Most anything on the web these days needs to present as well or better on small screens (mobile) as it does on large (computers, laptops). We’re past the days where developing for mobile was an afterthought, or only for the most advanced sites. In fact, that’s most decidedly been inverted. Mobile is now what we must see to most.
Amazon takes care of this, to a large extent. They prepare and present product listings, adapting them to be viewed either through their app or via mobile browser. But this is an automated adjustment, based on rules applied for all listings, without regard to or oversight of the actual, final results.
This means it’s up to you to check your Amazon listings and optimize them for mobile.
Where They’re Coming From
Nearly three-quarters of all sales made on Amazon come from customers using a mobile device. That’s 75% of all purchases made on a small screen, whether tablet or phone.
Based on this, if anything you’d want to favor mobile when crafting your listing. Makes sense, right?
Yet, because of the way we create our listings, using a laptop or a computer, we design and lay them out using a larger screen as a reference. Despite the fact that most people browse and shop Amazon listings on a small screen, it’s near impossible to effectively create one using small devices. And so we make them on a big screen, even though people shop them on a small one. Seventy-five percent do, anyway.
Again, Amazon converts the listing automatically, but that never quite comes out exactly as we want. As soon as Amazon applies their auto adjustments, we have, effectively, lost control of how our listing presents.
Is That A Problem?
No. It just means you need to test on small screen during the optimization process.
View your listing on a small device as you optimize it. Seems like an easy solution, and it mostly is. If you really want to work it, you can use a few different devices of different screen sizes in your testing, or different operating systems (Android or Apple). Not everything will make a difference, but tailoring your product listing for the best possible presentation across multiple devices puts you that much further ahead.
Feed Your Purpose
Optimizing your product listing for mobile ensures:
- Discoverability
- Conversions
- Customer Experience
As an Amazon seller, these broad objectives summarize your key purpose. That purpose is not only guiding the customer journey, but ensuring it’s a great one. Doing so closes the immediate sale, keeps them coming back, and — a big one — gets them spreading positive word of mouth about you and your product.
A well-crafted product listing aids discoverability, leading potential buyers to your listing when they search. That same well-crafted listing sells them on the product, which leads to conversions, which, if all was about the purchase process was easy, results in a positive customer experience.
Do this for mobile the same way you’d do it for the larger screens.
Optimize For Mobile
As soon as you view an Amazon listing on mobile everything gets smaller. Things get pushed around, truncated, or, in some cases, outright eliminated.
The first thing you’ll notice is that the title gets shorter. In the search results this is necessary, of course, in order to fit, but it’s the first thing people see when doing a search. If you want it to convert you need your product title to be clear in its truncated form.
The best way to do this is to make sure that first bit of your title is exactly what you want your customers to see, and that it communicates the most important, click-getting info about your product. Take a look at the search results for your product on a small screen, then make adjustments to shift your title around, bringing those key points to the front — until it presents exactly the way you want on mobile.
This is a good idea in general, as having the best, most descriptive keywords and info about your product at the beginning of the title is always a smart move.
Images
Same thing with images. Your main image in particular, which will be shown on the search results and be featured as the first image the person sees when they click the search results and go to the listing.
Ideally you wouldn’t have any writing on the main image. If you must, make sure there’s not a lot of it — and that what is there is easy to read without having to enlarge or slide around. The full, main image should be clear and easy to see in one glance, and it should show your product as unambiguously as possible.
Again, this is true in all cases. By tightening these aspects for mobile you are, in fact, making it better everywhere else as well.
Product Description
If you’re using EBC (Enhanced Brand Content) you’ll have images to go with this, so, as with the main image, keep them clear, make them communicate without question, and avoid using text the customer will have to read.
Otherwise the description, with or without EBC, scrolls along per normal, narrowed for the screen in question, and you’ll want to do the same thing here, placing your key points first, intelligently using your target keywords so Amazon indexes for them. The dance, as always, is making the listing read well for the potential buyer — all while making it perform well for the Amazon algorithms and user search terms.
Mobile only adds to these demands.
As for bullet points, the first one or two will be the most crucial — if Amazon even shows the bullet points. They may not. But if they do, they’re very likely to be truncated, so make sure you hit your key points and main benefits — you guessed it — as early as possible. That means in the first bullet point, if at all possible, unspooling the rest from there, in decreasing order of importance.
In some ways optimizing for mobile is almost like crafting an elevator pitch; something you’ve got to get out to your listener as quickly, and effectively, as possible.
No time for dilly-dally.
Life Is A River
Fluid, always flowing. The same is true for your Amazon listing. You don’t need to be tweaking it ad nauseum, but it’s also not static. Take a look at your listing once in a while for these points, and make sure you’re continuing to show the best possible face for your product.
Mobile users are not only searching and shopping from a smaller screen, but because of the very nature of those sorts of devices they’re often at least partly preoccupied when doing so. They’re likely to be out in the world, with distractions, meaning the more effectively you grab their attention and present your wares … the more likely they are to act.
ManageByStats has tools to help optimize your product listings. Check out our software for Amazon sellers on our site:
Optimize for mobile, and reap the rewards of the 75% of all shoppers using those devices to buy on Amazon.
To your success.
Your ManageByStats Team
