Tips For Creating an Amazon Marketplace Marketing Strategy

This is a profitable time for Amazon sellers—but it's an increasingly saturated landscape. Sellers need to cut through the noise and attract shoppers with imagery that stands out amongst competitors and resonates with their target audience.

There’s no denying that Amazon is at the center of e-commerce. The online retailer controls almost 40% of the e-commerce market in the US—and in the midst of COVID-19, its sales are up +35% over last year’s. Amazon has quickly evolved from a convenient place to shop to a lifeline for consumers, making it an even more valuable platform for brands. As businesses across industries quickly pivot their strategies to align with a shifting e-commerce landscape, they must ensure that optimizing their Amazon strategy is part of the equation.

Before the coronavirus pandemic accelerated online purchasing, 66% of people turned to Amazon before any other online site. And with over 200 million monthly users and over $17 million in sales per hour, the opportunities for Amazon sellers to convert shoppers into customers are growing now more than ever.

79% of consumers go to Amazon to compare prices, read reviews, and inform their purchase decisions. Amazon users are a unique set of consumers. They behave differently than those who shop on other online platforms or who rely on brick and mortar. A large part of this owes to the fact that Amazon is set up as an online marketplace where users can compare competing products and prices all on a single platform. It’s a one-of-a-kind shopping experience and a conversion goldmine for brands.

Once you have a seat at the table, differentiating your products from the masses is how the top sellers are staying ahead of the pack. The entire platform is built around convenience and ease for consumers to shop, discover new products, and get the best bang for their buck. This makes it critical for Amazon sellers to stand out amongst the noise to maximize the revenue-driving opportunities that the platform has to offer. And making a statement on Amazon requires effective visuals.

Amazon Product Images: Why Visuals Matter

Over 75% of e-commerce shoppers say product pictures influence their online purchases. And 70% of Amazon users choose a listing based on imagery alone. Sure you can have five star reviews, an unmatched price, and a top-notch value prop, but product visuals should be your top priority on Amazon.

Amazon quickly became a highly saturated space and it’s only become more crowded in the face of the novel coronavirus, especially across a select number of industries that are seeing a boom in sales. CPG, consumer electronics, entertainment, and beauty are some of the sectors that are experiencing the largest increases in sales right now. For instance, coconut water brand Vita Coco saw sales increase +183% on Amazon. Natural food brand Manitoba Harvest’s sales on Amazon tripled over the course of the COVID-19 outbreak. It’s more important than ever for Amazon sellers to understand what type of visuals resonate with their target audience to create a personalized shopping experience that’s ready for revenue.

This sudden uptick in traffic is pushing brands to optimize their Amazon marketplace strategy with data-driven insights and innovative technology. The need for high-performing content has always been top of mind for social media channels and advertising campaigns, but now effective visuals are critical to achieve e-commerce success, especially on a uniquely positioned platform like Amazon.

Amazon Business Marketing Strategy: Optimize Your Storefront for Conversions

As a seller, it’s up to you to show your customers why your product is worth their dollars. With new capabilities like Storefronts, Amazon sellers can demonstrate the look and the feel of their products with branded digital experiences. And you don’t need to start fresh. Brands can repurpose creative from advertising campaigns, social channels, and influencer initiatives to create a branded experience for Amazon shoppers that is already primed to resonate with their target audiences.

While the requirements for product listing imagery are basic, the opportunity lies in the photos and videos Amazon sellers choose to accompany it. We know that effective visuals that show how products look and feel compel consumers to make an online purchase, so it’s critical that brands select photos and videos that not only highlight their products but also speak to their target consumer.

Understanding Digital Marketing on Amazon: The Full-Funnel Experience

Creative is at the heart of building a brand and maximizing ROI on any channel, including Amazon. This is a fruitful time for Amazon sellers—but it's also a highly competitive landscape, so sellers need to cut through the noise and attract shoppers with imagery that truly stands out and resonates with their target audience. And this rings true for product pages, Amazon advertising, and new innovations like Stores.

Leveraging the visuals that are performing across your marketing channels is key to success. Brands are investing in creating and curating imagery that lives on their websites, social channels, and paid initiatives. The audience you’re targeting on Amazon likely resembles the audience you’re already reaching and analyzing. As a result, the high-quality organic lifestyle content that garners higher than average conversion rates across your social channels and native e-commerce platforms will fuel performance on Amazon—and will ultimately create a consistent story across visual touchpoints.

Amazon Marketing Goals: Back Your Amazon Strategy With Data

In order to iterate quickly, and get fresh content on your e-commerce channels like Amazon, you need access to all of the visual assets your company has at your fingertips. Dash Hudson’s Library enables you to store all of your owned, earned, paid, and net new creative in one place.

With Dash Hudson’s proprietary AI technology, Vision, it’s like having your customer in the room with you. Vision learns with your brand in real-time so you always have a pulse on what types of photos and videos are driving engagement, your audience’s unique tastes and preferences, and how your competitors are investing in their content strategy. Vision provides data-backed visual segments and performance predictions for earned, owned, competitor, and industry content. With access to the right insights, sellers can set achievable marketing goals and capitalize on Amazon’s heightened traffic to capture new customers.

Whether it be through advertising, a product page, or Storefront, Amazon presents an invaluable opportunity for brands to engage audiences that are primed for conversion. Similar to your social and digital channels, visuals power sales for brands on Amazon. Bringing your existing owned and earned high-performing lifestyle content to Amazon will optimize conversions and maximize revenue for your brand. With an abundance of quality, data-backed creative to draw from, Amazon sellers can create a full-funnel experience across marketing and e-commerce channels.