Europe, I think from my personal experience it’s quite a different story that no one is talking about.

I spent almost 5 months getting all the papers and legal documents for Amazon, then 3 months creating products and researching my niche. After that find the right carrier that can actually deliver my products to Amazon storage facilities. All this hustle and in the end I lost at least 5,000 $ in products and 5 months of intense work.

Researching Amazon product niches, and succeeding in them

For me this was a different story, I did know already in what niche I will work and what product I will sell. Why? I did invest all my life’s savings in purchasing chocolate machinery from Selmi and creating a small print house so i can make my own packaging, when I need and what I need, but that is a different story. So the niche I wanted to dominate was Chocolate Gifts, it’s overcrowded but I did see an opportunity there as I mentioned I can adjust and make my own packaging in smaller quantities, to see what sticks and what doesn’t.

I did research based on all amazon platforms also the USA and Europe, my conclusion was that there is a free space for personalised greeting boxes. As 70 % of purchases were made for gifting like – Happy Birthday, Get Well, Congratulations and so on. This was an opportunity for me, to make custom boxes with different greetings and not to order one design in 10000 pcs to get a great price on the packaging. Next, I did research on which are top flavours people like all around the world, conclusion was simple – salted caramel, strawberry, coconut, cheesecake and dark chocolate. For this part, I didn’t have to use any app to find the flavours it was all there if I search for protein bars with the same flavours or chocolate with the same top flavours.

My Top Tool for Researching on Amazon

A critical mistake I made, does one ASIN rank and sales statistics shown in any niche analysers’ results, are per country or total?

I took the top 5 best-selling chocolate gifts, used the SemRush app to research, and got a stunning result. 20,000 $ top 1 position in chocolate makes each mount in profit. One thing I did notice, not all reviews were in the same language. But most of them were in German, which is the main country I wanted to target, so I thought it was possible to make that much money from a single product only in one marketplace.

I was wrong, the huge profit was from all Europes and UK marketplaces, as the same product shared the same ASIN and the app doesn’t divide revenue for each country separately. Only if the product is sold in one marketplace and no other marketplace. This was one of the biggest mistakes I made, by focusing only on one marketplace.

Dont go with out SemRush in Long term you will save a lot of money ! Now they have 50% discount: 2 months for $50!

Focusing on one Amazon marketplace, making it only for German clients.

I did think if I focused on the second largest marketplace in Europe after the UK then for sure I can make huge sales and succeed and move further in Amazon.

To this day I think my idea wasn’t bad, the only problem I made, making packing only in the German language instead making it in English and promoting it in other Amazon countries like France, Denmark or Sweden. So I was limited to Germany and Austria only, I did shorten the range of people I can reach out to.

Timing, seasonal products and summer isn’t the best time to try dominating hard niches.

Chocolate is a real seasonal product, the best time is from October till January when the sales are the highest. I started my journey only at the end of January. After I made really great sales in the Christmas season, I did put all my profit into the Amazon project as I could financially start this project earlier. After the investment, it took me 2 mounts to receive a German VAT number and to reopen my amazon seller account. For me personally, it was easier to get the VAT number than to submit the right documents to Amazon.

The number of documents amazon requests is just ridiculous, so be prepared for a long list of personal information, don’t make mistakes as it will make the process longer. Translate them into English and be patient.

Choosing the right carrier company for delivery.

Who would thought that so many companies don’t want to work with Amazon, as it turns out a lot? I could only find 2 companies that agreed to deliver to amazon, and the rest kindly declined.

Why, well because of the hard rules amazon applies to delivery, time, pallet, car size, labelling and many other things.

In summary what i lost ?

A lot of time and money is spent endless hours on creating product descriptions and finding the right keywords for making the product, and packaging. Taking Photography of each product, packing man manufacturing, and putting EAN labels to save costs for the product. I think in the end I lost more than 10,000 $ and amazon still wants to charge me 500 $ for sending back unsold items. Be careful, I know so many people that have lost money to succeed on amazon and only 1 actually is making money at amazon.