5 Amazon Seller Central Features We’re Grateful For

By Buy Box Experts on November 21, 2018

Have we mentioned how much we LOVE Amazon? If you haven’t caught on by now, we love this platform because it’s easy for both customers and sellers. Here are 5 Amazon features that we are grateful for.

1. Brand Registry

Brand registry is a program created by Amazon that allows sellers to have more control over their product listings. It’s available for both manufacturers, brand owners, or resellers with permission to manage a product’s detail page. In addition, Brand Registry helps sellers protect their brand from fraud and inaccurate content.

How to Qualify

To qualify for Brand Registry, sellers must submit an application to Amazon that includes:

  • An Amazon account
  • A registered trademark for your brand that appears on your packaging
  • The ability to verify your trademark

While the first 2 steps are simple, the last step is a little more tricky. To prove your trademark, Amazon will typically ask for:

  1. An image of product packaging that shows the brand label
  2. An image of the product itself with the branded packaging
  3. A valid link to the brand website

Within this application, sellers must also provide unique product identification that is visible on their packaging, catalog, and website. Proper identification includes style number, catalog number, manufacturer part number, or style number.

Benefits of Brand Registry

Once you are on the Amazon Brand Registry, you get perks like:

  • Faster response time on counterfeit products:  Amazon promises to respond to Brand Registry owners with urgency. They report that 95% of their infringement notices are looked into within 8 hours.
  • Global search feature: Don’t waste time searching for content on Amazon. Search all Amazon stores without ever having to go to a million different pages. The Global Search Feature lets you look for content in different stores on the same screen.
  • Bulk ASIN search feature: Make search even faster by being able to search through a list of ASINs or URLs so that you can identify counterfeit content more quickly.
  • Enhanced brand content: Owners on the registry have access to enhanced brand content. This content offers additional real estate for sellers to customize their product listings. Plus, this space allows brands to show off their personality with customizable layouts.
  • Videos: Get access to video as a brand registered seller. Video can help increase your conversion rate because it naturally captures the viewer’s eye. In fact, shoppers are anywhere from 64 – 85% more likely to purchase an item after watching a product video. It lets you show users how to use your product, what it can do, and lets your personality shine.

At the end of the day, Brand Registry isn’t just about the perks; it marks a shift in Amazon strategy. Well-established brands are even more important than ever. If you aren’t registered, you should get registered as soon as possible.

2. Subscribe & Save

This Amazon program allows customers to sign up for automatic deliveries of your products. It’s the only way to guarantee repeat customers.

Through Subscribe and Save, customers can browse through a variety of products and sign up to have them shipped on a regular basis. Sellers offer discounts on this subscription service, typically ranging from 5 to 15 percent off.

Subscribe & Save Product Categories

Subscribe and Save is available to these product categories:

  • Beauty
  • Heath and baby care
  • Grocery
  • Electronics
  • Industrial supplies
  • Kitchen
  • Home tool and home improvement
  • Lawn and garden
  • Toys
  • Sports
  • Pet supplies
  • Outdoors
  • Musical instruments
  • Office supplies

Customers can choose to have the product every 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, or 6 months. But they have the flexibility to cancel or postpone shipments at any time. Plus, consumers qualify for free shipping.

Program Requirements

Only FBA sellers are able to apply for the Subscribe and Save program. You can check to see if you are eligible by checking in your account settings. If the option for Subscribe and Save doesn’t appear in your settings, you aren’t eligible for it. The feature only shows up if you meet eligibility criteria.

Amazon requires:

  • Customer feedback rating of 4.7 or higher
  • An account in good standing
  • An account that has been active for more than 3 months
  • Product in-stock percentage of at least 85%

Although consumers get a discount, this program can have great benefits for sellers because it is the only way to ensure repeat customers. Though your margins might be a little smaller on your subscription products, the value of a repeat customer often outweighs your loss.

3.  Coupons

Coupons are a persuasive tool to attract new customers. Why? Because people love to save money wherever they can. A coupon provides additional value to your brand simply because people feel like they are getting a few dollars back.

Psychology of Coupons

Using coupons make shoppers feel smarter and more confident in their decisions. And when a customer feels like they are getting a good deal, they will be more willing to go out on a limb and try something new.

In fact, 80% of consumers report that they would be more likely to purchase a product from an unrecognized brand if there is a coupon.

Another advantage of coupons is that you can gain greater visibility of your products to help set your company apart from your competition. You can target specific audiences to align with your brand personas.

Not only do coupons boost brand visibility and bring in additional traffic to your listing, but they can also be a great tool to build customer loyalty. By sending coupons to repeat customers, you can show that you recognize and appreciate customer loyalty.

Types of Coupons

Amazon offers 2 types of coupons for sellers to implement:

  • Money Off
  • Percent Off

Amazon also offers unique targeting options. You can choose to show your coupons to:

  • All customers
  • Amazon Prime members
  • Amazon Student members
  • Amazon Mom members

These coupons take up prime real estate on Amazon. They show up on your product’s search result within the Amazon SERP and also on your detail page. Coupons also look like badges and stand apart from the rest of the search results. These badges often catch the customer’s eye as they scroll through a page.

Setting Up Coupons

To set up a promotional coupon, go to the Advertising section in your Seller Central Account. You should see the option for Coupons. There, you will be able to create coupons for up to 50 ASINs at once.

Your discount must be at least 5% off and cannot exceed 80% off your lowest price for the product within the past 30 days.

You will also need to set a budget. Once the coupon has reached that amount, it will be deactivated. If it doesn’t reach the budget, the coupon will deactivate after 3 months.

Each coupon has a referral fee of $0.60 per coupon. But this is just a small fraction of the success that can be generated by special promotions.

4. Amazon Video Shorts

Product videos are another Amazon feature that we are thankful for. Videos can bring your product to life. Video shorts are like short infomercials. They focus on product highlights and are aimed at increasing conversions.

Most customers would prefer to watch a video to learn more about a product than read a 2,000-character product description. While demonstrating product uses, videos bring customers as close to visiting a brick-and-mortar store as possible.

How Video Shorts Work

Sellers need to provide a video, metadata, and additional content to AMZ product video. Sellers can collaborate with influencers and purchase video creation packages. The file needs to be 3GP, AAC, AVI, FLV, MOV, MP4, or MPEG-2.

It’s that simple.

Video Shorts appear on your product detail pages and in the Video Shorts section as related product videos. The nice thing about these videos is that each one has its own URL and its own ASIN. That means you can share this link on social media platforms or in emails to drive outside traffic to your product listings.

5. Frequently Bought Together

One last feature we are thankful for is the Frequently Bought Together section. This feature shows complementary products at checkout or below details on a product page.

Amazon suggests certain products, and many buyers trust that recommendation due to its prestige. Some products need to be used with additional products that customers might need to purchase. Plus, suggestive selling can be very powerful.

Products Shown in Amazon Frequently Shown Together

The Amazon algorithm considers the percentage of shoppers who purchase similar items together. It also considers availability, account health, shipping speed, pricing, and whether a seller qualifies for Prime.

You can follow these steps to learn how to optimize your products to leverage the Frequently Bought Together feature.

We hope that you take advantage of each of these features, especially before the holiday season. For more tips on optimizing your Amazon listing, get a free listing analysis from one of our experts!

Alyssa

About the Author: Alyssa Ball has been working in digital marketing for several years. She graduated from Brigham Young University with her degree in English linguistics and is currently pursuing an MBA. Alyssa’s position as a content writer and keyword strategist at Nozani has allowed her to master both Google and Amazon SEO.

Buy Box Experts
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