Amazon Sellers are always looking for the next winning strategy to reach the coveted page 1 of search results. That’s why we’re super excited to share a A9 insider tip that we just became aware of.
As a quick primer, there are 2 types of indicators Amazon’s algorithm scrutinizes when determining how they sequence search results for a particular term. In other words how they decide which listings are displayed on page 1.
Relevancy: When a new listing is created, all Amazon has to go off is the keywords in the title, description and bullet points. That’s a pretty flimsy basis for determining relevancy, in part because sellers frequently stuff their listings with only loosely relevant terms.
That quickly changes though when shoppers start purchasing an item. Despite advances in computer learning, the algorithm needs humans to tell it what search terms are relevant for your product. That’s why search, find, buy campaigns are effective. They are an easy way to associate search terms with conversions. This raises your relevancy for that term, which in turn raises your organic rank.
However just because a product is relevant for a search term, does not mean it is a good product. That’s why it is critical to remember that in the long term, no launch will ultimately succeed if your product doesn’t meet or exceed shoppers expectations.
Satisfaction: There are multiple ways Amazon can gauge shopper satisfaction with your product. Most are obvious, but one is likely new to most sellers! The most common and well known of these performance indicators are return and review rate.
A product with a low return rate is likely a product that is of good quality, correctly described and free from defects. On the other hand a product with a high return rate is likely poor quality, has an error in the description, or worse of all is defective. For this reason maintaining a low return rate is critical to reaching and staying on page 1.
The metric that most seller obsess over is review rate. Products that have a high average star rating are typically satisfying most shoppers. The percentage of shoppers who leave a review is also a closely monitored indicator. Having a higher than average percentage of shoppers leaving a review is a positive indicator. But be careful, have a very high review rate can be identified as potential review manipulation.
If you frequently shop on Amazon you’ve likely seen the “Buy Again” box displayed in various places. These displays encourage shoppers to buy an item you previously bought again. Per an insider source who is familiar with the inner workings of the A9 algorithm, this feature is being closely monitored as an indicator of customer satisfaction.
Many shoppers never leave reviews, and some simply don’t return orders, particularly for inexpensive products. This means on a majority of orders, Amazon is unable to gauge customer satisfaction. However “Buy Again” is a definitive signal that a product met or exceeded the customers expectations.
Therefore ASIN’s that have an above average “Buy Again” frequency are likely to outrank competitors listings everything else being equal. This is noteworthy to sellers running rebate campaigns because this metric can be improved by a particular campaign configuration.
Generally sellers have been averse to the same shoppers redeeming subsequent campaigns they run for the same product. This makes sense and is a reasonable expectation. If you’re offering your product for free, or deeply discounted after rebate, it is only fair that all different shoppers redeem your offer. For this reason the default campaign settings prevent shoppers from redeeming the same ASIN multiple times on different campaigns.
But it turns out that there is a distinct benefit to instances where shoppers redeem your subsequent campaigns for the same product. So if you would like to increase your “Buy Again” frequency, do this. When creating a campaign, on the ASIN field, add a dash and unique value when creating your campaign. For example, if you are creating your second campaign for a particular product, enter your ASIN like this example: B0839P1DQ8-2. If it is your third campaign, enter B0839P1DQ8-3. This will allow the same shoppers to redeem your promotion.
At this time the “Buy Again” frequency is just an internal metric used by Amazon and isn’t easily calculated from the information provided by Amazon in Seller Central. But you can manually review orders and identify reorders from the same shoppers. This is made easier if you use a 3rd party shipping tool like ShipStation.
If you are committed to ensuring customers are thrilled with your product your likelihood of success increases enormously. Far too many sellers fall into the trap of viewing customers through the lens of revenue. If you start with excellent product design you’ll never need to obsess over reviews and your launches will be far more successful. Best of all you’ll get repeat shoppers who will use Buy Again, which isn’t just great for your bottom line, but also a big win for your organic rank, which equals even more sales!
