The dominance of Amazon has grown exponentially over the past few years, now accounting for £4 in every £100 spent on retail in the UK. With over 400 million monthly visitors, Amazon now represents 33.5% of all UK spend online. To say the opportunity is huge is the understatement of the century. Yet to successfully sell on Amazon requires a savvy strategy if you want to stand out from the crowd.
You’ve taken the first step and listed your product catalogue on Amazon. Great! But how can you make sure that you’re actually getting in front of potential consumers? And are you doing enough to win the Buy Box? In this blog we’ll arm you with practical tools to help you gain visibility and sell better on Amazon, from clear titles to attract buyers to creating descriptions that actually convert, we’ll lift the lid on what it takes to sell successfully on this retail giant.
A Picture Paints a Thousand Words
Did you know we process visuals 60,000 times faster than text? In fact, 90% of the information sent to our brain is visual. So it’s little wonder that having the right imagery can make or break your listing. It’s important to nail the basics when selling on Amazon.
Pictures should be taken on a white background, and fill more than 85% of the image space. They should measure at least 500 pixels in height or width (but 1000 x 1000 is preferable so that mobile viewers can zoom in). Put some thought into the lighting and positioning and leave out watermarks and logos.
As well as the main photo, you can add up to 8 alternate images to your listing. Make sure you use at least four additional photos and use them to show your products from different angles or demonstrate how your product works. You can think about using props or models in these extra images if they help to illustrate your product.
Clear and Concise = Conversion
It’s now predicted that more than 50% of product searches begin on Amazon, tapping into the 3 billions products available across 11 marketplaces. With so many items on offer, it’s little wonder that most consumers use the search functionality extensively, making it crucial for sellers to understand the keywords their consumers are looking for.
Good product descriptions are key to improving conversion rates. Use your allocated 2000 characters wisely by focusing on including the product’s unique selling points at the start of the description. Plug your target keywords in the bullet points – you’re allowed to use five search terms – and use all 50 characters for each. These can be the same keywords or phrases you used in the title.
Say my Name, Say my Name
Your title is how you are discovered. And first impressions count, both to your customers and of course, Amazon’s algorithm. This algorithm uses a ‘match score’ to promote the most relevant results, so include keywords customers will use to find your products when they’re searching.
Our advice – don’t keyword-stuff or repeat terms – rather than stringing terms together randomly, put them in a logical order so titles are clear and easy to read.
Always remember you are primarily writing for humans, not bots.
Follow Amazon’s recommended order too: Brand name, Product Title, Key Features/Colour, Size/ Quantity.
Amazon is also picky on the formating:
Do’s
- Capitalise the first letter of keywords
- Use ‘and’ instead of ampersands (&)
- Write numbers as numerals rather than words (5 instead of five)
- Include any model numbers in the title, as users will often compare similar brands’ products using the model as a search term.
Don’ts
- Don’t be too suggestive in the title (unfortunately you can’t claim to be the best in the world!)
- Promotions
- DON’T WRITE LIKE THIS
- If your product only comes in one colour or size don’t bother to call out the colour or size in the title e.g Revlon Satin Finish Lipstick Coral or Nike Men’s Court Royal in Navy
5 Star Fulfilment
Customer’s deliver expectations have exploded in recent years. Next-day delivery is now simply table stakes, and Amazon is leading the charge. Last year Fulfilment by Amazon (FBA) delivered more than 2 billion items worldwide with the number of active sellers using the service growing by more than 70%.
Fulfilment by Amazon (FBA) offers you a great opportunity to scale. In a nutshell, Amazon handles your shipping and offers a ‘5 stars’ customer service on your behalf, so opting in is a great way to ensure superior buyer ratings. You can also use FBA to fulfil other channels such as eBay or you can use FBA to kick-start international expansion plans with FBA Export.
FBA also gives you access to Prime customers (rumoured to be at more than 80 million who typically spend 4.6 times more on the platform than non- members.)
These high-spenders actively filter by Prime to get free one-day delivery, so it is no surprise that sellers who use FBA see increased sales and a higher ranking on the platform.
Live in the Spotlight
Sponsored Products are a key way to ensure you are easily discovered by consumers. These image-based targeted ads promote the products you sell on Amazon, intermingling with the organic search results. By clicking on your ad, shoppers are taken to your product page, where your offer is listed.
Sponsored Products can improve discoverability and visibility, enabling you to reach a highly qualified audience with ads related to their searches. The transparent nature of the programme – you only pay when someone clicks on your product – means you can easily measure ROI and optimise your ad spend. You can provide the keywords for your ads, or Amazon can generate them for you automatically. Automatic targeting is a good place to start with Sponsored Products. You can always re-adjust once you know what’s working for you.
Get Seen in All the Right Categories
And finally, it doesn’t matter how great your photos are, or how optimised your copy is, if you get into the wrong categories you will miss out on valuable sales. Amazon helps shoppers quickly pinpoint the items they’re searching for by showing them results narrowed down to relevant subcategories.
For example, people searching for face cream will be shown results in ‘Skin Care’. If you sell face cream but haven’t listed in this category, shoppers simply won’t see your product when filtering by category. It is definitely worth checking the category of your product a second time –simply moving a listing to the correct location can help improve sales. Use the most specific and lowest level Browse Node ID for your products – add in attributes such as Target Gender, ‘Used For’ etc. to improve your discoverability.
Notify Amazon if products are misclassified.
Get Help and Support
We hope this blog has been helpful for you, whether you’re new to Amazon selling or a seasoned seller, you can always optimise your listings and performance. For information on how ChannelAdvisor can help you optimise your listings, as well as help you expand your presence across multiple marketplaces at home and abroad, contact us at UKteam@channeladvisor.co.uk.
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