Amazon to De-List Products From Search Whose Titles Do Not Comply With Product Title Requirements
Shopify Introduces Own Fulfillment Network
June 21, 2019Product title and product image are the first two things that a customer sees when browsing Amazon, so it is essential that these two attributes are looking as good as possible. When one of these two attributes is lacking, whether a shortened title or a lousy product image, you end up losing sales. And if there is one thing Amazon hates more than anything, it's losing out on potential profit.
With this in mind, Amazon is doing what it can to programmatically force sellers to whip their listings into shape with the threat of de-listing products from search if seller's product titles do not follow Amazon's title guidelines.
Starting July 22, 2019, Amazon will suppress ASINs from Amazon Search whose titles do not comply with Amazon’s product title requirements. This is because our research shows that the ASIN titles that violate our policies result in poor customer experience. Please review Amazon’s Product Title Requirements prior to July 15, 2019 to verify that your current titles meet our guidelines.
There is definitely a science around the creation of a title that converts on Amazon, and Amazon has provided some foundational guidelines for where to start. Below is what Amazon recommends a seller considers when creating their product titles:
Length
Use 50 characters maximum as a general rule. However some product categories allow longer titles, so be sure to follow category-specific instructions.
Capitalization:
- Capitalize the first letter of each word.
- Do not use ALL CAPS.
- Conjunctions (and, or, for) and articles (the, a, an) should not be capitalized.
- Don't capitalize prepositions with fewer than five letters (in, on, over, with).
Numbers and symbols:
- Use numerals (2 instead of two)
- Spell out measurements ( 6 inches not 6" )
- Don't use symbols, such as ~ ! * $ ?
- Don't use Type 1 High ASCII characters (Æ, ©, ô, etc.)
Product information:
- Include the size and color in "child" ASINs for variations
- Don't include price or promotional messages, such as "sale" or "free ship"
- Don't use subjective commentary, such as "Hot Item" or "Best Seller"
- Your merchant name for Brand or Manufacturer information should not be included, unless your product is Private Label
To make things more complicated, not only does your Amazon title need to follow these guidelines, but your product labels that are being shipped into Amazon fulfillment centers need to contain the exact same product title or they may not be accepted by Amazon
This change is likely going to cause a lot of short term anguish within the seller community as seller's will likely not only need to make updates on Amazon's title, but will also need to make updates throughout all of their own internal systems as well.
Drawbridge Marketing specializes in helping Amazon sellers increase their speed, efficiency, and ultimately sales through the optimization of sales and marketing processes. If you are in need of assistance in making changes to your systems to accomodate this or any change from Amazon, please feel free to drop us a line.
