Keywords, Listings & Catalogue Best Practice

Paul Sonneveld & James Wakefield
Hosts: video

Overview

Podcast transcript

Introduction
Hi and welcome to another live episode of Marketplace Masters. Brought to you by MerchantSpring, the leading Marketplace analytics platform for Amazon vendors, and agencies. Marketplace Masters is all about going deeper into the challenges that vendors and agencies face to lift performance by practical actions and insights.

Podcast Transcript

Paul Sonneveld
I'm your host, Paul Sonneveld and today we are talking about product, catalogue, strategies, and listing optimization specifically for Amazon Vendors. To help us do this, I’ve invited James Wakefield to join us and share his expertise.
James is the founder of Wake Commerce, a London-based Amazon agency in technology provider firmly focused on Vendor Central. James has been selling on marketplaces since 2002 and on Amazon since 2005. So he brings a broad range of experience to the conversation today.

James Wakefield
Thanks for having me back, Paul. Great to see you.

Paul Sonneveld
It's a really big topic today. So, I know we've got a lot of content to cover. Let's kick off with this big question. Why do you think catalogue and listing optimization is important for vendors? Doesn't Amazon look after everything?

James Wakefield
Does Amazon ever look after anything? Yeah, it's a really big topic. I feel that it's an aspect of Amazon and vendor that is kind of underserved. There's a lot of almost mystery behind it and it is multifaceted. It's quite complex. So, yeah, hopefully I'll distill some of that today. In terms of why optimization is important, I've tried to summarize that in this slide. It starts really with visibility. Are your products showing up for relevant searches and ranking for specific search terms? Are they tied to keywords that people are using that have volume? Also, are the products you want to push and prioritize getting the attention?

With brands on Vendor Central, there might be issues around duplicate listings or illegitimate listings that you don’t have control over.

In terms of how to address this, we've got some strategies put together here, which are three stages. First, quantify the opportunity. We then rank the products we've decided to go after. And once those products are active, we need to monitor them closely to measure performance.

Understanding the current state of your account is essential, which means understanding what type of vendor or seller you are on Amazon, what stage you're at in your Amazon Journey, or even maturity. This understanding is fundamental to defining your strategy. If you're a reseller, you might have had a good time five or six years ago, but since then, it’s a race to the bottom. If you're a private label seller, you will have control over your brand. For a typical consumer brand working with Vendor Central, you might have joined the party a bit too late and may not have created your product listings on Amazon.

This can create challenges in taking ownership and tidying up your brand on the platform, but it also represents an opportunity because if resellers have already had a go at listing your products, you can see what's going on with those listings, which leads us to the audit stage.

We’re looking at Amazon data to understand the current situation with your brand’s products using external metrics, including sales rank and review quantity to understand which products have momentum. If advising a consumer brand, it would be on the products that are already proven in the channel to focus on in terms of keywords, content, and customer experience.

To determine the focus list, it’s important to analyze the competition and understand where those products sit within Amazon’s catalog, and whether the offering is price competitive. You also need to quantify the scale of the competition, considering that there are close to 1 billion products in Amazon's database. The required understanding of who you're up against is crucial in order to avoid entering blindly.

Ranking Factors

Now, jumping to ranking factors, these are the aspects that drive search rankings and conversion rate on the listing, which we can control concerning content. The attributes are influencing search rankings and keyword relevancy. Other factors determine how your products convert with customers, such as the type of delivery offered and customer reviews.

Once listings are active, it’s critical to monitor them closely as this is often neglected. Whether you have a small or large catalog, if you have a listing generating significant revenue, you want to ensure stock availability. Monitoring the buy box is also crucial; if Amazon is consistently winning the buy box on behalf of your product against competitors, it can significantly impact performance.

Conclusion & Practical Aspects

In terms of optimizing for a brand’s listing and presence on Amazon, the optimization process shouldn't be a one-time event. The market is fluid, and you need to revisit listings regularly, especially for high-priority products. This includes ensuring the text-based content and visuals are updated as necessary to comply with best practices for aesthetics and keyword inclusion.

Ultimately, optimizing a brand’s presence and addressing common challenges in content management is essential. Brands often need to consolidate official listings to provide a clean and coherent customer experience.

For questions, feel free to connect with James Wakefield on LinkedIn or via email at james@wakecommerce.co.uk.