In Canada, when you get a winning lottery ticket scanned at the terminal, a robotic voice loudly proclaims: ‘Winner! Gagnant!’ It makes you feel pretty excited, even if you’ve only won a few dollars. And that’s because winning feels great. Unfortunately, you don’t get the same instant gratification on Amazon because things take a little longer, but you can still win with your FBA product packaging and inserts and FeedbackExpress will show you how.
First, Make Sure You’re In Accordance With Amazon’s Product Packaging Requirements
Amazon’s packaging and prep requirements can seem pretty strict, but once you get accustomed to doing it a certain way, you also learn where you can imprint your own personal style. They do it this way for a couple reasons:
- They need to make sure the package has met with their prep and safety requirements
- They need to know the product is suitable for their fulfilment process
- And they need to know they can fulfil their end of the A-to-z promise to buyers
It’s this last point that’s perhaps most important. If you package your products well, then you can protect the item from damage while it’s in transit. I received a present from my Secret Santa this past Christmas that hadn’t been shipped via FBA and one piece of it arrived broken. Merry Christmas to me.
But good packaging also goes beyond that. When you package things just right, you avoid making the whole thing look too cheap or too costly/wasteful. If you’re still wondering how to get things just so, read on!
Rethink the Way You Approach Product Packaging
This is the perfect time to stop using only brown or plain packaging and dress things up a bit. Brown packaging is boring. And it’s what everyone else is doing. This is your time to step apart from the crowd and make a name for yourself.
Step 1: Register With Amazon Brand Registry
If you’ve got your own brand, send Amazon images of the product and packaging with your trademarked brand name on it. If it’s not on one, it has to be on the other.
Registering also means you get total ownership over the product listing — nobody else can change it and, more importantly, nobody else can get the Buy Box for it. So, register!
Step 2: Follow the Rules on Branded Products and Packaging
When you put your brand name on a product, you might be tempted to add your website’s URL to it, too.
It might not be the smartest idea to do so.
Amazon has a primer on what constitutes circumventing their sales process, and including a URL kinda falls under that. However, you still see some sellers doing it. It’s a bit of a grey area, so we’re going to play it safe and recommend that you don’t include your site’s URL. Besides, if you’ve done a good job of marketing in other areas, you shouldn’t have to include the URL on the packaging to still drive traffic.
Step 3: Get Your Brand’s Tone Across on the Packaging
Have you seen how Trident gum packages their products? Or Bitty Bakery Box? Or Whitebites, Fruits Toilet Paper and noté headphones? Each brand has cleverly merged their tone with their packaging to create very cool products.
Step 4: Use Product Inserts to Creatively Ask For Feedback
Getting feedback from buyers is one of the toughest parts of selling on Amazon. Once buyers receive their item, they tend to think of the whole process as being done — except you still need their review! Including an insert with your brand’s logo and colours on it, with a witty request for feedback will up your chances of getting it significantly.
Note: Sellers can include a thank you and a reminder to leave a review but are not allowed to include incentives or discounts for doing so.
How to Win at Amazon Feedback
Even after you’ve done all this, it’s still important to use FeedbackExpress to cover any gaps in the process. Think of it as diversifying your stock portfolio: you never want to put all your eggs in one basket, and having us on your side is a way of making sure you’ve got all the angles covered. But it only works when you sign up — and when you do, you start off with the first 14 days free.
