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Have you ever wondered what it takes to fully optimize a marketplace and gain more visibility? Achieving Marketplace Optimization (MPO) is beneficial for bringing in higher volumes of traffic, leads, and overall revenue.
Around 10 years ago, buying products online was a concept many people were wary of. People had understandable fears about giving out their personal information and being taken advantage of by online scammers.
Nowadays, it appears that almost everyone has recently made an online purchase. What could explain this huge shift? It could be attributed to the younger generation’s willingness to try out web services and the fact that many stores offer ‘cash-on-delivery’ as an option, allowing customers to build trust with online retailers.
We’re certain that ecommerce usage will increase in the future, and small business owners should take advantage of it right away.
Have you asked yourself how commodities are graded on these e-commerce platforms and applications? Running in the background is a formula that figures out the classification of varying goods in a specific keyword directory.
All you must do is conform to the laws of Marketplace Enhancement, and you can make certain an improved listing of your wares in ordinary searches. So, what precisely are these skills and cheats?
Well, to begin with, they can’t be named deceptions, exactly. This is since there is no short cut for achieving advantageous standings on online commerce portals.
The key to success here is to be continually observant of these electronic stores, and the results will become obvious very soon. In this article, we’ll provide the best practices for an effective MPO strategy and how you can maximize the results of your campaign and optimize your marketplace sales.
What Is MPO
Marketplace Optimization (MPO) is the process of optimizing the visibility and performance of your product in online marketplaces such as Amazon and Walmart.
Optimizing your presence in these marketplaces is essential for success in the competitive e-commerce landscape. MPO involves using data-driven tactics to improve visibility and performance, such as keyword optimization, competitive benchmarking, and pricing optimization.
Ranking Signals on a Marketplace
The exact criteria used to rank products on a marketplace are not known, but digital marketers suggest that the following signals play a part:
- Product Title
- Product Description
- Reviews & Ratings
- Images & Videos
- Product Features/Bullets
- Search Keywords
- Product Category
- Seller’s Order Cancellation Rate
- Seller’s History & Experience
- Available Inventory for Purchase
- Gross Sales
- Total Number of Sales on Marketplace
- Order Defect Rate as a % of Gross Sales
- Late Shipments as a % of Total Shipments
Best Practices for an Effective Marketplace Optimization (MPO)
Here are some of the best practices for an effective MPO strategy:
Ensure Accurate Metadata
Having accurate product information allows customers to make well-informed decisions. Ensure your product details are correct and highly visible on each page of your store such as prices, dimensions, images, descriptions etc. Doing this also ensures fewer customer queries which streamlines the process and increases customer satisfaction.
For the best performance on search, ensure your product titles are highly optimized. Including Product Type, Brand, Key Features, Color, Size & Quantity in your title can increase your ranking on the marketplace and in the Google search engine results page. Arranging these attributes in the title of a product could significantly impact its sales and rankings.
Provide Full Transparency
Trust is key when it comes to online transactions. Make sure all pricing policies and terms & conditions are clearly stated on your site while providing full transparency everywhere else. This will create a better perception of your business among consumers who have previously had bad experiences elsewhere on other stores or marketplaces.
Invest in Reputation Management
Reputation management involves activities that improve or maintain a brand’s reputation among its respective customers. Investing in reputation management helps reduce online reviews generated by negative experiences with products or services. Reputation management companies monitor reviews on behalf of their clients and respond quickly where necessary with personalized replies addressing concerns or complaints raised by users which helps foster relationships between businesses and consumers alike. With proper reputation management strategies in place, this can result in increased trustworthiness for both long-term customers as well as potential buyers from future sales inquiries.
Include Delivery Solutions
Make sure that delivery solutions are included into MPO as these tend to be one of the deciding factors when making a purchase decision on any platform including marketplaces like Amazon or eBay . Optimal delivery solutions should be used across different regions for fast fulfillment times at competitive prices to draw new customers in as well as increase current customer retention rates within each region respectively.
Real-time Images
When creating an online listing for their business, many people make the mistake of using heavily edited images of their products. However, if these photos follow the guidelines set by the platform, they will be added to your listing without any issues.
However, the user behavior is not the issue. The problem is not with the technical methods used; users simply do not appreciate images that have been exaggerated to make the product seem more appealing.
Rather than relying on a description, many users would prefer to see real photos of the product in order to get an accurate understanding of what they will receive. Through MPO (Multi-Photo Optimization), you increase your chances of competing against similar listings and rising higher in the search engine results page – as these marketplaces are ultimately designed for the end user’s satisfaction.
Marketing Automation
Integrating marketing automation into MPO increases the efficiency of campaigns along with providing valuable insights into pending orders, order shipments etc. Furthermore automated campaigns help segment audiences by interests making it easier to target specific user groups according to their needs at various stages – from first time buyers to repeat ones – saving lots of precious time used up engaging with them manually otherwise days after buying something from your store .
Automation makes it possible to analyze the success rate and effectiveness of campaigns, giving us data on which to base decisions about how much budget should be used to optimize visibility in future months/years for different customers, based on their buying habits over a set period.
FAQ’s Optimization
Including a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) section in your product listing is an effective way to improve your Marketplace Performance Optimization (MPO). Answering your buyers’ questions about the product in detail keeps them engaged, boosts sales and promotes higher ranking on the marketplace. Incorporating relevant keywords into the answers can further enhance the MPO value of your page.
Leverage the Backend Search Terms
Are you done optimizing your Title, Description, Bullets & FAQs with keywords and still have some target words left over? No need to worry. On certain e-commerce sites, there is a segment for search tags where you can include your extra keywords linked to your items. As an example, on Amazon you can distinctively differentiate the terms by inserting a space between them.
Below is the summary of Amazon search terms guidelines as per seller central of amazon:
- Avoid brand names, irrelevant, and ‘filler’ words
- Cover all possible keywords but avoid repetition
- Never use offensive vocabulary or false claims
- Use only relevant search terms and key phrases
- Use hyphens to match different spelling variants
- Don’t use the ‘platinum keywords’ field for words
- Don’t exceed the 249 character limit
- Don’t include product names, ASINs, or UPC codes
- Separate keywords with spaces instead of commas
- Other punctuation marks should also be omitted
Product Reviews
This is an effective way to boost your product ranking while having very little control. Receive royal treatment when it comes to Marketplace optimization, as sales are king and reviews are queen. Reviews provide consumer trust and make decisions easier for buyers.
No longer is it possible to post fake reviews on products. Sites like Amazon and eBay have cracked down on such activity and only allow verified reviews after a successful purchase.
Note : It is important to respond to customer reviews, even if their experience was not positive.
To begin leveraging this process, you should get an email feedback sequence to interact with customers through the buyer-seller messaging service. Solutions such as Sales Backer and Feedback Genius exist on the market, helping you cultivate customer relationships by sending personalized emails and soliciting honest reviews and comments.
Conclusion
Overall, having an effective MPO strategy is essential for increasing revenues while creating a satisfying shopping experience. Optimizing organizational performance and reducing operational costs and errors is made possible by using real-world analytics reports, such as tracking numbers. This provides greater insight before taking action, thanks to the use of intelligent software which would otherwise take a long time or be impossible to obtain.
