Selling on Amazon is an amazing way to make money online, but the number one downside to this business model is the lack of brand building. And when I say brand building, I mean developing YOUR brand and not the brand of Amazon.
The alternative of course is to just go and open a Shopify store and build your own brand. But then you're left with another massive issue...
..finding customers and driving traffic to your store!
Not only is this a monumental issue, but it will likely burn a massive hole in your pocket if you're not careful when spending money on something like Facebook Ads.
Zuck says please keep buying FB ads...
So the "built-in" traffic source is one huge reason I love Amazon and the great news is, and the whole reason for this article, is that you can now create whats called an Amazon storefront.
Whilst it's not a total replacement for something like a standalone Shopify website, it is great for brand owners already selling on Amazon. In this article we'll go through everything you need to know when it comes to creating an amazon storefront.
What is An Amazon Storefront?
An Amazon storefront is like your very own mini-store on Amazon. You can setup a navigation bar with links to different product categories and you can also customize the branding with your own logo and banner.
You can see on Reebok's Amazon storefront for example, the top navigation bar from the Amazon site is still visible. This is how any Amazon storefront will appear.
It's important to note that this store will still exist within the Amazon platform and you can't connect a custom domain to your Amazon storefront. You could always setup a domain name with a permanent redirect to your Amazon storefront, but it would serve little purpose other than making a nicer looking URL to put in your emails or on your social media accounts.
On that note, you do get an "amazon.com/storename" URL so it's not too bad, really.
Why Do I Need an Amazon Storefront?
There's a lot of great things about an Amazon storefront, but they certainly aren't for everyone. If you're purely focussed on online arbitrage, then having a storefront isn't for you. But if you want to build more of a long-term brand name then you should seriously consider having one.
Here's the top reasons why you should consider an Amazon storefront:
Build Your Own Brand
If you're wholesaling or private labelling your own products in a particular niche, building your own brand is going to help your business thrive in the long-term. You'll get more return customers and referrals if you offer a great product in addition to having a memorable brand.
It's very hard to do this with just Amazon product listings alone.
Run Traffic Directly to Your Store on Amazon
You can run sponsored display ads directly to your storefront which is a great way try and pinch some traffic from competitors. If you're a fan of advertising on other platforms like Google or Facebook, you can also send traffic to your Amazon storefront from there.
Read The Data with Store Insights
Having an Amazon storefront gives you access to store insights, unlocking valuable data and analytics about your traffic and sales. This information is worth its weight in gold and will help you further optimize your Amazon business.
Requirements for Opening an Amazon Storefront
You don't need to know how to code or be a web designer to build an Amazon storefront, they've made it easy with their drag and drop editor, but there are still some pre-requisites that you need to be aware of.
Let's take a look at them before we dive into the how-to on launching your own storefront on Amazon.
Sign Up to Become an Amazon Seller
This is free to do and whilst it may seem obvious, please do make sure that you are an Amazon seller with an active professional selling account before embarking on your Amazon storefront journey.
Register Your Brand Trademark
This step might be the most tedious however it is a requirement of the next step, Amazon Brand Registry, that your brand has an active registered trademark.
Join the Amazon Brand Registry Program
Once you have your trademark registered, you can apply to Amazon's brand registry program. The whole point of the program is to protect brands and customers from counterfeit products. Whilst it may seem like a lot of hoops to jump through, those that are serious about building a long-term ecommerce brand will reap the benefits of this. Amazon has a lot of information about their brand registry program to help you get started.
Familiarize Yourself with Amazon's Creative Guidelines
Amazon has put together a long list of guidelines that you need to follow when creating your store. Take some time to read Amazon's creative guidelines for storefronts before you start designing. It's quite easy to follow and it will arm you with the knowledge needed to launch smoothly.
Start Designing Your Storefront
You can actually hire a freelancer or agency to do this for you, but it's also quite easy to handle yourself. Amazon has some nice looking templates you can use so I recommend giving it a go yourself before forking out money to someone else. Unless of course you feel that your time is better spent on other areas of your business, and you have the funds to pay for your store to be built!
How to Create an Amazon Storefront
Now that you have a better understanding of Amazon storefronts, the eligibility requirements and how they work, let's go through the steps involved in actually creating one!
Step 1 - Log in to your Seller central account and click stores > manage stores
Step 2 - Click create store. At this point you wont be able to proceed any further if you are not a registered brand. Once you proceed forward from this step, you can choose your store template that you want to work with.
Step 3 - Start building out your store pages. The Amazon storefront editor makes it easy to add pages, but make sure your store is also easy to navigate. Spend some time thinking about how best to arrange your products in a logical fashion that will make the shopping experience as simple as possible.
Step 4 - Optimize your store for mobile. This is a great feature of Amazon storefronts, especially considering how many people shop on their mobile device nowadays. Make sure you don't skip this step otherwise you risk losing out on sales if your storefront is not mobile optimized.
Step 5 - Add your content. Using the content guidelines I previously mentioned, start adding your videos, images and copy to your store. You can always go and change all this up later so don't stress too much if you don't get it all right the first time around.
Step 6 - Make sure you comply with Amazon's store content guidelines and acceptance policies, then hit publish! This will submit for publishing, pending Amazon's approval.
Amazon Storefront Examples
Smart home and lighting company Govee has a great looking store and Amazon has done a case study on how they used an Amazon storefront to enhance the presence of their brand. It is definitely worth checking out to see if you can draw some inspiration from them for your own store.
Here's some other Amazon storefronts that might inspire you:
Pros and Cons of Amazon Storefronts
As we near the end of this article, you're probably aware of the various pros and cons relating to opening your own Amazon storefront but in case you skipped right to the end, here's a quick summary on the good and the bad!
Pros
Cons
Is this the Same as the Amazon Influencer Program?
Well, kinda, but not really.
There's a new wave of influencers that are joining the Amazon Influencer Program which allows you to create an Amazon storefront, but it's not really the same as creating a store for your own brand.
A storefront for Amazon influencers is simply a curated collection of products where you can send customers from a variety of traffic sources.
So in reality, it's more like an Amazon associates/affiliates storefront where influencers can make a small commission by recommending products. They're not actually selling products themselves, they are simply referring customers to products already being sold on Amazon.
In order to qualify for the Amazon influencer program you need to have a decent social following on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, or TikTok. Your application will then be assessed by Amazon to see if you fit their criteria before will be able to create your own influencer storefront.
The Final Word on Amazon Storefronts
There's a clearly defined market of Amazon sellers that will benefit from having an Amazon storefront and in my humble opinion, the pros definitely outweigh the cons.
If you're committed to selling on Amazon and you have a brand that you want to grow, you'd be crazy not to invest a little time into creating a storefront. It's a lot less effort than creating a standalone website, which is also another great idea too, but that's not my area of expertise!
Thanks again for reading and please feel free to share your experiences in the comments below or in my FBA Today Facebook group.
