As competitive as the marketplace has become since the platform opened up to third-party sellers over two decades ago, retailers around the world can still build thriving businesses through Amazon.
That said, many merchants who utilize the online retail goliath consider profit to be their most important metric, and it is understandable why they might hold that thought. After all, according to a 2018 Feedvisor report, one-fifth of professional Amazon retailers sell more than $1 million annually. However, the Amazon conversion rate is actually the most crucial metric for retailers, as this point highlights how effective merchants are at influencing consumers and generating sales.
Yet, for slews of Amazon sellers, their conversion rates are not living up to expectations. Given the hypercompetitive nature of the platform, retailers have to pull out all the stops when it comes to ad campaigns, optimizing Amazon store listings for peak sales, offsite promotional efforts and the like. Therefore, understanding the most robust strategies for increasing conversions is vital for enhancing marketplace standings and business growth.
Here are three conversion-enhancing strategies for businesses interested in taking their Amazon conversion rates to the next level.
Know where you stand
As they say, what gets measured gets improved. Therefore, when it comes to optimizing conversions, the place to start is in figuring out where a brand currently stands.
Fortunately, Amazon's Seller Central accounts provide tons of data to help merchants establish the points in which they are succeeding and where their efforts could use some improvement.
Some key metrics that retailers should analyze to gain perspective on their current marketplace performance include the following.
Product ranking
Product rankings are vital for optimizing conversions on Amazon. After all, when users come to the marketplace, they are likely there to buy. Moreover, 75% of Amazon users cop to utilizing the platform's search functionality. Meanwhile, 40% won't scroll past the first page of products.
What this means is that merchants must thoroughly conduct Amazon keyword research for their products to help elevate items in the company's SERPs. Search engine optimization is vital for boosting conversions, so merchants should become intimately familiar with the tenets of this discipline.
Units ordered
While there is no definitive benchmark for where a brand should be in terms of units ordered, analyzing this figure on a daily, weekly and monthly basis is necessary for understanding how effective a brand is in the Amazon marketplace. Additionally, this data point is more useful than total orders, as many consumers sometimes place orders containing multiple units.
Unit session percentage rate
Unit session percentage rate is simply Amazon's fancy jargon for conversion rate. According to Digital Commerce 360, the average conversion rate on Amazon is 12.3%. This is the benchmark that retailers should aim to exceed.
Similar to conversion rates, the unit session percentage rate is determined by dividing units ordered by total sessions. If retailers find their figure to be lacking, it could be the result of low traffic or low sales. In such an instance, examine both metrics (sessions and units ordered) to determine the problem area hindering conversion rates.
In the instance of low traffic, this could be a rankings issue. In that case, focus on SEO. If sales are low, the problem could be attributable to a variety of factors, including:
- Awareness
- Rankings
- Lack of reviews
- Poor pricing
- Inferior seller rating
Seller rating
Amazon's seller rating is an overall performance score (rated on a scale of 0-100) that synthesizes metrics including (but not limited to):
- Customer reviews
- Consumer inquiries
- Shipping time
- Chargebacks
- Order cancellations
Seller ratings have a significant impact on a brand's ability to win the buy box, thereby having substantial sway over conversion rates.
With an understanding of where a retailer stands and the struggles they are facing, it is time to turn our attention to some conversion rate optimization techniques.
Amazon SEO: optimizing product pages
Product pages are the heart and soul of all Amazon operations. Therefore, optimizing listings is vital to elevating conversion rates. As with any SEO push, everything starts with keywords.
Conducting keyword research for Amazon is crucial for climbing the company’s SERPs and earning more conversions. Therefore, merchants should utilize dedicated Amazon keyword tools such as KeywordTool.io or Sonar. The reason for using a dedicated tool for Amazon is that for a product to surface for a given query, it must contain the searched keyword.
Therefore, after procuring profitable keywords, retailers should aim to optimize listings by including them in critical areas such as:
Titles: Retailers should include their top one or two keywords in a descriptive title formatted as [Brand Name] – [Product Type] – [Feature #1] – [Feature #2] – [Size, etc.]
Product Descriptions and Bullet Points: This is the primary place to employ keywords. Naturally, utilize important terms without stuffing.
Backend search terms: This is an extra 249 bytes of real estate for sellers to employ powerful keywords under the "search terms" section. Do not go over 249 bytes or Amazon will not index the information.
While product descriptions are extremely important for retailers to improve their conversion rates as this is the area that provides the most information to consumers, a standard description is not the only optimization option.
An alluring tactic for building product descriptions that excite shoppers is to leverage Amazon’s A+ Content feature, formerly known as Enhanced Brand Content. A+ Content enables sellers to leverage additional images and information for highlighting a product's features and benefits above what is typically displayed. Moreover, the professionally designed templates give product pages a more refined and distinguished appearance.
While there are some eligibility requirements for utilizing A+ Content, most retailers should have no problem accessing the new feature. Once a retailer’s product pages have been optimized to the fullest, it is time to start looking at marketing campaigns that will increase conversions.
Diversifying marketing efforts
When it comes to boosting conversions via Amazon, diversity is key. The more tactics that retailers utilize, the more awareness they are likely to create. Therefore, the most obvious place to begin is with advertising on Amazon. With Amazon PPC advertising, retailers can leverage a handful of different ad formats to reach new shoppers and earn sales.
The key to Amazon PPC success lies in continued testing, measurement, and modification of adverts to develop ads profitable that resonate with relevant audiences.
However, optimizing campaigns for ideal performance can be a daunting and time-consuming task for some sellers. In such a situation, it is recommended to partner with an Amazon PPC management firm that can help get products in front of the right users.
Paid advertising aside, retailers should also give considerable attention to cultivating an omnichannel e-commerce strategy that encompasses platforms such as Amazon, the merchant's dedicated website, eBay, social media and other potential sales channels to reach the broadest possible audience.
Moreover, employing content marketing techniques is a stellar strategy for boosting brand awareness and driving traffic. By crafting quality content about topics that audiences care about, including a link to a relevant product, posting the piece to the retailer's online store and then disseminating it through social media outlets, merchants not only aid their visibility through standard search engines but also stand to reach a variety of social media users they can convert.
However, content marketing efforts should not be limited to just text, as posting video content via social is a prime engagement tactic. Merchants can create videos detailing a product's benefits, behind the scenes content or broader problem-solving videos that aid shoppers. All these types of videos can potentially increase the traffic to a seller's Amazon listings and increase conversions.
Additionally, retailers should also take to social media to run paid promotional campaigns that link back to specific product pages. This is an especially effective tactic when sellers use Facebook retargeting for Amazon products. By promoting products that consumers are already familiar with – alongside an added incentive – sellers can elevate their conversion rates effectively.
There are tons of ways to potentially optimize Amazon listings for heightened conversion rates. That said, there is no panacea for achieving this goal aside from hard work and trial and error.
While some conversion rate optimization techniques will prove to be a boon for some sellers, those same ones may fall flat for others. The only way to establish how to increase conversions for your products is to dig through the metrics to figure out where a brand is struggling and begin addressing those issues.
Start sifting through your company's data to establish a plan of attack, enhance your product listing's optimization implementations and market the items through a diverse range of methodologies. Your business is likely to increase its conversions substantially.