Learn How to Optimize your Amazon Seller Storefront
This article will discuss how to optimize your Amazon storefront in order to maximize your sales and conversions rates.
If you’ve never created an Amazon storefront, this article will show you how. If you currently have one and want tips to further optimize your storefront, this article is also for you! If you’re interested in learning more about the best practices for optimizing product listings on Amazon, you can check out this article.
We’ll also take a look at some storefronts that have been well-optimized already, so you can see what works, and what doesn’t.
Read on to discover the best practices, tips, and techniques for making the most out of Amazon’s storefront feature.
- What is an Amazon Storefront?
- Downsides of using an Amazon Storefront
- How to set up your Amazon Storefront
- Amazon storefront optimization techniques
- Best practices to optimize your Amazon Storefront
- Examples of properly optimized storefronts
- Conclusion
What is an Amazon Storefront?
A well-optimized storefront also serves as a landing page for your advertisements (such as your sponsored ad campaigns). You can also include images and links to your brand’s social media accounts.
An Amazon storefront is your own version of a full-blown website representing your brand’s products and services.
Benefits of using an Amazon Storefront
Better than building your own external page
One of the primary reasons Amazon sellers love to create their own storefront is ease and simplicity. Building out your own external website has a lot of downsides. It also comes with significant costs and difficulties.
When creating an external page for your brand, you’ll have to pay for a domain name, a content management system like WordPress, and usually front-end web designers. You have to maintain your website as well.
With an Amazon storefront, you don’t have to do any of this work, and you don’t have to maintain your website. You can create something that looks nice, fits your brand and saves a lot of time. You also will receive your very own URL so you can direct customers directly to your page.
Reduced marketing costs and increased customer base
Your storefront will be easy for customers to find, thanks to a well-organized catalog. If you are using the right keywords and optimizing your content, your products will be shown to the most appropriate Amazon users when they search for a product that matches your keywords.
In addition, purchases on Amazon are responsible for 50% of the eCommerce market. So a much greater number of customers can be funneled directly to your storefront, rather than an unknown external page. While there is an enormous amount of competition on Amazon, creating your storefront actually helps to differentiate you from your competitors.
No competing products
Downsides of using an Amazon Storefront
- Generally not good for sellers with many different products from different categories. This is because a store helps a customer get to know a specific brand selling one type of product. Too many different categories are confusing and not coherent. The customer will not remember you as being a great provider of one specific item
- Since many big brands and expert sellers have started to use Amazon storefronts, the standard for what looks and sells well is high
- An Amazon storefront doesn’t necessarily improve your SEO ranking anymore than a well-optimized product listing
- You are required to have a registered, trademarked brand name
- You must be enrolled in Amazon’s brand registry, as well as be approved by Amazon
On the other hand, using Amazon’s Storefront option is completely free (unless you want to pay more for premium features and tools). In comparison with eBay who charges to create a storefront, selling using Amazon Storefront is a pretty good option.
How to set up your Amazon Storefront
In order to set up your own Amazon storefront, you will need to be registered with the Amazon Brand Registry program. You can do this by logging into your seller central account. Becoming registered involves verification and acceptance by Amazon, which can take anywhere from 24 hours, to one month. If you haven’t registered, it’s super important because not only does being a registered brand on Amazon allow you to create a storefront, but it also gives you access to many reporting tools and protection from sellers who try to copy your content. Learn more about how to prevent counterfeit products on Amazon in this article.
Once you’ve been approved, you can log in to your seller central account, find “storefront” from the main navigation menu, and select “create”. If you are registered, your brand name should populate, and you can select the brand you wish to build a storefront for. You will then be directed to the storefront builder. You will need the following to continue:
- Brand display name: Your brand display name will appear on your storefront, so choose a name associated with your brand that shoppers will recognize
- Brand logo: your brand’s logo must be at least 400 x 400 pixels
Your next step will be to choose a layout. Amazon has created various options for you to choose from. Simply drag and drop elements where you would like them to go. You can also choose to create your own page from scratch if you are skilled or have a web design team at your disposal. The following three options are available based on what you would like to highlight.
- Marquee: You can choose this if you prefer to highlight images of your products and brand
- Product highlight: If you have great video content, you can choose to highlight your products using a large image, or video as the main focus.
- Product grid: This is a great choice if you would like to display many of your products upfront and all at once to customers
You will then have to create a meta description. This is the content that will show in search results, so make sure to summarize what your product is and use optimized keywords. If you are struggling with choosing optimized keywords, you should use a tool such as DataHawk’s Amazon Keyword Research tool.
The next step after choosing your layout is to customize your page. Depending on which template you chose, you can proceed to drag and drop tiles as you like.
In the image above, you can see the brand “Olly” has added a great hero image.
Next, you will add your products. If you have not previously uploaded your products into your seller account, you will need to do so. You can do this by:
- Logging into your seller account
- Selecting your inventory
- Uploading products
You can choose to upload products to your store either by individual ASIN, or the entire product catalog at once.
Next, you will want to create pages for your store. This is the same as any website- you’ll have a home page, a product page, an about us page…you decide what content to share about your brand. This is where you will start to build out your brand’s story!
The image above also shows a navigation bar, which you will want to include. It helps to keep your page organized and easy for customers to find what they are looking for.
In order to add a page, you simply have to choose “add a page” from the menu on the left. Then, add a title, a meta description, and a template, as you did when creating the home page.
Once you’ve finished your setup, you can preview your page to make sure everything looks good. Then, submit your storefront for publishing. It can take up to 72 hours for Amazon to approve your storefront, so sit back and have a margarita while you wait.
Now that you have your store set up, let’s discuss how to optimize it. Because of course, optimizing your content is what drives organic traffic, and sells your product to the customer.
Amazon storefront optimization techniques
Once your Amazon storefront is set up, you’re off to a good start! But that’s only half the battle. Your next step will be to optimize your storefront. This is absolutely essential for your success. For all of you coders out there, optimizing your page is like the CSS and JavaScript to your HTML. This is why you want to pay close attention to optimizing your Amazon Storefront. Let’s jump into discussing the main elements you should focus on when optimizing.
Create a brand message and story around customer need
Part of the main purpose of your Amazon Storefront page is to educate customers about YOUR brand and products. This is why it’s super important to create a story behind your brand. If you haven’t already done so, take some time to think about who your customer is, and how you want them to see your brand.
Does your brand sell baby clothing? If so, you might create a store using soft pastel colors in the background. You might feature a high-quality photo of a laughing baby at the top of your page, wearing your product. Or you might include a charming video with a baby and their mother.
Another way to strengthen your brand story is to create an “about us” page and share with your customer why this product is special. Connect with them emotionally. This is what makes customers remember your brand, and continue to think of you the next time they need the type of product you sell. You can also check out this article to learn how to develop your brand’s voice and story on Amazon. Now, let’s look at an example.
Does the customer need a warm coat for their child? If that’s your product, you might describe how your coats are 100% down fill, tested in conditions as low as -22 degree C, and so forth. This way, the customer knows their need, to keep their child warm and safe, will be met when they purchase your product.
With the example above, the need is more one of novelty. These outfits are very cute and stylish. But I wouldn’t say a child could possibly die without this little suit. This brand would then cater more to the parent who has an expendable income, who likes cute things and fashion. So you would work your brand message around this.
Use high-quality images and video
When buying a product online, you should aim to create a similar experience for your customer that they would have in a physical store. This is where quality images come in. The customer needs to see, in detail, what they are getting. This means you should show exactly that, nothing more, nothing less.
- All images should be at least 1000 pixels by 1000 pixels, with a solid, white background. Your product should take up 85% of the frame of the image
- Use high-resolution images
- Insert videos that represent your product and brand. You can have them set to autoplay, or click to play. Videos should be less than 20 seconds long, on loop, without audio
You can learn more about using videos in your Amazon product stores and listings in this article.
Organize your store
You can use the tools in your Amazon seller central to create customizable, multiple-page catalogs. It’s a good idea to create a navigation bar so your customers can easily find what they are looking for. Make sure things are simple, clean, and easy. Here’s an example of a well-organized storefront:
You can see above how big brand Champion uses a clean logo and simple navigation bar to guide customers. It’s worth pointing out that Champion is an example of a company that sells many different product categories, so normally they wouldn’t be well suited for an Amazon storefront. Because they are such a well-known brand, people also are familiar with their many categories.
Make your copy count
You should write to your customers as you would speak to them in real life. Again, it’s important to understand your customer and your brand so you can write in its unique brand voice. if you’re selling sporting goods, your tone will be more fun, focused on athletic gains, and speaking to the interests of athletes or sports fans. If you need more information on how to build an Amazon brand story, check out this article.
As another example, if you sell designer bags, you want to make your customer feel like they are entering an elegant, VIP space and that buying your product will allow them to also take on those qualities.
Make sure your content is free of mistakes and correct all grammar. Also avoid using all caps, as this comes across as yelling.
- Simplicity is key: Keep your designs simple and minimal. An overwhelmed or confused customer will move on. This is especially true if you carry a large amount of inventory
- Use the right keywords: Amazon uses an algorithm and keywords to route customers to the best and most relevant products. This is why your keyword strategy is super important. You can use a tool like DataHawk’s Amazon Keyword Research tool to make your life a lot easier!
- Add a “Frequently Asked Question” section or page so that customers can find answers and get the info they need to make that purchase
Use seller tools to enhance your Amazon Storefront
Amazon offers customization tools, such as Enhanced Brand Content (EBC). Approved, professional sellers on Amazon registered in the brand registry have access to this.
This will help you customize your Amazon storefront’s description, images, and content. This is a great tool to make your Amazon storefront look like an external website rather than a normal Amazon page.
Best practices to optimize your Amazon Storefront
- Pay attention to pricing
Amazon does factor pricing into its algorithm. So you will want to price your product competitively. If you come in too high, you will not be shown high in search results. Amazon tends to feature the best price offer. For more on pricing strategies and maximizing your profits on Amazon, you can read this article.
- Follow Amazon’s rules and policies
- Optimize your CTA’s
- Proofread all of your content
- Provide only true and accurate statements about your products (This includes mentioning how long warranties and product quality guarantees are valid)
- Follow these image size guidelines
- Logo image (banner at the top): 3,000 x 600 pixels
- Full-width images: minimum 3,000 pixels width, can be any height
- Square images: minimum 1,500 x 1,500 pixels
- Rectangle: minimum 1,500 x 750 pixels
- Customer service counts
Examples of properly optimized storefronts
Conclusion
After reading this article, we hope you have a good idea of whether or not using an Amazon store is right for you, and how to create the best storefront Amazon has ever seen! Remember, if you get stuck, you can always use an Amazon Listing Optimization tool, which takes a lot of the guesswork out of optimization. As always, if you have any questions about our platform and Amazon Software Analytics products, feel free to reach out to our team. You can also sign up for a free, 14-Day trial.
