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Amazon Seller Central vs Vendor Central A Guide for 2019

Whether you are an Amazon Seller or Vendor, one thing is for sure – Amazon is always changing and expanding to improve its processes for those who choose to list their products on its wide-reaching marketplace. These processes, selling tools and capabilities differ depending on what kind of account you have – Seller or Vendor.

The Basics – What is the difference between an Amazon Seller and an Amazon Vendor?

Amazon Sellers control their products, listings and sales processes, selling their products directly to consumers and handling all pricing, storage, shipping and returns themselves.

On the other hand, Amazon Vendors sell their products in bulk to Amazon, who then prices and sells the products to customers. As of right now, and into 2019, brands can become Amazon Vendors through invitation only (while there once was the option of choosing to become a Vendor through Vendor Express, that option no longer exists).

Amazon Seller Central and Vendor Central have different interfaces and controls, and the brands within each have different abilities in terms of what tools they can use to market their products. Some of the key differences include:

Seller Central

If you’re a smaller shop, able to handle your own logistics or want more control over how your products are priced and presented, then a Seller Central account is likely the right option for you. Most brands selling on Amazon will at least start off as a Seller, given the fact that Vendor Central is open only to those personally invited.

Seller Central Pros

Pricing, Payments and Margins: When it comes to money, Sellers have much more control over how their products are priced on Amazon. This leads to potentially higher margins than their Vendor Central counterparts who have to leave pricing up to Amazon. Amazon tries to stay within minimum pricing requirements and often chooses low prices to stay competitive, which can hurt the margins of Vendors. Another great component of Seller Central is the method and frequency in which you get paid. Once sales start to come in, Sellers are paid via deposit into their Amazon account every 14 days.

Seller Support: One common complaint between Amazon Vendor Central users is lack of support. Since Amazon does most of the heavy lifting after a wholesale purchase is made from a brand, they do not offer the same level of support as they do to Sellers who handle their sales processes themselves. Seller Central users gain access to priority email support as well as responsive phone line support.

Seller Central Cons

Responsibility and Costs of Handling Sales: With Seller Central, the onus is on the brand to ensure their items are stocked and ready to be shipped as quickly as possible when an order comes in. This is the case 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year (or at least until your inventory sells out). Sellers may sometimes find the cost of fulfillment high, and coordinating returns challenging. That being said, Sellers do have the option of enrolling in the Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) program in which Amazon stores and ships a Seller’s products, for a fee.

Fewer Advertising and Enhanced Marketing Options: While both Sellers and Vendors now have access to Amazon Advertising (formerly AMS for Vendors and Seller Central Advertising for Sellers), Sellers are slightly limited in terms of how they can use the service. Product Display ads are not currently available to Sellers, while they are to Vendors. In terms of Enhanced Marketing Content (EMC), Sellers who have completed Brand Registry can create EBC (Enhanced Brand Content) Pages, which have fewer functionalities than the Vendor Central version, called A+.

Vendor Central

Even though brands must be invited to become Vendors by Amazon’s team of buyers, it is good to know the ins and outs of this account type should your brand ever receive an invitation. If the idea of selling your products wholesale to Amazon and letting them take the reins is attractive to your business model, then accepting this invitation may be valuable to you.

Vendor Central Pros

Higher Levels of Customer Trust (and Sales): Vendor Central products have different messaging on their listings than those sold through Seller Central – “Ships from and Sold by Amazon.” This one line, while short, offers a level of confidence to consumers who might prefer to buy from Amazon directly, rather than through a third-party seller. Traditionally, this has led to higher sales for Vendors compared to Sellers.

More Advertising and Marketing Options: Amazon Vendors, through Amazon Advertising, have the option to create not only Sponsored and Headline Search Ads, but Product Display Ads as well. While Sponsored Ads and Headline Ads target shoppers based on their search terms, Product Display Ads utilize more specific targeting, reaching customers at the interest and product level. These ads are displayed on a competitor’s product listing for ultimate visibility at a key point in the buying journey.

No Need to Handle Shipping or Returns: By selling wholesale to Amazon, Vendors do not need to worry about handling customer shipping or returns. That being said, there are logistics like inventory requirements to stay on top of as an Amazon Vendor.

Vendor Central Cons

No Control Over Pricing, Therefore Lower Margins: Once Vendors send their products to Amazon in bulk, Amazon then controls how the items are priced and sold – something to be mindful of when selling through multiple channels. In order to stay competitive and offer the best prices to shoppers, Amazon often lowers the cost of Vendor products. While this might lead to better sales, it can often hurt a Vendor’s profit margins.

Slower Payment: Unlike Sellers who get paid regularly for sales made (the standard is every 14 days), Vendors are often locked into 30, 60 or 90-day payment terms based on purchase orders fulfilled. Waiting three months to receive payment for a bulk shipment can be frustrating for an Amazon Vendor, and opting for the 30-day term comes with additional fees.

Strict Logistical Guidelines: Though Vendor Central users do not need to handle the storage and shipping associated with selling directly to consumers, there are strict guidelines put in place by Amazon when it comes to fulfilling purchase orders and keeping up with stock requirements. Struggling to keep up with these guidelines often results in chargebacks.

In Conclusion

Both Seller Central and Vendor Central have their pros and cons, as does any eCommerce selling platform. The weight of those pros and cons depends entirely on your own business objectives. It is important to understand the differences between the two account types so that you can grasp the full context of Amazon’s merchant base and be informed of your options should an Amazon buyer ever invite your brand to join the Vendor side.

SEO for eCommerce: How to Optimize Your Product Descriptions

As an online seller, you could have the best product in the world – but if your shoppers can’t find it, they can’t make a purchase.

How do you ensure your shoppers can find your products online? The key to unlocking that ever-important question is Search Engine Optimization (SEO). While the world of SEO encompasses multiple tools, tasks and specialist-level knowledge, there are changes you can make within your customer-facing product content that will satisfy SEO requirements and help boost your search engine ranking.

The very first step in optimizing your product content is to ensure you have well-written copy that is helpful to those reading it. With that as a baseline, you can then incorporate the following techniques to take your content to the next level.

1. Know Your Audience

A key step in writing product descriptions that are optimized for search is to ensure you’re using language that is relevant to the people most likely to search for your product. Determine not only who your audience is in general, but find out:

Their gender
Their age
Where they live
Where they shop
Where they search

Is your target shopper well-versed in industry jargon, or should your content appeal to people with a wider range of knowledge on the topic? A good thing to remember is that the person purchasing your product might not always be the one to use it – so if you’re selling electrical equipment to homeowners, or nail polish to husbands on Valentine’s Day, make sure the content you present can be understood by those shoppers, too.

2. Perform Keyword Research

Once you know and understand your target audience, it is important to find out what exactly it is they are searching for when looking for your product. There are many tools available online that will help you do just that, including Google’s Keyword Planner and the Amazon-specific MerchantWords.

While each keyword finder tool you come across online will work slightly differently, the goal is the same: look up your product type and receive a list of relevant, high-volume keywords actual shoppers are using to find it.

Once you have determined your list of valuable keywords and key-phrases, it’s time to incorporate them into your product description writing. Be careful not to list or overuse keywords (called “keyword stuffing”) as this will actually hurt your organic ranking. Weave keywords and phrases into your copy in a way that sounds natural for the best results.

3. Write Unique Content

Most of us were taught in school that plagiarism is wrong. This still rings true, especially when it comes to SEO for eCommerce. Plagiarism can be detrimental to your organic ranking, because search engines prefer – and actually reward – content that is unique. While you may use trendy industry language or information about similar products for inspiration, your product description must always be unique.

If you’re selling a product that is also sold elsewhere online, the features and specifications will stay the same. The way you describe those features and specifications, your long description, and any narrative copy you weave into your content should be unique to your listing.

4. Make Use of Headers

Keywords hold greater weight within headers than in body text, so it’s important to make use of header tags within your product content when applicable. This is more difficult for brands selling on a marketplace, but if you’re creating your own product listings on your eCommerce website, it definitely presents an opportunity to bring in more traffic.

Introduce new features and benefits with headers or use them to preface supplementary content (for example, you can showcase recipes on a food product’s listing, or a tutorial on the page for a beauty product).

5. Create Meta Data and Alt Tags

In addition to traditional customer-facing content, there are two areas that often slip the minds of eCommerce sellers: meta data and alt tags. Meta data is a short set of content that provides information about what’s on a webpage. When you search for something on Google, what you see in the results (a title and description for the page) is meta data. Don’t let Google decide what content to show in these areas – write your own based on your brand and product language.

Alt tags are written descriptions for images on a page. You can easily optimize your commercial product photography for search by writing these descriptive tags. Alt tags help people who may be visually impaired and who rely on screen-reading technology to understand the many images available on a website. Search engines give credit to websites leveraging alt tags, as they add another layer of helpfulness and accessibility.

6. Consider Additional Content Opportunities

In addition to having well-written, optimized product descriptions, search engines like Google reward websites that deliver new content on a regular basis. If you run your own eCommerce website, consider additional content opportunities, including:

Blogs
Recipes
Tutorials/Instructions
Video content
A collection of news mentions/PR

Optimizing your product listing copy and ensuring you have a steady stream of new content on a regular basis will set your brand up for search success.

Time for Summer Maintenance? Here’s How to Refresh your Online Store for the Season

This is the time of year that signals refreshing change, growth and renewal. For many, it also signals the right time to clean and declutter. Spring (and summer) cleaning is important not only in a personal capacity, but when it comes to your eCommerce store as well. Now that we’re nearing the end of June, it’s time to kick-start your summer maintenance online.

Why Update Your Online Store?

Updating your eCommerce shop most often comes down to reviewing and editing your product content first. While online sellers should strive to create evergreen content as much as possible, even the greatest product copy needs to be maintained. Creating a content maintenance schedule – every six months as an example – ensures you stay on top of how your brand and products are being positioned in the market. Some reasons to maintain or update your store’s content include:

Stay relevant to your shoppers and what they care about
Keep up with industry trends, including trending keywords
Optimize your listings for promotional periods
- New seasons
- Back-to-school
- Holidays
- Amazon Prime Day
- Other
Stay up to date with what competitors are doing, or find new competitors to watch
Monitor analytics to find high-performing trends you can adopt across your catalogue
Ensure you’re familiar with all of your existing content

What to Update

Now that you know all the reasons an online seller might adopt a maintenance schedule to keep their site’s content updated throughout the year, the next section will highlight what exactly you can update and how to tackle each piece of product content.

1. Product Images

As eCommerce standards change, you may also need to adapt your product photography style. The same can be said as new technologies and methods of creating images emerge. With the increased popularity of 360-degree photography, it might be time to look at how you can include this immersive visual technique in your own image gallery.

If your product images are looking outdated, if they feature call-outs that are no longer relevant, or even if they just need some sprucing up, it’s time to get new photography done. Contact us today to learn more.

2. Product Title

Your product title is likely the component that requires the least updating, since the content it contains should include evergreen elements like the brand name, item type, model name and primary keywords. However, treating your product title as a short sales pitch, especially on a marketplace like Amazon, can leave room for certain key features that may change as search trends do.

Include your product title in your maintenance schedule to ensure all of the information is still correct season after season – perhaps there’s been a branding change or there’s a seasonal use or feature you can call out for a portion of the year.

*The product title is updated to include the new Spring/Summer colour: Charcoal Sand.*

3. Feature Bullets

Your feature bullets, whether positioned on your own eCommerce website or on a marketplace like Amazon, should contain the most important information about your product.

All key features and their corresponding benefits should be outlined in this section. As such, much of the information will likely stay the same as the seasons change.

It is important, however, that the keywords used within your bullets are still relevant and producing good traffic. Audit your bullets’ SEO optimization as a part of your maintenance schedule to ensure you’re ranking well for the best keywords possible.

*Summertime music lovers will care about certain features, like splash resistance for listening by the pool and a long battery life for camping trips.*

4. Product Description

Product descriptions often contain narrative content, romance copy and explanations of uses and applications. Your product description is a great piece of content to include in your maintenance schedule, as it offers more character space to fill with seasonal copy, new keywords and updated content based on industry and competitor trends.

*The product descripton inspires shoppers to pick up a Beoplay A2 for their summertime social adventures.*

Learn more about how geekspeak handles the optimization of product descriptions.

5. Other Areas to Update

In addition to updating your product content (copywriting and photography), use your maintenance schedule and the new season to look at opportunities to introduce new sales and promotions. This is also a great time to audit the organization of your website, ensuring promotional items are featured in their own easy-to-find section, and all products are easy to find. If your site’s taxonomy has become outdated, see how geekspeak can help.

Pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns should constantly be monitored and updated, but Spring/Summer or another scheduled maintenance period offers the opportunity to perform a deeper audit into your online advertising to determine what’s working and what’s not. Update your ads to leverage the latest search trends, promote new sales and use season-specific language to relate to shoppers.

Whether you have a new product that just launched a month ago, or a range of legacy products that haven’t changed in years, it’s important to take this time to audit each one equally – from their titles to their ads – in order to make the most of your online assortment.

3rd Annual ‘Hack for Good’ Tackled Societal Issues with AI Solutions

As artificial intelligence (AI) continues to grow, the geekspeak team sought to harness its power for good in the third annual ‘Hack for Good’ hackathon. Taking place at the geekspeak office in Whitby, Ontario on March 22-23, ‘Hack for Good’ saw more than 60 participants – data scientists, computer programmers, designers and marketers – come together to tackle real-world problems with AI solutions.

What is a Hackathon?

A hackathon is a sprint-like event, typically lasting anywhere between 8 hours and several days, in which teams of people meet to engage in a computer programming task that tackles a determined theme or problem.

For three years now, geekspeak has hosted its ‘Hack for Good’ hackathon with the aim being to create an app or app prototype that solves a problem. This year, the theme of the event was ‘AI for Good,’ which meant teams had to leverage AI technology to solve a social, health or environmental challenge of their choosing.

Why AI as a Theme?

AI has very quickly come to the forefront as a truly disruptive technology. With advancements occurring every day, and schools and research centers placing a heavier focus on AI, it made sense to explore its power within the context of a hackathon.

geekspeak has also been exploring AI in eCommerce more thoroughly, with its own in-house data scientists and NLP (natural language processing) researchers. The choice of the theme came naturally, under both industry and internal lenses.

The Event

Participants programmed away until 4pm on March 23, when all laptops were closed and presentations began. The team pitches were judged by Kristina Svana (Spark Centre), Isaac Wanzama (geekspeak Commerce), Dr. Andrew Hogue (Ontario Tech University) and Fatemeh Kazemi (geekspeak Commerce).

Winners

With the judges’ scores tallied by accounting sponsor SourcePoint Business Group, the winners were announced.

1^st Place and Recipients of $5,000: Team Kenny et al, with a journaling app that uses sentiment analysis to help improve mental health treatment and outcomes
2^nd Place and Recipients of a Staples Tech Bundle: The EH-Team, with an AI-powered trash collection and categorization machine that can collect and analyze data about cities’ garbage levels
3^rd Place and Recipients of Staples Studio Access: Team SavourIT, with a computer vision app that classifies food in your fridge, notifying you when it’s about to expire and providing recipe options

Next Year

Stay tuned for information about next year’s ‘Hack for Good’ hackathon; date and theme to be determined!

Like, Click, Sell: The Rise of Influencer Marketing in eCommerce

Influencer marketing has become a common term in the digital and retail industries, with an increasing number of brands leveraging celebrity and online influence as sales methods. Influencer marketing traditionally encompasses a brand choosing an influencer based on the size, quality and relevance of their online following, sending the influencer a product to review or promote, and paying them to post about it across their social channels.

With a steady increase in online shopping, the use of influencer marketing is shifting, including a narrower focus on eCommerce. While influencer marketing is typically used to drive awareness for a brand, with sales occurring as a by-product of that awareness, those who sell online can now leverage influencers in ways that more directly affect sales.

Amazon

Amazon has embraced influencer marketing in the last one to two years by launching two major initiatives: The Amazon Influencer Program and the Amazon Celebrity Store.

The Amazon Influencer Program, an influencer-specific extension of the Amazon Associates Program, rewards social media influencers for recommending their favourite products on a personalized Amazon Storefront. To qualify for the program, influencers must provide a link to their most promising social media account – either YouTube, Instagram, Twitter or Facebook – which is then vetted based on follower count, engagement and relevancy of content. Once someone is accepted into the program, they can compile their favourite products into their own Storefront, providing recommendations and receiving a commission on sales.

Influencers are not typically celebrities in the traditional sense, but rather “real” people who have developed a following based on the content they produce online. Celebrities do however bring influence of their own. Amazon recently launched its Celebrity Store, using a similar approach to its Influencer Program by providing celebrities with their own Amazon Storefronts that showcase products seemingly enjoyed and recommended by the celebrity in question.

Each of these Amazon programs bring relevance, and ideally, consumer trust to the brands being featured. As online shoppers browse the products recommended by their favourite celebrities or online influencers, they can make a purchase right then and there.

Instagram

Easily one of the largest platforms for social media influencers, Instagram is also growing in popularity for eCommerce sellers because of its recent updates to the platform. The photo-sharing social media channel now offers eCommerce selling features to brands and retailers who want to sell items directly through the app. This is especially exciting for brands who have existing relationships with Instagram influencers, or who have been contemplating influencer marketing on the platform.

Instead of an influencer promoting a product in a post and directing his or her followers to the brand’s website externally (often difficult without the ability to link a URL in an Instagram post), an influencer can actually add a ‘Shop Now’ URL to an Instagram Story, or a product tag to an image. This leads users directly to a product listing with the ability to make a purchase immediately – closing a gap in the selling process.

Brand Ambassadors

Brand ambassadors have been used by companies to promote their brands and products since long before the term ‘influencer marketing’ was coined. Traditionally, a celebrity hired to act in television commercials and photo shoots, as well as wear or use the brand’s products while in the public eye, many brand ambassador commitments have now evolved to include activities like appearing in a brand’s social media posts or posting about the product themselves.

As brands start to leverage ambassadors in more interesting ways, the roles have also opened up to include more of the influencer-type rather than traditional celebrities alone. Examples of this are rampant in the beauty industry, where major cosmetic brands like Covergirl have started to add YouTubers to their roster of ambassadors – bringing a level of authenticity and trust to the brand.

Challenges

When it comes to using influencers as a marketing tactic in eCommerce, the first challenge is also the biggest: choosing the right people to not only promote your products but to properly represent your brand. It is critical to perform your due diligence in selecting the right influencers to ensure both their content and their values reflect your brand well.

In an effort to distinguish organic posts from sponsored influencer posts, social media channels like Instagram have cracked down on users trying to pass off paid brand relationships as organic content. As such, it is important for brands to follow channel-specific guidelines when leveraging influencers to promote their products online, being transparent in the fact that they are using influencers to help them sell.

As both eCommerce and influencer marketing continues to grow, new methods and platforms will emerge in which brands can leverage the power of influence to promote and sell their products online. Deciding where to use influencers, navigating relevant challenges and finding the right people to represent your brand can lead to a boost in eCommerce success.

CES 2019: AI and Robots and 8K… Oh My!

The Consumer Electronics Show (CES) is the world’s largest technology show, each year taking over the Las Vegas Convention Center and surrounding hotels for four full days of innovation. With companies unveiling their latest and greatest, industry attendees get a first look at new tech products before they are made widely available to consumers.

Three geekspeak team members attended the event, showcasing eCommerce strategies and services, as well as new technology that can be leveraged to assist in the creation of optimized product content.

Here are some of the biggest themes we saw throughout the show floors of CES:

Artificial Intelligence

While the concept of AI itself is not new, the ways in which it is being used are becoming more innovative and immersive than ever before. Almost any product you can imagine – from your oven to your travel luggage – is becoming “smart” with AI technology. When it comes to digital assistants, CES saw a race between Amazon Alexa and Google Home for integration into everyday gadgets like smartphones and speakers.

Robots

No matter what venue or conference room you entered at CES 2019, there seemed to be a different robot at every turn. From child-friendly robots that help teach students on the autism spectrum, to promotional bots that can be coded to deliver information as museum guides or airport wayfinding, robots were definitely a hit at this year’s event.

Autonomous Vehicles

Smart Homes

With Smart Homes emerging as one of the largest themes of CES 2019, many of the event’s venues were reminiscent of The Jetsons; the animated show that first debuted in the 60s, featuring a family set in the year 2062. Laundry machines, faucets, blenders, microwaves, and even toilets were given tech-powered upgrades at CES, adding these products to the now-typical doorbells, lights and thermostats of existing smart homes.

8K TVs

Much like robots, 8K TVs seemed to be around every corner at CES 2019. While numerous television manufacturers released their own versions of the 8K screen over the course of the conference, LG and Samsung came out on top with some of the most exciting TV announcements. LG showcased an 88-inch OLED 8K TV called the Z9, as well as one of the most talked-about features of CES: the LG Signature OLED TV R, a rollable TV that disappears into its stand when not in use. Towards the end of CES, Samsung unveiled its truly massive 219-inch TV, dubbed “The Wall.”

5G Wireless Technology

One of the more elusive technologies at CES was new 5G networking, something that seems to be on the radar of every major telecommunications company, though few have actually built products or services around it as of yet. CES 2020 will surely feature more 5G-ready electronics; this year, the concept seemed to be more of a buzzword than anything tangible.

Besides these impressive tech trends witnessed at this year’s CES event, geekspeak was fortunate to have seen a great showing of fellow Canadian companies passionate about technology and innovation, and to have had exciting conversations with industry leaders interested in improving their businesses, communities and selves through technology.

Follow us on Instagram @gkspcommerce for more awesome photos of our time at CES!

Common Amazon Seller Content Mistakes and How to Avoid Them

For the new seller, Amazon can be a tricky platform to navigate. The marketplace has many lengthy guidelines that sellers must follow, related to anything from the content you can publish, to logistical requirements like how quickly you need to respond to customer inquiries or ship products after they are ordered. Because of the number of detailed guidelines, it can be easy to make mistakes, especially for the first-time seller.

Below are some of the most common content-related mistakes made by Amazon sellers, and how to avoid them.

1. Not optimizing your written content

When it comes to selling on Amazon, it is not enough to simply list your product and hope shoppers will make a purchase. Optimized copywriting that takes full advantage of formatting allowances, character limits and search engine optimization (SEO) is key in ensuring your products are searchable to the Amazon audience. Most Amazon categories allow for five feature bullets and up to 2,000 characters in the product description – this is valuable real estate for SEO-friendly keywords that will drive traffic to your product. Another important tip to note is to present the most important information upfront, within the product title and feature bullets, leaving additional information and more narrative content further down in the long description.

Need help with optimized Amazon product listings? Learn more here.

2. Not localizing your content for the market

For sellers expanding into new markets for the first time, it is important to remember to localize your content for the specific geographical area in which you are selling. This may seem obvious when it comes to selling in different languages – but taking into account the subtle differences in the spelling of certain English words between Canada, the US and the UK shows that you’ve put thought into marketing your products in those areas. In terms of presenting your content in different languages, it is worth investing in a professional translation service to ensure your copy is properly interpreted and makes just as much sense to a shopper across the globe.

Looking for a professional who can translate and localize your content on Amazon? We can help.

3. Not following eCommerce photography standards

The ideal way to showcase your product in a hero image is to make sure the product is set up alone on a white background. This ensures shoppers can see exactly what it is they are buying, and excludes any potential distractions within the frame. For Amazon, it is important to ensure your product takes up at least 85% of the total frame and that there isn’t any small text on the image that would render un-readable on mobile. While you can have infographics and lifestyle images within your gallery, the leading image should be your product on a white background.

Need to fill your Amazon image gallery with great photography? See what we can do for you.

4. Constantly changing or updating your content

While it is okay – and sometimes important – to make updates to your content every now and then, you should aim to create product content that is evergreen (meaning it can stay the same season to season). Each time you make a significant change to your Amazon product listing, the search algorithm re-indexes your page, potentially leading to a decrease in your organic ranking. Including seasonal promotions in your title, bullets or images can date your listing if not removed immediately after the promotional period, and so should be kept to a minimum.

If your Amazon content is in need of a refresh, see how we can optimize it once for better ranking.

5. Not paying attention to the real people

For a first-time Amazon seller, it can be easy to forget about “the other guys” on Amazon. Your goal in selling on a marketplace is to direct shoppers to your page over your competitor’s. As such, it is important to understand what your competitors are doing on Amazon – including what kind of content they are using to market their products. Complete a brief competitive landscape analysis to make sure your content is at a comparable or higher quality than other sellers’.

Perhaps even more important than understanding your competitors is understanding your shoppers. Pay attention to your reviews and customer questions when you receive them, responding to people in a timely manner. Before you receive your first reviews, check out reviews on your competitors’ product listings and make sure your content reflects common questions about the kinds of products you are selling.

Trying to do everything on your own as a new Amazon seller, without the help of an Amazon content expert, can be a daunting task. From account setup and management, to inventory coordination, to content creation, the Amazon marketplace can seem overwhelming at times. These content mistakes are common to many first-time sellers and can be easily avoided by following the tips provided.

The Latest Facebook Ad Specs and Image Sizes

As 2018 ends and we head into a new quarter, it is important to start thinking of your 2019 advertising strategies. For eCommerce sellers, social media is steadily becoming an alternative – or addition – to traditional Google and Amazon pay-per-click advertising. As such, we have put together a guide explaining the latest Facebook ad specs and image sizes so that you can optimize your social advertising.

Businesses may have different reasons for advertising via Facebook and other social media channels. From brand awareness to lead generation to sales, social media offers a good chance at reaching your advertising goals because of the sheer number of people using social platforms every day.

Depending on your specific goals, there are a number of ad formats available to you on Facebook – image, video, carousel and collection are the four main formats we will discuss in this guide. Each has its own features and set of ad specs depending on placement within the Facebook interface.

1. Image

Image ads on Facebook can appear directly in a feed, on the right-hand side of the feed, in Facebook Instant Articles, in the Marketplace, in Stories, in the Messenger inbox, or as a sponsored Messenger message. Depending on the placement of your image ad, specs may differ slightly, but in general the recommendations are as follows:

File type supported: jpg or png
Image ratio: 9:16 to 16:9
Resolution: the highest resolution available that meets the above ratio requirements (600 x 600 px minimum)
Text on image: must take up no more than 20% of the image itself
Ad copy: optimal length is 125 characters, with anything over that being truncated
With link: 1.91:1 to 1:1 image ratio; 1,080 x 1,080 px resolution; 25-character headline; 30-character description

2.Video

When a still image won’t cut it, opt for a video ad on Facebook. Video ads can appear in all the same placements as images except for Messenger messages. Videos can also appear as ads within organic videos posted to Instagram. Just like image ads, specs depend on the placement of the video, but the general guidelines to follow are:

File type supported: most video file types
Video ratio: 9:16 to 16:9
File size: 4GB maximum
Resolution: the highest resolution available that meets the above ratio and file size requirements
Video length: 1 sec to 240 mins
Captions and sound: recommended but not required
Text on video thumbnail: must take up no more than 20% of the thumbnail image itself
Ad copy: optimal length is 125 characters, with anything over that being truncated
With link: 25-character headline; 30-character description

Need to create eCommerce videos that can help sell your products online? Request a quote for product video here.

3.Carousel

The Carousel ad is one of the most intriguing ad types on Facebook, allowing for more creative space and promotional links. Built of 2-10 individual images or videos, each tile has its own link and short ad copy. This allows a brand to showcase multiple products, product features or pieces of information that together create a holistic brand message. Carousel ads can be placed in the feed, right column, articles, Marketplace or in the Messenger inbox. General spec guidelines are as follows:

Number of tiles: 2-10
Image file type: jpg or png
Video file type: most file types supported
Maximum file size: 30MB for images; 4GB for videos
Video length: 1 sec to 240 mins
Resolution: at least 1,080 x 1,080 px
Image or video ratio: 1:1
Ad copy: optimal length is 125 characters, with anything over that being truncated
Headline copy: 40 characters
Link description: 20 characters
Text on image or thumbnail: must take up no more than 20% of the thumbnail image itself

Newer to the Facebook ad game is the Collection ad, which happens to be perfectly centered around eCommerce companies and their sales objectives. Collection ads are generally composed of a cover image or video, followed by smaller product images in a grid format. This allows potential customers to see your products at a glimpse, and when they click, they are immersed in your brand through an Instant Experience. Instant Experiences are full-screen mobile takeovers that allow the customer to explore more of your brand story and seamlessly make a purchase. Collection ad specs are as follows:

Placement: in the Facebook Feed only
Cover image file type: jpg or png
Cover video file type: most file types supported
Cover media: must choose to show either an image or a video
Grid images: optimized for 1:1 ratio (can be cropped)
Headline: 25 characters recommended
Ad copy: 90 characters recommended

Facebook advertising can be an important tool for eCommerce sellers. Taking advantage of one of the four main ad types on Facebook means placing your brand and products directly in front of the eyes of your audience when they have free time to browse. With Collection ads specifically, your products take the spotlight and your branding becomes a unique, immersive experience for potential customers.

Top 7 Free Instagram Analytics Tools for Social Sellers

As eCommerce grows and evolves, new platforms emerge for brands and retailers to leverage in their online selling strategies. Traditional channels like Amazon can now be complemented by a social selling strategy – particularly on Instagram for highly visual brands and products.

Instagram is steadily growing in popularity among professional accounts including eCommerce sellers. As a result, tools are being added both to the app directly and through third-party developers that allow businesses to sell products, promote themselves, and better track important analytics. Instagram analytics tools are aplenty and can provide incredible insights into how consumers are engaging with your account and individual posts. Here are our favourites:

1. Instagram Insights

Instagram comes with its own built-in, easy to use analytics tools for business accounts. Direct from the app, you can track your posts’ impressions, website clicks, profile visits, audience breakdowns (for accounts with more than 100 followers), engagement on posts, and more. The platform’s analytics tool is quite in-depth for being a free inclusion. That being said, there are additional third-party apps that can help you track even more.

2. Simply Measured

Simply Measured is an Instagram analytics tool that focuses on post performance and audience engagement. Measuring reach, impressions, clicks, shares, saved posts and more. It even provides insights into your Instagram Stories, showing you numbers related to taps forward, taps backward, Story replies and exit points. Being able to see how engaged your followers are with specific posts and Stories allows a business to understand the kind of content they should be posting more often in order to grow via social.

3. Squarelovin

Similar to Simply Measured, Squarelovin shows engagement metrics on specific Instagram posts. Taking this one step further, Squarelovin attaches a numbered engagement score to each post, allowing for a more visual understanding and easier comparison of your best performing images. One key component of this analytics tool is that it showcases the best and worst times of day to post based on your audience, industry and content history. Knowing this information can help ensure you’re reaching the maximum amount of people and gaining important engagement.

4. Union Metrics

Union Metrics is an Instagram analytics tool that offers some unique insights compared to others. For example, one focus of this app is on your most engaged followers, offering a valuable look into specific fans of your brand or users of your products. Union Metrics also outlines performance trends and outliers so that you can easily see specific posts that have performed extremely well or very poorly – a metric that proves to be valuable when planning future content.

5. Iconosquare

This Instagram analytics tool provides easy-to-read reports that detail anything from most-liked photos, to follower growth, to your posting frequency over time and how it has affected engagement. Iconosquare also offers help to those who handle multiple accounts through a post management tool much like Hootsuite or Buffer. In addition to providing helpful analytics reports and management tools, Iconosquare also offers first-time users a free Instagram audit that outlines tips to improve and optimize content.

6.. Picture.io

Perhaps one of the most user-friendly Instagram analytics apps out there, Picture.io takes into account your follower base, engagement metrics, post frequency, rate at which you communicate with your commenters and more. It then assigns an influence score to your account. This simple numbered score is the only real output delivered by Picture.io, but it is an important one to track. This Instagram analytics tool also allows you to view the influence scores of competitors and other accounts in the Picture.io system to see how you compare.

7. Crowdfire

Crowdfire focuses entirely on followers, allowing you to see potential followers that are relevant to your content and have a good chance of following you back. Another helpful tool for accounts trying to grow their follower base is the ability to see inactive users and users who have unfollowed you, so that you can unfollow them if it means clearing up space for more valuable relationships that could lead to higher engagement.

As you can see, these tools help track various metrics including followers, engagement, types of posts that perform and do not perform, times of day to post and more. Using more than one of these free Instagram analytics tools is a good to idea to build the most well-rounded account for your eCommerce business.

Follow us on Instagram at @gspkcommerce for news, events, eCommerce trends and more!

Need to WOW Your Online Shoppers? Capture Every Product Angle with 360 Degree Photography

With more customers shopping online than ever before, a well-presented image gallery is becoming increasingly important for eCommerce sellers. Without the ability for customers to pick up a product, feel it, and experience all of its details as they would in a brick and mortar store, it is critical that sellers provide their online shoppers with a comparable experience.

Through 360 degree photography and video, your customers can view your products from all angles. In some cases they can even interact with the file to drag, rotate, zoom and more. This provides an engaging online experience, allows a shopper to gain a better understanding of your product, and can lead to increased sales.

360 Still Photography and Seamless Videos

The 360 views of a product can live in an image gallery as individual still photos that showcase the product’s front, back and sides. These images can be used to fill up your online gallery with photos that provide information about the product. Various angles provide the 360 view experience on websites or platforms that do not allow for video integration. Adding text call-outs and infographic elements to these 360 product images can further engage shoppers and re-enforce the value of the product.

When listing your product on your own website or on a marketplace or platform that allows video, multiple images can be encoded together to create a seamless 360 degree image of the product. To create a spinning product video, the product must be placed on a turntable and rotated while multiple shots are taken in succession, capturing the product in all possible angles (25-100 shots are recommended to make the movement as smooth as possible, but you can create a spinning image with as few as four images). These images are then stitched together to create a video in a seamless loop.Video Player00:0800:24

Still 360 degree images and seamless videos work best on marketplaces like Amazon where a dedicated image gallery sits above-the-fold of a product listing and entices a shopper to click to view photos and a video. On Amazon specifically, a video capture of a 360 spin image would be created and uploaded to your image gallery in an .mp4 file format.

Interactive 360 Images

Taking it one step further, 360 product spin videos embedded on your own eCommerce website – or another platform that allows for them – can include interactive components like drag-to-rotate technology that allows a customer to take control of their view of the product. Shoppers can spin to focus in on specific points of interest, which adds another layer of interaction to your product page or website.

Interactive 360 degree images also allow for audio integration. Additional graphic components like text call-outs can be added frame-by-frame to act as interesting pop-ups and provide more information to the customer in an intriguing way.

Why Go 360?

eCommerce is a competitive space and it is important to continue evolving and enhancing the content that is being presented to your online customers. By leveraging 360 photography and spin videos, you give your shoppers the chance to better understand your product and to engage with it in an interesting way. Not only that, but you prove to the market that you can be innovative and able to work with the latest technologies.

At geekspeak, we create interactive and enticing 360 product images and videos using exciting state-of-the-art equipment in our in-house photo studio. Let’s see how we can improve your product pages with better photography.