10 Amazon Success Hacks to add to your ecommerce Website

If we had to choose one ecommerce website for the rest of our lives, most people would choose Amazon. And there’s absolutely no reason why they shouldn’t. Amazon has it all, after all - from clothing, kitchen and home products, and stationery to mobile phones, gardening equipment, watches, and perfumes.

From an advanced search box to endless product listings, there are many things that have made Amazon a household name across the globe. According to recent data, the annual net sales value of Amazon in 2019 was 280.5 billion USD (Source). Amazon is one of the most successful ecommerce marketplaces in the world and that makes it the perfect model for building a multi vendor online ecommerce store.

Amazon is smart, and if you’re looking for ideas on how to build an Amazon-like store, you’ve come to the right place.Though the list is non exhaustive,

we have mentioned the top Amazon success hacks that you can add to your ecommerce marketplace.

1.Elaborate Product Descriptions

One thing that distinguishes Amazon from other marketplaces in the world is the transparency it offers to the customers in regard to the products listed on it. Each product sold on Amazon has elaborate details like contents, dimensions, images, uses, etc. listed on it.

Did you know that Amazon has certain rules for maintaining a standard and uniformity in the product listings across all seller stores?Here is an overview:

• Title:

Include the brand name, product name, and the distinguishing feature. Inserting a keyword would be helpful. The character count should be 150-250 characters.

• Product details (in detail):

Buying products from an ecommerce website does not offer the touch-and-feel capability that physical purchasing offers. This is what calls for product details that explain everything about the product from size, material, and colour to dimensions, applications, etc.

• Images:

One thing that Amazon does admirably is uploading the product images. The set of images used on this platform are clear, detailed, and uncluttered. Amazon requires that the first image only contain the product against a white background (without accessories). The following images may include shots of the product from different angles, labels or infographics, etc. Ecommerce websites that upload clear and descriptive images attract more orders than ones with blurred and inadequate pictures.

• Q&As:

These provide important details to the buyers about the products. The seller and other users are free to answer any questions that have been asked.

StoreHippo is an ecommerce platform that can help you build an Amazon-like ecommerce marketplace. Using it, you can add plenty of product details including SEO-friendly title, description, images, and much more and make sure your customers are well-informed.

2. Brand Store

Amazon allows its sellers to create a multi-page brand store on the marketplace to create a brand portfolio and promote their brand. Here, the sellers may create separate pages for separate categories of products and add images, text or videos.

StoreHippo’s ecommerce platform helps in building multi-store marketplaces. The admin can categorize the stores as per different product categories, demographics, or any other criterion that meets their business requirements.

3. Payments

Imagine building a new online store, listing a variety of products, promoting it, and when it finally starts getting customers, imagine them being unable to make a purchase because the payment page kept getting timed out.

You wouldn’t want payments on your store to get stuck, right? That is why you must follow Amazon in managing payments. Amazon supports a huge number of payment gateways and platforms such as credit card, debit card, internet banking, UPI, and even Pay on Delivery. Moreover, it has its own payment gateway called Amazon Pay. It is an online wallet cum payment service by Amazon using which one can pay on Amazon as well as its partner stores and merchants. 

StoreHippo allows you to add a store wallet and multiple other payment options on your ecommerce marketplace to enable seamless transactions.

4. Amazon Prime

A lot of ecommerce marketplace websites offer free delivery on taking a membership or fulfilling a certain condition, but do you know what makes Amazon different? It is the fact that their membership deal is more than reasonable, and that’s probably why there are 150 million USD(source) Amazon Prime subscribers across the world.  

Amazon Prime is a subscription service that offers the users not just free shipping, but also faster delivery, early access to deals and sales, ad-free music on Amazon music, video streaming on Prime Video, exclusive deals, and much more.

If you’re planning to start an ecommerce website, you may take inspiration from Amazon and offer your customers a deal they cannot refuse, such as free shipping, cashback on making purchases of a certain amount, free gifts on completing a particular number of orders, etc.

StoreHippo lets you add offers, discounts, and deals for your customers on your ecommerce marketplace. Use this feature and attract more and more customers to your store. 

5. Fulfilled by Amazon (and Other Shipping Options)

Amazon offers three shipping options for its sellers. You can choose either of them according to your preferences.

• Fulfilled by Amazon:

If you opt for this, Amazon will store, pack, and deliver your products.

• Easy Ship:

If you opt for this, you will have to store and pack the products, and Amazon will pick it from you and deliver it to the customer.

• Self Ship:

If you opt for this, you will be solely responsible for storing, packing, and delivering the products. This is a useful option for local sellers and small businesses who are planning to build an online store.

StoreHippo offers ecommerce solutions where you will never run out of shipping options. It comes integrated with its own shipping partner, ShipKaro, and lets you choose the right method of shipping for you.

6. Buy at Rs ___ from Other Sellers (Vendor Comparison)

Customers love negotiating and it is imperative that if two sellers are selling the same product, they would compare them and choose the better one.

Amazon makes it easy for the buyers to do that. How so? Well, it does the comparison automatically and presents it in front of them. The buyers can compare the sellers on price, delivery, Prime or non-Prime, etc. and then make a choice.

Do you know what will make it easy for you to offer the same to your customers? StoreHippo. Yes, it offers the vendor comparison feature to help your customers compare and choose.

7. Lightning Deal (Flash Sales)

Buyers all over India have made great purchases during Amazon’s Lightning Deal. It is a form of flash sale in which different products are sold at discounted prices for a short duration of time.  

Flash sales are useful for ecommerce websites in establishing a sense of urgency and exclusivity in the minds of the users. As a result, they feel compelled to make the purchase at the instant rather than later. This helps the seller increase sales by offering small discounts and the buyer save bucks. Win-win for both!

If you are convinced that flash sales are great, then StoreHippo is the right match for you! Use this ecommerce platform if you plan on launching sales and offers from time to time, and become a favourite among customers.

8. Frequently Bought Together (Recommendations)

The key to keeping your customer happy is knowing them well. Amazon uses plenty of data and technology to make product recommendations to its customers. 

While making a purchase on Amazon, you must have noticed the message “Customers who bought this also viewed….” or “Frequently bought together”. Amazon uses different algorithms to recommend products you would be interested in.

Recommendations are a powerful tool to attract customer interest, and StoreHippo gives you that power. It uses history, trends, and other data to offer suitable recommendations to the customers.

9. Abandoned Cart Emails

A lot of the times, buyers add products to the cart, but don’t complete the purchase for different reasons such as inadequate payment options, high shipping fee or taxes, complicated checkout process, having to create an account, being unable to apply coupons, or technical glitches in the ecommerce website. Sometimes, users get busy and simply forget about the cart at all.

It’s not easy to guess the exact reason why a customer abandoned a purchase. But there’s no harm in asking, right?

Amazon uses abandoned cart emails to troubleshoot problems and recover customers who have left the store mid-purchase. You can use the same technique to understand the reason behind cart abandonment and bring back your customers by solving their problems.

When you build a store on StoreHippo, you wouldn’t have to worry about abandoned carts, as it offers features that can help you compel your customers to complete their purchase, from emails to advertisements.

10. Reviews & Ratings

How do you choose a product online? Don’t you look at the ratings and reviews before making a purchase? Amazon understands this and gracefully wins over other ecommerce websites when it comes to reviews and ratings.

• Rating -

Amazon uses a detailed algorithm to rate each product on a scale of 1-5. Generally, products with ratings are more trusted than those without. Moreover, products with 4 or 4.5 ratings perform significantly better than those with a 3 or 3.5 rating.

• Reviews -

Amazon helps the customers make informed choices by providing them with product reviews that are shared by people who have already used those products. Users can sort the reviews by ‘top reviews’ or ‘most recent’.

2 more features that you could refer to when building your online store are: 

• Best-selling products -

This batch indicates the hot selling products in different categories, another label that helps customers make informed choices.

• Amazon’s Choice -

While shopping on Amazon, do you trust products with the label ‘Amazon’s Choice’? We do. Amazon combines different data to recommend certain products in most categories.

StoreHippo allows you to add ratings and reviews to the product listings, helping customers make informed choices. Moreover, it uses an algorithm to make suitable product recommendations to the customers.

11. Subscribe & Save

How often do you buy something from Amazon and it shows “Subscribe & Save”? You would find this offer on many consumables that users are likely to buy regularly such as ketchups, face washes, detergents, mosquito repellents, etc.

For buyers, it is a great option to save money on products that they regularly order. For the seller, it is a great technique to retain customers. For those who are planning to build an online store, this could be a useful hack, especially in the initial days to ensure customer loyalty for the next few months. 

By using StoreHippo as your ecommerce platform, you can add a similar feature to offer your customers regular discounts and ensure their loyalty. 

12.  Emails:

Communication is important, and from the other side of the web, it’s done best in written. And what’s better to communicate with your customers than emails? This is why Amazon sends a welcome email when you sign up, a shipping confirmation email to let you know that your order is on the way, an email invite for an upcoming sale, a product review email some time after the order is delivered….. you get the idea. In fact, if you haven’t completed your purchase and left items in your cart, Amazon will send you a follow up/reminder email even in that case.

By maintaining regular communication with the consumers, Amazon gains customer trust and attracts higher customer participation. By reminding customers of the items pending in the cart, it urges them to complete their purchase.

These hacks can be used by any ecommerce website to gain multiple benefits; all they need to do is choose a suitable ecommerce platform that allows them to send automatic emails as and when required. StoreHippo supports integrations with a number of SMS and email providers to help you communicate with your customers better.

Conclusion

Amazon is great, but even Amazon needs improvement in some areas. Can you point out anything? For us, we feel it could build an easier-to-use wishlist. However, if you are planning to build an online store on StoreHippo, you need not worry about that. StoreHippo is a SaaS-based ecommerce platform that offers turnkey solutions to build your store from scratch, and expand it as your business grows. The marketplaces built on this platform are scalable, customizable, and deliver high performance. Don’t believe us? Click here and try it for yourself.