Proven Strategies To Increase Sales on Amazon
Improve product listings with high-intent keywords
With Amazon’s increasing competition, you need to figure out your key differentiator. What pain point is the customer experiencing that no one else is addressing?
Your listing copy, product images, product videos, and any other marketing copy should specifically promote that pain point as the first and most important reason to buy your product. (ideally this should be framed as a solution that alleviates some aspect of the consumer’s pain point).
When crafting your copy around the primary differentiator, make sure you are also including high-intent keywords, which are the specific terms that shoppers looking to buy what you are selling are most likely to type into the Amazon search bar. This is really a foundational piece of search engine optimization on Amazon (Amazon SEO).
Not clear on how to determine this type of pain point? The easiest way to determine this is from studying your competitors’ product reviews and customer questions like:
What are they saying in their reviews to describe these products?
What are the top three categories of reasons for using or loving this product?
What are the top three reasons they DID NOT like about this product?
What kind of information are they looking for when they ask in public questions about it on the listing?
What does this competing product NOT do for some customers?
Enhance the click-through rate with high-quality images and A+ content
For many products, Amazon shoppers are overwhelmed with search results, and many of them look very similar. It should be no surprise that shoppers rely heavily on visuals when deciding to make a purchase – so you should try to make the most of your visuals and stand apart from your competitors.
When you utilize high-resolution images, lifestyle shots, and infographics, you can better convey information and attract more eyes, and it all leads to better conversions.
The best way to capture all of the visual opportunity is to take advantage of the Amazon A+ Content, which is a form of Enhanced Brand Content available to businesses enrolled in the Amazon Brand Registry program.
Amazon itself claims this is a great way to stand out from the products you sell. A+ content allows for visuals that other product listings do not feature, giving you a visual advantage over non A+ listings.
Secure “Buy Box” with Competitive Pricing
With all the sellers selling similar products on Amazon, pricing is a big factor in clinching the “Buy Box” and improving conversions.
Consider the shopping from the shoppers perspective. If the product doesn’t hold a high value to the shopper, they will likely purchase the cheaper option as long as multiple sellers are selling the same product.
Based on the above, always monitor products in the category, and keep your product price lower than the other sellers to acquire the Buy Box.
Note: Just as a shopper is able to discover your listing, they can also navigate away from your product if it costs too much.
On the other side of the coin, if you price your product lower than your competition, shoppers may think it is low quality, and choose to not buy it at all.
In this circumstance, it is important to find your sweet spot and price your product competitively.
Establish Trust with More Product Reviews
To have a successful Amazon listing you need product reviews to convert shoppers.
A survey of Amazon customers by Amazon revealed that 54.4% of customers read a minimum of four product reviews before making a purchase decision.
If your product listing is missing a solid number of reviews, research Amazon’s Early Reviewer program or the Vine Program to receive more reviews.
The Early Reviewer program was created to help newly launched products receive their first few reviews. Amazon chooses customers that have already purchased the product and ask them to share their experience about it. Customers are given small incentives/rewards in return.
The Amazon Vine program is an invitation-only program that selects the most insightful reviewers within the Amazon store to be known as a Vine Voice.
Vine Voices receive the unique opportunity to order product items without charge and tell other Amazon customers about their experience with the product to help them make informed buying decisions.
Note: Do keep in mind that reviews have to be honest and unbiased. You cannot ask for a positive review or for a review to be changed or removed. Violation of this could lead to suspension of your account.
Incentivize Shoppers with Exciting Promotions and Discounts
Another effective way to improve your sales velocity is to offer shoppers thrilling promotions and discounts.
For example, you can incentivise shoppers to spend more by offering free shipping on orders of a certain value! Think about free shipping on orders over $50 or $100!
You can also offer discounts and Amazon coupons for bulk purchases or bundles too. You could offer 10% off for orders over $100, or a buy one get one free deal, which is really hard for buyers to resist.
Another way to improve sales velocity is by increasing average order values. You can suggest complementary products to shoppers, including accessories, extended warranties or add-ons, which will add value to the sale of your item!
You could also provide repeated value to your loyal customers, as a way of rewarding them and promoting them to shop more frequently. For example, you could work with loyalty programme options that offer your customers points, cashback or free products for every purchase.
Enhancing Your Inventory to Maximize Your Advertising Spending
When it comes to selling on Amazon, it’s usually who can spend the most on advertising – wins!
When you have a way to optimize your inventory costs, this can help you extend your advertising expenses, while still getting your share of the profit after the sale. Implementing white label services into your support can boost your efficiency even further, and ensure no disruption to your business processes, while maximizing profitability.
One of the methods of optimizing your inventory is by paying attention to your inventory and sales history of the marketplace. This can help you know what you have overstocked, and what products you might have avoided selling after all the storage fees, not being able to sell vs stock the items.
Another method of optimizing your inventory is to plan your orders ahead of time, and also shipping using lowest cost shipping methods. This way you are not paying overly for “fast” delivery.
Take these suggestions into consideration for preparing yourself to be more organized so you can be more efficient with advertising on Amazon.
Recommended read: Five Methods to Sell on Amazon Without Inventory.
Reconnect With Shoppers Through Retargeting Ads
If your brand is new, or if you’re entering into a new audience, not everyone is going to recognize your brand or purchase your product.
You must expose your brand to your target customers several times to get them familiar with your brand prior to making any purchase.
And the best way to do this is to run Amazon Display Retargeting campaigns. Retargeting campaigns serve display ads to shoppers who have recently purchased or clicked on products similar to yours.
Retargeting ads almost always have more return on investment (ROI) and result in more sales than when you are targeting someone completely new to your brand.
Use A/B Testing to Create High-Converting Listing
In the business of online selling (i.e., Amazon), even fine details like your title, bullet points, and the order of your product images can affect outcomes.
But how do you determine what is impactful in your listing and what does not?
The answer is A/B testing.
In order to discover what element is the best performer in your listing, you must test all the elements in your product listing title, images, keywords, bullet points, and A+ content.
For example, let’s say you have an idea for testing your listing title. In this example, you leave every other element the same including advertising strategies and run one title for 2 weeks. At the end of that period, you would change only the product title and run advertising for another 2 weeks.
At that point, you would compare your click through rate (CTR) to determine which title performed better in CTR.
Just a note on testing. Make sure to test one element in your product listing at a time. Even a marginal percentage increase will compound over time and in many cases generate a better sales velocity.
Enhance Customer Experience With FBA (Fulfilled By Amazon)
FBA isn’t just for simplifying shipping; it also offers the benefit of additional visibility for FBA-fulfilled products in search results relative to seller-fulfilled products.
A few other seller benefits include:
Faster shipping: Amazon FBA gives your customers the option of Prime shipping, which shortens the sales cycle and increases the customer experience.
Lower shipping cost: FBA provides the benefit of discounted shipping rates so you can save money on delivering the product.
Higher customer satisfaction: With FBA, Amazon manages returns, refunds, exchanges, and customer service for your products – allowing shoppers better satisfaction.
More storage capacity: FBA gives you access to Amazon’s network of fulfillment centers across the nation and around the world, resulting in as much storage as you need without the burden of space and inventory management.
More sales avenues: FBA grants the capability to sell in multiple marketplaces and regions effortlessly. There are also additional opportunities with services such as Subscribe & Save, Amazon Business, and Amazon Global Selling to increase your sales velocity.
Extend your reach via external traffic sources
Establishing an audience that adores your brand and products is important for understanding success on Amazon. There are a few ways to do that, including utilizing traffic from outside Amazon!
Bringing in external traffic can only help you improve your product rankings: Amazon likes to show a product that is going to sell, and more outside traffic helps Amazon feel the same. And external traffic will get you more sales too! You will be able to sell more products when your products are seen by more eyes.
You can promote on social media. On social media channels like Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, etc., you will create brand awareness by posting creative content (like behind the scenes videos and user-generated content) surrounding your products and your brand. Social media is a great way to promote your products, but social media is particularly good at getting outside traffic to your product on Amazon.
Create an engagement campaign in Amazon Seller Central. A bonus perk of being a Brand Registry owner is that you can create an engagement campaign to audiences you pick right inside Seller Central. You could choose repeat customers, high-spending customers, recent purchases, and brand followers.
If you’re looking to assess where your buyers are coming from, Amazon Attribution is a great way to ascertain the effect external traffic has on your sales.
If you’re interested in further details about building your audience, check out our articles on building your brand and utilizing social media marketing tactics.