Editor’s Note: Originally published on May 7, 2019, updated on July 6, 2023.
Marketing on Amazon – art form or lost cause? We see good things on the horizon for sellers who want to know their target customer on Amazon. Here’s how Data Analytics has changed the way you see your Amazon customer base.
We’ve all heard of Amazon’s founding principle: customer obsession. With hundreds of millions of customers world-wide, it’s clear this obsession is paying off for Amazon. But what about merchants? How does marketing on Amazon work for them?
Amazon used data anonymization from the get-go, keeping buyer emails and other information private. Nowadays, even phone numbers go through Amazon’s encryption system. So, there’s no way for sellers to promote their services to buyers, let alone build an Amazon customer base.
How do sellers find their target customer on Amazon, then? That’s a very good question. Well, until 2019, there was no clear answer. Sellers kept a record of their product reviews, feedbackA performance rating on a scale of 1 to … More, and buyer and recipient details to get an idea of the kind of people that bought from them.
So, competing on Amazon was tough. There was no way to reverse-engineer the platform for a glimpse of your customer base. But all that changed with Brand Analytics. As a seller today, all you need to find your target customer on Amazon is a registered brand.
The Advent of Brand Analytics
Signing up for Brand Registry on Amazon comes with a few perks. One of them is Brand Analytics. Up until 2019, it only came with a few sales and traffic insights useful in forecasting. Then the Consumer Behavior Dashboard featured 3 useful reports: Amazon Search Terms, Demographics, and Item Comparison.
But over the years, it has come to include 6 major reports. They can help you understand aspects you can address about the way your product is discovered, how it’s purchased, and why a buyer might decide to buy a different product instead.
The Perks of Brand Analytics
These 6 Brand Analytics reports cover the full gamut of buyer behavior and offer valuable insights at the inventory level as well as the ASIN level. To learn more about any one of the 6 reports described below, click on the link and watch the dedicated YouTube tutorial from Amazon Seller University:
- Top Search Terms. Offering visibility into your buyers’ most sought-after keywords and the most clicked items, brands, and categories, this report can help you tweak your keywords and descriptions and find advertisingAdvertising is a means of communication … More opportunities that align with new purchasing trends.
- Market Basket Analysis. In this report, you’ll see which other 3 items buyers purchase alongside your product. Seeing what other products your customers buy gives you an indication of your bundling and cross-selling opportunities.
- Repeat Purchase Behavior. This report shows all orders placed versus orders placed by unique customers. It shows how often customers place a repeat order.
- Demographics. Showcasing sales by customer age, income, education, marital status, and gender, this report reveals your brand’s market segments. Sales are broken down into six age groups and several income brackets, offering much-needed insight into your Amazon customer base.
- Search Catalog Performance. In this report, you’ll see metrics for buyer activities within the shopping funnel. This includes impressions, clicks, cart ads, and purchases for your brand. It reveals how buyers interact with your products after a search and when they choose to abandon the cart, as well as any gaps in discoverability and conversion.
- Search Query Performance. To see how buyers search for your brand specifically, you can use this report. It comes with the same metrics as above, as well as query volume data for your brand. This can point you to new ideas for expanding your product range.
Bearing in mind that this information used to only be available to vendors for a fee, these insights into buyer behavior are a game-changer. Needless to say, it’s important to have a visual representation of competing products, search terms, and target customers on Amazon with these tell-all, go-to reports.
The Pros and Cons of Data Analytics
This data can inform buying and product development decisions. It can help you tweak descriptions and keywords to appeal to your Amazon customer base. Also, knowing your target customer on Amazon can help focus your resources on other platforms.
But don’t lose sight of the fact that there are countless companies mining search term data and investing large amounts of money to promote their items on Amazon. These reports may not be enough to help Private LabelThis is what you call products manufactu… More sellers set themselves apart as they compete with major brands.
Finally, bear in mind that this is the same information Amazon uses to develop its own brands. When you register your brand and request access to Brand Analytics (if necessary), you have the potential for growth, but you also hand over your sales and customer data to Amazon.
There’s much more you could do to find your target customer and new growth opportunities on Amazon. If you have techniques of your own that you’d like to share with our readers, we’d love to hear them. Follow our blog for more news, guest posts, forecasts, opinions, and tips for Amazon sellers.
Melanie takes an active interest in all things Amazon. She keeps an eye on the latest developments and keeps Amazon sellers up to speed.
