7 Action Steps to Optimize your Amazon Listings

2020 was a big year for e-commerce. We’ve seen a monumental change in how businesses adapt to the needs of consumers, who are now mostly at home. And being at home means more online shopping. While this was a bigger transition for some online retailers, Amazon has remained one of the go-to e-commerce websites for online shopping. The rising demand for Amazon shopping has also caused an influx of sellers in the Amazon marketplace. With 2.5 million and counting sellers on Amazon, it may seem very challenging to set yourself apart from the competition. But with a few tweaks and adjustments, you can change get those extra pairs of eyes on your shop. Keep reading to learn about our top 7 tips to optimize Amazon listings on your store.

Amazon Marketplace and Visibility

As the world’s largest e-commerce storefront, Amazon is a game-changing platform for sellers. Unlike some websites, people come to Amazon with a purpose, and that purpose is to buy something. Whether it’s a gift, cleaning product, pet food, snacks, or electronics, Amazon has everything.

 

Naturally, being a seller on Amazon is a much different experience than being a customer. As a seller, you want revenue, and the only way to generate any is to make your page stand out from the competition.

 

How do you stand out amongst two million other merchants? The driving factor is maximizing your listings’ visibility, making it easier for buyers to find your products. Now then, let’s get started so you can start converting those visits into sales.

1. Use Sponsored Ads

Sponsored product ads are great because they are keyword-targeted, pay-per-click ads that appear in the search results. These ads are different from your traditional SEO efforts because Amazon sellers can pay for the marketplace to sponsor their products and place them in higher search results. Instead of paying a fee upfront, you only pay when a customer clicks on your Amazon ad, so it’s a mutually beneficial experience for Amazon and you. These types of ads can boost your sales and product visibility; so long as you’re cautious with how you target the ads, shoppers will find and buy your product faster.

2. Revise Your Product Titles

While you may not always consciously pay attention to the title of a product when you’re a customer, it’s definitely a critical factor of how you sell your product on Amazon. Why? Because the title of your product tells people what your product is about in the very short 150-250 character limit Amazon provides you. This is a great opportunity to use keywords that are relevant to your industry or niche which can help your product rank for terms buyers frequently use when searching for your product. Here are three factors you want to consider including when creating your product title.

 

• Brand Name

• What the product is called

• Any distinguishing factors like color, size, or functionality

 

For example, let’s say I plan to sell a squeaky dog toy. I might consider a title like this:

 

“Durable-Long lasting- Tough Dog Toy For Large Dogs- Perfect For Chewing-Comes in Five Colors”.

 

You’re hitting those keywords with a title like this, but definitely in excess. Overstuffing keywords often makes the title sound robotic and inauthentic to your customers. Keep it readable and easily identifiable to shoppers who want as little leg work as possible when trying to purchase an item.

3. Share Your Store on Social media

Never underestimate the power of social media when it comes to promoting your Amazon store. People consume everything on social media. News, shopping, memes. All of it. And your store can capitalize on that engagement.

 

Sharing your products on your social media business pages is a great way to get your products in front of a bigger audience. Still, there’s a right way to do it. The key to sharing your products on social media isn’t to create more ads or fill your newsfeed with informal posts that people won’t engage with. Here are a couple of ways to share your Amazon store authentically on your social media.

• Use a custom promo code. When you have an Amazon store they provide sellers with their own custom promotion links that can be shared on social media for a discount on a specific product. We’ve all seen these promo codes before. Maybe either in the captions or advertised in a video. The codes are usually short, and they offer a discounted percentage of an item. These promos are great at advertising a specific product on Amazon and giving users more incentive to purchase.

• Host a contest or giveaway. Who doesn’t love free stuff? You can promote your contests or giveaways on your website, blog, and social platforms. In addition to encouraging people to engage with your brand, you can give visibility to a bestseller product or perhaps a new debut. You can even ask the contest/giveaway winner for a picture with the winning item that you can repost on your platform.

• Use the “Story” feature to tell people about your products. Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok have all begun to use short-lived content to help promote or push brand stories in a new and exciting way. This feature lets users create a post and make it public for 24 hours. You can use this feature to quickly showcase an array of products and tell your followers what you love about them.
• Create content that includes your Amazon store. Whether it’s a blog post, listicle, infographic, or social media post, the content will always be king. If you have a website outside of your Amazon store, this is the perfect time to knock two birds out with one stone by cross-promoting on both platforms. You can include a copy of the link to your store in any of your content to drive your website followers to your store and increase visibility.

4. Change Your Images

A picture will always be worth a thousand words, and that’s no different on Amazon. Never underestimate the power of a high-resolution, quality image when it comes to getting sales. When people examine the details of a product within your store, they always look at the images. Especially if it’s a product with certain functional elements and components. Amazon does have its own set of rules you want to keep in mind whenever you are posting original picture content on your store, but the most important rule is that your main image is taken on a white background. Depending on the product listing, Amazon will allow you to have between 5-9 product images and you should always take advantage of those additional options by including the following:

• Action shots of your product
• The product label
• Multiple angles of your product
• An image that shows the size of your product in relation to a human hand or something universally familiar

 

Always make sure to keep Amazon’s recommended pixels in mind (1,000 x 1,000). You want to be sure that buyers can view an enlarged version of your image. Keep your images consistent and use the same camera for consistency with all your pictures.

5. Partner With Influencers

You can also leverage the power of influencers to help promote your products. Influencers are becoming bigger and bigger in the marketing world, and they thrive on collaboration with businesses. Identifying a few top influencers who are in your industry and in your budget can drive traffic to your Amazon storefront.

 

Once you have a list of the influencers you want to work with, choose the best products you’d like to review or promote, determine your budget, then draw up a strategy for how and where you want them to promote the store. This can be as minimal or maximized as you want, depending on the budget and amount of time you have. For example, if you plan on partnering with an influencer for the holidays, then you want to contact them a few months in advance in order to coordinate and strategize ahead of time.

 

You can also read our article here to make sure you know what you’re doing when you start your influencer marketing campaign!

6. Edit Your Product Captions

Captions are a critical aspect of helping complete a sale on your Amazon storefront. Unlike some platforms, Amazon uses bullet points to help highlight the features and benefits of your product. You can choose the bullet points to be as thorough or minimal as you want in describing your product. However, you always want to review your descriptions every few months in order to give users a fresh take on your item. Review how you formulated your bullets and try to restructure them by using the following format:

 

• Use the first three bullets to highlight your product’s most important features.
• Use the fourth and fifth bullets to answer common questions.

 

Don’t forget to include keywords and caps to help emphasize any vital information about your products!

7. Review Customer Feedback

The customer is always…honest. But if you want to optimize your Amazon listings, you always have to listen to them.

 

You never want to negate the customer feedback on your Amazon store. Whether it’s a question, statement, or review, your seller rating depends greatly on how customers experience your store. Low-rated sellers get less visibility and don’t rank high in Amazon’s search results. You always want to keep an eye on your seller rating, maintain good customer service, and read the feedback people leave on your product pages. While some negative feedback is expected, rejecting the negative comments does you no good. Apart from the need to acknowledge your product’s issues, Amazon will lower your seller rating for denying negative reviews. Make sure to engage with users who leave reviews, don’t leave any questions unanswered, and read Amazon’s guidelines on providing feedback to customers.

 

Now that we’ve walked through several tips you can use to improve your store visibility, it’s time to get moving! Amazon is a fantastic place to build out your digital storefront, and you can grow traffic and sales by implementing these few tips to your current page.