Amazon provides sellers with information about popular items

announced Amazon at Accelerate 2021 for Third-Party Sellers announced a tool that gives sellers access to information about what shoppers are currently searching for and helps make it easier to choose which products may be created next.

Identifying and launching new products is fundamental to retail success. But it can be expensive and time consuming.

Amazon’s new tool helps take the guesswork out of which products may be launched by providing sellers with insights.

The company calls it the Product Opportunity Explorer. It says it gives sellers access to data and trends that help identify opportunities to launch new high-potential products to meet unmet customer demand.

And with the company’s track record of copying popular products and selling them under its Amazon Basics brand. The main concern about this tool is where the data comes from and how accurate it is.

While the company quotes one vendor saying that he is excited about getting recommendations specifically relevant to his business, other vendors are concerned that the suggestions might direct companies to steal existing products.

However, an Amazon spokesperson claims that the tool provides sellers with aggregated data. This does not provide details on the performance of other brands.

Instead, the company says, the tool makes suggestions for products that customers might be looking for. But they do not find it.

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Amazon launches Product Opportunity Explorer

The tool also provides broader metrics for categories and subcategories, such as what people are searching for, pricing trends, and the like.

The company says in its press release that the tool gives sellers rich insights into what customers are looking for, which products they buy and what they don’t, along with detailed data on search volume, growth, sales history and pricing trends.

For its part, the company has denied in the past that it is abusing its role as a product developer and market provider.

The European Union accused Amazon of systematically using data from its markets that others cannot obtain. And a recent report on Amazon India claims more extreme behavior there.

The company is testing the Product Opportunity Explorer tool in beta before launching it for free to all sellers in 2022.

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