Amazon is a massive marketplace with millions of Amazon sellers. In a saturated marketplace where sellers constantly compete for shoppers’ attention, success as an Amazon business depends on your ability to stand out and clearly convey your value. Thankfully, Amazon has provided Brand Registered sellers with a tool specifically designed to grow brand awareness and increase sales: Amazon Stores. Also known as Amazon Storefronts, his solution enables brands to own their marketplace presence, connect directly with customers, and stand out from the competition—and when leveraged effectively, an Amazon Store can lead to a 30% increase in Amazon sales.

To help you better integrate an Amazon ecommerce store into your marketing strategy, we’ll explore:

• What are Amazon Stores and their benefits
• Amazon Storefront requirements for sellers
• How to build a successful Store for your brand

What are Amazon Stores?

An Amazon Storefront acts as a “mini-website” within the marketplace where retailers can create a custom, multipage shopping experience to build loyalty and trust for long-term, repeat customers. Retailers can use their Amazon brand store to showcase their entire product assortment in a single location, highlight top content, photography, and graphics–all on a customizable page with personalized branding and logos.

Similar to a landing page, brands can use their Amazon Store link in various ad campaigns (Sponsored Display, display ad campaigns, etc) to capture the attention of on-and-off platform traffic—and an optimized Storefront can convert potential shoppers into repeat customers. Remember, your paid and organic efforts should work in tandem to create a consistent customer experience. Your ad content, product listings, and Store should relate to each other and reinforce the value of your products.

Beyond supporting your Amazon PPC advertising and marketing efforts, Amazon Stores also help businesses better understand consumer trends. Amazon created Store Insights—a valuable Amazon sales analytics tool that tracks the traffic and sales a Storefront receives. This feature helps brands understand their customer, product and sales performance, and adapt their marketing strategy to improve conversion.

Amazon Storefront Requirements

Before opening an Amazon Storefront, a brand must have a valid Amazon seller account and be a member of the Amazon Brand Registry program (once enrolled, there’s no additional process to apply for an Amazon Storefront). 

Retailers not yet enrolled as a Brand Registered seller can still get their products featured in an Amazon Store via the Amazon Influencer Program. Within this program, registered influencers partner with various brands, adding products to their curated Amazon Influencer Storefront and promoting it to their followers. While this can be a great introductory step to the world of Stores, Amazon affiliate programs limit the amount of control a brand has over its products and story.

Ready to create an Amazon Storefront?

Once you have successfully enrolled in the Amazon Brand Registry program, you are ready to build your Storefront directly within your  Amazon seller account (no separate Amazon Storefront login needed!). However, before diving into the Amazon Storefront builder, we suggest taking the time to craft a detailed plan for your Store, complete with goals, brand assets, and featured content.

5 Steps to Set Up Your Amazon Store

1. Start with a Storefront Strategy
   Define the purpose of your Amazon Store. Are you looking to educate consumers on your product range? Do you want to highlight specific details or use cases for an item? Do you intend to increase conversion by expanding your brand presence? Creating a thoughtful strategy will help your team build a Storefront and link the right products to your Amazon Store.
2. Gather Your Branding Assets
   Your Storefront should act as an extension of your brand and reflect any other branding asset your company manages (website, social media, etc). To help your team best represent your brand and create a streamlined identity across channels, gather and organize all assets in a centralized place.
3. Build Your Amazon Storefront
   Now comes the fun part. As you create your Amazon Store’s layout and visuals, remember to design it with your customer experience in mind and streamline their shopping process. The creative, graphics, video, and products you feature will heavily impact your Storefront’s performance so be sure to feature relevant, high-quality content that clearly communicates your products’ value and accurately represents your brand.
   
   Amazon has developed creative guidelines for Amazon Stores, so be sure your Storefront’s content and design meet their latest requirements.
4. Invite Feedback and Edits
   Once your Storefront’s design is in place, it’s time to get feedback. Enlist your marketing, sales, operations, and even finance to review and evaluate your Store to ensure it conveys the right message and imagery—and that you have correctly linked products to your Amazon Store.
5. Publish and Refine
   Publish your Storefront and start promoting it to customers via Amazon Sponsored Brand Ads and other digital channels. Be sure to regularly monitor Store Insights and use Amazon sales analytics to improve your Store’s performance and maximize conversion. 
   
   The long-term success of your Amazon Storefront depends on continued analysis and optimization. If you are using your Store to promote a specific product within your Amazon PPC advertising efforts, move that product to the top of the page so customers see it right away. Any changes to your branding (logo, messaging, etc) should be reflected in your Store, including seasonal content or special promotions.

Looking for Amazon Storefront examples? Check out your Amazon Marketing & Advertising Playbook to see Stores in action and learn even more about the value of a holistic marketplace strategy.

Maximize your Storefront potential with SupplyKick

As an Amazon agency and wholesale seller, we’ve seen the benefits of Amazon Stores. Our in-house marketing, creative, advertising, and data experts act as an extension of your team, taking the time to truly understand your brand—your value prop, your customer, and goals for your business—to create a comprehensive marketplace strategy to accelerate Amazon sales.

If you’re interested in learning more about how we can help you design and optimize the best possible Storefront for your brand, let’s connect.