Marketers and first-party sellers: are you creating Amazon A+ content? If not, you definitely should be.
Once a paid option, adding Amazon A+ content to listings is now free and unlimited for all vendors. It’s one of the most effective ways to increase traffic and sales — and to cross-promote your other products. According to Amazon, using this feature to enhance listings has been shown to boost sales anywhere from 3% to 10%.
This is one opportunity where you don’t want to delay.
Here’s what you need to know to start navigating the waters of A+ content with ease.
What is A+ content?
A+ content is Amazon’s way of letting you enhance your product descriptions and page details with high-definition videos, enhanced images, comparison charts, robust FAQs and more. These details allow you to showcase your brand and better convey the value of your products to help customers make informed buying decisions.
Your consumers will find this additional content below-the-fold on the product detail page, under the section titled ‘From the Manufacturer’.
It’s an excellent way to showcase your brand and better convey the value of your products, and to give consumers a more sophisticated shopping experience.
A note on premium A+ content. It’s important to note that Amazon’s free A+ content is completely different from premium A+ content, also known as A++ content.
The latter is an invite-only option that involves a fee and gives brands access to even more modules, such as interactive images, slider galleries and video loops. While A++ content can be a great option for very large brands and feature-heavy products, A+ content will work well for the majority of products.
Who can use A+ content?
According to Amazon: “This feature is only available to sellers who have been approved as brand owners through the Amazon Brand Registry program, as well as emerging brand owners who are part of certain managed selling programs such as Amazon Launchpad.”
If this applies to you, you can add A+ content to any product within your approved brand catalog. And you can get that enhanced content set up in as little as 15 minutes.
What A+ content guidelines should you follow?
Start by manually selecting which products you want to enhance. While all products can benefit from A+ content, there is some groundwork involved. You’ll want to be sure the time and resources you put into creating extra content are likely to result in higher sales and revenue.
If you’re having a hard time selecting products, start with your top sellers. Other excellent candidates for A+ content include products that tell a strong brand story or tend to sell at premium prices, as well as the items you’re already driving traffic to through seasonal campaigns and promotions.
You’ll have two options to choose from: self-service or the Amazon Builds for You module. When using the Self-Service option – ChannelAdvisor recommends this option for most products – you can use up to five different design modules per product page. There are 12 different basic modules to choose from, so play around with the different modules to figure out what will work best for the specific product.
When crafting your A+ Content, we recommend:
- Making it easy to scan. Use sub-heads, short paragraphs, bold and other HTML formatting options that will make it easy for consumers to understand the biggest benefits of your product at a glance.
- Combining text and images. When describing a key feature or selling point, accompany that text with a relevant image – and vice versa.
- Using consumer feedback for inspiration. If your customers regularly compliment you on a particular product feature, highlight them in comparison charts or descriptions. Likewise, the customer questions and answers section can be a great place to gather intelligence for an FAQ module.
In summary, with more than half of all online shoppers starting their product searches on Amazon, optimising your product detail pages should be a key focus. Adding A+ content to your listings provides a better buyer experience, increases customer engagement and has been shown to boost sales.
Looking for more Amazon advice?
We have plenty! Thanks to ChannelAdvisor’s long standing relationship with Amazon, our marketplace specialists have built up a full library of guidelines and best practices, including one of our most popular resources to date: 11 Secrets to Amazon Success.
Laura Hare is interim marketing and communications Manager, EMEA at ChannelAdvisor.