Understanding Marketplace Management with Brand Monkey
Selling on Amazon is by no means a walk in the park. It’s a crowded marketplace with a lot to decipher. The good news is, that’s where we come in. We’ve been successfully working in marketplace management for some time, building brands from the ground up. Some of our partners include Citizen, Sculpted by Aimee, Endangered Fightwear, Fónua UK (Apple Renewed), Pawbits and Natural Answers. We even have our very own brand, Jackanapes Hot Sauces! We help cut through the jungle to help abolish the mystery of selling on Amazon. So what have we discovered on our journey?
The Marketplace Management Journey
Operations
Controlling expectations and understanding how you become profitable on Amazon involves investing time, effort and thorough planning. It’s no use jumping in and presuming you’ll become an overnight success! The first stage of any Marketplace Management process involves understanding what is required to sell on Amazon. You don’t just need to have the physical products. You have to investigate the best ways to execute your business plan. This involves looking into profitability and inventory to decide if this is the right decision. It’s all about finding the best ways to achieve your goals.
Amazon has made significant strides in enhancing its Know Your Customer (KYC) process. This structured and regulated approach, although more rigorous, provides a safer environment for sellers and buyers alike. The days of simply paying a monthly fee and listing products are gone. Now, sellers must provide thorough documentation and meet stringent requirements. However, in return, they gain access to a marketplace with reduced risk of fraud and a higher standard of trust.
A critical aspect of this transformation is Amazon’s commitment to verifying the legitimacy of sellers. The enhanced KYC process requires individuals and businesses to provide essential documentation. This includes government-issued identification, proof of business registration, tax information and bank account details. These documents are scrutinised to ensure sellers operate legally and within Amazon’s guidelines. In addition to the initial verification, Amazon monitors seller accounts regularly to ensure ongoing compliance.
Amazon has also introduced identity verification procedures, where sellers may be required to participate in a video call or upload live photos to confirm their identity. This step aims to reduce fraudulent activity, ensuring that the person registering the account matches the individual or business entity being verified.
This structured approach has made it essential for sellers to have all documentation readily available and in compliance with local and international regulations. Sellers who fail to meet these requirements face delays in account setup or even denial of access to the platform.
By implementing a more rigorous KYC process, Amazon aims to foster a safer marketplace for buyers and sellers.
Cataloguing
With your Amazon seller account open, you can then upload your product catalogue onto Amazon. This can be quite time-consuming, especially if you want to get it right. You have to contend with Amazon’s various policies and algorithms, which can be a bit of a minefield. When done correctly, cataloguing can significantly impact the visibility and success of your products. Still, if mismanaged, it can lead to poor search rankings, policy violations or even suspension of your seller account.
That’s where working with a Marketplace Management specialist becomes invaluable. By integrating your brand with specialised tools, like our proprietary CRM and data reporting software, a management team can tailor a strategic plan that aligns with your goals. The process starts with setting clear objectives and laying out a roadmap for cataloguing and listing optimisation. The use of dedicated copywriters and Amazon experts ensures that your listings are not only compliant but also optimised for search rankings, visibility and conversions.
Specialists stay updated with Amazon’s constant updates and changes. This allows them to adapt your listings as needed. They also optimise product descriptions, bullet points and backend search terms to ensure your listings stand out in an increasingly competitive marketplace. In short, cataloguing with a well-defined structure can help you maximise success, avoid pitfalls and maintain a strong presence on Amazon.
Graphic Design
Graphic design plays a pivotal role in the Amazon cataloguing process. It directly impacts the visual appeal, professionalism and overall effectiveness of product listings. In an online marketplace like Amazon, where customers rely heavily on visuals to make purchasing decisions, high-quality graphic design can be the difference between a successful sale and a missed opportunity.
When cataloguing products on Amazon, each product listing includes images that serve as the first point of interaction with potential buyers. This makes it crucial for the images to meet Amazon’s strict image requirements, be visually compelling and align with the brand’s identity. Professional graphic design ensures that product images are clear with high resolution, They can also showcase the product from multiple angles, helping buyers understand the features and benefits at a glance. The design elements—such as colours, layout and typography—should also be consistent across listings to create a cohesive brand experience.
Graphic design also enhances Premium A+ Content (formerly known as Enhanced Brand Content). This feature allows brand-registered sellers to create more advanced and visually engaging product descriptions on their listings. This content can include custom images, infographics and comparison charts that provide deeper insights into the product’s features and benefits. Well-designed A+ Content can answer key customer questions visually and reduce the need for buyers to leave the page to search for more information. This improves the user experience and increases the likelihood of conversion.
With the rise of mobile shopping, graphic design has become even more essential. Well-designed images, infographics and layouts must be mobile-optimised to ensure they look good on any screen size. A poorly designed listing that’s difficult to view on mobile devices could lead to lost sales.
By investing in graphic design, sellers can elevate the quality of their Amazon catalogue. The aim is to make r products stand out in a crowded marketplace. This not only drives customer engagement but also fosters trust and enhances brand perception, which are crucial factors in converting browsing customers into buyers.
Marketing and Promotions
With over 2 billion searches a month on Amazon, it can be daunting trying to capture attention. That’s where looking into Amazon’s marketing and promotional tools can be really useful. Amazon has many deal options and events throughout the year that you can get involved with to maximise your visibility and improve your conversion rates.
Deals and Promotions
Lightning Deals and Coupons are promotional tools that help drive short-term spikes in sales and attract bargain hunters. These limited-time promotions create a sense of urgency. This encourages customers to purchase before the deal expires. When properly executed, these promotions can lead to higher conversion rates, increased product rankings and enhanced brand exposure. Amazon frequently highlights these deals in prominent areas of the site, such as the “Today’s Deals” page, giving your products additional visibility.
There are also promotions like “Buy One Get One” or discounts for multi-item purchases. These can incentivise larger orders and increase average order value. These promotions help optimise inventory levels and encourage customer loyalty, as buyers are more likely to return to brands that offer attractive deals and discounts.
Reviews
Leveraging Amazon’s Vine Program can also be beneficial for marketing your products. These programs help sellers build credibility by generating authentic reviews from trusted customers. Reviews play a significant role in a buyer’s purchasing decision on Amazon. Products with more positive feedback tend to rank higher in search results and attract more potential buyers.
Social media and external marketing efforts also play an integral part in Amazon promotions. By driving traffic to Amazon from platforms like Instagram, Facebook or Google Ads, sellers can increase product visibility and generate additional sales outside of the Amazon ecosystem. Encouraging existing customers to leave reviews or share their experiences on social media can also amplify brand reach and attract new audiences.
Sustaining Success
For sustained success, sellers must continuously optimise their marketing and promotional strategies. DO NOT set and forget. Leverage Amazon’s data and analytics tools to monitor performance, understand customer behaviour and refine future campaigns. In a marketplace as competitive as Amazon, smart marketing and promotions are essential for driving visibility, engagement and sales.
We spend time working with you to understand your current route to market and help tailor suitable promotions to maximise sales. After all, why miss out on prime selling opportunities right at your fingertips, as well as your competitors’?
Amazon Advertising
Creating an Amazon Advertising campaign to promote your products will help grow your sales. Amazon provides many tools to help create your campaigns. With proper planning and budgeting, you’ll be able to run an advertising campaign that makes a difference.
This platform allows sellers to create pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns that target different things. These include targeting specific keywords, product categories or even competitors’ listings. These campaigns can significantly enhance product visibility by positioning your listings at the top of search results or on product detail pages. Amazon’s Sponsored Products, Sponsored Brands and Sponsored Display ads enable sellers to strategically promote individual items, entire brands or specific product categories. Effective PPC campaigns can drive targeted traffic directly to your listings, increasing the chances of conversions and improving overall sales performance.
As an Amazon Ads verified partner, we have years of experience building powerful ad campaigns from the ground up. We use a proprietary AI software programme that allows us to analyse data and performance constantly. This means we can adjust your campaign whilst it’s live so we make the most of any advertising campaign you invest in, putting you one step ahead of the competition.
So there’s the lowdown on effective marketplace management. If you’d like to chat with our team, get in touch today and let us join you on your brand journey.