Mind Your Store, Ignore The Storm
Why Online Retailers Need to Focus on their Brands, Businesses, and Storefront to Win on Amazon!
It’s been a choppy, stormy month that’s left many Amazon retailers out at sea. First, we had the announcement that Amazon would stop – or was immediately stopping – the purchase of products from suppliers and encouraging, if not demanding, sellers go direct to consumer. Then a retraction of sorts walked back that decision and Amazon issued a deadline for brand owners to join Amazon Brand Registry if they want to continue as Vendors. What’s going on? And what can brand owners and sellers do to protect their businesses as the storm plays out?
Sign up for Brand Registry
If you’re a brand owner (or licensee) and you want to continue selling on Amazon, you need to get signed up. And the clock is ticking on that 60-day deadline. Only those registered will get access to Amazon’s automatic purchase-order fulfillment. You will need a government-issued brand trademark to be able to register, but once in, brands get access to Amazon’s new Project Zero initiative including automated protection against fake logos and other brand infringements from counterfeiters. Brands will be empowered to remove counterfeiters themselves and also get access to online tools to build better-branded storefronts.
Understand the Old Rules of Engagement Still Apply
Winning on Amazon means adhering to certain rules. And they haven’t changed even if some of the marketplace conditions have. Your Amazon success should be a two-part strategy: optimize your backend operations and provide an exact ad curated consumer experience at your storefront. Let’s look at the steps to do this.
Step 1: Build Strong Operational Foundations
Your business will never succeed and your sales will never grow if you don’t have an efficient, flawless and ultra-reliable foundation to the business and your operations. Offering consumer value means having the correct pricing strategy. Are you priced right for now and future growth? Are you executing flawlessly on essential processes such as inventory management and distribution? A Grocery Manufacturers’ Association study highlights $22 Million is lost in sales nationally due to out of stock products when manufacturers fail to supply. And 32 percent of consumers will buy a different brand when stocks run out. The best online consumer experience in the world can’t sidestep an empty shelf.
Step 2: Optimize the Consumer Experience
Making a sale means making the right impression at the right time with the right person. It’s about creating an attractive and engaging storefront that is optimized for an easy click through to check out. Goods on the page need to be optimally presented
If they don’t look good on the page, if you’re not using the right images and the whole encounter takes more than a few clicks, you’re losing business for sure. Simplifying a consumer’s interaction with your product offerings comes down to strategic assortment planning: are your goods or products presented and arranged in a logical manner, do product type pages easily click through to more detailed variation type pages, are the right search terms built into short, impactful product display copy?
31 percent of customers now make a purchase based on Prime availability so it’s also essential to back all of this with ultra-reliable order fulfillment from the moment a consumer clicks Order.
Extra Step: Search is King
Secure the back end operations, create a second to none consumer experience and it’s time to drive traffic. Hard working keywords, strategic SEO and search campaigns are critical here. And remember the process is ongoing, requiring flawless execution, data analysis and course correction as needed. Do all of this well though and even with the changes on Amazon, you can expect anywhere up to an 80 percent improvement in sales.
Talk to a Channel Key consultant today for more information on our programs and services to get you started.
