2024 Amazon Product Research SECRETS (Part 1)
Sumner Hobart · 7-Figure E-Commerce Entrepreneur
A former eight-figure Amazon seller shares a genuinely unusual research method, but the course is padded and never shows a full launch.
A real method, wrapped in a lot of hype
Sumner Hobart's product research course opens with a promise familiar to anyone who has browsed Amazon FBA content on YouTube: everyone else is teaching you to use the same tools the same way, and this course is different. What follows is, to its credit, less generic than that pitch suggests. The core idea holds up: instead of relying only on Helium 10's revenue estimates (which every seller already checks), the course teaches students to triangulate demand across Amazon's own autocomplete and keyword data, Google search volume pulled from Keysearch, and Etsy's sales signals, then compare that demand against how many organic (non-sponsored) listings actually show up on Amazon's first page for that exact search term. A niche with meaningful search volume and a low manual count of true competitors is treated as the sweet spot, and the course walks through this logic slowly, using a milestone-blanket example and a tea-infuser-mug example to show the spreadsheet in action.
That manual counting exercise, scrolling through search results and tallying only non-sponsored listings that genuinely match the search term, is tedious but sound, and it's a detail most beginner-level FBA content skips over in favor of vague talk about "low competition." Pairing it with Google Trends for seasonality and PickFu for pre-launch design testing against competitor listings rounds out a research process that is more rigorous than most free content on the topic.
Where the course thins out
The patent and trademark segment is a useful inclusion, walking through Google Patents searches and explaining the difference between utility and design patents with a folding-guitar example, plus a real trademark collision on a "world's best father" mug design. It is a genuine value-add for beginners who might otherwise stumble into legal trouble, even though it comes with the obvious caveat that it is not a substitute for a lawyer.
Where the course falls short is depth and proof. Much of the runtime is spent on introductions, tool overviews, and motivational asides about the instructor's own success rather than dense instructional content, and the four-hour length feels padded for what amounts to a research checklist. The course also never follows a product all the way through to an actual order or launch, so students finish with a framework for evaluating ideas but no demonstrated end-to-end example of a chosen product moving from spreadsheet to supplier. The financial guidance is thin too: a profit-percentage checklist (31 to 37 percent as a target) is offered without real discussion of landed cost, freight, or Amazon fee structures beyond referencing a linked calculator.
The course also assumes a budget for paid tools, mainly Helium 10 and Keysearch, and while a free Chrome extension tier is mentioned, the strongest techniques depend on paid access. For a true beginner willing to invest in those subscriptions and do the manual competitor counting, this delivers a workable and reasonably distinctive research framework. For anyone with prior FBA experience, most of it will feel like a review.
The standout
Cross-referencing Google search volume against Amazon's own keyword and listing-count data to spot products with real demand but almost no direct Amazon competition is the one technique that separates this from generic FBA content.
What you will learn
- How to cross-reference Amazon keyword volume, Google search volume via Keysearch, and Etsy sales data to find underserved product niches
- How to manually count organic (non-sponsored) competitor listings on an Amazon search results page to gauge real competition
- How to mine Amazon review data with Helium 10's Review Insights to learn what customers like and dislike about existing products
- How to use Google Trends to check a product's seasonality before committing to it
- How to run a PickFu survey to test a product design or listing image against competitors before ordering inventory
- How to screen a product idea for patent and trademark conflicts using Google Patents and basic trademark lookups
Best for: A complete beginner to Amazon FBA who already has some money set aside for paid research tools and wants a structured lens for evaluating product ideas before spending on inventory.
Skip it if: Anyone who already sells on Amazon, has used Helium 10 or Jungle Scout before, or expects a full walkthrough from idea to a launched, ordered product.