The Path to Amazon Marketplace Success

Success within the e-commerce business model requires a unique mix of business strengths. This is especially true when brands are pursuing customers in multiple ways. For example, growing a direct-to-consumer website is much different than winning on an online marketplace like Amazon, where companies face fierce competition for shopper attention. 

Fortunately, there are Amazon marketplace success strategies that can help companies grow their business on these platforms. So whether your brand is only focused on Amazon or looking to improve its sales outlook on multiple marketplaces, this guide can lead you in the right direction.  

Build a Strong Presence

Much like making the most of a social media platform, presence means a lot when it comes to turning an online marketplace into a powerful sales channel. Small businesses, in particular, need to take advantage of every opportunity to establish their brand. Otherwise, they may wonder if they’re in the right marketplace. 

Engage in optimization

Amazon content is the lifeblood of businesses selling on the platform. Producing exceptional Amazon product listings should be a priority for any brand or marketplace seller pursuing growth and long-term success on Amazon. However, creating product listings that reach the right shoppers, earn the Buy Box and have high conversion rates requires more than a desire to achieve those goals or even the existence of quality products to back them up. It demands a strategic plan for optimization and the ability to execute it.

The best listings are optimized for Amazon’s search algorithm and maximize the opportunities that come with each of its key components. A failure in these fundamentals can undermine further efforts to elevate their effectiveness. While writing a listing’s title and description may seem intuitive, the nuances of optimizing these often trip up inexperienced sellers. 

Create an Amazon Store

Since 2018, Amazon Storefronts have offered a way for brands to showcase all their Amazon products to online shoppers within a custom-designed and branded store interface. So rather than sacrificing such a significant advantage when selling on Amazon, businesses can create a Storefront that organizes and features their listings to reinforce their unique brand, introduce new products and enhance the customer experience. 

As the face of your products on Amazon, brand owners should be highly involved with creating their Amazon Store. However, it’s essential to keep in mind that design and branding are skills and not something to take lightly. While Amazon has gone to great lengths to make Storefront creation simple and accessible to any seller via templates and drag-and-drop tools, the task will undoubtedly benefit from a well-devised strategy and an experienced designer. 

Remember your branding

E-commerce success doesn’t just come from selling products online. It also requires selling your brand to customers in a way that strengthens satisfaction and encourages loyalty. You want to relate to your customers as people, not just treat them as numbers on a spreadsheet. 

Customers who connect emotionally with a brand name typically have a higher lifetime value. And according to Deloitte research, 80 percent of consumers would pay more for products if the company committed itself to be socially responsible, environmentally responsible, and/or paying higher wages. While there are several ways to share your brand’s story on Amazon, clear and concise writing, content marketing, professional photography, and integrated video can all be critical to the effort. 

Reach the Right Customers

Growing consistently on a marketplace platform requires a thorough understanding of your target audience. But beyond reaching potential buyers, brands also need to be able to convert them into loyal customers whose experience can result in more sales and new prospects. 

Implement a pricing strategy

Every brand selling on Amazon should take a deliberate approach to price. As e-commerce continues its rapid growth, pricing policies are becoming more important for both retailers and manufacturers. Online sales are likely to continue their growth trend while also consolidating among the most prominent online marketplaces. As this happens, the desire of smaller resellers to compete with industry leaders is more likely to lead to destructive price wars for products that aren’t backed by effective pricing strategies. 

Implementing effective pricing policies can help companies create mutually-beneficial relationships with retailers and shoppers. In addition to the positive impacts that a successful pricing strategy can have on a company’s retailers and customers, there are also substantial benefits for the brand. Prioritizing margins and protecting retailers from price wars increases a brand’s value in several ways. 

An effective pricing policy can enhance profits by avoiding these short-term price wars and making the company a more attractive partner for retailers. The market awareness required to implement and monitor pricing policies can also result in less competition from businesses that will likely seek out more vulnerable targets. Relatedly, well-executed pricing policies will likely lead to greater market share as brand awareness improves and reaches more prospective customers. 

Drive traffic with online advertising

Every brand on the platform is looking for ways to strengthen its Amazon sales. However, while Amazon Search Engine Optimizations (SEO) can give sellers the edge regarding organic search results, it’s not the only path to a better bottom line. 

‍Pay-per-click (PPC) Amazon ads can be a more direct way to drive traffic to your product listings or Amazon Storefront. These PPC ads allow e-commerce businesses to break through the immense competition on Amazon and increase their reach. But it requires a solid plan, a broad understanding of the tools available and skilled execution on behalf of the advertiser. While online advertising can be quite cost-effective, a poorly planned campaign will have very little Return on Ad Spend (RoAS), meaning you will have paid too much, no matter the cost. 

Focus on Fulfillment

As Amazon grew its dominance as a shopping platform, its vast network of distribution warehouses has made fast shipping a mainstay of customer expectations. One of the impacts of this is that long-term success as a seller on the platform now relies on a brand’s ability to live up to those customer demands and maintain an efficient fulfillment process. 

Brands pursuing Amazon marketplace success have several options to ensure a steady supply of their products and that they reach customers quickly and in good condition. Many Amazon businesses take advantage of the platform’s Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) program, while some expand Amazon’s role in their shipping strategy with Amazon’s Multi-Channel Fulfillment (MCF). The latter can simplify logistics by providing the same features and services of Amazon FBA to fulfill orders that originate from most online merchants, including a brand’s direct-to-consumer (DTC) website. However, the lack of an effective fulfillment plan is often too big a hurdle to overcome. 

Find Ways to Improve

No marketplace marketing strategy is complete without ongoing refinement. From Amazon product data to google analytics, there are plenty of resources to help companies make sure they are on the right track. But without a commitment to maximizing those opportunities, they risk their outreach to a potential customer missing the mark or falling short. 

Utilize analytics and reporting

Whether from Amazon or elsewhere, one of the advantages of e-commerce is the incredible amount of data sellers can access. There’s often an overwhelming number of reports available regarding inventory, shoppers, advertising, buyers and more. But, the most effective Amazon sellers will understand how to leverage the data to reach more customers and increase conversions.

Remember, it’s not just about monitoring this enormous cache of data. It must also be appropriately analyzed to reveal actionable insights that optimize and grow sales. In particular, Amazon sellers can utilize the platform’s proprietary reports via Seller Central and supplement those metrics with other online store or marketing data to create a fuller picture of a brand’s strengths and weaknesses. 

Monitor Competition

Regardless of what or where you sell, it’s always advisable to be mindful of your competition. An e-commerce site such as Amazon is certainly no exception. Using the most relevant search terms can help you identify competing brands and products, evaluate pricing strategies, compare reviews and spot ways to differentiate your product listings. 

Be sure to review what products are available, how they are organized and what tactics are used to describe and promote them. Most importantly, you’ll need to do so regularly to remain aware of any changes to the competition that could begin to undermine your other optimization strategies. If your brand is building a presence on Amazon 

Don’t overlook Customer Reviews

Online shopping is more popular than ever, and buyers are extremely savvy about their options. As a result, many view reading product reviews as one of the best ways to inform their purchasing decision. Surveys have shown that nine out of 10 customers read reviews before clicking the buy button, while eight out of 10 give them as much weight as a personal recommendation. 

There’s no question that reviews, positive and negative, can impact product sales and conversion metrics. What may not be clear, though, is how the relationship between Amazon reviews and sales can begin before a prospective customer even finds your listing. Product reviews on a site like Amazon can impact your organic rank among the search results. That’s why brands need to pay close attention to customer reviews and develop a strategy to mine them as part of their ongoing customer service and marketing efforts. 

Let Amify Guide Your Amazon Marketplace Success

If you’re in need of a marketplace expert to lead your target audience from shopper to buyer, consider trusting your brand with the Amazon experts at Amify. We can develop the right digital marketing strategy for your business and provide the skills necessary to execute it effectively. Schedule your free Amazon Account Consultation to get started.