The Amazon Listing Styling Guide: Do’s and don’ts every seller should know

How you present your Amazon listing plays a huge role on how enticing your product is to the eyes of customers. The more presentable your listing is to Amazon users, the better the chances of getting a sale.

Though there are numerous factors involved in getting a sale, or just having a listing appear better on Amazon search, online retail relies heavily on looks. And having a customer move to the next seller because he/she doesn’t find your listing appealing, or informative enough, is a lost sales opportunity.

This Amazon listing styling guide does not only serve to improve the aesthetics of your listings. It includes vital do’s and don’ts that any Amazon seller should be aware of.

Note: We didn’t just compile all of these ourselves. Rather, this styling guide was taken straight from Amazon themselves.

I suggest that while you read this, you open one of your listings and see if it is up to par with what Amazon suggests.

Are you ready?

Amazon Listing Styling Guide For: Titles

Think of listing titles as your headlines. A way for you to grab the interest of a customer looking at a specific search results. The more enticing and informative your title is, the higher your click through rate becomes.

Amazon outlines specific do’s and dont’s for listing titles. And these are:

• Capitalize the first letter of each word on your title
• Do not capitalize conjunctions or prepositions with that have less than five letters on it
• Use numerals instead of numbers when referring to quantity
• Use numbers when referring to items in a bundled product
• Keep your titles under 200 characters, but include critical information
• Do not include special characters on your titles
• Do not include price and quantity on your titles
• Do not use ALL CAPS
• Do not include company information on your title.
• Do not include words such as “Free Shipping” or “Sale”
• Do not use words like “Best Sellers” or “Hot Item”
• You can use your Brand and/or Manufacturer name only if your product is a Private Label

If you are not familiar with what a Private Label is, then I suggest you go read our article Is It Time To Start Your Own Amazon Private Label?

As for how Amazon defines a Brand from a Manufacturer, here it is, and I quote:

Brand

• A unique and identifiable, symbol, association, name or trademark which serves to differentiate competing products or services.
• A name used to distinguish one product from its competitors that can apply to a single product, an entire product line, or a company.
• A name or symbol used to identify a seller’s goods or services, and to differentiate them from those of competitors.

Example: Sonicare

Manufacturer

• A business engaged in manufacturing a product
• Anyone who manufactures a product

Example: Phillips

Note: Do not use your seller name as the Brand or Manufacturer, unless your product is Private
Label.

Now that we’re done with titles, let’s move on to what many thinks is a key component when it comes to convincing customers to hit that Add To Cart button.

Amazon Listing Styling Guide For: Key Features (Bullet Points)

Now that you’ve successfully got a customer to your listing’s page, you need to keep the interest going by highlighting key features of your product. And to do this, you need to have a well formatted bullet point section.

Amazon allows for 5 bullets points for each listing. And Amazon advices that you highlight the best features of your listing that most Amazon users wants to see.

From Amazon’s point of view, these are:

• Dimensions
• Age appropriateness
• Country of origin
• Warranty information

As for the entirety of your bullet points, Amazon’s do’s and don’ts are as follow:

• Begin each bullet point with a capital letter
• Write in fragments and do not end your bullet points with a punctuation
• Use numerals instead of numbers when referring to quantity
• Separate phrases using semicolons
• Spell out measurements rather than using numbers
• Do not include hyphens, symbols, periods, or exclamation points
• Do not write vague statements; be as specific as possible with product features and attributes
• Do not include information relating to your company
• Do not include pricing and/or promotional information
• Do not include shipping or company information as this is prohibited by Amazon.

Great! Now that you have piqued the interest of the buyer about your product, his/her next option would be to get more detailed information about it. And this is where your Product description sections comes to play.

Amazon Listing Styling Guide For: Product Descriptions

If you played your cards right with your Title and Bullet Points, those two might be just enough to convince a buyer to already click the Add To Cart button. But for more picky customers, the Product Description section of a listing could be the determining factor between a sale and a customer checking out the competition.

Product Description sections though varies depending on a sellers account. A seller can either choose a description section that comes standard with every Amazon account, or choose to employ a more customized product Description section using Amazon A+ Content or Enhanced Brand Content.

Regardless though, Amazon suggests these when creating your Product Description section:

• Describe the major product features, such as size, style, and what the product can be used for
• Include accurate dimensions, care instructions, and warranty information
• Use correct grammar, punctuation, and complete sentences

Do not include any of the following types of information:

• Seller name
• E-mail address
• Website URL
• Company-specific information
• Details about another product that you sell
• Promotional language such as “SALE” or “free shipping”

Now we come to a very important component of any online retail listing, images.

Amazon Listing Styling Guide For: Images

Like I said, effective online retail is about visuals. The more enticing a listing is visually the higher the click through rate. But I guess it is safe to say that we are all aware of this.

But to drive the point, Amazon suggests that images for your listings must:

• Have at least 1,000 dpi, so that it won’t turn fuzzy when customers zoom in on your image
• Show the entire product, and have the product occupy at least 80 percent of the image area
• Include only what the customer will receive

And for those that think that not subscribing to the usual listing image structure on Amazon is a good idea, Amazon suggests that:

• Borders, watermarks, text, or other decorations
• Colored backgrounds or lifestyle pictures
• Drawings or sketches of the product
• Accessories or additional products not included in the offer
• Image placeholders, such as “no image available” text. Amazon will provide a placeholder if you do not have an image for your product.
• Promotional text, such as “SALE” or “free shipping”
• Multiple colors of the same product

To End….

All these rules are not there because Amazon wants a level playing field for all its sellers. Can you imagine if the Image rules are non-existent and sellers post whatever image they have their product without caring if it’s well presented or not? It wouldn’t amount to a fun buying experience for users now wont it? And at the end of the day, those are two things are what made Amazon what it is today. A platform where customers can have a positive buying experience, and where sellers are on a level playing field with their peers.

As always, if you have any comments, do leave them below and let’s a have a fun discussion about Amazon’s listing styling guide.

And if you have any questions, or is interested to further optimize your listings, send us an email and let’s talk about how we can help you out.

Till the next article guys. Have a great day, and see you next time.