Product Cycles: Avoid Dead Products in Your Amazon Business

Jodea Pearl Abalos
August 16, 2019

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The maverick Brock Johnson did 6M in 6 months, effectively using a small product cycle or window to cash in. Liran “never sleeps” Hirschkorn is a multiple brand 7 figure seller, that has seen a good few cycles since 2015. Anthony Lee, who is now with Helium 10, has the knowledge and expertise when it comes to the algorithm that makes Amazon tick, an Amazon master in marketing. Norm Farrar whom has given his magic touch to everyone from 7-8 figure sellers to fortune 500 brands. In this episode, we discuss with the Amazon titans on how to avoid dead products in your Amazon business.

What do you look for in a product to predict its life cycle?

It’s a bell curve. Who is the leader in the field and is it growing quickly?
- If the momentum is too quick then there is a problem
- If there is a room for improvement and new people are coming in then take a look at it.
- Know where the price point is.
Validate the trends.
- Do the google trends but do the Amazon trend review.
- Look at the Amazon data: number of reviews, velocity,
- BSR over time
- Ride the trends but they fall as hard as they go up.
- Recognize the trends if they are dying or too saturated.
Go with necessary things not the trends all the time. Those are seasonal.
- Do not look for fast trajectory trends
- Look for not so much fluctuations.
- Look at established players and those that do not have not as many competitors.
If you already have a product.
- There are times that you need to END a product.
- Look at your trajectory if it is going down.
- What is the long term trajectory.
- You will get to a point of saturation — TIP: Stay when everyone else leaves!
- Brock Johnson: his strategy was stay till the end. That is how he made his money.
- Trends go back up. There are two parts to the demand.
- Look at all data: Google trend, sales data, competitors so on and then make an informed decision.
- Look at it if it is a trend, a hot thing or a utility problem that will continue.
Product versus brand
- is your brand getting old or is it your product trend?
- Your brand may just need refreshing — add oranges, greens or blues in.
- Your product cycle may not yet be done.
- Indicator: your sales are going down — if it is too low then maybe the product starts to tank.
- Sell out your product while it is early if it is tanking.
Look at your strategy.
- Are you looking at cash flow or thinking of something long term.
- There are aspects that we can not control: trends evolving and fickle people.
- People look at the branding and sometimes that is the key.
- It pays to know marketing psychology.
- Tweak your colors while you learn more about people.
Stay lean until you get big enough
- Build your catalog
- Don’t make emotional decisions based on short term results.