E-commerce market research report template, with a filled Amazon example
· Nolyn research team
What should a market research report for an e-commerce category include?
Six sections: market size signals, top sellers, price bands, review pain points, entry barriers and a go / no-go per segment. In our filled sample, read on amazon.com on October 20, 2026, 30 pool cleaner listings carried a label floor of 13,600 a month, yet only one of five segments earned a conditional go: handheld vacuums at about $70–$110.
A template for sellers deciding whether to enter a category or a new marketplace, and for anyone who has to hand that decision to a boss. Download it free, then see it filled in from a real Nolyn run on Amazon US pool cleaners, with every figure checked against the raw data and every gap marked.
What goes in a market research report for an e-commerce category
Most market research report templates are written for a consulting deck: TAM, focus groups, a survey, a SWOT. A seller deciding whether to enter a category rarely has any of that, and doesn't need it. What they have is public marketplace data, and a manager who wants to know one thing: should we go in?
This template keeps six sections, and each one ends in something the decision needs. It works for a category study on one marketplace or a review of a new marketplace for a product you already sell.
| Section | Question it answers | Where the evidence comes from |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Market size signals | How much demand can you see? | Search result counts, “bought in past month” labels, Best Sellers Rank |
| 2. Top sellers | Who takes the sales today? | Best-seller sort for each main keyword, duplicates and accessories removed |
| 3. Price bands | Where do listings and demand sit by price? | Prices and labels of those listings, then a check of the new listings |
| 4. Review pain points | What do the leaders' buyers complain about? | Star histogram, review aspects, low-star reviews |
| 5. Entry barriers | What would stop a new seller? | Ratings counts, brand share, newest listings, plus compliance and returns |
| 6. Go / no-go | What do we do, per segment? | The five sections above, one number behind each verdict |
The six sections of an e-commerce market research report
Free market research report template (Word or copy and paste)
Download the Word file or copy the outline into Google Docs or Notion. No sign-in needed. Write the summary last: it is the only part some readers will see.
[CATEGORY] MARKET RESEARCH REPORT Marketplace: [e.g. amazon.com, US] Date read: [YYYY-MM-DD] Prepared by: [name] Decision needed: [enter, stay out or test; by when; with what budget] SUMMARY (write this last) Verdict: Go / Conditional go / No-go Three reasons, one number each: 1. 2. 3. 1. MARKET SIZE SIGNALS How much demand can you see, and where does it sit? Signal | Reading | Source and date Search results for the main keyword | Results for 2–3 narrower keywords | “Bought in past month” labels, summed as a floor | Best Sellers Rank of the category leader | Season: is this date high or low season? | 2. TOP SELLERS Who takes the sales today? Listing | Segment | Price | Rating | Ratings count | Monthly label (one row per listing, segment or finding) 3. PRICE BANDS Where do listings and demand sit by price? Price band | Listings | Label floor | Who sits here Under $X | $X–$Y | $Y–$Z | Over $Z | 4. REVIEW PAIN POINTS What do buyers of the leaders complain about? Listing | 1–2 star share | Worst aspect (negative vs positive mentions) | Complaint in plain words (one row per listing, segment or finding) 5. ENTRY BARRIERS What would stop a new seller? Barrier | Evidence | How hard (low / medium / high) Ratings the leaders have built | Brand concentration | New listings: how many have no ratings | Compliance, certification, batteries, safety | Returns and warranty | Landed cost and fees at the target price | 6. GO / NO-GO What do you do next, per segment? Segment | Verdict | Why (one number) | Condition or next test (one row per listing, segment or finding) HOW THIS WAS RESEARCHED Sources, keywords, sort order, sample size, date read (UTC). Not in the data: [real unit sales, revenue, margin, ad costs, return rates, seasonality].
Market research report example: pool cleaners on Amazon US
Here is the template filled in from a real Nolyn run. The question was “Is there room for swimming pool cleaner for amazon US market”. Data was read from amazon.com on October 20, 2026 (09:51–09:53 UTC): seven searches, reviews for five listings and details for two. Every figure below was recomputed from the saved responses.
Summary. Verdict: conditional go, for one segment only. Enter with a handheld vacuum at about $70–$110, if the margin works. Three reasons: handhelds carry a label floor of 4,300 a month across six listings; two of those six reached 500+ and 700+ a month with under 200 ratings; and durability is the worst aspect at the AQ10 Pro, the #1 Handheld Pool Vacuums listing (31 negative mentions against 18 positive). Stay out of solar skimmers and floor robots for now.
1. Market size signals
Amazon doesn't publish category sales, so the report uses signals and calls them signals. The label floor adds up the lower bound of each “bought in past month” label: a listing marked 1K+ counts as 1,000. It is a floor for those listings in one month, not the size of the market.
The broad keyword misled: all 16 top results for “pool cleaner” were chemicals, nets, filter socks and a toilet pumice stone, not machines. Narrower keywords gave a clean sample: 35 listings after removing duplicates, then 30 powered cleaners after dropping five manual heads and parts.
| Signal | Reading |
|---|---|
| Search results: “pool cleaner” | 7,404 |
| Search results: “robotic pool cleaner” | 2,025–2,033 |
| Search results: “cordless pool vacuum above ground” | 959 |
| Search results: “solar pool skimmer robot” | 399 |
| Listings with a monthly label | 25 of 30 |
| Label floor, all 30 listings | 13,600 a month |
| Best Sellers Rank, Betta SE | #1 Robotic Pool Cleaners, #2,251 Patio, Lawn & Garden |
| Best Sellers Rank, AQUAFYSH AQ10 Pro | #1 Handheld Pool Vacuums, #2,769 Patio, Lawn & Garden |
| Season | October, not measured: treat every label as an off-season reading until checked in summer |
Pool cleaner market size signals, amazon.com, October 20, 2026
2. Top sellers
Sorted by monthly label, then ratings count. Four different product types appear, at very different prices, so one “pool cleaner” average would mean nothing.
| Listing | Segment | Price | Rating | Ratings | Monthly label |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Betta SE | Solar skimmer | $369.90 | 4.4 | 8,273 | 1K+ |
| Betta SE Plus | Solar skimmer | $389.90 | 4.5 | 3,089 | 1K+ |
| AQUAFYSH AQ10 Pro | Handheld | $73.99 | 4.3 | 1,018 | 1K+ |
| Beatbot Sora 10 | Floor robot | $699.00 | 4.6 | 103 | 1K+ |
| AIPER EcoSurfer S2 | Solar skimmer | $359.99 | 4.3 | 2,419 | 900+ |
| PoolMr handheld | Handheld | $69.99 | 3.8 | 2,082 | 900+ |
| Zodiac MX6 | Pump-driven | $349.00 | 4.0 | 9,426 | 800+ |
| VINGLI wall-climbing | Pump-driven | $109.98 | 3.8 | 5,014 | 700+ |
Top 8 pool cleaners by monthly label, amazon.com, October 20, 2026
3. Price bands
29 of the 30 listings showed a price. No best seller sat between $109.99 and $219.00, which looks like a gap. It isn't a clean one: the search sorted by average review shows seven listings from $125.99 to $199.99 in that range, with 0–83 ratings and no monthly label. Sellers are already there; buyers don't show up in the labels yet. Always check the new listings before calling a price band empty.
| Price band | Listings | Label floor a month | Who sits here |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under $100 | 5 | 3,600 | Handhelds only |
| $100–$199 | 2 | 1,400 | One handheld, one pump-driven, both near $110 |
| $200–$299 | 6 | 800 | Five solar skimmers, one floor robot |
| $300–$499 | 10 | 5,250 | Solar skimmers, pump-driven, one floor robot |
| $500 and over | 6 | 2,550 | Floor robots and two bundles |
Pool cleaner price bands (29 priced listings)
4. Review pain points
The aspect counts are Amazon's own review summary for the two listings we read in detail. The 1–2 star share comes from Amazon's star histogram, so it covers all ratings, not a sample. Durability is the weak aspect at both: 69% of Betta SE mentions and 63% of AQ10 Pro mentions are negative.
The review pull returned only eight top reviews per listing, 40 across five listings, and top reviews lean positive: just five were 3 stars or lower. Among them: clogging, a battery that gave out after 11 months, a unit that stopped moving after a few days, and a filter that lets fine silt back into the pool. Treat these as leads to check, not as measured shares.
| Listing | 1–2 star share | Weakest aspects (negative / positive mentions) |
|---|---|---|
| PoolMr handheld | 24% | Not read |
| VINGLI wall-climbing | 23% | Not read |
| Dolphin Nautilus CC | 18% | Not read |
| Telescopic-pole pool vacuum (B0BWY7ZDT2) | 18% | Not read |
| AQUAFYSH AQ10 Pro | 13% | Durability 31 / 18, suction 40 / 50, value 29 / 66 |
| Betta SE | 11% | Durability 349 / 154, reliability 386 / 303, battery life 221 / 441 |
Pool cleaner review pain points, amazon.com, October 20, 2026
5. Entry barriers
Listing is easy; getting noticed isn't. Of the 16 newest “robotic pool cleaner” listings, 14 had no ratings, and seven were near-identical offers at the same two prices (four at $913.99, three at $104.00). The last two rows of the table were not measured in this run, and they can change the verdict.
| Barrier | Evidence | Level |
|---|---|---|
| Ratings built by leaders | Dolphin 10,744, Zodiac MX6 9,426, Betta SE 8,273. Handhelds: median 1,550, two of six under 500 | High, lower in handhelds |
| Brand concentration | Betta holds 5 of 13 solar skimmer listings | High in skimmers |
| Brand-led launches | Beatbot Sora 10 shows 1K+ a month with 103 ratings at $699 | High in floor robots |
| Crowded new listings | 14 of the 16 newest listings have no ratings | Medium |
| Product risk | Battery device used in water; durability is the top complaint. Betta SE lists a 1-year warranty and a 30-day return | Not measured: check returns, certification and battery shipping rules |
| Margin | No landed cost, fees or ad cost in this run | Not measured: run the numbers first |
Pool cleaner entry barriers
6. Go / no-go
The verdict is per segment, because one answer for “pool cleaners” would hide the only opening. Before ordering stock, put the target price through the landed cost calculator and repeat the labels in high season. Two bundles at $999 and over are left out of the table.
| Segment | Listings, price range, median | Label floor | Verdict | Why, and the condition |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Handheld | 6, $59.99–$109.99, $69.99 | 4,300 | Conditional go | Two listings under 200 ratings reached 500+ and 700+. Needs a margin at $70–$110 and a real fix for durability and fine silt |
| Solar skimmer | 13, $219.00–$429.90, $364.95 | 3,450 | No-go for now | Betta holds 5 of 13 listings and the top two label spots |
| Floor robot | 6, $299.97–$1,099.00, $699.00 | 3,700 | No-go | Median price is $699, so each unit ties up far more stock money and warranty risk, against named brands like Dolphin, Beatbot and WYBOT |
| Pump-driven | 3, $109.98–$349.00, $324.00 | 2,100 | No-go | Median of 6,523 ratings per listing, the highest of any segment |
| $110–$219 robots | 7 new listings, $125.99–$199.99 | 0 | Watch | Offers exist but none shows a monthly label yet. Recheck in high season |
Pool cleaner go / no-go by segment
How we checked this sample
The AI report was a good first draft, not the final word. Checking it against the raw responses changed four things, and you should run the same check on any report before it goes to your boss.
- It said 100 top reviews were read per listing. The raw data has eight, so the page says eight.
- It called the 1–2 star share a share of sampled reviews. It is Amazon's histogram of all ratings.
- It used a hand-picked list of 24 cordless listings for price bands. We rebuilt the sample from three best-seller searches with the rules above.
- It pointed at a gap in the $150–$300 range. In the rebuilt sample the empty range is $110–$219, and it holds new listings without labels, so we mark it “watch”, not “go”. We also dropped the report's follow-on ideas (a later floor robot and a consumables line), which the data didn't test.
Use it for a category study or a new marketplace
The same six sections fit the two briefs cross-border sellers ask for most. Change the sample, not the structure. Two briefs you can adapt:
- Category study: “Research the US market for [category]. Show the top sellers, price bands and what buyers complain about, and tell me whether a new brand can enter.”
- Marketplace entry review: “We already sell [product] on [marketplace]. Should we enter [new marketplace]? Compare top sellers, prices, review complaints and entry barriers, and give a go or no-go.”
- What Nolyn can read directly: Amazon marketplaces (US, UK, Canada, Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Brazil) and TikTok Shop. A report for Walmart, Ozon, eBay or Etsy has no direct data source, so it relies on public pages and marks the gaps. Brazil TikTok Shop sales and Brazil Shopee sales aren't available.
How to write an e-commerce market research report in 5 steps
State the decision
Write the category, marketplace and the decision needed at the top. A report without a decision turns into a list of facts.
Pick narrow keywords
Test the broad keyword first, then use 2–3 narrower ones. “Pool cleaner” returned chemicals; “robotic pool cleaner” returned the real category.
Build a clean sample
Sort by best sellers, remove duplicates, drop accessories and split the listings into segments.
Fill the six sections
Record the date and source for each reading. Use the labels and ranks the marketplace shows, and don't turn them into revenue.
Check, then write the summary
Recompute every number from the raw data, mark what wasn't measured, and write the verdict per segment last.
Questions
Yes. The Word template and the outline are free and need no sign-in. Having Nolyn fill it for your category needs an account and spends credits: our two test runs used 69 and 103 credits, and new accounts get 100 free credits.
Start with what marketplaces show publicly: search result counts, best-seller lists, prices, “bought in past month” labels, star histograms and reviews. That covers five of the six sections here. Landed cost, fees and compliance you check yourself.
Search the category's narrow keywords sorted by best sellers, clean the sample, then read price bands, labels and the leaders' review aspects. For a run across several Best Sellers categories, use the Amazon niche finder.
No. Amazon doesn't publish category sales, and this template doesn't estimate them. It reports signals such as a label floor (13,600 a month across 30 pool cleaner listings), which is a lower bound for those listings, not the size of the market.
A competitor analysis compares a handful of rivals to one product, and product validation tests one idea. This report covers a whole category and ends in a verdict per segment. For the narrower jobs, see the competitor analysis guide and the product validation tool linked below.
Not for one category: you can fill the template by hand from public pages in a few hours. A product research tool helps when you repeat the work across categories or want the reading and the first draft done for you. Check any tool's figures against the source, as in the checks above.
The template, yes. Nolyn has no direct data source for Walmart or Ozon, so a run relies on what public pages show and marks the gaps. Amazon marketplaces and TikTok Shop have the fullest data.
Sources
- Nolyn: Amazon US pool cleaner run (7 searches, reviews for 5 listings, details for 2, October 20, 2026), team-account run; data and recomputation in docs/seo-research/2026-11-05-market-research-report-template · checked November 5, 2026
- Amazon Best Sellers: Robotic Pool Cleaners · checked October 20, 2026
- Amazon Best Sellers: Handheld Pool Vacuums · checked October 20, 2026
Best sellers and competitors (marketplace sellers)
All guidesGuide
TikTok Shop fees explained (2026)TikTok Shop charges US sellers a 6% referral fee on price plus shipping (5% for fine jewelry), no payment fee. Plus affiliate, shipping and refund fees.
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TikTok Shop Brazil statistics 2026TikTok Shop Brazil made an estimated R$5.3B in GMV in H1 2026. In 1,912 videos (Oct 2026), 46.5% linked a product and 52.8% came from accounts under 10K.
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Competitor Price MonitoringCompetitors' prices, coupons and ratings in one table, weekly if you like.
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How to get reviews on AmazonHow Amazon lets sellers get reviews (Request a Review, Vine, the Customer Reviews tool), what is banned, and how many reviews best sellers really have.
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Domestic vs cross-border seller on TikTok Shop USThe advantages of being a domestic seller on TikTok Shop US: TikTok's own shipping rules and 20 best-selling products' ship-from, delivery days and ratings.