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Build an Amazon Store That Stands Out: A How-to Guide

Jun 21, 2021

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Tips on How to Create an Amazon Storefront in 2024

How can a seller stand out amidst the 9.7 million other people who sell on Amazon (even if only 1.9 million of these are actively selling, it’s still a huge number). One great tactic is to create a storefront, a space on the platform where you can customize your brand on Amazon, showcase key products, and enhance customer experience in a competitor-free zone. Furthermore, creating an Amazon store gives you access to new data and features to help you make informed, data-driven decisions on how to push your products better. Keep on reading for valuable tips on how to create and design your storefront to appeal to customers all over the world!

This post was first published in 2021.

1. Understanding Amazon Storefronts

What is an Amazon Storefront?

Definition and Purpose

An Amazon Storefront is a customizable digital space on the Amazon platform designed for brands and sellers to create a unique, branded shopping experience for their customers. Think of it as a micro-site within Amazon, allowing brands to showcase their entire product catalog, tell their brand story, and engage shoppers with rich media content. The primary purpose of an Amazon Storefront is to enhance brand visibility, improve customer experience, and drive sales by providing a cohesive and immersive shopping environment.

Key Features of an Amazon Storefront

  1. Personalized Branding
    1. Brand Identity: Amazon Storefronts allow businesses to prominently display their logos, brand colors, and other visual elements to create a consistent brand identity. This helps in reinforcing brand recognition and trust among customers.
    2. Brand Story: Sellers can share their brand’s story, mission, and values, helping to build a deeper connection with customers. Tell your brand story through storytelling in both words and images to resonate better with customers.
  2. Product Showcases
    1. Organized Product Presentation: Your store on Amazon allows you to categorize and display your products on Amazon in an organized manner. It’s much easier for customers to browse and find what they need, amplifying the shopping experience.
    2. Rich Media: Storefronts support high-quality images, videos, and detailed descriptions, allowing businesses to present their products in the best possible light. This feature helps in capturing customer attention and driving engagement.
  3. Interactive Elements
    1. Engaging Content: Amazon Storefronts can include interactive elements such as clickable images, videos, and dynamic product showcases. These features create a more engaging shopping experience, encouraging customers to spend more time exploring the store.
    2. Custom Layouts: Using Amazon’s drag-and-drop interface, sellers can easily create custom layouts that suit their brand’s aesthetic and marketing needs. This flexibility ensures that the Storefront remains visually appealing and functional.

In summary, your Amazon storefront is a powerful tool. You create personalized, engaging, and efficient shopping experiences that enhance brand visibility and customer engagement. Furthermore, the best Amazon storefront will drive sales by showcasing products in an organized and appealing manner.

2. Creating An Amazon Storefront

If you don’t have a brand yet, we’ll have to start there by enrolling in Amazon Brand Registry. This process involves registering your trademark and logo with the appropriate government trademark office in your country.

Once your brand is registered, you can access Amazon Brand Registry through Seller Central, where you can provide the necessary information about your trademark, product categories, and distribution countries. This registration is essential for creating a cohesive and professional Amazon Storefront that effectively represents your brand. Amazon currently limits the countries it accepts trademark registration from, so for a complete list, click here.

Once you’ve registered your trademark, you need to make sure that you have that trademark in an active text or image-based format. The trademark must appear on your packaging and on the products you sell.

Now that you have a brand and it meets the requirements, you are ready to apply to register your brand with Amazon!

Amazon will need a bit of information from you. You’ll send them your trademark, a list of all of the product categories represented by your brand, and a list of all countries where your brand is manufactured and distributed.  That’s it!

ProTip: It’s best to apply for a selection of foreseeable trademark classes so that your trademark may cover a range of products you sell presently and in the future.

Step by Step Process to Build an Amazon Storefront

Now that you’ve created your brand, it’s time to create a storefront of your own.

  1. Log in to your Amazon Seller Central account
  2. From the main menu, select “Stores” and then click on “Manage Stores”
  3. Click the “create store” button and select your brand from the list
  4. Choose a template; Amazon offers three main templates to choose from for your Amazon storefront design:
    1. Marquee: Ideal for featuring a curated product display with additional space for imagery, product descriptions, and customer quotes.
    2. Highlight: Best for showcasing specific products with prominent visuals and descriptions.
    3. Product Grid: Perfect for displaying a selection of products in a straightforward, user-friendly storefront layout.
  5. Essential Elements to Include
    1. Brand logo & imagery:
      1. Make sure your brand logo is prominently displayed to reinforce brand identity
      2. Make sure you use high-quality images that align with your brand’s aesthetic and messaging. Lifestyle images are great in your storefront so followers that visit your storefront can imagine themselves using the product.

3. Designing Your Amazon Storefront

If you have a lot of traffic coming to your Amazon product listing, but none of your branding is cohesive, you may be turning off potential customers.

Using a cohesive design strategy with matching listings, interesting images, and showcasing a relevant story about your brand will fix that.

You will need to choose a design style. If you are not a graphic designer, this might seem daunting, but luckily Amazon has a number of professional-looking options available for you. They have multiple templates, drag and drop tiles, and color options. You won’t need to learn how to code to create the Amazon store of your dreams!

ProTip: If you aren’t sure what kind of ‘look’ you want for your store, check out your competitors for inspiration. This will help you decide what you like and what doesn’t suit your brand needs.  It will also help you understand your competition on a higher level and what products they offer!.

Think about the story you want to tell with your brand. Is it playful and whimsical? Professional and modern? Sporty and outdoor focused? Figuring out the answers to these questions will help you choose your colors and fonts. Check out a design template site like this for more inspiration.

You will also need to invest in some professional media, specifically images and videos.  When it comes to your products, you will want unique, professional photographs of people using your products. Lifestyle images are essential to Amazon stores as they help your audience visualize themselves solving their problems with your product(s).

Will you be able to highlight images that contain more than just your product on a blank white background?! Yes!  When you have an Amazon brand store, you have many more choices regarding the images of the products you represent. Make sure you don’t waste this opportunity and choose high-quality and a mix of excellent product photography and lifestyle images for a winning storefront.

 

 

Make Sure your Amazon Store is Simple to Use, Search and Navigate

Once you have your design style and professional images, you will want to focus on navigation and Amazon optimization. You want to make it easy for potential customers to shop in your online store, but you also want to keep potential buyers clicking through the pages within your store.

Descriptive but straightforward headings are crucial, and attention to compelling sales copy is the way to go. Make sure customers know what they will find when they click your category links and make the process of buying straightforward and easy.

Don’t forget to add your relevant and highly searched keywords in your backend storefront sections, and of course, utilize the alt text areas appropriately. Everything should be filled out in the backend for the best Amazon SEO opportunities and Amazon search optimization.

ProTip: When a customer navigates to one of your categories, ensure that all of your products are up to date. What that means is, don’t leave out-of-stock products upon your site. Multiple out-of-stock products will frustrate your customer and may turn them to another store.

A final note about the usability of your Amazon store, make sure to update your storefront profile often. Stores that have been refreshed within the last 90 days have better sales numbers than stores that don’t. Amazon customers like new and organic content; much like everyone else, so regularly updating your Amazon store page is a great way to keep those customers coming back!

Seasonal updates can help your store keep its relevance and encourage repeat visits. So, that means adding specific themes for specific holidays like Christmas, Valentine’s Day, etc., depending on what marketplace you are selling in.

Always be mindful of what holidays your audience may participate in, and choose themes surrounding their preferences. You’ll have to be keenly aware of your audience and pay attention to shopping habits to do so.

Advertising Brand Awareness is More Efficient than Advertising for Individual Products

Whether you prefer running pay-per-click ad campaigns for a single product or if you want to move into sponsored brand ads that focus on your brand as a whole, you will benefit when you set up your Amazon store. Each product-specific ad has the potential to bring additional traffic to your store where potential customers can browse through ALL of your products. This can significantly improve sales.

ProTip: Videos in your Amazon storefront are a great way to entice buyers and drive traffic to your listing.

Many Amazon sellers also like to change their ad campaigns to focus on the brand as a whole. This will bring traffic directly to your store and has enormous potential to boost the sale of multiples.

4. Adding and Organizing Products to Your Amazon Store

Now that you’ve figured out how to create a dedicated Amazon branded storefront for your online store, it’s time to start adding products.

1. Manual Addition vs. Dynamic Widgets

  • Manual Addition:
    • Individual Control: Manually add products to your Storefront by selecting each product from your inventory. This method gives you complete control over which products are displayed and how they are presented.
    • Customization: You can tailor the layout and arrangement of each product, ensuring they align with your overall branding and design strategy.
  • Dynamic Widgets:
    • Automated Updates: Dynamic widgets automatically populate product displays based on criteria such as best-sellers, new arrivals, or customer recommendations. This ensures your Storefront always showcases up-to-date and relevant products.
    • Efficiency: Save time by allowing Amazon’s algorithms to select and display products for you, based on data-driven insights.

2. Organizing Products into Categories and Subcategories

  • Clear Categories:
    • Main Categories: Divide your products into clear, distinct categories that reflect your product range (e.g., “Men’s Clothing,” “Women’s Shoes,” “Home Appliances”).
    • Subcategories: Further organize each main category into subcategories to enhance navigation (e.g., under “Men’s Clothing,” have “Shirts,” “Pants,” “Jackets”).
  • Easy Navigation:
    • Structured Layout: Use a logical and intuitive structure for your categories and subcategories, making it easy for customers to find what they’re looking for.
    • Consistent Design: Maintain a consistent design and labeling approach to avoid confusion and enhance the shopping experience.

3. Creating a User-Friendly Shopping Experience

  • Descriptive Headings:
    • Clarity: Use clear, descriptive headings for each category and subcategory to help customers understand what they will find.
    • SEO-Friendly: Incorporate relevant keywords in your headings to improve search engine optimization (SEO) and make your Storefront more discoverable.
  • Engaging Visuals:
    • High-Quality Images: Use high-quality images and videos to showcase your products in the best possible light.
    • Lifestyle Images: Include lifestyle images to help customers visualize using your products in real-life scenarios.

4. Highlighting Best-Sellers and New Arrivals

  • Best-Sellers:
    • Prominent Placement: Feature best-selling products prominently on your Storefront to attract attention and leverage their popularity.
    • Customer Reviews: Highlight positive customer reviews and ratings to build trust and credibility.
  • New Arrivals:
    • Dedicated Section: Create a dedicated section for new arrivals to keep your Storefront fresh and exciting.
    • Promotional Banners: Use promotional banners to draw attention to the latest additions to your product line.

Pro tip: check out how your Amazon storefront looks on the Amazon mobile app and through your mobile server (Safari, Chrome, etc.). Lots of customers shop on mobile, so it’s a good idea to optimize your storefront also for mobile use.

5. Localization: Adapting Your Online Store for Global Markets

If you sell in international markets, you will want to hire a language translation service to translate your Amazon product listings and make sure your store is easy to navigate in each region.

Professional translation services of Amazon storefronts should be compelling and easy for the reader to understand. Avoid free online translation tools to perform your listing translation and webstore translation as these services do not utilize proper and effective sales copy. The results can mean Amazon storefronts that don’t make sense and confuse your buyer. Missed opportunities and missed sales!

Here at YLT Translations, we leverage marketing, copywriting, and effective translations for Amazon webstores to rank, index, and help sell your product in international markets.

6. Promote & Optimize Your Amazon Storefront

What’s the best way to sell products through online shopping? For sure, your new Amazon storefront will help, but you have to promote your storefront to your Amazon customers, first. Drive traffic to your storefront by using a combination of the tactics below:

1. Utilizing Sponsored Brands and Sponsored Display Ads

  • Sponsored Brands:
    • Visibility: Use Sponsored Brands ads to showcase your logo, a custom headline, and multiple products in a banner at the top of relevant search results. This increases visibility and directs potential customers to your Storefront.
    • Brand Awareness: These ads are designed to enhance brand recognition and attract more shoppers to explore your complete product range.
  • Sponsored Display Ads:
    • Targeted Advertising: Leverage Sponsored Display ads to reach specific audiences based on their shopping behaviors and interests. These ads appear on and off Amazon, broadening your reach.
    • Retargeting: Use retargeting to re-engage customers who have previously viewed your products or similar items, driving them back to your Storefront.

2. Leveraging Social Media and Email Marketing

  • Social Media:
    • Engagement: Utilize platforms like Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and LinkedIn to share engaging content that directs followers to your Amazon Storefront. Use eye-catching visuals, videos, and stories to capture attention.
    • Advertising: Run social media ad campaigns targeted at your desired demographic to drive traffic to your Storefront.
  • Email Marketing:
    • Newsletters: Send regular newsletters to your subscriber list featuring updates, promotions, and new product launches with direct links to your Storefront.
    • Personalization: Use personalized email campaigns to recommend products based on customer preferences and past purchases, encouraging them to visit your Storefront.

3. Tracking Performance with Amazon Store Insights

  • Insights Dashboard:
    • Access: Use the Amazon Store Insights dashboard to track the performance of your Storefront. This tool provides valuable data on traffic sources, page views, sales, and more.
    • Custom Reports: Generate custom reports to analyze specific aspects of your Storefront’s performance over time.

4. Key Metrics to Monitor

  • Traffic Sources:
    • Origin: Monitor where your visitors are coming from (e.g., organic search, paid ads, social media) to understand which channels are most effective.
    • Conversion Rate: Track the percentage of visitors who make a purchase to gauge the effectiveness of your Storefront in converting traffic into sales.
  • Sales Data:
    • Total Sales: Keep an eye on the total sales generated through your Storefront to measure overall performance.
    • Average Order Value: Analyze the average amount spent per order to identify opportunities for upselling and cross-selling.
  • Customer Engagement:
    • Page Views: Monitor the number of page views to understand how engaging your content is.
    • Bounce Rate: Track the bounce rate to see how many visitors leave your Storefront after viewing only one page, indicating potential issues with navigation or content.

5. Using Data to Optimize Your Storefront

  • Continuous Improvement:
    • A/B Testing: Conduct A/B tests on different elements of your Storefront, such as layout, images, and calls to action, to determine what resonates best with your audience.
    • Feedback: Collect customer feedback and reviews to identify areas for improvement and make necessary adjustments.
  • SEO Optimization:
    • Keywords: Regularly update your product descriptions, titles, and meta tags with relevant keywords to improve search engine rankings.
    • Content Updates: Keep your Storefront content fresh and relevant by adding new product information, promotional banners, and seasonal themes.

By implementing these strategies and continuously monitoring and optimizing your Storefront, you can drive more traffic, increase engagement, and boost sales on Amazon.

Conclusion: Make an Amazon Storefront for Improved Visibility & Success

Start an Amazon storefront. It’ll help customers that shop on Amazon – in every country you sell in – understand your brand better and boost sales. An Amazon store is a great way to present yourself in a way that boosts customer experience, brand awareness, clicks, and conversions.

Hopefully, through this blog, you’ve understood the benefits that Amazon storefronts provide. The best part about it, is once you create a store, it’s not set in stone; it’s extremely easy (and even recommended) to keep going back and updating information, to make sure you provide fresh and organic content to customers on a regular basis.

Don’t forget – localization is a crucial component of global expansion. Don’t stop at localizing your listings and images; your storefront could use a boost of skillful localization to improve your relationship with your global customers. Get an Amazon storefront localized and see the difference it makes in your conversion and engagement!

Reach out to info@ylt-translations.com – we can most definitely help!