Amazon Store Launch

Amazon Stores: A Powerful Tool to Establish Your Brand on Amazon in 2021

 

Back in 1996, Bill Gates said, “Content is King.” The phrase made a massive impact on the lives of working professionals. Over time, the opportunities for writers grew graciously as one of the world’s successful personalities thinks content is the reason brands sell. Similarly, Amazon, an e-commerce giant, relies on creative content curation as an essential criterion for initiating any brand’s equity and promoting any shopper loyalty on the platform.

 

Both Enhanced Brand Content and Amazon A+ Content are the most preferred content features from the e-commerce platform. Amazon introduced the EBC or Enhanced Brand Content to sellers sometime in 2016. On the other hand, A+ Content can be spotted on the platform as rich images, product descriptions, narrative copy, and charts. A+ content completely integrates with creamy photos, illustrations, narrative composition, and others to inform them before purchasing anything on Amazon.

 

Enhanced Brand Content

 

Amazon offers EBC to sellers as a premium content feature that allows sellers into modifying their product description spectrum of the ASINs with enhanced text and images. Many sellers use this feature to answer the general questions and queries of customers. Moreover, sellers use the feature since its inception empowers sellers by providing product details, ultimately driving purchase decisions rapidly. In addition to this, it also reduces the chances of getting products returned.

 

The feature is open to all sellers from across the world who are approved as brand owners via Amazon’s own Brand Registry process. After Amazon green lights and authorizes the seller as the brand owner, sellers will add Enhanced Brand Content to ASINs. Here ASINs serve as an integral part of Amazon’s brand catalogue. However, the content still cannot be content if it is not part of the brand. To begin as a reputed seller with Amazon, they have to register with Amazon Brand Registry.

 

A+ Content

 

The feature was curated by Amazon specifically for first-party or 1P vendors who are spread throughout Amazon. Amazon A+ Content features high-quality images, and it conveys the better value of the product with the help of multimedia.

 

With A+ Content, the rate of conversions improves significantly. The progress is immediately visible through the conversion charts that the shoppers are given. Shoppers also receive a visual comparison of features concerning the vendor’s products.

 

These norms are a great way to enlist a presence on Amazon for maximum visibility. However, sellers wish to take branding to a whole new level to make use of Amazon Stores. By its looks, Amazon Stores are a free self-service of products that allow numerous brand owners to create and design multi-level stores. With Amazon Stores, sellers can feature their products, brands, and offer a value proposition.

 

Let us cover Amazon Stores’ benefits and how they help sellers reach their target audience.

 

What is Amazon Store?

 

The Amazon Store is completely free yet a premium offering from the e-commerce giant created by keeping the vendors in mind. Amazon Zone showcases a collectively created products’ collection for elevating brands from across the world.

 

The stores provide exponentially inflated brand-centric purchasing experience on the platform for both mobile and desktop platforms.

 

Factors that elevate users’ shopping experience at Amazon:

 

 

• Capitalizing both external as well as internal traffic sources
• It boosts organic ranking on the platform it increases the sales volume
• Promotes both new as well as pre-existing products to potential and existing customers
• Introduce new and upcoming brands to a varied audience
• Gives users a robust mobile experience with brands on Amazon

 

The features also provide brands with the ability to maintain the brand identity on the world’s most notable online marketplace. By the looks of it, the benefits are more than enough to invest in Amazon Stores.

 

Amazon Stores provides multi-pages.

 

Amazon Stores offer up to three levels of multi-page set-up. The set-up has been specifically designed to showcase products and brands. Sellers also have the right to customize the page experience as per their needs of the brand.

 

Brands rely on Content and Rich Media to grab attention

 

When it comes to elevating shopping experience, unflinching support for content and rich media such as images and text are most needed.

 

The newly improved Amazon Stores are a massive improvement over older brand pages. Further, they allow new and existing vendors to attain the heights of creativity with their design. Another significant feature that Amazon Stores has in Store for the vendors is the liberty the customize the pages as they deem fit. With this feature, vendors can customize pages which showcase single or small product groups which are ideal for new launches. Sellers or Vendors also have the freedom in including videos, conventional photos’ slideshow, text, and all kinds of content to push forward new products to potential buyers.

 

An overview of Amazon Store

 

Generally, Amazon Stores comprise one or a couple of pages. Moreover, all pages feature header, footer which surrounds several content tiles. All Amazon Stores would have several levels and numerous pages.

 

A pro-tip for sellers and vendors on Amazon- When it comes to driving traffic to the storefront pages through sponsored brands, shoppers can be sent directly to the home tab or even to another category. Moreover, each page possesses a unique URL. Further allows users to enter specific URLs at the beginning of the campaign.

 

Currently, there are three distinctive templates on Amazon Stores, such as:

 

 

• Highlight
• Marquee
• Product Grid

 

Amazon Store Manager comprises of four sections such as:

 

Preview Window: Among the four sections on Store Manager, Preview Window gives an authentic live outlook of the present-day page. In addition to this, it can also be used to choose a tile for editing Tile Manager.

 

Page Manager: As the name suggests, the Page Manager can be used for selecting, creating, deleting, and moving pages directly from Amazon Store.

 

Status Bar: The recently changed moderation’s status data is covered with this feature. Suppose the moderation status incurs any error messages, the status bar will notify the seller immediately.

 

Tile Manager: The tile manager is used for editing, adding, moving, and deleting tiles directly from Amazon Store.

 

Features of Amazon Store

 

Amazon introduced tons of features that would aid advertisers in showcasing both their products as well as brands with richer and quite engaging content experiences.

 

1. Collection of Shoppable Images

 

Shoppable images can easily inspire customers with vivid lifestyle images. These images will feature the products in a distinctive setting and also as complementary products in the portfolio. As per your preference, you can choose to make products in the picture shoppable further enabling customers to click on featured products. After clicking on these pictures, shoppers will be able to see information such as price, name, customer rating, and lastly Prime availability.

 

Generally, these steps lead to the phase when shoppers add products to the cart, and then they navigate the detail page of any product. Conversation as this step is at its peak as shoppers move from keeping the products in their wishlist to purchasing a few clicks. It is highly recommended to use one to five images simultaneously, overdoing this would kill the purpose. Always make sure that you showcase your best sellers, else you’ll cover many images and confuse or overwhelm potential buyers. It is essential to be extremely conscious wherever dots are places. There are highly likely chances that the dots visible on mobile will be placed differently from the desktop. It is vital to ensure that previews on different devices are in the right place.

 

2. Amalgamation of Images and Texts

 

If you’re into best minimalistic texts, then you have got the choice to add text overlays on images. You can add descriptive texts directly to images without having to use external tools. The expandability of the feature allows customization of size, location, alignment, and colour for describing selections and products you’d want to showcase. Amazon Stores’ SEO can be improved significantly by placing texts on images. The feature will increase traffic directly to the Stores from conventional third-party search engines.

 

3. Out-of-Stock and Bulk Product Management

 

It would be an incredible hassle for any seller to upload images on Amazon Stores. Now the platform allows sellers to upload products completely in bulk to featured-deals and product grid tiles. Further, you can also hide products out-of-stock, optimizing shopping experience for a wide array of customers.

 

4. Scheduling on Amazon Store

 

Publishing updates at scheduled times and dates allows users to plan & align with Store’s existing publishing schedule. It includes seasonal changes, new releases, as well as brand updates. Once the updated Store is submitted to publish, sellers can request a time and a time that would ensure all the changes are live to all customers in the platform.

 

5. Links to Amazon Stores

 

Innovation to reach out to an audience has always been one of the fortes of Amazon. Amazon shoppers could seamlessly discover relevant stories on the platform. Generally, products are featured on the Sponsored Brand advertisement; Amazon would add the brand logo on the bottom of the page. This would allow customers to click on the Store. It suggests experimentation in different ways to drive shoppers to Amazon Stores. Any seller needs to upload a brand logo and keep updating it for future use.

 

6. Immersive background voice component

 

With Amazon, you have a choice to add video on the platform. Here, the unique part is that the audio plays like it’s on the loop. Previously, users only had to click on the video; however, this one only player effectively drew attention immediately. A great feature to leverage right on top of the fold. The video is recommended to be around five or six-second. Make sure that the transition effect of the video is smooth. The general idea is to grasp the shopper’s attention, hence try the strategy mentioned above.

 

7. Version Control

 

It seems Version Control is the newest addition on Amazon Stores which emerged sometime in 2020. Previously, it was quite impossible to restore the older version of Amazon Stores the moment edits are made. However, things seem to have changed significantly. Amazon Stores not only allows you to save the previous version. Nevertheless, you can utilize schedule features by keeping content fresh.

 

For instance, if there is a forthcoming major event like Black Friday, you could edit the Store by featuring a few details. Creating a version for the said event and scheduling a time to temporality update for the designated event. You can revert back to the previous version without redoing the Store for getting back to where it’s supposed to be—getting fresh content on the Store other than using readability content. Having a version with an end date as the backup schedule will give you something to return back if all fails. 

 

How to create an account with Amazon Store?

 

1. Register the brand with Amazon Store

 

Even before you begin to create attractive content for Amazon Store in the form of A+, RBC, alongside Sponsored Product Ads.

 

For registering the brand, the seller would need:

 

 

• Registered trademark for the brand which appears on packaging or products.
• Verifying the business as a rights owner or an authorized agent for trademark.
• You can also use an existing Amazon account alongside the credentials which are associated with Seller Central and Vendor. You can always create a new account if you need it.

 

All you need to do is head to the Brand Registry Page of Amazon to register the brand.

 

2. Create a Store Homepage and Select Template

 

Once the brand is registered with Amazon Stores, navigate and reach Manage Store from the Seller Central or Ad Console for setting up the first Amazon Store.

 

Then you’ll be presented with brands’ lists which are eligible for the creation of a Store.

 

Upon Selection, sellers will be prompted to follow several steps, such as selecting a template for the homepage.

 

Currently, Amazon offers four distinctive Store themes.

 

3. Build-out Amazon Store Pages

 

Once the homepage of the Store is set, sellers could then focus on building additional pages depending on catalogue categories, deals, best-selling products, and others.

 

You’ll be required to build out pages in a similar manner as an eCommerce website. Ensure that that navigation is user-friendly with simple navigation for customers to find the products they are looking for in the Store.

 

4. Add Content Tiles to All Pages

 

After the hierarchy of pages is established for customers to navigate, it is time to add content tiles to all pages.

 

These tiles are the ones which customers, buyers, and potential customers interact with. It comprises of:

 

 

• Images
• Titles
• Video
• Product Grids (such as Best Sellers)
• Galleries
• Navigation

 

5. Upload your ASINs

 

Once the pages are built out, content tiles can be added to individual products or even to the page of each Store. With Amazon, it is seamless to search ASINs which you’re selling on the marketplace.

 

These products can be added to product grid tiles alongside page sections of the Store.

 

6. Submit Amazon Store for Review & Publish

 

According to Amazon, once the Amazon Store is finished building, you can choose to submit it by choosing the button “Submit for Publishing”. Then Amazon Store would be submitted for moderation. Ensure that changes to the draft aren’t possible while moderation is carried out.

 

The process for moderation takes several days.

 

Before publishing the Amazon Store, the following criteria should be checked:

 

 

• Punctuation or spelling errors
• Changes are going to be included when the page is in the draft
• Always use mobile preview by ensuring that Amazon Store is completely optimized for the mobile experience.
• Check the videos and images before uploading them. Also, make sure that they are easily visible.

 

How much does it cost to begin with Amazon Store?

 

If you’ve already registered and sold on Amazon, it would be beneficial to open a store with no additional cost.