In a heavily saturated eCommerce marketplace, it makes sense to do everything in your power to stand out from the competition. This means utilising the range of systems and features--especially ones made specifically for Brand Registry businesses--to succeed on Amazon.
What is an Amazon Brand Store?
An Amazon Brand Store is a dedicated shopping destination for your brand on Amazon. Much like items are grouped by brand in a brick and mortar retail store, Amazon allows brand owners a virtual shelf to curate their brand experience. This store can be a single or multi-page experience, and Amazon lets you build it with a self-service tool nestled under the Amazon Advertising platform. Once your store is launched and live, you can use it in advertising campaigns, such as Sponsored Brands, or use your new, specific URL for marketing purposes and traffic-driving initiatives off Amazon.
(A multipage store on Amazon.co.uk built by eCommerce Nurse.)
The benefits of an Amazon Brand Store
The branded store experience comes with some obvious benefits. At eCommerce Nurse, we always encourage our clients to use this marketing opportunity to cross-sell their products and showcase their brand, no matter how large or small their Amazon business. Brand Stores used to be a benefit for top vendors on Amazon. Now, it’s open to all brand owners, and it is free to use, once approved through the Brand Registry!
Facilitate the customer journey
If you are a Brand Registry seller or vendor, all of the product detail pages under your brand will link to a Brand Store if you have one published. This discovery link is ideal for anyone selling on Amazon. You want customers to be able to find the rest of your range easily, and this link ensures a high likelihood of increased conversion.
(Once your Brand Store is live, your detail pages will link directly to your published store. Screenshot from Amazon.com.)
Flexibility
Amazon lets you build your Brand Store in a way that best suits your brand. This may mean a single page, or multiple pages, like category pages on a website that show off your items in a way that makes it discoverable for your customers.
Variety of modules that are easy to use
Along with flexible top-level pages, you can also use different modules to display your items and content. The page templates are flexible with drag-and-drop functionality. This includes video, automated bestseller or new product grids, item showcases with shoppable and clickable images, and more. You don’t need any coding experience to build a Brand Store.
As a bonus, many of the modules are automatically updated to remove out-of-stock products. This makes it easy to upload product lists in bulk, especially if you have a large catalogue or lots of ASINs to showcase on your pages. Your store will still look nice if something sells out.
More SEO space
You’ll want real estate space for your product titles, brand name, and presence on and off Amazon. The Brand Store lets you add text, image descriptions, ALT tags, and more, to talk about your brand and help it appear in search engines.
Update your store at any time
Once your store is live, you’re welcome to make edits and customise your store further whenever you want. You can keep a live version of your store and create other versions to publish at a later date. This is great for new product launches, re-branding, seasonal updates, events like Prime Day, and just testing out what works best for your brand.
Integrated Amazon Advertising campaigns
If you want to make your paid marketing campaigns more effective, it is important to use your Brand Store. Within Amazon Advertising you can set up Sponsored Brands ads with copy and images linking directly to your Brand Store.
(Once your Brand Store is live, you can showcase products via Sponsored Brands and link directly to your Brand Store).
Sponsored Brands are a cost-per-click type of campaign that can help you achieve a range of goals, from generating new product or brand awareness or creating more demand for certain items. Once you’ve set up your campaigns, Amazon provides reporting tools to analyse campaign performance and measure your success. Over time, this can help you see what keywords are generating clicks and sales, and advertising cost of sales (ACOS), which represents ad spend as a percentage of sales.
Drive customer loyalty
A Brand Store is another place to show off your brand. With a cohesive customer experience, a reiteration of branding elements like logos, lifestyle imagery, and more, the Brand Store can be complementary to your other marketing efforts, like A+ Content, promotions, and more.
Perhaps a customer has bought one of your products on or off Amazon. Repeat customers are more likely with a Brand Store because customers can see your full range of products and even learn about your brand story. You can drive external traffic (such as from social media campaigns) to your Brand Store to gain even more traction on Amazon, increase reviews, and ramp up conversion. This is especially beneficial if you can captialise on a Brand Store when your competitors can’t.
Tips for creating Brand Stores
Ready to take advantage of all that Brand Stores have to offer? Where do you start? First, you will need Brand Registry approval. This means applying through Amazon’s channel and ensuring you have documentation, like trademark information, to become approved.
Brand Stores are currently available to sellers enrolled in the Brand Registry, vendors, and agencies. You do not have to be advertising on Amazon to build a store. Brand Stores are available at no additional cost to eligible sellers and vendors.
(As of summer 2021, Brand Stores are available in these Amazon locales, according to Amazon's Brand Store help page.)
Once the feature is available, the Brand Store should NOT be your first step. You’ll want to focus on other brand-building and retail readiness options before creating a Brand Store. This means optimising your listings, creating A+ Content, ensuring you have low returns, solid reviews, are eligible for Amazon Advertising campaigns, and more. Bottom line: You don’t want to invest in or drive traffic to poor listings, bad images, and a lacklustre customer experience.
Likewise, a Brand Store isn’t going to look good or perform well with poor content. While Brand Stores are free to create, they still require high attention to detail and many brands get expert help. At eCommerce Nurse, we can provide a strategic, integrated approach with design resources, photography, copywriting, and ongoing Brand Store management.
You will want to ensure your images look on-brand, professional, and are properly sized with high-resolution quality. You also need to think about the mobile experience and ensure you take into consideration the variety of shopper needs before you build your store.
Level up your Amazon business with an improved shopping experience for your customers. A highly-performing Brand Store can increase organic traffic, fuel your ranking, and drive customer satisfaction.
Need more help?
Brand Stores can be a great tool, but only if executed properly and as part of a larger Amazon strategy. Learn more about Brand Stores and eligibility. If you are ready for assistance, brand management, listing acceleration, and Amazon Advertising support, check out our range of services or customer testimonials and contact us today.
