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Successfully growing and maintaining a business on an eCommerce giant like Amazon is every seller’s dream. However, with the ever-growing number of sellers to compete with on the platform, achieving that dream has become more challenging.
There are approximately over 9.7 million sellers on Amazon, with two million residing in the US. In other words, there will always be other businesses to compete with, all with different methods to market and distinguish their products.
Although joining the Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) program can do wonders for your business in terms of shipment and delivery, you also need to ensure that your products not only reach the right audiences but also stand out from similar products.
One of the best ways to do so is with the highly sought-after Amazon’s Choice badge, which appears as a simple yet distinctive black banner displayed above a product listing. Obtaining this simple label can significantly help your business as an FBA seller.
In this comprehensive guide, we’ll discuss everything there is to know about Amazon’s Choice and how you can optimize your product listings to your business’s advantage.
First implemented in 2015, Amazon’s Choice is a feature on the platform that highlights a single product per search term. It does so by adding a small black label marked “Amazon’s Choice” or “Overall Pick” on top of the listing.
Upon hovering over this label, a pop-up reveals that the product is highly rated, well-priced, and available to be shipped immediately.
This innovation stemmed from the growing phenomenon dubbed “choice overload.” The number of sellers and product listings on Amazon increasing exponentially has resulted in consumers feeling overwhelmed by the sheer number of options available, which can deter them from shopping on the platform.
Thus, the Amazon Choice system was devised to improve the overall customer experience on Amazon. When searching for a particular product, customers can look for the Amazon’s Choice badge to easily determine which listing best meets their needs in terms of performance, price, and quality.
Regardless of how niche your product may be, the competition on Amazon will always be fierce even with the added benefits of joining the FBA program. With its distinctive label, getting the Amazon’s Choice badge is an effective way to distinguish your product from your competitors. Let’s explore some of the benefits that this simple label can provide.
Combining all these benefits, the significance of the Amazon’s Choice badge becomes clear. It provides a remarkable competitive advantage that can truly help your business grow—even amongst thousands of other options. Thus, it’s not surprising that many FBA Sellers seek to optimize their product listings to obtain the Amazon’s Choice label.
The Amazon’s Choice badge and the Best Seller badge serve very similar functions: to distinguish a product from a vast sea of competitor products.
Both badges are assigned by certain algorithms on the platform to ensure that consumers are prompted to view and purchase high-performing products. In fact, the Best Seller badge increases an item’s glance views by 45%.
The main difference between the two badges lies in the metrics used by Amazon to determine which products receive which label. While the Amazon’s Choice badge relies on a myriad of factors, the Best Seller’s badge is more straightforward in that it is assigned to the product with the highest volume of sales in a specific category.
One of the main draws of the Amazon’s Choice badge is its exclusivity. Only one listing per search item can be listed as Amazon’s Choice, and there’s a certain criterion that the platform takes into consideration to determine which product receives the badge.
Whereas the Best Seller badge is determined through sales volumes, the algorithm for Amazon’s Choice appears to be more multi-faceted. According to Amazon, the badge is awarded to the listing that best encapsulates what matters to the customers. So it’s safe to assume that Amazon’s algorithm factors in ratings, sales history, pricing, consumer search inquiries, availability, and delivery speed.
In other words, the Amazon’s Choice badge can’t be given; it must be earned. Fortunately, optimizing your product to qualify for the badge is highly attainable, especially for FBA Sellers.
Obtaining the badge can be possible with thorough, strategic planning that involves multiple aspects of product listing optimization. This section details the different approaches that you can implement to become eligible for the Amazon’s Choice label.
Successfully completing these steps doesn’t automatically guarantee an Amazon’s Choice badge. However, these strategies can significantly increase your eligibility while also improving the overall performance of your business.
While this may seem like something that any beginner should be familiar with, there are always areas for improvement when it comes to optimizing your product listings.
When writing the essential information about your product, it’s best to first conduct keyword research to determine which keywords can give you the best results. Incorporate these keywords when crafting a compelling title as well as an informative but succinct product description.
In terms of visual assets, ensure that the images used in the listing are high-quality and adhere to Amazon’s guidelines. This guide can help you in optimizing your product’s key visuals.
Feedback from customers plays a crucial role in any business. Having high product ratings and positive customer feedback will increase a product’s overall rankings and eligibility for the Amazon’s Choice badge.
Stellar customer service is key to ensuring that your customers gain positive experiences with your product. To encourage positive reviews, however, you can go a step further with friendly follow-up emails or with Amazon’s “Request a Review” feature.
If there are negative reviews about your product, prompt and professional responses can go a long way. These can also serve as an avenue for you to showcase your commitment to customer satisfaction.
More than 40% of consumers from the US expect to receive online purchases within two to three days. Being consistent when it comes to inventory management and timely shipping is one of the best ways to cater to your market and associate positive experiences with your product.
Being part of the FBA program can greatly help you in this aspect. This reliable service offered by Amazon to FBA sellers ensures that your products will be delivered efficiently. As an FBA seller, always make sure to maximize this service.
One of the factors considered in determining a product’s eligibility for the Amazon’s Choice badge is its return rate. If your product is returned often, the Amazon algorithm is more likely to flag your product as non-reliable or unstable.
Thus, it’s important to monitor and analyze any product returns. Understanding the reasoning behind your customers’ dissatisfaction can help you improve and optimize your listing further.
Amazon provides return insights via the FBA Returns section on Seller Central. This helps break down your return rates as well as the reasons why certain products were returned. You can also learn more about Amazon’s return policy and tips to avoid customer returns here.
Products without any type of distinguishing label like Amazon’s Choice or Best Seller can often get lost in a sea of competitors. Advertising is a great tool to achieve an initial boost in visibility and reach. Fortunately, Amazon offers several different types of advertising tools, such as Sponsored Products, Sponsored Brands, and Sponsored Display ads.
Investing in one or more of these ad types can potentially increase discoverability and sales in the long run, which can no doubt improve your chances of earning the Amazon’s Choice badge.
When the Amazon’s Choice badge first broke into the scene in 2015, sellers quickly realized the exceptional benefits the black and orange label provided to their products. Unfortunately, this led to some disreputable practices to fool the Amazon’s Choice algorithm.
One example of these tactics as reported by the Wall Street Journal involved sellers invading social media platforms to encourage people to click on links to their products. Some even went as far as encouraging others to purchase the products and reimbursing them afterward, thus creating the illusion of organic sales and boosting their eligibility for the badge.
These unscrupulous methods of getting an Amazon’s Choice badge led to instances of substandard or non-regulated products being rewarded the badge. In response, Amazon continuously strives to crack down on these sellers and improve the algorithm that determines which products are eligible for the badge.
For instance, Amazon’s Choice badges have been reported to be more difficult to secure and maintain for extended periods compared to before. Previously, a product could hold the badge for months at a time—but with Amazon’s updated algorithm, the label tends to come and go more frequently.
Amazon also appears to take into consideration any reports of fraudulent means of achieving the Amazon’s Choice badge, especially when it’s given to offensive or low-grade products. Some previous examples of these include anti-vaccine media and dangerous medication.
In response to these challenges, the best practices for FBA sellers are to uphold responsible business practices and abide by Amazon’s guidelines. By following the optimization methods listed above and doing diligent research, you can earn the Amazon’s Choice badge without the need to resort to unethical tactics.
In this section, we’ll answer some of the most frequently asked questions regarding Amazon’s Choice.
The Amazon’s Choice label is not manually chosen by Amazon personnel. The platform utilizes a certain algorithm that tracks sales data, return rates, customer feedback, pricing, and availability of each listing to determine which product to award with the badge.
Sellers can’t apply to obtain an Amazon’s Choice badge. Only one listing per product category or search term can be given the label, and this is determined by Amazon’s algorithm.
Unfortunately, we can’t define how long it will take for a product to get the Amazon’s Choice label. This will depend entirely on how the seller optimizes their listings to amplify their chances of receiving an Amazon’s Choice badge.
Unlike the Best Seller badge that refreshes every hour, there’s no known data on how long a product listing can hold the title of Amazon’s Choice.
However, from recent data on Amazon’s platform updates, we can infer that the algorithm regularly monitors Amazon’s Choice products and can fluctuate frequently.
There are plenty of resources that can enhance your knowledge not just about Amazon’s Choice, but also about selling on Amazon in general. We’ve compiled some of the most relevant tools and references you can use to jumpstart your journey toward achieving the Amazon’s Choice badge.
The Amazon Seller Central is the definitive hub for sellers. Aside from helping you monitor your return rates, its dashboard provides all your key data pertaining to sales, business growth, inventory management, advertising tools, and more. It’s also the best place for staying on top of news or announcements from Amazon.
The FBA Revenue Calculator is another tool offered by Amazon to help FBA Sellers identify the best practices to develop their businesses. The tool allows you to estimate costs, determine potential profit, research competitors, and generate reports to help you visualize all your key data. Using this calculator is especially beneficial for ensuring that your products are optimally priced in comparison to similar products.
These seller forums provide an avenue for sellers, such as yourself, to offer insights, trends, learnings, and recommendations to one another. This message board-style platform allows you to filter by category or search certain keywords to find topics relevant to what you want to learn more about.
Threecolts is one of the most comprehensive resources for all things related to Amazon businesses. This cloud suite offers different tools to track your inventory, generate business reports, manage profit recovery, and optimize business operations in general.
Jungle Scout provides data-driven product research tools to aid Amazon entrepreneurs. These tools are useful for streamlining the process of finding profitable opportunities, refining keyword strategies, and conducting product research.
beBOLD is an Amazon marketing agency that aims to help its clients maintain sustainable business growth and drive profits. It’s also a verified Amazon Advertising Partner, so its tools are helpful if you want to invest in advertising to boost your product’s chances of getting the Amazon’s Choice badge.
Pattern’s free tool generates a competitive matrix to give you a statistically driven portrayal of your product’s standing compared to similar listings. With an in-depth analysis of your competitors, you can better refine your strategy to differentiate your product even without the Amazon’s Choice badge.
To recap, this guide detailed a fundamental understanding of the Amazon’s Choice badge, its criteria for eligibility, optimization methods, and the best tools to help you enhance your chances of getting the coveted label. Now that you’re equipped with the right knowledge and resources, you’re more than ready to accomplish what you set out for: obtaining the Amazon’s Choice badge.
Remember, even the smallest changes can make a meaningful impact in the long run. Don’t be discouraged if you don’t see results immediately. With consistent performance, thorough monitoring, diligent research, and help from third-party service providers like Threecolts, you’ll undoubtedly see a change in your business’s growth.
