There’s no doubt that Amazon is the biggest e-commerce platform, and many businesses think of it as a springboard for their sales. Sometimes, ignoring their terms and conditions. The most common mistakes on Amazon often result in a low rating and a continuous struggle for positioning.

Practice makes expertise, and expertise brings more buyers in. However, success on Amazon is a matter of keeping it all together, from your listing design to your aftersales actions. And especially, complying with Amazon’s Terms and Conditions.

After more than a year of auditing and improving Amazon listings, these are the most common mistakes on Amazon we have found at Content2Sell.

The top 9 common mistakes on Amazon

0.     Research

Research is the most important part of any business idea, as it provides deep insights about target audiences, their needs, expectations, etc.
The research phase takes time, curiosity, and – ideally – lots of conversation to have a deep understanding of all the aspects that connect a brand, a product, and its final buyer.

1.     Audience

Yes, every person in the world is a potential customer regardless of their age, gender, or location. And when they find themselves in need of a specific product, they will find it.

However, that doesn’t mean your product can equally meet everyone’s needs. Instead, there always is a specific segment that is more likely than others to search, consider, and ultimately, buy. And when it comes to selling products, the safest way to play is to understand everything about it.

Once the audience is studied and understood, testing – another indispensable stage – becomes much easier to clear the way for sales.

• Picture the situations when the need for your product appears.
• Sketch the path followed by your target audience, from awareness to purchase. Depict what makes users fall for one option or the other, by reading comments, questions, and reviews.
• See what product presentations (images, contexts, copy, etc.) work better

2.     Not checking what competitors do

What’s the use of selling a product if you don’t know how others do?
We hate breaking it to you, but no one can expect to publish a listing and start selling right away. Going live is just the tip of the iceberg, and that sinking 90% tells you how your competitors approach their visitors’ pain points, engage them, and what their images imply.

Furthermore, the benchmarking stage is what will give you the right dimension on prices, margins, and profit. With so many products and sellers on Amazon, money and innovation are the real game-changers.

3.     Ignoring your SEO

Rather than just a marketplace, Amazon is a search engine. And as you probably know, it has its own algorithm to rate, rank, promote good practices, and penalize those who don’t follow them. The algorithm helps creating a functional and effective ecosystem to connect buyers and sellers from what buyers actually look for.

This is why many new products don’t perform to their full potential. Businesses that skip the keyword research won’t meet the buyer’s query and will end up buried under the listings of those who bid for the right keywords.

• Use keyword research tools, like Jungle Scout, to find out the exact terms people use to search for a product.
• Use keywords wisely and find the balance between keyword density and clear descriptions.

4.     Not background-checking providers

Sourcing can be a delicate matter on Amazon. Not only because of its impact on brands’ reputations but also because Amazon takes customer satisfaction very seriously. And while part of it relies on the brand selling through Amazon, repeatedly unsatisfied buyers are more likely to look for other options.

A very common mistake on Amazon is not having providers’ backgrounds checked. Poor product quality, differences between the advertised and the delivered product, or shipping can become real problems, and have repercussions in your rating, positioning, and customer service. And in the worst-case scenario, make your listing disappear.

Never forget your provider is only yours, and Amazon will care little or nothing about what happened between you two.

• Make sure to find reliable sourcing companies and manufacturers.
• Explore providers that are located closer to you / your warehouse or selling location.
• Run quality checks before engaging with a provider: from the product and the protocols followed to manufacture it, to packaging, handling, and delivery frames.

 

5.     Not providing added value in saturated niches

With a catalog of over 12 million products, it’s virtually impossible not to have direct competition. In fact, if you own a unique product that’s performing well, Amazon may become your direct competitor – but that’s another story.

When searching for a product on Amazon, consumers use filters to compare prices, top-sellers, and the products with the best reviews. Many products have been there for a long time. Many others are so commonly used, that many brands fight for a piece of the pie.

Entering saturated niches is a very dangerous venture, given the difficulty of competing with long-established brands with a strong position in the market.

• See the most sold and best-rated products, and spot their USPs.
• Consider investing in Amazon PPC (Pay-Per-Click campaigns) to give your product a starting boost

6.     Poor image quality and responsiveness

Remember the attention span has decreased 30% in the past 20 years according to Microsoft, and that other highly contested study by 3M concluding that the human brain processes images in 13 milliseconds (that’s 60000 times faster than text).

Now, In order to promote sales within the platform through clear visual product descriptions, Amazon has strong guidelines on what product images should look like, and what should be avoided at all costs. For example:

• Image size above 1000 pixels.
• Pure white backgrounds, with products taking 85% of the image.
• No text over the main product’s image.

In any case, many common mistakes on Amazon are immediately addressed, which is a weighty reason to take the guidelines seriously in order not to be paused or unpublished.

We frequently see Amazon EBC (A+ content) with images that have low quality, the wrong size or proportions, or misplaced text on them. The problem comes when users see that listing from a mobile device – most users do. Image quality is lost, users need to zoom in and out, scroll from side to side, give up and move to the next listing.

• Test the responsiveness of your images and infographics.
• Make sure your images reflect all of your product’s value from different angles, in context, and in an unambiguous way.
• Highlight your product’s features by editing the text on its label or packaging’s image.

For further information, you can take a look at our post on how to make your Amazon main product image stand out.

 

7.     Unsustainable packaging

Not too long ago, we posted about the changes in consumer behavior, and how a greater search for sustainable products is having an actual impact on the actions companies take.

In this vein, Amazon has taken a giant step in granting two labels to businesses and products that have changed their packaging design. On the one hand, the Climate Pledge Friendly program includes a set certifications users can actually filter, and therefore reward businesses who prove to be committed to reducing their environmental impact.

The same happens with Amazon’s own certification called Compact by Design, aimed at optimizing packaging design for easier transportation, storage, and sustainability.

Increasing environmental awareness, and the growing acquisitive power of younger generations have made this more than a trend.
Consider, thus, optimizing your packaging design:

• Minimalist packaging is cheaper and easier to ship and store.
• Use paper and cardboard
• Personalize your packaging design to provide an unforgettable unboxing experience. 

8.     Poor inventory management

E-commerce may happen on the internet, but selling physical products requires physical products. And physical products take space in shelves, warehouses, and vehicles. And apart from your listing design and content-related aspects, inventory management and logistics are something no online store can do without.

Stock management is something Amazon keeps on a short leash. In fact, the slightest stock interruption is strongly penalized and has dramatic consequences ranging from a temporary suspension to the loss of the listing’s ranking or a permanent ban.

• Review your shipping cost and delivery frames to prevent poor customer reviews and the algorithm’s spotlight put on you.
• Keep your inventory up to date and avoid running out of stock. Overselling can be a very expensive mistake.
• Consider using FBA (Fulfilled by Amazon) if you need to simplify your logistic operations and forget about everything but sourcing Amazon. It may raise your cost, but also your overall sales.

9.     Ignoring customer support and after-sales

Aftersales and customer service are powerful trust builders and should be considered the most effective communication channel between a brand and its customers. Not only does it provide continuous feedback to keep improving both products and operations, but also proves how much businesses care about their customers.

And yet, many Amazon sellers keep it in the background once the deal is sealed. On top of it all, common mistakes on Amazon include ignoring the questions of potential buyers (which can be replied to by other buyers), or even asking for reviews, which is forbidden by Amazon,

Honesty is one of the valued virtues, both by users and Amazon itself. Thus, it is a bad idea to focus on the short-term figures.

• Going around Amazon’s prohibition to ask for reviews is not impossible. You can include it in your packaging design, your manuals, or even in communities built on Social Media.
• Reply to all questions and reviews in a timely manner. Providing answers will keep your audience reassured and your customer service at ease.
• Listen to your audience and implement the changes that are likely to improve your product’s value and your customer’s experience.

Never settle

We’ve been running free content audits for over a year now. And during this time, we have helped businesses of all sizes, from startups to large corporations, taking their products to the 24/7/365 market that the internet is. Whether you think your sales could do better, or you have received warnings about your listing, you may need one of our FREE CONTENT AUDITS to spot how to take your Amazon listing to the next level. All you need is to schedule your call.