Part 1 of our Amazon FastMovers series covered how to use these monthly reports to analyze competitors in your category on Amazon. In the second part of this five-part blog series, we discuss how Amazon FastMovers reports can help you identify new competitors and track emerging brands in your category.
If you are familiar with a category, say laundry detergent, you’ll have a very good idea of which brands are leading in the brick-and-mortar world; brands like Ariel and Comfort that are well-positioned on the supermarket shelf.
On the digital shelf, however, the story can be very different.
Let’s take the Deodorant & Antiperspirant category on Amazon.com as an example. We know who the leading players are offline – the likes of Dove, Degree and Old Spice. But emerging brands that are able to quickly adapt to consumers’ changing lifestyles and preferences – brands that perhaps focus exclusively on selling in the eCommerce channel – are capitalizing on the opportunity that Amazon presents. An opportunity where every brand can play from a level playing field.
In an earlier post, we discussed the growing trend towards wellness and organic products in the online channel, a trend that is evident again in this category. Schmidt’s Deodorant, a brand which offers natural deodorant, has made it into the best-selling ranking in the Deodorant & Antiperspirant category on Amazon.com, just behind market leaders Dove, Degree and Old Spice.
The brand accounted for two new product arrivals in Amazon’s top 100 best sellers in the Deodorant & Antiperspirant category in September 2016, becoming one of the best-selling brands in the entire category – and competing head to head with established big brands.
Its recipe for success? Schmidt’s understands the power of consumer reviews, a key driver of online conversions. Among the top 5 brands in this category on Amazon.com, Schmidt’s has the highest average number of reviews by product (350), followed by Dove which has an average of 299 reviews by product.
| Brand | Number of Products | Average Number of Reviews |
| Dove | 18 | 299 |
| Degree | 10 | 174 |
| Old Spice | 8 | 269 |
| Schmidt’s Deodorant | 7 | 350 |
| Secret | 7 | 276 |
Amazon FastMovers reports help you keep an eye on challenger brands that are fast rising up the ranks in your category. Click here to download a complimentary FastMovers report for your category, or learn more about our Digital Shelf 360 solution, an eCommerce analytics suite that delivers a 360-degree view of product content, pricing, availability, assortment, search ranking and ratings & reviews, integrated with Amazon sales and share data.
Another useful way of using Amazon FastMovers is to identify seasonal outperformers in the “New Arrivals” section of the reports. These are products that did well over a specific month, but were perhaps not a best seller in the previous month.
In October 2016, 81% of the new arrivals in the Candy and Chocolate category on Amazon.com were bags of assorted candies, dominated by confectionery brand Hershey’s which used the keyword “Halloween” in its product titles.
In categories like Candy and Chocolate, which has a strong bias towards seasonal events such as Halloween or Valentine’s, it’s vital for brands to identify these seasonal outperformers and to use holiday-specific keywords in your own product titles and descriptions – helping you catch the seasonal “spearfishers”.
Subscribe to our free Amazon FastMovers reports to monitor new arrivals across key categories on Amazon. You might also be interested in watching our on-demand webinar: 5 Ways to Optimize your eCommerce Performance with Amazon FastMovers.