New Product Launch – Best Practices

Stage 1: Market Research

❏ Define what problem are we solving with the product
❏ Determine the core message to deliver to buyers (what would motivate the customer to buy the product?)
❏ Define buyer persona (who is your target audience?)
❏ Conduct a competitor analysis to establish product differentiation
❏ Check the Compliance Reference Tool to ensure product listing eligibility and required documentation
❏ Review ASIN/Category in Product Opportunity Explorer for size of market and insights

Stage 2: Preparation
Listing Creation
❏ Add a product listing on Amazon: Alternatives include: Self-service via Product Feeds Overview or Operations Team
through New Item Set Up service (create a request here)
❏ Variations: If the product is a variation of an existing product on Amazon, create a child ASIN as a variation. For
variation creation, contact the SAS Team through a request here

Listing Optimization
❏ Detail page creation: Define the title, bullet points, product description, and imagery following the Category-Specific
Style Guides. Following Amazon policies is imperative to keep your account health metrics in good standing; it also
avoids having to go back to improve the listing in the future. Request detail page optimization recommendations to the
SAS Team here*
❏ A+ Content: Design and Create A+ Content following Amazon policies. Include frequently asked questions in the A+
Content. Utilize A+ Content to showcase other items in your catalog. Add new products to top-selling ASINs. (Ex: Wssxc
Store). For new content, contact the Operations Team through a request here*
❏ Premium A+ Content: offers new and larger module types in the product description section on the product detail
page such as video, image carousels, and interactive hotspots
❏ A+ Comparison chart: Include new item in the A+ comparison chart of a top selling item to drive additional traffic*
❏ Premium A+ Comparison Table: Include new item in the A+ comparison chart of a top selling item to show Price, and
Reviews
❏ Video additions: Include a video via Upload and Manage Videos
❏ Brand Story: Tell your Brand story across all of the products in your Brand. Add your logo, brand picture, brand
description, and answer questions about your brand. Content displays in a new section above the A+ Content*
❏ 360 View: This feature helps bridge the gap between the physical and digital worlds by enabling customers to interact
with products in a more direct way. Review the requirements with your Account Manager*
❏ 3D Model (Select Categories): Provide an engaging 3D and augmented reality experiences (View in 3D, View in Your
Room, AR virtual try-on for shoes, AR virtual try-on for eyewear, and showroom) where customers can visualize and
interact with products. Review the requirements with your Account Manager*

Keyword Optimization
❏ Review Brand Analytics to find highest ranked search terms within the category*
❏ Sponsored Products: Add applicable best performing search terms from Sponsored Products reports
❏ Analyze best-selling ASINs within the category to find applicable keywords in the detail pages to replicate
searchability. Contact your Account Manager to get additional search terms to add

Pricing Strategy
❏ Decide on pricing strategy: value based vs. cost based vs. competitor based pricing
❏ Set Automated pricing in place if you have a competitor pricing strategy
❏ Forecasting deals strategy: Analyze if product would be included in coupon or deal strategies in the future to set the
initial pricing to define the best margin

Note: Steps or programs with a (*) are exclusive to brand owners

 New Product Launch – Best Practices

Inventory Management
❏ FBA: Create shipment to Amazon Fulfillments centers (Prepare shipment to Amazon)
❏ Check on inventory: Ensure inventory is at the Fulfillment center and is in “available” state on Seller Central
❏ MFN/SFP: Ensure the inventory is available in your US warehouse and is in “available” state on Seller Central
❏ FBA New Selection Program – Earn discounts on monthly storage fees, removal/disposal fees, C-return processing fees and
inbound costs when for eligible ASINs new to FBA (Research eligibility here)
❏ SIPP Program (formerly SIOC) – offers sellers that use FBA the opportunity to test and qualify products to ship in their own
custom-brand packaging without any Amazon-added material and reducing the costs associated with fulfillment

Stage 3: Launch
Traffic Driver Strategy
❏ Set up a “New Products“ section in brand store and drive traffic to ASIN directly from storefront (see Advertising
Strategy)
❏ Opportunity Explorer (OX): Feature to help discover relevant keywords that customers are searching
❏ Vine: generate reviews from Amazon’s best reviewers using Amazon Vine

• Get trusted reviews on your products within days and without sales
• Drive traffic and improve conversion - 90% of customers read and use reviews when making a purchase
decision
• Better understand your customers
• Vine Pricing Tiers:
o $0 (new tier) - Enroll 1 to 2 units per parent ASIN and get up to 2 Vine reviews for free
o $75 (new tier) - Enroll 3 to 10 units per parent ASIN and get up to 10 Vine reviews
o $200 (existing tier) - Enroll 11 to 30 units per parent ASIN and get up to 30 Vine reviews

Advertising Strategy
❏ Advertising Timeline: Request Launching a new product on Amazon PDF from Account Manager
- 90 Days: Kick-off strategic planning
- 60 Days: Align on and establish launch goals
- 30 Days: Prepare for Campaign launch(es)
• +1 Month (always on): Improve search discoverability through budget & keyword optimization (Did our efforts
help enhance discoverability of your product?)
• +1 to +5 Months: Generate awareness of launch through investing in high-impact awareness solutions to
educate customers (Are customers aware and actively engaging with your brand?)
• +6 Months+: Remarket and Grow your base through modifying audience segments to reach new & existing
customers (Were we able to reach new and existing customers and grow long term sales?)
❏ Sponsored Products: create an automatic campaign to gather search terms and run it for at least 3 weeks (to collect
enough data) and then move good performing keywords to a manual campaign
❏ Sponsored Brands: include new product next to top performing ASINs in Sponsored Brands campaign. Ensure ASIN is
included in the brand store in a “New products” section and drive traffic directly*
❏ Sponsored Brands + Video: create a campaign to promote new product through a video*
❏ Sponsored Display: create Sponsored Display campaigns to reach audiences wherever they are in their purchasing
journey - on or off Amazon.
❏ Store Spotlight: Sponsored Brands now allows you to feature Store pages in your creative, helping shoppers more
easily discover the different product categories available within your Store. You can showcase up to three Store
subpages in your Sponsored Brands campaign and you can customize the headline along with the sub-page image and
label.
❏ Use Amazon Live to drive additional shoppable traffic on Amazon.com and livestream placements (managed and self-
service options available)

Note: Steps or programs with a (*) are exclusive to brand owners

 New Product Launch – Best Practices

❏ Create keywords that drive brand awareness, education, and purchases through the use of both branded and
unbranded keywords.
❏ Ensure social media ad campaigns are in place (Facebook Ads, Twitter Ads, Pinterest Ads)
❏ Use Amazon Attribution to measure the impact of off-Amazon traffic channels*
❏ Connect with the Advertising AE to learn more about OTT packages
• Contact your CSM if you are unsure of you designated Advertising AE

Stage 4: Post-Launch
Merchandising Strategy
❏ Buy One Get One: promote the new product through an existing popular product creating a Buy One Get One
promotion
• Set up a limited-time, "buy one (or many) get one free" offer to spotlight a new product or to get your current
customers to buy differently
❏ Coupons: Create a coupon discount to drive traffic through banner visibility
• Standard Coupons: Allow you to offer discounts on any products that meet our quality criteria
• Subscribe and save coupons: Allow you to offer discounts to customers on products that are enrolled in
Subscribe & Save, only applies to first delivery (FBA & SnS ASINs)
• Reorder and save coupons: Allow you to offer discounts to customers who previously purchased your products
but have not reordered within the expected time
❏ Deal: Create a deal to improve ASIN conversion rate (i.e. Lightning Deal/7 Day Deal)
❏ Prime Exclusive Discounts, Price discount that is available to Prime members
❏ Social media promo codes: Create a custom promo code and receive a unique marketing page to share with
customers through social media, emails, or influencer marketing
❏ Brand Referral Bonus: Earn 10% of product sales via non-Amazon marketing efforts (i.e. Facebook, IG)
❏ Events: We’ll collaborate to get ASIN(s) into relevant upcoming events/campaigns

Marketing Strategy
❏ Anything in the Buy Box: Account Manager to add - customers can select and add these to their cart at the time of
purchasing the base ASIN. The base ASIN can be a top selling item or complementary product
❏ Manage Your Experiments (A/B Testing): Run statistical experiments on changes to two separate listings of an ASIN to
validate the best customer experience option and experience in the short term
❏ Virtual Bundles: Sell bundles of complementary FBA items without packaging them together. These “virtual bundles”
help customers discover and buy more products from your brand*
❏ Amazon Associates: create a submission to get product featured in Associates Newsletter. Contact Account Manager
to get requirements and process description. Create a Social media promo code or deal to increase chances to get
inclusion in the newsletter*
❏ Influencers: look for trending influencers within the industry, analyze if they are a good fit for your brand and send a
brief, concise and memorable message including key information that would catch their attention and sell your brand
❏ Brand Tailored Promotions: With a brand following base of 1,000 or more, create tailored promotions for different
audience cohorts (i.e. high spend customers, recent customers, repeat customers, cart abandoners)

Stage 5: Expansion
❏ Amazon Global Selling: List on other International Marketplaces through
❏ Amazon FBA Export: make your inventory available for customers in global Marketplaces

Additional resources:
❏ Launching a new product on Amazon (PDF – request from AM)
❏ Title guidelines from Amazon: https://sellercentral.amazon.com/gp/help/GYTR6SYGFA5E3EQC
❏ Product detail guidelines

Note: Steps or programs with a (*) are exclusive to brand owners

 New Product Launch – Best Practices

❏ Image guidelines
❏ Best practices: VSE – SellingPartners – Value of Video.pdf
❏ Create Successful new products with Opportunity Explorer
❏ Pricing Strategies to Accelerate Your Sales
❏ Deep Dive: Search Analytics Insights

Note: Steps or programs with a (*) are exclusive to brand owners