Looking to buy a new pair of shoes? New bathroom towels? What about a brand-new car? If you’re looking for any of these items (and countless others), you most likely begin your search on Amazon—the world’s largest digital marketplace. Reports show that 6 out of 10 online shoppers begin, and often finish, their hunt on Amazon. With their competitive pricing and wide range of products, there’s often no reason to look elsewhere.
Likewise, if you’re looking to sell products online, Amazon is the place to be. After you learn how to become an Amazon seller, the next step is finding a way to stand out from the competition. Selling high-quality products, of course, is your safest bet for long-term success in online retail—but in a marketplace of millions of sellers, how will potential customers even find you?
Amazon uses specific metrics to determine product ranking, which directly relates to how many potential customers will see your product. By optimizing your product listings, you can maximize the potential to reach as many consumers as possible. Here, we discuss a few simple methods to optimize your product listings and drive sales.
PRODUCT TITLE
What’s in a name? Well, for online shoppers, almost everything. Product titles define the product for potential customers and influences how your products rank for various searches. In short, the product title is very important and you should be very intentional with your choice in words.
While some marketing tactics advocate for the “short and sweet” approach, you want to take full advantage of Amazon’s 500 characters for a product description. You want these product titles to be as comprehensive as possible, including information like brand, color, size, and even features. Results show that longer product titles consistently rank higher than short ones.
PRODUCT DESCRIPTION
After reading your product title, potential customers will then want to know what your product can do. While an effective title comes down to keywords and length, the product description allows you to get a bit more creative in detailing the advantages of your specific product.
Amazon gives you 2,000 characters to essentially make an “argument” for why shoppers should select your product over hundreds of other options. Use bullet points and short, direct sentences to make the description easier to read. Focus on what the product can do for the consumer, and while you should highlight as many positives as possible, avoid overselling as this may result in disappointed customers and poor reviews.
KEYWORD OPTIMIZATION
Keywords play a major role in how Amazon ranks products for consumers. Using the appropriate keywords will match the right customers to your products and, ideally, drive sales. To know which keywords to use, you’ll want to perform keyword research, which can take you down a few different avenues. You can look at competitor’s products that demonstrate success or even use online tools to determine the most effective keywords for your products. However, it’s important to only use keywords that match your product specifically as inaccurate keywords will hurt your overall Amazon ranking.
PICTURES ARE WORTH A THOUSAND WORDS
Product descriptions can tell your customers a lot about the product, its uses, and overall benefits. But when you’re shopping online and never get the chance to really see a product before purchasing, there’s nothing quite as helpful as a good product image. This is often the first impression you make with a potential customer.
There are a few tips for optimizing your product image. Always use high-quality images and a white background so your product isn’t obscured. Since you can upload nine images per product, take advantage of this and provide customers with several different product angles. You want to make them feel like they’re in a store and able to hold it in their hands. Size is also an important concern as it can be challenging to get a feel for the size of a product when you’re online shopping. Provide scale and dimensions on at least one of your product images.
PRICING
Consumers love Amazon for many reasons: shipping, easy returns, and almost any product you can imagine. But what keeps customers coming back is the competitive pricing offered by the sheer size of the Amazon marketplace. To fully optimize your product listings, you’ll need to have competitive prices.
CUSTOMER REVIEWS
In the massive online retail world, it’s challenging for a consumer to know which product or seller to trust. Amazon is home to millions of individual sellers, and while the products may at times seem indistinguishable, the service and quality can vary greatly. All this is why customer reviews hold so much weight in the Amazon marketplace.
Regardless of whether or not the review is good or bad, addressing reviews is vital to show you’re engaged and that you care about your products and customers. If someone leaves a negative review, be sure to respond to their specific complaint in hopes of amending their shopping experience. If someone leaves a positive review, thank them for choosing your store and product. This type of positive interaction often leads to repeat shoppers.
CONCLUSION – OPTIMIZING YOUR PRODUCT LISTINGS
The Amazon marketplace is truly unparalleled in its size and scale. If you’re looking to sell products online, there’s no better place to reach potential customers. On average, 4,000 products are sold on Amazon—every minute. Due to its competitive pricing, Prime benefits, and selection of products, consumers know that Amazon is the place to find what they need at the price they want.
However, the scale of Amazon is, in many ways, a double-edged sword. With so much to choose from, how can you possibly make the right decision? Many online sellers use an Amazon seller app to increase sales and visibility in addition to optimization strategies.
By optimizing your product listings, you can help ensure your high-quality products will rank better and become more visible for online shoppers. By optimizing your product titles, keywords, images, and responding to reviews, you can increase sales and find success in the Amazon marketplace.
