Overview

With over 4 lakh active online sellers, Amazon.in is the number one e-commerce website in India since it’s 2014 launch. While sellers and brands adopted the platform and were happy to start selling online, they faced the challenge of being lost in the crowd. Similar to Google AdWords, Amazon.in has its own Advertising team to aid sellers in getting visibility. The Amazon Ads team needed to connect with existing and new sellers on the platform and communicate their value proposition. To accomplish that goal, the Amazon Ads team engaged Velocita for envisioning and creating targeted communication to different groups of online sellers and brands at various stages of their online selling journey. Today, with over 40,000 sellers and 3000 brands using Amazon ads, the association with Velocita could not be more positive.

Case Timeline

2018

Brand

Amazon Advertising | Email Marketing, Event Collaterals, Brochure design, Presentation design, Print

With Amazon Ad solutions allowing sellers to find, attract and engage millions of Amazon customers at every stage of their purchase journey with various ad placements and formats, it was essential to make sellers aware of the different solutions available and how they could leverage each ad offering.

Keeping the basics simple

 

Creating a bible for sellers and brands to use the Amazon.in ads platform was the first task.

Actual dashboard images and simple written English helped aid vernacular language speakers to use the guide effectively.

Simplifying the Amazon.in Advertising webpage user interface (UI) through a cleaner and intuitive design was another step towards improving seller experience with Amazon Ads.

Sourcing and developing Amazon Ads Seller and Brand success stories gave potential users a reason to believe in the platform and strengthen its credibility.

Creating a winning content strategy to onboard sellers on the platform

Getting Indians to spend on marketing is quite a task! It is even tougher if the target audience is based out of tier 2 or 3 cities. While no advertising guarantees sales, it is essential to promote your products and brand. Many sellers are only interested in knowing the “faayda” in spending on ads online.

To address this, speaking the right language while communicating what a seller/brand stood to gain from Amazon ads was clearly defined across communications. Making your products discoverable to shoppers actively looking for products like yours on Amazon.in and getting on page 1 of online searches were key propositions that were communicated to sellers.

To aid sellers who were interested in learning more about Amazon Advertising, we worked with the Ads team to create bi-weekly webinar content and downloadable material to drive adoption for sellers to access and learn about the platform.

Developing a content strategy to drive Seller engagement

In staying true to how business is done, not every rupee spent earns a profit. However, sellers and brands are quick to assess and lose faith in the platform. This could be due to a variety of factors independent of the platform itself! For instance, if a seller isn’t familiar with Amazon ads and it isn’t working, but s/he has invested a significant sum to create ad campaigns. Is it really the platform at fault?

This and many such use cases were shared by the Amazon Ads team with Velocita.

Platform updates, Amazon ads tips and best practices, category wise recommendations, Ad and dashboard terminologies and benchmark explainer series, how to optimize running campaigns, best time to create new ad campaigns, how to leverage the festive and sale period etc. were some of the topics that were communicated to existing sellers periodically.

Similarly, advertisers were surveyed to find out what additions and modifications they were looking for in the platform and the Ads team was able to meet their expectations accordingly.

Regular webinars on advanced and basic topics were also conducted bi-weekly to grow seller engagement

Engaging with Brands – big and small

LinkedIn was leveraged to interact with brand and product marketing managers and small business owners selling on Amazon. The Amazon Marketing Services page published details like upcoming event details and various branding tips for advertisers periodically.

Making the festive season, truly festive for shoppers as well as sellers!

Shopping events such as Amazon Great Indian Sale, Wardrobe Refresh Sale, End of Season Sale, etc. and the festive period right from Diwali to New Year is great for online shopping. Consequently, it is also a great time to be seen by shoppers and make your products or brand known. We leveraged such occasions to nudge existing advertisers and sellers on Amazon to run targeted campaigns or get aboard the Amazon Ads platform.

Improving the Amazon experience through Seller Connect events

The Amazon ads team conducted quarterly Seller/ Brand Connect events to meet and greet with advertisers and learn about their queries and offer assistance face to face. These events were leveraged to build a positive image about the Amazon Ads team and support sellers with special information and updates related to Amazon ads.

 

Helping happy advertisers reach their audiences

So far, the journey with the Amazon Ads team and Velocita has been an eventful one, with over 20,000 sellers and 1000 brands using the platform, 150 webinars conducted, 26 Seller connect events and 12 brand connect events conducted, engaging over 8000 sellers and 480 brands across India.

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