Issue 04 - tinsel, creatine, shields
Issue 04 - tinsel, creatine, shields
and more...
1. Hair tinsel
Back in November, Katy Perry posted this pic on her instagram:
The post got over 600k likes, and a new trend was launched, spilling over to Tiktok with the hashtag #hairtinsel.
Hair tinsel is basically strands of tinsel that you mix with hair. Another name that people use for this is ‘fairy hair’.
On Google Trends, there are several other spikes apart from November 2021, suggesting more celebrities doing this tinsel thing. Currently the trend is at an all-time high.
Things look similar on Amazon. Growth in ‘hair tinsel‘ search term popularity year on year is 232%:
There is already some competition, with 19 brands competing in the niche. One way to stand out could be to launch a hair tinsel kit. There are a few of those already, but they all look the same, and it should be fairly easy to create a unique kit (an example: include a booklet on hair tinsel design ideas).
More data:
Top search term: hair tinsel
Last month Brand Analytics search frequency rank: 2,666
Search volume growth past 360 days: 232%
Average sale price: $12.24
Number of competing brands: 19
Top 5 Products Click Share: 59%
2. Portable bottle warmer
I know a lot about portable bottle warmers.
First of all, I have a 9-month-old son. Secondly, we travel all the time. Right now we are in the middle of an epic eurotrip from Prague to Lisbon, and I have loooots of baby stuff with me, incuding two different portable bottle warmers.
There are lots of varieties of this product. Some are electric with an opening on top, where you put your milk bottle to heat it up. Some are electric but they only dispense hot water. Some have dials like the example below, some have buttons with pre-set temperatures. Some are non-electric with a thermos, to heat the milk in the car for example.
Google Trends shows growing product popularity:
Amazon Brand Analytics data also moves in the right direction:
One thing to note: there are big players in the niche that parents know, such as Tommee Tippee. Because of this, click share of top 5 products is high, at 81%.
However, due to sheer variety of features, there must be room to introduce a product that no one has. Especially if you are a parent and can test it yourself.
More data:
Top search term: portable bottle warmer
Last month Brand Analytics search frequency rank: 13,855
Search volume growth past 360 days: 76%
Average sale price: $36.90
Number of competing brands: 12
Top 5 Products Click Share: 81%
3. Creatine monohydrate
Creatine helps increase muscle mass and strength during workouts, and is one of the most well-known supplements in the fitness world.
Your body produces creatine naturally, but you can also get it from food, such as red meat and seafood, or take it as a supplement. Creatine monohydrate is the most studied and proven type available, and it is also the cheapest.
In 2022 creatine monohydrate is trending up:
Amazon Brand Analytics rank is also at an all-time high:
This is a massive market, with top 3 sellers each doing over a thousand sales per day:
This is also one of the hardest niches to enter. Competition on Amazon USA is brutal, with 100+ brands. Advertising costs are most likely out of this world, with everyone bidding on a handful of keywords, such as “creatine” and “creatine monohydrate”. Also, top players have thousands of reviews, most of them above 4.5 stars, breaking into the top of search results is not going to be easy, or quick.
Expert sellers only.
More data:
Top search term: creatine monohydrate
Last month Brand Analytics search frequency rank: 1,060
Search volume growth past 360 days: 157%
Average sale price: $30.46
Number of competing brands: 100+
Top 5 Products Click Share: 89%
4. European travel adapter
This is an example of an anti-opportunity.
Covid is over, and travel is back on. For americans going to Europe this means buying travel adapters.
Google Trends shows record growth:
Demand on Amazon is also at it’s best, based on 2021-2022 data:
But if you zoom out and look at pre-Covid times then things look different. Similar sort of interest was there before.
It is possible that there is less competition now, due to some travel-focused brands going out of business during Covid, but I wouldn’t bet on it.
There are established players in this market, with top 5 brands getting the majority of sales (92). This market will be a hard one to penetrate.
More data:
Top search term: european travel plug adapter
Last month Brand Analytics search frequency rank: 4,589
Search volume growth past 360 days: 481%
Average sale price: $17.41
Top 5 brands click share: 92%
5. Catalytic converter shield
I know a guy who spent five years in an Italian prison for stealing motors off private boats. Police eventually caught him by tracing his recent jobs and ambushing him in one of the marines. His main regret was that at the start of his thug career he chose stealing boat motors over something less complicated, like stealing catalytic converters.
In case you do not know, a catalytic converter is a part of car exhaust system responsible for converting toxic gases into harmless ones. Inside there are expensive metals, like platinum, palladium and rhodium, and their prices are rising. Right now the price of one catalytic converter on the black market is, Google tells me, around $500.
Here is a picture of someone possibly stealing it:
So what can you do? You can buy a catalytic converter shield.
It is basically a sheet of metal that covers the converter and makes it harder to steal.
Google Trends shows a sharp rise in interest. This might be due to rising metal prices and more converters being stolen, or people becoming more aware about this and wanting to protect their cars. Or both. In any case, this is looks like a big enough niche.
On Amazon the number one search term for this product used to be “catalytic converter anti theft”.
But in February this year, due to Amazon search box autocomplete suggestions change, it switched to “catalytic convertidor anti theft”.
Because of this change, it is harder to analyse the demand, but my guess is that it is a very underdeveloped niche with potential.
Apart from overall market growth, I like the high average price of $162.92, and the fact that there are many cars, each requiring different shields. This means an opportunity to launch not one product but many.
More data:
Top search term: catalytic convertidor anti theft
Last month Brand Analytics search frequency rank: 67,922
Search volume growth past 360 days: 156%
Average sale price: $162.92
Top 5 Products Click Share: 71%
P.S.: I found this new Poll feature on Substack (thanks Keith), lets give it a try.