Creating a shopper-centric experience on Amazon is the key to satisfied customers and successful conversions. As an Amazon merchant, it is crucial to understand how to attract and retain shoppers. How can we do this with optimised product listings and global content? In what way does a Storefront help our brand?

Read more about Amazon platforms and how SEO works on Amazon. Read our 3 part article series based on this post on LinkedIn: Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3.

Selling on Amazon: Understanding the Basic Content of a Product Listing Page

On Amazon, a customer’s product search will result in a list of products that best match the customer’s search words. (Read more about Search Engine Optimisation on Amazon.) The customer will either choose a specific brand or product they want, or they will look at the list and pick the best option based on the photos and product titles. Most shoppers do not look past the first page, which, depending on the category, can display 30-70 products. Your product listing should not only be optimised to show up at the top of a search query, it should also convince the shopper to click on the product.

An Amazon product listing page contains, at the very least, basic information about the product for sale. A listing page contains the product title, images, a bulleted list of product features, a product description, and its price.

Product Listing Page Attributes:

The product title is crucial for helping people find and click on the product in a product search. In under 200 characters, the most effective product title will explain: the product name/model number, its brand, its purpose, and any distinguishing features including size and colour.

When a shopper visits the product listing page, the main product images should show the physical features of the product. Such physical aspects include size, functional features, and how the product looks when in use. Infographics are useful for attracting shoppers who don’t want to scroll the product listing for more information. Providing detailed images also helps reduce returns and negative feedback, as shoppers can see exactly what they are buying.

There are some important guidelines for product images that are consistent across marketplaces. Using a white background, the product should cover at least 80% of the image without showing any optional accessories. The image resolution should have a resolution of at least 1,000 DPI.

The bullet points provide a succinct list of product features. An optimised 5-point bullet list will outline, very succinctly and clearly, the key selling features of the product. Containing the most relevant keywords for the Amazon algorithm, the bullet list will be succinct. By avoiding long sentences and superfluous language, the bullet points deliver information without losing the reader’s attention. Depending on the product, industry specific jargon may help more discerning shoppers know exactly what the product is.

A product description expands on bullet points to give a full description of the product within a 2,000 character limit. The description highlights how the product will benefit the shopper and gives more information about the product’s most important features. Sellers with Vendor accounts will find this section labelled as “From the Manufacturer.”

Recap on best practices of a basic product listing page:

• Know your customers. What will they want to know about your product? What will they be looking for? How do they want to be spoken to?
• Improve the user experience. Make all of the information (title, images, bullet points, product description) easy to read/look at, and informative. Use formatting in the product description to make the text quick and easy to read.
• Keywords are important. The ideal product title includes the most relevant keywords that enable it to show up in the top search results. Top results will also be most likely to attract shoppers.
• Be mindful of image requirements in your chosen marketplace(s).

Tools for Making Product Listing Pages more Shopper-Centric: A+ Content & Variations

Beyond the basic content of a product listing page, being able to combine similar products into variation families is a powerful tool for visibility. Increasing visibility of products, especially if they are newer or less popular than similar products, will help with conversions. Another more advanced feature for enhancing a product listing page is the use of the A+ Content tool. Premium A+ are even more enhanced product descriptions that can include video (if desired) and interactive hotspots. The A/B Testing Tool allows Sellers to experiment with aspects that make product listings even more appealing to shoppers. With these more advanced tools, sales can increase by a possible 5–25%!

Variations

Variations (or “Twisters”) are multiple related products under one listing that may vary by size, colour, or style, for example. Combining variations is a more customer-friendly way of displaying products in the same product line instead of having separate product detail page for each product.

There are three components of a listing variation relationship:

• Parent ASIN – acts as a holding place for variations and is not used for a purchasable product
• Child ASIN – the actual variant product for sale
• Variation Theme – type of variation that defines the difference between related products. These could be sizes, colours or flavours, for example.

Why should we use variations? Variations allow customers to see multiple options available for a particular product within one listing, increasing the likelihood for conversions. Variations increase visibility of low-performing or new products by combining them with higher-performing products. Reviews are combined for products within a variation family, which helps newer products with less reviews. The more reviews, the more likely the algorithm will show that product in a search. Sales history within a variation family is also combined, driving up organic search ranking and the overall Best Sellers Rank.

A+ Content Tool

A+ content is a marketing tool available to brand owners registered in Amazon Brand Registry. A+ content on a product listing page is an enhanced product description. Such enhancements include the use of tables, images and comparison charts to highlight the product’s selling features. The A+ module replaces the “Product Description” section for Sellers, or the “From the Manufacturer” section for Vendors. Using A+ content on your product listing page helps you sell your brand as well as your product, leading to customer loyalty as they follow your brand. Use of A+ Content can potentially increase sales by 5%.

More advanced tools:

Premium A+ expands on A+ features, allowing sellers to use dynamic visual content including interactive hotspots, larger images and videos. This feature is only for eligible sellers. To be eligible, you will have already published an A+ Brand Story for all ASINs in your catalogue. You will have also successfully published at least 15 A+ content modules for different products.

The A/B Testing Tool allows you to test aspects of a product listing page that attract your shoppers the most. To use this feature, you must use an ASIN that has already received traffic to their product listing page. With the tool, you create two versions of A+ modules to collect data on the sold units and conversion rates. Attributes that can be adjusted include the product title, the main product images, bullet points, product description/A+. Each version allows you to test different attributes of a product listing. Repeating these experiments for different attributes will help you fine tune your product listing strategy. Optimising your content with this tool can potentially increase sales by up to 25%.

Recap of the more advanced features of a product listing page:

• Variations allow sellers to combine similar products in one listing, to make it easier for customers to see different options. Increases visibility of less popular or new products when combined with more popular products.
• A+ modules are enhanced product descriptions that include the use of images and graphics. Premium A+ go even further with the option of adding videos and interactive hotspots.
• A/B Testing allows sellers to test different attributes of product listing pages on shoppers. By seeing what appeals to shoppers the most, sellers create more effective product listing pages.

Extending your Brand’s Reach: Looking at Storefronts & Global Content

Going beyond the product listing pages, setting up an Amazon Storefront helps expand the reach of your brand. Your customer base will expand as brand awareness expands, and the Storefront showcases your brand’s products on Amazon. Want to expand your business even more? Amazon makes it easy to expand to other Amazon marketplaces due to centralised distribution, logistics tools and customer service. It is important, however, to ensure that content is suitable across markets while considering each local culture and language.

Amazon Storefront

An Amazon Storefront is a free advertising tool available for professional Sellers enrolled in Amazon Brand Registry. Storefronts on Amazon showcase your brand’s products and increase brand awareness among shoppers.

An Amazon Storefront allows a seller to creatively display products on a home page and organised via subpages. Efficient Sponsored Brands or Sponsored Display ads help redirect traffic to the Amazon storefront, funnelling customers away from competitors and their products. Sellers have access to data that shows traffic to the storefront and how the storefront is driving sales and page views. With this data, sellers can make more accurate and efficient marketing strategy decisions.

Global Content

Amazon has 21 global marketplaces: Europe (10), Asia-Pacific (4), Middle East and North Africa (3), and North America (4). These marketplaces reach more than 200 countries with more than 300 million active Amazon customer accounts. Amazon provides ample opportunities to expand the reach of your business globally with access to centralized distribution, logistics and customer service (including FBA) tools. In 2020, 8 EU markets reached over 28 different countries with 227 million unique visitors a month. (Read more about the Benefits of Selling on Amazon and Expanding to Amazon Europe.)

Once you know where you want to expand your market to, you will need to create an account on that marketplace, which can be linked to your existing accounts. The Build International Listings (BIL) tool makes it easy to simultaneously create and update product listings on multiple marketplaces. Offers and pricing can also be synchronised across multiple marketplaces. It is important to pay attention to product listing requirements in case there are issues unique to certain marketplaces. Amazon simplifies the process of setting up accounts in multiple marketplaces, but sellers should carefully consider local customs and language. Understanding the local market will also help a great deal with optimal keywords and categorization of products.

It is important to keep the bullet points very concise to make it easier for cross-market translations. Cultural references and slang words are difficult to translate, so they should be avoided. Keywords in the bullet points and product titles should be tailored to the local culture/language. If sellers use infographics and videos, take care to separate text from the image/video files to make it easier to replace the translated text. In some markets, having foreign text in an image or video can cause the system to reject it! By having consistent branding across markets, shoppers know how to find you, no matter where they are.

Recap of options for expanding your brand’s reach beyond the product listing page:

• Setting up a storefront allows brands to showcase the products they sell on Amazon. Shoppers can also learn more about a brand, fostering awareness and loyalty.
• Amazon streamlines the process of expanding to other marketplaces, but sellers should be aware of language and cultural issues that might affect their brand’s success in other marketplaces.

Shopper-Centric Experience on Amazon = Satisfied Customers and Successful Conversions

A plethora of options in an Amazon product search makes shopping a quick and easy process for online shoppers. For sellers, having product listing pages that appeal to shoppers goes a long way toward a potential sale. With variation families providing multiple product options on a single listing page, a sale is even more likely. The use of A+ content provides enhanced product descriptions for a more detailed look at a product. Setting up even a basic A+ can potentially increase conversion rates by 5%, while paying attention to what appeals the shoppers via A/B Testing can increase conversion rates up to 25%.

An Amazon Storefront helps expand the reach of your brand by providing an overview of the brand and its products. Storefronts increase the likelihood of repeat customers and brand loyalty as they know what the brand has to offer. Expanding to different Amazon marketplaces thanks to Amazon’s streamlined process can potentially provide exponential growth for your business. Success in global market(s) is compounded even further with careful attention of shopper culture and language behaviours.

Paying attention to the different aspects of emphasising a shopper-centric experience on Amazon truly is crucial to more satisfied customers, and more successful conversion rates for a brand.

Need advice on the best Amazon strategy for your brand? Want more information about our tailored services? Contact us today!

Image credit: Photo by Bastian Riccardi on Unsplash