What Should an Amazon Launch Audit Show Before You Sign?

The firm you liked best on the first call offers to audit your products before you sign. When you ask what the audit will contain, you hear "market research and a strategy", and nothing you could check.

You'll commit stock, packaging changes and months of ad budget on the strength of that document. If it turns out to be a sales deck with your logo on the cover, you find out after the first container has landed.

Before you sign, your launch audit should answer these questions for each product. Will US shoppers buy it, what is left of the price after Amazon's fees, freight and duty, and when does it pay back? Then it shows you what the first 90 days should bring and who does what.

What should an Amazon launch audit include?

An Amazon launch audit should include the market for each product, the sellers you'd compete with, what shoppers reward and complain about, the price after fees and a P&L with a plan. We include the following in every audit for our Amazon launch services, and they're a fair list to hold any audit against.

1. Market size and seasonality. Twelve months of sales, revenue and searches in the niche, so you see the peaks before you plan stock.
2. The top sellers, side by side. Price, rating, review count and monthly sales for the leaders on page one.
3. Features that sell. Which claims shoppers expect as standard and which ones lift sales.
4. What reviews say. Praise and complaints on competing products, sorted by theme, because the complaints show you the gap.
5. Who buys. Age, income and the reasons people give for buying.
6. Price tiers and Amazon fees. What is left of each price point once Amazon takes its referral and fulfillment fees.
7. Your product and price. The pack, the claims and the launch price the research points to.
8. P&L and three-month plan. Profit per unit, the break-even month, and a sales and stock plan for the first three months.

If one part is missing, ask why. Parts 6 and 8 matter most to an owner, because they turn research into money. An audit with no fees in it can't tell you whether a product pays, and the break-even month is the date your board will hold you to.

The other parts explain how the audit got there. Without named competitors, an audit can't tell you whether your product can win, and without the review analysis it can't tell you what to change in the pack or the claims before you ship.

What do you need to send for the audit?

You need to send your product list with factory costs (FOB), your target prices and the US buyers and channels you already sell through. If you already sell on Amazon, add read-only access to Seller Central, the account where Amazon shows your sales, ads and inventory.

Each item has a reason. Factory costs let the audit work out your margin after Amazon's fees, freight and duty. Your current buyers let it check each product against the lines they carry, so your Amazon brand doesn't compete with the customers who pay your bills today.

Brand ownership belongs on the list too. Amazon Brand Registry requires a pending or registered trademark for your brand name or logo, and it unlocks tools such as A+ content (richer images and text on the product page), Sponsored Brands ads and Amazon Vine, Amazon's program for early reviews. A good audit flags whether your trademark is in place for the US, and your lawyer confirms the filing route.

Get your FOB cost sheet and buyer list ready before you ask for an audit, since the clock on delivery starts once your data is in.

How do you tell a real launch audit from a sales pitch?

A real launch audit tells you which of your products not to launch, and why. A sales pitch recommends everything, because every product launched is more work to sell you.

Watch for the signs. Market figures with no niche named, competitors described but never shown, a price with no fees under it and a sales forecast with no break-even month all point to a document focused on winning your business rather than helping you assess the launch. A promised sales figure is the clearest warning of all, since no one can know your sales before the market has seen your product.

The good signs are specific. The audit names the page-one sellers and their monthly sales, quotes what shoppers complain about, shows the fee tier your pack falls into and puts a date on payback. Choosing which products to sell first is the single decision the audit exists to make, so it should be argued with numbers.

An audit is also the last step in choosing an Amazon growth partner, because it shows how a team thinks before you pay for its time. Ask each candidate which of your products they would not launch, and listen for a reason backed by data.

What should happen in the first 90 days with an Amazon partner?

In the first 90 days with an Amazon partner, your products should go from chosen to live and through a first round of tuning, on the way to a clear call on each one at month 3. Getting from product choice to live and first tuning takes about six to nine weeks.

The work splits between your team and the partner's. You register the Seller Central account, make the products, pack them to the guidelines agreed in the audit, prepare the export documents and ship the stock to Amazon's warehouses. The partner runs the research, listings, ads and scaling. Both sides build the P&L and the sales plan together.

1. Prepare. Products and prices are confirmed, your team readies stock and packaging, and the partner builds the listings and a three-month sales plan.
2. Go live. Ads start and the first reviews come in through Amazon Vine.
3. Tune. Click rate, keywords and conversion are fixed on live data in the first weeks, then more budget goes behind what sells.
4. Decide at month 3. Each product is judged against the page-one sellers in its niche, then scaled or stopped.

Put the six to nine weeks, the month-3 call and the split of work in writing before you sign, so both sides can tell when the work is falling behind.

What should you have in hand by month 3?

By the month-3 call you should have weekly reports that show sales, ad spend and margin for each product, the P&L from the audit compared with what actually happened, and a decision on each product with the numbers behind it. If you only have a sales chart, you can't judge whether the launch is on track.

The comparison with the audit matters most. If a product sold more than planned but kept less margin, you need to know whether fees, ads or price caused it. If it sold less, you need to know whether the problem is demand, the listing or stock.

The payback month is the line to watch. You can see how it's worked out, and what moves it, in when a new Amazon US brand breaks even. Ask your partner to show you the audit's break-even month next to the latest forecast in every month-end review.

Frequently asked questions

Do we need to sell on Amazon already to get an audit?

No. An audit is most useful before your first listing, when the research can still change which products go first and how they're packed. If you already sell, the audit also looks at your current ads, listings and fees by product to find where the money goes.

Can the audit say how soon we could reach $1 million?

It can test that as a scenario. The P&L can show what a 6, 12 or 24 month path would need in units, stock and ad spend, and whether the market has room for it, but it won't put a guaranteed date on any of them.

What happens if the audit says a product shouldn't launch?

Then it has done its job. Stopping a weak product before you make, pack and ship it saves the stock, the freight and the launch ads. Another item in your catalog may have more room, and the audit should say which.

Who on our side should read the audit?

The owner or general director, the person who will run the Amazon channel and your finance lead. Your export director should check the products against current buyer agreements, since some contracts limit where you can sell similar lines.