Boost Conversions while Reducing Returns: A Guide to Amazon EBCs

According to the National Retail Federation, nearly 21% of items bought online in 2021 were returned by customers. As a result, Amazon, a mammoth logistics and E-commerce company, also faced a staggering amount of refunds, although they are yet to reveal the exact figures.

This turn of events has proven to be alarming not only for Amazon but also for its sellers. There are numerous reasons for these returns ranging from poor quality of the products, less or no utility, or a failure to explain the product’s capabilities and use to the customer.

However, where there’s a will, there’s a way…

Amazon Enhanced Brand Content, also known as A+ Content since 2019, is a tool that enables sellers to provide more details of their products through visuals and other elements instead of plain text describing a product’s salient features.

This tool is available to Brand Registered sellers on Amazon and sellers in one of Amazon’s Seller Programs (eg. Amazon Exclusives) to further increase their brand awareness and also give them a platform to boost their conversions.

Through vivid imagery touching on a lot more features of the product than listing images allow for, an optimized Amazon EBC design gives sellers greater ground to convince and convert customers, with the added benefit of lessening the chances of negative reviews and the problem at hand: Returns.

Adding this converting juggernaut to your listing is pretty simple. Find the ‘A+ Content Manager’ under the Advertising tab on your Seller or Vendor Central account. From there, click on ‘Start creating A+ Content’ after which you can start creating your Amazon EBC.

You are offered 5 pre-designed Amazon EBC templates and an option to create a custom template. Choose or create a template and start working on the modules of your EBC.

Modules consist of images—lifestyle or infographics— along with keywords and a variety of content like Comparison Charts and How-to guides. The objective is to educate the customer about your product and inform them of your brand.

The ability to add video and interactive content to your Amazon EBC is a feature of the Premium A+ Content tool which is an invite-only paid feature costing vendors up to thousands of dollars. A+ Content on the other hand is free to use for both sellers and vendors (as of the time of writing) and is a great tool on its own to drive conversions, albeit without videos.

Amazon does not index keywords used in your EBC for its ranking and search results. However, these keywords are indexed by Google and can contribute to driving traffic through Google’s SERP. Increased conversions can affect your ranking on Amazon positively, and they are one of the benefits of Amazon EBC.

The Amazon marketplace is a highly competitive space where products that win the sale require a lot of work to be put into their presentation to buyers. EBCs on Amazon help you to:

Drive greater conversions: Amazon EBC helps you seal the deal by explaining your product with greater clarity and demonstrating its Unique Value Proposition. Moreover, your customer can find answers to some common queries about the product as well as build trust in your brand. This trust can lead to reoccurring purchases from a single customer on other products of your brand too.

Decrease Negative reviews: Through an Amazon EBC, you tell your customer exactly what they are paying for. This leaves very little room for disappointment and your buyer is left satisfied with their purchase, tempting some to even leave positive reviews.

Lower Return Rates: Tying in with positive reviews, buyers also do not feel the need to return your product since they have exactly what they decided to purchase after seeing your listing.

Make your ad spend count with an increased ROI: A convincing EBC can really make your PPC campaigns shine and get you a faster ROI. As we established before, conversions are inevitable with a highly optimized EBC. To ensure optimal optimization of your EBC, you can avail an EBC design service that can elevate your product’s USPs through different creative facets of an EBC.

It can be deduced that having an EBC is pretty beneficial for sellers & vendors alike. We have already gone over how to create an EBC and the primary components of an EBC, so let’s look at what you should and shouldn't include in your EBCs.

Should Include:

• A brief introduction to your Brand
• Attractive Images with a clear purpose that demands attention and retains it
• Feature infographics that rely on pictorial representations rather than text
• Detailed solutions relevant to customer pain points
• A graphic instruction image if it applies to your product
• Comparison Charts with other products of your own brand

Shouldn’t Include:

• Personal or company contact information
• Promotional offers or pricing
• Comparison or mention of competitor products or brands
• Product reviews from Amazon or any other site
• Redirects to Amazon or any other site through links or text
• Any kind of Guarantees/Warranties
• Anything else that violates Amazon’s Guidelines

Let’s say you have been in Amazon’s good books and have created a captivating EBC. A thought might arise in your head…

When do I start seeing results?
Results will be evident as you look at your conversion rate after your EBC goes live, but what differentiates a positive result from a negative one is the type of content you have used in your EBC. Use content that you know works on Amazon, and you may end up seeing a positive response to this additional piece of content.

So, to sum it up

Amazon EBC Content is beneficial if done right, and doing it right can be challenging for sellers and vendors. Once they do figure it out in their respective markets, they can expect greater conversions, higher customer satisfaction, and elevated brand awareness. It’s imperative to stay up to date with market best practices, and you can rely on me for that. Until next time, see ya!