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CONFIDENTIALCONFIDENTIAL
AMAZON
BENCHMARKING
REPORT
June 2020
Discover Amazon best practice from our
analysis of 100 consumer brands selling on
the marketplace in Europe
22
About the report
Executive summary P3
Methodology P5
Scoring criteria P6
Ranking: the Top 20 brands P7
Top performers per category P8
Key benchmarks: at a glance P9
The 100 brands we reviewed P12
Best practice examples
Product information P13
Product imagery P19
Brand content P25
Seller proposition & competition P30
Customer service P33
SEO ranking P37
Localisation P39
Top 10 recommendations P42
About Pattern
Where Pattern operates P43
Our Amazon Seller model P44
AMAZON BENCHMARKING REPORT: CONTENTS
This report was researched and compiled by our
European team including Misha Pabari, Hannah
McMullan, Peter Boldt-Christmas and Joanna Perry.
33
AMAZON BENCHMARKING REPORT: EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Thanks for downloading our research into the experience
provided by brands selling on Amazon in the UK and Germany.
We’ve produced this report to highlight key benchmarks for
brands’ Amazon presence; and demonstrate best practice
that ensures Amazon’s customers can find a brand’s products
and be convinced to hit the buy button.
Why we are talking about Amazon
Why have we undertaken this research? Simply, as we sell
products on Amazon, we wanted this information to optimise
the presence of the brands that we sell. We felt that sharing it
would remind many brands who have a direct relationship
with Amazon of how complex a task it is to continually ensure
that even the product listings for their top products are
optimised to maximise conversion.
And what’s our pedigree to define the scoring criteria? Our
parent company Pattern is one of the largest Amazon sellers
in the world, and we represent brands on Amazon as their
authorised seller; delivering a customer experience of the
same quality that the brand would strive for if they were
selling their product to Amazon and managing their presence
on the marketplace through Vendor Central.
We picked brands that we don’t sell, and who are in the main
doing a good job of selling on Amazon. If we included your
brand and it did not appear in the overall top 20, or the top
three for your category, that doesn’t mean you are doing a bad
job. But there’s always room to do better.
The top scoring brand – Arts & Crafts brand Stabilo –
achieved 73% of the total marks available in our scoring
system. The lowest scoring brand achieved only 19%.
Category contrast
The biggest eye-opener for us when we reviewed all of the
data was the difference in performance at a category level. ►
44
AMAZON BENCHMARKING REPORT: EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The Beauty category in particular scored very poorly, with
eight of the 10 beauty brands that we reviewed in the bottom
20 brands overall. The average score for beauty brands was
34%, this compares to an average score of 60% for the top
scoring Personal Electronics category.
While beauty brands generally invest time and money in the
presentation of their brand, Amazon appears to be the one
sales channel that they are not yet fully utilising to highlight
their brand and product messaging.
Vitamins & Supplements was the next lowest scoring category,
with an average score of 44%. The top scoring brand in this
category didn’t make even the overall top 30 brands.
Closing the content creation loop
Few brands were delivering best practice product information
or product imagery for all of their listings. We encourage
brands to work towards continual improvement of product
listings, with a test-and-learn approach to optimisation.
One of the ways this can be achieved is by analysing all
customer reviews and customer questions asked, to look for
mentions of missing or incorrect product details.
However, our research shows that if brands are reading
reviews and questions, they certainly aren’t responding to
them. This is also a missed opportunity to give future
customers confidence that the brand will support them if
there is a problem with their purchase.
Similarly, we found that while most of the brands were selling
at least some of the same top products from Amazon UK on
Amazon in Germany, there was much room for improvement in
their localisation of listings. More brands were paying for
sponsored product listings to boost their discoverability on
Amazon.de than were properly localising their listings.
We hope you find the benchmarks and recommendations in
the next 40 pages of use to optimise your Amazon presence.
55
AMAZON BENCHMARKING REPORT METHODOLOGY
We analysed the presence of 100
consumer brands; taking 10 brands
from 10 categories across the UK and
German instances of Amazon. All of the
brands have products listed for sale
directly by Amazon in the UK.
Our scorecard looked for all the key
elements of listings best practice that
are visible to customers. We analysed
the top three products for each brand;
and then averaged the results for each
criteria based on the three product
scores.
For the localisation elements, each
brand’s score was based on whether the
products were being sold on the German
instance of Amazon, and how well their
product information had been translated
to German.
Products were chosen by searching for
brand terms and picking those which
appeared on the first page in search
results; as these are the products that
customers are most likely to click on
and purchase.
66
SCORING CRITERIA: WHAT WERE WE LOOKING FOR?
During the reviews we were particularly looking for:
• Product information – We checked for relevant, detailed and uniform information on product pages, but also how well product information had been optimised to best-practice standards.
• Product imagery – We assessed whether image stacks adhered to Amazon’s guidelines and added value to the product information on the page.
• Brand content – We judged how well the content on Amazon represents each brand’s story and pedigree.
• Ratings & Reviews – We calculated each brand’s Average Review Rating and evaluated customer service management on listings.
• Seller proposition & competition – We judged brands on their fulfilment offering and the average number of resellers on their listings, as more sellers can be confusing for customers.
• SEO & Keyword Analysis – We researched how prominently each brand appeared in organic search results for its brand term.
• Localisation – We evaluated whether each brand was listing the same products on Amazon.de, and whether product listings were being properly translated for the local market.
77
AMAZON BENCHMARKING REPORT: RANKINGS
Category Brand Score
Arts & Crafts Stabilo 73%
Personal Electronics ghd 72%
Home & Kitchen Joseph Joseph 70%
Electronics Logitech 70%
Baby Nuby 70%
Electronics Libratone 69%
Toys & Games LEGO 68%
Pet Supplies Tractive 67%
Home & Kitchen BRITA 66%
Baby Skip Hop 66%
The top ranking brands in our researchThe brands shown here were the
top 20 best performers of the
100 brands that we reviewed. For
the full list of brands that we
assessed please see page 12.
If your brand was scored as part
of our research please get in
touch and we would be delighted
to share your results with you.
If your brand was not included,
then we may still be able to
review it against our scoring
criteria to help benchmark your
Amazon presence. For all
requests please get in touch at:
Category Brand Score
Baby Snüz 65%
Arts & Crafts Faber-Castell 64%
Sports & Outdoors POLAR 64%
Home & Kitchen Thermos 63%
Arts & Crafts Staedtler 63%
Arts & Crafts Moleskine 63%
Personal Electronics Elvie 63%
Electronics TomTom 63%
Pet Supplies PetSafe 63%
Baby Angelcare 63%
88
AMAZON BENCHMARKING REPORT: RANKINGS BY CATEGORY
Brand Score
Stabilo 73%
Faber-Castell 64%
Staedtler 63%
Moleskine 63%
Brand Score
Nuby 70%
Skip Hop 66%
Snüz 65%
Brand Score
Erborian 54%
Dr.Brandt 42%
Davines 40%
Brand Score
ghd 72%
Elvie 63%
Waterpik 61%
Brand Score
Joseph Joseph 70%
BRITA 66%
Thermos 63%
Arts & Crafts Baby Beauty Electronics
Home & Kitchen Personal Electronics
Brand Score
Logitech 70%
Libratone 69%
TomTom 63%
Brand Score
Tractive 67%
PetSafe 63%
Sure Petcare 62%
Pet Supplies
Brand Score
POLAR 64%
Garmin 60%
Slendertone 58%
Sports & Outdoors
Toys & Games Vitamins & Supplements
Brand Score
Bio-Kult 59%
OptiBac 53%
Viviscal 46%
BetterYou 46%
Brand Score
LEGO 68%
TOMY 57%
Ravensburger 54%
99
100 BRANDS SELLING ON AMAZON: KEY BENCHMARKS
Product
Information
63%had product titles of a
length that is beneficial
for Amazon SEO on all
products
21%kept similar products
rooted under parent ASINs
to enable browsing across
variations
24%provided uniform and
detailed, value adding
information in all product
descriptions
49%added clear, concise and
uniform bullet points to
all of their listings
Brand
Content62%linked to a branded
storefront from all
product listings
56%included A+ content
on all their product
listings
20%of brands had all their
product listings marked
as Amazon’s Choice
1010
100 BRANDS SELLING ON AMAZON: KEY BENCHMARKS
Product Imagery
32%included lifestyle
photographs as part
of their image stacks
for all products
50%used close-up images
to show product
details and features
for all products
12%added simple text to
secondary images for all
products outlining special
features or dimensions
19%included videos
within all image
stacks
54%had Amazon winning
the Buy Box on all 3
of their top products
73%offered Fulfillment by
Amazon for all the
products we assessed
Seller Proposition & Competition
4%of brands had on
average 0-1 sellers
on their top 3
listings
72%of brands had on
average 2-5 sellers
on their top 3
listings
24%of brands had on
average 6 or more
sellers on their top
3 listings
1111
100 BRANDS SELLING ON AMAZON: KEY BENCHMARKS
25%had a third-party
seller listing for their
brand as the top
search result
75%of the brands
ranked first on their
brand term in
organic search
results
2%of brands had all
three products
appear in the Top 50
Amazon Bestsellers
in their category
Search results ranking on the brand term
SEO
Ranking
87%had an average
review rating of 4*
and above on all their
listings
28%replied to customer
questions
9%responded to poor
reviews on their listings
Reviews &
Ratings
74%appeared in all
10 of the top
10 organic
search results
for the brand
21%6-9 listings
5%0-5 listings
1212
100 BRANDS SELLING ON AMAZON: KEY BENCHMARKS
Localisation
36%of brands were selling
all the same products
on Amazon in the UK
and Germany
54%of brands had
sponsored products
on Amazon.de 28%of brands localised all
their product content
to a best-practice
standard
The brands we
reviewed were:
Adaptil
aden + anais
Angelcare
Aveda
Baby Enstein
BaByliss
Bambino Mio
Bare Minerals
Belkin
BetterYou
BioKult
Blendtec
BRITA
Camelbak
Canon
Cat Mate
Cloud Nine
Cole & Mason
Compex
Contigo
Crayola
Davines
Dermalogica
Derwent
Dr. Brandt
Elvie
Erborian
Faber-Castell
Flexi
FOREO
Frontline
FURminator
Garmin
ghd
Gibsons Games
GoPro
Hasbro Gaming
Hornby Hobbies
Hydro Flask
Infantino
Jo Malone
Joseph Joseph
Kerastase
KeySmart
Kiehl's
LEGO
Libratone
Life Extension
Lintbells
Logitech
Lumie
Magnitone
Microplane
Moleskine
Montblanc
Moov
Nathan
NextBase
Nourkrin
Nuby
Nutri Advanced
Olaplex
OptiBac
PetSafe
Plantronics
Playmobil
POLAR
Prismacolor
Pureclinica
Ravensburger
Rehband
Remington
Robert Welch
Royal & Langnickel
Sambro
Schleich
Sennheiser
Skip Hop
Slendertone
Smiggle
Snüz
SodaStream
Solgar
Sonos
Stabilo
Staedtler
Steamery
Sure Petcare
Sweet Dreamers
The Gro Company
Thermos
TomTom
TOMY
Tractive
Ty UK
Virbac
Viviscal
WAHL
Waterpik
XLS Medical
1313
PRODUCT
INFORMATION
1414
WHY PRODUCT INFORMATION MATTERS
Your product content determines placement in search results.
By providing relevant and complete information on product
pages, you can increase product visibility in search results and
sales conversion. Best practice product information helps
customers to find the right product and decide to buy it.
The majority of brands were delivering best practice product
information – including product title, bullet points and product
description on only some of their products. Most brands (63%)
had product titles of a length suitable for Amazon on all
products, but only 3% had an optimal number of bullet points
on all of their products we checked.
Similarly, only 24% provided clear, concise and useful product
descriptions for all products, and no brands had product
descriptions for all products that were of an optimal length.
We also encourage the use of product variations on listings, to
cross-sell and up-sell related products. 21% of brands utilised
best-practice product variations on all listings, and only 25%
made no use of product variations.
Did brands provide useful product descriptions
for their products?
72%Yes, on some
products
24%Yes, on all products
4%
On no products
1515
PRODUCT TITLES
This product title is of a suitable length while being
simple and easy to understand. It also provides
specific model information which is recommended for
certain categories such as Electronics.
1616
PRODUCT DESCRIPTIONS
This is a great example of a product description that is clear,
concise and includes useful information such as special features,
and warranty details.
1717
PRODUCT VARIATIONS
While not relevant for all product listings
or categories, keeping similar products
rooted under parent ASINs to enable
browsing of product variations is
considered best practice. It makes
product discovery easier for customers.
1818
BULLET POINTS
Bullet points should highlight
product features,
advantages and benefits.
In addition, brands should
consider what terms
customers search for and
ensure these are included in
bullet points to assist with
ranking in relevant non-
branded search results.
1919
PRODUCT
IMAGERY
2020
WHY PRODUCT IMAGERY MATTERS
Optimising your images on product listings is crucial to
drive conversion on Amazon. Images display on the
product search page as well as the product listings
page. High-quality, attractive imagery will help new
customers discover your products and allow you to
stand out from the millions of other listings already on
the marketplace.
Only 7% of brands were using the maximum number of
images on all product listings reviewed. However the
majority of brands (64%) were using high quality images
for every shot they had uploaded.
For the other image types, such as pictures with text
and close-up shots, brands were making use of them
for at least some of their top three product pages.
We find product videos aid conversion, and 51% of
brands are using them to help sell some products.
19
32
50
4
12
64
32
39
30
15
49
27
49
29
20
81
39
9
0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%
Video
Lifestyle images
Close-up images
Image badges
Text on images
High quality images
How consistent are brands with their use of
product images and video?
All products Some products No products
2121
CLOSE-UP IMAGERY
Close-up images can help significantly with purchase decision where customers cannot physically
touch or try the products. The examples below show some of the brands that did this well.
2222
LIFESTYLE IMAGERY
Incorporating lifestyle images as part of
your image stack can help to visually
highlight your product’s selling points
and reinforce key brand messaging.
2323
SIMPLE TEXT & BADGING ON SECONDARY IMAGES
Best practice image stacks should include secondary images with simple text or graphics that
detail dimensions and special features. Similarly, adding badging to secondary images allows
brands to highlight awards and accolades won to increase customer confidence in their products.
2424
VIDEO CONTENT
A vivid, concise video
can educate
consumers as it
entertains, proactively
demonstrates the
product in use and
answers their potential
questions. It should
increase the likelihood
that visitors to the
page are converted to
customers.
2525
BRAND CONTENT
2626
WHY BRAND CONTENT MATTERS
Branded storefronts allow you to create a dedicated Amazon
URL for prospective customers to shop from. The multi-page
storefront lets you curate brand-specific content to help
shoppers discover your full product selection. 63% of brands in
our research had a branded storefront.
A+ Content enables brands to describe product features using
enhanced images and text placements, to reinforce their key
messaging. When used effectively, A+ Content helps a brand to
make a stronger first impression; or reinforce its credentials
with consumers who already have awareness of the brand.
56% of brands had A+ Content showing on all of their products
we reviewed. A further 24% had A+ on some of their products,
and only 20% did not employ A+ Content at all.
The Amazon’s Choice badging also provides further legitimacy
to a brand’s product listings, and is given based on a mixture
of popularity, high review rating and a low returns rate. 71% of
brands had this badge on at least one of their top three
products that we reviewed.
20%
27%
24%
29%
Did the brands have Amazon’s Choice badging for any of
the products we reviewed?
Amazon’s Choice
badge on no
products
Amazon’s Choice
badge on all three
products
Amazon’s Choice
badge on one
product
Amazon’s Choice
badge on two
products
2727
BRANDED STOREFRONT
Branded storefronts help shoppers
discover your product portfolio and
related products on Amazon, while also
showcasing your brand story.
2828
A+ CONTENT
High quality premium
A+ content uses
integrated videos and
enhanced visuals to
increase consumer
confidence.
By creating A+ Content,
brands can offer
customers a better
digital online shopping
experience.
2929
AMAZON’S CHOICE
The Amazon’s Choice badge
supports strong brand
messaging and gives customers
more confidence in their
purchase choices.
3030
SELLER
PROPOSITION &
COMPETITION
3131
How many brands had Amazon winning the Buy
Box on their listings?
26%had Amazon winning
the Buy Box on some,
but not all listings
WINNING THE BUY BOX ON AMAZON
Competition is fierce on Amazon, and as all the brands we
reviewed have products that are sold directly by Amazon with
the brand managing the listings, we were keen to see how well
brands were competing against third-party sellers who may
also be listing and selling their products.
The Buy Box on Amazon allows customers to make a quick
purchase without considering who they are buying from.
Although largely down to an algorithm, many factors can
contribute to who wins the Buy Box. 46% of brands had third
parties winning the Buy Box on some of their products.
Fulfilment is one of the most important aspects of Amazon’s
proposition to customers, particularly for Prime members.
Offering Fulfilment by Amazon increases your chances of
winning the Buy Box on listings. For 73% of brands, all of their
top three products were available for Fulfilment by Amazon
(whether Amazon was the seller or not). Not having this
fulfilment option for any of their top three products was only a
problem for 6% of the brands we reviewed.
54%had Amazon
winning the Buy Box
on all 3 listings
20%had Amazon
winning the Buy
Box on no listings
3232
COMPETITION FROM THIRD-PARTY SELLERS
Many brands on Amazon are
competing against resellers
on their bestselling products.
Resellers vary in terms of
pricing, packaging, delivery
costs and times, and warranty
offered; which can be
damaging to your brand
reputation and generate
negative feedback for your
products.
3333
CUSTOMER
SERVICE
PROPOSITION
3434
WHY CUSTOMER SERVICE MATTERS
Good reviews are key to being a reputable seller on Amazon.
Customer reviews and ratings determine where your products
rank on Amazon, and help to increase conversion rates.
Responding to negative reviews on your product listings helps
you to maintain your brand image and keep customer
satisfaction up.
Customer questions help you to understand what your
audience thinks about your product. They allow brands to
review their product listings and see where there may be
important information missing. We recommend that brands
address them rather than leaving other customers or third party
sellers to answer them, who may not give the correct answer.
The majority of brands had poor reviews or a customer question
on at least one of the product pages we analysed. However, the
majority were not addressing poor reviews or replying to
customer questions, reducing the likelihood of visitors to those
pages clicking the buy button.
28
9
64
58
8
33
0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%
Customer Questions
Poor Reviews
How many brands responded?
Responded Didn't Respond Had no questions or poor reviews
501The lowest average number of
reviews was for the Vitamins &
Supplements category
2571The highest average number of
reviews was for the Toys & Games
category
3535
CUSTOMER QUESTIONS & ANSWERS
When answering customer questions on product
listings, it’s important that brands keep their
responses professional to help build confidence
and trust from existing and future customers of
the brand.
3636
RESPONDING TO POOR REVIEWS
Customers often
complain about a specific
issue and will expect
brands to provide a
specific answer.
Providing solutions for the
customer is best practice
when responding to poor
reviews.
3737
SEO RANKING
3838
FINDABILITY AND ACHIEVING PROMINENCE IN SEARCH RESULTS
While high placement in search results on non-branded terms
can be harder to achieve, every brand should be able to
occupy the top spot for an Amazon search on its own brand
term. The optimal result is for a brand to occupy at least the
top 10 organic results on its brand term; as long as its product
range is large enough for this to be possible.
Some 74% all brands were occupying all top 10 organic
positions with their products when we searched on their brand
term. 21% were occupying between six and nine of the top 10
positions; only 5% were occupying five of the top 10 positions
or less. We also checked how prominent third-party sellers
were in top brand search results; they were winning the Buy
Box for the top product in search results for 25% of brands.
In terms of product findability, past sales breeds future
success. Appearing in the Top 100 category Bestseller lists on
Amazon shows both that the product will have sold well in the
past and is likely to continue to rank highly in branded and
non-branded search term results in the future.
How many brands had products in the
Bestseller rankings for their category?
23%
2%
75%of brands had no products
in the Top 100 Bestsellers
of brands had all products
in the Top 50 Bestsellers
of brands had some products
in the Top 100 Bestsellers
3939
LOCALISATION
4040
WHY LOCALISATION MATTERS
Amazon’s dominant position for ecommerce sales in several
markets means that many brands consider the marketplace as
a shortcut to internationalisation. This is particularly true for
Europe where it is possible to list products in one market and
have them sold on all six European instances of Amazon.
Accurately translating all product descriptions for each market,
and ensuring product pages are optimised with localised
keywords, is crucial to ensure those products will rank in
search results and convert.
We also looked at whether brands were boosting their products
in search results with sponsored listings. We were surprised to
see that in many cases brands were paying to sponsor
products so they appeared at the top of search results, but
were not properly localising the product content in their listings;
to maximise the chance of the consumers converting once they
had clicked through to the product page.
Only 28% of brands had localised all product content in the
listings we viewed, but 54% had invested in sponsored listings.
How well did brands localise their product content?
of brands had not
localised the product
content on their top 3
ASINs
28%of brands localised their
product content to best
practice standards
64%of brands’ had
localised product
content that could
be improved
8%
4141
WHAT GOOD LOCALISATION LOOKS LIKE
4242
AMAZON BENCHMARKING REPORT: TOP 10 RECOMMENDATIONS
Based on the findings of our audit we would recommend that all brands selling on Amazon:
• Review their product listings, to ensure they are providing clear, relevant, and detailed product titles, product descriptions and bullet points to maximise visibility in search results and strong conversion rates.
• Implement an ongoing product content optimisation strategy to allow for continual data-driven improvements to be made, and ensure that product content drives sales conversion.
• Add to their image stacks using simple text, lifestyle imagery and badging to further highlight product benefits and attributes, and ensure each image adds value for the customer.
• Consider adding video to at least those products that benefit from being demonstrated in action.
• Align their Amazon brand collateral and messaging with that of other sales channels using A+ content.
• Ensure systems are in place to monitor ratings and reviews, and use the insight generated to improve listings.
• Ensure their Customer Service strategy includes Amazon; so customer questions and negative reviews are promptly dealt with to build trust and protect brand reputation.
• Inspect listings by third-party sellers, to ensure they are not damaging to the brand’s Amazon presence.
• For products being sold on multiple instances of Amazon, ensure that all content is fully localised for the market, including descriptions, bullet points, and A+ Content, particularly where listings are sponsored.
• Consider external support to manage their Amazon presence and maximise marketplace sales growth.
4343
WE ACHIEVE FASTER GROWTH ON AMAZON THROUGH
OUR GLOBAL
REACHGLOBAL
OFFICES
Americas
Lehi, Utah
Europe
London
Munich (2020 opening)
Middle East
Dubai
Asia Pacific
Hong Kong
Guangzhou
Shanghai
Australasia
Sydney
Melbourne
DISTRIBUTION
CENTRES
Kentucky, USA
Utah, USA
Toronto, Canada
Brackley, UK
Venlo, Netherlands
Melbourne, Australia
Third Party Distribution
Dubai, UAE
Hong Kong (Bonded Warehouse)
Guandong Province, China
4444
Thanks for downloading this report. More ecommerce research
and insight can be found at www.practicology.com
Our parent company Pattern is the leading global marketplace
expert, acting as the authorised Amazon seller for more than
70 brands across North America, Mexico, Europe, the Middle
East and Australia. Pattern buys stock from each brand and
then takes care of everything else required to give them a
market-leading presence and successfully sell on Amazon.
Brands we represent on Amazon around the world include:
Coravin, Feetures, ICONIC London, KONG, PMD, Pure
Encapsulations, Skullcandy and Whittard of Chelsea.
For more information on how we could support you in
developing your marketplace strategy, please contact us at
