So, you want to build your brand presence on Amazon. That’s often the goal for brands that are newly launching or making their debut on the Amazon marketplace. 

Fortunately, Amazon provides several tools and programs to help you build your brand, grow your business, and succeed on the marketplace.

For most of our brand-building suggestions on Amazon, Brand Registry is a prerequisite, so start there. Registering your brand on Amazon is a best practice anyway to help you to protect your brand. 

When you’re ready to invest resources into boosting your brand presence on Amazon, here are five strategies to try:

1. Build an Amazon store
2. Launch ‘Sponsored Brands’ campaigns
3. Use audience-based targeting
4. Try out PAT ads
5. Leverage social selling on Amazon

For each of these boosts, we’ll tell you why it could be a valuable play for your brand and how to use it, including links to guides and tutorials to answer your detailed questions about these strategies. 

Build An Amazon Store 

If you have a brand on Amazon you really should have an Amazon Store. Don’t sit around considering whether to invest in a Store. Do this now. Once your brand is registered you have access to build a Store and there’s actually no financial cost to you. So what are you waiting for?

Here’s why you want a Store. It’s essentially a free mini website for your brand within the Amazon.com site. Shoppers can get to it by clicking on your brand in product listings. You have a lot of freedom to choose how you’ll organize your Store and what products you’ll feature. 

Use the Store to build your brand and to guide customers through your catalog. The Store is an excellent place to use your brand colors and style, utilize lots of images, and give your shoppers a brand experience. Depending on how you organize the page, you can help customers understand your catalog’s extent and how to find your products that suit their needs. 

We recommend driving Sponsored Brands ad traffic to a Store because that typically produces better results than driving them to a product list. Sponsored Brands are next on our list of brand-building tips.

Launch Sponsored Brands Campaigns

Amazon Sponsored Brands are a great tool for meeting shoppers during their shopping journey and introducing them to your brand and products. They’re a PPC ad type that you can build and manage yourself within the Amazon ad console. 

There are a couple of things that are great about Sponsored Brands. First, if you’ve been relying solely on Sponsored Products, then Sponsored Brands are going to introduce the ability to use brand assets in your on-Amazon marketing. They include copy, graphics, and optionally, video as well. This of course means you’ll need to have these assets on hand or create them to use in these ads. 

Another helpful aspect of Sponsored Brands is that they allow you to promote multiple products at a time, rather than a single product. The ad itself can feature up to three products when it is served, and as stated above, it’s a good idea to point Sponsored Brands at a well fleshed out Brand Store to keep the brand experience rolling for the customer. 

One way to measure the success of Sponsored Brands is with the new-to-brand metric which gives you information about shoppers who haven’t purchased from your brand in the past year, a helpful way to determine whether your brand-building efforts are bringing new customers to your brand.

Use Audience-Based Targeting

There are brand plays to be made at the Sponsored Products level as well. You might not think of Sponsored Products for brand-building because, well, the ad type with “brand” in its name is Sponsored Brands. But your brand, and your competitors’ brands, are at play in this ad type too.

As brands grow, they become better known on Amazon, and their ad budgets grow, it’s smart to implement a campaign structure that takes brand awareness into account. We recommend breaking out keywords into separate campaigns based on whether they’re branded, generic, or competitor terms. 

We call this audience-based targeting because it takes the intent and awareness of the audience into account. Is the audience already aware of and interested in your brand? They might search for your branded term “Crayola crayons.” Are they just looking for any solution to their crayon needs? They might search for a generic term like “crayon box.” Are they thinking about a competitors’ offering? Maybe they search for “Prang crayon set.” 

When you bucket these keyword types you can make decisions about how to allocate your ad budget. Usually, brands should limit ad spend on their own brand terms because they can risk cannibalizing their organic placements, but it’s a good idea to keep some spend here to defend against competitors. How much you allocate for branded terms will depend on what you know about your competitors and how badly you want to take away their business. 

If you’re Crayola and you’re bidding on “Prang crayon set” your product can come up in that search and the shopper might be reminded of your brand and decide they’d rather have your product. 

Try Out PAT Ads

Another way to gain digital shelf space and grow brand awareness is through product attribute targeting (PAT). With this type of ad, instead of bidding on keywords, you’ll be bidding on ASINs, categories, or other product attributes. 

There are a few great ways to use PAT ads to boost your brand presence. You can target competitor products to steal customers away from those products. This works especially well if you can offer a lower price, have better ratings, or are otherwise offering some benefit to choosing your product over theirs. 

Defend your market share by targeting your own products. This encourages shoppers to stick with your brand and get to know your product line better. Plan these ads carefully so that you’re making complementary offers. If a shopper is considering purchasing new shoes, maybe they should also consider your shoe polish. Occupying this ad territory also prevents your rival shoe polish purveyor from claiming that space and getting the shopper to buy from their brand to care for the shoes they’re buying from you. 

Also, be on the lookout for opportunities to give your brand a boost by piggybacking on the success of other brands. If your product or brand is entirely new, getting it to show up every time a well-established brand appears is a great way to introduce it to an audience of potential converts. Likewise, if your product is more established but a competitor brand makes waves because it’s the new hot thing on TikTok or other social media, steal some of the spotlight by targeting their products.

Leverage Social Selling on Amazon

Speaking of social media, don’t neglect social selling opportunities native to Amazon. Shoppers are pretty comfortable these days with discovering brands and making purchases within their social media experiences. So meet shoppers in the mindset they enjoy, but deploying Amazon’s own social media-like tools. 

Amazon’s social offerings include Amazon Live which is analogous to livestreams on Facebook or TikTok and Amazon Posts which is analogous to Instagram. The great news is that these programs are free to participate in and you can often revise and repurpose content from other channels to work for you on Amazon. 

Similar to a brand Store, social selling programs allow you to not only showcase your products but to use media assets to give your audience the brand feel and experience you want them to have. 

Shoppers can follow your brand to stay engaged with your new content. With Live they can even interact with you through chat. All this gives you increased chances to move those shoppers from followers to buyers. 

Test These Tips Out

So there you have it, five ways to boost your brand presence on Amazon. Most of them require brand registry. Two of them are free for registered brands. Three of them are ad strategies you may not have tried. 

All of them can help strengthen your brand’s presence so Amazon shoppers are more likely to think of you and more likely to purchase from you. If they’re new for you, it’s worth running tests, analyzing performance, and using that information to determine what to back off of and what’s worth doubling down on.

If you could use help strategizing for these ad types, structuring the ads, and automating bidding, we’d like to help. Teikametrics Flywheel optimizes ads on Amazon and our analysts have deep expertise managing ads for the Amazon marketplace (and for Walmart too!).  Request a demo to speak with our team about your opportunity on Amazon. 

Happy brand building!

About Teikametrics

Teikametrics helps sellers and brand owners grow their businesses on Amazon and Walmart.com through the combination of data, AI-powered technology, and marketplace expertise. Request a demo.

Sarah Whedon, PhD is a senior content writer at Teikametrics where she provides ecommerce merchants, both big and small, with excellent and valuable information to help them build their Amazon businesses.

It ends up in the trash within 60 seconds, so how important can packaging really be? As an online seller, your primary focus is on what to sell and how to sell more, but did you ever think that packaging or the way you ship your products says something about you, your products and your business? For more information on how to plan, build and execute your entire marketplace seller strategy, download the Marketplace Sellers Guide.

Unlike in stores, online shoppers need to be wowed twice: once when browsing your products and again when the purchase arrives on their doorstep. Packaging and shipping services are some of the best opportunities you have to communicate with your customers and remind them why they should be shopping with you instead of somewhere else.

Let’s take a look first at why packaging is important:

• Win the Amazon buy box – Getting a high seller feedback score improves your chances of winning the Buy Box. Give your customers a great reason to provide strong feedback for your products.

• Encourage repeat business – Make the unveiling of your products a truly exciting event. According to the 2013 eCommerce Packaging Survey of U.S. consumers, 52% of consumers are likely to make repeat purchases from an online merchant that delivers premium packaging.

• Stand out among the crowd – Your item may be commoditized with multiple merchants selling the exact same item. If you want to convert one-off customers into repeat customers, make their experience memorable.

• Promote social sharing – The eCommerce Packaging Survey found that 4 in 10 consumers would share a photo of a unique delivery, 83% doing so on Facebook.

The merchandise MUST arrive in 1 piece (unless you’re shipping a jigsaw puzzle of course) so make sure it is wrapped and sealed well. Once you’re sure the product will ship in good condition, it’s time to consider packaging aesthetics.

Check out these simple ways to wow your customers:

• Think Green – Consumers want to feel good about their purchases. Using sustainable materials, such as organic, fair-trade or recyclable paper, will send an environmentally positive message about your brand.

• Re-purpose Your Packaging – Use packaging that can have a second life, that is to say, that can be later used for other purposes. Payoneer once gave away dri-fit running t-shirts. Rather than sending the shirts out in the standard plastic bag, we packaged them inside branded tins. Those same tins have been reused as a pen-pot, cup or even as a child’s drum!

• Jazz Up the Generic – Even if you have no choice other than a standard brown box, try to take whatever steps possible to personalize it.
  • Seal the box with colorful branded tape
  • Insert a cool thank you flyer expressing your gratitude and encouraging them to engage with you online like Everlane
  • Place the items carefully so that it looks awesome when you open it like this delivery from Trunk Club
  • Wrap the item in a pretty paper just to make it that tiny bit more special like this Bravissimo lingerie delivery
  • Place a branded sticker on the wrapping paper even if it’s just standard brown paper to give it your own personal touch

• Try Handmade Touches – It’s fitting for businesses that sell handmade items to include handmade elements in their packaging. Packaging says a lot about the thought and care that goes into creating a product, and is a great way to make your business stand out from all the others.

There are sites specifically dedicated to showcasing gorgeous packaging on the web, like Lovely Package, the Nice Package Flickr group, and The Dieline.

Do you need an easy, low-cost way to receive payments from Amazon, Wish or Lazada? Sign up to Payoneer today

While there are many tips and strategies for online selling, making money as an e-tailer isn’t an overnight project. Time and hard work are required to succeed, but if you’re willing to invest, you can certainly make it happen. One of the worst outcomes, however, is to reach your sales goals only to have your store shut down. For more information on how to plan, build and execute your entire marketplace seller strategy, download the Marketplace Sellers Guide.

For Amazon sellers, an easy way to keep your store active is by maintaining a positive Account Health indicator. Maintaining a positive account health is essential to keeping your Amazon store active, and is dependent on 6 measurements:

1. Order Defect Rate – Amazon Target: <1%

An order made from your store is considered defective if it receives a negative feedback, an A-to-z Guarantee claim, or a service credit card chargeback. If you are having trouble reaching this target, utilizing Fulfillment by Amazon, or FBA, is a great way to achieve a low order defect rate for your store.

2. Cancellation Rate – Amazon Target: <2.5%

This is the number of orders cancelled before shipment, divided by the total number of orders in the same time period. Make sure to provide detailed product descriptions and images to ensure your buyers are comfortable with their recent purchase, and be prompt in answering questions from recent buyers.

3. Late Shipment Rate – Amazon Target: <4%

This is the number of orders shipped later than the estimated ship date, divided by the total number of orders in the same time period. To reach this target, it’s crucial that you optimize your shipping and logistics, and make sure not to overreach with your goals. It’s better to set an estimated ship date that you know you can reach, rather than advertising an attractive ship date that you fail to deliver on.

4. Policy Violations – Amazon Target: 0%

Each Amazon account has a notification section, which includes important updates and notices from Amazon. Make sure to actively check your account’s notification section and adhere to all policy updates. Failure to check your account notifications and comply with Amazon policies will result in the closure of your store.

5. On-Time Delivery – Amazon Target: >97%

This is the percentage of packages received by the estimated delivery date. As a seller, your responsibility is to make sure that items are shipped promptly, and by a reliable shipping service. Saving money by using low cost shipping methods can help in the short run, but may risk the long term closure of your store.

6. Contact Response Time – Amazon Target: >90% less than 24 hours

Amazon sets a high standard for customer service, and expects all 3^rd party sellers to maintain those standards. You should make sure that all messages and inquiries are replied to as soon as possible, and certainly within 24 hours.

Reaching these targets can be especially difficult during the holiday season, as stores see a huge increase in traffic. A pro tip is to have a few extra hands on deck during the holiday rush. If this is your first holiday season, it’s better to be over-prepared than to be under-prepared and have your store shut down during the largest sales period of the year.

While these measurements are for the Amazon.com marketplace, Amazon sets the industry standard for customer service and satisfaction. If you are selling on other marketplaces such as eBay, Etsy, or Wish.com, optimizing your store for these 6 measurements is a great way to ensure that your store stays open.

Need fast, low-cost payments from international marketplaces like Amazon, Lazada, or Wish? Sign up for Payoneer – it’s free!

>>Sign Up Now!

It’s late November and for Amazon marketplace sellers, the holiday sales season is well underway. To make the most out of quickly approaching holidays like Black Friday, Cyber Monday and Christmas, your business needs to have a solid fulfillment plan in place. For more information on how to plan, build and execute your entire marketplace seller strategy, download the Marketplace Sellers Guide.

Amazon offers a service called “Fulfillment By Amazon (FBA)”, where it handles third-party sellers’ back-end operations, including storage, fulfillment, and customer service. Sellers simply ship their inventory to Amazon, which then manages the entire fulfillment process once an item is purchased, giving sellers the space to concentrate on improving their bottom line.

Here are 7 benefits of FBA that can increase your sales this holiday season:

1. Products in Amazon FBA have access to Amazon Prime members: More than 20 million Amazon customers subscribe to Amazon Prime (about 10% of its customer base). And on average, Prime members spend twice the amount on Amazon per year as non-Prime shoppers. By using FBA, sellers get prime real estate in front of Amazon’s most active shoppers. Sellers can also place an Amazon Prime widget on their webstores, to increase buyer trust.
2. Your products are more likely to win the Buy Box: Amazon’s algorithm gives strong preference to products whose sellers meet Amazon’s high standards of customer experience. Because products in FBA are fulfilled by Amazon’s own teams, sellers are guaranteed a quick, consistent fulfillment experience for their products. Become a featured seller and win the Buy Box to immediately improve the trust of your buyers and increase sales.
3. Exclusive access to last-minute holiday shoppers: The holiday season usually brings a wave of last-minute shoppers. Amazon’s Fulfillment Centers are used to seeing last-minute orders during the holiday season and are fully equipped to handle them, so you can run last-minute holiday promotions with confidence!
4. Improve customer service: Customer service excellence is at the core of Amazon’s success. Customers can contact Amazon customer support via phone or email day or night and this service is provided at no charge to you. Sellers can count on FBA to handle shipping issues and returns and to offer a growing selection of customer benefits such as gift wrapping.
5. Fulfill orders from other sales channels: With Multi-Channel Fulfillment you can fulfill orders from other sales channels using your inventory stored at an Amazon fulfillment center. Amazon FBA allows you to streamline your fulfillment operations and manage orders from various other marketplaces or your own webstore all in one place.
6. Increase international exposure: FBA sellers can leverage Amazon’s advanced global fulfillment network to easily reach international customers at no added expense and far less hassle. Amazon currently enlists no extra FBA charge to sellers for international delivery; therefore, sellers can use this program to gauge the interest of certain products in various countries.
7. FBA is more cost effective than outsourcing 3^rd party shippers: Identifying a handful of shipping centers in strategic locations can be an overwhelming task. Every drop shipper has unique requirements/ pricing, and sellers are responsible for getting products to these locations and managing relationships with each of them. Amazon FBA allows you to streamline operations for both products sold on Amazon or elsewhere.

The holiday season is well underway and it’s important you make the most of it. According to Amazon, a 2014 survey revealed that 71% of FBA respondents said their unit sales on Amazon.com increased by more than 20%. Utilize the FBA Revenue Calculator and determine whether “Fulfilment By Amazon” is right for you.

Need fast, low-cost payments from international marketplaces like Amazon, Lazada, or Wish? Sign up for Payoneer – it’s free!

If you’re selling on Amazon you’re in great company. Last year, more than 2 million marketplace sellers sold more than 2 billion items, worth tens of billions of dollars. The sales competition on Amazon is fierce, with the same product often sold by multiple merchants (and sometimes Amazon too).

In every sale, only one seller wins and the major factor determining who makes the sale is the Buy Box. For more information on how to plan, build and execute your entire marketplace seller strategy, download the Marketplace Sellers Guide.

The Buy Box highlights which seller offers the best overall customer experience and value. Only one seller can be chosen and featured within the “Add to Cart” button on the right of the product page, so the million dollar question (quite literally in some cases) is how do you increase your chances of winning the Buy Box?

Here are 5 important lessons that will help you win the Amazon Buy Box:

1. Aim for an Excellent Seller Rating – The Seller Rating is an overall assessment of customer experience. Reliable sellers are a better option for consumers as they are more likely to get high quality products, on time, and with great customer service. Sellers with the highest seller rating will have first shot at the Buy Box. A few key metrics to keep in mind that affect seller rating:
   1. Perfect Order Performance (POP) – percentage of orders accepted, processed and fulfilled without issues
   2. Order Defect Rate (ODR) – percentage of orders which generate negative feedback
   3. Pre-Fulfillment Cancellation Rate – how much of your products are in stock
   4. Last Ship Rate – number of orders confirmed after the promised shipment date
   5. Percent of Orders Refunded – this may indicate inaccurate stock or faulty products
2. Consider Your Fulfillment Method – Sellers that use Amazon’s fulfillment service have a much better chance of winning the Buy Box. If you’re a new seller and keen to acquire Buy Box eligibility you can speed up the process by selling select items through Amazon’s fulfillment services, which can help you to receive eligibility on all items, even those not fulfilled by Amazon.
3. Lower Your Landed Price (but not too much!) – Price isn’t the “be all and end all” but a low total price (including shipping in the US, or shipping and VAT in Europe) can certainly help. Keep a careful eye on the Buy Box winning price within the “manage inventory” page and stay competitive!
4. Shorten Your Shipping Time – Much like pricing, how long an item takes to ship and the projected shipping vs. actual shipping time both impact your ability to win the Buy Box. For time-sensitive and perishable items, shipping varies, but Amazon generally weighs shipping based on the following time frames: 0-2 days, 3-7 days, 8-13 days and 14+ days.
5. Keep Stock Available – Amazon wants shoppers to find what they are looking for and if your item is Out of Stock, Amazon will get it from another seller. Furthermore, if you have no current stock, you cannot win the Buy Box. The more you maintain product stock and ensure that your inventory information is updated, the better your chances of winning the Buy Box.

For further tips on winning the Buy Box, take a look at Feedvisor’s Buy Box Bible.  Need fast, low-cost payments from international marketplaces like Amazon, Lazada, or Wish? Sign up for Payoneer – it’s free!

>>Sign Up Now!

For the past five years, Cyber Monday has been the biggest online spending day of the year, with Black Friday coming in a close second. Since 2006, global online sales on Cyber Monday have increased by 20% yearly on average, and in 2014 the sales record was broken – yet again – with $2.68 billion spent worldwide.

Any predictions for 2015? You can bet that it’s going to be another record-breaking year, and we’re here to help you get a piece of the action. So a few tips on how you can make personal history and break your own sales records:

Give Buyers a Discount Deadline

Decide on discounts, and make some only available for 24 hours on Cyber Monday, or for an hour on Black Friday, or until midnight. This will create a sense of urgency, encourage shopping and increase sales. A great example for the success of “limited-time shopping” is Groupon. They built their entire business around 24-hour discounts.

Consider Free Shipping

In a 2014 study, shoppers voted free shipping as their number one priority when buying online, beating out all other options at a staggering 81%. If you haven’t done so already, consider offering free shipping together with your Cyber Monday deals, and advertise your free shipping offers. A great way to tackle your shipping needs and at the same time gain credibility is through Fulfillment by Amazon.

Prepare for Global Sales

Don’t assume Cyber Monday and Black Friday are just about the American post-Thanksgiving holiday shoppers, rather also UK and other European Amazon marketplaces are part of the rush. On Cyber Monday 2014, more than 16 million units were ordered worldwide from Amazon sellers.

Send Themed Email

Start sending special discounts, gift certificates, special offers, coupons, etc. themed exclusively around Cyber Monday and Black Friday. However, be sure your emails will stand out. A good example of a successful email campaign was from Loft, with a short subject line that simply read “OMG!”, which will definitely pique a person’s interest. After opening the email, it simply read “This is Huge”, in really tiny letters. First, humor is always a good way to go. Second, such a statement will raise curiosity and bring people to click on the link to see what the fuss is all about.

Quality Service & Speed of Delivery

On Black Friday and Cyber Monday people are actively shopping, not just casually browsing. If they can’t find the answer right away, they’ll move on to another store. So be sure to put emphasis on your customer service during this period, maybe even bring in some additional help. And of course – make sure your merchandise actually arrives on time for the holidays! In 2013, Amazon offered $20 gift cards and refunds on shopping charges to customers after undergoing delivery problems. How can you be certain this won’t happen to you? Be prepared for last minute shoppers, and make sure to only promise delivery deadlines that you can meet.

For more information on how to plan, build and execute your entire marketplace seller strategy, download the Marketplace Sellers Guide.

Need fast, low-cost payments from international marketplaces like Amazon, Lazada, or Wish? Sign up for Payoneer – it’s free!

>>Sign Up Now!

“A picture is worth a thousand words” – or in the case of e-tailing, a thousand sales.

Back in the mid-90s, plenty of people were ready to write off Amazon and other online retailers on the basis that people simply wouldn’t buy without touching the merchandise first. Almost 20 years on, with global B2C ecommerce sales expected to increase 5.7% year over year, reaching $885.70 billion in 2015, we can safely say that consumers can live without examining the merchandise in person!

One of the major factors that help potential buyers to make that leap of faith is the product image. Below are a few crucial tips to ensure your product images convert better. For more information on how to plan, build and execute your entire marketplace seller strategy, download the Marketplace Sellers Guide.

Quality

Your main image must be super sharp. You may think that you don’t have too much room to shine as Amazon, for example, are pretty strict in their style guidelines – pure white background and the products filling 85%+ of the frame. You want your images to be rich and clear so that the buyer feels that they know the product intimately. There’s no greater turn-off for an interested buyer than a grainy product image. Amazon recommends that your images be 500×500 pixels. Make sure that you adhere to the photo guidelines created by the marketplace that you are selling on.

Size

Don’t get carried away by uploading huge images. A famous study by Amazon found that every 100ms delay in page load time led to a 1% loss in sales. Intuit similarly found that each 1 second improvement in page load times yielded a 3% increase in conversion. Online shoppers lack patience so don’t keep them waiting! If your images are too large, do a quick Google search for image resize tools and optimize your images accordingly.

Video

Among your “other view” images, consider introducing a video. There is no better way to showcase a product than displaying it from all angles and in actual use. The Oxo brand is a great example of how to bring products to life with engaging video.

Graphics

On Amazon, you have freedom to do cool stuff with your “other view” images. Most etailers let this opportunity pass by not taking advantage of the flexibility. Text and demonstrative graphics are allowed, so use them! Spigen’s iPhone 6 cases do this brilliantly, empowering their images to engage buyers with their key features and messages.

Backgrounds

If you take your own photos, you must have a decent camera and a tripod so you can shoot steady. In many cases you must have a white background but with Amazon your “other view” images can have any background so consider alternatives.

Multiple Angles

Most products have more than one dimension so make use of your other images to show the product from all angles. If your product is one that people typically hold or wear, include images of it in action. With multiple variations, make sure that every child item also has an image such as this Nike Polo Shirt and that they are identical in style.

Need fast, low-cost payments from international marketplaces like Amazon, Lazada, or Wish? Sign up for Payoneer – it’s free!

>>Sign Up Now!

Millions of products sit on Amazon’s virtual shelves, waiting for interested consumers to click the “Buy” button. If you want to take advantage of income opportunities and sell on Amazon, then, how do you rank above all the competition?

Do Your Research

Marketplaces drove e-commerce growth to well over $1.5 trillion in annual sales in 2014 and according to the 2014 Online Marketplace Sellers Survey conducted by Feedvisor and Web Retailer, 63% of sellers only sell on marketplaces. Marketplaces work because they offer sellers access to new markets and new customers with minimal investment. Check out Payoneer’s Marketplace Sellers Guide to find out everything you need to plan, build and execute your marketplace seller strategy

Use Effective Keywords

Optimize each of your Amazon listings with relevant keywords that will appear in the Amazon SERPs (search engine results pages) as well as in search engines like Google. Keywords should relate to the product you are selling as well as its intended use. For example, if you’re selling a book, you might use the book’s title, its author, and related keyword strings like “reading thriller novels” and “New York Times bestseller.”

Find a keyword research tool that aligns with your workflow. These tools help you find keywords that receive significant search volume and that perform well for a specific audience. Optimize all parts of the listings with keywords, including titles, descriptions, specifications, and other components.

Familiarize Yourself with the A9 Algorithm

A9, Amazon’s proprietary search algorithm, determines which sales pages rank highest when a consumer enters a certain search query. You do not have to dive into complex code to rank higher on Amazon; however, understanding the goals behind the algorithm can give you a competitive edge.

Specifically, according to the A9 website, Amazon puts the customer first when deciding how to rank sales pages. They consider buyer history and conversions to determine which products are most likely to result in a sale. As mentioned above, keywords increase relevancy, which A9 lists as one of its core tenets.

Solicit Reviews

Amazon considers products with lots of reviews more relevant and important than those without any reviews. Whenever possible, encourage your customers to leave reviews after they buy and receive a product. One simple way to do this is to insert a small postcard in each package your ship that says something like, “How did you like this product? Visit our Amazon product page to leave a review and tell us all about it.”

You can also join review groups or send cold emails to top reviewers on Amazon requesting a review. The more people who leave feedback and ratings, the higher your products will rank in the SERPs.

Experiment with Categories

Some Amazon categories are more competitive than others. Browse through the listings and note the total number of products in each. If you can fit your product into a highly relevant yet uncompetitive category, you might rank higher as consumers conduct their searches. Just remember that irrelevant categories can hurt you. Some consumers click on a category first and search only within that spectrum. If your category isn’t included, you won’t rank at all and your products will lose visibility.

High rankings in Amazon can increase your income potential and help you develop a positive reputation in the community. Focus on targeted keywords and relevant but non-competitive categories that take into consideration A9’s values and tenets.

Are you an ecommerce seller looking to receive payments from Amazon or other global marketplaces like Tao Bao, Etsy or Lazada? With Payoneer you can!

Sign up now!

Most people know the name Amazon as one of the world’s largest online marketplaces. However, despite Amazon’s popularity across the globe, many people don’t know how (or why) to join the e-commerce market. Does Amazon offer everything you need to succeed as an e-marketer?

Here are 8 reasons you should be selling on Amazon:

1. Huge customer base

Amazon is one of the largest online retailers, with more than 244 million active members.  Carolyn Lowe, director of eCommerce at UpSpringBaby.com, says that “For a consumer goods company like UpSpring, this is ideal. It would cost us an enormous amount of marketing dollars to get the impressions and sales that we get from Amazon.”

2. Brand credibility

eCommerce and affiliate marketers often choose Amazon simply because of brand recognition. Most people have not only heard of Amazon, but used it at least once or twice. Consumers feel more comfortable doing business with companies they recognize and trust.

3. Ease of Use

Amazon is easy to use whether you’re a seller, an affiliate, or a customer. Every product page features clear navigation and one-click buy options, Prime program, and other perks help everyone involved with Amazon feel safe and comfortable doing business with the e-commerce giant.

4. Excellent infrastructure and support

Amazon has a great back-end infrastructure to support selling. This means everything from inventory tracking to tax collection (this can be a huge pain, particularly for states like California where taxes need to be calculated down to the zip code) to credit card processing is possible with Amazon’s platform. It’s all there for you. No need to figure out how to do all the setup yourself.
In addition, Amazon’s FBA (Fulfillment by Amazon) service lets sellers ship their inventory to Amazon’s warehouse, (where for free) Amazon then handles sales of the sellers’ product, the fulfillment, returns and customer service issues. Amazon also makes it easy to ship internationally.

5. Referral system

Another advantage of Amazon is its built-in algorithm for recommended purchases.  Someone may visit Amazon to buy a product that you don’t even sell, and your product may come up in a recommended purchase. Similarly, Amazon affiliates can link customers to your products through blog posts, Facebook posts and Twitter, which relieves you from the headache of maintaining an affiliate program.

6. Media Diversity

The product pages on Amazon exhibit numerous types of media to help customers make decisions. Sellers can upload photographs, videos, expert testimonials, detailed product descriptions, and other elements to show off their products. Display options like 360-degree views, color options, and customization options all contribute to the success of a product.

7. Communication

Amazon also excels at communication with both sellers and customers. The company sends personalized welcome and update emails to keep everyone in the loop and they even advertise seller stores by sending out email blasts to potentially interested customers. Not only does this increase transparency, but it also increases the chances that your products will be seen.

8. Global payment options

Amazon offers a simple way for sellers to receive payment from global customers. By offering Payoneer as a payment solution in the seller central, sellers from around the globe can get paid globally as easily as they do locally.  Are you an ecommerce seller looking to receive payments from global marketplaces like Amazon, Etsy or Alibaba? With Payoneer you can

>>Sign Up Now!

We recently had a chance to talk with Takayuki Eiki, who runs the web tool PRIMA (illustrious LLC) which helps Japanese sellers to utilize the Amazon platform more effectively. Takayuki is not only an online seller but also a host for vacation rentals in Japan. He shares his experience on building a business in a global marketplace:

Why did you start an online exporting business? How did Payoneer help?
I used to work in automobile industry; however, I always wanted to be independent. Once I decided to be a sole proprietor, I stoped working at mycompany without any hesitations and started a global business selling items on eBay and Amazon.

I started this business in the summer of 2012 when the USD hit the cheapest record in Japan. I worked very hard to establish my business, but the payment options to receive my earnings were limited and it was one of my barriers to growth. I searched for a payment option that would offer me flexibility and minimal fees, which is when I found Payoneer.

In 2014, our  Amazon support system, PRIMA, partnered with Payoneer. PRIMA now has 330 members and we are going to launch the global version supporting foreign languages not far from now. We hope to empower the people who sell on Amazon marketplaces all over the world with our system.

We hear you are also a host on Airbnb?  
I heard about Airbnb in the Spring of 2014. I rent an apartment in Tokyo but I often go for business to Ehime where my company is located. I wanted to find a solution to use this room when I was not there. My friend told me about Airbnb and I thought “that’s the one!”

I didn’t start hosting to make money.  I  simply wanted to meet guests from all over the world.  I don’t usually have a chance to meet face to face and to chat with non-Japanese people, even though I work for an international business. The communication in my business is mostly email or chat by internet.  The ability to meet and chat with guests gives me a great opportunity to learn languages and better understand cultures for my business. I’m very happy to be a host in Airbnb.

Would you recommend becoming an online seller or Airbnb host?
I like Japan where I was born. There are Thai people who like Thailand, there are French people who like France. I’ve been thinking to visit many countries for a long time and that is why I wanted to build a global business. Being an online seller is the best solution for me.  I would recommend building an online business to someone who is like me- interested in different cultures and places they have never visited. Any business which has relationships with people outside of where I know (Japan) is very exciting business for me.

What are your thoughts on Payoneer?
I was very happy hearing about EUR collection account and the local bank transfer option. Payoneer leads the payment business and Payoneer’s services have motivated and stimulated my business.  I use Payoneer to receive payments from Amazon, eBay and now Airbnb. I’d like to use their service for B2B business in the future as well.

Would you also like to share your experience or interesting story with the Payoneer community? We’d love to hear about it – let us know by sending an e-mail to community@payoneer.com, or post your comment below!

Last year, Cyber Monday was the biggest single online shopping day on record- $1.25 billion spent online that day. And guess what? This year, they’re expected to spend even more. But things have changed in recent years.  Cyber Monday has morphed into Cyber week- a last chance opportunity for deal-seekers to score big savings before Christmas. It’s no doubt that Cyber Week is an exciting time for eCommerce sellers and to help you get the most out of this time, we want to offer a few Cyber Week selling tips:

Segment Your Audience

If you have multiple audience segments, consider multiple deals. For instance, a marketing campaign promoting your higher end products should have a different offer than a campaign promoting lower end items. There’s no such thing as one great offer for all of your customers.

Get Social

If you’re active in social media, consider offering exclusive deals to your Facebook fans and Twitter followers. After all, this is probably one of the reasons they’re following your brand, and it’s certainly something they’ll appreciate.

Offer Creative Promotions

More and more, eCommerce shoppers expect free shipping, and while it can get you attract some shoppers, you’ll likely have to bring a little more to the table in order to get the sale. Try things that will encourage repeat customers and purchases, such as offering gift cards, or by creating a membership club in which customers get exclusive deals throughout the year.

Get Ready to Spend

So you spent all this time coming up with the perfect Cyber Week deals, only to realize that nobody hears about them. During Cyber Week,  be prepared to spend some money in order to get the word out on your brand and promotions…

• Increase your  pay-per-click budget
• Leverage email marketing (Utilize your own lists and find external lists with relevant audiences)
• Make sure your affiliates know about your promotions
• Consider promotions on daily deals websites
• Launch a Facebook ad campaign. Check out our guide: FB Ad Tools for E-tailers

Be Prepared for Fulfillment Demands

The huge shopping frenzy combined with all of the one-day deals can easily make Cyber Monday overwhelming for eCommerce sellers. Make sure you can handle traffic spikes on your website as well as the fulfillment rush, meaning you have enough inventory, supplies and staff. If you don’t think you can handle it, now is a great time to find out how “Fulfillment by Amazon” (FBA) Can Increase Your Holiday Sales.

Our Predictions for the 10 Most Purchased Items During Cyber Week

1. HDTVs
2. Tablets
3. Smartphones
4. Clothing, specifically shoes
5. Laptops
6. Children’s Toys
7. Video Games
8. Microsoft Xbox One
9. Sony PlayStation 4
10. Nintendo Wii U

We hope you have wonderful and prosperous Cyber Week.  Do you have anything to add to our suggestions?  Tell  us in the comments below!

For etailers, it’s the height of the selling season, and November/ December retail sales are expected to climb 5% over last year, the largest increase in holiday season sales in several years. And marketplaces like Amazon, ebay and even niche sites are opening the door for sellers from around the world to take a piece of the pie.

Scott Galit, CEO of Payoneer says, “E-Commerce is growing faster than physical retail, but marketplaces are growing faster than e-Commerce.”  There are more than two million third-party sellers on the Amazon platform and while Amazon had an approximate 20% growth of year-over-year net sales in Q4 2013, the sales growth of third-party sellers over this same time period averaged between 40% and 50%. At Payoneer, we’ve seen for the past three years that the volume of sales increases 400% from June to December, and this year is even expected to surpass this growth rate.  Moreover, the impact of online sellers from countries such as China, South Korea, Japan, Pakistan, Australia on Amazon sales continues to rise, with payouts volume to Asia tripling over the past 12 months.

With the holiday season being the most important time of year for etailers, let’s take a look at some growing trends:

1. Singles Day is a Game Changer

Singles’ Day has become the largest online shopping day of the year, surpassing Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales figures by leaps and bounds. This year, online retail giant, Alibaba, reported $9.3 billion in sales, up from $5.75 billion from 2013…that’s 60% year over year growth! To help put Singles’ Day’s economic impact into perspective, “Cyber Week,” in the U.S., which combines Thanksgiving, Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales, generated $2.9 billion in 2013, according to ComScore.  If you missed Singles Day, be sure to put it on your 2015 to-do list!

2. China’s Consumer Potential

The record sales of ‘Singles Day’ are indicative of changes in consumer habits…specifically Chinese consumers. The Internet, for instance, attracts people within China’s second- and third-tier cities that aren’t well serviced by traditional retailers. Online shopping has drastically lowered costs and will continue to grow at a rapid pace, even boosting China’s future economy. As the world’s second-largest economy and world’s largest manufacturer, we are starting to see more Chinese beginning to consume the items they produce.

3.  No More Big Spenders

According to CFI Group, shoppers are planning on spending less money this year and purchasing for fewer people. We can see from Alibaba that the average order on Singles Day was only $33.50. Emarketer states that “forty percent of 25- to 34-year-olds will be motivated most by sales and coupons, compared to just 29% of the population on the whole. As shoppers age into the bracket of those with young families, discounts and deals dictate their holiday shopping habits more. Forty percent of 25- to 34-year-olds will be motivated most by sales and coupons, compared to just 29% of the population on the whole.” As shoppers continue to work smarter with smaller budgets, they turn to discounts and promotions, which means etailers need to run targeted campaigns to attract shoppers looking to save.

4. Mobile Commerce = Mobile Marketplaces

With discounts and deals top of mind, research-savvy shoppers will use mobile devices to find the best promotions for the season. And what better way to find great deals than mobile first marketplaces like Fancy, Wanelo, Polyvore, or Fresh, woo savvy mobile users. Designed as a mobile-first application, Wish uses matching technology to deliver a visually engaging, entertaining, and individualized shopping experience, which drives a very high engagement rate among its users: repeat customers make up approximately half of all purchases.  Business Insider states, “purchases made using a smartphone or tablet rose 48% year-over-year (YoY) in the second quarter of 2014, to about $8 billion. That’s three times faster than desktop-based e-commerce, and the fastest increase in mobile commerce spending since the first quarter of 2012.”

5. Improvement of shipping networks

For those unwilling to buy online, shipping costs seem to be the hang up. Nearly half of consumers who said they’re spending less online this year cite the cost of shipping caused they to abandon card. Large marketplaces like Amazon and their Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) offer advanced fulfillment networks with free shipping and world class customer service . eBay recently announced that it is partnering with major retailers to offer same-day delivery for the holiday season by sourcing products from local brick & mortar retailers.

Online shopping — and more broadly, online engagement — is becoming increasingly important to the strategy of online sellers. With ecommerce becoming a truly global market, we’ll see a shift in buying patterns, how people choose to engage, the desire for more feasibility, and of course, mobile friendly solutions. What predictions do you have for the holiday season and beyond?