SEO

5 Tips & Best Practices For Marketplace Ecommerce Sellers

Published

11 months ago

May 23, 2023

5 Tips & Best Practices For Marketplace Ecommerce Sellers

It’s difficult enough to make it as an ecommerce seller on the Amazon Marketplace when you know what you’re doing; it’s a competitive platform.

But if you don’t have a firm grasp on how to set yourself apart from other sellers, finding success on Amazon Marketplace can be quite challenging.

The truth is, optimizing your third-party Amazon Marketplace ecommerce store is a worthwhile endeavor; the Amazon Marketplace generated $117.7 billion in fiscal year 2022.

If you want a piece of that, you have to set your store apart from all the rest – and that involves understanding and employing the best practices of third-party selling on Amazon.

No one can deny that it can be time-consuming and take a lot of work to succeed on the platform, but employing these tips will give you the best chance of rising above mediocrity and reaching the customers who really matter to you.

So, if Amazon Marketplace success has long been eluding you, check out this listicle of the five best tips and practices for Marketplace ecommerce sellers.

1. Write Masterful Product Descriptions

As in every form of ecommerce, Amazon Marketplace ecommerce involves some degree of content marketing. In this case, it’s all about writing the best product descriptions that customers have ever seen.

This makes sense on multiple levels.

Practically speaking, customers need as much detail as you can give them about what you’re selling and how it differs from competing products.

The most comprehensive and detailed product descriptions address that need, covering everything from the product’s model and serial number to every feature that comes as part of the package.

Also, SEO-optimized product descriptions – that is, descriptions that use relevant Amazon-based keywords – have a better chance of ranking in Amazon’s search results and getting found by the customers you want.

You can actually perform keyword research on Amazon by starting a search query and seeing what the algorithm predicts to come next.

Or, complete an actual search and look at the first set of products. If they are ranking where you want your competing products to rank, have a look at their listings to see what they’re doing right. It’s a good chance to lift some keywords and employ them in your own listings.

However you want to go about the keyword portion of this, always ensure your product descriptions give users as much information as possible – because the most useful ones are the ones with the best chances of ranking well on Amazon.

2. Focus On Building Reviews

As with local Google Business Profiles, Amazon product reviews go a long way toward showing the Amazon algorithm that customers like what you’re selling.

Similar to the descriptive product listings above, positive product reviews make sense on two levels on the Amazon Marketplace.

For one thing, the algorithm will naturally prioritize products with a lot of positive reviews over ones with one-star reviews. That’s just all about the user experience on the platform.

Think about it logically: If Amazon wants to sell more products to more customers, it will show product results that historically have performed well with real users.

So, five-star reviews work for Amazon’s A9 algorithm (the one responsible for product rankings), but they also make an impression on human customers. Very few people will buy a product they’ve never seen before if they see it has an average customer rating of only one or two stars.

Those types of poorly rated products exist on Amazon, and they’re usually punctuated with customer reviews warning others to stay far away.

You will rank higher on Amazon’s results pages if you have an average customer rating of 4.5 stars or more and plenty of sales. Sales will come in time if you do everything else right.

In the meantime, you can work to get a review on every item you sell on the Amazon Marketplace.

The easiest way to do it is to use the Request a Review button in Seller Central. Amazon will send an automated email to the buyer asking for a review and rating. To keep with Amazon’s policies around asking for customer reviews, this button is only available between 5 and 30 days after the product is delivered.

3. Invest In High-Quality Photos

If you’re a Marketplace seller, this third point should already be on your mind: use only the best, highest-quality photos of your products.

If everything else between you and your competitors is equal, and you don’t use product images in your listings, you won’t be able to outrank them.

Think about your own time using Amazon to shop for things. The default product photo is the first thing you see about a listing, before you even read a word of the product description. So images are vital if you really want to sell things to people.

Just ensure the images are high resolution and show the product in all possible detail. This will allow customers to zoom in on the products and see what they want up close.

Another quick tip is to get photos of the product being used in its intended environment. This could apply to almost anything you sell. If it’s a stereo system, show it sitting on a shelf with the speakers on either side.

Or maybe you’re selling a garden hose and reel. Have one of the high-quality images show the hose in a backyard wound around the reel.

Adding images to your product listings is a no-brainer, but if you’ve derived any additional pro tips from this section, that’s already another win for you.

4. Don’t Try To Be Too Unique With Your Pricing

One issue of the Amazon Marketplace that’s a fascinating area of study is how to price your products.

As in other business venues, go too high, and you’ll price yourself out of vital customer business; too low, and you might get more business, but you won’t turn much profit.

The answer to the question of Amazon Marketplace pricing is essentially to be boring about it: go somewhere in the middle of all your competition while still making sure you’re earning the profit margin you want.

You know from your own business workings how much you need to make on a sale to break even. Once you have that number, you’re in a good spot, but you’re not done yet.

You then have to know the percentage of profit you want to make. This can be difficult because, for one thing, it will be different for everyone, and for another, you may need to learn how to judge this against what you think your customers will pay.

Here again, I can direct you to your competition on the Amazon Marketplace.

Maybe you manufacture and sell turntables. If a competitor is selling a turntable with roughly the same features and capabilities, and the price of their models doesn’t exceed $300, you may be off-base in charging $550 for yours.

Remember that the products are almost identical; there is something to be said for charging the customer more for a better-quality product, but you just couldn’t justify two brands of the same product having such a large cost discrepancy.

With Amazon specifically, you’re already paying to sell your products on the platform. You pay even more if you opt for Fulfillment by Amazon.

Those fees already add more to your cost, and you would have to work them into whatever prices you ultimately determine for your products.

In the end, pricing on Amazon comes down to a few things:

Your costs of doing business.
Your competitors’ prices.
The profit margin you want to make.

Don’t go crazy with pricing; just make sure your price is fair for the product you’re selling, and try to be somewhat in line with similar products already on offer.

5. Put Effort Into Customer Service

Finally, if you’ve been treating customer service lightly in your Amazon store, it’s time to revamp your whole approach.

Customers respond to sellers who appear to take their concerns seriously, and there are some concrete steps you can take to be a good business and do exactly that.

First of all, on your Amazon product pages, you can directly answer questions that customers ask about your offerings. This is the perfect opportunity to convert additional customers by laying out even more information you may have yet to include in the product description.

It’s also a chance to communicate directly with people who are thinking of buying your product!

By answering these questions, you are accomplishing two goals at once: offering more information that could lead to a sale, and demonstrating that you’re a company that knows how to talk to customers in a helpful and professional way.

The other major step you can take in the realm of customer service is to respond to negative product reviews by verified customers.

Now, if you’re currently a seller on Amazon, you know the company removed the ability to comment on product reviews quite a while back. Sellers aren’t totally without options, though. For sellers, review comments have been replaced with Contact Customer.

This is an automated feature of the Amazon Marketplace where sellers can contact customers who have bought their products but left negative reviews on the product page.

In this context, negative reviews refer to ones with star ratings between one and three.

To prevent any kind of inappropriate solicitation of a review change, though, the Contact Customer feature uses a series of email templates to address negative reviews.

In the initial email, sellers can offer customer support by inquiring for more information from the customer or simply offer a full refund.

In any case, the Contact Customer feature is your best avenue to dealing with negative Amazon reviews.

Even though all this happens privately between sellers and buyers, it could still positively affect your product’s rating – since customers can, but don’t have to, change their review after you resolve the issue.

The point is that excellent service could have a real impact on your overall Amazon seller profile, so don’t neglect it.

Summary

Amazon Marketplace can be a lucrative platform for ecommerce sellers, but it’s also a crowded space, and reaching your target consumer is easier said than done.

Chances are that you won’t achieve booming success by simply signing up and listing your products.

Instead, try employing some of these tips and best practices to optimize your presence on Amazon Marketplace and get the edge on your competition.

It might take a little time and effort, but the results will be well worth it!

More resources:

Featured Image: Surasak_Ch/Shutterstock

Related Topics:eCommerce Marketplace Practices Sellers seo tips

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April 25, 2024

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Hello everyone. It’s April again, so I’m back in Brighton for another two days of ~~sun~~, sea, and SEO!

Being the introvert I am, my idea of fun isn’t hanging around our booth all day explaining we’ve run out of t-shirts (seriously, you need to be fast if you want swag!). So I decided to do something useful and live-blog the event instead.

Follow below for talk takeaways and (very) mildly humorous commentary.

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Google Further Postpones Third-Party Cookie Deprecation In Chrome

Published

7 hours ago

April 25, 2024

Max

Close-up of a document with a grid and a red stamp that reads "delayed" over the word "status" due to Chrome's deprecation of third-party cookies.

Google has again delayed its plan to phase out third-party cookies in the Chrome web browser. The latest postponement comes after ongoing challenges in reconciling feedback from industry stakeholders and regulators.

The announcement was made in Google and the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) joint quarterly report on the Privacy Sandbox initiative, scheduled for release on April 26.

Chrome’s Third-Party Cookie Phaseout Pushed To 2025

Google states it “will not complete third-party cookie deprecation during the second half of Q4” this year as planned.

Instead, the tech giant aims to begin deprecating third-party cookies in Chrome “starting early next year,” assuming an agreement can be reached with the CMA and the UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).

The statement reads:

“We recognize that there are ongoing challenges related to reconciling divergent feedback from the industry, regulators and developers, and will continue to engage closely with the entire ecosystem. It’s also critical that the CMA has sufficient time to review all evidence, including results from industry tests, which the CMA has asked market participants to provide by the end of June.”

Continued Engagement With Regulators

Google reiterated its commitment to “engaging closely with the CMA and ICO” throughout the process and hopes to conclude discussions this year.

This marks the third delay to Google’s plan to deprecate third-party cookies, initially aiming for a Q3 2023 phaseout before pushing it back to late 2024.

The postponements reflect the challenges in transitioning away from cross-site user tracking while balancing privacy and advertiser interests.

Transition Period & Impact

In January, Chrome began restricting third-party cookie access for 1% of users globally. This percentage was expected to gradually increase until 100% of users were covered by Q3 2024.

However, the latest delay gives websites and services more time to migrate away from third-party cookie dependencies through Google’s limited “deprecation trials” program.

The trials offer temporary cookie access extensions until December 27, 2024, for non-advertising use cases that can demonstrate direct user impact and functional breakage.

While easing the transition, the trials have strict eligibility rules. Advertising-related services are ineligible, and origins matching known ad-related domains are rejected.

Google states the program aims to address functional issues rather than relieve general data collection inconveniences.

Publisher & Advertiser Implications

The repeated delays highlight the potential disruption for digital publishers and advertisers relying on third-party cookie tracking.

Industry groups have raised concerns that restricting cross-site tracking could push websites toward more opaque privacy-invasive practices.

However, privacy advocates view the phaseout as crucial in preventing covert user profiling across the web.

With the latest postponement, all parties have more time to prepare for the eventual loss of third-party cookies and adopt Google’s proposed Privacy Sandbox APIs as replacements.

Featured Image: Novikov Aleksey/Shutterstock

SEO

How To Write ChatGPT Prompts To Get The Best Results

Published

1 day ago

April 24, 2024

Max

How To Write ChatGPT Prompts To Get The Best Results

ChatGPT is a game changer in the field of SEO. This powerful language model can generate human-like content, making it an invaluable tool for SEO professionals.

However, the prompts you provide largely determine the quality of the output.

To unlock the full potential of ChatGPT and create content that resonates with your audience and search engines, writing effective prompts is crucial.

In this comprehensive guide, we’ll explore the art of writing prompts for ChatGPT, covering everything from basic techniques to advanced strategies for layering prompts and generating high-quality, SEO-friendly content.

Writing Prompts For ChatGPT

What Is A ChatGPT Prompt?

A ChatGPT prompt is an instruction or discussion topic a user provides for the ChatGPT AI model to respond to.

The prompt can be a question, statement, or any other stimulus to spark creativity, reflection, or engagement.

Users can use the prompt to generate ideas, share their thoughts, or start a conversation.

ChatGPT prompts are designed to be open-ended and can be customized based on the user’s preferences and interests.

How To Write Prompts For ChatGPT

Start by giving ChatGPT a writing prompt, such as, “Write a short story about a person who discovers they have a superpower.”

ChatGPT will then generate a response based on your prompt. Depending on the prompt’s complexity and the level of detail you requested, the answer may be a few sentences or several paragraphs long.

Use the ChatGPT-generated response as a starting point for your writing. You can take the ideas and concepts presented in the answer and expand upon them, adding your own unique spin to the story.

If you want to generate additional ideas, try asking ChatGPT follow-up questions related to your original prompt.

For example, you could ask, “What challenges might the person face in exploring their newfound superpower?” Or, “How might the person’s relationships with others be affected by their superpower?”

Remember that ChatGPT’s answers are generated by artificial intelligence and may not always be perfect or exactly what you want.

However, they can still be a great source of inspiration and help you start writing.

Must-Have GPTs Assistant

I recommend installing the WebBrowser Assistant created by the OpenAI Team. This tool allows you to add relevant Bing results to your ChatGPT prompts.

This assistant adds the first web results to your ChatGPT prompts for more accurate and up-to-date conversations.

It is very easy to install in only two clicks. (Click on Start Chat.)

Screenshot from ChatGPT, April 2024

For example, if I ask, “Who is Vincent Terrasi?,” ChatGPT has no answer.

With WebBrower Assistant, the assistant creates a new prompt with the first Bing results, and now ChatGPT knows who Vincent Terrasi is.

Screenshot from ChatGPT, March 2023

You can test other GPT assistants available in the GPTs search engine if you want to use Google results.

Master Reverse Prompt Engineering

ChatGPT can be an excellent tool for reverse engineering prompts because it generates natural and engaging responses to any given input.

By analyzing the prompts generated by ChatGPT, it is possible to gain insight into the model’s underlying thought processes and decision-making strategies.

One key benefit of using ChatGPT to reverse engineer prompts is that the model is highly transparent in its decision-making.

This means that the reasoning and logic behind each response can be traced, making it easier to understand how the model arrives at its conclusions.

Once you’ve done this a few times for different types of content, you’ll gain insight into crafting more effective prompts.

Prepare Your ChatGPT For Generating Prompts

First, activate the reverse prompt engineering.

Type the following prompt: “Enable Reverse Prompt Engineering? By Reverse Prompt Engineering I mean creating a prompt from a given text.”

Screenshot from ChatGPT, March 2023

ChatGPT is now ready to generate your prompt. You can test the product description in a new chatbot session and evaluate the generated prompt.

Type: “Create a very technical reverse prompt engineering template for a product description about iPhone 11.”

Reverse Prompt engineering via WebChatGPT

Screenshot from ChatGPT, March 2023

The result is amazing. You can test with a full text that you want to reproduce. Here is an example of a prompt for selling a Kindle on Amazon.

Type: “Reverse Prompt engineer the following {product), capture the writing style and the length of the text :
product =”

Reverse prompt engineering: Amazon product

Screenshot from ChatGPT, March 2023

I tested it on an SEJ blog post. Enjoy the analysis – it is excellent.

Type: “Reverse Prompt engineer the following {text}, capture the tone and writing style of the {text} to include in the prompt :
text = all text coming from https://www.searchenginejournal.com/google-bard-training-data/478941/”

Reverse prompt engineering an SEJ blog post

Screenshot from ChatGPT, March 2023

But be careful not to use ChatGPT to generate your texts. It is just a personal assistant.

Go Deeper

Prompts and examples for SEO:

Keyword research and content ideas prompt: “Provide a list of 20 long-tail keyword ideas related to ‘local SEO strategies’ along with brief content topic descriptions for each keyword.”
Optimizing content for featured snippets prompt: “Write a 40-50 word paragraph optimized for the query ‘what is the featured snippet in Google search’ that could potentially earn the featured snippet.”
Creating meta descriptions prompt: “Draft a compelling meta description for the following blog post title: ’10 Technical SEO Factors You Can’t Ignore in 2024′.”

Important Considerations:

Always Fact-Check: While ChatGPT can be a helpful tool, it’s crucial to remember that it may generate inaccurate or fabricated information. Always verify any facts, statistics, or quotes generated by ChatGPT before incorporating them into your content.
Maintain Control and Creativity: Use ChatGPT as a tool to assist your writing, not replace it. Don’t rely on it to do your thinking or create content from scratch. Your unique perspective and creativity are essential for producing high-quality, engaging content.
Iteration is Key: Refine and revise the outputs generated by ChatGPT to ensure they align with your voice, style, and intended message.

Additional Prompts for Rewording and SEO:
– Rewrite this sentence to be more concise and impactful.
– Suggest alternative phrasing for this section to improve clarity.
– Identify opportunities to incorporate relevant internal and external links.
– Analyze the keyword density and suggest improvements for better SEO.

Remember, while ChatGPT can be a valuable tool, it’s essential to use it responsibly and maintain control over your content creation process.

Experiment And Refine Your Prompting Techniques

Writing effective prompts for ChatGPT is an essential skill for any SEO professional who wants to harness the power of AI-generated content.

Hopefully, the insights and examples shared in this article can inspire you and help guide you to crafting stronger prompts that yield high-quality content.

Remember to experiment with layering prompts, iterating on the output, and continually refining your prompting techniques.

This will help you stay ahead of the curve in the ever-changing world of SEO.

More resources:

Featured Image: Tapati Rinchumrus/Shutterstock