Is ProductPinion A Perfect Alternative of PickFu?

A Candid Conversation with the Co-founder of ProductPinion, Andri Sadlak, about Selling on Amazon, ProductPinion, and Everything in Between

Hey! Welcome to my Amazon FBA blog for yet another review of one of the interesting and useful tools for Amazon sellers. 

If you are looking for a PickFu alternative, ProductPinion can be your best shot. 

PickFu is software for Amazon that allows you to run different tests to analyze the effectiveness of your products and learn ways for their further improvement. 

There can be different reasons you might want to switch from PickFu. 

Maybe because you feel that price is not right for you, or maybe you just want to try something different, well, whatever the reason, ProductPinion is going to be a perfect alternative for you. 

In this article, we are going to discuss ProductPinion and explain to you what it is, how to use it, and how it can help you grow your business.

Best ProductPinion Deal

Yes, I said ‘we’ because I’ll be accompanied by the co-founder of ProductPinion, Andri Sadlak, in this article. 

Hopefully, after watching this video, you'll understand it better, and we also hope that you will find ProductPinion a perfect alternative for PickFu. 

Before I invite Andri to start his conversation, here’s a little about me: I am an active Amazon seller who’s been in the business since 2016. 

After two years of selling on Amazon, I started a YouTube channel and subsequently created free Udemy courses to help other sellers grow their finances via Amazon. 

My YouTube now has more than 500 videos on Amazon FBA, and the Udemy courses have received thousands of students around the world.

Over 25,000 students. Cool! Thx all! :)

Now, Andri is a good dude. He has been a guest on my YouTube channel and here on the blog multiple times.

I've known him for a long time. 

He's the head of the Ecom Brand Builder Mastermind, which I'm a part of.

If you ever join, mention my name, Vova Even, I'll get a kickback, and you'll get a great community to grow with.

Anyhow, It's awesome to have you here, Andri. Over to you, man!

Our conversation is also available on YouTube, so you are welcome to watch it if you don’t feel like reading today: 

Andri Sadlak: It’s an absolute pleasure to be with you here and your readers, Vova. Thank you so much for giving me another opportunity to interact with the audience here.

Generally, I hate when people compare ProductPinion to PickFu, to be honest, because, even though we are competitors, they are doing an amazing job, and we love them. 

What differentiates us from them is we do a lot of different things from PickFu. 

We specifically do qualitative testing and basically provide full user experience testing. Our tool is also specially built to test Amazon as a marketplace, while PickFu tests for many different reasons. 

Vova, I know you’ve also created a full tutorial of ProductPinion with my co-founder Matt Kostan, let’s share it.

ProductPinion is built for proper brand building, and that's what we're going to talk about today. I'll explain why testing the way we do, leads to a healthy, sustainable, and real e-commerce brand. 

Vova: So, what you're saying is that ProductPinion can help us better understand the market, product, and audience so that we can get better conversions, more clicks, and, ultimately, more sales on Amazon. 

By the way, here’s a special free trial of ProductPinion with double the credits! 

Enjoy!

I think many people believe that there’s no difference between ProductPinion and PickFu, but as you mentioned, everything is not as similar as it may seem, so I’m very curious and excited to know what exactly the difference is between them.

Why use ProductPinion?

Andri: Yes, Vova. I’ll try to address that prevailing false perception about both tools in this article.

I’ll share some examples and perhaps screenshots as well so that I can explain the whole thought process of what is testing and titles and how we recommend doing it with the tool that me and my partners built.

The whole idea behind the tool is to allow you to scale your brand the right way. What does it mean when I say ‘the right way’? 

First of all, we believe you need to listen to your customer and need to solve their problem. If you do it well and better than anybody else in the marketplace, you'll be rewarded accordingly. 

But how do you know what is the right way? Well, constant testing and using the data is the key. 

Since any business and e-commerce business is a business for humans; it's something you do for people, you need to run tests with people. You need people to tell you what matters to them. 

I will come on to what Amazon testing is in a bit, but before we dive into it, here’s a quick overview of who I am so that people can understand why they need to listen to me. 

I have one e-Commerce exit behind me. Currently, I'm building a new brand, so I am in the trenches, building an Amazon FBA brand. 

I have helped grow other brands from zero to millions.

I'm also, as Vova mentioned, the co-founder of the Ecom Brand Builder Mastermind and a co-founder of ProductPinion.  

Now, here's an interesting fact to support the argument that I presented above, that you need to heed your customers. 

In the year 2017, Fortune 500 companies spent $2.2 billion only on customer interviews and focus groups. If they did that, it's probably essential for you, too, to conduct customer interviews and test the user experience. 

Another famous example is the Barbie doll. Mattel made Barbie based on the suggestions from focus groups.

People basically told Mattel, “Hey! we need this kind of doll,” and that was it. They did it, and it worked out marvelously!

Before proceeding ahead, it is important to know what User Experience Testing is, so let me quickly take you through that.

What is User Experience Testing?

User Experience Testing is basically the tactic of gathering both qualitative and quantitative shopper insights. 

Let me further explain what these terminologies mean. Qualitative, in other words, is user experience testing, and since we cater this solution to Amazon sellers specifically, it's basically Amazon user experience testing. 

It means seeing how people shop, how they perceive your listing, how they interact with your or your competitors’ listings, why they look at certain search results, and why they click on ‘A’ product versus ‘B’ product while shopping on Amazon. 

The customer’s action doesn’t just come out of the blue. There’s always a reason behind that, and we help you unveil that reason. 

It typically involves recordings on screen so you can see what they do in your case. ProductPinion functions through screen recordings, where you can watch your potential customers shop and see where they click. You can see what they say, speak and think out loud. 

You can hear them answer all the questions while they browse Amazon. Does it make sense so far, Vova? 

Vova: Absolutely. As you said at the start, that $2.2 billion was spent on understanding customers better. So, if Fortune 500 companies do that, it's undoubtedly indispensable for all other businesses. 

I know that as Amazon sellers, we need to understand who we're selling to, and who is our buyer, and if we can identify them, we will do better than our competition, for sure. 

Then you mentioned that ProductPinion allows us to actually see how somebody, who's searching on our product listing, sees things because, obviously, we see things differently. 

As sellers, we sometimes are biased about our products, which is unhealthy for our business. Hence, we need to heed our customers’ comments about our product.

Andri: You're absolutely right, Vova! Because of that bias about our products, we sometimes miss things that actually are important for our customers. 

We don't know what they are, so it is important to know the requirements of your customers in order to succeed on Amazon. 

In the following, I am going to share the four ways Amazon User Experience Testing will help you scale your business.

4 Ways Amazon User Experience Testing Will Help You Scale

1. Understand your market

First of all, Amazon user experience testing will help you understand your market better. 

I started a few campaigns for the new brand I’m launching with ProductPinion, and I watched people search for my main keywords. 

I analyzed what they clicked on and what they were speaking out about. After that, I was sure to know what matters to my customers better than most of my competition.

There are some software, including PickFu, that helps you tell the ‘what’ behind customers’ preferences and product success. 

However, what we try to address is explaining ‘why’ something performs better because when you understand why it performs better, you can make unique solutions, images, visuals, and everything, for that matter, about your brand and win with flying colors. 

You won’t have to copy what works for others, but you could also address the reason why it works. 

Now, here's a little example of what I was trying to explain above:

In this example, we ran tests on this product. What’s interesting here is this particular product had nothing to do with vegan or anything like that, but still, listings with the word ‘vegan’ in the title got the highest sales. 

Ultimately, thanks to ProductPinion, we knew the importance of thinking outside of the box along with what secretly works for products. 

Let me give you another example. This is what I call a ‘missing attention example.’ 

This is the screenshot from another client who is using ProductPinion.

By the way, for everything I share in these screenshots, including brands, I have explicit permission to share their case studies. 

This is Travis Zigler's brand, and the product is Eyelid Cleanser. 

At the very top, you see a line of products advertised, and his product lies in the middle, with white products on both the right and left sides.  

Now, although Travis is very smart in terms of Amazon advertising, we noticed a lot of people skipped his product.

Buyers scrolled through the images and everything that he was advertising. They clicked on the left and on the right but not in the middle where his product was placed. 

Eventually, we figured that there was something wrong with the main image, so we made some changes. The results were amazing! But we will discuss that in detail later. First, let me explain the second way Amazon user experience testing will help you scale. 

2. Double your conversions

Amazon user experience testing will also help you double your conversions. 

It allows you to read the customers' minds, uncover objections, and know exactly what you need to do to convert them. I will demonstrate how it works through an example: 

This example has been plucked out of a video recording of a customer. 

While going through the product, she was recorded to be confused about the reversible feature of the cap. 

Although the feature itself wasn’t redundant, it landed the customer in confusion about its function. So, what could be the solution here?

Explaining the feature more elaborately. Here’s what it looked like then: 

There you go. The best solution we found was explaining the product in a better way. 

In our case, we basically elaborated on the reason behind the feature via visuals. 

I would have explained the product to your readers, Vova, but it seems like I'm not too familiar with the product. 

However, what I can tell you is we could solve the problem and double the conversion only because ProductPinion helped us understand the customer's feedback. 

Bottom line: try not to confuse customers because, when they are, they bounce back, and that’s the last thing a seller would want.

Similarly, another problem that might occur with your product is the size. Somebody had complained about this same product in a review that there was no size reference. 

And it was a genuine complaint. If you are offering footwear or any clothes, you have to share the size chart as well, or else how can people know if the product will fit them or not? Or there can be many other such little issues that, if not addressed properly, might shoo the customers away. Therefore, it is important to listen to your customers, always! 

3. Unlimited Ideas

Another thing that Amazon user experience testing is going to give you is unlimited ideas from customers, as they are amazing at providing you with ideas on new products and variations. Vova, if you have any questions regarding whatever we have discussed so far, please go ahead.   

Vova: Yeah, I had one question, actually, before we continued with this part. I wanted to ask.. Are the feedback providers similar to the customers of that same product?

Andri: Sort of. We have, at this point, 17000+ customers in the US, and a few more thousand in Canada. 

These people provide feedback based on the demographic you select.  There are ways to narrow it down as well. You can also select who can provide feedback on certain products and can select the age bracket as well.

Vova: I see! 

Andri: Moving forward, there's a list of tests that we, as Amazon sellers, know matter. We have a knowledge base built out so we can select the test we want to run. In case you want to improve conversion and listing and want to test them, there are questions available for them. You can edit these questions as per your requirements.

Another great idea for increasing the rate of conversion is Sunspot Packaging. 

The gist of this idea is that a lot of products would improve conversion by improving their packaging. 

The Sunspot Packaging idea was generated when we found out that full-colored packaging typically performs much better than mildly colored products. 

Just like in real life, when we go to a grocery store, our attention goes to the products that are fully colored, or at least stand out from the rest because of their coloring. 

You can experience it yourself next time when you go to a grocery store. Just look at the shelves and pay attention to what attracts your eyes the most. I’m sure things that look solid in color, i.e., beautiful beer bottles, etc., will grab your focus. 

This is the same phenomenon that takes place when you shop online. 

We call it a Sunspot Test because we figured that you mostly pay attention to something that is darker and stands out from the rest. 

That is why most sellers use a white background on Amazon so that when people search for their products, the solid color of their packaging will contrast perfectly with the white background. Here is a real-life example: 

Which products do you think attract you the most among the products above? 

I am sure most of you will say the red ones in the bottom line. And the stats don’t disagree! 

The fully red apple cider vinegar gummies have better ratings, reviews, and sales than the ones shown on the upper side in the picture. 

The difference an attractive image creates is apparent here. Certainly, there are other areas you should focus on as well; for example, price, quality, service, etc. However, using an image that is not confusing and stands out among the rest can be the gateway to success on Amazon.

Now, remember I showed you Travis Zigler’s product above? Let’s come back to that. We had to change something about his image because, apparently, it wasn’t performing well. 

The conversion was too low. A good number of people were just going through it. We couldn't convince him to go with a different color bottle, but at least we made him use a solid label on his product. And here are the results:

Our test showed that option ‘B,’ which is a dark blue color label, performed much better than the white colored one. 

We uploaded it to Amazon, and conversion jumped by 37% if I remember correctly. 

In another example, one of the customers recorded a video and suggested a change in design to a seller. The seller heeded the advice, implemented the new design, and, surprisingly, his sales increased by 40%!  

Furthermore, ProductPinion has another test named the Sequence Benefit test. This is something that we figured out after doing a lot of tests. The test results suggested that when you have a list of features and/or benefits, you have to list them with numbers. As humans, we tend to like things if they are set in an organized manner. If they are not organized number-wise, we don’t read them at all. Here’s one case as an example: 

In this case, we found out that most people reacted better to the list with numbers, so we changed the listing, and the product’s performance improved on every count.

4. Create a loyal fan base

Another reason to do split testing and Amazon user experience testing with ProductPinion is that it allows you to create a loyal fan base. It is a common fact that people are more attached to brands they have input with. They can really influence, and I know that from my own experience.

I had a Facebook community for the first brand where people loved giving feedback. Without that feedback, I wouldn't be able to succeed among my mostly Chinese competition. This is the first product that I launched from my first brand: 

Vova, can you guess which one I launched first?

Vova: Oh, I think it was the one on the right side, wasn’t it? 

Andri: That's right! And can you guess which one I personally liked better? 

Vova: The one on the left! 

Andri: Sharp memory, Vova! Yes, you are right. 

Personally, I liked the white map better, but fortunately, I was smart enough not to rely on my own instincts, so before launching, I went to my Facebook community, which had by now swelled to a thousand members community. 

I asked them which one they would buy if they wanted a map. Most people voted for the black one, perhaps because of the sunspot example that I was referring to above; it was solid, it stood out, and it looked attractive. 

Hence, I did launch the black one, and I'm super happy that I did! Because to this day, it's nine to one in terms of sales. 

Back in the day, I couldn't really look at the data too much from my competitors because the required tools didn't exist. There were all kinds of maps, and I liked the white one. But you should always rely on your customers' feedback more than your liking, dislikings, preferences, etc.

Amazon Search Simulation

This is another feature of ProductPinion that you can use to simulate your product launch and see results even before actually launching it. 

This screenshot has not been taken from Amazon, but it is the screengrab of ProductPinion’s Amazon Search Simulation feature. 

Using this feature, you can create a product with pre-specified reviews, ratings, prices, and everything to imitate an original Amazon product and see how people react to it. 

As you can see, the circled areas of these products are my self-creation which I have put together with real products using ASINs that actually exist on Amazon. This way, you can check how effective your listing is and if your image is attractive enough to grab an audience for your product. 

Apparently, the one I used didn’t work out, so I’ll replace it with something better and see what fits the bill. Only then shall I launch the product on Amazon. 

Special Poll Link

Moving towards the conclusion of this introductory article about ProductPinion, I wanted to mention another unique feature that nobody offers right now in the world. 

We love this particular feature because we cherish building brands, as this is how you can engage with your audience. 

I have seen sellers ignoring this one of the most important elements of earning success on Amazon. If you don’t engage with your audience, you are not giving them a sense of connectivity that your competitor might offer, and as a result, you lose half of your audience.

Therefore, once you have that community with even a few people, you can share a link from ProductPinion and ask for their comments about the experience. 

This is totally free. What’s more, you can automate a thank you message for buyers and can also provide them with a specific discount on your latest or old product. 

As you can see in the image above, it is pretty simple to use. It has proven to be another effective way to scale your Amazon business as the customers keep returning to shop more and more from you. 

Quick Summary

This is how you build that institutional knowledge. When you list your business for sale at some point, people will be looking at what you do differently and uniquely; have you optimized your business, how well have you optimized, etc. – so it's definitely an advantage. 

I know that from experience because when I was selling my business, everybody loved the fact that I had my little audience that could help launch products, give feedback, and do other stuff like that. 

By the way, I sold my Amazon business via Empire Flippers.

All in all, ProductPinion is a revolutionary step towards improving Amazon as a marketplace for sellers.

I know there are many tools available for product research and everything else there’s to help new sellers get started and advanced sellers to alleviate their business to the next level. 

However, by introducing ProductPinion, we have tried to do something new, something out-of-the-box that no one else was focusing on. And we are so glad to see the response we have got so far! 

ProductPinion Special Discount Offer + FREE Trial

Now, for Vova's audience, we have a special ProductPinion deal.

Free trial + Double the credits for polls! Enjoy! 

If you have questions or if you want me to look at your business specifically, reach out to me. 

Connect With Andri on Facebook

Connect With Andri on LinkedIn

Vova: Thank you, man! I really appreciate your time here with us. I am going to have all the important links related to ProductPinion so that if the company offers any benefits and special offers, you can have them instantly. 

In the meantime, I’ll also try to negotiate a better deal with them, so wait for it! 

Overall, I loved the review, and in fact, I am pretty amazed by the potential ProductPinion carries and the work you guys have done so far.

I really liked the screengrabs and graphs that you showed throughout the article because these images showed how much little things matter. 

This is the same in real life because if you go to the gym and do 20 minutes of cardio, even three times a week, you will feel a huge change in your body with time. 

It will improve your overall well-being. I am onto it these days, so it’s going incredibly well! 

Of course, my gym schedule and Amazon are not fit for comparison, but the point is little things do matter a lot in both spheres of life. 

And what I really loved about this review is it came from the co-founder of this amazing software. I must say, Andri has guided us very comprehensively today. I loved the way you emphasized little things that sellers often ignore, like asking for feedback, etc. 

Andri: Thanks Vova for your words of appreciation. They mean a lot, truly! 

And yes, feedback is absolutely necessary to validate the value of your product. We turn to our family or friends to ask about their views on something, and they love to do so. 

However, when you start selling on Amazon, you start as a complete stranger. People don’t really know you, so you have to inculcate trust in your customers and create a bond with them in order to succeed. 

We at ProductPinion think about ways to bridge the gap between buyers and sellers and provide you with the solutions to make the most of them. 

Honestly speaking, you will be surprised to know how oblivious you were to your customers and their likings or dislikes after using ProductPinion's various tests!

ProductPinion Pricing Plans

Vova: That’s right! Andri, we sure have provided links to important pages of the software, but can you tell us what is the pricing structure of ProductPinion at the moment?

Andri: ProductPinion is super affordable right now for everyone at $97 a month for the most popular package. 

The pricing basically starts at $57, which is the best package for people who don't run too many split tests. 

They can avail of this cheaper option. It includes 100 credits per month for polls and includes five video feedbacks. 

The $97 monthly package will give you 100 credits plus five videos, but you can buy more. We are constantly bringing new things, new features, new plans, and many more to our fold, so stay connected with us because the future is going to be exciting!

$1129 is the price per month for agencies. With way more uses of the tools.

Best ProductPinion Deal

Vova: It sure will be! So thank you so much, Andri, for educating us about a plethora of things and spending quality time with my readers.

If you guys have any queries for Andri or simply want him to look at your website, you can reach out to him at the given socials. I have provided the link to the special discount my readers will get while purchasing ProductPinion above, so do not forget to avail of it as well. 

It’s Vova and Andri signing off for now.

I am sure we will have Andri on our blog again soon, so keep visiting. 

My free Udemy courses for both new and advanced sellers can be another FREE resource for your unlimited learning regarding Amazon FBA. 

I wish you a very successful future!

See you in my next blog!

Yours,

Vova :)