It’s no secret that Amazon is the most influential and disruptive retailer in the US, radically redefining eCommerce. And since Amazon.com has leapfrogged Google as the number one place we go to search for products, Amazon Stores may be a brand’s most valuable piece of digital real estate — bar none.
Sure, we all know that your direct-to-consumer (DTC) website gives you the greatest control over brand storytelling, merchandising, and the customer journey. Not to mention your margins are going to be way better on your own channels. But as Amazon continues its stratospheric rise, it provides trust, convenience, and access to a vast new customer base that you can activate through a variety of sophisticated marketing tools.
Price of Entry
At a minimum, brands must strive to build consistency between their DTC channels and Amazon stores (as well as the rest of their channel partners) to avoid confusing the online shopper who’s bouncing from one site to the next looking for the best deal on your products. But there’s a host of other reasons for building a Brand Store, and a variety of ways to test and learn from this increasingly important marketing and sales channel. But before we get started, you may be asking, what exactly is an Amazon Store?
Amazon Stores Explained
- Stores are free, multi-page micro-sites that live on the Amazon platform.
- They are prime real estate for promoting your brand story and products.
- They help shoppers discover your product portfolio and related products on Amazon.
- You can use drag-and-drop technology or predesigned templates to create a customized, multi-page Store — you don’t need to write a line of code.
- You get your own amazon.com web address and can drive shoppers to your Store with ads on Amazon and various marketing vehicles outside of Amazon — using your unique Amazon URL.
- But unlike your brand’s own DTC website, Amazon Stores are hard to find and are not the default destination for Amazon search results (a subject we’ve written about before). Amazon Stores are just one integral component of a broader Amazon marketing strategy. They need to be activated by a concerted marketing effort to provide positive ROI.
- You can use Amazon’s Stores Insights tool to understand your sales and traffic sources and to optimize ad campaigns.
- Who can create a Store? Stores are available for anyone enrolled in the Amazon Brand Registry, as well as vendors, and agencies. And while you don’t need to advertise on Amazon to create a Store, that would be a bit like hosting a party without inviting any guests. For a Store to be effective, you have to drive traffic to it.
Why You Need an Amazon Store
Scores of brands, both large and small, have woken up to the potential of Amazon to drive unparalleled growth in their businesses. For those brands, Stores have become an invaluable piece of digital real estate, establishing their credibility on the platform, and further legitimizing the platform in their customers’ eyes. If you are not effectively using Stores, you can bet your competitors are.
The platform represents a vast, untapped reserve of potential customers, people who would otherwise never visit your DTC website. These audiences can be effectively and efficiently reached through a host of advertising vehicles and can be one or two clicks away from a customizable brand experience.
For smaller brands, with limited marketing dollars, they often represent the best value for telling brand stories and converting sales. With its free-to-play model, Stores are a cost-effective tool to test and learn against a variety of messaging and design criteria. And as you drive more and more traffic to the Store, that data only grows in its significance.
Whether you’re new to the platform or looking to take your Amazon game to the next level, we’ve distilled our ten years of experience into this handy (okay, lengthy) 14 best practices for a better Amazon Store checklist.
READ MORE for our Amazon Store Best Practices Checklist
