How to Find a Great Product for FBA

Many products are terrible to sell on Amazon, and many are excellent. The difference usually comes down to a handful of characteristics you can screen for before you ever contact a supplier. Here are the criteria I look for, plus the modern filters I've added as the marketplace has gotten more competitive.

1. Little to no electronics

Electronics are annoying, and the fewer moving parts the better. Every component is a chance for something to fail, and failures mean returns, bad reviews, and customer-service headaches. If you receive a container of cheap electronics from overseas, some of them won't work — everyone has bought a bargain charger that died in two weeks. Beyond the hassle, high return rates and poor reviews drag down your conversion rate and ranking, so a failure-prone product costs you twice. Electronics also carry extra compliance and safety requirements. Simple is profitable.

2. Size and weight strategy

This can go two ways. The common approach is small, light, cheap products — they cut shipping costs and simplify fulfillment, but they tend to be crowded and competitive. The approach I've often preferred is larger, bulky, or heavier products. They require more capital and storage, but they're less competitive and can carry bigger margins, and fulfilling through FBA can still be surprisingly economical at scale. The big 2026 caveat: FBA fees, dimensional weight, and storage and aged-inventory surcharges have all increased, so size strategy now lives or dies on the fee math. Run every candidate through Amazon's FBA fee structure before deciding — a bulky product that looked great a decade ago might be a margin trap today, and oversized storage in peak months is expensive.

3. No brand dominance

Don't sell in a category where shoppers only buy a name brand. It's nearly impossible to sell golf clubs from a brand no one's heard of. Focus on categories where, if asked, a shopper couldn't name a dominant brand — things like garden tools, kitchen accessories, or ping pong paddles. These are the niches where a new, well-executed brand can win.

The modern filters I've added

The three criteria above still hold, but the marketplace is far more crowded than when I wrote them. I now also insist on:

• Margins that survive the full cost stack. Model product cost, freight and duties, referral fee (~15%), FBA fulfillment fees, storage and surcharges, returns, and advertising. If it's not clearly profitable after all of that — including ads — it's not a good product, no matter how cheap the units are.
• Room to differentiate. "Same generic product, my logo" is a race to the bottom now. Look for products you can meaningfully improve, bundle, or brand so shoppers have a real reason to choose you.
• Genuine demand, validated with data. Use research tools (Helium 10, Jungle Scout, and similar) to confirm there's real search volume and that the niche isn't dominated by a few entrenched listings with thousands of reviews you'd have to overcome.
• A path to a product line. The best products sit in a niche with complementary items so you can expand with the same supplier and brand later, rather than being a one-off.

Put simply: the old physical criteria (simple, right-sized, no brand dominance) get you a product that's manufacturable and shippable without drama. The modern filters (fee-proof margins, differentiation, validated demand) get you a product that's actually profitable to sell in 2026. You want both.