May 20, 2024
The e-commerce industry has changed dramatically and Amazon has been one of the most dominant forces to have influenced such a change. In today’s era, a strong online presence is crucial for the survival and success of any business. Having an online presence also helps to attract customers to your business and helps you stand out in the sea of competitors. An Amazon storefront is therefore a good way to increase brand awareness and foster brand loyalty. Sadly, in order to attract new and existing customers, it’s simply not enough to have an Amazon storefront. It is also important that your business or brand focuses on the attractiveness and the design of your storefront, especially if you want to make a significantly memorable impact within your niche industry. Ensuring that good design is a part of your focus can help you to build brand awareness and brand credibility, which will ultimately help you increase your brand’s sales revenue. In this blog, we’ll walk you through the essential steps you’ll need to create and design an effective Amazon storefront as well as highlight the best practices that are likely to help you capture the attention of your audience and stand out from the crowd.
But first, let’s help you understand the basics.
What Exactly Does it Mean to Have an Amazon Storefront?
An Amazon storefront, otherwise known as an Amazon store, is a feature launched in 2018 which was aimed at highlighting small businesses by offering them a free business approved brand registry. More often than not, it is used to showcase a collection or range of products in a way that is visually appealing to customers. It is similar to having your own website but with the added benefit of having Amazon’s ecosystem and resources available right at your fingertips.
With a well-designed Amazon storefront, your customers will be able to enjoy a great viewing experience with a seemingly more personalized way to browse their desired products. This is also another opportunity to connect with audiences during their viewing and buying process.
Additionally, an Amazon storefront gives you the ability to create multiple pages for all your curated products in one place. You can also customize your storefront to reflect your unique brand identity using elements such as logos, color palettes and other branding elements.
A Checklist on How to Create an Amazon Storefront
- Check Your Eligibility – Generally, in order to qualify for an Amazon storefront, you’ll first need to have a professional selling account and have a registered brand. With this account, you’ll be required to fill out your store’s brand information before it can be published.
- Access Store Builder – Log in to your Amazon Seller Central account. Navigate to the “Stores” tab and click on “Manage Stores.” Then, click on the “Create store” button to start building your Storefront.
- Choose a Template – There are many pre-designed templates which you can choose from. Choose the one that aligns best with your goals. You can later customize the template to match your brand identity.
- Customize Your Storefront – Here, you can add your logo, banner and product images, as well as descriptions. Customize your storefront based on your preferences but also ensure that it aligns well with your brand identity and brand story.
- Create Pages and Sections – The pages will be your main navigation tabs which the customers will interact with while the sections will act as subcategories found within each page. You can use the pages that you have created to feature promotions, product categories or even brand stories.
- Enhanced Content Creation – Utilize Amazon’s Enhanced Brand Content (EBC) or A+ Content to elevate your pages. You can feature videos, images and text which will give your audience more information about your product(s) while also providing them with a more engaging shopping experience.
- Review and Publish – It is vital that you check to ensure that your store functions the way that you intended it to. At this stage, it is also important to check for errors of any kind that can affect your brand perception and credibility. Once you’re satisfied with everything, click ‘publish.’ Your storefront will then be active.
- Promote – You can promote your store using any marketing strategy, campaign or platform to drive traffic to your store and increase sales.
By following the steps in this checklist, you will be able to create a professional and engaging Amazon storefront to showcase your brand and products to customers on the platform.
Now, here are the necessary steps you should follow when designing your Amazon storefront:
Step 1: Establish a Brand Identity
Establishing your brand identity is essential before diving into designing your Amazon storefront, especially since it is an extension of your brand’s story, personality, values and unique selling points. When establishing your brand story, a good way to create a compelling brand story is by first developing a mission and value statement. These should resonate with your target audience and should also be consistent with your brand image which will include a color palette, a logo and fonts to create a cohesive look and feel.
Step 2: Optimize Your Product Listings
Having an Amazon storefront is pointless if it is not showcasing high-quality products. Focus on optimizing your product listings by using professional photos, clear and detailed descriptions, and ofcourse, accurate pricing information. You can use keywords to help you increase your ranking and search visibility. Feedbacks and reviews also help, therefore it is always a good idea to encourage customers to leave a review on the product(s) they have purchased.
Step 3: Choose a Professional Storefront Theme
It is not only important that the theme chosen is a professional one, but it is also important that the theme chosen aligns with your brand and its story. For each theme choice that is listed on Amazon, there are layouts and customizable features for them. Whatever layout or theme you choose, ensure that it is easy for customers to navigate as if this is proven to be too complex for them, they will likely find another storefront to shop from. Guidelines for Amazon storefront specifications gives you the ideal structure and format needed for text, images, videos and products in each tile.
Step 3.5: Customize Your Storefront with Logos, Color Palettes, etc.
This is also where you’ll be given the opportunity to add customized brand elements such as a logo, color palette, fonts and other design options. Since your storefront is the face of your brand or business, it is important that the design is attractive, appealing to customers and maintains brand consistency.
Step 4: Highlight Your Best-Selling Products
As mentioned, your Amazon storefront will be the face of your brand or business and therefore, it is important for you to put your best foot forward. This means that your best selling product(s) should be prominent and displayed in such a way that it grabs the attention of customers. In addition to using high-quality images, your copies should also be captivating and compelling. Customers should be left with no choice but to make a purchase. You can also use other sales strategies to compel customers to make a purchase through incentives, special promotions or discounts.
Step 5: Utilize Enhanced Brand Content
Using Enhanced Brand Content (EBC) will allow you to create product pages with rich media elements such as videos, images and even comparison charts. This is one of the Amazon storefront features which users are encouraged to take advantage of as it allows you to provide additional information about your product(s). It also allows you to provide customers with a more engaging and interactive shopping experience which ultimately fosters brand loyalty. Ensure you also use this opportunity to highlight what makes your particular product(s) unique.
Step 6: Optimize for Mobile
With any online venture, whether it is a store, an app, or website, it is crucial that the store, website or app is mobile-friendly. This means that they should be optimized for and should perform well on mobile devices. With that said, your Amazon storefront should be just as responsive on mobile as it would be on any other device. Ensure that images and other elements are optimized with quick loading times by testing them regularly.
Step 7: Leverage A+ Content
You can utilize this feature to customize and enhance your product listings. With this feature, you can highlight key benefits, features, and use cases for the product(s) that you are offering. Incorporate other multimedia elements such as videos, images, infographics, instructions (if applicable) and purpose.
Step 8: Monitor Performance and Iterate
It’s important that you monitor the performance of your storefront so that you can make adjustments if necessary. This will help ensure that your storefront is effective in achieving your set goals such as: increase in traffic, conversion rates and sales. Customer feedback and reviews are most important here as it allows you to identify areas in which your store may need improvement.
Amazon Storefront Best Practices
Number of Tiles
Although there isn’t a standard for every brand or business to adhere to, it is recommended that you use 12-15 tiles. These are our recommended ones:
- Full-width Image Tile
- Product Tile
- Background Video
- Gallery
- Shoppable Image
Focus
Take this opportunity to focus on showcasing your product, brand, and value proposition. Highlight the most popular or best selling product and use visually appealing elements as well as compelling copies to do so.
Content
Included in your content display should be well-crafted and compelling copies that resonate with your audience. But you also need a well-established content structure if you want to make the most out of having an Amazon storefront.
Here is the most effective content structure:
- 2-3 tiles with information aimed at creating brand awareness
- 4-5 tiles displaying your product(s)
- 2-3 tiles of lifestyle images
- 1-2 tiles showing the best sellers and recommended products.
An Example of an Amazon Storefront Designed Well
Here is a great example of an Amazon storefront that has implemented all of the best practices:
Mama Natural
This supplement and skincare Amazon storefront seems to immediately tick all the boxes for all the best practices being implemented. To begin with, the storefront can be easily navigated and the important tabs with specific products can be easily identified.
You’re immediately able to identify the brand and deduce information about what the brand is about and what it offers. This is a perfect example of establishing a strong brand identity that is essentially an extension of the brand’s story, personality, values and unique selling points. You will also notice that the brand is consistent with fonts, color palettes and tone used in order to stay aligned with their visual and brand identity. The statement “For mamas made by a mama” is a compelling statement that will immediately get the attention of mothers or mothers to be. In addition to this, that statement also adds a great level of credibility to the brand, which means that they are already halfway into convincing shoppers to make a purchase.
In addition to having such a well-established brand identity, the use of high-quality visuals with appealing colors, tones and content is the other half of the puzzle that will be sure to attract and convince shoppers into becoming buyers. The brand’s Amazon storefront’s graphics also add to this.
Along with brand consistency and captivating imagery, Mama Natural´s storefront also gives additional information about the benefits of the product; titling it; “Probiotics, The Invisible Heroes of the Gut.”
They’ve taken the opportunity to highlight their best-selling products with compelling copies, great images and an even more compelling story about the owner of the brand; “Meet Genevieve Howland.”
With each major section of this NLC-designed storefront, an important and compelling point about the product is highlighted with great copies and visuals.
One of the most important points of this design is the customer highlights which shows real people using the product. This adds credibility to the brand, and the “How to use” which immediately gives shoppers instructions without them having to work too hard to find it.
Amazon Storefront Design Checklist
- Pay attention to Amazon’s Storefront Specifications
- Develop a captivating and compelling brand story
- Establish a navigation structure that allows for easy navigation
- Use high-quality images
- Include design elements that will attract your target audience
- Showcase your best-selling products
- Include customer reviews and testimonials
- Ensure that it is mobile-friendly
- Create digital ads that will help promote and attract customers to your store.
- Include effective CTAs
- Update regularly
Designing an effective Amazon storefront requires careful planning, attention to detail, and a focus on providing a visually-appealing storefront to customers while simultaneously providing a seamless shopping experience for them. By following these best practices and leveraging the tools and features available on the platform, you can create a compelling storefront that drives sales, builds brand loyalty, and sets you apart from the competition.
Nearly 2,000 new sellers join Amazon every day. Your products need eye-catching and easy-to-consume Amazon listing graphics and A+ content. That’s where we come in!
We design clear listing images by creating professional and visually appealing product images and supporting those images with clear infographics that highlight the key selling points of your product. These images are a must and are proven to provide a 108% boost in revenue.
If you want to have eye-catching designs that are easy to consume and guarantee conversions, then you should contact NLC. Our graphic design services are top-tier and have allowed over 4000+ brands to increase their conversion rates and overall sales revenue.
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