DEVELOPING AN AMAZON STRATEGY. A Guide for Brands

Transcription

1 DEVELOPING AN AMAZON STRATEGY A Guide for Brands

2 Introduction No brand in the UK can ignore Amazon. The e-tailing giant accounts for 25% of all online retail activity in the UK, with over 10 billion visits and 660 million transactions processed in the past year alone. Whether or not a brand sells through Amazon, it s almost certain that their customers or their prospective customers are using it. The recent Prime Day (10/11 July) had also showed Amazon s power to effectively shift online shopping patterns. Although Amazon saw more site visits on Black Friday in 2016 (49.0 million compared to 44.4 million visits), a higher volume of transactions was actually processed on Prime Day 2017 (3.72 million compared to 3.68 million transactions). This meant that once people had reached Amazon s site, they were converting more sales at a rate of 8.4%, compared to Black Friday of 7.5%. With the festive season only months away, brands are planning their product, promotions and marketing strategies now. Sales volume through Amazon is only the tip of the iceberg. Other key data sources are needed to inform a brand s Amazon strategy. In this report, we ve put together 5 best practices for brands selling direct or indirect on Amazon. Amazon Strategy Report 2

3 1. Benchmark brand performance Track how a brand is searched for, visited and purchased on Amazon vs. their competitors. For instance, the below example shows the share of searches across top sportswear brands. With Nike recently announcing a direct partnership with Amazon, product searches for Nike grew by 27% in the week of Prime Day, grabbing share from competitors like New Balance. However, direct competitor, Adidas search share still eclipses at 38%. 50% Onsite Search Share on Amazon 40% +11% In the week of Prime Day, Nike grew 27% in searches on Amazon, vs. the competition. 30% +27% 20% 10% +2% -57% +25% 0% Week ending 09/07/2017 Week ending 16/07/2017 * Shows week-on-week % change. Source: Hitwise 2017 Amazon Strategy Report 3

4 2. Track top products viewed on Amazon Understand the top-visited products on Amazon and track how demand shifts over time. Over the week of Prime Day (ending 16/07/2017), Amazon products like the Echo and Fire Stick, took 6 out of the top 10 spots. Product page views is a key indicator of purchase intent. A brand needs to keep pulse on which products are trending, as we head into the festive season. Top Product Pages Visited on Amazon Rank Top 10 Products Week ending 16/07/2017 Week ending 09/07/ Amazon Echo, Black 0.34% 0.01% 2 Fire 7 Tablet with Alexa 0.26% 0.03% 3 Amazon Echo Dot (2nd Generation), Black 0.24% 0.04% 4 Fire 8 Tablet with Alexa 0.19% 0.02% 5 Fire TV Stick with Alexa 0.16% 0.05% 6 Motorola Moto G5 16GB 0.15% 0.05% 7 Kindle Paperwhite E-reader 0.12% 0.02% 8 Anker SoundCore Portable Bluetooth 0.11% 0.03% 9 Xbox One S (500GB) with Forza Horizon % 0.00% 10 Fitbit Charge % 0.02% Source: Hitwise 2017 Amazon Strategy Report 4

5 3. Identify which audiences a brand attracts on Amazon Profile the type of person viewing and purchasing your products on Amazon. As the below example from 2016 s festive season shows, shoppers on Amazon skew older and female, compared to shoppers on Google who skew younger and male. An audience profile would furthermore shift by category and product level. Identify if you reach a unique audience through Amazon vs. other channels and, if so, for which products. Audience Profile on Amazon vs. Google By Age By Gender Exclusive Amazon users Younger audiences used skewed older & female both Amazon & Google 31% 25% 25% 23% 20% 22% 19% 21% 19% 19% 19% 18% 17% 15% 10% 53% 51% 49% 47% 49% 51% Female Male Exclusive Amazon Searchers Exclusive Google Searchers Users Searching with Both * Source: Audience based on Top 10,000 Terms on Amazon relative to the online population, 8 weeks ending 24/12/2016. Hitwise 2017 Amazon Strategy Report 5

6 4. Use search to inform Amazon SEO Analyse which search terms are driving traffic to a brand s page vs. their competitors. For instance, Adidas wins traffic from unbranded search term running shoes on Amazon. A competitor brand could then analyse which products and types of content Adidas produces to win this traffic. This analysis can feed directly into their Amazon product and search strategy. Top Searches for Adidas on Amazon adidas performance ladies shoes womens adidas tops adidas trainers running shoes adidas ultra boost adidas trainers gazelle mens adidas backpack adidas socks The 4th search term for Adidas on Amazon was unbranded. xxxl jacket adidas adidas towel 0% 1% 2% 3% 4% 5% 6% 7% 8% 9% * Week ending 09/07/2017. Source: Hitwise Tailor product demand on Amazon vs. Google Understand how search is favoured differently on Amazon and on Google. As the chart shows from last year s festive season, a higher share of branded terms (such as minecraft and overwatch ) are searched for on Google. Whereas, Amazon is more favoured for generic searches (such as headphone and coffee machine ). To optimise each channel, a brand would then allocate spend and product assortment according to different demands. Product Searches on Amazon vs. Google headphone coffee machine gifts for women earphones dvd tablet gaming mouse power bank micro sd card speakers 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% minecraft leonard cohen fantastic beasts... overwatch the walking dead the grand tour suicide squad battlefield 1 amazon fire stick walking dead 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% Exclusive Amazon Amazon & Google Exclusive Google * Source: Audience is based on Top 100 Terms on Amazon, 8 weeks ending 24/12/2016. Amazon Strategy Report 6

7 Turning Data Insights into Retail Sales: Hitwise works with retail clients to optimise their online marketing, audience activation and channel strategy. Through greater data resources, brands can make informed decisions to improve their ROI from affiliates and partners. As a starting point, we can breakdown searches, product pages and audiences on Amazon. For more information on Hitwise s services, please us on: contact-uk@hitwise.com Amazon Strategy Report 7

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