Catalog Set-Up

Catalog set up can be defined in many ways. At Brandwoven, we define a successful catalog setup as one where we have reviewed and addressed every avenue that could unlock your products potential on Amazon, Walmart, Target, or Instacart. That catalog set up begins with brand & product education, an account & listing audit, strategy & optimization discussions, scheduling of timely work, effective implementation, and ongoing management. We are meticulous in all we do and we specialize in crafting strategies for your catalog that are considerate of Amazon’s and other marketplace requirements while also being tailored to your specific needs as a partner and recognized brand.

Common Challenges in Amazon Catalog Set Up

When it comes to catalog set up, brands often take a few different paths before ending up in a conversation with us. Some have launched new products on Amazon and ran into a few snags upon initial set up, or they are looking to clean up their brand on Amazon and haven’t had success in doing so. Others have worked with a previous agency that didn’t deliver on the results they promised, or are being forced into switching platforms and need our help in the transition. We have seen it all, and we exist to help brands like yours succeed in each online marketplace. Below are some important questions that Brandwoven considers before and during the catalog setup process to ensure we have the full picture and can make a recommended a path forward:

Important Considerations Pre-Catalog Setup: Product and Brand Education

What fulfillment method and barcode preference will you be using? Is that barcode type available for your products?

It is important to review and set these preferences ahead of listing your products in order to avoid complications. Brandwoven can assist you in navigating Amazon’s requirements and nuances of Amazon fulfillment settings ahead of time in order to streamline your operations.

What category should your product be listed under and what are the related fees?

If you are adopting existing ASINs, or you are cleaning up your catalog, there is a good chance your product could be in the wrong category, and end up costing you more than you initially expected. Understanding your products and doing an audit on existing listings is an important step we take to ensure your catalog is set up for success.

Is your brand registry or brand portal account correctly linked to your selling account & products?

Whenever possible, we recommend connecting your brand registry account before attempting to list your products so that you do not have to go through added brand and product approval steps when setting up listings.

Do you have approval to sell in the category?

When you partner with us, we like to set up a test SKU to see whether your account is approved to sell in the category or not, and work to clear that as soon as possible so that you don’t go down the path of prepping to list all your products only to be denied shortly after.

Which compliance info and documentation is needed for your product types?

You can avoid account and catalog set up issues with our expertise in submitting the right documentation for your products upfront and our ability to craft appeals with precise language. Whenever you submit quick appeal without actually addressing the issue, you take ownership of the issue and each repeated offense has a higher impact on your account health. Amazon Vendor Central is also now requiring more compliance documentation upon set up before allowing your listings to generate an ASIN or become active. We have a team of account health experts that will advise on common requirements for your product types and quickly catch any new Amazon requirements in order to keep your listings compliant and actively selling.

What Amazon programs do you want to enroll in? Have you considered which programs you have been auto-enrolled in that may have legal implications for your products?

For example, Amazon Seller Central FBA Export program allows international customers to purchase products from you on Amazon.com. Amazon essentially takes “ownership” of the products by purchasing them from you on the customers’ behalf and takes responsibility for shipping and tax implications, which means no added cost to the seller. However, some products are restricted from selling in other countries outside of the U.S., and in that case it is VERY important that those products are initially excluded from the program or the program is disabled entirely in your fulfillment settings. These are the types of details that Brandwoven catches and makes sure you don’t find out after the issue has already occurred.

Do you need a specific SKU naming convention in order to connect to your EDI and process orders, or review sales reports?

Amazon can be finicky with SKU set up in Seller Central. Knowing ahead of time if your operations and logistics team needs the item to be set up with a particular SKU will help us cleanly add any new listings. Knowing that in advance also helps in relation to barcode settings; once you set the barcode preference for one SKU, you are locked into that preference unless you list with a new SKU. As your future partner, it’s important to us to consider and be mindful of your whole team and operations, and not speed through the process. That’s where mistakes tend to happen.

How many resellers are selling this product already? How soon will you win the buy box for your products?

We like to ask this question in advance of setting up your catalog as it helps us forecast, and can potentially save you storage fees. If your listing has a ton of resellers on it and you wouldn’t have ownership of the buy box until that is cleaned up, then your product would just be sitting, racking up storage fees and effecting your IPI score. If we know in advance that there will be a long clean-up period of your listings while a reseller or pricing policy is being rolled out, we can delay shipping your product or prioritize setting up and optimizing other products that will begin generating profits for you sooner.

What vendor code should these items be set up on?

Knowing the details of each of your vendor codes (the pricing & shipping terms and fulfillment methods like standard domestic, direct import, or international export, etc.) then we can ensure our team knows how to assign correct costs & upload new item set up templates to the correct code so you are getting PO’s on the correct terms and the catalog remains clearly organized for the team processing orders.

Is this item profitable to sell on Amazon? If so, which platform?

With Amazon Vendor Central kicking smaller vendors off the platform, and for those interested in hybrid models, it’s important to first understand all the fees involved in either platform along with the estimated forecast to inform decisions on whether to make the transition and the timing of when, if so. Brandwoven provides detailed cost-walks and fee breakdowns to consult with you in making those decisions. We want what is right for your brand, and a long-term partnership that remains stable and will do everything we can to help get you there.

Should you consider listing your entire catalog, even if you don’t intend on personally selling the full catalog on Amazon, in order to have more control over the content & brand representation?

Some brands come to us with a list of products they would like to sell on Amazon, and when we do an audit of their brand on Amazon, we find a ton of other products that are similar or linked to the list they are looking for us to help manage. The reason this is important is that often part of our management is the optimization and clean-up of existing catalogs, improving customer experience with your brand on Amazon, and pushing through content. So, if we are managing a third of your catalog, but the other two thirds of your catalog are part of listings that would be variated together with the third we are managing, then we would want to include those items in the scope of the work as we will need the product information when submitting variations and making sure the other listings are consistent with the strategy we are pushing. For example, if we were working on variating a listing that was set up with size & color as the variation theme, and we were pushing your branded color names to the listing for a couple included listings but the other size/color variations remained as generic colors even though they technically should be the branded color, then it impacts our ability to push the changes through and will show up as a 2nd color option which is not optimal for the consumer purchasing the products. We want to build trust with your brand on Amazon by having clean and brand-focused listings that make it easy for your customer to add the product to their cart rather than them having to sit and compare the differences, decreasing the chances of conversion.

What other markets are you selling in?

Understanding which markets your products already exist in, whether you are actively selling there yourself or not, will help us determine if there are any catalog clean-up efforts needed to merge ASINs in multiple markets utilizing the vendor manager connections we have, and eliminates the surprise from ASINs getting shut down due to unknown compliance issues with another market. We want to build a cohesive brand presence across markets. Knowing this will also help determine the scope of work and whether content translations are required for the titles, bullet points, A+ Content, and brand store. That would increase the scope of work, though absolutely something we offer and would love to optimize for you! We offer consultation on all of those areas as well, even if we are not creating or uploading the content, we can advise and educate wherever you have interest and questions.

If the product is already listed on Amazon, are there multiple ASINs connected to the UPC? Which one is the one we want to sell on?

This happens a lot for CPG brands where the product is easily accessible and a top contender for resale on Amazon. When this happens, anyone approved to sell in that category on Amazon can set up the product on Amazon without knowing anything about how to set it up properly (eg: correct item pack quantity, unit count or GS1 certified UPC, etc.). Without this other seller knowing that they would need a unique UPC code or GTIN for that multi-pack can lead to multi-packs being set up with the single unit UPC, which generates a new ASIN with the same UPC code, as Amazon sees them as being different even though they have the same product identifier. Having multiple ASINs tied to one UPC can impact your ability to ship the items with manufacturer barcodes (UPCs) instead of having to label each unit with an FNSKU internally or by Amazon (at an added cost). It will also impact the consumers’ experience with your brand and we would want to help address the long-term clean-up of those listings. Knowing this ahead of set up would help us set the stage for expectations on forecasting & timing for catalog clean up. If you are experiencing this, don’t hesitate to reach out for a consult!

Brandwoven’s detailed and thoughtful approach to catalog set up ensures that your product detail pages meet our high standards for retail readiness. In our catalog set up, we run your existing content against our standards to get an overall rating of your PDPs, and use our standards as a baseline for optimizing your content and building out your optimized catalog. At Brandwoven, we focus on the following things:

Clear, SEO-optimized Titles

Our titles are created with the perfect balance of relevant and top-ranked keywords, your unique product qualities, and readability all while keeping mobile shoppers in mind, which makes up >53% of all shoppers on Amazon. Each title is typically between 50-150 characters, depending on the category, includes key information in the first 75 characters, and follows our recommended format for clarity and relevance. Both Seller Central and Vendor Central max out at 200 characters on the backend of the listing.

Effective Bullet Points

Bullet points are your opportunity to highlight the most compelling, informative, and unique product features. We make sure the first two bullets are keyword-dense while the rest tell a deeper story about your product, making it clear why customers should choose yours. We recommend bullet points 1 and 2 are between 100-150 characters and specific to the product. Repeat SEO keywords from title and top 10 from our keyword bank. Bullets 3 & 4 should be longer (between 150-200 characters in length) and make use of more keywords without overly stuffing. Content should be specific to the product category. Bullet 5 should be 150-200 characters in length. This can be an opportunity to cross-market and tell more about brand and products across categories.

Detailed & Informative Descriptions

Even though A+ Content often hides standard descriptions, we still write 750-1000 character product descriptions that are full of relevant details and designed to enhance search engine indexing.

Variations Set Up & Strategy

For some categories, setting a variation or product grouping strategy is a little more clear-cut than others. Take apparel for example: you are typically going to group the product by product type, style, color, and size. For other categories, such as health and household, there may be added complexities to consider, such as unit count type and product capacity that effect the way the variation attribute appears. We also take into consideration that variation strategy effects how the products are displayed in search. Whether it’s populating your backend catalog with the necessary details for Amazon to use their automatic variation setup (AVS), submitting variation sheets, or navigating matching errors in a bulk category upload file in order for variations to flow through, our dedicated catalog and client service teams work together to understand your products while also making sure the nuances of the marketplace are taken into consideration when crafting variation strategies. We work on grouping variations in a way that improves the shopping experience all while staying within Amazon’s guidelines.

Listing Image Strategy

When you search for a product on Amazon or any other online marketplace, the main image is the consumers’ first impression with your product. It is important to consider whether your main image is eye-catching and tells enough of a story at a glance view. The main hero image is especially important for attracting clicks, so we ensure it’s clear, professional, and accurately represents the product at a glance view. The standards have fluctuated over time for what is allowed in a main image or not, and at Brandwoven, we have the internal capabilities to design new images and A/B test to provide you with the data needed to optimize your listings. The first few images after the main image should highlight key product features and unique selling attributes that will help answer consumer questions. Although the maximum number of listing images on Amazon is 9, we recommend using at least 6 images and 1 video per product. Images 7-9 are typically hidden by the video, but can be viewed by clicking into the images. The remaining 1-2 images should be lifestyle photos showing the product in use. Brandowoven will also ensure your images follow marketplace specifications where applicable, including category-specific needs.

A+ and Premium A+ Content

This content allows us to share your brand’s story and highlight your products’ best features. Whether it’s sustainability, production details, or technical specs, we craft A+ Content that builds a connection with shoppers and improves conversion rates. If eligible, we leverage Premium A+ Content for an even more visually appealing experience. In many cases, we recommend using Premium A+ Content which is now free for both Seller & Vendor Central. Utilizing A+ Content (formerly known as enhanced brand content or EBC on Amazon) on your detail pages is a way to build trust with the consumer and help to convert a buyer who needs a little extra convincing. It can also be a great way to introduce existing or new customers to other products you sell on the platform by using comparison charts and highlighting your different product lines. We recommend using as much detail as possible to educate the consumer, while not overcrowding the page and detracting from the visual appeal. Our experienced team can utilize even the smallest amount of product assets to make your brand stand out above the rest.

Creating a Brand Store That Resonates

An Amazon Brand Store (formerly known as a Storefront) offers a customized space to showcase your products and build a brand narrative similar to a manufacturer or brand website. Much like A+ Content, it is a feature available for sellers that have a registered brand(s). At Brandwoven, we design and implement brand stores that are not only visually engaging but also organized in a way that makes it easy for customers to find and buy your products. There are now a ton of store insights and reporting on consumer behavior within your brand store (page views, visits, and purchases either attributed to the page or store), and which type of modules are leading to the fastest sale. Your store should provide the consumer with a few important details – the assortment of products you offer on Amazon, including your current best sellers, seasonal deals or promotions, and new products. Items should be organized by considering not only how consumers search for your product off Amazon, but also a reflection of consumer behavior with that type of product on Amazon. If you have multiple registered brands, you will have a unique brand store for each brand.

The benefits of a brand store include a few important things like increasing your traffic, conversions, and average order value (AOV). You can drive more traffic and conversions to your store by running sponsored brand ads. When a consumer clicks on the ad, it will lead you to the brand store where they are presented with more of your specific products, eliminating the need to repeat a search for other products. If you do not have a store, clicking on that same ad would lead the consumer to an Amazon search of your brand name, and the customer may be led away from purchasing products from you but rather a different brand featured on the search results page.

At Brandwoven, we have a team of creative specialists and designers that work with our client-facing team to strategically weave together what is important to your brand using our expertise and what we know about consumer behavior within these unique online marketplaces.

As a brand or manufacturer, there is a huge benefit to being the first one to list your new items on Amazon & Walmart. We love working with brands to prep and launch their new products on Amazon & Walmart before any other distributors or resellers get the chance to so we can set up the ASIN with the content and variation grouping that aligns with the brand messaging and strategy from the get go rather than coming in and having to clean-up the work of others who don’t know much about Amazon or your products. If we can help you list it first then others will be able to list by matching to an existing ASIN and adopting the existing info rather than generating the content themselves. It is a smoother process for all parties involved, and for those looking to make a quick purchase on a new release on Amazon, it builds brand loyalty and trust to see the listing set up cleanly and professionally from the jump.