The Pet Supplies category on Amazon has seen immense growth in recent years, increasing by 30% year-on-year to reach an estimated value of $600 million in sales in the USA.
Our latest benchmarking report analysed the presence of 100 consumer brands from 10 categories, including the Pet Supplies category, across the UK and German instances of Amazon. Below we share some insight into the customer experience provided by Pet brands on the marketplace.
Reinforcing your brand pedigree is key
The Pet Supplies category on Amazon is larger and more diverse than ever, so standing out amongst competitors should be a top priority for brands. A simple, yet effective way to do this is by reinforcing your brand pedigree through product imagery and branded content.
Your product imagery should look to add value to your written product content, highlighting special features to increase your brand’s position in category rankings as well as the click-through rate to the product pages. That said, our researchers found that brands in the Pet Supplies category on Amazon scored poorly on their product imagery – with only 40% using close-up images on all listings and only 20% including lifestyle imagery as part of their image stacks.
Similarly, for brands in the Pet Supplies category, a branded storefront allows you to create a dedicated Amazon URL for prospective customers to shop from, plus lets you curate brand-specific content to help shoppers discover your full product selection. In addition, investing in A+ content can help to strengthen your credentials with customers who already have awareness of the brand.
Competing against resellers in the Pet Supplies category on Amazon
Brands in the Pet Supplies category tend to face significant competition from unauthorised third-party sellers on their top product listings on Amazon. Results from our report showed that 80% of brands in the category had on average six or more sellers on their top three product listings and the remaining 20% of brands had on average between two and five sellers on their top listings.
To add to this, half of the brands we reviewed in the Pet Supplies category were struggling to win the Buy Box for their top products. The Buy Box on Amazon allows customers to make a quick purchase without considering who they are buying from.
With this in mind, it’s vital that brands selling on Amazon inspect listings being hijacked by third-party sellers to ensure they are not damaging to the brand’s Amazon presence. Not only this, but improving your customer service proposition to respond to customer questions and negative reviews will help to build trust and avoid a confusing customer experience.
Localising your product content for Europe
Many brands consider Amazon 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.
However, 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.
Our researchers found that despite the fact that almost all brands reviewed from the Pet Supplies category were selling in both Amazon in the UK and Germany, only 40% were localising their product content to a satisfactory standard. For products being sold on multiple instances of Amazon, we recommend that all content is fully localised for the market, including descriptions, bullet points, and A+ Content, especially where listings are sponsored.
The sheer size and scale of Amazon makes it a great platform for brands looking to internationalise and grow their online market share. However, the results from our report prove it’s vital that brands strive offer a best practice customer experience on the marketplace as is recommended for any other digital selling channel.
Download the full report here to find out if your brand was one of the 100 consumer brands scored as part of our research.
For more insights into the Pet Supplies category on Amazon or to hear more about our Amazon Seller model, please contact us here.
