Amazon accounts for 40% of all US online retail sales, according to eMarketer. That was pre-pandemic and since then Amazon reported a 25% sales increase YoY in Q1 with stock up 45%. Its brand value is now worth more than $415 billion, according to Kantar and WPP. These staggering statistics mean brands must balance their approaches to boosting revenue and brand equity with the need to maximize their presence on the world’s leading digital marketplace. What are the most effective tactics? Is it possible to increase product sales without decreasing brand perception? Can Amazon’s audience be leveraged to support other online properties?
Customers overwhelmingly prefer Amazon, and understandably so. Vast selection. Personalized shopping. Easy checkout. Social proof. Free delivery. The reasons to bypass a retail website altogether goes on. But for brands that take advantage of this growing trend, Amazon can be an amazingly effective and complementary sales pipeline. For starters, they can discover new customers who might not have bought from them previously. In fact, Amazon reports on how many new-to-brand purchases occurred. It can even serve as a built-in logistics and distribution partner.
Following these five steps can help you craft a strategy for selling on your branded website as well as Amazon.
- Own and control your brand on Amazon
- Treat Amazon as another crucial customer brand experience, similar to your website
- Conduct a competitive analysis on Amazon to identify gaps and opportunities
- Build a brand store and monitor unauthorized sellers
- Create a comprehensive brand and listing foundation via an Amazon content strategy, including keyword and photo optimization
- Consistently optimize to improve relevancy and organic ranking over time
- Craft a pricing strategy
- Develop an Amazon advertising strategy as part of your omnichannel approach
- Think of Amazon as another outlet to reach customers with your brand message, increasing frequency as well as brand equity; if your brand has a strong Amazon presence, customers will trust it because users trust Amazon
- Incorporate Amazon reporting into your macro reports to understand how all your active marketing channels work together
- Consider launching Amazon advertising via Amazon Search
- Over half of retail customers start their searches on Amazon instead of Google
- Create an organic and paid search strategy on Amazon similar to Google; these tactics work together to help increase your brand’s prominence
- Test display ads on Amazon DSP
- Similar to leveraging data to run programmatic display ads, tap into Amazon shopping data to target customers who buy similar products and reach them on Amazon and via open exchanges
- You don’t have to sell products on Amazon to leverage its rich shopping data; for example, a wedding registry website could target people buying wedding books or products or people who look like those who created a wedding registry on Amazon
- Amazon supports standard brand banner ads as well as dynamic banner ads, which pull products in from your inventory feed on Amazon; you can also run audio or video ads
- Brands that use both display and search ads on Amazon see a 140% lift in branded search, according to an Amazon case study
- Amazon’s managed service DSP inventory has a fairly high minimum but Macarta, an Amazon Marketplace Consultancy and Mindgruve Ventures Company, has an exclusive partnership with Amazon and self-serve advertising access
- Stay in tune with the latest from Amazon
- Amazon Moments allows brands to offer exclusive perks to customers who complete high-value actions such as subscription renewals
- Translations are available on Sponsored Brands campaigns
- You can now build audiences based on Amazon Prime video streamed
- Amazon expanded its Influencer Program recently, giving influencers their own product pages plus commissions for purchases
- Amazon Attribution beta allows brands to see how external digital marketing tactics are helping drive sales on Amazon, which Macarta has access to
Embrace Amazon as an opportunity to increase revenue while boosting brand trust amongst your customers. Start with quality control, consider Amazon advertising as part of an overall media mix and invest in ongoing optimizations and opportunities.
For more information on building and executing Amazon strategies, contact us today.
