At least one key, leading product is now no longer available to consumers. This may have occured from a seasonal shift, an out of stock, or a decision by the brand to retract the product from the market. Less probable but something that certainly happens is that Amazon may have frozen their account. Regardless of the reason, there is now an opportunity for the savvy competitor to lean in to this category by increasing ad spend, better positioning existing products according to pricing and keyword trends, to introduce products that fill consumer gaps, and other tactics which take advantage of the competitive gap that has recently been created. The key is to drive up conversion momentum during the period of the category leader's absence, such that if the leader returns, it is easier to compete--and win--against them.

The 'Needlework Supplies' category has bedded down on the bottom stratum in the E-commerce metric, 'Revenue per ASIN', within the last 30 days, placing its brands and products among the E-commerce sleepers. Currently at $10,972, this is a 91.0% reduction from the recent average 'Revenue per ASIN' of $122,451 within the E-commerce sectors we cover.

We commonly identify revenue distribution among the products of any given category is as exponential shape, with the category leaders of the top 10 earning more than the rest of the category, combined. The 'Needlework Supplies' category now has an uncommon shape: a broad distribution that spans beyond the top 10 products, with the current top 10 only earning 43.5% of the best sellers revenue. This shows that there may be seasonal factors causing category leaderhip rotation, or possibly a broad range of brands with exceptional performance. One implication is that brands can expect this category to move more fluidly, creating opportunities for good performers to break into the leadership roles and experience the elevated revenue as a consequence.

This Leaderboard shows the leading products within the category during the last 30 days. Typically these 10 products earn significantly more revenue than the other products within the category. The strategy to over-spend on advertising and marketing until one's product achieves a rank within the Leaderboard frequently has a benefit other than a magnitude increase in revenue, which is that organic ranking becomes more likely the closer a product gets to the #1 position in the Leaderboard--at which point paid advertising can become unnecessary. The longer a product can stay at the top of this Leaderboard, the more momentum it achieves.

The 'Listing Brands per ASIN' indicator is a measure of how many unique amazon accounts (also called 'Listing Brands') are selling the top 100 leading products within a category. When this number is low, this is a signal that there is consolidation, and that the category is being controlled by fewer brands than average. In this situation competition can be difficult, as the brands may have pricing power, search power / brand strength, and a critical mass of reviews--all of which may make it very difficult for a new entrant to break into the top 10 without relatively high spend on marketing. When this number is high, this is a flag that there is a high amount of consumer demand coupled with moderate to low competition. New entrants may have an easier time in this category, and it may be more forgiving to exploration and mistakes.

A product's review count is one of the most critical components of the E-commerce search algorithm. The recent change from 2,084 to 1,454, a change of -30.2%, is a flag that the category is somewhat moving towards lower, less intense competition and seasonal change.

Finally, regardless of the reason why there is a competitive gap on account of a category-leading product retracting from the market, now is the time to act, category performance of the top brands and products within 'Needlework Supplies' shows that it is struggling to gain consumer confidence. While this may be an opportunity for the brands which are willing to persist in marketing the category's presence and products until consumers show a critical mass of conversion, astute brands will round out their product portfolio with other categories instead of being reliant on this one, the wide-spread revenue that we can see in the 'Needlework Supplies' category implies a higher level of leadership change than average, which can be the basis of opportunistic growth for astute brands, the recent performance of ASIN #B002PI751C ('SINGER 01125 Assorted Hand Needles - Bet...' by SINGER) shows that it is the new benchmark., the recent high of the 'Seller Accounts Per Product' metric is a salient sign for the brands in the 'Needlework Supplies' category. Those who wish to lead must improve their performance., the recent shift in review count is a call to action for those brands which are under-performing--specifically that a stronger focus on marketing and conversion is increasingly important in order to not be left behind.