Restoring an Item to Its Browse Node via a Variation Strategy
What We’re Celebrating:
We identified a variation strategy that helped our client’s top seller get reinstated in its browse node. This resulted in:
The top seller regaining the best seller badge it held previously
The other items in the variation also earning best seller badges
The top seller’s sales increasing +12%
The top seller’s market share increasing +15bps
Overview:
A client’s top-selling product on Amazon was mysteriously dropped from its browse node, resulting in the item losing its sales rank and best seller badge. This was unusual because it wasn’t a case of lost sales or ad space causing the item to move down in the category – it appeared to be a technical issue that removed the item from the category entirely.
To ensure we weren’t missing out on critical sales, GO knew we had to do whatever it took to restore the item within its category and get the best seller flag back. After testing various tactics, we identified a variation strategy that helped us achieve this goal and more.
The Challenge:
The brand’s highest-selling item suddenly being removed from its category was an unprecedented occurrence for our team, meaning we had to do trial and error before finding the correct solution.
Though the top item was still available for purchase, it didn’t have the same visibility as when it had the best seller badge, meaning we needed to adjust our advertising approach to maintain its relevancy in the category as we worked to fix the problem.
The Strategy:
With this being uncharted waters for our team, we had to be persistent and attempt several things to get the item reinstated in the category:
Opened dozens of cases in Vendor Central and Brand Registry requesting to add the item back into the browse node.
Broke the item’s variation, thinking that separating it from other items might help.
Audited backend keywords for any terms that may be restricted.
Submitted item set-up sheets multiple times to try to reset the ASIN.
When these attempts were unfruitful, we began discussing variation strategies to see if that would be the key to getting back into the category. On Amazon, pairing an item with a parent ASIN or several ASINs results in combined browse node rankings. With this in mind, we theorized that variating the top seller with similar items would cause it to adopt the variation’s ranking and get reinstated in its original category. We initially contemplated variating this item with high-velocity ASINs, but we scrapped the idea because we were concerned the ASINs would not catabolize each other and potentially steal sales from one another. We also wanted to keep the top seller “the face” of its variation and combining it with other superstar ASINs wouldn’t allow for that.
We ultimately decided to re-variate the top-selling item with 3 products it was paired with previously as one of them had a sales ranking, but none were high velocity, meaning the top seller would still stand out and own the digital shelf.
Finally, as we were testing these different solutions and identifying the variation strategy that would be the most optimal, we were concurrently pivoting our ad strategy to mitigate any potential sales decline from the lost best seller badge. We:
Reallocated dollars from secondary items to the top seller to maintain organic relevancy.
Funneled spend to keywords with high search volumes to maintain top-of-search visibility.
Aggressively targeted the competitor detail page that took the best seller badge.
Implemented dayparting to keep ads active throughout the day and take advantage of top sales driving timeframes.
We were confident this approach of directing our investment toward specific, isolated areas would help us maintain market share and share of voice for the item.
The Results:
The same day the new variation went live, the top item was re-added to the category and got its best seller badge back. The other 3 ASINs in the variation now have best seller badges as well.
Additionally, less than one month after the top seller was reinstated in the category, we increased its sales by +12% and market share by +15bps.
Has your product lost its best seller badge on Amazon?
Whether it’s a glitch in Amazon’s system causing you to fall off the browse node or a more typical sales dip that’s making you rank lower in the category, our team has the experience and know-how to restore your product to its former glory. Set up a call with us today.