Sales on Amazon come down to two main factors: bringing more traffic to your site and converting that traffic into sales. There are several tactics Amazon sellers can implement to improve both of these factors and increase sales volume. Apply them effectively, and you will see your sales go through the roof.
Here are our top 5 top tips for Amazon sellers who want to increase sales.
1. Use Keywords to Rank Your Product
Ranking your listing highly in Amazon search results is the best thing to do in order to bring more traffic to your product page. Rankings are closely tied to sales rates and conversions, which we will cover in the following sections.
Keywords play a big role in product rankings: in order to improve your organic rankings in searches, you need to focus on including relevant and popular keywords. You can use tools like MerchantWords and Keyworx to conduct keyword research and discover the keywords users are searching for in your niche. Then, include multiple primary keywords in your product title and listing copy, but don’t stuff—make sure the text is still optimized to sell!
2. Have a Listing That Converts
As well as boosting the traffic coming to your listing, you need to make sure that traffic is converted into sales. Optimize conversion rates by using persuasive text that is engaging and clearly explains the features and benefits of the product in as much detail as possible. It is critical that Amazon sellers capture a visitor’s attention in the first few seconds. In today’s fast-paced world, consumers have extremely short attention spans; you need to engage them immediately to encourage them to stick around and look in more detail, which will make it more likely that you will close the deal.
Images are equally, if not more, important in conversions. In fact, people are most likely to make their mind up based on a listing’s images (as well as the price and product title) without even reading the whole listing. Be sure to use product imagery on a white background, and use images that are large enough to zoom: ideally 2560 on the longest side, but at least 1260. You can further improve conversions by using images to demonstrating the benefits of the product, for example, taglines on the images or custom graphics explaining product features.
3. Build Positive Reviews
Amazon sellers benefit from having a large number of reviews on their product listings for two reasons:
- It improves your rankings on Amazon search results
- It converts more visitors to sales thanks to the value of social proof.
Building reviews requires effort: Amazon sellers cannot rely on customers to leave reviews on their own accord. Although some will, in order to capture the maximum number of reviews, you will need to follow up with customers and pro-actively pursue them.
There are many ways to ask for reviews. Emails can be effective, although they are better if they are personally targeted to each customer. You can also be creative in asking for reviews, such as a personalized review request in the product packaging on delivery.
4. Implement a Value-Based Pricing Strategy
An often overlooked part of marketing is product pricing. Having the correct price on your product is essential to great sales rates. Price your product too high, and you will lose out on sales. Price it too low and not only do you sacrifice revenue and slash your profit margin, but you may actually damage conversions by appearing too cheap.
One way to ensure your prices are spot on (that is, the maximum that your target customers are willing to pay) is through a value-based pricing strategy. This is an effective way of determining what your customer thinks your product is worth and, therefore, the maximum they are prepared to pay for it. It is important to note the word “thinks” in this sentence: value-based pricing is all about perception, and perceived value is in the eyes of the customer.
This essentially comes down to what the customer will pay to buy an equivalent product (or “next best alternative) elsewhere, what additional value your product offers, and what this is worth to them.
Therefore, Amazon sellers can calculate value with this formula:
TEV (True Economic Value) = Cost of the best alternative + Value of performance differential
See this value-based pricing example for more.
5. Use Psychology to Improve Conversions
Marketers have long used psychology techniques to effectively sell products, and Amazon listings are no different. For example, you can use the concept of “social proof” to encourage customers to buy your product.
Social proof is linked to the basic principle of human psychology which states that people seek guidance from other members of society. This means that customers are more likely to buy a product if there is evidence that others have done the same, or if others have given their recommendation. In marketing, the most famous example of this is MacDonalds’ “over 1 million served” billboards. You can use this technique on your Amazon listing by mentioning the number of sales and reviews in your listing’s copy. For example, you could say “Join the 5+ million people using this product” or “over 3000 positive reviews.”
Amazon sellers can apply these strategies to increase sales and find amazing growth in revenue in 2019!
About the author: Tom Buckland is a digital marketing specialising in technical SEO. He’s the founder of Ghost Marketing and HQSEO in the UK and loves helping businesses profit through smart digital marketing strategies.
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