The popularity of Amazon has proven to be both a blessing and a curse for e-commerce businesses. While customers now expect levels of speed and convenience that may be hard for some companies to achieve, the Amazon platform provides e-commerce businesses an invaluable tool to connect with audiences that might not have otherwise discovered their products.
As one of the most profitable and robust e-commerce marketplaces in the world, Amazon can be profitable for around 64% of sellers after 12 months, according to some sources. However, that still leaves 36% of sellers who are not profitable after a year. Sellers obviously want to find a way to end up in that 64%, but doing so requires them to understand how to find their audience on Amazon’s massive marketplace platform.
Finding success in the Amazon marketplace
You may have heard that the Amazon marketplace is incredibly competitive, and to an extent, that is true — 2024 saw nearly 1 million new sellers join the marketplace. However, the beauty of Amazon is that, despite this competition, there is plenty of room for sellers to thrive if they can carve out their own unique niche for their products. Even if there is direct competition, you can still find your success through effective marketing.
To overcome this competition on Amazon, it is imperative that sellers get their products ranked on the first page of search results. Statistics paint a very clear picture of the importance of ranking highly in search results:
- 90% of all product views on Amazon come from searches rather than advertisements.
- 70% of Amazon shoppers only see the first page of search results.
- 64% of clicks go to the first three results displayed in a search, with 35% going to the number one result.
This is why the first page of Amazon listings — particularly the first spot — is prime real estate for Amazon sellers.
Sellers might be wondering how they can get this all-powerful top ranking on Amazon, and the answer is simple: optimizing your listing page. Just as websites must be optimized using SEO strategy to rank highly on Google and other search engines, Amazon sellers must optimize their product pages to maximize traffic and sales. Like SEO, Amazon listing optimization is not an exact science — there is no magic formula a business can follow to guarantee success — but there are a few principles that sellers can follow to best set themselves up for success.
How to optimize your listing for Amazon marketplace success
One of the most critical aspects of your Amazon listing in determining click-through rates (CTR) is your main image, which is the first thing a potential customer sees when searching for your product. You want to make your main image as eye-catching as possible to entice consumers to click on your page, not the second or third result. You’ll also want a clear, well-lit photo of your product, but don’t overcomplicate it. In our experience, a good main image can make a difference of several hundred percent over a bad one.
Amazon sellers can also benefit from targeting low-competition keywords on the platform. However, it is crucial that you find the right balance between competition and demand. Remember that the most ideal keywords will have a high volume but not enough relevant products showing up. When these two factors are true, it means that the buyer intends to purchase the product they are searching for but is not inundated with options in a way that will leave your product liable to be buried.
Finally, Amazon sellers can optimize their sales success by earning the coveted “best-seller” badge, as this creates a powerful cycle on Amazon’s e-commerce platform. High interest from consumers coupled with growing numbers of positive reviews earn sellers the badge and give them a higher page ranking. In turn, their sales increase even further, and the perceived value of the product increases. According to some sources, the “best-seller” badge can increase the views your product’s page gets by as much as 45%, which can be invaluable for potential conversions.
Of course, you will never know what strategies work best for your product until you try them out, but that’s why A/B testing with actual customers is essential. Don’t be afraid to try out multiple versions of your listing, see which one works best, and make that one your actual listing. Whenever possible, watch people shopping in the real world and see what they realize before making a purchase — it can help you optimize your listing to maximize sales.
Selling on Amazon can be competitive, but there is plenty of room for every business leader to thrive. By maximizing your product listing to rank higher on Amazon’s search results, you can prime your product to get more clicks and, hopefully, more sales. That is the secret to ending up one of the thousands of e-commerce entrepreneurs who have used the Amazon marketplace to launch a successful business.
