It may seem like a no brainer that reviews are critical to your brand performance on Amazon. But just how critical they are may surprise you.
The only bigger shock? There’s no such animal as an ideal CVR (conversion rate.)
The Myth of the Perfect CVR
Conversions are defined by any number of variables. Some of those variables can include competitive offerings, product cost, product type, location, devices, traffic source, site performance, cart abandonment and platform.
While a recent study from Ruler Analytics found that the average CVR across fourteen major industries was 3.3%, other analysts report average eCommerce CVRs generally fall between 2.5% to 3%.
And both those numbers are substantially more than the historic 1.5% CVR benchmark eCommerce brands have historically strived for. And substantially less than the much vaunted ideal of 15% that some advertising gurus tell you is an achievable goal.
Much of that will depend on both your brand niche as well as market saturation. And the smaller the niche, the greater your potential of high sales performance.
But conversions aren’t solely about increasing sales. A conversion is an action—and in eCommerce, all actions will have a value that’s entirely subjective. That value is contingent on both your needs and your vision as well as the scalability of your business, regardless of how seemingly airtight your sales funnel appears to be.
Calculating your CVR and measuring on Amazon
Calculating your CVR is formulaic. But it’s an incredibly simple formula, and one which is easy to remember: conversion rate = orders/number of visits x 100 percent.
Measuring your CVRs on Amazon is even simpler.
After logging in to Seller Central, navigate to Reports and click on Business Reports
Navigate the top menu bar to Detailed Page Sales and Traffic Reports by Child Item, or Detailed Page Sales and Traffic Reports by Parent for a more in depth look at all variables in your product lines
On your Sales and Traffic Report, your CVR will be listed under Order Item Session Percentage (Note that this row can only give you a rate based on all products currently listed. To obtain a rate for individual SKUs, choose the by ASIN option.)
How Reviews on Amazon Impact CVRs
It might seem obvious that the higher your review ratings on Amazon, the higher your CVR will be. And there’s certainly some evidence to suggest that.
Some very strong evidence.
One recent study found that increasing a star rating of 3 to 5 on Amazon resulted in a CVR increase of 12% while a separate analysis found a click-share decrease of 11% if a star rating changed from as little as 4.5 to 4.4.
Those aren’t insignificant numbers. But reviews alone aren’t the sole motivator that impacts your Amazon CVR.
Keyword Demand. A+ content. Pricing. Advertising. Badges. Buy Box eligibility. All of these will impact your Amazon CVR in both subtle and dramatic ways. That’s largely because visibility will be the first step in establishing a healthy sales funnel on Amazon.
Visibility = awareness. Awareness + consideration = purchasing potential. It’s not rocket science. Positive reviews can enhance and augment every step of your sales funnel, leading to a healthy CVR.
Likewise, negative reviews will affect your overall CVR, with a 2022 survey from independent analytical firm ReviewTrackers indicating that 94 percent of consumers will specifically avoid a purchase as a result of negative reviews.
You can’t escape negative reviews. And Amazon won’t remove them for you. In some ways, that’s a good thing. They can provide you with direct insight into areas of both your product and your customer service that failed to meet customer expectations. Your business on Amazon is a learning experience, and one which isn’t always pleasant.
But how can you turn those negative insights into an opportunity to increase your CVR?
What is the Amazon Product Opportunity Explorer?
Amazon’s Product Opportunity Explorer is a tool available through Seller Central which provides brands with weekly data on product demand, customer search patterns, visibility and competitive analysis.
It refreshes information every seven days, helping sellers understand where their product lines are fulfilling customer demand and where they’re falling short, allowing them to tap into potential opportunities to expand and gain traction in visibility.
The Product Opportunity Explorer dashboard is customizable, helping you to visualize and understand product seasonality, historical average price, and performance over time. It allows you to filter by volume change range to understand both product sales growth and decline, as well as create new filters including search volume, high clicks and average prices for both brand and individual products—including your competitors.
It can also help you understand and learn from reviews and ratings.
Review analysis using Amazon Product Opportunity Explorer
More importantly, Product Opportunity Explorer provides direct insight into the impact of both positive and negative reviews on their CVR by providing customer review snippets. These snippets can be organized into positive and negative sentiment, topic and number of mentions, as well as highlighting overall trends in customer reviews.
Reviews can be analyzed at both parent and child ASINs, including insights divided by topic and subtopic for each level. For each, you can see the category’s median percentage as well as your own, allowing you to discover both your shortcomings in meeting customer expectations as well as your potential for growth and improvement.
The Bottom Line
Selling on Amazon isn't always a question of having an established brand. Or even fulfilling a need. It's about learning how to market your brand effectively, as well.
Reviews and feedback will impact your CVR, positively and negatively. And both can give you a new perspective on your business.
But as critical as it is, increasing your CVR shouldn’t be your sole purpose for selling on Amazon. Your purpose should be defined ultimately on your potential to grow and understand both your limits and adaptability to growth.
CVRs are never stagnant and there’s no such thing as an invariable conversion rate.
Your business should be neither stagnant nor invariable, as well.
Color More Lines helps you to understand the impact of feedback and conversions on Amazon to help you grow faster. Find out more at Color More Lines
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