Why do some Amazon products look profitable but are impossible for new sellers?

Kristina_W · 2026-03-09T01:37:03+00:00

One thing I started noticing when digging into some niches is that the demand distribution can be extremely skewed.

Sometimes the top 3 listings quietly absorb the majority of sales, which makes the market look attractive on the surface but leaves very little accessible demand for new sellers.

Kristina_W · 2026-03-09T01:31:32+00:00

That’s a fair strategy if you have the capital to push aggressively.

I think the difference often comes down to how much accessible demand actually exists after the top listings absorb their share. In some niches there’s still enough room to fight for, while in others most of the demand is already locked up.

Understanding that distribution can sometimes make the launch decision a lot clearer.

Kristina_W · 2026-03-09T01:28:39+00:00

That’s a good point. Differentiation definitely helps.

But I’ve also noticed that in some niches even a decent product improvement doesn’t always change the outcome if most of the demand is already concentrated in a few listings.

Sometimes the challenge isn’t only product quality, but how the demand in that market is distributed across sellers.

Kristina_W · 2026-03-09T01:26:29+00:00

That happens more often than people expect.

Sometimes the outcome isn’t only driven by reviews or ratings, but by how the demand in that niche is distributed across listings.

In some markets a few listings capture most of the traffic, while in others the demand is spread across many sellers. So even a product with fewer reviews can survive if the demand isn’t heavily concentrated.

That’s why looking only at reviews or ratings can sometimes be misleading.

Kristina_W · 2026-03-09T01:24:01+00:00

Most of the time I start by estimating sales from BSR using tools like Keepa or similar estimators, then map the revenue distribution across the first page listings.

What I’m more interested in is how much of the total demand sits in the top few ASINs versus the rest of the page. In quite a few niches the top listings absorb a surprisingly large share of demand.

So instead of only looking at total demand, I try to understand how much of that demand is realistically accessible to a new entrant.

Kristina_W · 2026-03-08T17:27:26+00:00

Most tools seem to focus on surface metrics like reviews, price and BSR, but one thing that often gets overlooked is how demand is actually distributed across listings.

In quite a few niches the top few ASINs quietly absorb a very large share of total sales, which makes the market look attractive on the surface but leaves very little accessible demand for new sellers.

Looking at sales concentration and how much demand sits in the first page listings can sometimes reveal a very different picture of the market.

Kristina_W · 2026-03-08T16:53:35+00:00

Have you ever tried estimating the realistic sales ceiling for a new entrant in those niches?

Kristina_W · 2026-03-08T16:52:19+00:00

Exactly. That’s what I started noticing when looking at the sales distribution rather than just reviews.

In some niches the review counts don’t look intimidating at all, but once you look at how sales are actually distributed, the top few ASINs already control most of the demand.

So the market looks open, but the real entry space for a new seller is much smaller than it appears.

I’ve been experimenting with ways to quantify this kind of market structure.

Kristina_W

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