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Succeeding on Amazon and eBay as Search Engines

March 2014

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Mercent: Retail focused technology

CatalogInventoryPrice

Dynamic Optimization:Assortment ContentBidsPrice

Paid Search

PLA

Marketplaces

CSE

Local

Other

Retailer

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Amazon is a search engine

As of July 2012:• 30 percent of online buyers use Amazon to research first• Google attracted 13 percent

“Amazon is the first stop on the shopping journey for more and more shoppers; in recent years, it appears to have taken market share from search engines like Google, the dominant incumbent in shopping research”

Source: Forrester Research quoted at:http://venturebeat.com/2012/07/26/amazon-online-shoppers-research/#14o1oVRyubfHzthx.99

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ASINs and Catalog Amazon standard identification number (ASIN) is the atomic unit of Amazon

Suppliers

Retailers

Amazon editors

ASINCatalog

Product data

[ ]

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[ ?]Product detail pageASINs come to life on Product detail pages

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Offer listing page (OLP)Multiple seller offers compete on the OLP [ ?]

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Winning the buy box

Factors for winning the Buy Box

Product priceShipping priceFulfillmentSeller standing and eligibility (featured merchant)

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Sell on Amazon or not?

Sell on Amazon Advertise on Amazon

• Sale transacted in Amazon’s cart

• Sale referred to and transacted on retailer site

• Amazon “owns” customer • Retailer “owns” customer

• CPA • CPC

• Greater total sales opportunity

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“8 person tents” on Google

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Search results page (department)Structured data, organic listings + Sponsored Ads + Sponsored Links + Product Ads

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Product detail pageContent drives relevance, more paid ad opportunities

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Amazon Product Ads winning the buy box

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eBay – Search results page

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eBay – Product page

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eBay product page – Top and Bottom

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Levers to improve search rank and sales

Content – Improve and submit better and more content

Rating– Improve seller ratings (if you’re selling)– Monitor feedback (if you’re selling)

Price – Dynamically reprice aggressively

Advertising– Sponsored ads (Amazon only)– Product ads (Amazon only)

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1. Submit or correct product data to improve search rank

Images: send more, resolve broken Resolve ASIN matching errorsInclude Featured BulletsAdd descriptions, short and longInclude MSRP vs. Sale PriceInclude search keywords– Cross-populate from PLA

and SEM Include UPC and MPNAdd brand to titlesClassify properlyRemove non-white backgroundsResolve matching errors

Think about revenue per sku (RPS) – every error resolved increases total

revenue by RPS on average

One established retailer demonstrates payback on error resolution within 2

months

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2. Add and improving product data to drive glance views and sales

Working on this slide

For a household goods retailer, adding feature bullets and descriptions

increased daily sales 47%

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3. Use Sponsored Products to drive traffic and jump-start new Accounts and products

For a new seller on Amazon in a highly competitive category, using Sponsored enabled them to achieve Best Sellers

status within 2 months of launch.

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Getting started with Sponsored Ads

• Like Google PLA but with a keyword layer• Refers clicks to Amazon product detail page

with advertiser’s offer

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4. Dynamically reprice aggressively

Started dynamic repricing with Mercent

Across many retailers, using dynamic pricing in an aggressive way allows

goals to be achieved (usually increase in sales and gross profit)

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5. Leverage Product Ads for efficient traffic and sales to your website

Amazon Product Ads (APA) is typically best performing Shopping feed channel

after Google

Many retailers complement Marketplace with APA

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Getting started with Product Ads

• Like Comparison Shopping Engine/network• Refers clicks to retailer website (off Amazon)

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6. Use Daily Deals, Best Deals, Lightning Deals, Gold Box

For many clients, Daily Deals are the single biggest way to drive sales and

improve rating on eBay

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7. Leverage promotions

Site PlacementTargeted EmailsExclusivity –Site ManagerPinterestSeller Central Manage PromotionsBest DealsLightening Deals

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Concluding thoughts

Be there– Sell + Sponsored Ads + Daily Deals– Or, Don’t sell but do Product Ads

Always improve product data, but especially when you are the only seller/advertiser

Use Sponsored Ads to accelerate new stores and new products

Beware of grey hat tactics (as always)

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Thank you!

Questions?