After talking to numerous sellers and through my own personal shopping experiences on mobile devices, it is clear that the mobile experience can often be an afterthought. That's a mistake. Almost two-thirds of US consumers use mobile to shop, according to research released by the CTA earlier this year.
With the Amazon marketplace, the number is likely higher. A few years ago, more than 70% of Amazon customers shopped via a mobile device during the holiday season. Bottom line: the mobile experience should be a number one priority.
What typically happens is that businesses look at listings on their desktop computers. They only review the mobile experience when at home or on the road using their tablet or cellphone. Often that is not to review their own listings but to do some personal shopping. Although the Amazon shopping app is far from perfect, it is growing at a rapid pace and will continue to advance.
For those that shop on the Amazon marketplace via mobile you will see that the experience is very different from desktop shopping. The order in which data appears on the product detail page is different and the amount of data shown is limited. Take a look at the following:
While in most categories you are able to use up to 200 characters, only up to 70 characters will be displayed on the search results page on a cellphone and up to 150 on a tablet at landscape view.* This means brands need to ensure their title has all the information they want the customer to see within these 70-150 characters. The 200 characters in the title will still appear on the product detail page, but the seller needs to entice the customer first to click on the product from the search results page
Similar to the product titles, on mobile, the descriptions are cut short. On the desktop, you can have up to 2000 characters, but on a cellphone, only the first 200 will be displayed (slightly more on a tablet). A brand must ensure the first few lines of the description are compelling and summarize the key selling features of the product.
The ordering on mobile is also different. On the desktop, the product description is hidden further down the product page below the features. On mobile, it appears at the top of the page below the image and above the features. This gives the product description greater visibility and makes it more important that this text is optimized.
For those that have created A+ Content, the same applies. The first couple of lines of the text that is written on these pages will be what appears in the 200 characters of the product description on mobile.
On the Amazon marketplace, you can have up to five bullet points and in some categories even seven when selling as a vendor. On a mobile device, only the first three bullets will appear. The five are still there to view but the customer needs to click on them to view all features. The order of the bullet points is crucial, and brands must make sure the best features are included in the first three bullets.
On Amazon product pages you can have several additional images. However, the downside of mobile is that the thumbnails are not visible, and so there is the expectation that the customer knows to swipe left on the image to view all others. Unfortunately, there is no go-around apart from ensuring the main image is the best it can be.
If a seller has a video on a product listing, it will be hidden among the product images. Again, the hope is that the customer will scroll through the images and get to the end to view the video. One plus point about the mobile experience is Amazon Video Shorts. These have a great position on mobile, appearing just below the product description and features. Video is becoming more popular, and brands should be thinking about how they can create their own video shorts to enhance their product listing.
The ability to scroll on a cellphone and tablet is easier than on a desktop. Although the customer questions and customer reviews appear towards the lower part of the product detail page, they are still easy to scroll to. It is really important that the seller has a process in place to manage customer questions and negative reviews. A brand that cares and engages with its audience by responding to questions and reviews goes a long way. Editor's note: Since this article was written, Amazon has removed the ability to comment on reviews.
One last point, Amazon is forever changing and the mobile experience will continue to grow. What is happening now on mobile may be different tomorrow. Sellers must make sure they are continuing to monitor the experience and enhancements Amazon continues to make.
* Note the number of characters may vary slightly depending on the brand of the device being used.
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