Amazon product research, with the fee maths done.

What Amazon product research means here

Plenty of people will sell you a spreadsheet of “winning products” exported from a research tool. That is not this service. Amazon product research at Empowers Zone is deciding whether a product can make money once every fee, approval and advertising cost is counted — and saying no to most ideas. The output is a short list you can take straight into product sourcing or a private label launch, with the numbers done.

We research for both routes: wholesale, where existing brands must be bought at a price that survives the referral fee and Featured Offer competition, and private label, where a new brand needs a niche it can earn. The tests are the same; the thresholds are set with you in the brief.

Demand, competition and margin: the three tests

• Demand. Is there steady search interest, or a spike that will be gone by the time stock lands? We look at seasonality and whether demand is spread across many listings or locked into one or two.
• Competition. How many established listings are there, how deep are their reviews, and is the category dominated by a brand shoppers search for by name?
• Margin. After the referral fee, the FBA fee, the landed cost and a realistic advertising allowance, is there enough left to survive a price drop and still pay you? This is the test most ideas fail and the one tool exports skip.

The order matters: the first two are quick to fail, the third is slow to do properly. A candidate that passes all three gets a full fee sheet; one that fails is recorded with the reason.

The fee maths we run on every candidate

Amazon’s pricing page states that referral fees are a percentage of the total sale price or a minimum amount, whichever is greater; its table runs from 3% (watches above $1,500) to 45% (Amazon Device Accessories), with most categories carrying a $0.30 minimum per item. For the categories most research lands in, the published US rates are 15% for Home & Kitchen, Toys and Sports; 8% for Consumer Electronics; 15% on Electronics Accessories up to $100 and 8% above; 8% on Beauty and Health up to $10 then 15%; and 8% on Grocery up to $15 then 15%. Amazon publishes no “typical” range, so we use the exact category rate and re-check it in Seller Central before you order.

FBA fees are not on the public pricing page, so each candidate goes through Amazon’s Revenue Calculator at its packed dimensions and weight. Industry reporting of the 15 January 2026 US fee update indicates fulfilment fees rose by roughly $0.08 per unit on average, small-standard items priced $10–50 by about $0.25, with a 3.5% fuel and logistics surcharge from 17 April 2026 — reported figures we verify in the calculator rather than quote as official. One change is official: Amazon’s own notice confirmed that FBA prep and item-labelling services ended on 1 January 2026, so FNSKU labelling and polybagging are now a supplier or prep-centre cost in the landed-cost line.

The Professional selling plan ($39.99 a month plus selling fees, per Amazon’s pricing page) is an account cost, but it goes into the sheet so the first product carries it. The sheet is the same for every candidate:

Category gating and qualification

Some Amazon categories and many brands require approval before you can list, and finding out after the stock arrives is an expensive mistake. Seller reporting indicates that Amazon typically asks for supplier invoices showing at least ten units purchased, dated within the last 180 days (90 in some categories), with the supplier’s and your business name and address matching Seller Central exactly; retail receipts are not accepted and Individual-plan accounts cannot apply. Amazon’s help pages on this sit behind the Seller Central login, so we treat these as the reported norm and check your account’s approval status before a gated product is shortlisted.

Wholesale candidates are also checked for brand restrictions, covered on our Amazon wholesale page; for private label, gating is usually about the category.

What you receive

• A ranked shortlist, usually three to five products, with the demand, competition and margin reasoning written out.
• A landed-cost and margin sheet per product, every assumption labelled so you can change it.
• Gating and compliance notes: approvals needed and any certification or labelling.
• A record of the candidates dropped, with the reason, so the work is not repeated.
• A recommended next step — supplier search, sample order or trademark filing — for each product that passes.

How research feeds sourcing and private label

The fee sheet doubles as the sourcing target: the landed cost it needs to hit is already on the page, which turns supplier negotiation into a yes-or-no question. For private label, the shortlist also notes what the product needs before launch — a trademark for Brand Registry, a GTIN, FNSKU-ready packaging — so the private label service can start on day one. If the account is new, Amazon account management covers registration and category approval alongside the launch.

How pricing works

Research is scoped per project rather than sold off a rate card: a free consultation about your budget, marketplace and route, then a written plan stating the categories to cover, the shortlist size and the delivery date, and an agreed scope before work begins.

What we need from you

• The capital for the first order, as a range, so candidates are sized to it.
• Which marketplace you will sell in — fees and demand differ between amazon.com and amazon.co.uk.
• Categories or product types you will not sell.
• Whether you hold a seller account and on which plan, since gated categories cannot be applied for on the Individual plan.