I recently started working with a colleague on an ecommerce project. We discussed many options to help increase sales for the client including where the products are sold. When I asked about Amazon, my colleague said she was getting push back from the client because they did not feel they could have a meaningful, branded experience on that platform. This surprised me as the client is a new brand that’s fighting for sales.

A recent study found that about 50% of all online sales start on Amazon. It’s a number that cannot (and should not) be overlooked. Instead of fighting a giant, I encourage many of my clients to find a way to make that giant work for them.

Amazon’s a giant, but it does offer several tools to help brands ‘own’ their brand experience within its platform. The first thing you need to do is to register your brand with Amazon. Even if you don’t plan on selling on the platform now, it’s still a good idea to register your brand. See more benefits and get started with your brand registry here.

So, once your brand is registered, how can you ‘own’ your brand’s experience?

Branded Stores

Registered brands who do sell their products on Amazon are able to build a branded store within the platform. Amazon offers a store builder and analytics about the store once it’s launched.

There are some limitations, but the store builder is an easy, intuitive way to create a strong, visually appealing store within Amazon. This means that videos, quotes, text, images, and products can be used together in a custom experience that tells your brand story while encouraging sales.

Here’s a branded store my team and I recently worked with Control Corrective Skincare to create. I also like the Shady Rays and VitaFusion branded storefronts.

As you can see these branded stores have their own personality and are a great way to help your brand ‘own’ its experience on Amazon.

Enhanced Content

Registered brands can also create Enhanced Brand Content (EBC) for their product pages. This additional content provides additional details to potential customers in a ‘designed experience’ within the Amazon product page.

Amazon offers a couple of templates to help get you started. EBC allows branded video, text, graphics, and images to come together to help nudge customers towards a purchase without requiring them to leave the Amazon product page. Here are a few examples of products with EBC that provide additional value to the product pages — Control Corrective Oil-Free Sunscreen, NoCry Cut Resistant Gloves, and the ENKEEO Hammock Chair.

Research shows that products with EBC have increased customer conversion percentages. In other words, customers who experience an Amazon product page with EBC are more likely to purchase the product compared to customers who visit product pages without the extra content.

What’d you think?

It’s no surprise that products with reviews sell better than those without reviews. Think about your shopping habits. Are you more likely to buy a product with 1 5 star review or a product with 500 4 star reviews?

For brands that sell their products on Amazon, there’s a program aimed at acquiring reviews. It’s called the Early Review Program and allows you to enroll products in your catalog that only have a few reviews.

Once a product is enrolled, Amazon reaches out to customers who have purchased the product and offers them a small reward for posting a review (no matter the rating). One of the program’s benefits is that the product stays in the program for a year regardless of the number of reviews the product ultimately gets.

Reviews from the Early Reviewer Program are tagged with an “Early Reviewer Rewards” tag so that users know the reviewer was compensated for their review.

You can see this tag for this review of the Control Corrective Balancing Thermogel Mask.

These three key tools/programs that Amazon offers to help brands ‘own’ their experience on Amazon. These tools combined with Amazon’s reporting capabilities and the FBA program can allow all brands to have a meaningful, successful experience on Amazon.