Amazon’s Choice vs Amazon Bestseller

Luckily to help answer these pressing questions, our online arbitrage experts at SourceMogul are here to help. We’ll run through the differences between the two badges, what you need to do to achieve them and what difference they can make to your Amazon FBA business.

What is the difference between the Amazon’s Choice and Bestseller badge?

Before we start to dig down on how to achieve either of these badges, it’s important that we understand the difference between the two. Products which are awarded either of the badges will often take prime position at the top of category pages, and for your Amazon FBA business to be a success this is where you’ll need your products to sit. Let’s take a look at each of these badges a little more closely.

What is the Amazon’s Choice Badge?

The Amazon’s Choice badge is a label that Amazon applies to specific products that they believe score highly on a selection of different criteria. It’s there to make purchasing decisions easier for customers by showing them which products Amazon sees as being better quality or that best match their search.

Amazon say the following about the Amazon’s Choice badge:

“Amazon’s Choice makes it easy to discover products that other customers frequently choose for similar shopping needs. Products highlighted as Amazon’s Choice are highly rated, well-priced, and available to ship immediately. They are also, on average, delivered faster and returned less frequently than alternative products.”

One of the key things to note with the Amazon’s Choice badge is that products that hold it are the ones most likely to appear in Alexa shopping results. This is one of the reasons the badge was developed in the first place, as it helped to simplify the results that Alexa shopping would display based on a particular search query. With more people using Alexa shopping nowadays, getting the Amazon’s Choice badge is a great way of getting your Amazon FBA products in front of this specific audience.

The Amazon’s Choice badge is decided by an algorithm, and is primarily based on the keywords used to search for the product in the first place. Meaning your product could technically hold multiple Amazon’s Choice badges for different keywords it’s relevant to.

Other than this Amazon doesn’t say exactly what the criteria to get this badge is, they do give us an indication of the types of things the algorithm looks out for which we’ll look into below.

How to win the Amazon’s Choice Badge

Out of the two badges, this one is slightly more mysterious because the exact criteria for how to get one hasn’t been officially published by Amazon, however we’ve put together a list of tips which should help you stand a better chance of getting one allowing you keep ahead of your competitors.

Understand your keywords

This is probably the most important tip to win the Amazon’s Choice badge. Afterall one of the main deciding factors of who gets this badge is how your product matches the search terms shoppers are searching for when trying to find products. You need to do your research and understand the different queries (or keywords) customers are using to find this type of product allowing you to better optimize your product listings.

Optimize your product listings

A well-optimized product listing with accurate descriptions, high quality images, and relevant keywords can all contribute to earning the Amazon’s Choice badge. Because this badge is given to products which match specific search queries, you need to give Amazon as many signals as possible that your product fits the bill.

By including a title that includes direct matches for your main keywords, descriptions which include long form variants of your keywords and accurate product images, shows to Amazon that your product is relevant for the searches. Read our guide on optimizing your Amazon product listings for more tips.

Look at the competition

Unfortunately there’s one seller on Amazon that you’re never going to be able to beat – Amazon itself. If Amazon has their own brand of a particular product it’s unlikely they’re ever going to recommend yours as the Amazon’s Choice. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t still sell your product in that category and optimize it as well as possible. It just means you shouldn’t put all your efforts into scoring that badge.

Positive Customer Reviews

There’s no easier way for Amazon to tell whether the products you’re selling are better quality than other similar products for sale than by looking at genuine product reviews from customers that have already purchased your product. Products that have more positive reviews show that you’re selling a higher quality product that matches the needs of your customer and is more likely to receive the Amazon’s Choice badge. This is why it’s really important that you try and get positive reviews from your customers whenever you can.

Good product availability

Amazon wants its customers to be able to get the products they want as quickly as possible. Therefore to have the best chance of winning the Amazon’s Choice badge, it’s really important that your product stays in stock. If the products you’re selling are frequently unavailable you’re unlikely to be considered for the badge.

Give flexibility with your shipping options

Similar to keeping your products in stock, you should make sure your customers have got the most available options to get their orders delivered to them. If you can offer your customer Prime delivery options, you’re also more likely to get the Amazon’s Choice badge. If you’re using FBA, you’ll already have Prime availability. If you’re not using FBA, you can still get Prime but it’ll be harder.

Keep your pricing competitive

Competitive pricing can play a role in earning the Amazon’s Choice badge, especially if you’re selling a product from a popular category like mobile phone accessories. Products that offer good value for their price are more likely to be recommended.

Keep your return rate low

A sure fire sign that you’re not selling a good quality product is based on the number of returns you get. Products with a lower rate of returns are more likely to receive the badge, as this indicates that customers are generally satisfied with their purchase and don’t need to return them.

What is the Amazon Bestseller Badge?

The Amazon Bestseller badge is awarded to products which consistently generate high sales based on the relevant category they are in. Amazon calculates this based on historical sales of that product. This badge is really useful to customers because it acts as a type of social proof, by showing them products which are popular with similar customers to themselves.

Up to one hundred sellers can get the Amazon Bestseller badge, so you stand a relatively good chance of getting this badge if you manage to keep up high rates of reliable sales. One important thing to remember with this badge is that it gets updated regularly, and by regularly, we mean every hour, based on sales volume.

Amazon is constantly tracking sales data and if sales of your product slow down and another seller starts shipping more than you, it’s likely you’ll lose your Bestseller badge and have to re-earn it again.

Okay, so that all seems pretty clear, but unfortunately as with many things related to online arbitrage, it’s not always that simple. Luckily our experts at SourceMogul are here to help.  Let’s take a look at the best ways you can improve your chances of winning the Bestsellers badge.

How to win the Amazon Bestseller Badge

Like we say, the easiest way to get this badge is by consistently selling more of your product than anyone else, so how do you do that? Here’s our tips for staying in the top spot.

Choose the correct category for your product

You will find that certain categories are going to be much harder to win the best seller badge in than others. For example, if you’re selling sweaters, you might be tempted to list your product in the general “clothing” category. However the competition here is fierce, so you’ll have a better chance of getting the badge if you list it in a less competitive category, such as “cardigans”.

It’s worth noting that you shouldn’t try to cheat with the categories. What do we mean by cheat? You might be tempted to list your product in a category with less competition, even if it has a tenuous link to the type of product you’re selling. For example you might be selling an orange sweatshirt, but list it in the high visibility clothing category. Although this may technically be true (who could miss an orange sweatshirt?) it doesn’t match the intent of the products customers are looking for in the category. This means they are more likely to skip your product in favor of another which will affect the overall conversion rate of that product making it appear less popular than it should.

Keep your pricing competitive

In a crowded market place, it’s a fact of life that the cheapest product will stand a better chance of selling. This doesn’t mean that you should sell your products cheaper if it makes them unprofitable, but it might just mean it takes longer for your product to sell and less likely to get the Bestseller badge straight away.

Optimize your product listing

As with the Amazon’s Choice badge, making sure your product is correctly optimized is going to be the key to helping it sell. After all, a product with minimal information on it is going to be less appealing to customers than one with a full range of helpful information. Remember you should still optimize your product for the keywords you think are most relevant to your product.

Use an online arbitrage tool

Like we said above, pricing is key to selling your product, so it’s no point stocking your inventory with items that you’re going to have a hard time selling because the pricing isn’t competitive enough. This is where SourceMogul can really help you out.

SourceMogul is a product sourcing tool which lets you quickly and easily identify products which can be purchased from retailers that you can sell at a higher price on Amazon. It has a helpful set of inbuilt analytics which let you discover the sales rate of particular items and allows you to quickly and easily calculate sales tax and fees, so you can have a better idea of your product margins. Using SourceMogul is a great way of finding the products that are going to make you the most profit, fast.

Amazon’s Choice vs. Bestseller: Which is better?

So now we understand what you need to do to get these badges, which is the better one to have? To be honest, there’s no clear answer to this question, because both badges are worth having and will help boost your sales. In an ideal world, you’d have both badges for your products, but realistically this is difficult to achieve. So at a push, the Bestseller badge is probably going to be better for you in the long run. But why?

Well, for a start your Bestseller badge follows your product regardless of the category that it appears in, whereas the Amazon’s Choice badge will only appear in the search results for the keywords it’s most relevant for. This means your Bestseller badge will help increase your sales regardless of where it appears on Amazon, which can only be a good thing.

It is worth mentioning that both of these badges may be difficult to achieve when doing online arbitrage. Both badges rely on you being able to maintain consistency of sales of a particular product and because online arbitrage is based around you finding small parcels of stock a good price to resell on Amazon, you may struggle to compete against other sellers that may have a more consistent supply of inventory, such as people using a wholesale model.

That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try to get them. Your best course of action is to follow the tips we’ve listed above, so at the very least you will know  your products have the best chance of selling on Amazon regardless of whether you have a badge or not.

Frequently asked questions

Why did I lose my Amazon’s Choice badge?

There are multiple ways you can lose your Amazon’s Choice badge. If your item repeatedly goes out of stock, starts receiving a series of bad reviews or becomes more expensive versus other listings, you’re more likely to lose your Amazon’s Choice badge. By following the advice in this guide, you stand the best chance of keeping it.

Are Amazon’s Choice products better?

Products with the Amazon’s Choice badge give a good indication that a particular product has more positive reviews, a lower return rate and is competitively priced when compared to other similar products. This could suggest it is more likely to be better quality than other products in that category. However, this doesn’t mean they’re the best, it could just mean a better product hasn’t met the criteria to get the badge yet.

Are there other badges available on Amazon?

Yes, Amazon has a range of badges available for products alongside the Amazon’s Choice and Bestseller badge, including the Amazon New Release Badge, Amazon Prime Badge and Amazon Climate Pledge Friendly Badge. All of these badges have a different set of criteria that you have to meet before you can be awarded one.

In Conclusion

Both the Amazon’s Choice Badge and Amazon Bestseller badge are excellent additions to any product you’re selling on Amazon. It doesn’t mean you won’t be able to sell your product if you don’t have one, but if you can get one they could be the key to the success of your Amazon FBA business.

You should always aim to actively optimize your product listings based on the way your customers are searching for those products, keep your pricing competitive, and most importantly use an online arbitrage tool such as SourceMogul to make finding your next profitable product quicker and easier.

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