How to take on the Giant that is Amazon

1. What Amazon is doing right

It's all about choice. Think about it, in the past, we would visit the biggest Mall we could to do our festive shopping, because this would provide us with the greatest selection and the most likelihood to find whatever it was that we were looking for. That's what Amazon does, they provide choice, and they do it in a quick and convenient way.

That's why Amazon is the first port of call for roughly 55% of online shoppers in the US, and also why Amazon has become only the second company (weeks after Apple) to reach a stock market value of $ 1 trillion.

But, unlike Apple who succeeded with their own brand, Amazon is using your brand to succeed. You wouldn’t spend top dollar on a prime retail property, and then advertise your competitor's product in your shop window would you? No? So why do so many brands do this with their online storefront and brand?

In the example above, not only does the customer never get exposed to your site and what other products you may have associated with your brand, but Amazon highlights similar products from their own brands on your product shelf. They piggyback off of your product.

Amazon sells buyers the magical idea of the "infinite shelf", that they can provide anything that the consumer's heart may desire. They are also touting themselves as "Earth's Most Customer-Centric Company" which is awesome for the buyer. But as a Brand or Seller, this is just one of many reasons that they are dwarfing you and others as the competition.

Here's a solid tip you can apply right now.

Position your website to start taking customers back from the Giants in the Search Channel. You can compete effectively on cost in the search channel by focusing on how over 70% of customers search for your products online. Embrace the Longtail of Search, just like Amazon does along with eBay, Bookings.com and the other giants.

2. A piece of the Trillion $ pie

You don't have to be a giant to get a big bite of the trillion dollar pie. If you take a few leaves out of the Amazon book you can immediately begin to start reaping the benefits of providing your clients with more choice. Remember, more choice and making it easier to make that choice is what better sales are all about.

Show potential customers all the relevant products you have at their point of entry, and you will be more likely to convert, it is as simple as that. Which of these 2 options in Google would you click on if you were searching for “Best Lightweight Foundation”?

81 Products all in One Place in One Click, that’s Choice right and is Relevant, and most importantly is leading a potential customer to My Site First, My Brand First, not my competition.

Here is another example of Choice at the right time that is relevant to what I am searching for and providing me with choice at the same time.

The truth is that you too have choice on your website; and multiple products in the same category that your customers are interested in. The other truth is that 98% of you will continue to land those customers on a generic Single Product Landing Page every time they search for something. Thus providing them with no choice whatsoever, and driving them to Amazon where they do get a choice.

There is not a Single Case Study World Wide that will dispute that relevance of information enhances engagement.

Here's a solid tip you can apply right now.

• Show every visitor to your website, every single product you have available in one click everytime they visit, and make those products relevant to their search.

3. Fruitless searches feed the Amazon machine

If a buyer has a hard time finding exactly what they want on your site, you will lose them to your competition. Actually, it's not only when they have a hard time; you may also lose them if they have an okay time. Convenience is king. It's got to be quick and easy or you've lost the deal.

The Longtail of Search is forecast to be a $1 TRILLION opportunity by 2020, because of things like voice search amongst other factors. Qualified prospects to your site are no longer searching for 1 or 2-word headlines. Customers who are serious about buying, are searching for a product with a very specific goal. You have what they are looking for, you just need to make it available to them when they are looking for it.

The Long Tail of Search is how the majority of your customers search for your products on Google (unless they’ve already gone to Amazon).

Here's a solid tip you can apply right now.

• Stop feeding the Amazon Machine, and take back the Brand Equity that you have worked for.
• Show customers all of your products in 1 click at their point of entry.

4. Don't make Google do your work for you

5. When SEO's say 'no', don't listen

SEO consultants can underestimate what your business is capable of. "You're not ready for that yet", or "It's best you leave that to the bigger eTailers", is terrible advice. There's no reason why you can't do what the bigger eCommerce businesses are doing. In fact, you should be emulating them!

Here's a solid tip you can apply right now.

It’s an SEO jungle out there, and it can be hard for companies to motivate SEO spend if they can’t deliver the data they need to prove a return on investment. It’s the nature of the business to believe that money well-spent must be well motivated by numbers in black and white that can prove this.

Rather than relying on SEO Consultants, eCommerce businesses would do better to treat SEO as any other performance channel and find solutions that supply them with web analytics reporting detailing the ROI of their SEO investment. That way they can measure what the benefits of their spend is and begin to close the huge chasm that has developed between their SEM and SEO investment, without having to spend as much money as they do on SEM.

6. Haggling on price means you've already lost

If you make a few simple changes to your website using software that parades your products in the quickest and most convenient way, you will very quickly see how you can grasp a bigger slice of the trillion dollar pie. If you leave it to Google you will have to resort to competing by price and if you take bad SEO advice you may never come to know your company's potential at all.

Here's a solid tip you can apply right now.

There’s a $1Trillion opportunity in the ‘Longtail of Search’ The Long Tail is how the majority of your customers search for your products.
Google & Amazon threaten your Brand experience - because you let them

BUT, you can gain market share, achieve incremental revenue, and deliver a better brand experience:

• Showcase more related products on Shopping Campaign landing pages
• Fill the ‘Long Tail’ gap on the Text ads slot with inventory-driven text ad automation
• Provide better results for Long tail keyword in Organic Results

Chat with us about getting your piece of the trillion $ pie, by providing your customers with choice, including the best selection of YOUR similar products, in just one click!