Issue 06 - GAN cube, EBT plants, lever belt
Issue 06 - GAN cube, EBT plants, lever belt
and more...
1. GAN cube
GAN is the industry-leading brand you’ve never heard of. It manufactures the best rubik’s cube puzzles in the world. They are also called speedcubes, or cubes for short.
Speedcubing is a big industry. The goal is to solve cube puzzles as fast as you can. There are world championships, corporate sponsorships and speedcubing celebrities. Here is a sexy video of top maestros speedcubing, emotions are flying pretty high.
What makes this niche potentially interesting is the variety of cubes. They do not have to be cubes, they can of any color, shape, size and material.
One major consideration is patent issues. Top brands, such as GAN, will protect their inventions with patents, so any white-label product found on Alibaba would have to be checked for that.
Another major point is quality. This is a product where speed performance can be dependent on the smallest technical details, and supplier quality control has to be a priority.
Other than that, the demand on Google looks great:
And is even better on Amazon.
GAN, the leading brand, does around a million USD revenue per month in USA alone, according to my rough estimations. Not bad for a niche puzzle brand.
More data:
Top search term: gan cube
Last month Brand Analytics search frequency rank: 16,607
Top 3 Brand Analytics products click share: 60%
2. Sublimation blanks
Sublimation is the specific printing process where you use heat to transfer an image onto any kind of material, such a textile or metal.
Today this can also be done at home. All you need is a sublimation printer (some regular printers can be converted into a sublimation printer by replacing cartridges) and sublimation ink. You print an image on a sheet of paper, wrap it around an object and heat it up with an iron or a heat gun.
You will also need blank objects to print on, such as a set of tumblers:
Apart from tumblers, there are many options for blanks: license plates, pillows, wine glasses, cups, t-shirts etc - the list is long.
Interest in sublimation printing picked up in 2020 and is staying flat since then.
At the same time, Brand Analytics search frequency rank for “sublimation rank” is at an all-time high of 1,822, up 40% compared to last year.
There are lots of competitors, but this is a very broad search term. Some people look for sublimation blanks and mean towels, others mean mousepads. This is why top-3 sellers in Brand Analytics only get 11% of clicks - people do not stop on page one of the search results and scroll down in search of more sublimation blanks options.
This is an opportunity to get creative and to launch a unique product. Here are my three ideas for sublimation blanks that no one is doing at the moment: womens’ underwear, men’s ties, baby onesies.
More data:
Top search term: sublimation blanks
Last month Brand Analytics search frequency rank: 1,822
Search volume growth past 360 days: 40%
Average sale price: $28.52
Number of competing brands: 94
Top 3 Brand Analytics products click share: 11%
3. TPMS programming tool
TPMS stands for Tire Pressure Monitoring System. All modern cars are equipped with TPMS, they alert the driver when tyre is pressure is too low.
Crucial part of the system are the sensors on the wheels, and all sorts of things can happen to them: they can get damaged, they can be misaligned when replacing tyres etc.
When this happens you need to reprogram them, and this is where TPMS programming tool comes in.
On Amazon, there has been a sharp rise in interest in 2022:
The range of prices is very broad: from known and expensive brands (Autel, $569) to $13 Alibaba knock offs.
My feeling is that there could be some space in between - a meduim-priced product with enough useful features.
More data:
Top search term: tpms programming tool
Last month Brand Analytics search frequency rank: 50,587
Search volume growth past 360 days: 24%
Average sale price: $91
Number of competing brands: 14
Top 3 Brand Analytics products click share: 43%
4. Lever belt
My initial thought was - this is a boring product that existed forever and a spike in demand must be a mistake. When I was a schoolkid in the USSR I remember older guys in my local gym using those. Surely this must be a saturated market on Amazon.
But then I looked again, and apparently there are two types of weghtlifting belts, with different stories.
One is called a prong belt, and it has prongs:
The other is called a lever belt, and it locks with a lever:
The key difference is that lever belts are quicker to lock and unlock. And the spike in demand on Google Trends is only happening for lever belts:
In 2022, Amazon search frequency rank for lever belts is at an all-time high. Search volume growth year on year is 159%.
There are three things that I like about this opportunity. First, the average price is $52, which is high. Second, there are not too many competing brands (15). Third, top-3 products’ combined click share is just 28% - this usually means that there are no established brands that customers prefer and each brand gets a little bite of the pie. Such markets are easier to enter for new private labels.
More data:
Top search term: lever belt
Last month Brand Analytics search frequency rank: 38,770
Search volume growth past 360 days: 159%
Average sale price: $52
Number of competing brands: 15
Top 3 Brand Analytics products click share: 28%
5. EBT plants
In America, low-income people can get free money from the US government to spend on food. You can get around $100 per month if you are eligible.
This money is then transferred to a special card, called EBT card, which can be used in store or online just like any other bank card to purchase certain EBT-eligible food.
Apart from actual food, people with an EBT card can also buy plants, the ones that can be used to grow actual food. Such as the chilli peppers grow kit on the image above.
Google Trends data shows growth in interest and indicates that it is seasonal, with spikes during spring. This makes sense as spring is when most people plant their gardens in the USA.
On Amazon, June 2022 was the best time ever for “ebt plants“ search term:
The market is not that saturated, with just 14 brands, and there are no established players - top-3 products get just 30% of all the clicks. As with lever belts, this market will be easy to penetrate if the product is right.
Another bonus point for this opportunity is that it can easily be manufactured locally, even at your own home. A good product for someone looking for an easy way to start an Amazon business.
More data:
Top search term: ebt plants
Last month Brand Analytics search frequency rank: 99,162
Search volume growth past 360 days: 143%
Average sale price: $19.94
Number of competing brands: 14
Top 3 Brand Analytics products click share: 30%
This is it for this week. Let me know which oportunity you liked more:
P.S.: Last week’s poll winner is the Litter Robot liner bags.