Maximise Marketplace Profits, Ignite Amazon Growth
There’s no doubt that Amazon is a tough nut to crack – but for those who get it right?
The rewards can be massive.
Over the (many) years that our award-winning Amazon experts have been navigating the intricacies of the marketplace, we’ve been crafting and fine tuning our very own growth framework – a battle-tested formula designed to catapult brands of all shapes, sizes and sectors to dominance.
And, because we love to share how we make Amazon sing, we thought we’d offer you a sneak peek – a BTS tour of the tactics and secrets behind stages one and two of our client’s consistent sales success.
Why are we unlocking our classified Amazon playbook?
Aren’t we worried that we’ll do ourselves out of a job? Well… no, not really.
The truth is that, even with our framework to hand, it takes deep expertise, exhaustive marketplace know-how and, frankly, a whole kit of specialist tools to pull all these elements together in a way that revolutionises your Amazon presence.
The idea behind this piece is to help you spot the gaps in your own strategy – the places where a knowledge plug would drive your brand, or brands within your portfolio, to the next level.
Perfect for any business – from those preparing to launch to those looking to consolidate; those with one brand to focus on to bigger names with multiple brands under the one parent, what follows is essentially a checklist to help you identify the cracks that need fixing and the opportunities for growth within your existing Amazon presence.
So, as you’re reading through, mark the places that suggest potential for you and then hit one of the links – our brilliant team will be thrilled to help send your sales and profits soaring.
Let’s go!
Stage One: Strong Foundations
Any journey to Amazon ascendancy starts with mastering the basics – and it’s surprising how many brands miss key elements of these essential building blocks in their impatience to rush to the next level.
Think of it like Amazon Jenga.
If one of your blocks is weak or missing, your whole strategy will continue to grow on wobbly footings that are likely to need patching in the future – and that can be costly both in terms of money and time.
How do we build strong Amazon Foundations?
The Venture Forge approach to a strong Amazon foundation can be distilled into three fundamental parts:
1. Exceptional Listings
In a marketplace where countless products are vying for buyers’ attention, making sure your listings are at the absolute top of their A Game is non-negotiable.
This is the first, and perhaps only, impression potential customers have of your product – and of your brand.
You need to make it count.
What makes for an exceptional listing? Here’s our 8-point checklist:
- Compelling title with relevant keywords for discoverability
- Clear, concise bullets and description, again keyword-rich and packed with benefit
- Accurate product details throughout
- High quality images and video
- Enhanced brand content or A+ content
- Questions & answers
- Reviews & ratings
- Competitive pricing strategy that maximises both conversions and ROI
In essence, exceptional, fully optimised listings aren’t a luxury – they’re a strategic necessity.
They serve as the gateway to increased visibility, higher conversion rates and a competitive edge in a marketplace that’s both vast and ever-evolving.
As the digital face of your brand on the marketplace, investing in the optimisation of your Amazon listings is an integral part of building a successful and sustainable online presence.
Need help to make your listings the best they can be? Click here
2. Retail Readiness
Setting off on your Amazon journey without being retail-ready is like setting sail without a compass.
Or a ship.
In the intricate dance that is launching a product on Amazon, the significance of initial reviews and optimal stock levels cannot be overstated – the two work together to set the stage for any successful market entry.
We’ll take each one in turn.
i. Initial Reviews
Reviews are the social currency of the Amazon marketplace.
They build trust and credibility, and they influence purchasing decisions.
Positive reviews from early customers don’t just instil confidence in potential buyers, they also contribute to a product’s visibility, as Amazon’s algorithm considers reviews when determining search rankings and Buy Box eligibility.
So working to secure a bank of positive reviews from the outset is like laying a path for future customers, boosting the attractiveness and potential of your listing with every one written.
Here are 3 great ways to get your reviews up and running:
- Amazon Vine
- Incentivised product inserts
- Amazon order review requests
Speak to our experts to get your reviews off to a flying start
ii. Optimal stock levels
Working hard to maintain your stock levels is equally pivotal – and not just at launch.
Nothing deters potential sales and damages your reputation on Amazon faster than stockouts – and that’s even before you factor in the ratings punishment Amazon is likely to dish out.
(What do we mean? Efficient stock management supports sales velocity, a metric critical for improving search rankings and gaining visibility on the platform.)
On the flipside, keeping your stock in check is a prerequisite for the coveted Amazon Buy Box – which in turn is instrumental in increasing visibility and driving sales.
When it comes to winning the Buy Box, product availability, competitive pricing and fulfilment efficiency are all factors that the algorithm takes into account.
A strong retail readiness strategy gives your products heft in the fight for the Buy Box, helping your brand beat the competition.
So it’s crucial you use accurate and consistent demand forecasting to maintain optimal stock levels and employ effective inventory management strategies to make sure you can meet customer demand*.
We’re fervent champions of the importance of accurate, real-time Amazon data – click here to dive deeper into this topic!
* And don’t forget to ramp up your efforts in time for Prime Day and other promotional events!
3. Launch and Velocity Planning
A successful Amazon launch needs plenty of pre-planned strategic oomph to get it off the ground, and even more smart thinking to keep that momentum on the up-and-up.
When the Venture Forge team is designing a launch, we look at three things.
i. Advertising
The first is advertising.
A robust Amazon ads strategy, filled with compelling ads and optimised keywords and driven by meticulously managed spend will be pivotal in amplifying your product’s visibility.
What can our Amazon Ads specialists achieve on a conservative budget? We can craft a winning strategy that beat hundreds of other Agencies and won the 2023 EMEA Challenger Award at the Amazon Ads Partner Awards, that’s what.
ii. External Traffic
Then you need to look at your external traffic channels.
By driving traffic from external sources, like social media, influencers or email campaigns, you expand your reach beyond the confines of Amazon’s ecosystem, enhancing the potential for increased sales and visibility.
iii. Reviews Growth
The last piece in the velocity puzzle is growing your reviews – a cornerstone of boosting visibility and gaining the trust needed to turn clicks into conversions.
Positive reviews not only inspire confidence in potential buyers but also contribute to influencing search rankings and Buy Box eligibility.
Employing strategies to encourage authentic reviews is integral to building credibility from the outset.
Look back to “Retail Readiness” for our 3 favourite ways to get – and grow – your reviews
Building velocity upfront on Amazon is a multifaceted strategy that lays the groundwork for a successful launch, fostering momentum that can propel your brand to rapid, but sustainable, success within the competitive Amazon marketplace.
Want help to propel your launch to great heights? Get in touch
Stage Two: Core Growth Tactics
Laid your foundations? Now it’s time to elevate your presence.
Once you’re ready to move beyond the basics, it’s time to dive into the beating heart of our Venture Forge Growth Framework.
Here you’ll find five key elements, each strategically designed to drive your brand to the next level of growth.
They are:
- Increased Traffic – establishing a robust foundation of organic traffic and improved rankings to enhance visibility and drive sales.
- Amazon Ads – leveraging the power of PPC to place your products in front of consumers at every stage of the funnel, accelerating sales velocity.
- Trade Focus – deploying smart pricing and promotion strategies while closely monitoring competitor responses to gain market share traction and build dominance.
- Stock Management – stepping beyond preventing stockouts, a focus on forecasting, analysis and efficient delivery supports and propels growing sales.
- Conversion Optimisation – resting on your laurels? Not for us. The Venture Forge Growth Framework calls for continuous optimisation, fine-tuning listings for peak performance and fostering profit growth.
Sound interesting? Let’s dig deeper…
Increased Traffic
Long-term Amazon success relies on a solid baseline of organic traffic, and that won’t just encourage Amazon itself to give your listing extra visibility, it will also bring credibility and draw in potential customers who trust the platform’s search results.
How can you achieve this?
Here, you need to look to strategically optimise your keywords, use only high-quality content and maintain consistent engagement – a trio which combines effectively to create a sustainable stream of visitors poised for conversion.
A Powerful Amazon Ads Strategy
Done right, Amazon Ads holds the key to driving your visibility, sales and profit.
But it’s not a place for novices.
You have to know how and where to advertise, and you’ve got to have a variety of tools at your fingertips to help you wrestle the best from your strategy and budget.
Our award-winning team can put a rocket up the bottom of your marketplace PPC. Find out how…
To succeed and scale, you need a robust, holistic strategy that’s constantly monitored, backed by accurate data and powered by intelligent, well-planned automation.
With those on your side, the marketplace really is your oyster.
From Sponsored Brands to Sponsored Products, Video ads to Display, Amazon Ads are the best way to reach relevant new audiences as they browse, increase your market share and boost brand awareness, consideration, purchase and even loyalty.
Ready to be seen? Speak to our Amazon Ads experts
A Focus on Trade Dynamics
Amazon is no place to keep your focus trained inwards – this is one of, if not the, most competitive commercial landscapes in existence and any smart growth strategy must stay vigilant in terms of moves being made by the competition.
Analysing and refining your trade position, including pricing and promotions, is crucial for gaining market share traction and outmanoeuvring the best of the rest.
In our webinar on the critical importance of accurate, real-time Amazon data, Venture Forge CEO Andy Banks and MerchantSpring’s Paul Sonneveld dug deep into what it means to have a trading mindset, and why agility and quick reactions are absolutely key.
“I can’t think of a more competitive marketplace where things move so fast (as Amazon). The customers are there, the demand is there, but things move so quickly so you’ve got to stay on top of it.”
Paul Sonneveld, MerchantSpring
Monitoring competitor movements is one crucial element that allows brands to make these informed decisions.
By working to create smart trade strategies, your brand won’t only be in a position to make the best of short-term sales spikes, but also to drive longer-term category dominance through a sharp competitive edge.
Excellent Stock Management = Excellent Growth
Efficient stock management is the backbone of sustained growth, requiring great forecasting, thorough analysis and effective systems that help you get what you need where and when it’s needed.
We talked above about how crucial stock management is to retail readiness, and to customer experience.
But even more than preventing out-of-stocks, paramount though that is, excellent stock management forms the bedrock for scalability, allowing your brand to capitalise on market trends, expand product lines – and later, to move with ease into all the new markets and territories that the world of Amazon offers you.
Optimise Conversions; maximise profits
So, your listings are successful, your sales are strong and all the pieces are in place. Time to kick back? Sorry, but no.
On Amazon, things can change in the blink of an eye, from consumer behaviour to competitor activity.
To keep your conversion rates at their absolute peak, you need to be constantly testing and optimising, evolving to meet new developments and always keeping at least one beady eye on maximising your profits.
Take your marketplace profitability to another level with these expert insights
4 easy steps to optimised conversions:
- Take a data-driven approach that involves A/B testing
- Combine with a keen eye on market trends, on and off Amazon
- Refine your product titles, descriptions and images/ videos in response
- Don’t forget to also tweak your Amazon Ads content
Think of regular optimisation as the key to sustained profitability and market relevance.
By continually fine-tuning listings, you can quickly adapt to changing trends and behaviours and ensure your listings don’t just stay as visible as possible, but also remain irresistibly appealing.
Yes to optimised conversions and maximised profits? Speak to our experts
And Stage Three?
So you’ve got your solid foundations and strong core in place – what’s next?
Well, the logical next steps involve expanding and improving, moving into new ranges and marketplaces and working on your cost efficiencies to extract every ounce of margin.
But we’ll save the specifics of stage three for another time (though you can just click here if you’re ready to talk it through with our team!).
For now, we’ll just say that we hope you’ve enjoyed this behind-the-scenes of the Venture Forge Growth Framework and that it’s left you with lots to think about – and lots to implement!
