Optimizing Amazon Listings With Customer Feedback: How Consumer Insights Can Elevate Your Business

You might think you have an awesome product and a top-notch marketing strategy — but does your target audience agree?

Successfully launching new products on Amazon requires a deep understanding of your customers. And getting feedback directly from your target consumers can enable you to make more effective marketing decisions, optimize your marketplace listings, and ultimately increase sales.

Here’s how.

Why Customer Research and Feedback Matters

In today’s ecommerce landscape, customer reviews aren’t just nice to have. They’re essential.

In fact, feedback and reviews have a direct impact on product rankings on the marketplace: The more and better reviews you get, the higher your product will rank in search results. 

Consider this: 93% of buyers say that online reviews impact their purchase decisions. So, before you invest significant time, money, and effort into developing and listing your product, you need to ensure two things:

1. Your target audience actually wants or needs your product.
2. You’ve optimized your marketplace listing for maximum visibility and conversions.

By actively conducting customer research to solicit feedback, you gain valuable insights into consumers’ pain points, preferences, and expectations. And having a better understanding of your customers’ needs empowers you to not only make informed decisions about future products, but also fine-tune your current listings.

A bonus benefit?

Gathering customer feedback helps you connect with your customers on a deeper level, building strong relationships that set you apart from the competition. 

Want to learn more about creating a six-star customer experience? Watch our interview with eight-figure Amazon consultant Tomer Rabinovich on 6 Minutes with Carbon6. 

How To Conduct Consumer Research

The best way to understand what your customers want: Ask them! 

Here are a few tactics for getting direct feedback on your products, designs, and marketing.

• Use polling and survey platforms — such as PickFu, which gathers in-depth feedback from on-demand consumers — to ask your target audience specific questions and gather structured feedback.
• Initiate one-on-one conversations with customers to gain deeper insights into their preferences, pain points, and ideal products.
• Interact with target consumers via relevant Facebook groups or other social communities.
• Ask for reviews directly. Amazon reviews are an insightful and honest look into what your customers love (and don’t love) about your products.

It’s also critical to consider your competition and how your target audience engages with similar businesses in the market. Running a competitive analysis can help you first understand what sets top-ranking products apart and then leverage those insights to improve your own listings.

Here’s how to run an Amazon competitor analysis:

1. Define your market and identify key competitors. Use the keywords that best resonate with your shoppers’ search queries, and enter those terms into the search engine to find competing products. Create a shortlist of highly ranked products or those likely to generate high sales to analyze your closest competitors.
2. Analyze competitor product listings. Make note of the product design, packaging, title, description, images, and other content in each listing. You should also consider things like your competitors’ pricing strategies, marketing tactics, and customer reviews.
3. Leverage your insights. By understanding what sets top-ranking competitor products apart, you can more effectively differentiate your own listings.

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How To Leverage Consumer Perceptions

Gathering consumer feedback is one critical step in elevating your products. Doing something with those insights is another thing entirely.

Put that feedback to work by asking critical questions about your products and marketing strategies: Does your product include any features that your competitors’ don’t? Are they using marketing or sales tactics that you can also take advantage of? Are there gaps in your competitors’ products that yours can fill?

Optimizing Amazon listings means tailoring the following specific areas of your marketing approach to your audience’s specific needs. 

Product Selection and Packaging Designs

Launching a successful product on Amazon — whether it’s your first, second, or tenth — begins with selecting the right product that matches your audience’s wants and needs. During your initial research, ensure you understand the problem your product will solve and how (or whether) it fits into your customers’ lives.

And don’t discount the importance of your product’s packaging. Packaging isn't just a practical concern. It's an opportunity to communicate your product’s value and quality. Spending time developing packaging that appeals to your customers can raise your product’s perceived value.

Here are a few questions to ask your audience when gathering feedback:

• How interested would you be in buying X product? Why or why not?
• Would a product that does X be useful to you or solve a challenge you have?
• Based on the packaging/design, which product would you rather buy?

Product Titles and Main Images

Consumers’ first impression of their products come from the listing title and main image. Optimizing these elements is critical: They determine whether a potential customer clicks to learn more or keeps scrolling.

Your product title should be clear and include key terms that your audience uses in search. Choose title keywords that accurately describe the product, resonate with your audience, and show off any key features or selling points.

The most important element of any Amazon listing? The main image. 

Use tactics like interesting angles, bold colors, renders, and instructional imagery to draw shoppers’ eyes to your product and clearly convey what it does.

During the feedback gathering process, compare multiple versions of your main image to see which one best appeals to your audience. Then optimize your listing based on their feedback.

Questions to ask your target audience include:

• If you were shopping for X product on Amazon, what would you type into the search bar?
• If these were your search results for X product, which one would you be most likely to click on?
• Which image appeals to you most? Why?

Product Descriptions and A+ Content

Your product description and A+ Content offer consumers greater product details. But remember: It's not about what information you think is important. It's about what your customers value most. That’s why optimizing Amazon listings and product descriptions based on consumer insights is so important.

To craft descriptions that resonate with customers, gather insights directly from your audience. Then, use your customers’ specific language throughout your product description to ensure it resonates with them.

Finally, identify and emphasize the features that matter most to your audience. Show off the qualities that most influence purchasing decisions, and use A+ content, such as images, infographics, and videos, to highlight those features.

Questions to ask your target audience include:

• What matters most to you when shopping for X? What are the top three features you care about?
• Out of these five product characteristics, which one is the most important to you?
• What details about this product listing page appeal to you? What questions do you have after viewing it?

Listings on Other Marketplaces

Expanding beyond Amazon? Here's what to consider when adapting your Amazon consumer research strategy to other marketplaces, such as Walmart or eBay.

• Conduct distinct competitor analyses for each marketplace. More likely than not, you’ll have different competitors on each marketplaces, each with specific marketing strategies.
• Adjust your customer outreach. Each marketplace has a unique audience, even if the differences are subtle. Ensure you understand the marketplace’s demographics so you can adjust your surveys and conversations accordingly.
• Optimize your listing for each platform. Your listings should and will look different on each marketplace. Survey your audience to see which content they prefer.