Unless you've been living under a rock for the last 20 years, you are likely to have at least heard of Amazon, but did you know it's actually a marketplace teaming with small businesses just like yours?

And how can you use this huge stream of traffic footfall to get business growth and give your sales a boost this year ?

Let's start with the basics...

What is the Amazon Marketplace platform?

Amazon may have begun life as an online book shop, but the company has expanded and grown over the decades to become a global shopping phenomenon. It is now the number one place where shoppers go, when they are ready to buy physical products.

If you are a product based business and creating a plan for business growth - know that this is truly the center of the product sales universe.

Why your brand probably needs to be on Amazon in some format 

When the simple idea to buy a product pops into our modern Customers mind, they are naturally researching on Amazon first - just as the starting point - before making any selection about the exact specification of the product they want and which brand they want to buy it from.

It's true that Customers don’t always buy from the Amazon platform, but they certainly start their search there.  When the Amazon search results then returns the product they want, it's available right in front of them, and many customers already have Amazon prime on their account for free delivery -  it makes it a bit of a "no-brainer" to complete checkout immediately.

That is the power of the Amazon marketplace.  It draws in qualified buyers with powerful search and presents a beautiful depth of range - it then closes the deal with ease of journey and lack of friction at checkout. 

Even if the customer doesn't buy on Amazon, you want your brand to at least be seen as your Customer performs that first research "filter" of possible product options. 

Recognise and take advantage of it's search power

So we all agree, Amazon is where the search journey starts for most product seeking customers, particularly in the UK and US.  The platform has a stream of customers already primed with strong buyer intent. 

This strong buyer intent means the time from viewing the product to hard sales conversion is shortened dramatically.  Unlike your own website, where customers have to "warm up to you" and decide if they trust you before they buy...

This means that if you have an Amazon seller account already - YOUR no. 1 job on this platform this year is to appear for the search terms (keywords) your customers are most likely to type into Amazon.

Remember, Amazon is not a mind reader - it can only return product records which are relevant and match what the user is typing into the search bar. 

So don't call your product something cutesy and off the wall...simply call it what it is - the exact phrase that your customers will type in, so you get found.  If you don't have these keywords in your listings your are 100% leaving money on the table. 

Before you spend any money on Ads and paying per click for all sorts of keyword terms, you must get your basic search structure working well for you.  Make the most of the organic search before investing into scaling up paid for Ads.

Get the listing basics right this year

To upgrade your Amazon game this year, you need to make sure that you have all the basics on your product listing covered.

This means getting your products listed on the site, with a great selection of images - using up all the image spaces on the product record and please use video if this option is available to you. It's a big tick in the box as far as Amazon are concerned as it helps them provide a richer customer experience on their platform.

Don't leave any blank boxes or spare characters on your product data. Fill it all in as much as you possibly can.  

Don't forget to register your brand on the Amazon Brand Registry, to get ownership of your product line and protect your brand from unscrupulous competitors who have been know to hi-jack listings!

Price to win

Amazon creates full transparency on pricing and many but not all customers browsing this marketplace will be price sensitive.  Fairly and sensibly price your products. Showcase the real value exchange.  Make sure you check out what your competition is doing and aim to compete with them appropriately. 

To be clear, in my view this doesn't mean entering into a price war - no one wins that.  We do want "profit per platform" remember!

If you can't compete effectively on price or if this approach is not for your brand because you are taking a luxury positioning, make sure your brand story and depth of product description is compelling to justify your higher price positioning. 

Always consider adding a voucher, even if just short term, to your product to get early sales moving and to indicate to the Amazon algorithm that your product listing has some sales "velocity" to it. Customers on Amazon love a voucher, and it could be the deciding factor between your listing and someone else.

Use insight tools

Clever insight tools and third party software specifically designed to help Amazon sellers, are now available in abundance and allow you to analyse trends and see what is going on with Amazon sales. These tools let you find high ranking keywords for your category that enable you to optimise your product listings to target that market.

They also let you check and see how competitors in the same niches are doing with their products. This helps you to adapt and improve your marketing strategy to maximise sales on the platform.

There are plenty of tools to help you and choose from.  One of my personal favorites is Helium 10 because of the depth of data you can view on competitor listings. 

Get savvy and invest in the proper tools suite if you are serious about scaling your Amazon trading this year. It's worth every penny. 

Optimise your listings - go deeper than your competitors would

You want to make sure that your product listing is found easily and prominent in the customer's eye. Many competitor listings will simply just fill in the basic info for their product and leave it at that.

Don't be that trader - it's the lazy approach. 

Amazon give you lots of additional space across the product record to showcase your brand and expand on the detail to support your listing.  USE every inch of that space and optimise your marketing story as if that one product record is your whole store!

For example:

• Use keywords in the product title and take advantage of all the characters that you have available. Don't leave 50 characters wasted when a juicy keyword could have been added!
• Make sure that your product description is complete and that it has all the product facts and stats, so that your customers can make an informed choice.
• Make sure that your images show off your product in its best light and that they are crisp, clear and beautiful.
• Show how your product can be used or add value to your customer's life with a mix of lifestyle imagery that make the product aspirational - help the customer picture themselves using it, as well as basic ecommerce product shots so they can see the finer detail.
• Add story "text" to your images so that customers can quickly understand the benefits and to support fast digestion of whether the product will work for them. Customers are known for the journey on Amazon "Picture >  Price > Buy" simply checking out images and then going to buy straight away so your image needs to really sell your product. They often won't read any words on the product page at all! 
• Create an Amazon storefront (shop) - This is where you can show off all of your products in one place, and someone who has bought a product from your range may well like other things you have in store too.  Engender brand loyalty by cross selling on other products the customer may also like. Don't miss out on this opportunity, it's free and helps your trading account look more professional. 
• Use the ‘about the manufacturer/brand’ section on the product listing to bring your brand and company to life. Tell a story about your business using beautiful imagery and expand on the values and mission of your company. Talk about what your brand stands for, explain your USP (unique selling point - the thing that makes you special) and treat this section like a mini website / window to your brand.  Link this section to your Amazon storefront. 
• Make sure that you manage your reviews - this means requesting feedback where you can and dealing with any negative comments helpfully and professionally. Try to optimise any 5-star review and get them to the top.
• Finally, fill the product listing section with frequently asked questions. Answer any questions posed by customers in a helpful and friendly manner. This is an opportunity to interact with your customers and show that you care about what they have to say. Amazon is part community so make sure you are proactively joining in and communicating with your audience.

Make It Happen In Your Business

Winning on Amazon is all about giving more detail, being savvy on your marketing approach and bringing your brand to life more than your competitors will bother to do. 

Treat each of your product records as it's own mini landing page, it has to be fully optimised and tell a complete brand story as if it were a glipse into your whole company in one go.  I have clients who have made hundreds of thousands of £GBP simply from ONE product record done well.  That's all you need!

Next Steps:

• If you would like help in planning how to scale up your ecommerce business this year, then an ecommerce business coach can help you with your growth plans. You can schedule a call with me here to talk through your business growth goals and see how I can help. 
• It's time to take a long hard look at your product listings.  If you have just done the bare minimum, stuck a couple of pics up and a short description with no thinking, no keyword strategy and with big gaping holes in your product record, then why would Amazon bother to showcase your product when someone searches?  They won't, they'll hide your rubbish looking listing down at the bottom of the search results and showcase the beautifully crafted mini landing pages your competitors have produced instead. Let's be real about this :)
• Don't be the lazy Amazon trader, go to the next level and add that detail.  Yes it takes time, but so does any retail merchandising if you were presenting your product in a real, physical shop, or pop up event.  Go to it! 
• Research Amazon insight and analytics tools which have been designed to help professional Amazon traders win.  Consider a free trial on your preferred tool and make sure you learn and take action from the insights these tools show you.