How Can Supplement Brands Get Top Placements on Amazon?
The following blog post contains excerpts from our soon-to-be-published e-Guide "Selling Supplements On Amazon - An Extensive Guide." Scroll down and complete the form on your screen to be notified when the guide is available for download.
Amazon is an algorithm. Your product page is the finite real estate. While you do not want to "stuff" keywords into your titles, it is imperative to have expert inputs into optimization that align with how people search for similar products.
While you can discuss your brand and communicate quality, your word choice and content decisions need to be grounded in connecting search terms. Said another way, Amazon is a down funnel platform. People know what they are looking for. What you have on your page does not matter if they never find your page.
So, success on Amazon depends on doing an array of things correctly - and it can never be just one thing - all of it needs to work in strategic coordination for generating long-term sales.
Let's look at a few things that will help you optimize your listings and maximize your visibility.
How to Optimize Your Listings and Maximize Your Visibility on Amazon
Understanding these concepts and successfully executing against them may help improve your chances of being found on Amazon and generate more sales.
- Amazon Launch Strategy
To maximize the impact of your optimized listing, you need to have a follow-up launch strategy. This strategy includes driving internal traffic by running Amazon campaigns and external traffic to the listing. External traffic can be generated through paid social media campaigns, affiliates, blogs, partnerships, and even basic brand awareness. - Analyzing Amazon Listings
Once you get traffic to your listings and start generating sales, it is essential to analyze the results. The four key performance indicators that you need to look at and measure include sessions, unit per session percentage, sales, and product reviews. A combined result of all of these will give you an overall view of the progress of your listing rather than just looking at one element. - Organic Keyword Ranking
Your goal should be to tank among the first three top positions. 55% of all product searches begin on Amazon; if you can take advantage of this and the A9 algorithm that leads to those rankings, you'll be able to expand your sales and audience organically. - Amazon SEO Keyword Research
You need to strategically include the search terms into your product title, features, and descriptions for your audience to discover your dietary supplement. Then you must cater to your audience's needs, wants, and concerns - helping them understand the benefits and use of your products. This will help you gain better product ranking.
The Prize: Amazon Buy Box
The white box that appears on the right side of the product detail page is called Amazon's Buy Box. It is the default choice for shoppers and accounts for 85% of sales on Amazon. But it comes with a lot of competition and follows an algorithm similar to Google.
Just like Google, Amazon wants to help its users find relevant results - giving consumers a better experience and helping grow its sales. Hence, it is essential that you optimize your supplement's product listings, provide a competent product, and adhere to all of Amazon's policies to win the coveted Buy Box.
What's the Prerequisite Knowledge Required to Become a Seller on Amazon?
Consider the following quote from Netrush, a leading provider of Amazon and e-commerce marketing services headquartered in Vancouver, Washington:
"Amazon is an algorithm. It is intentionally not personable, and you should expect it to act as such."
Here are 6 things I believe all brand owners should have documented or in place before becoming a seller on Amazon.
- Business Plan
Understand your existing business plan down to the very last detail and recognize how adding Amazon into the mix as a sales channel may shake up the rest of your operations. - Operational Support
Before you offer your supplements for sale on Amazon, make sure they are backed by solid manufacturing, sales, customer support, marketing, etc. that can scale with your business over time. Amazon cannot take care of these things for you - they only procure all-in-one picking, packaging, and shipping solutions. - Documentation
One of the first sets of documentation Amazon requires from supplement sellers in three paid invoices. In this regard, having an established brand is advantageous. Conversely, for relatively new sellers, Amazon may not immediately be an accessible sales channel. - Competitive Research
Conducting extensive research about other dietary supplement brands already selling on Amazon can give you an idea of what works and what doesn't. For example, companies like Optimum Nutrition and Schwartz are considered as best sellers by Amazon because they have excellent sales volume. - Third-Party Partnership/Agency
If you are a brand owner who has little or no experience working with Amazon, then approaching a third-party agency or consultancy that has demonstrated a proven track record of success working with other brands on Amazon is advantageous. In addition to saving you time, money, and resources, they can help you manage your brand store and provide insights into what might work best for your brand. - Manufacturing Partnerships
Get your supplements made by an experienced contract manufacturer partner that follows GMPs or Good Manufacturing Practices mandated by the FDA. If your product receives too many complaints or Amazon discovers it doesn't comply with its regulations, the chances of your listing getting suspended are high. We've documented our 6 simple tips for finding the right dietary supplement manufacturer in another blog post.
Once you've finished fulfilling these prerequisites, the next step is to create an Amazon Seller account and associate it with your dietary supplement company or brand. We'll cover that topic in our next blog post!
RELATED READING: Discover why more and more dietary supplement brand owners use Amazon as their primary channel to sell their products. Click here for our expert insights.
