Introducing Shoppable Storefront Images for Amazon Stores

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Amazon, the world’s largest ecommerce retailer, recently enhanced Amazon Stores with features including Shoppable Images. The new options are a welcome addition to the very useful branding tool. We’ll discuss Amazon Stores, its upgrades, and a deep-dive into the most interactive feature, Shoppable images.

What is Amazon Stores?

Amazon Stores is a free, self-service Amazon destination for Amazon Sellers and brands (enrolled in Amazon Brand Registry) to curate images that inspire shoppers and guide them to discover product selections. Amazon Stores pages include coding-free templates to help brands design a site with their own Amazon URL. Furthermore, over time, Sellers can optimize their Store performance and customer experience by utilizing the provided metrics on engagement, traffic, and sales.

What’s New for Amazon Stores in 2020?

Amazon revealed five new Stores features in 2020 to facilitate Seller updates and drive shopper engagement. The following improvements help Sellers update their Amazon Stores products and information and more efficiently manage their Stores. From Amazon:

Bulk and out-of-stock product management

Rather than uploading products individually, Sellers can now upload multiple products at once to product grids and featured-deals tiles. Furthermore, Sellers can opt to hide out of stock products.

Stores scheduling

Sellers who wish to plan ahead can now publish updates to their Stores on specific days and times, allowing Sellers to align their Stores’ publishing schedules with new releases, seasonal changes, and brand updates. Store information can go live on a predetermined date.

The next features help Sellers showcase their Stores’ brand and products by utilizing content engagement techniques.

Stores links

Amazon added Stores links to help shoppers discover relevant Stores. In addition to the products featured on the landing page of Sponsored Brands ads, Amazon now adds brand logos at the bottom of the page where customers can link to the corresponding Stores.

Images with text

Also, for added clarity and information, Sellers can overlay images with text. With this capability, Sellers can describe products’ size and color, etc. and better explain highlighted products or selections. Equally important, according to Amazon, the Stores’ SEO (search engine optimization) ranking on outside search engines can improve with text on images, thus further driving traffic to specific Amazon Stores.

Last but not least, the Amazon Stores upgrade garnering ample discussion is:

Shoppable collection (storefront) images

Shoppable images are lifestyle shots with click-to-shop functionality. The new feature enables Sellers to designate up to six featured products on a store image as “shoppable,” enabling customers who tap (or hover) over them to view basic details: name, price, customer reviews, or Prime badge, etc. Directly from the shoppable image, customers can navigate to the product detail page or add items to their carts.

Why Are Shoppable Images Beneficial?

Generally, rich lifestyle images that highlight complementary products in a variety of settings inspire shoppers. Real-life imagery piques customers’ interest and enhances the browsing experience. Curated looks or compatible products from brands were found to be key reasons as to why customers visit a brand’s website, according to Stores Shoppers Research. Shoppable Images, now available worldwide, leverage the power of curation by helping brands showcase new looks, lifestyle ideas or product combinations in a directed, engaging manner.

How to Add Shoppable Images

Just like Amazon Stores pages, no programming is required to add a Shoppable Image to a storefront:

• Add a new section to a page in Amazon Stores.
• Choose the Shoppable Image tile type.

• The Shoppable Image can be its own section (full-width tile) or within a Split Section > Basic Section Layouts’ large and medium-sized tiles.

• The modal supports product search using a keyword or ASIN search, as in other Stores widgets, and, in addition, supports drag-and-drop functionality.

What Was and What’s Next for Amazon Shoppable Images

Before launching worldwide, Shoppable Images hit the scene in Q2 of 2019 under the name “Interactive Images.” Back then, the feature appeared quite confusing to consumers on desktops, and it was easy to miss the interaction points on busy images. Since then, Amazon improved the images and accompanying copy and renamed the feature Shoppable Images to clarify its purpose.

In addition, Amazon made several stylistic modifications to enhance the shopping experience, including a “See Products” call to action. Shortly after, Amazon reported shopper interaction with the images and interaction points increased from 19% to 26%. Additional enhancements in the second quarter of 2020 are planned for Shoppable Images, such as the introduction of a swipeable ASIN carousel for mobile and a more immersive desktop consumer experience.

Amazon continues to make improvements to enhance the brand experience for its Sellers. And, Amazon Stores’ latest upgrades like Shoppable Images allow Sellers to curate content and display product selections in a way that helps increase the bottom line. Contact Adlucent’s expert Amazon advertising team to build, manage, and improve your Amazon Store with Shoppable Images today to take your marketplace strategy to the next level.

Jennifer Sayroo