Split Testing – The Amazon Seller’s Secret Weapon [Webinar Recap]

By Gen Furukawa

Recently Greg spoke with Andrew Browne, co-Founder of Splitly, on how (and why) split tests are the the best way to dominate your niche as an Amazon seller. Here is a full replay of the webinar, and a written summary below.

What is split testing?

If there is one mantra that all digital marketers live by, it is “Test everything.” In an environment where everything can be precisely tracked and measured, why leave anything up to chance? Or even worse, intuition. Test it. And then test it again!

You would do this by running Split Tests, often interchangeably called AB Tests: a way to run a randomized and controlled experiments between two or more versions of a website, measuring specific metrics like sessions, conversions, conversion rate, and most importantly, profit.

Traditionally, when running a split test on a website, you would select an element of a page to optimize, and create two (or more) versions of the page to determine which version generates the best outcome. This is a straightforward process on websites, where you can make infinite alterations to website pages with services like Optimizely and VWO.

However, split testing is a different beast for the Amazon seller. Why? Because you have to play by Amazon’s rules, of course! Amazon requires sellers to enter data within a structured format, and traffic can only go to one product page. Therefore, in order to run split tests on Amazon, the listing must be changed once every day, at 12M PST (when Amazon refreshes its sales and traffic data every day).

The 2 Tests To Quickly Improve Your Bottom Line

There are two high-impact tests that are highly recommended as first tests to run on your Amazon listing.

1. Test Your Pricing

The first test is changing your price. Whether you are in a low-priced and competitive niche, or a high-priced niche, you will want to optimize your price to attract and convert your customers.

A good baseline to start is by testing your price by 10% higher or lower than your control price. Increasing the price could position the product as a higher-quality product. As a result, sessions and conversion rates may decrease, because you will lose the price sensitive consumer. However, the upside is that profit margin per sale may increase, therefore overall profits may increase. The outcomes of this test are incredibly interesting.

Lowering the product price by 10% may make your product more attractive to price-conscious consumers, and make it more appealing than your competitors’ offerings. However, the reduced price is most likely coming directly out of your profit margins. Will you be able to increase your conversion rate, and overall sales, enough to increase your daily profits? We have seen some very successful examples of this happening.

2. Test Your Main Feature Image

The second high-impact test to run on your Amazon listing is testing your main feature image. Why? Because your Feature Product Image is the first impression a person has with your product, and they have a fraction of a second to decide whether it is worth clicking on your listing or not.

This is especially important for private label sellers, who are often competing against people selling very similar items. For example, if you were looking for a ring for your special booboo, how would you decide which ring to click on:

It is difficult to stand out amidst a selection of products that look similar, which is exactly why it is important to split test different images. We have seen significant improvements in click through rates, and overall conversions, with different main images. Have you seen any notable improvements by testing different main images?

In Conclusion:

An important thing to note is that while running one test is an accomplishment worthy of high fives, the job does not end there. The true value of split tests emerge as you run tests repeatedly, to really hone in on the factors that move the needle positively. It is imperative to run follow-up tests to continue to optimize your listing and avoid the ills of complacency that can torpedo an Amazon listing.

The key takeaway for split testing, and I suppose for life in general, is to just get started. Greg shared a cool example from the bamboo marshmallow sticks, Jungle Stix, how just a two dollar change in price increased profits by 33% per day. Compounding that over the course of a month, that is a $1584 difference, and over a year amounts to $19k. The small things definitely do add up.

You can learn more about split testing, and Splitly website.

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- Interesting! We'd love to hear how split-testing worked out for you. Comment it below!

4 Common Roadblocks Amazon FBA For Beginner

- Are you just starting to sell on Amazon and don't know where to begin? This video may help you!

Amazon expands warehouses in the UK

The new fulfillment center will utilize Amazon Robotics technology, which has been shown to decrease the amount of time it takes to process orders. In addition, the technology will reduce the amount of space needed to warehouse goods. The fulfillment center is scheduled to open in 2017 and will employ roughly 1,500 people, bringing the total number of Amazon UK employees to 15,500.

The new fulfillment center will allow Amazon to expand its product selection through its Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) service. Third-party sellers on Amazon can elect to fulfill their orders through FBA, which means that Amazon will store their products in one of several Amazon fulfillment centers and will then pick, pack, ship, and provide customer service for the respective products once an order is placed. Through the implementation of Amazon Robotics, the new fulfillment center will be able to store 50% more items per square foot.

Opening a new fulfillment center could pave the way for more third-party sellers to participate on its online marketplace. With its latest fulfillment center, Amazon has the potential to store additional products for not only existing third-party merchants, but also for new entrants.

However, the recent rise of Amazon third-party sellers has led to a price war among sellers, forcing them to lower prices in order to maintain sales. Amazon’s third-party merchants may look to smaller online marketplaces, such as Etsy, to stay competitive. This could have negative repercussions, though, given the immense number of online shoppers who currently use Amazon.

The parcel delivery industry — a segment of the shipping sector that deals with the transportation of packages to consumers — is booming thanks to e-commerce growth, and players outside the industry want a piece of the pie. 

Evan Bakker, research analyst for BI Intelligence, Business Insider's premium research service, has compiled a detailed report on the future of shipping that looks at efforts by Amazon, Alibaba, and Walmart to handle more of their own shipping and concludes that big retailers are well positioned to disrupt the parcel industry.

Here are some of the key points from the report: 

• Transportation and logistics could be the next billion dollar opportunity for e-commerce companies. The global shipping market, including ocean, air, and truck freight, is a $2.1 trillion market, according to World Bank, Boeing, and Golden Valley Co.
• There is much at stake for legacy shipping companies, which have seen a boom in parcel delivery as e-commerce spending has risen. Twenty different partners currently share the duties of shipping Amazon's 600 million packages a year, with FedEx, USPS, and UPS moving the most.
• Amazon, Alibaba, and Walmart have so far focused on building out their last-mile delivery and logistics services but are increasingly going after the middle- and first-mile of the shipping chain. 
• Amazon has already made major moves across each stage of the shipping journey. It launched same-day delivery service, which it handles through its own fleet of carriers, cutting out any third-party shippers. The company also recently began establishing shipping routes between China and North America.
• Walmart's interest in expanding its transportation and logistics operations is almost purely related to cost-savings. It's begun leasing shipping containers to transport manufactured goods from China and is making greater use of lockers and in-store pickup options to cut down on delivery costs.
• Alibaba has begun leasing containers on ships, similar to Amazon's Dragon Boat initiative. This means that Alibaba Logistics can now facilitate first-mile shipping for third-party merchants on its marketplace.

In full, the report:

• Sizes the market for the shipping industry.
• Explains how the industry operates in broad terms.
• Suggests why major e-commerce retailers should disrupt the space.
• Outlines the shipping initiatives of Amazon, Walmart, and Alibaba.
• Concludes how these moves might impact traditional carriers.

Interested in getting the full report? Here are two ways to access it:

1. Subscribe to an All-Access pass to BI Intelligence and gain immediate access to this report and over 100 other expertly researched reports. As an added bonus, you'll also gain access to all future reports and daily newsletters to ensure you stay ahead of the curve and benefit personally and professionally. » START A MEMBERSHIP
2. Purchase & download the full report from our research store. » BUY THE REPORT

The choice is yours. But however you decide to acquire this report, you’ve given yourself a powerful advantage in your understanding of the future of shipping.

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The Value of Feedback For Amazon Sellers

by The Selling Family

Amazon seller feedback is your social credibility on Amazon, the world’s largest product search engine. It tells shoppers if you’re worth buying from. If your score is high, you’re considered reputable. If your seller feedback score is low you’ll lose sales to competitors. Seller feedback only measures a seller’s timeliness, product packaging, boxing as well as responsiveness and helpfulness. The seller feedback score has nothing to do with product reviews.

Why is Amazon seller feedback so important?

There are a myriad of reasons as to why seller feedback is so important on Amazon—both positive and negative.

Consequences of Negative Seller Feedback

• Account suspension
• Lower chance of winning the buy box
• Lower search ranking
• Fewer sales
• More time spent resolving customer issues and less time growing your business

Consequences of Positive Seller Feedback

• Higher chance of winning the buy box
• Increased sales
• Higher search ranking
• Mitigate account suspension and A-Z claims
• Increased shopper trust

How Amazon Measures a Seller’s Feedback

Amazon measures a seller’s performance based on four criteria: order defect rate, pre-fulfillment cancellation rate, late shipping rate, and refund rate.

Order defect rate (ODR)

This is used to determine the percentage of orders in the past 365 days that have received negative feedback, A-to-Z Guarantee claim, or credit card chargeback. If your ODR is greater than 1% then you risk getting your account suspended. The best way to avoid the metric from dipping is by maintaining a low negative feedback rating and working with customers to resolve issues.

Pre-fulfillment cancellation rate

Amazon defines this as “the number of orders canceled by a seller prior to shipment confirmation divided by the number of orders in the time period of interest.” If your pre-fulfillment cancellation rate is greater than 2.5% then you could face account suspension.

Late shipping rate

Amazon defines this as “the number of orders with shipments that are not confirmed by the expected ship date divided by the number of orders in the time period of interest.” If your late shipping rate is greater than 4% then you could face account suspension.

Refund rate

Amazon defines this as “the number of orders refunded by a seller divided by the number of orders in the time period of interest.”

Amazon uses seller feedback to measure the customer service experience a seller provides. A feedback score is given to each seller and is rated on a 0 to 100 scale with 100/100 being the best possible score, and 0/100 being the worst possible score. This score is based off of the number of orders completed in the past 365 days.

Product reviews are important for the products you sell because they are a direct reflection of a shopper’s experience with what you sell. Amazon is the internet’s biggest product search engine so getting positive, high-quality product reviews will be a key element in your products getting noticed in such an information-driven and competitive marketplace.

You can view more here about how Amazon calculates the Seller Rating.

How to Monitor Seller Feedback

Sellers can view their feedback score from the Seller Central dashboard. Within the dashboard, go to Performance>Customer Satisfaction>Customer Feedback to view feedback. You can download a feedback report there, too. Sellers can get a bird’s eye view of their account health. Amazon displays the target percentages sellers need to stay below in order to avoid suspension.

What Can You Do If Your Feedback Is Lacking?

You can’t please everyone. Some shoppers are just unhappy people and will find any reason to leave negative seller feedback and product reviews. There’s not much you can do in those situations. But if you find you’re receiving more negative or neutral feedback than usual, you need to identify the problem and fix it.

Feedback Genius is the perfect tool to remedy an Amazon seller account back to good health. The program has features to help sellers improve and maintain their seller feedback. You can create automated email sequences based off of specific order events. Its email templates and notifications have helped many sellers increase and improve positive seller feedback.

Any seller can use Feedback Genius to track negative and positive feedback. A crucial Feedback Genius feature isNegative Seller Feedback Notifications, which inform you when a shopper leaves negative feedback. This allows you to respond promptly to resolve the shopper’s issue. The same kind of feature is also available for negative product reviews. Feedback Genius’s dashboard gives you a great overview of product reviews and seller feedback for one week, one month, three months, six months, and one year.

With linear data like this you can track how customers react to changes and practices over both a small and big scale.

Small scale: if someone leaves you feedback saying your product description is vague. You can quickly update your product description.

Big scale: if you notice in your notifications that over the past two months your customers are growing increasingly frustrated with your communication you can set up more automated emails to be more attentive.

Informed changes like these will help you reach your online selling goals.

How to use customer data?

You can sort your seller feedback into sections of “What I’m doing right” and “What I need to improve.” Sort the positive feedback that compliments replicable aspects of your store into the first category. If you get 50 customers in the past month who compliment your packaging, add them to the list and create a message to respond to the complement. Save the message for further use when you get more positive feedback. For example,

“Thank you [[Customer Name]], I’m so glad your product arrived safely and you found the packaging easy to open. Please let me know if there is anything else I can do for you. Best, [[Seller Name]]”

All negative seller feedback that point out faults in your store suggesting you need improvement, should go into a second category. Every single negative feedback should be handled immediately. One unhappy customer could be the difference in another potential buyer deciding to purchase from you or from winning the buy box. Let’s say a shopper disliked the packaging (important for merchant fulfilled sellers). If the shopper is unhappy with the packaging you should address their complaint with sympathy and curiosity.

Dear [[Customer Name]], I’m sorry to hear that your order arrived in a damaged condition. I know you were looking forward to using [[Product Name]] today. Please let me know what I can do to make your buying experience better. Best, [[Seller Name]]

Empower your business with seller feedback

The more positive seller feedback you receive the more attractive your seller account will be to shoppers. By focusing on the seller feedback telling you what you are doing right, and what you can improve, you can better your customers buying experience, and increase your profits. Feedback Genius makes getting, responding, and tracking seller feedback incredibly easy and simple. Sellers should ensure that they are listening to their customer’s feedback so they can stand above their competition and avoid account suspension.

Special Offer Just For The Selling Family Readers!

Try Feedback Genius for free for 30 days—no credit card required—and get 500 extra messages after your trial with promo code JessLar.

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- Great tips on customer service! We hope this article helped your business. Tell us how it's going by leaving a comment below!

Amazon is shutting down RA & OA! Is it panic time?

By Jim Cockrum

Many sellers are nervously reacting (and overreacting) to some recent developments at Amazon that some are claiming could change or end RA and OA (Retail Arbitrage and Online Arbitrage).

There’s simply no need to panic and there’s EVERY reason to be optomistic! We’ll give you the FACTS as to why this is 100% true for ALL online entrepreneurs in our community.

From Amazon’s perspective, these new changes are all about protecting some of the major brands on Amazon from counterfeit duplicates. We applaud this initiative!

Listen to this short recording with my partners Brett Bartlett and Nathan Bailey as we go through this topic from every angle.

Keep in mind that we have tens of thousands of products across multiple platforms including Amazon and we are running a $25million annual business online between the three of us – and we have zero panic about these changes.

EXAMPLE: Brett has an 8 figure business on Amazon himself with multiple thousands of different items – and he’s been entirely unaffected by the latest changes by Amazon.

Listen to the full audio here: http://provenamazoncourse.com/brandrestrictions

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- What do you guys think?

The Truth Behind Selling on Amazon FBA and What New Sellers Don't Know...

- Stop what you're doing right now and just watch this video! 

The New Policy To End Amazon Listing Hijackers: Important Update

By Greg Mercer

If you are an Amazon seller, you may have received an email with the foreboding subject line, “Important Information about your Seller Account”. However, the policy updates will actually be favorable for sellers. In short, Amazon will require approval to sell some private label brands. Sellers need to seek approval by August 30th, 2016. If you do not obtain approval before 8/30, the listings for these products will be removed. OK, sounds serious, I’m not going to call that bluff…

This is what the email looks like:

Why is Amazon starting this new policy, with such a short turnaround time? My hypothesis is that they are addressing the growing problem of listing hijackers. I wrote about the Amazon’s listing hijackers in this post, which is a helpful read to see what a pesky and troublesome problem they can be

Here are the exact steps that Amazon sent out for how to seek approval for the affected products

1. In Seller Central, click the Inventory menu, and then select Add a Product.
2. Search for the ASIN you want to sell.
3. In the search results, click the Listing limitations apply link next to the ASIN.
4. Click the Request Approval button to start the application process.
* Three invoices for affected branded products that combined reflect your acquisition of at least 30 units in the past 90 days; or
* A letter of authorization from the brand owner confirming that you are authorized to sell affected branded products.

I think that this will encourage private label sellers to go through the Amazon Brand Registry program to register their brands in order to gain approval.

A Note On The Amazon Brand Registry

The Amazon Brand Registry is a helpful way for private label sellers who manufacture and sell their own products. By registering your private label brand with the Amazon Brand Registry, you are officially noting with Amazon that you are the brand owner. This makes it easier for private label sellers and brand owners to list their own products on Amazon, and protect their listing against listing hijackers who would attempt to sell a counterfeit or second

There are additional benefits to the Amazon Brand Registry, which is noted as the following by Amazon:

Influence the product detail information for your branded products: As the registered brand owner, you will have increased influence in editing the information on product detail pages for your registered branded products, which then helps you to specify the correct titles, details, images, and other attributes for your branded products.

List products without standard product IDs: Registering your brand enables you to specify an alternative key attribute that you can use to list your branded products instead of a standard product ID (UPC or EAN).

I set up my brand registry in about two minutes. It is super simple, it can be done in two quick steps, assuming you have a landing page set up for your product. If you don’t have that, fear not, it is much easier than it sounds. I would recommend purchasing a cheap domain on GoDaddy, and directing it to a free WordPress.com theme. It doesn’t take any technical skills to set up your website, just following the instructions carefully.

Step 1: Complete The Amazon Brand Registry Application

Calling it an “application” sounds more intimidating than it is. This is Step 1 of 2:

And this is Step 2 of 2:

After completing the two pages, you get this notification of completion!

Why Is This Policy Change Important?

 This policy change is important because it restricts how people can sell a private label brand. It is now not so easy for anyone to sell just any product, which means that you will have to have registered a brand in order to sell the brand. I am not completely sure at this point whether this will effect only major brands, or any private label brand. I will certainly update this as it becomes more clear (Amazon’s policies are never crystal clear right away). Moreover, I am not positive yet whether this application is necessary only for brands which have gone through the Amazon Brand Registry.

I think what is clear though is that many sellers will get their brands registered. And with a process that is so simple, as noted above, why not?! This is a good step to take in order to protect your brand against hijackers, so that the whole problem of listing hijackers will be a thing of the past.

One interesting ripple effect will be on people who do retail arbitrage–buying products at a steep discount and reselling them for a profit on Amazon. This new policy change may not effect some of the large Retail Arbitrage sellers, however, the smaller sellers may have to make significant changes to their business. This means maybe shifting towards private label sales.

In Conclusion

There is still a lot that remains murky on the details. The most important actionable takeaways from this policy update are twofold:

1. If you’re selling other brands, apply for approval as soon as possible
2. Register your brand ASAP

These are simple steps to take, and could prevent major headaches in the future. In an ecommerce environment that is getting more competitive, and which relies on brand differentiation and customer loyalty, I think that this just forces our hand to do what should have been done already.

If you have any different interpretation of this policy update, or have received direct feedback from Amazon’s Seller Support, please share your thoughts with the community in the comments section below! Likewise, I will share any updates that I receive as soon as possible.

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