Badges are one of those features on Amazon that every seller wants to get in on. Which badges should you be focused on though and are they worth the effort?
The answer is yes; badges can help your products stand out; for us, it has always lead to more sales. You don’t need to meet any special requirements either, you just need the right strategic approach.
Here is what you need to know about the Amazon’s Choice vs Best Seller badge this is going to help you decide where to focus your efforts.
What Is the Difference Between Amazon’s Choice and Best Seller?
When we look at Amazons Choice vs Best Seller, the key difference lies in how you achieve the two badges.
In short, one is linked to sales across specific departments and categories, while the other is related to keywords.
What’s more, being a best seller will inevitably help you achieve an Amazon’s Choice badge too.
To better understand this, let me take you through the specifics.
What is Amazon’s Choice?
First introduced in 2015, Amazon’s Choice is a black badge awarded to highly rated, competitively priced products that are ready to ship immediately.
Amazon’s Choice was first developed to assist new Amazon Echo users with product recommendations. Today, the badge is used to make all users aware of top products.
(Source: Niantic Tech)
How is this badge awarded though?
While some people first suggested the badge was awarded by Amazon employees, we now know that this is an automated process that uses keywords and algorithms. This is where a particular strategy comes in but more on that later.
Basically, the more your product is purchased after a customer inputs a specific keyword, the more likely it is to receive an Amazon’s Choice badge.
However, availability, customer ratings, and other variables are also taken into consideration. Unfortunately, Amazon doesn’t disclose exactly how this algorithm works.
Another question I am often asked is; whether Amazon Choice is Prime?
When it comes to awarding this badge, availability is taken into consideration, which is why so many Prime-eligible products tend to have it. This doesn’t mean other products are excluded; it’s just rarer for them to receive this badge.
What is Amazon Best Seller?
Unlike Amazon’s Choice, which takes time to reflect, Amazon Best Sellers are calculated using recent and historical sales, with the calculations updated hourly.
Sellers can achieve a Best Seller badge by selling the greatest number of units in their chosen category over a specific amount of time. Unfortunately, Amazon doesn’t disclose what this time period is.
Every product on Amazon has a Best Seller Rank number – this is what changes hourly based on sales.
(Source: Medium)
Why Best Sellers Are Better Than Amazon’s Choice
In my opinion, Best Seller is easier to understand and customers tend to trust the badge more than Amazon’s Choice.
If a large percentage of people are buying it, it must be good right? This is the power of social proof.
I also find that retaining the Best Seller badge is much easier than an Amazon’s Choice badge because more elements are in your control. All that’s required is to keep selling more than your competitors and you can maintain your top spot.
To do this, you need to know how to find and how to execute on differentiated product ideas.
Most importantly, the Best Seller badge is linked to the entire marketplace, not just specific keywords.
My preference is, of course, just my opinion based on my experience.
For super competitive markets it might be impossible for you to obtain the number 1 spot in the category. In these instances, going after particular keywords (and therefore getting specific Amazon choice badges) might make more sense.
You need to decide which badge is more important to you. In my opinion, you should try and achieve both.
Let’s get talking about some of the strategies you can use to obtain these badges.
How to Get an Amazon’s Choice Badge
There are a few different tactics you can use to increase the chances of getting an Amazon’s Choice badge.
- Relook at Your Keyword Strategy. Since Amazon’s Choice is directly linked to specific keyword searches, revising your keyword strategy should be your top priority. Below you’ll see a video with some tips that will help improve your keyword research.
- Become Prime-Eligible. If you want to really increase your chances of receiving this badge, make sure your products are Prime-eligible. Amazon Choice products are always ready to ship immediately.
- Boost Your Customer Rating. Boosting your customer rating is another way to get noticed by Amazon’s Choice algorithms. To do this, evaluate your customer experience to see where you can make improvements. Don’t forget to focus on platforms outside of Amazon too; social media is a brilliant customer touchpoint that you can take advantage of.
- Generate More Positive Reviews. While we are on the subject of good ratings, find ways to get more customers to leave reviews. If you have an email list in place, make contact regularly, particularly after a customer makes a purchase.
- Use the SFB Strategy. This is a strategy that a lot of sellers use when launching a product. If you use it in the right way, you can build ranking credits towards specific target keywords. SFB stands for search find buy, I’ve put together a walk through guide on this strategy here.
How to Get an Amazon Best Seller Tag
In order to sell more products and increase the chances of your products receiving an Amazon Best Seller tag, I recommend focusing on two things.
- Your Competitors.
Understanding what your competitors are doing right should drive your optimization efforts and generate more sales. From pricing and shipping to keywords and reviews, anything that helps your listings rank higher will boost sales.
Since Best Seller Rank is updated hourly, it helps to focus on getting and keeping the Buy Box if you want to prolong the lifespan of your Best Seller tag.
I suggest watching this video to help you launch and rank products on page one for the long term:
- Promotional Activities
Since the Best Seller badge is based solely on sales numbers, you may want to look at running PPC and email campaigns to boost sales. If you haven’t started building an email list, now is the time to do so.
Promotional activities should not be limited to Amazon either. Having a content and marketing strategy that stems out to social media and other third-party platforms will result in more traffic, greater customer loyalty, and ultimately, more sales.
If you want to dominate on Amazon, you should focus your marketing efforts away from Amazon.
Trust me on that one.
Amazon’s Choice vs Best Seller – Which Badge to Choose?
In the end, focusing more on getting a Best Seller tag will result in more profits.
Not only does the badge appear everywhere, but customers trust it more too. Plus, I find that it is much easier to achieve if you know what your doing when it comes to product research that is.
It’s not that having an Amazon’s Choice badge isn’t beneficial; it’s just too unpredictable.
My suggestion is to focus on achieving a Best Seller tag. The keyword research paired with providing a good customer experience, is going to increase your chances of getting an Amazon’s Choice badge anyway.
More soon.
Tags: Amazon Best Seller, amazon FBA, Amazon's Choice
