amazon germany benchmarking report 2021 - practicology
TRANSCRIPT
© PATTERN INC
Amazon Germany
Benchmarking
Report 2021
Discover Amazon best practice from our analysis of 50
consumer brands selling on the marketplace in Germany
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AMAZON GERMANY REPORT: CONTENTS
About the report
Executive summary P3
Methodology P5
Scoring criteria P6
Ranking: the Top 20 brands P7
Top performers per category P8
Key benchmarks: at a glance P9
The 50 brands we reviewed P12
Best practice examples
Product information P13
Product imagery P19
Brand content P25
Seller proposition & competition P30
Customer service P36
SEO ranking P39
Localisation P41
Our top recommendations P44
About Pattern
Our global footprint P45
Our Amazon Seller model P46
This report was researched and compiled by our
European team including Misha Pabari, Francisca
Schlicht, Torsten Schäfer & Joanna Perry.
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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Thanks for downloading our research into the experience
provided by brands selling on Amazon.
This is the second report in our Amazon benchmarking series,
this time analysing the efforts of 50 brands selling on Amazon
in Germany. In the following pages you will find benchmarks
for brands on Amazon.de, plus best practice examples of
listings that will encourage browsers to convert to buyers.
Why we benchmark
As one of the largest sellers on Amazon globally, we use the
benchmarks created from research such as this to optimise
the presence of the brands that we act as the authorised
seller for.
The scorecard we have created to rank each of the 50 brands
is based on a set of criteria that we know impacts on how
easily Amazon’s customers can find and select products they
want. This ultimately determines a brand’s sales performance.
We have picked 50 brands that we don’t sell, from five
categories; and who are in the main doing a good job of
selling on Amazon.
If we included your brand and it did not appear in the overall
top 20, or the top three for your category, that doesn’t mean
you are doing a bad job. But there’s always room to do better.
The results
The top scoring brand – Smart Home brand Philips Hue –
achieved 70% of the total marks available in our scoring
system. The lowest achieved 34%. In comparison, in our
previous benchmarking study of brands selling on
Amazon.co.uk, the top scoring brand received 73%, and the
lowest scoring brand just 19%.
The scorecard analysis shows that even brands with a
relatively strong presence on Amazon.de could improve their
sales performance further with relatively simple changes. ►
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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Overall, the average score for a brand in this report was 60%,
and the average score for each of the five categories was:
• Smart Home – 65%
• Baby – 63%
• Home & Kitchen – 59%
• Tools – 57%
• Home appliances – 56%
There was a smaller difference in performance at a category
level than for the UK report, likely as the categories chosen
were less diverse in this study.
Areas of focus for optimisation
Significant improvements could be made to the product
information and imagery provided by many of the brands
reviewed. Only six of the 50 brands analysed were making
proper use of the product bullet points that allow features and
functionality of a product to be highlighted. Similarly, only 11
of the 50 brands were using simple text on secondary images
for all products, to call out product details.
The number of brands with many third-party sellers offering
the same products was extremely high. While competition can
be good for consumers, it also creates the risk of a poor
perception of the brand. 42% of brands had an average of six
or more sellers on their top three listings.
Finally, customer service is another overlooked area which
can impact how well a product listing converts; as poor
reviews and unanswered questions are likely to put off
potential customers. 32% of brands didn’t reply to any
customer questions on their listings.
We hope you find the benchmarks and recommendations in
the next 40+ pages of use to optimise your Amazon presence.
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METHODOLOGY
We analysed the presence of 50
consumer brands from a variety of
categories across the German and UK
instances of Amazon. All of the
brands have products listed for sale
directly by Amazon in Germany.
Our scorecard looked for all the key
elements of listings best practice that
are visible to customers. We analysed
three products for each brand, and
averaged the results for each criteria
based on the three product scores.
For the localisation elements, each
brand’s score was based on whether
the products were being sold on the
UK instance of Amazon, and how well
their product information had been
translated to English.
Products were chosen by searching
for brand terms and picking those
which appeared on the first page in
search results, as these are the
products that customers are most
likely to be clicking on.
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SCORING CRITERIA: WHAT WERE WE LOOKING FOR?
During the reviews of brands selling on Amazon.de we were particularly looking for:
• Product information – We checked for relevant, detailed and uniform information on product pages, but also how well product information had been optimised to best-practice standards.
• Product imagery – We assessed whether image stacks adhered to Amazon’s guidelines and added value to the product information on the page.
• Brand content – We judged how well the content on Amazon represents each brand’s story and pedigree.
• Ratings & Reviews – We calculated each brand’s Average Review Rating and evaluated customer service management on listings.
• Seller proposition & competition – We judged brands on their fulfilment offering and the average number of resellers on their listings, as more sellers can be confusing for customers. We also looked at competition on two Amazon advertising types: Sponsored Brands and Sponsored Products.
• SEO & Keyword Analysis – We researched how prominently each brand appeared in organic search results for its brand term.
• Localisation – We evaluated whether each brand was listing the same products on Amazon.de and Amazon.co.uk, and whether those product listings were being properly translated for the UK market.
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AMAZON GERMANY REPORT: RANKINGS
Category Brand Score
Smart Home Philips Hue 70%
Baby Hauck 69%
Home & Kitchen CASO 68%
Home Appliances iRobot 68%
Smart Home Tado 68%
Home & Kitchen Zwilling 67%
Baby Lässig 67%
Smart Home Steinel 67%
Home & Kitchen Brabantia 66%
Baby Britax 66%
The top ranking brands in our researchThe brands shown here were the
top 20 performers of the 50
brands that we reviewed. For the
full list of brands that we
assessed please see page 12.
If your brand was scored as part
of our research please get in
touch and we would be delighted
to share your full results with you.
If your brand was not included,
then we may still be able to
review it against our scoring
criteria to help benchmark your
Amazon presence. For all
requests contact us at:
Category Brand Score
Smart Home Ei Electronics 66%
Baby BabyBjörn 66%
Home Appliances Melitta 66%
Home Appliances Rowenta 65%
Smart Home Nuki 65%
Home & Kitchen Fissler 64%
Smart Home Homematic IP 64%
Tools Fiskars 64%
Smart Home Smartwares 64%
Baby Cybex 63%
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TOP RANKINGS BY CATEGORY
Brand Score
Hauck 69%
Lässig 67%
Britax 66%
Brand Score
iRobot 68%
Melitta 66%
Rowenta 65%
Brand Score
Philips Hue 70%
Tado 68%
Steinel 67%
Brand Score
CASO 68%
Zwilling 67%
Brabantia 66%
Baby Home & Kitchen
Smart Home
Home Appliances
Tools
Brand Score
Fiskars 64%
Ikra 62%
Wagner 62%
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AMAZON GERMANY: KEY BENCHMARKS
Product
Information
46%had product titles of a
length that is beneficial
for Amazon SEO on all
products
48%kept similar products
rooted under parent ASINs
to enable browsing across
variations
54%provided uniform and
detailed, value adding
information in all product
descriptions
12%added clear, concise and
uniform bullet points to
all of their listings
Brand
Content86%linked to a branded
storefront from all
product listings
86%included A+ content
on all their product
listings
30%of brands had all their
product listings marked
as Amazon’s Choice
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AMAZON GERMANY: KEY BENCHMARKS
Product Imagery
46%included lifestyle
photographs as
part of their
image stacks for
all products
36%used close-up images
to show product
details and features
for all products
22%added simple text to
secondary images for all
products outlining special
features or dimensions
36%included videos
within all image
stacks
80%had Amazon winning
the Buy Box on all 3
of their top products
96%offered Fulfillment by
Amazon for all the
products we assessed
Seller Proposition & Competition
2%of brands had on
average 0-1 sellers
on their top 3
listings
56%of brands had on
average 2-5 sellers
on their top 3
listings
42%of brands had on
average 6 or more
sellers on their top
3 listings
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AMAZON GERMANY: KEY BENCHMARKS
8%had a third-party
seller listing for their
brand as the top
search result
92%of the brands
ranked first on their
brand term in
organic search
results
4%of brands had all
three products
appear in the Top 50
Amazon Bestsellers
in their category
Search results ranking on the brand term
SEO
Ranking
94%had an average
review rating of 4*
and above on all their
listings
26%replied to customer
questions
Reviews &
Ratings
66%appeared in all
10 of the top
10 organic
search results
for the brand
34%6-9 listings
0%0-5 listings
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AMAZON GERMANY: KEY BENCHMARKS
Localisation26%of brands were selling
all the same products
on Amazon in
Germany and in the
UK
46%of brands had
sponsored products
on Amazon.co.uk18%of brands localised all
their product content
to a best-practice
standard
The brands we
reviewed were:
alfi
AVM
BabyBjörn
Bosch Smart
Home
Brabantia
Britax
CASO
Clatronic
Cybex
Ecovacs
Ei Electronics
Fiskars
Fissler
Gedore
Gloria
Graef
Grundig
Hauck
Hazet
Hekatron Vertriebs
Homematic IP
IKRA
iRobot
Julius Zöllner
Jura
Knipex
Lässig
Lurch
Maxi-Cosi
Medela
Melitta
Mepal
Nuki
Philips Hue
Reer
ROBA
Rommelsbacher
Rosle
Rowenta
Smartwares
Stanley Rogers
Steinel
Tado
Venta Luftwäscher
Wagner
Wera
WMF
Wolf-Garten
WORX
Zwilling
© PATTERN INC
PRODUCT
INFORMATION
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WHY PRODUCT INFORMATION MATTERS
Product content determines placement in search results.
Relevant and complete information on product pages helps
brands to increase their products’ visibility in search results
and also sales conversion. Best practice product information
helps customers to find the right product and decide to buy it.
The majority of brands were not delivering best practice
product information on all of their top three product listings.
Just under half of brands (46%) had product titles of a length
suitable for Amazon on all products, but only 12% had an
optimal number of bullet points on all of their products we
checked.
54% provided clear, concise and useful product descriptions
for all of their top three product listings, and the rest on only
some of their listings.
We also encourage the use of product variations on listings, to
cross-sell and up-sell related products, and here brands did
well. 48% of brands utilised best-practice product variations on
all listings, and only 12% made no use of product variations.
Did brands provide useful product descriptions
for their products?
46%Yes, on some
products
54%Yes, on all products
0%On no products
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PRODUCT TITLES
Product titles should be clear, concise and of suitable
length. Including targeted search engine optimised
keywords - such as specific model information - is
recommended to ensure visibility in search results.
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PRODUCT DESCRIPTIONS
Your product description should contribute useful, value-adding
information to your product listing, as shown in this example.
Highlighting special features and sharing your brand story here
can help to reinforce key messaging.
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PRODUCT VARIATIONS
Keeping similar products rooted under
parent ASINs where possible to enable
browsing of product variations is
encouraged. It can help to boost product
discoverability for your brand.
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BULLET POINTS
Bullet points should
highlight your products’
features, advantages and
benefits.
To further assist product
discoverability in non-
branded search results,
we recommend that
brands consider keywords
and terms their
customers typically
search for and ensure
they are included.
© PATTERN INC
PRODUCT
IMAGERY
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WHY PRODUCT IMAGERY MATTERS
Optimising your images on product listings is crucial to drive
conversion on Amazon. Images display on the product search
page as well as the product listings page. High-quality,
attractive imagery will help new customers to discover your
products; and allow you to stand out from the millions of other
listings on the marketplace.
It was pleasing to see that all brands were consistently using
high-quality images. However, none were using the maximum
number of images allowed on all product listings reviewed.
Simple text on secondary images and badges on secondary
images were the most underutilised image features. It was
also disappointing to see only 36% of brands using close-up
images on all products.
We find product videos aid conversion, and 76% of brands
were using them to help sell at least some of their products.
While video is expensive, it is particularly useful for
demonstrating complex and technical products, and therefore
was widely used given the product categories reviewed.
36
46
36
6
22
100
40
42
54
26
36
24
12
10
68
42
0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%
Video
Lifestyle images
Close-up images
Image badges
Text on images
High quality images
How consistent are brands with their use of
product images and video?
All products Some products No products
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CLOSE-UP IMAGERY
Close-up imagery can be a useful tool in aiding purchase decision where customers are unable to physically touch
or try the products beforehand. Here are examples of some of the brands in our research that did this well.
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LIFESTYLE IMAGERY
Including lifestyle imagery within your
image stack is a helpful way to
communicate how your product is used to
potential customers, whilst visually
showcasing your product’s selling points.
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SIMPLE TEXT & BADGING ON SECONDARY IMAGES
Brands should consider adding simple text or graphics that can inform customers of special
features and product dimensions. Equally, adding badging that highlights awards and
certifications to secondary images can help to increase customer confidence in products.
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VIDEO CONTENT
Video content allows shoppers
to receive a large amount of
information quickly. A good
product video will educate
customers, and dive deeper
into what a product can do
and how it works. It should
increase the likelihood that
visitors to the page are
converted to customers, by
answering product questions
they may have.
© PATTERN INC
BRAND
CONTENT
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WHY BRAND CONTENT MATTERS
Branded storefronts allow you to create a dedicated Amazon
URL for prospective customers to shop from. The multi-page
storefront lets you curate brand-specific content to help
shoppers discover your full product selection. 86% of brands in
our research had a branded storefront for all listings reviewed.
A+ Content enables brands to describe product features using
enhanced images and text placements, to reinforce their key
messaging. When used effectively, A+ Content helps a brand to
make a stronger first impression; or reinforce its credentials
with consumers who already have awareness of the brand.
86% of brands also had A+ Content showing on all of their
products we reviewed. A further 12% had A+ Content on some
of their products, and only 2% did not employ A+ Content at all.
The Amazon’s Choice badging also provides further legitimacy
to a brand’s product listings, and is given based on a mixture
of popularity, high review rating and a low returns rate. 92% of
brands had this badge on at least one of their top three
products that we reviewed.
30%
30%
32%
8%
Did the brands have Amazon’s Choice badging for any of
the products we reviewed?
Amazon’s Choice
badge on no
products
Amazon’s Choice
badge on all three
products
Amazon’s Choice
badge on one
product
Amazon’s Choice
badge on two
products
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BRANDED STOREFRONT
Branded storefronts provide a brand-
centric shopping experience for
customers, allowing them to discover
your full product portfolio
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A+ CONTENT
A+ Content integrates aspects
of product descriptions, bullet
points, rich images, and more.
By creating high-quality A+
Content, brands can align brand
messaging with that of other
key sales channels, while
offering customers an
enhanced shopping experience
on the marketplace.
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AMAZON’S CHOICE
The Amazon’s Choice badge helps
with product visibility in search
results, and gives customers more
confidence in purchase choices.
© PATTERN INC
SELLER
PROPOSITION &
COMPETITION
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WINNING THE BUY BOX ON AMAZON
Competition is fierce on Amazon.de with a high number of
third-party sellers. All of the brands we reviewed have products
that are sold directly by Amazon, and we were keen to see how
well brands were competing against third-party sellers who
may also be listing and selling the same products.
The Buy Box on Amazon allows customers to make a quick
purchase without considering who they are buying from. Many
factors contribute to the algorithm that decides who wins the
Buy Box; price is just one. 20% of brands had third parties
winning the Buy Box on at least some of their top three
products.
Offering Fulfilment by Amazon is also important to winning the
Buy Box. For 96% of brands, all of their top three products
were available for Fulfilment by Amazon (whether Amazon was
the seller or not). Not having this fulfilment option for any of
their top three products was only a problem for one of the
brands we reviewed.
How many brands had Amazon winning the Buy
Box on their listings?
18%had Amazon winning
the Buy Box on some,
but not all listings 80%had Amazon
winning the Buy Box
on all 3 listings
2%had Amazon
winning the Buy
Box on no listings
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COMPETITION FROM THIRD-PARTY SELLERS
Many brands on Amazon are
competing against resellers
on their bestselling products.
Having too many resellers on
your product listings can be
damaging to your brand
reputation. Not only this, the
varying pricing, delivery costs
and timing, plus warranty
offered can create a
confusing customer
experience.
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AMAZON ADVERTISING
Having a consumer-focused advertising strategy in place on
the marketplace is essential, especially if Amazon is a major
sales channel for your brand.
We find that Sponsored Products and Sponsored Brands are
the best performing ad types, and can be used target
customers at different stages of their shopper journey.
In doing so, brands can maximise the visibility of their ASINs in
search results to capture more top of the funnel customers, as
well as driving lower funnel conversion.
Our researchers found that there was strong competition
among the brands in our study for Sponsored Brand
placement; with over half (56%) unable to win the top
placement on a branded term search.
Sponsored Products seemed to be even more competitive,
with only 12% of brands being able to secure the top
placement for their branded term in search results.
24 64
56
12
44
0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%
Sponsored Products
Sponsored Brands
How brands fared with Sponsored Brand/Product
placement on a branded term search
Not using this ad type
Competing against other brands for Sponsored Brand/Product placement
Winning the top Sponsored Brand/Product placement
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SPONSORED PRODUCTS
Sponsored Products are
ads that appear in shopping
results and on product
pages on the marketplace.
They help customers to
discover listings and can
highlight your brand or
products to shoppers who
may be searching for
similar items to yours.
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SPONSORED BRANDS
Sponsored Brands reach
customers when they’re
looking for what to buy,
helping you to drive
product awareness.
When used effectively,
they can help to improve
product visibility with
direct links to best selling
products and branded
storefronts.
© PATTERN INC
CUSTOMER
SERVICE
PROPOSITION
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WHY CUSTOMER SERVICE MATTERS
Good reviews are key to building your brand’s reputation on
Amazon. Customer reviews and ratings determine where your
products rank in search results, and help to increase
conversion rates. Amazon previously allowed brands and sellers
to respond to negative reviews, but as this feature has now
been removed it’s even more crucial to ensure product
descriptions are accurate to prevent negative reviews.
Customer questions help you to understand what your
audience wants to understand about your product. You should
consider whether to add information that is requested to your
listings. We recommend that brands address questions
themselves; rather than leaving other customers or third
parties to answer, as they may not give the correct response.
The majority of brands had a customer question on at least one
of the product pages we analysed. However, 32% did not reply
to any customer questions, reducing the likelihood of visitors to
those pages completing a purchase.
26 42 32
0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%
Customer Questions
How many brands responded?
Responded to all Responded to some, but not all Didn't respond
1323The lowest average number of
reviews was for the Tools category
2838The highest average number of
reviews was for the Smart Home
category
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CUSTOMER QUESTIONS & ANSWERS
Customers often ask questions
about products that are crucial
to their purchasing decision.
Answering these questions in a
professional manner can help
to build confidence and trust
from existing and future
customers of the brand.
© PATTERN INC
SEO
RANKING
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FINDABILITY AND ACHIEVING PROMINENCE IN SEARCH RESULTS
While high placement in search results on non-branded terms
can be harder to achieve, every brand should be able to
occupy the top spot for an Amazon search on its own brand
term. The optimal result is for a brand to occupy at least the
top 10 organic results on its brand term; assuming its product
range is large enough for this to be possible.
Some 66% all brands were occupying all top 10 organic
positions with their products when we searched on their brand
term. The rest were occupying between six and nine of the top
10 positions. We also checked how prominent third-party
sellers were in each brands’ top search result. Though there
was much competition from third-party sellers on the listings,
they were winning the Buy Box for the top product in search
results for only 8% of brands.
Appearing in the Top 100 category Bestseller lists on Amazon
shows both that the product will have sold well in the past and
is likely to continue to rank highly in branded and non-branded
search term results in the future.
How many brands had products in the
Bestseller rankings for their category?
18%4%
78%of brands had no products
in the Top 100 Bestsellers
of brands had all products
in the Top 50 Bestsellersof brands had
some products in
the Top 100
Bestsellers
© PATTERN INC
LOCALISATION
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WHY LOCALISATION MATTERS
Amazon’s dominant position for ecommerce sales in several
markets means that many brands consider the marketplace as
a shortcut to internationalisation. This is particularly true for
Europe where it is possible to list products in one market and
have them sold on all seven European instances of Amazon,
with Poland expected to get its own local site soon too.
Accurately translating all product descriptions for each market
– including localised keywords - is crucial to ensure those
products will rank in search results and convert.
We also assessed whether brands were boosting their products
in search results with sponsored listings. Brands were often
paying for product ads, so they appeared at the top of search
results, but were not properly localising the product content in
their listings; to maximise the chance of the consumers
converting once they had clicked through to the product page.
Only 18% of brands localised all product content in the listings
we viewed, but 46% had invested in sponsored product ads.
How well did brands localise their product content?
of brands had not
localised the product
content on their top 3
ASINs
18%of brands localised their
product content to best
practice standards
78%of brands had localised
product content that
could be improved
4%
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WHAT GOOD LOCALISATION LOOKS LIKE
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AMAZON GERMANY REPORT: TOP RECOMMENDATIONS
Based on the findings of our benchmarking study, we would recommend that all brands selling on Amazon.de:
• Implement an ongoing product content optimisation strategy, and ensure that product content drives sales conversion. This should focus on product titles, descriptions and bullet points to aid discoverability in search results and to enhance purchase rates once Amazon customers reach the product page. Insight to amend product content should be drawn from negative reviews and customer questions.
• Enhance your image stacks using close-up photography, simple text and badging to highlight product benefits and attributes, and ensure each image adds value for the customer. Videos should also be considered for complex and technical products that are worthy of demonstration.
• Analyse and optimise your use of Amazon Advertising types for different points of the customer journey.
• Make use of Branded Storefronts and A+ Content – as most brands in our research were doing – to maximise your brand presence on the platform.
• Ensure your Customer Service strategy includes Amazon; so customer questions are promptly dealt with to build trust and maximise sales conversion.
• Regularly inspect listings by third-party sellers, to ensure they are not damaging to your brand’s Amazon presence, and that only sellers legally permitted to sell your products online are doing so.
• Consider working with an authorised third-party seller to manage your Amazon presence and maximise your marketplace sales growth.
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GLOBAL OFFICES
Americas
Lehi, Utah
Europe
London
Munich
Middle East
Dubai
Asia Pacific
Hong Kong
Guangzhou
Shanghai
Australasia
Sydney
Melbourne
DISTRIBUTION
CENTRES
Kentucky, USA
Utah, USA
Toronto, Canada
Thrapston, UK
Tegelen, Netherlands
Melbourne, Australia
Third Party
Distribution
Dubai, UAE
Guandong Province,
China
OUR GLOBAL FOOTPRINT
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ABOUT PATTERN
For more information on how we could support you in developing your marketplace
strategy - or if you are interested in us becoming the authorised Amazon Seller for your
brand anywhere in the world - please contact us at [email protected]
GET IN TOUCH
We are the ecommerce partner of choice for a growing number of consumer brands –
acting as their authorised marketplace seller. As well as being one of the largest Amazon
sellers in the world, we are also present on Tmall, JD.com, eBay and others.
Our unique model delivers growth and control to brands selling on Amazon, with Pattern
taking care of every aspect of their Amazon presence, utilising our proprietary technology
to optimise and report on key success metrics. Unlike an agency, we buy stock from our
brand partners, and so when you sign up to work with Pattern, we pay you.
In addition, our consulting team can support with your strategic ecommerce challenges,
including whether you should be present on Amazon and which markets you should
expand to.