Listing a product on Amazon is simultaneously the most important and most underappreciated tool in an Amazon vendor’s arsenal. A properly listed item will practically win the “Buy Button” on its own without the need for bloating your product page with superlatives, gimmicky catchphrases or even a presence outside of the Amazon marketplace. This blog will take you through the checklist of creating a strong listing in a manner that answers your questions without having to delve through hours of reading to get the full picture.

An Important Note About Product Pages

Amazon has a catalog which contains products from tens of thousands of businesses. This means that for the sake of the customer, as well as ease of use for vendors, they have consolidated many of these products into singular “Product Pages”. Therefore, when two vendors list an item with the same “Product Identifier” (e.g. SKU, EAN, ISBN), they will be consolidated into a single page.

*Only the original person to upload the product identifier, whom Amazon calls the “Page Owner”, may edit the metadata of the product. If you have edits you would like made to one of these pages, you must contact Amazon directly since you cannot directly contact the Page Owner.

What Makes a Good Product Listing?

All products on Amazon are listed as a “page” instead of an individual item. Each page is used by any vendor listing the same item. The following image is a page that a customer would see at the time of this blog’s writing. To help simplify the criteria Amazon desires on these pages, I will cover this particular page piece by piece to help you visualize the concepts. To keep the concepts from cluttering, I have broken this blog into sections; focussing on the most important general ideas using images containing red highlights. Make sure to check the links as well, as they will assist in answering your questions!

Selecting and Preparing Your Image(s)

First, let’s look at the section that most consumers gravitate to before even opening the page itself. I want you to focus on a few elements of these images that uphold Amazon’s standards:

The image contains a white background.
These are supporting images which showcase the product at different angles.
There are images of accessories/individual components of the product set.

With those three primary criteria in mind, you can begin to create your product images. If you aren’t taking dedicated photographs with the purpose of Amazon listings in mind, I would suggest making use of Adobe Photoshop (or alternatively the Open Source program GIMP) to make sure your images are up to snuff.

Titling Your Product

Giving your product a title will instinctively feel as if you can slap anything down and customers will find your item(s) on Amazon. While the name of the listing is still pretty simplistic, you should keep in mind a few points. This token listing showcases a well-made title for a product:

Note the order in which the title is presented as this is the recommended format:

Brand name
Product model
Key features (size, color, etc.)
The product name (for this image, the “Roku Smart LED TV”)
Additional key identifiers (differentiating the sub-series, such as “2017 Model,” can help a customer find your item. Many customers want a specific item, meaning that any ambiguity can lose a sale)

Don’t make your title too complex. Keep to the keywords which a customer would use to search for your product, and leave the rest to the description itself. After all, there’s a reason that your listing is a full page!

Writing Your Product Description

Your title has already done the job of helping prospective customers locate your product, but now your product page needs to explain what makes your product special.

The product description should be able to answer almost all of your customer’s potential questions so that they don’t have to ask you or leave the page to find the answers. Your description is also a powerful tool towards gaining traffic from Google (as opposed to only Amazon) so don’t underestimate how important it is!

Avoid superlatives at all costs!

The reason I am making this the first point is because it appears unprofessional. Anyone can say their product is “good” or “tough” but, ultimately, it’s all subjective to the customers’ opinions. If you sell mailboxes, your “durable” wooden frame is objectively weaker than that of an iron mailbox. Even wood has variables, as White Oak isn’t as durable as African Rosewood. Keep the adjectives in check and the customer will appreciate being allowed to decide for themselves what a product’s strengths are.

*Please note that the example image’s “Smart” TV is a category, not an adjective.*

Notate all dimensions, the weight, and specs.

Your product description should leave little to the imagination in terms of what the product is capable of and what the product comes with when ordered. Does your product offer certain ports for additional compatibility? Is there a special material used in the grip? Was it designed with aluminum to keep the weight down? Tell your customer! Just as Amazon has criteria, so does your consumer base. Help them make the right choice because making the right choice helps with making a quicker sale as well as building a referral base.

Make sure to keep the variations (colors, sizes, etc.) out of the description.

The product variations will have their own section in the product listing, as shown in the example pictures (see the size and style differences in example listing) This can be colors or a few other options. We will be covering how to create these listings in its own blog.

Additional Points of Discussion and Tips

We now know the core essentials for creating a new product listing on Amazon. However, there are a few topics which aren’t part of every product page or aren’t expansive enough to warrant a full section, but still are important to address. These points are:

Just in case some of you skipped the introduction, I wanted to address page ownership. Some products will already have an existing page, which is owned by another party. Do not be afraid to use an existing product page, and make note of the existing ASIN/Title used by Amazon. If you find that you aren’t the first to create a product and that there are errors on the page, you will need to contact Amazon directly by following these guidelines. Read through the page a couple times to make sure you understand what information Amazon wants from you.
Use the “Fulfilled By Amazon” or “FBA” service! 3rd party fulfillment centers are generally more expensive, and you run the risk of accountability. FBA also helps you win the “Buy Box”, so there are too many upsides for most businesses to turn down. Keep in mind that you are accountable for any mistakes made by a 3rd party you are involved with unless it’s FBA.
Some categories aren’t unlocked to the seller by default and your products may need to be sold in one or more of those categories. These categories will require approval directly from Amazon, which you can find instructions here on setting up your request(s).
You need to keep the ASIN (Amazon Standard Identification Number, or Amazon’s assigned version of an SKU/EAN) logged with each product in your inventory spreadsheet. This will help you communicate issues with Amazon down the road, and more importantly, help you identify products quickly and accurately when interacting with customers.
Study what your competition is doing on their pages as well as the formatting for popular items sold on Amazon. Determine if the product pages from your competition are on par with the quality of pages you see for popular products. If they are, attempt to emulate their choices in your original product pages (e.g. If you sell a type of leaf blower that no one else sells, research how other leaf blowers are presented!). This will help ensure you aren’t missing points and helps takes some stress off your shoulders.
Browse the Amazon Seller Central Forums for nuanced tips and discussions. Even if you sell using Advantage, the Seller Central forums will have solid advice geared toward how you present your products, as well as how to manage your interactions with Amazon and customers.
Stay on top of your message center and returns! Arguably your #1 priority. Once you begin selling, you should be on top of addressing all requests for communication with your business through Amazon. Being as much as 1-2 days late in your responses can be detrimental to the overall health of your account, on top of your company potentially receiving poor reviews from unhappy customers. Don’t let small issues such as replying to messages compound into an unrecoverable flag on your account.
Always keep your inventory up to date! Amazon and other services can assist you in maintaining your stock levels but, ultimately, it’s your responsibility to keep products in stock. Update your spreadsheets, programs, your Amazon seller accounts, and keep on top of any 3rd party fulfillment centers.

Amazon puts the customer first in most circumstances; it’s what keeps them at the top of the food chain. Understand that Amazon views sellers as having a privilege to sell on Amazon, not a right. Don’t patronize, don’t attempt to argue, simply take responsibility for your actions and ensure that mistakes aren’t made.

What Have We Learned?

All writing on Amazon shares the same ruleset, both in your product pages and correspondence with Amazon or customers. Keep your writing brief, concise, and do not patronize or embellish.
Products are sold on pages which can be shared by multiple sellers. You can win the “Buy Button” on these pages by following Amazon’s product criteria, enlisting in the “Fulfilled By Amazon” service, and by keeping on top of communications from Amazon or customers.
Your company is ultimately responsible for all issues pertaining to your sales, with few, nuanced exceptions. Amazon isn’t welcoming of the attitude of using their platform to learn how to sell. If you are using Amazon as your first ecommerce outlet, make sure to study up and ask questions on the forums when needed.
Always maintain your inventory and logs as close to real-time as you possibly can. This prevents issues from compounding down the road.

Check out these other articles about selling on Amazon:

How to List Products on Amazon

*An Important Note About Product Pages*