mercent: amazon as search engine - smx west 2014
DESCRIPTION
VP of Product and Service Frank Kochenash's presentation deck from SMX West 2014, touching on best practices for Amazon and ebay program management. With it's growing footprint on the overall purchase funnel, Amazon should be considered a search engine and consumer research vehicle.TRANSCRIPT
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#SMX #Mercent
Succeeding on Amazon and eBay as Search Engines
March 2014
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Mercent: Retail focused technology
CatalogInventoryPrice
Dynamic Optimization:Assortment ContentBidsPrice
Paid Search
PLA
Marketplaces
CSE
Local
Other
Retailer
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Amazon is a search engine
As of July 2012:• 30 percent of online buyers use Amazon to research first• Google attracted 13 percent
“Amazon is the first stop on the shopping journey for more and more shoppers; in recent years, it appears to have taken market share from search engines like Google, the dominant incumbent in shopping research”
Source: Forrester Research quoted at:http://venturebeat.com/2012/07/26/amazon-online-shoppers-research/#14o1oVRyubfHzthx.99
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ASINs and Catalog Amazon standard identification number (ASIN) is the atomic unit of Amazon
Suppliers
Retailers
Amazon editors
ASINCatalog
Product data
[ ]
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[ ?]Product detail pageASINs come to life on Product detail pages
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Offer listing page (OLP)Multiple seller offers compete on the OLP [ ?]
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Winning the buy box
Factors for winning the Buy Box
Product priceShipping priceFulfillmentSeller standing and eligibility (featured merchant)
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Sell on Amazon or not?
Sell on Amazon Advertise on Amazon
• Sale transacted in Amazon’s cart
• Sale referred to and transacted on retailer site
• Amazon “owns” customer • Retailer “owns” customer
• CPA • CPC
• Greater total sales opportunity
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“8 person tents” on Google
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Search results page (department)Structured data, organic listings + Sponsored Ads + Sponsored Links + Product Ads
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Product detail pageContent drives relevance, more paid ad opportunities
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Amazon Product Ads winning the buy box
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eBay – Search results page
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eBay – Product page
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eBay product page – Top and Bottom
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Levers to improve search rank and sales
Content – Improve and submit better and more content
Rating– Improve seller ratings (if you’re selling)– Monitor feedback (if you’re selling)
Price – Dynamically reprice aggressively
Advertising– Sponsored ads (Amazon only)– Product ads (Amazon only)
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1. Submit or correct product data to improve search rank
Images: send more, resolve broken Resolve ASIN matching errorsInclude Featured BulletsAdd descriptions, short and longInclude MSRP vs. Sale PriceInclude search keywords– Cross-populate from PLA
and SEM Include UPC and MPNAdd brand to titlesClassify properlyRemove non-white backgroundsResolve matching errors
Think about revenue per sku (RPS) – every error resolved increases total
revenue by RPS on average
One established retailer demonstrates payback on error resolution within 2
months
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2. Add and improving product data to drive glance views and sales
Working on this slide
For a household goods retailer, adding feature bullets and descriptions
increased daily sales 47%
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3. Use Sponsored Products to drive traffic and jump-start new Accounts and products
For a new seller on Amazon in a highly competitive category, using Sponsored enabled them to achieve Best Sellers
status within 2 months of launch.
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Getting started with Sponsored Ads
• Like Google PLA but with a keyword layer• Refers clicks to Amazon product detail page
with advertiser’s offer
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4. Dynamically reprice aggressively
Started dynamic repricing with Mercent
Across many retailers, using dynamic pricing in an aggressive way allows
goals to be achieved (usually increase in sales and gross profit)
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5. Leverage Product Ads for efficient traffic and sales to your website
Amazon Product Ads (APA) is typically best performing Shopping feed channel
after Google
Many retailers complement Marketplace with APA
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Getting started with Product Ads
• Like Comparison Shopping Engine/network• Refers clicks to retailer website (off Amazon)
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6. Use Daily Deals, Best Deals, Lightning Deals, Gold Box
For many clients, Daily Deals are the single biggest way to drive sales and
improve rating on eBay
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7. Leverage promotions
Site PlacementTargeted EmailsExclusivity –Site ManagerPinterestSeller Central Manage PromotionsBest DealsLightening Deals
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Concluding thoughts
Be there– Sell + Sponsored Ads + Daily Deals– Or, Don’t sell but do Product Ads
Always improve product data, but especially when you are the only seller/advertiser
Use Sponsored Ads to accelerate new stores and new products
Beware of grey hat tactics (as always)
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Thank you!
Questions?