Amazon is the world’s largest online retailer, taking almost half of the e-commerce market share in the US alone. To put that in perspective, that’s over 5 million marketplace sellers around the world who share that revenue.
But of course, the goal here is always to get a bigger slice of the pie, so it’s natural to ask the question of how to make your products stand out in a multitude of other similar products?
What is it that determines which products will be shown to the buyer first, and therefore have a better chance of having high sales volumes?
The answer: Amazon 9 algorithm.
What is the Amazon A9 algorithm?
Amazon A9 Algorithm is the system that Amazon uses to rank the products on its site. It’s basically Amazon’s search engine and it suggests products based on their relevance.
As a consumer, when searching for a product, you probably click on the first few products that come up in the search results.
People rarely go to the third, fourth, or last page of the search results (unless you’re really bored and obsessive like that).
Amazon’s data actually supports this. saying that 70% of its customers never click past the first page. Moreover, 81% of the clicks are the brands found on the first page.
The more clicks and purchases your product gets, the higher your ranking will be, so it’s definitely a cumulative effect.
This system is not far off from Google's ranking system. Depending on how relevant your website is to what users are looking for, Google will then rank the best results given keywords that were used. However, the difference lies in their end goals.
Google’s end goal is to answer the user’s question. Engagement behavior then affects the ranking of a site.
For Amazon, the end goal is to drive sales. Therefore, it gives importance to what a consumer buys.
The purchase behavior then is the metric in which it ranks results. So as a seller, there are multiple factors to consider that will help increase your product’s chances of being purchased that ultimately lead to ranking higher on Amazon’s list.
Factors to consider
1. Sales Performance History or Conversion Rate
This includes the elements that affect the customers’ decisions to buy. The following should be present:
2. Text Match Relevance / Keywords
In an Amazon product page, you can see the following:
Once a customer makes a product search on Amazon, they will be shown a list of results relevant to what they’ve just typed. This means that you should be able to create a list of keywords with good search volume and be able to use these in your descriptions.
However, there should be a balance between executing search engine strategies and creating content for your customers. Remember that you’re not writing for a machine, but for actual humans - customers who are aware when content was made to appeal to their interests or to fulfill an algorithm.
There are many ways to optimize your product listing on Amazon. It’s just a matter of knowing which tools to use and what strategies to apply.
3. Price
This is pretty much self-explanatory. Competitive pricing is always a plus for consumers. The key here is to emphasize the value for money of your product so buyers will be willing to make a purchase.
4. Stock Availability
Amazon prefers sellers who keep a high in-stock rate to minimize refunds and pre-fulfillment cancellations. Good inventory management practices should come into play to make sure you won’t run out of products to sell, or indeed, won’t have too much stuck in the inventory warehouse.
Is there an Amazon A10 algorithm?
Amazon’s system, like any other, is always evolving.
The Amazon A10 is a relatively recent update. Amazon A9 algorithm and A10 are similar to each other in that the factors affecting your ranking is the same. However, they differ in the way they give weight to these factors.
It seems that the new system update focuses on organically building sales performance.
For example, whatever buyers searched for are given more relevance now. In other words, they will be directed to what they’re actually looking for rather than what the system thinks they should be looking for.
How do you adapt to A10?
Below are some additional suggestions on how you can adapt to the new Amazon A10:
All these factors seem very daunting, especially for the average startup seller. If you want to get a share of the huge revenues that Amazon generates every year, then make sure to have all of these aspects in check. If you don’t really want to deal with the hassle, you can always just let the experts handle them. Schedule a free consultation with Sellerplex and learn what we can do for you and your business.