The e-commerce market has evolved significantly during the past three decades. According to Statista, e-commerce sales in the United States will exceed $1 trillion in annual sales this year. Since its launch in 1995, Amazon has dominated its competition to become the market leader in the e-commerce space, and current estimates suggest it holds between 35 and 45 percent market share. 

As the world’s leading online marketplace, Amazon expects every product on its site to have a high-quality detail page. Product listings help shoppers find the product they are searching for and can influence their decision to buy the product or not, which is why Amazon insists on clarity and accuracy. 

For the sake of buyers, product listings for identical products are grouped in search results. However, only one seller of a particular product will benefit from the all-important Buy Box. A competing Amazon seller not selected to host the Buy Box box is relegated to a less visible portion of the listing where buyers can compare their other purchase options and opt to use one of these “other sellers” if they desire. Since sellers with overlapping products must fight for the Buy Box, it might seem like brands listing an exclusive product have it easy. Unfortunately, these brands have as much, if not more, work to do to reach the right customers and drive sales through their Amazon product detail page. 

Build an effective product detail page for Amazon

As a professional seller on Amazon, your products’ detail pages are critical to your Amazon success, so they need to be as appealing and informative as possible. An effective product page helps you stand out from the competition and provides your next potential customer with all the information they need to make an informed purchase decision. Before we share some ways to make the most of a product detail page, it’s essential to clarify the key elements that comprise these primary pages. 

Product title – One of the leading influencers of Amazon’s organic search results, the title should be descriptive but concise. Focus on including the brand, model, product name, or other relevant specifications while staying under the 200-character limit. 

Brand – While this may also be included in the title, adding it to the appropriate part of your listing allows customers to filter results by brand and can help them distinguish products from competing brands. 

Manufacturer – In the case of private label brands, this may be your seller name. Otherwise, you should accurately include the company manufacturing your product if it differs from the brand or seller. 

Key features – This is your opportunity to highlight the top five features of your product. These appear as bullet points “about your item” adjacent to your product images and near the top of your listing. They should be specific but not address pricing, shipping or company information. 

Product description – Found deeper into your listing, the product description is an opportunity to provide a more detailed explanation of your product offering. This area can address information such as intended use, dimensions, care instructions, warranty or other facts that will be useful to prospective buyers. 

Price – The cost of your item is displayed prominently on the product detail page, along with the delivery costs. 

Variations – Customers can choose their desired option from a single product detail page if an item is available in different variations, such as colors and sizes. But the listing must be set up to accommodate this feature. 

Images – Amazon product listings must be accompanied by an image, preferably more than one. These should be high-quality, at least 1,600px on the longest side, and have a pure white background, though the product should account for at least 85 percent of the image. 

Product video – While the listing copy and images also play an important role, a well-made video can provide better insight into every aspect of a product and do so more efficiently. A prospective buyer’s time in your listing is limited, and a video can quickly communicate key features to impatient shoppers. 

Product reviews/rating – The Amazon rating system is based on a potential five-star rating. The current star rating and the total number of customer reviews are shown underneath your title and brand name. 

Customer reviews – Visitors and shoppers can read reviews and view customer images that are contributed by buyers of the product. 

Customer questions & answers – If a shopper has a question about your product, they can submit it through the product detail page. Other customers and current sellers can then answer the question, and both will be displayed to help other prospective buyers. 

Other offers – When multiple sellers sell the same product, shoppers will be presented with additional pricing and shipping options. However, most will purchase from the seller with the featured offer advantage.

Optimize your Amazon product detail page for sales

Creating top-notch, engaging content can go unrewarded if it doesn’t land in front of the right shoppers. So while creating a product detail page is a big step toward attracting customers, additional tactics can also support your newly-revised listings. The effort starts with comprehensive knowledge of Amazon Seller Central and your target customers and continues with the vigilance necessary to protect your sales from competition and fraud. Below are some of the areas of an Amazon product detail page that can benefit from optimization

Product Title

The interaction between a prospective customer and your product listing often begins with your Amazon product title. A well-constructed and optimized product title can be the difference between profitable shopper conversions and a struggle to get your item in front of the appropriate audience. 

‍An optimized product title is more than just a description of your Amazon listing. It needs to be a concise balance of accuracy and detail that targets the most valuable keywords for your brand. One of the challenges of listing optimization is crafting a title that simultaneously satisfies the expectations of Amazon users and strategically influences the site’s algorithm.  

While it may take up less real estate than other parts of an Amazon listing, it certainly plays an outsized role in results. 

‍Keywords

Identifying the primary keywords that are most important to a listing’s performance is typically a straightforward task. However, prioritizing those terms and effectively integrating them into an Amazon product listing is much more complicated. Search engine optimization (SEO) on the platform gauges relevance and value to determine how to best leverage a keyword in a product title, feature bullet points, product description or elsewhere. 

Optimization is also not as simple as repeating keywords numerous times. Regarding Amazon’s algorithm and keywords, quality is way more important than quantity. In many cases, once a search term appears in your Amazon listing, it has likely added all the value it can. Therefore, adding it repeatedly, especially to the detriment of the copywriting, is unlikely to improve your spot in the search results. 

You should expect to create an Amazon SEO optimization plan for both the broadest keywords and the long-tail keywords that will help differentiate a brand from its competition and reach customers who are closer to the point of purchase. 

Images & Videos

Among the most influential pieces of Amazon content are high-quality images. However, optimizing photos means more than just good resolution and high resolution. The media on your product page should tell a story. Your products should be showcased from multiple angles and in use. In addition, any product image included in a product listing should reinforce the featured benefits you are trying to convey. 

‍Well-designed and appealing infographics that add compelling text overlays and use precise measurements and comparisons to establish size and function are essential to this area of Amazon listing optimization. And remember, this deliberate approach to Amazon listing photos is about more than convincing buyers to add the product to their cart. It’s about ensuring that shoppers are informed and have the appropriate expectations when they receive the item so that the confusion or disappointment that might otherwise occur, and result in negative reviews, can be avoided. 

‍Features & Description

While some brands might not see much difference between their product’s key features and description, the ones that take optimization seriously know better. Amazon’s Key Features section relies only on short bullets to communicate the most important aspects of a product to consumers. The text displayed in the key features can also weigh more heavily in the ranking done by the platform’s algorithm, making keyword placement critical. 

Alternatively, the product description is the place to provide detailed information about product features and product usage to guide a customer’s purchase decision. In addition, it’s the place to highlight specific product information not included in other areas of an Amazon listing but may still influence Amazon shoppers. In both the features and description areas, sellers must follow Amazon policies, such as the restrictions on mentioning competition or promoting temporary price cuts. 

Price

Most companies already know that product price is integral to their future success. However, brands that are new to Amazon may underestimate the impact that the site can have when calculating the optimum price. The immense competition can push sellers to lower prices, while the expense of selling on Amazon can make margins challenging to manage. 

Pricing on Amazon should consider all these factors and be informed by the data available in the Brand Analytics dashboard. The pricing of any product also needs to be monitored continuously to identify threats from illegitimate sellers and avoid missing the opportunities that come with a fast-paced and fluctuating market. 

Avoid these Amazon product detail page mistakes

Creating an effective Amazon product detail page also means avoiding the problems that plague less diligent sellers, as well as some well-intentioned tactics that you may not realize can do more harm than good. Keep your page in front of shoppers and maximize its ability to convert them to buyers by staying away from these bad habits.  

Breaking the Rules

Amazon has lots of rules. And running afoul of them often has dire consequences for businesses. Listing suppression, fines, and banishment from the site are just some of the ways the marketplace can punish sellers who don’t stay in line. Fortunately, the rules are pretty clear and easy to follow when building a product detail page. 

Like all areas of Amazon, you’ll need to avoid posting any profane or offensive content. Of course, for Amazon search purposes, your products should be listed in the appropriate product type and product category as well as described accurately. Also, be sure to keep any variations relevant to the main product. 

When creating content for a detail page, avoid links to any third-party websites and leave out any promotional writing such as describing a “sale,” cross-promoting other products, or including testimonials or reviews from previous buyers. While those marketing tactics may have a place in your Amazon efforts, they must be used appropriately and not slipped into a product’s description or key features. Remember, a product detail page is not always unique to a specific seller, so Amazon requires that it be constructed generically, even if only one seller currently lists that product on the site. 

Keyword stuffing

Amazon’s search algorithm has evolved to detect and penalize keyword stuffing. If the algorithm detects a product detail page with excessive use of keywords, it may lower the product’s search ranking or remove it from the search results altogether. This can significantly reduce the product’s visibility and limit its sales potential.

More importantly, your prospective customers would much rather read a captivating, detailed description that addresses the product features they care about than one that seems unnatural. If your product copy appears low-quality, it will reflect similarly on your product and drive customers away. In addition, if a customer purchases a product based on misleading information due to keyword stuffing on the product detail page, they may return the product, leave a negative review, or spread negative word-of-mouth about the seller. This can significantly impact the seller’s reputation and overall sales on Amazon.

Overlooking the backend

In addition to the keywords that appear in your product title, bullet points and description, Amazon listings can include backend keywords that are taken into account by the search engine but are not visible to shoppers. Don’t forget about this backend option since keyword optimization includes both what customers see and do not see. 

You will likely come across search terms best suited for Amazon’s backend optimization during your keyword research. Usually, these will include synonyms to your primary keywords, spelling variations or more generic long-tail keywords relevant to your products. On your Amazon product page, You’ll want to avoid plural variations, misspellings and temporary terms such as “sale” or “new.” Using competitor names or trademarks in these backend keywords is against Amazon’s ToS.

Neglecting your content

Amazon A+ Content is your chance to provide fantastic product details for your Amazon product pages, integrating high-quality images, comparison charts, and more. In a world of e-commerce often driven by social media, shoppers now expect this combination of personalized service, captivating content, and a flawless user experience. 

Consider A+ Content necessary to showcase your products in the best ways possible. The visuals and copywriting must complement your website and social media in addition to connecting with your customers. Most importantly, you must communicate your product’s unique advantages over the competition and offer customers a satisfying shopping experience that creates loyalty.

Inviting bounces

Drawing customers to your product is only half the battle. You also need to keep them on your listing long enough to convince them to make a purchase. Certain failures in your content can result in a bounce – a near-immediate click away from your product. It won’t help your sales and can devastate your search ranking. 

Be sure your images are high quality and tell the whole story of the item you are selling. Maintaining an impressive rating and offering helpful FAQs can also reassure shoppers that they aren’t wasting their time. This is an area where Amazon A+ Content can positively impact your sales. 

Creating duplicate listings

A surefire way to face listing suppression is by posting duplicate Amazon product listings. Every product on Amazon is assigned a unique ASIN (Amazon Standard Identification Number). This 10-character alphanumeric code should identify an item, regardless of the seller. Occasionally, a product is unintentionally listed under more than one Amazon ASIN. When a duplicate listing results from your mistake, it’s relatively simple to correct.

If an unauthorized seller creates a duplicate listing, the brand owner can report the violation to Amazon Seller Support. Every seller should be comfortable using the inventory tools in Seller Central to identify and resolve duplicate listings. You also need to have a process in place to avoid the internal creation of duplicates and monitor for other entities infringing on your listings via duplicates. 

Dismissing parent-child relationships

Rather than creating a separate Amazon product listing for every product, it’s imperative that you understand Amazon’s listing variation options and how using them efficiently can improve the performance metrics you value most. You should aim to integrate variations into your listings when relevant to streamline your customers’ shopping experience and introduce them to more of your products after a single search. 

Where it makes sense, utilize these parent-child relationships to offer multiple buying options simultaneously. Creating product listings that combine options such as color, size or flavor into a single encounter will improve your listings’ discoverability and conversion rate.

Ignoring your competition 

Regardless of what or where you sell, it’s always advisable to be mindful of your competition. An e-commerce site such as Amazon is certainly no exception. Using the most relevant search terms can help you identify competing brands and products, evaluate pricing strategies, compare reviews and spot ways to differentiate your product listings. 

Be sure to review what products are available and what tactics are used to describe and promote them. For example, are they driving traffic to an Amazon store? Do they rely on Amazon FBA to ship their products? Remember, you’ll need to review their status regularly to remain aware of any changes to the competition that could begin to undermine your other optimization strategies.

Let Amify elevate your listings

The team at Amify knows how to grow companies on Amazon, and they have the track record to prove it. Our experts can create a solid foundation for your Amazon brand so you can win in the most important marketplace without sacrificing attention to other crucial areas of your business.

Contact us today for a free listing assessment or to find out precisely what a full-service Amazon partner can provide. For many companies, it’s the most cost-effective way to compete on the platform and leads to faster results that exceed expectations.