This week, Amazon has become the destination for anti-competitive retail practices at the U.S. House subcommittee’s antitrust hearing. Brands are frustrated that Amazon is using its knowledge of sales as opposed, the proliferation of counterfeits and the “closed garden” that make it difficult for brands to perceive visitors’ habit on an increasingly fragmented shopping trip.
But despite the many demanding situations brands face to promote themselves in Amazon’s market position or as an Amazon supplier, it remains the position where maximum e-commerce transactions occur. eMarketer’s research shows that Amazon handles 38% of e-commerce sales. An exam through Civicscience in June 2019 found that nearly a portion of U.S. Internet users start searching Amazon when they purchase a product online.
Here’s a non-exhaustive list of marketing features developed through Amazon that can create huge ones for brands that invest in sales there. Some are loose and some are paid. They all require some form of investment.
Customer reviews: free and paid
Amazon has a unique ability to create a large number of verified reviews of genuine consumer quality due to the volume of transactions that are performed there. Amazon is the first position shoppers look for when searching for a product, whether online or shopping in the store, a delightful frustration that stores call exhibition. Amazon offers two paid systems to help brands develop the number of product reviews: Vine Reviews and the Early Reviewer program.
The trick: of course, there are demanding situations like false flaws in the complaint that seem to get away with bad actors smugglers. But whether you need it or organize it together, shoppers love reading reviews on Amazon, and many positive reviews temporarily increase the conversion rate.
Capacity for new markets: paying
The problem: expanding into new markets on Amazon requires investment. Brands want to identify a source chain in the market.
Live video: free
This can be a wonderful discovery tool for brands: new product launches and product demonstrations are use cases.
The trick: like another content development bureaucracy, brands want to be notified and interact in their live videos. The early return on investment is less than that of other programs.
Offers: pay
The Amazon.com/deals touchdown page is one of Amazon’s busiest pages. Shoppers love it, and Amazon offers other types that brands can access. Lightning gifts (for a limited time), coupons and one-on-one buy promotions are very simple to set up and can speed up sales.
The trick: some types of gifts are more visual than others, and not all brands are arranged at their prices.
Content and points of sale A – free: free
Five years ago, the content of the image-rich product page we see on Amazon was sold at a higher price: more than $1,000 consistent with the product page, and was only available for distributors selling directly to Amazon. Today, any registered logo can create this content.
Stores are a contact page where a logo can market its product collection and tell the story of the logo. These pages also provide a unique knowledge set on Amazon, which provides reports on the maximum effective off-site traffic channels.
The trick: uploading A content and store content is difficult, and Amazon’s procedure for downloading it can be frustrating.
Amazon Messages: Free
A relatively new marketing tool is a gift for logos. Brands can make percentages of Instagram-like posts that are posted on product pages and other parts of the site. Vita Coco Coconut Coconut Water Logo gained thousands of loose prints on its products during the first two months of publication use. (Read more in my previous article for Forbes: Logos are using this little-known Amazon marketing tool to generate loose traffic).
The problem: Amazon has added more reporting capabilities to the post-research research dashboard in recent weeks, but still lacks the maximum critical measure: actual conversions and sales generated through publications.
Amazon advertising: payment
The problem: Launching Amazon Smart Advertising Campaigns now requires an expert. And as more advertisers start, prices are rising to more emerging platforms like Instacart.
Decent analysis: free
Many brands will argue that Amazon stores enough knowledge with its vendors. But compared to new online markets, the intensity and quality of Amazon’s knowledge reports for distributors and distributors are rich. Brands have access to measures such as basket analysis, new visitor sales, visitor demographics, etc.
The trick: Amazon will never provide visitor-level knowledge that will allow you to reconstruct the entire visitor’s adventure on all platforms. But let’s face it: there’s no other market either.
Brands in all categories are looking to expand their channels and find buyers where they actively search for and buy. Many brands need to explore emerging markets like Walmart and Instacart. Possibly, it would be really valuable to be one of the first users, because those platforms are emerging very quickly. But Amazon’s existing and most likely domain on the market deserves the attention of a brand. With Amazon’s 38% share of e-commerce sales, maximizing each of those market features will be a priority before looking for growth elsewhere.
I am the founder of Bobsled Marketing, a virtual company that is helping customer product brands increase their sales on Amazon. Specializing in operations, marketing and
I am the founder of Bobsled Marketing, a virtual company that is helping customer product logos increase their sales on Amazon. Specializing in operations, marketing and advertising on the Amazon platform, I see the deep replacement of logos and stores looking to tailor their business style to the Amazon era. I have written the books “The Amazon Expansion Plan” (updated in 2018) and “Amazon For CMOs” (September 2019) that will provide a close-up view of the generation of predictable effects for Amazon sellers, advertisers, and CMOs. For Forbes readers, I share the collective wisdom I’ve gained by managing a lot of logo accounts on Amazon.