In this Amazon storefront blog we’ll share:
- What is it?
- Which features typically appear?
- Differences between mobile and desktop views
- How brands can appear on the storefront
What is the Amazon Storefront?
The Amazon storefront is the main home page for Amazon shopping. The URL for this is different for each territory (eg amazon.co.uk, amazon.fr, amazon.com etc). Most Amazon shopping journeys start here. As Amazon are customer-obsessed, you can rest assured that they have made incredibly careful choices about their home page.
At the top of the page is the search bar, together with the Rufus icon. These are the start point for shopping. Whether you choose to enter a search term in the bar, or click into Rufus to start a conversation there, these are the entry points to specific product discovery. However, there are plenty of other elements to the Amazon storefront besides these direct shopping interactions.
Features of the Amazon Storefront
The storefronts tend to feature both ‘broadcast’ information that they want all shoppers to be aware of, and tailored messaging for each individual shopper. A quick viewing of the videos below shows that you are likely to see broadcast messaging that covers promotional events, Prime video entertainment launches, advertising for the latest Amazon devices and more besides.
Personalised messaging tends to centre on product and categories you’ve previously browsed or shopped or deals most likely to interest you. They also suggest repeat purchasing.
Mobile
The Amazon home page environment is much prettier on mobile than it is on desktop. There is a top row scrolling section containing tailored product and category information and Amazon brand messaging. This is laid out in a style similar to the brand stories on product detail pages. Each ‘card’ has a different theme and showcases different individual products.
Underneath the top scrolling section are other sections that are more individually tailored. For example, there are tiles for ‘Keep shopping for…’ showing products you have browsed but not purchased, or ‘Buy it again’ showing consumables you have purchaed recently.
Desktop
The desktop view has a scrolling top banner to deliver Amazon messaging about Prime shows, devices, promotions etc. Signposting for marquee/tentpole events is prominent and this is often the first place you can find date confirmation for these events. Underneath, you will find personalised messaging about products to re-purchase or reconsider in more basic white boxes as per the mobile view in the lower section of the page.
How Brands can appear on the Amazon Storefront
There are two key ways in which brands can appear on the Amazon storefront.
- As part of the personalised recommendations
- Within a Home Page ad unit
Personalised Recommendations
Being present in the personalised recommendations on the Amazon storefront is one of the benefits of browsing or a first purchase. And these behaviours often take place during the larger promotional events such as Prime Day and Black Friday. Amazon home page presence is one of the reasons why participation is a strong growth lever if you are able to engage with these promotional periods. Discounts, especially discounts combined with advertising, can improve your discoverability, even temporarily. But the impact of those discounts is to increase your product detail page traffic as well as discounted purchases. Amazon will then take care of the heavy lifting for you by reminding shoppers that they recently browsed your product detail page or bought your product. On mobile, your previous purchases also appear prominently in search results for related keywords, giving shoppers a reminder that lasts forever.
Advertising Placements
Running either DSP or Amazon Sponsored Display ads (also known as Amazon display ads) may enable your ads to show on the Amazon home page. All targeting options for these ads aside from contextual targeting will have the potential to show up on the Amazon storefront. The most common involve re-targeting previous browsing and purchasing behaviour (either your own products or competitor brands). However, lifestyle and in market targeting can also show up here. Amazon will be looking for the shoppers who fall into these targeting pools and will take any opportunity to serve your ad to them, including home page placements. There are no guarantees about the % of homepage placements you will secure, but recent DSP campaigns have seen up to 40% of their amazon.co.uk placements served on the Amazon storefront.
If you want to achieve guaranteed storefront placements with your Amazon advertising, the best option is to work with your agency and your Amazon Advertising Executive to secure a tailored home page package. There was mention at Amazon unBoxed in Nashville of a new Homepage Heroes package, which would enable some share of voice packages to be purchased on a self serve basis. However, this doesn’t seem to have materialised yet. For now, Ad Execs still have access to this inventory.
Conclusion
Your MinsterFB team are highly experienced in leveraging high traffic promotional events, Sponsored Ads and DSP advertising to maximise your visibility on the Amazon home page. If this is something you would like to pursue, please get in touch!