Amazon Announces New Free A+ Content for Vendors
Free A+ Content for Vendors?
Yup, you read that right and we spotted it first!
A+ Content Creation & Management Solution for Vendors
According to Ashley Vanderveen, Project Manager of Creative Services at CPC Strategy, Amazon is now rolling out “free basic A+ Content” for vendors as seen in the account update notification below:
What is A+ Content?
If you’re not familiar with A+ Content, here’s a quick recap:
Vendors have the option to sign up for Amazon A+ Content, a program that promises to enhance your product detail page with visuals and enhanced marketing content to overcome purchase hesitations and drive brand affinity.
A+ Content integrates detailed product descriptions, rich images, charts and narrative copy to help customers make informed buying decisions.
This premium content from manufacturers is meant to drive more conversions on a detail page.
According to Amazon, A+ Content can increase sales on average 3 to 10% by educating the consumer about your product and brand.
Want to learn more? Check out our deep dive into A+ Content here.
What does Free A+ Content Mean For Vendors?
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- First, the update only applies to “basic” A+ content – meaning Amazon vendors no longer need to pay the “upload fee” for standard modules.
- Second, we also noticed that video capabilities are continuing to roll out to select vendors.
According to Ashley, “Almost every client asks us if videos can be included in A+ Content. Hopefully, this isn’t another “EBC Video” situation and videos can actually be added to the A+ Content section.”
- Lastly, this could be a potential indication of a much larger roll out for Premium A+ Content (also sometimes referred to as A++ Content)
The account we spotted the update in doesn’t have access to the “Premium A+ Modules” yet, but it does beg the question:
Could this be the start of the Premium A+ Content roll out?
For now, only time will tell.
What Do The Experts Predict for A+ Content in 2018?
We asked some of our leading industry experts how they predict A+ Content will shape the Amazon Marketplace in 2018.
Here’s what they had to say:
More Premium A+ Content Features:
“We’ve only seen Premium A+ Content detail pages for lead brands such as Dove, Degree, and Samsung, but I expect this is a glimpse into the future of the Amazon detail page experience.”
“Amazon is a conversion engine optimizing towards turning traffic into orders, and Premium A+ Content allows brands more options to highlight the unique value proposition of their products and recreate the in-store shopping experience on a two-dimensional screen.”
– Pat Petriello, Head of Marketplace Strategy at CPC Strategy
Optimizing A+ Content & EBC for Mobile & Video
With the release of Enhanced Brand Content pre-set templates and the ability for custom templates, I see Sellers being able to optimize their Enhanced Content for mobile specifically.”
With the new modules roughly based on some A+ Content modules, your content will be able to stack and have a sense of mobile responsiveness.
Premium A+ Content will hopefully continue to become more available to vendors and keep enhancing the overall consumer experience.
Enhanced Brand Content Video was rolled out in 2017. Video plays a huge role in Amazon Stores and I think will continue to become something that you include on your product listings just like an image.
The ability to showcase your product in a 360-view and explain specific features may help decrease the risk of returns and empower the consumer to make the purchase decision with the additional information provided.
– Ashley Vanderveen, Project Manager, Creative Services at CPC Strategy
You can check out all of our Amazon Predictions for 2018 here.
A+ Content Success Story: WHOOSH Increases Amazon Sales by 170.4%
In addition to establishing profitable Amazon advertising campaigns, our creative team implemented Enhanced Brand Content (EBC) and A+ Content (via Vendor Express) on select ASINs to act as an extension of WHOOSH’s brand on the Marketplace.
We worked with WHOOSH to modify the product description fields and build out custom creative including their brand story, enhanced images, and text placements.
EBC and A+ Content gave WHOOSH the additional space within their detail pages to answer common customer questions and provide relevant details about their product, which lead to an increase in conversion rate and a better shopping experience for their customers.
For more information on A+ Content, email [email protected]
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