Optimise your listings to improve customer experience with Premium A+ Content
Amazon’s push to make its platform the number one marketplace for brand experience continues with free Premium A+ Content for Brands.
The brand experience on Amazon has improved beyond all recognition. It’s easy to see why. Amazon has been aggressively targeting brands to list on the platform. As more brands take control of their online presence and customer experience, Amazon has been offering the potential for an enhanced customer experience. This can lead to an increase in sales. Benefiting both parties – the brand and Amazon.
However, it’s clear that the majority of brands are not fully optimising their listings by making the most of premium features available to brands. Premium A+ content and Brand Story are just two of the ways that brands can transform their listings.
Traditionally Premium A+ content has been an extra charge for brands. However, Amazon is now offering it for free so that brands can get a taste of the impact it has on customer experience, and sales.
Amazon Premium A+ Content
If you have registered as a Brand Owner with Amazon Brand Registry, then you are now eligible for Premium A+ content at no extra cost for an extended promotional period. Incidentally, for brands that haven’t registered, it is vital to take control of your brand on Amazon by registering.
To qualify, you will need to have a track record of publishing A+ content. There is no end date for this special promotion. It’s highly likely to run indefinitely. Particularly if it results in attracting more brands, and growing brand sales.
However, Amazon has indicated that if it does decide to bring in a fee for Premium A+, it will invite eligible Brand Owners to opt in. If you are not already registered for this enhanced marketing content, don’t miss the chance to further optimise your listings.
Why brands should use Premium A+ Content
Premium A+, sometimes called Enhanced Brand Content for sellers, helps brands to focus more on imagery and video – and less on text. Research shows that sellers who utilise Premium A+ attract more new customers and improve conversions.
Importantly, the tool helps sellers to make their listings more appealing for buyers who are using their smartphones to shop. Not only does smartphone shopping continue to rise, research shows that utilising Premium A+ content can boost sales by 20 per cent, says Amazon.
While Amazon prefers to keep more detailed statistics about customers and their mobile shopping habits under wraps, research by Data Reportal found that 60 per cent of consumers use their smartphones for online shopping. Globally, the use of mobiles for sales is set to surpass $4.57 billion by 2023.
Given the prevalence for online shopping and Amazon’s large market share, it makes sense to sign up for Premium A + in order to optimise listings. When you do, your brand will need to invest in creating sharp images and extra video content for your lines. Optimizon’s data shows this extra time and budget will pay dividends.
Keep in mind, Enhanced Brand Content for sellers works well for both high ASP luxury products (even with a lower rate of sales) and low ASP products with a high sell through rate.
Also, during the promotional period you can publish Premium A+ content for all of your ASINs using A+ content manager. Therefore boosting the presence and quality of your brand on Amazon.
Qualifying for Premium A+ Content
To qualify for Premium A+ content, you just need to have published A+ brand stories across your ASIN catalogue. This needs to be done for each Amazon store. In addition, you need to have had at least 15 A+ content projects approved in the previous 12 months.
Access for Premium A+ is granted at the end of each month. If you meet the criteria, you will see a banner in the A+ content manager for access.
Testing Premium A+ Content
However, before implementing Premium A+ content across your entire stock of ASINs, it is wise to carry out brand testing on its effectiveness. This way, you can be certain that the extra spend on imagery and video content will be good value for money.
The most effective way to do this is to run A/B tests (also known as split tests) on certain items of your brand’s listings content. The tests let you compare two versions of listings (one with Premium + and one without) to see which version drives more sales and conversions. A/B tests is another feature available to registered brands.
Comparing the performance of listings in this way will give you a clearer picture of how enhanced imagery can work beneficially on the platform. From our experience there is no doubt that creating a better brand experience and a more eye-catching listing will reap rewards. Tests will provide you with the data to support your decision to invest in your branded Amazon listings.
Help with your brand’s Premium A+ Content
Optimizon is a leading Amazon Agency providing Amazon Consultancy and Account Management services. Reach out to the Optimizon team to get help with any aspect of your Amazon account. Our specialist team can optimise your listings, whilst delivering exceptional brand experience.
