When developing a business strategy it can be difficult to know where to start. Different businesses have different goals and requirements which can make their strategies unique to them. On Amazon however, whether you are a vendor or a seller, you should begin with four key elements which build the foundation of all successful Amazon strategies and work from these to develop the rest of your strategy.

An account management process

Account management is no easy task, particularly if you are a vendor with other distribution channels. Amazon can be quite complex with their frequent updates and regular new feature roll outs. Dealing with these curveballs while also keeping an eye on key metrics and performance can be very time consuming, which can often lead to stunted growth.

To give sellers and vendors the headspace to think about the future of their business it is a good idea to have a solid account management process in place. This should be a dedicated person, team or even through an external expert Amazon consultancy agency, depending on the budget you have.

Dedicated account management will help manage your Vendor or Seller Account and help uncover insights about your business which will help set you apart from the competition.

Amazon paid search

Amazon is not a platform which is set up and runs on its own. Those solely relying on organic methods to try and rank higher in the search results pages will find that organic rankings can be volatile due to the way that sales rank is calculated.

Instead it is recommended that businesses invest in Amazon’s paid search offering to increase their visibility to a wider audience which will bring in more sales and in turn positively impact organic rankings too.

Amazon’s paid search is pay-per-click, meaning that you only pay when someone actually engages with an ad, and when they are on your listing, their chances of converting increases.

Reviewing listing content

A product listing’s content is never fully finished. There will always be elements that need to be updated as the listing gets more interaction and time passes. Ensuring you have it in your strategy to regularly review the description, titles and bullet points on your product listings.

The main reason for this is that shoppers and past customers may have contributed key feedback in either their product reviews or in the Q&A section, which can help inform improvements to make to your listing’s content.

The second reason is that there may be new keywords for your products being used and gaining search volume which you haven’t included. Frequently conducting keyword research and applying them throughout your listing will make sure you are capturing any traffic using these new keywords.

Optimised images

Finally, but crucially, vendors and sellers should make sure their image optimisation is a top priority in their Amazon strategy. Amazon is a consumer first marketplace, meaning Amazon expects its sellers and vendors to ensure the customer journey is the best possible, and this involves having high quality images for listings.

To increase conversions, it makes sense for businesses to take advantage of all the image slots available, following Amazon’s guidelines and paying attention to their restrictions. Not only does Amazon reward the listings which have complete sets of images, but better pictures mean consumers trust your product more which leads to an increase in sales.