
Amazon’s Choice has been part of the greatest online marketplace of all time for 5 years. But what is the Amazon Choice badge and how does it affect you, as a third-party seller? We bring you a list of eligibility criteria for Amazon’s Choice and a few handy tools and tips in this latest SellerEngine blog post.
There’s more to Amazon’s Choice than badges and Alexa voice orders. In the years to come, understanding the impact of Amazon’s Choice could change a seller’s fortunes. Let’s take a look at what it means and how you can obtain the benefits of listing a product hand-picked by Amazon.
What is Amazon Choice?
Amazon’s Choice is a classification given by Amazon to listings that best fit a buyer’s search query, based on a series of algorithms. It’s displayed as a black banner with white and orange lettering that reads “Amazon’s Choice”. It’s shown on the search result page’s featured listing carousel, but note that not all search results pages have one.
Sellers call it the “Amazon’s Choice badge”. It serves as an incentive for buyers because it’s a token of Amazon’s endorsement, which carries a lot of clout. After Sponsored ads, it’s the first offer people see when they look something up on any Amazon venue using the default “Featured” sorting.

Fig. 1. Amazon.com search results and Amazon’s Choice
| Note: The first offer shown above currently benefits from both the Amazon’s Choice badge and a Sponsored ProductsPay-Per-Click (PPC) ad platform for Amaz… More ad. So, this listing will only lose its place in the carousel when the campaignSellers and vendors have a variety of ad… More ends and the badge is taken away. At that point, it will compete with hundreds of similar, non-featured items. |
The Amazons Choice badge is also displayed on the Amazon app. As above, it’s shown on the “Featured” search results page, under Sponsored listings and above non-featured listings. As you can see below, there’s a brief delay between the time a product runs out of stock and the time the badge is taken away.

Fig. 2. Amazon app search results and Amazon’s Choice
The badge also appears on the product detail page. So, when buyers click on a search result and try to find out more about this product or compare it with similar offers, they are inescapably reminded of Amazon’s recommendation. But what’s this badge got to do with a buyer’s decision? More than you’d think.

Fig. 3. Amazon.com product page and Amazon’s Choice badge
Amazon’s Choice and Voice Shopping
According to the Huffington Post, Amazon launched this badge in 2015. The idea was to let Alexa buy things on behalf of its owner from Amazon. But not just reorder things they’d already bought before on the website. No, the point was to let Alexa buy new stuff, without a purchase history.

So, how does the badge play into it? As seen on the official Alexa Voice Shopping FAQ section, Amazon’s Choice also happens to be Alexa’s first choice. But only if its owner never bought that particular item before on Amazon, or the one they bought is no longer available with a Prime offer.
Since people often impulse buy and new products are listed every day, Alexa often ends up picking the Amazon’s Choice badge. So, if you can live with Amazon’s free return policy for non-digital Alexa Voice purchases, you should do your best to earn the badge. Especially if you sell newly listed, non-essential products.
After all, voice shopping is bound to grow due to the Voice Interoperability Initiative. OC&C Strategy Consultants say voice shopping is “the next disruptive force in retail”. And according to Statista, 3 out of 4 households will own a smart speaker by 2025, many of which will probably be Alexa enabled.
But it’s not just about being featured in search results or being Alexa’s top pick. Amazon’s Choice is also the go-to for the Gift Finder and other official holiday guides. So, if you’re the Brand Owner or a seller with few competitors, this badge can boost your holiday sales too.
3 Things You Should Know About Amazon’s Choice
- It’s keyword dependent. For instance, when you look up lava rock steak, lava rock stone, and lava rock oven on Amazon.com, you’re always shown the product in Fig. 1,2,3 on the first results page. But this product won’t always be Amazon’s Choice for your specific search phrase.
- It’s only available for in-stock Prime eligible offers. This doesn’t mean that the buyer will always end up ordering a Prime item, with or without the Buy BoxThis refers to the situation where a sel… More. But it goes to show that one FBA unit alone (even if it’s a competitors) can affect the badge’s continuity.
- Unlike the Best-sellers badge, you don’t need massive sales volume and velocity to qualify. But you should do your best to make sure your product attracts new Prime buyers who trust Amazon’s recommendations and have little time to spend browsing and comparing offers.
How to Get the Amazon’s Choice Badge
7 Factors Affecting Amazon’s Choice Eligibility
You can’t just enable the badge. You can’t buy your way into Amazon’s good graces. And when it comes to badge eligibility, Amazon keeps its cards close to its chest. This badge is especially elusive, because it’s given to a product listing, not to any particular seller. So, you can’t link it to seller performanceA measure of how well Amazon sellers are… More.
But here’s what you can link it to:
- Prime eligibility.
- Stock levels.
- Availability to ship.
- Low return rate.
- Popularity & sales.
- Great product reviews.
- Competitive price.
7 Tips for Earning the Amazon’s Choice Badge
1. Optimize Your Listings
To get buyers to click on your product, you want to make a great first impression because the competition is fierce. So, the images and product information you share must be appealing as well as compliant with Amazon’s listing rules. Here are a few tips on optimization for product images, titles, and bullet points.
2. Refresh Your Keywords
Your product description, bullet points, and title must be easy to read and rich in keywords. But you should also work on the keywords that users can’t see. Access the Keywords tab from the “Edit Product Info” screen in Seller Central, and enter your backend keywords in a logical order and with single spaces.
Make sure that there are no repetitions or duplicates, no brand names or ASINs, no stop words (e.g. an, by, such), and no typos (unless you’re doing it on purpose because the product is often misspelled). Keyword stuffing is another big no-no since buyers usually go for short phrases when they look up items.
3. Improve Organic Sales
Easier said than done. But there are ways to boost sales on Amazon without advertising or dishing out vouchers and coupons. You could try boosting your product ratings or winning the Buy Box more often. Brush up on Buy Box rotation and repricing tips with a glance at our Amazon Seller Strategies post.
4. Reprice Intelligently
To keep prices as low as possible without losing money, while also winning and keeping the Buy Box, you should use Sellery , our real-time repricer. In our post titled How to Win the Amazon Buy Box Using Sellery’s Smartlists, we show you how to compete with top sellers, Brand Owners, and price gougers.
5. Advertise to Boost Visibility
There are several ways to advertise on Amazon, and we talk about them in more detail in our Amazon PPC post. Third-party sellers usually opt for Sponsored Product campaigns and bid on high-velocity keywords. But bear in mind that these ads only go live when you own the Buy Box.
6. Keep An Eye on Stock Levels
It only takes Amazon a few minutes to pass the badge onto a different product if stock levels plummet. So, if you have the tech and you’re keeping an eye on a competing item’s stock levels, you can swoop in and earn yourself the badge just by having a decent chunk of Prime-eligible inventory on hand.
7. Use FBA as Backup
Prime shipping is an important factor in Amazon’s decision. To make sure that you offer Prime shipping and stay eligible for the badge for as long as possible, split your inventory between FBA and MFN, and charge a bit more for the first.
Alexa shoppers will go straight for the Prime offer. But other buyers will likely choose MFN offers instead. As long as you always have at least 1 FBA unit in stock, you tick the ‘availability’ box, as far as badge eligibility is concerned.
That brings us to the end of today’s post. We leave you with a reminder that the benefits of the Amazon’s Choice badge are hard to quantify because it passes on quickly from one product to the next. But sellers would be wrong to underestimate the importance of Amazon’s Choice Badge this holiday season and beyond.
Now that you know what Amazon’s Choice Badge is – and what it isn’t-, what better way to put what you’ve learned into practice than with Sellery? It’s the one tool that lets you monitor and take control of your stock levels, price, and Buy Box eligibility for all your items, be they Used or New, FBA or MFN.

Melanie takes an active interest in all things Amazon. She keeps an eye on the latest developments and keeps Amazon sellers up to speed.