Exciting news was released recently by Amazon regarding Premium A+ Content -- they are making it more widely available for sellers to qualify for and leverage.
You may be familiar with traditional A+ Content, which is part of enhanced brand content available to sellers who have registered with Amazon Brand Registry as brand owners. In fact, a general rule of thumb is that for your product to have any legitimate chance at being anywhere near the top of the BSR (best seller ranking) in your category, you'll need A+ on your listing.
While A+ content has been around for a number of years and has been used to set brands apart from the competition, it's not 2018 anymore. It has been increasingly more difficult for brands to differentiate and stand out.
In the meantime Amazon has been offering Premium A+ content to very select large household name brands, such as Samsung, Bose and the like. This premium content offered expanded modules and multimedia features. It also came with hefty price tag - up to $250,000, a bit out of the reach for most sellers.
This has all changed now as Amazon has expanded eligibility to Brand Owners with Amazon Brand Registry at no cost for an extended promotional period.
There are three main qualifications you must have to be eligible to create Premium A+ for a particular targeted brand:
- Brand Registry - your brand must be registered with Amazon Brand Registry
- Brand Story - this must be published across your entire brand ASIN catalog
- A+ Content Templates - you must have had at least 15 of these project templates approved and applied on this brand within the past 12 months
If you can check the box for all 3 above, congratulations - you qualify and at the beginning of the following month, this enhanced feature should be enabled.
The benefits of Premium A+ content include new and larger module types in the product description section on the product detail page. This would be visible as as video, image carousels, and interactive hotspots. According to Amazon, you can expect up to a 20% increase in sales by adding Premium A+ content to your listings. While that certainly will vary by product, the figure alone should be incentive enough to warrant a serious look.
At Retail Sages - we for one are excited about this opportunity and have already done our homework for how brands can incorporate this content to get that extra leg up on the competition.
As with a number of new feature rollouts, we would be remiss to discount that Amazon is in the business of making money. The announcements from the company state the following:
- During the promotional period, qualified sellers can publish Premium A+ content for all registered ASINs through the A+ content manager interface
- There will be an opt-in invite should the company announce a fee for Premium A+ content
If you look historically at features such as the Early Reviewer Program, which is now Vine, the program started out free and evolved into a fee-based program. It is not a far stretch to expect the same in this case. When that could occur is anyone's guess.
However, in the meantime, we highly recommend that as a brand owner, you take a deeper look into whether you qualify for this program. If you do, our Amazon content experts at Retail Sages would be excited to put together a top-notch design for your brand that will make your listing shine head and shoulders above your competitors.