What is your biggest achievement on Amazon to date?

My biggest achievement on Amazon to date has been CouchCoaster ranking as the #1 selling item within the 'Coaster' category on Amazon USA which it frequently achieves during Q4.

What 5 tips would you give to anyone that wants to create a new product to sell on Amazon?

Unless you have a genuinely 'breakthrough' product, try to avoid selling a product in a very saturated category (lots of sellers with similar items) because it will be harder and more expensive to market to that audience.

Always invest in product development to create an item which has unique selling points that offer a more beneficial solution (or are just more appealing somehow) than your predecessors. Don't just source a ready-made product on Alibaba which anyone else can buy (or go down the white-labelling / product labelling route).

Products don't always have to 'solve a problem' or be 'inventive' to be successful on Amazon or elsewhere in fact - they can be beautifully designed and manufactured to attract a swathe of customers.

Understand the commercial aspects of selling your product on Amazon right from the start to ensure you can sell your product profitably enough to create a sustainable business model.

If your product is 'successful' it will get copied, so consider how you can protect your product with intellectual property (IP) right from the start to mitigate the risk of copycats and counterfeiters eroding your market share.

Describe your experience of working with Makers Department in 3 words.

“Collaborative (in the sense of Makers feeling like they are part of my own 'in-house' design team), Inspiring (in terms of Makers bringing new ideas to my own sketch concepts/prototypes), Impressed (in terms of technical ability, meeting my project objectives etc).”

What did Makers Department enable you to achieve?

Makers enabled me to bring an idea for improving an existing product to market, delivering a branded and packaged solution I am proud to now be marketing and selling under the Hit Products banner.

Any last words of advice?

“Creating a product is just the start when it comes to selling on Amazon - there are a lot of other business functions to handle from logistics to marketing to finance etc - but equally lots of free resources available (and lots of sharks to avoid!) to become a self-taught expert if you have the will-power!”