What a first product looks like
- Small and light: fits in a shoebox, ships under a pound. Shipping eats margin on anything bigger.
- Lands under about $12 per unit including freight, and sells for $25–$45. Below $25 you can't afford ads. Above $45 a stranger hesitates.
- Solves one obvious problem you can say in a sentence. 'It stops your cables from tangling.'
- Already selling. Look for 500–5,000 reviews on Amazon: proven demand, but not owned by a giant brand.
- Made by several factories, not one. You want a backup supplier.
What to avoid on store one
Anything fragile (breakage and refunds), electronic (returns and support), edible or skin-contact (regulations), or seasonal (you'll launch in the wrong month). Also anything with a moving part that can fail. You can sell those later, once you've got a store that works and the cash to absorb a problem.
Where to look
Amazon's Movers & Shakers and Best Sellers in Home & Kitchen, Pet Supplies, Sports & Outdoors, and Tools. TikTok searches for 'amazon finds' and 'tiktok made me buy it', paying attention to comments asking where to get it. And your own life: the garage, the yard, the kids' sports bag, the dog, the truck. Dads buy for those categories and you already know what annoys you about them.
How to decide between three
Score each candidate one to five on ten lines: clear problem, one-sentence pitch, price range, landed cost, easy to ship, not seasonal, no regulatory risk, multiple suppliers, easy to demo in a 15-second video, and whether you'd use it yourself. Under 35 total, cut it. If two are close, pick the one you'd rather talk about on camera, because you're going to.
Then commit to one
One product with forty orders beats thirty products with none. The full scorecard, the supplier message script and the sourcing walkthrough are Steps 3 and 4 of the EcomDada course.