Amazon has, over the years, become one of the most popular platforms for online shoppers. Its success stems from its highly efficient delivery service, amazing product variety, and pocket-friendly prices.
Amazon also strives to ensure that shoppers have an easy time finding great products that match their needs. It, therefore, curates search results for customers and awards distinct badges, like Amazon’s Choice, to highlight top products.
Which brings us to the question of the day: what is Amazon’s Choice? Who picks these choices and, more importantly, what are the criteria? Well, we have done some digging and put together all the answers you have been looking for.
Read on.
What Is Amazon’s Choice?
Amazon’s Choice is a badge awarded to products on Amazon that are highly rated, well-priced, and available to ship immediately.
Background
Amazon’s Choice was launched shortly after Amazon introduced its voice-prompted assistant, Alexa.
The story behind it is that when customers would ask Alexa to find them a product on Amazon, the options were way too many. It was thus difficult for Alexa to sort through them and find the best pick.
Similarly, Amazon customers shopping on their computers or phones may equally feel overwhelmed by all the product options that come up after a search.
Amazon thus came up with Amazon’s Choice to make things easier for Alexa and customers. It does the hard work of analyzing products in different categories and comes up with suitable recommendations.
Is Amazon’s Choice Reliable?
Not entirely.
The Amazon’s Choice recommendation system is based on price, ratings, and shipping availability. None of these factors delve into nuances like the quality or performance of the product.
Subsequently, some of the products that get the Amazon’s Choice badge turn out to be terrible picks while others are outstanding.
It is thus advisable not to fully accept Amazon’s Choice recommendations. Read through customer reviews and evaluate other options before making your decisions.
Further, Amazon’s Choice listings do not show up in all search results. They are also highly sensitive to keywords and search terms. In some cases, you may even need to try a couple of keywords before finding search results with an Amazon’s Choice recommendation.
For example, if you use ‘laptops’ as your keyword, no recommendation comes up.
However, if you use ‘Lenovo laptops’, the scope of your search is more defined and you get an Amazon’s Choice recommendation.
Where Can You Find the Amazon’s Choice Label?
The Amazon’s Choice label appears on the top left-hand side of a product’s image in an Amazon product listing.
If you click on the listing, the badge will also appear on the right side below the product description.
In terms of shopping options, Amazon’s Choice listings are available to customers shopping via Alexa, Amazon web, and the Amazon App. The placements on the Amazon web and the Amazon app are fairly similar.
Alexa only stands out because it delivers its findings via voice.
Benefits of Amazon’s Choice
Amazon’s Choice benefits both buyers and sellers. Here are some of the gains to expect.
A Shopping Compass
Amazon’s Choice comes in handy anytime a buyer is uncertain about what product to choose from a variety of options. More so when it comes to near-identical products.
Take, for example, that you are shopping for a fast-charging cable for Apple devices. This is a standard product and all the listings seem alike. It may, therefore, be easier to analyze Amazon’s Choice and buy it if the reviews are good.
Competitive Pricing
Amazon sellers know that they need to price their goods competitively and to be considered for the Amazon’s Choice badge. Therefore, most of them no longer price their goods at overly marked-up prices. This is a great advantage to buyers.
Improved Sales
Most Amazon shoppers are significantly influenced by the Amazon’s Choice badge. They are highly likely to buy a product that has one rather than one that does not.
Sellers thus tend to enjoy a boost in traffic once any of their listings is awarded this game-changing badge. Most of them also report a major increase in sales of the chosen product and a similar ripple effect on other products listed in their Amazon stores.
Additionally, aside from influencing buyers, attaining an Amazon’s Choice badge allows you to drive sales from voice shoppers. This is because Alexa mainly recommends Amazon’s Choice products over ordinary listings.
Better Visibility
Amazon is a highly competitive platform. It thus takes a concerted effort to get customers to notice your product listings from the thousands of other options.
Obtaining the Amazon’s Choice badge helps you overcome this hurdle because listings with the badge rank high among search results. This makes your product more visible to customers and can drive more traffic to your store.
To put it briefly, this badge could earn you higher traffic and customer interactions than most forms of advertising. It also has a faster turnaround time.
Amazon’s Choice vs Amazon Best Seller
Amazon Best Seller is a badge awarded to products with the highest number of sales in a category.
For example, if you search for kitchen knives on Amazon, you will likely see a product listing with the Amazon Best Seller badge among the search results. This indicates that the set of kitchen knives has been bought more times compared to other kitchen knife listings.
Based on this definition, it is easy to see that both Amazon Best Seller and Amazon’s Choice product recommendation systems.
However, they take different approaches toward choosing recommendations, and each concept works differently from the other.
Here are some of the key differences to consider as you evaluate Amazon’s Choice versus Amazon Best Seller.
The Criteria
Amazon’s Choice selections are based on:
- Price
- Ratings
- Products being available for immediate shipping
In contrast, Amazon Best Seller is solely based on a product’s recent and historical sales data.
Timelines
Amazon Best Seller rankings are reviewed every hour. If another listing achieves a higher number of total sales than yours, then it automatically outranks you.
Amazon’s Choice selections change more gradually but there is no fixed timeline for how long a listing can have the badge. In most cases, the badge is only taken away abruptly if Amazon finds that you have violated its rules.
Modes of Operation
Amazon’s Choice selections only come up among search results. They are linked to specific keywords and thus changing your search terms could bring up different Amazon’s Choice products.
You may also not find an Amazon’s Choice recommendation in every batch of search results.
On the other hand, you can find Amazon Best Seller products by:
- Browsing through any product category
- Running a product search
Also, the Best Seller ranking system is tied to product categories instead of keywords. So, no matter what keyword you use, Amazon Best Seller will still recommend the same product for that category unless it is outranked during the hourly reviews.
The Number of Recommendations
Amazon’s Choice only recommends one product per search. In comparison, Amazon Best Seller often presents multiple recommendations. More so if you are browsing through a product category.
What Is the Basis of Amazon’s Choice?
Amazon only states that it awards the Amazon’s Choice badge based on pricing, ratings, and whether a product is available for immediate shipping.
However, it does not disclose how it evaluates these factors or how it determines which products are more worthy of the badge than others. It is also tough to tell whether the data is analyzed using an algorithm, human judgment, or other methods.
Some e-commerce analysts posit that the mystery behind Amazon’s Choice formula could be a deliberate move by Amazon to keep sellers from gaming the system to acquire the badge.
Either way, the bottom line is that Amazon remains unwilling to share the secret formula behind this recommendation system.
How to Get the Amazon’s Choice Label
No one truly knows exactly what it takes for Amazon to bestow you with an Amazon’s Choice Label. However, you can improve your chances of receiving it by perfecting the factors that Amazon lists as part of its criteria.
The key factors to improve on include:
Optimal Pricing
Amazon’s Choice products are not always the cheapest price on the list. So, optimizing your pricing is not about offering throw-away prices. Instead, aim for fair prices that are commensurate with the value that each product offers.
Amazon Prime Eligibility
Amazon is likely to prioritize listings with the Amazon Prime badge when awarding the Amazon’s Choice label because:
- Alexa is pre-programmed to only order Amazon Prime products.
- Prime products satisfy the ‘products available for immediate shipping’ criteria for Amazon’s Choice.
Adequate Inventory
Amazon states that a listing can only qualify for the Amazon’s Choice label if the seller has inventory and is ready to ship. Consequently, it is best to always maintain reasonable inventory levels to meet this requirement.
This could, particularly, work in your favor if you sign up for Amazon FBA because Amazon would then have sufficient data about your inventory.
A Low Rate of Returns
Frequent product returns are often an indication that:
- Customers are dissatisfied with your products.
- Your product listings do not match the products sent out to customers.
Such incidents can result in low ratings and ineligiblity for the Amazon’s Choice label. Therefore, be honest in your listings and strive to keep your customers satisfied. It is good for ratings and also for your store’s reputation.
Higher Sales
Listings on Amazon that have higher sales have a higher chance of ranking higher on search results and gaining more visibility. In other words, high sales give you a higher chance of being considered for Amazon’s Choice.
Moreover, high sales could:
- Increase your chances of earning the Amazon Best Seller badge. This would, in turn, increase your odds of getting the Amazon’s Choice label.
- Give Amazon adequate data to evaluate because the more your sales, the more ratings you are likely to get.
Customer Service
Great customer service encourages customers to:
- Buy from your store again
- Recommend your store to other customers
- Leave high ratings or positive reviews
The potential influx of sales and high ratings would make you a prime candidate for the Amazon’s Choice label.
Optimize Your Product Listings
Create product listings with accurate, informative, but concise product descriptions.
Further, take time to research popular keywords that customers use when searching for the products in your listings. These are probably the same keywords that Amazon will use to evaluate listings for Amazon’s Choice.
Using them to enrich your product descriptions may thus increase your odds of being considered.
FAQs about Amazon’s Choice
Is It Possible to Only See Amazon’s Choice Items?
No.
Each Amazon’s Choice item is linked to a specific keyword. Therefore, you can only see one recommendation per keyword.
Can You Have Both Amazon’s Choice and Best Seller Labels?
Yes, but the labels will not be visible at the same time.
Amazon’s Choice products are tied to very specific keywords and Amazon Best Seller products are strictly based on category.
In other words, you would need to use a very specific keyword and search in a very specific category for both badges to match the same product in your search results. The chances of this happening are slim to none.
Instead, what happens is that one of your listings could be Amazon’s Choice in one category and an Amazon Best Seller in a different category. Therefore, only one badge will appear depending on the category in question.
In Conclusion
Amazon’s Choice may not be very reliable for buyers but it is a great opportunity for Amazon sellers. It could significantly improve your store’s visibility, boost your sales, and position you to thrive on Amazon.
We, at NicheSources, can source quality products for your Amazon store. We also provide product branding services and efficient shipping, all of which can help you earn great ratings and excel as an Amazon seller.
Ready to begin? Send us a brief outlining your sourcing requirements and request a free quote at any time.
