Top 10 Amazon Lessons We've Learned over the Last 16 Years
Amazon is an extremely powerful platform for brands to connect with their customers, but it also comes with no shortage of unique challenges, complexity, and costs. We’ve been helping brands launch and grow on Amazon for the last 16 years—here are the top 10 mistakes we’ve seen brands make on Amazon and how to avoid or correct them.
Amazon accounts for about half of all ecommerce sales in the U.S. Like it or not, Amazon is a massive part of the ecommerce industry, and retail as a whole, as they’ve created a shopping experience loved by so many. If you’re a brand, your customers are also Amazon customers. By ignoring the marketplace, you’re choosing not to meet your customers where they are.
Instead of ignoring Amazon, brands should create a channel strategy that recognizes Amazon as a key component.
#2 DEVELOP THE RIGHT TEAM FOR AMAZON
For sizable brands, Amazon is no longer something that can (or should) be handled by a single appointed “Amazon person” on staff. Rather than a backburner sales channel, Amazon can be a significant revenue driver, a discovery platform, and a necessity to keep brand integrity in check.
Properly maintaining an Amazon presence is a huge undertaking. There are multiple aspects of the marketplace that require constant attention: catalog maintenance, customer service, content creation, Amazon-specific marketing campaigns, ecommerce-ready packaging, demand planning, and so much more.
Your success on Amazon is directly correlated to the amount of resources you invest in the marketplace—this includes a Brandrunner that’s well-versed in all of these marketplace aspects, in addition to adequate cross-functional support to help manage the dynamic day-to-day on Amazon and lay the groundwork for the future of ecommerce as well.
#1 YOU CAN’T IGNORE AMAZON!
A large percentage of every brand’s audience is shopping on Amazon. If you’re not on Amazon, how are you going to serve your consumers that are?
Raj Sapru - Chief Operating Officer
Effective allocation of resources is everything. Having the right teams in place that can cover all aspects of the e-commerce equation is the difference between winning and losing on Amazon.
Hailey Orosco - Chief People Officer
#3 SPEND YOUR RESOURCES AND MONEY ON THE RIGHT PRODUCTS
Not every product is a great fit for a marketplace like Amazon. While the “endless aisle” of Amazon allows brands to list any and every product, brands should focus their attention on products that make the most sense. There are key things brands should consider before investing in a product on Amazon:
#4 Focus your advertising strategy on the right keywords
Amazon advertising is a constant balancing act, especially with keyword advertising. There are an infinite number of keyword combinations brands can choose from - it’s easy to get caught up in a competitive mindset and bid on too many keywords.
Finding keywords that work is only half the battle. An equally important part of Amazon advertising is identifying the keywords that don’t work.
Sometimes the hardest part of the job isn't in figuring out what works, but in blocking out the things that don't, or what we refer to as ‘negative search term targeting.’ The most common mistake an inexperienced marketer might make is to take all of the good traffic on a keyword without removing all of the traffic that is intended for a different kind of product.
Jackson Hathaway - Director, Advertising & Optimization
#5 A clean catalog is critical
Scattered and disorganized product catalogs set customers up for a frustration-filled shopping experience. There are many ways catalogs can fall into disorder, but one of the most common is when multiple listings get created for the same product.
Ideally, each product should only have a single listing, although this isn’t easy to accomplish on Amazon. The presence of third-party sellers means that it’s possible for anyone to create a one-off listing, which can quickly fragment a brand’s catalog (see learning #10!).
We see a lot of catalogs that have each individual option on it's own detail page, which makes it difficult for a customer to find. A business is less likely to get a sale if a customer has to search tirelessly for the variation and size they have in mind. Rather, make sure all relevant variations and size options for a given model are on one page.
James Lopez - Catalog Manager
Keeping a catalog organized and consolidated requires daily maintenance and effort. Having a dedicated, in-house ecommerce catalog or merchandising specialist—ideally with the help of 24/7 automation technology—is the best way to ensure everything stays in order.
Responsibilities of this role would include:
Monitoring catalog for accuracy, fixing as needed
Keeping catalog up-to-date for broader business shifts; translating those shifts into actionable, marketplace-specific updates
Coordinating marketplace-specific new product launch details, like item set-up
Working closely with a partner like Netrush to understand and address trends and changes in policy
Margins are slimmer.
Because of this, products with low price points may be challenging on Amazon. Shipping costs — especially considering Amazon’s 2-day or 1-day push — can make low price point products unprofitable and unsustainable.
Categories can be crowded.
Amazon isn’t always a great place to bandwagon. If a category is already crowded with sellers and products, ensure you have a strong strategy and comprehensive product launch plan before jumping in.
Shopping intent may be different.
While we like to think of today’s consumers as connected consumers—moving quickly and seamlessly between in-stores and digital, discovery and purchase, and everything in between—the role of Amazon within the shopping journey can often be different than that of traditional B&M. Therefore, we recommend brands take the time to research their audience on the digital marketplace. Understand how Amazon fits into the overall retail strategy to help inform where efforts should be focused.
The goal is almost never to simply sell more units. If brands can reframe their efforts into the context of an overarching goal, then the results will start to fall into place.
Malorie Coppola - Retail Analyst
#6 ecommerce has unique packaging needs
E-commerce has completely different packaging needs than brick and mortar. When it comes to package design, there needs to be a focus on both supply chain and the customer experience.
Using packaging that’s designed to look good on a physical shelf may be gratuitous for the purposes of e-commerce. Instead of focusing on visual bells and whistles, brands should thoughtfully design packaging specifically with supply chain and e-commerce in mind.
Luxury e-commerce packaging is almost always over-packaged or embellished since these products have a wow factor as part of their luxury status. The packaging leads you through an experience of presenting the product. But there’s a difference between creating a great delivery experience and just adding a lot of fancy components.
Colby Grantz - Packaging Director
#7 Don’t Leave customer service up to amazon
A brand is only as strong as its customer service. On Amazon, customer service translates into responding to reviews, being flexible with returns, answering questions for the Q&A section, and promptly getting back to customer inquiries. Accordingly, brands that neglect customer service will experience more dissatisfied customers, poor product reviews, and higher return rates. Customer service is also one of the only opportunities brands have to directly communicate with their customers on Amazon.
We recommend brands invest in a solid customer service strategy that accounts for the unique needs of Amazon shoppers.
I think the biggest mistake is assuming that your Amazon customer will be the same as your DTC customer — have the same knowledge, interest and buying habits.
Andrea Ten Kley - Customer Experience Manager
#8 Plan thoughtfully and move quickly on inventory
There’s a delicate balance between overspending on storage fees and being out of stock at the wrong times. Brands historically have had a difficult time maximizing efficiency when it comes to demand planning on Amazon — and fees are only going up. This is especially true for companies that are heavily influenced by seasonality.
The main thing is that brands don’t have enough visibility into the Amazon marketplace — limiting their ability to create effective inventory strategies.
Tai Tsai - Demand Planner
#9 agility and CONTINUOUS learning are key skills for amazon
Successful ecommerce strategies can be a moving target, especially when it comes to Amazon. A new advertising feature might launch, Amazon’s core policies might shift, or the search algorithm might change.
Change happens, and it happens often. Brands that have agile teams, a close connection with their distribution partners, and are tapped into the constant changes of the e-commerce world come out on top.
There’s no such thing as 'done' in e-comm. This world is in such a constant state of flux, brands with a set-it-and-forget-it strategy will find themselves way behind. Be nimble, listen to what your shoppers are telling you, and adapt.
Tim Hershey - Chief Retail Officer
#10 The transparent marketplace requires distribution control
For most brands, it’s not if they’re on Amazon, it’s how they’re on Amazon. Anyone with a garage full of product can start an Amazon account and start selling. If you’re a brand with an open distribution network, chances are your products are already being sold on the marketplace by sellers you aren’t familiar with.
Unlike traditional retailers, sellers on Amazon aren’t obligated to follow standards brands have come to expect — including minimum advertised pricing (MAP) policies or marketing guidelines. If left unchecked, an uncontrolled distribution network can lead to drastic price differences and brand images between brick and mortar and ecommerce, which can lead to a ton of other trickle-down issues.
To prevent this, brands need to gain a full picture of their distribution network and take steps to protect their brand on Amazon.
If you don’t manage your brand on Amazon, someone else will. It’s an open marketplace, and there’s plenty of opportunity for a third-party to sell your brand’s product. It’s not a yes or no question, it’s a who.
Sujin Xavier - Marketplace Analyst
Ready to take your Amazon business to the next level? With 16 years of experience and counting, we’re here to help you implement these lessons and more to grow sales and profits on Amazon. From full-service solutions to a custom set of services—including fulfillment and logistics, marketing, content development, and more—we have packages and pricing to meet your needs.