Where’s the first place customers go when they want to buy something online? Amazon, of course: Well over half of online shoppers begin their product search there. If your brand is going to make its mark in ecommerce or as a multichannel marketer, you have to have an effective Amazon strategy.

Amazon is a behemoth in the growing U.S. ecommerce market. Total 2020 ecommerce sales were $790 billion, and Amazon sales in 2020 made up $386 billion of that. That’s an Amazon sales increase 2020 of over $100 billion from 2019. Amazon earnings 2020 showed a net income of over $21 billion, nearly double the previous year. This goes to show, with the right Amazon marketing strategy, your company can capture some of these skyrocketing online sales.

It seems easy enough to sign up and get started selling on Amazon. You just go to Amazon Seller Central and create an Amazon Seller account. Create a product listing, and your products are available to the world. But that doesn’t mean the world is going to rush in and buy them. You need an enticing product listing, a good overall marketing strategy, and a significant understanding of inventory management.

• With the right Amazon inventory management, you’ll have plenty of stock on-hand without having inventory that you can’t sell. That’s particularly challenging in today’s world of COVID and disrupted supply chains.
• In order to get started creating your inventory management strategy, you’ll have to understand the demand for your product, whether it’s seasonal or steady throughout the year. You’ll also need to check out the FBA seller calendar, which tells you how far in advance inventory needs to be available for key FBA (Fulfill by Amazon) dates such as Black Friday and Prime Day.
• Another decision you’ll need to make is what type of overall inventory strategy you’ll want to implement. Do you want a pull strategy based on customer demand or a push strategy based on manufacturing and supply?

Following are a few pointers—made for 1P or 3P sellers who want to increase marketplace sales—on how to make your product listing stand out on Amazon and convert more shoppers:

How to Get Your Product on the First Page of Amazon

The Amazon Marketplace hosts over 350 million products—that’s a lot of brands vying for shoppers’ attention. To beat the competition, it’s important to try and get your product listed as close to the first page on Amazon as possible.

Amazon’s algorithm chooses which products appear on the first page of search. And while there are many factors that play into their algorithm, one of the most important factors is keyword-rich copy. These match the words a potential customer would use in a search query. An Amazon product ranking algorithm takes the query and chooses the product listings it identifies as most closely matching.

An effective Amazon strategy understands how to optimize an Amazon listing—for example, by using keywords in titles as well as product listings, and using longer keywords with modifiers, such as “office desks with drawers” rather than just “desks.” Another example is to create SEO-rich metadata descriptions, which consist of verbiage visible to the search engine but not on the listing the customer sees. There are Amazon SEO services that are a worthwhile investment in this arena, both within Amazon and third-party tools.

Paid advertisements, such as the pay-per-click (PPC) sponsored ads shown on the top of the first Amazon page, can be key in an Amazon marketing strategy. You can use them to advertise a specific product or your entire brand.

Another key to sales is owning the Buy Box. That’s the white box on the right side of an Amazon product listing where customers can add items to their cart. Earning the Buy Box is based on the way the Amazon algorithm processes relevant variables.

It’s difficult to get your products on the first page of Amazon’s search. But with perseverance, and the correct Amazon marketing strategy, it’s possible. To learn more about how to create optimized product listings, check out The Ultimate Amazon Marketing Playbook.

How to Get More Orders on Amazon

Using the right keywords and optimizing for SEO is a great start, but to really increase traffic to your Amazon listing, you need a solid Amazon advertising strategy. This includes everything from effective Amazon PPC management to how to rank Amazon products on Google. There are three principal types of Amazon Ads and a number of tools to broaden your reach and increase page views on Amazon.

Amazon Advertising campaigns include (for more info, check out this guide to AMZN Paid Ads):

1. Sponsored Product Ads: When a customer enters a search query, they see organic product listings based on the search algorithm, and on the same page they see Sponsored Ads. You pay for these on a PPC basis to drive sales.
2. Sponsored Brand Ads: These appear on the search results page like product ads, but build brand awareness rather than promote the sale of a specific product.
3. Sponsored Display Ads: This type of Amazon Display Advertising used to be called Amazon Product Display Ads. These Amazon display ads appear both on Amazon and elsewhere online. They are targeted not by keywords but by customer demographics, including shopping history and whether they’ve viewed similar products before.

In addition to advertising, Amazon provides several other tools to help you market your product and increase Amazon sales rank:

• Use Amazon Enhanced Brand Content (more commonly called A+ Content) to improve your Amazon listing with more detailed descriptions and larger photos. Good Amazon A+ Content catches the customer’s eye and can boost conversion by 25%.
• Amazon Brand Registry is for brands with a live trademark. It offers increased display control along with additional tools such as Brand Analytics.
• Amazon Storefronts (or Amazon Store) act as a “mini-website” that allow sellers to showcase all their products in one spot. It can be used as a landing page, too, for advertising and off-platform marketing/influencers/promotions. A tool called Store Insights tracks Storefront analytics.

Check out this case study to find out how Ultra Ankle increased year-to-year sales by 80% with an optimized Amazon advertising strategy. Or download the Amazon Brand Marketing Lookbook for pro tips for using photography, video, and Amazon’s marketing tools.

Amazon Sales Boost Service

There’s a lot to know if you want to master how to sell on Amazon. Algorithms, rules, and tools are constantly changing. That’s why it’s a smart move to engage an Amazon marketing agency so you can concentrate your attention on the things you do best to run your business. Good Amazon seller management consultants stay on top of the latest trends so you don’t have to.

An Amazon seller consultant can assist with SEO, listing optimization, keyword research, paid advertising, product photography and video, Amazon Storefront design, and more. They can coordinate brand support and overall marketing strategy. With some agencies or retailers, they can handle day-to-day operations such as fulfillment, inventory management, and logistics.

At SupplyKick, we work with brands to develop a built-to-order Amazon strategy that saves you and your team time and grows your marketplace presence and sales. Connect with us to learn more about how you can take your Amazon strategy to the next level.