Marketplaces: how multinationals should organise content for Amazon

Case Signify

Amazon has been rapidly expanding in recent years and many retailers and brands are now selling their products on this international marketplace. Vendors have the option of adding extra content to their product pages, which Amazon calls A+ content. Signify (formerly Philips Lighting) wanted to develop these highly detailed A+ pages for all its latest consumer products in a variety of countries.

Client: Signify

Capability Building

E-commerce

7 steps

Content for marketplaces: where to start

Content for a marketplace has specific characteristics and so identifying them was the first step. Furthermore, each country has specific requirements, guidelines and details which have to be taken into account. Additional challenges in these types of projects are that content is generally not stored centrally. Responsibilities are not always assigned either. This was exactly the process that we streamlined for Signify.

We make use of a seven-step plan for projects like this. The first step is to identify all the sources of content in the organisation and assign content owners. In phase two, we decide which content is needed. There are more than 10 different ‘modules’ available for Amazon A+ for which content can be supplied. To keep the process manageable, it is important to be selective.

Guidelines

The importance of a good master template

The third step involves making a data model for storing product content. It includes agreements about product names, and formats for product specifications. The fourth step is to develop a master template. This template firstly helps to organise and create the content, and secondly, it guarantees that the content meets Amazon’s strict guidelines. As such, it complies with the end customer’s needs and wishes. This master template (in English) formed the basis for coordinating the work done by the translation agency and the various international markets that need content for Amazon. The seventh and final phase of the step-by-step plan obviously involves optimisation. We continue updating and improving the content on the basis of Amazon’s score for product searches and conversion to sale.

In the colleague words

‘A good master template is essential. The instructions for submitting each piece of content to the template are extremely specific so that as little as possible can go wrong. We even include things like the maximum number of characters and a list of words you cannot use according to Amazon’s guidelines.’

Milou van Eeuwijk, Business Engineer at intoAction

Results

Scalability & consistent brand experience

Signify’s content for Amazon is now centrally organised. The main advantage of this is scalability. It makes no difference whether a product is introduced in two, five or fifteen different countries, since the process we have implemented guarantees that the right content is always in the right place. This eases the burden for marketing professionals considerably. Moreover, the streamlining of this process ensures that Signify has a single, consistent, international brand experience on Amazon. Over 800 A+ pages have now been created. Amazon promises a conversion boost of between about 3% and 10% as a consequence of the richer content below the fold on the product pages.

Success stories

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