Top 4 Crucial Cornerstones of Your Amazon Strategy

For Amazon to be a platform seller and vendors to find success, businesses need to have a solid strategy in place. These strategies can range from simple to complex and vary depending on the structure of the business, however, every Amazon strategy should be formed of four areas. These cornerstones give the basis for an effective strategy, whether you are a seller or a vendor.

Top 4 Crucial Cornerstones of Your Amazon Strategy

1. Image optimization

The first element of all strategies as sellers and vendors on Amazon is to make image optimization a top priority. Amazon provides a lot of scope for brands on its marketplace to include a range of high-quality images and videos within A+ content, so businesses should take advantage of this.

Online purchases are partially based on trust, so if your product images do not accurately represent what it is the customer is going to receive, then it could lead to an influx of bad reviews and returns, which can impact your buy box eligibility and rankings. On the other hand, if the images are poor you may find you have a poor conversion rate, with shoppers choosing not to take the risk and opting for a competitor's product instead.

This is why images should be a huge focus within your Amazon strategy. Invest in good photography, review Amazon’s image best practices and guidance, and ensure you fill all your slots. Amazon rewards listings with complete sets of images, which is another benefit.

2. Regular reviewing and updating of listing content

Next to the images, the product listing content is another top priority of your strategy. Not only does the content provide a place to insert keywords to help with Amazon rankings, but it also should present consumers with all the information they need to make their purchase decision. 

However, once the content is written and live, this isn’t the job finished. Part of your Amazon strategy should include regularly reviewing and updating this content to include new, high-volume keywords as well as any extra information consumers have shared in recent reviews or the answers to questions they have asked in yours, or your competitors’, Q&A section.

Making it part of your strategy to review this content frequently will allow you to keep on top of Amazon’s algorithm and ensure customer queries are being addressed, increasing your conversions as a result.

3. Utilizing Amazon advertising

Amazon’s organic rankings can be a little predictable, which is why sellers and vendors shouldn’t put all their eggs in that basket. There is one way, however, that businesses can quickly build organic rankings – whilst at the same time generating actual sales and building a customer base, and that is to invest in Amazon’s paid search offering.

The advertising options offered include, but are not limited to:

Sponsored products: Sponsored Products are ads for separate product listings on Amazon. They seem on shopping outcomes pages & product element pages.

Sponsored brands: Sponsored brands: Sponsored Labels showcase your product portfolio & brand. Featuring your brand logo, a custom headline, and a selection of your products, these ads appear on shopping results pages.

Sponsored display: Sponsored Display is a new self-service advertising solution that helps advertisers reach relevant audiences across the shopper journey, with ad placements that appear on and off Amazon.

Investing in advertising boosts the visibility of your brand in front of a wider audience and increases sales, both of which will help your organic performance too. Stay on top of your advertising spend though to ensure the ads are performing and your spending is controlled.

4. A solid account management process

Due to the complexities involved in being a vendor or seller on Amazon, developing a process for account management can be quite daunting.

The last part of the foundation of an effective strategy should be the account management process. Having a defined process in place will allow you to stay on top of updates, and new feature rollouts and provide insights and actions based on reviewing key metrics and reports.

This is why it is important to either have a dedicated account manager or hire an expert Amazon consultancy agency to help manage your vendor or seller account.