Building brand loyalty on Amazon is hard.
After all, your customers are shopping on Amazon.com — not your website — and chances are, they don’t even realize they’re buying from a third party seller. Product listings don’t show your logo or prominently feature your name, so it’s possible for a buyer to complete a sale without realizing they bought from a third party seller.
The basic tenets for building brand loyalty — engaging customers, providing value, and staying relevant, to name a few — aren’t as easy to apply to an Amazon storefront. But with these tips, you’ll be one step closer to generating a loyal customer base.
Strive for Quality
Quality is key — and not just of your products, but the buying experience as well. To ensure that your customers have a positive shopping experience, make sure you deliver (pun intended) on the promises you’ve made. If your listing shows a specific product/color, make sure that’s the one they receive. If you guarantee a delivery date, make sure the product arrives on time (or better yet, early).
By providing quality products (and a good experience), your customers will be happy and therefore more likely to purchase again.
Offer Promotions
Shoppers love getting a deal, so consider offering deals on your products. There are a few ways you can do this:
Drop Price: Run a special campaign tied to a particular season or event and temporarily reduce the price of your best-selling item, or set your price to be the lowest of all competing listings (though you should be doing this one already!). For tips on repricing, check out a service like SellerEngine, XSellco, or Feedvisor, which offer intelligent repricing tools for Amazon sellers.
Add a Coupon: If you have a Professional Selling Plan, you can run special promotions on your products by going to the Promotions Tool in Seller Central. Doing so will give buyers an option to clip a digital coupon in their shopping carts and earn a percentage off, free shipping, etc.
Leverage Subscribe & Save: If you’re an FBA seller, you may be able to add the Subscribe & Save option to your products. This will ultimately guarantee repeat customers and monthly sales. You can check your Subscribe & Save eligibility in Seller Central.
Pro Tip: If you run a special promotion, make sure to advertise it on social media or as an Amazon sponsored product so that potential customers can take advantage!
Stay on Trend
This goes without saying, but don’t sell something no one wants. Monitor Amazon’s top selling items and what’s trending outside of Amazon. If you offer a hot-ticket item at a competitive price, you’re pretty much guaranteed to attract new and repeat customers.
Pro Tip: Sign up for Jungle Scout to see which products will make you the most money. Jungle Scout is a very popular Amazon product research tool with Amazon Sellers of all sizes.
Personalize the Shopping Experience
By nature, shopping online is impersonal, but there are still ways to enhance the buying experience for your customers:
Order Confirmation Emails: Set up an email campaign that includes an order confirmation and shipment notification. In these emails, include your storefront name and, if you have one, your logo. In addition to providing basic transactional info like order number, product(s) purchased, tracking information, and expected delivery date, add a tip or use-case about an item in the order — this is a great way to surprise and delight your customer.
Feedback Solicitations: Asking for feedback and product reviews is so important. The more positive feedback you get, the better reputation you’ll have, and the more sales you’ll earn (you’ll also be one step closer to winning the Buy Box if you haven’t already). Not to mention, negative feedback gives you an opportunity to learn and improve. Similar to your order confirmation emails, you should set up an email stream to ask your customers for feedback, and have the email go out one or two weeks after they’ve received their order. You could “surprise and delight” them in these emails as well by offering a discount code for a future purchase or adding another product tip. You can automate these using a service like FeedbackGenius or FeedbackFive — just make sure to include a thank you email if they do end up leaving a review.
Packaging: Add a postcard or letter to your packaging that a) includes your storefront branding and URL, b) thanks them for their business, c) provides a fun product tip, d) promises satisfaction, e) offers a discount code for a future purchase, or f) all of the above. Place it at the top of your package so it’s the first thing they see when they open it.
Pro Tip: Regardless of how or when you communicate with your customers, don’t forget to thank them for their business, reiterate how important their satisfaction is to you, and assure them that you’re available if they have questions or issues about their order — you could even include a link to the Buyer-Seller Messaging Service. The easier you make it for them to reach you, the better (and more trustworthy you’ll seem). For more content suggestions, check out this product review solicitation template.
Build an Audience Outside of Amazon
Are you on social media? Do you have your own website? Do you sell on other e-commerce platforms like Walmart or eBay?
There are ways to build a following outside the confines of Amazon.com — you just have to know how to market your business so your customers know you exist and can find your listings. Aside from running Sponsored Product Ads on Amazon, you can find potential customers by:
Using Facebook Ads or Google AdWords: Serve ads to a specific demographic depending on who your target customer is or keywords that someone might be searching for.
Look for Relevant Communities: Do you offer a niche product? Chances are there’s an online community or forum that would love to hear about your company, products, and any promotions you may be running.
Engage Influencers: These days, companies rely on influencers (such as popular bloggers and Instagram-aficionados) to market their products. Depending on your niche (be it yoga gear, health supplements, cooking gadgets, beauty products, furniture, tools, etc.), you should be able to find an influencer with a very dedicated and engaged audience who wants to work with you.
Friends and Family: You can always start by asking your family and friends to follow you on social media and help spread the word about your storefront.
Pro Tip: Regardless of how you find your audience, make sure you’re communicating relevant and targeted offers that send them to your Amazon storefront or a specific listing. For expert help on marketing your business (including paid search management, Facebook ad management, and more), check out CPC Strategy, experts in retail-focused performance marketing.
How have you been able to build your brand as an Amazon seller? What are the biggest branding challenges you face? Tell us on Twitter at @getpayability.
