Amazon Germany Benchmarking Report 2021 - Practicology

© PATTERN INC

Amazon Germany

Benchmarking

Report 2021

Discover Amazon best practice from our analysis of 50

consumer brands selling on the marketplace in Germany

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AMAZON GERMANY REPORT: CONTENTS

About the report

Executive summary P3

Methodology P5

Scoring criteria P6

Ranking: the Top 20 brands P7

Top performers per category P8

Key benchmarks: at a glance P9

The 50 brands we reviewed P12

Best practice examples

Product information P13

Product imagery P19

Brand content P25

Seller proposition & competition P30

Customer service P36

SEO ranking P39

Localisation P41

Our top recommendations P44

About Pattern

Our global footprint P45

Our Amazon Seller model P46

This report was researched and compiled by our

European team including Misha Pabari, Francisca

Schlicht, Torsten Schäfer & Joanna Perry.

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Thanks for downloading our research into the experience

provided by brands selling on Amazon.

This is the second report in our Amazon benchmarking series,

this time analysing the efforts of 50 brands selling on Amazon

in Germany. In the following pages you will find benchmarks

for brands on Amazon.de, plus best practice examples of

listings that will encourage browsers to convert to buyers.

Why we benchmark

As one of the largest sellers on Amazon globally, we use the

benchmarks created from research such as this to optimise

the presence of the brands that we act as the authorised

seller for.

The scorecard we have created to rank each of the 50 brands

is based on a set of criteria that we know impacts on how

easily Amazon’s customers can find and select products they

want. This ultimately determines a brand’s sales performance.

We have picked 50 brands that we don’t sell, from five

categories; and who are in the main doing a good job of

selling on Amazon.

If we included your brand and it did not appear in the overall

top 20, or the top three for your category, that doesn’t mean

you are doing a bad job. But there’s always room to do better.

The results

The top scoring brand – Smart Home brand Philips Hue –

achieved 70% of the total marks available in our scoring

system. The lowest achieved 34%. In comparison, in our

previous benchmarking study of brands selling on

Amazon.co.uk, the top scoring brand received 73%, and the

lowest scoring brand just 19%.

The scorecard analysis shows that even brands with a

relatively strong presence on Amazon.de could improve their

sales performance further with relatively simple changes. ►

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Overall, the average score for a brand in this report was 60%,

and the average score for each of the five categories was:

• Smart Home – 65%

• Baby – 63%

• Home & Kitchen – 59%

• Tools – 57%

• Home appliances – 56%

There was a smaller difference in performance at a category

level than for the UK report, likely as the categories chosen

were less diverse in this study.

Areas of focus for optimisation

Significant improvements could be made to the product

information and imagery provided by many of the brands

reviewed. Only six of the 50 brands analysed were making

proper use of the product bullet points that allow features and

functionality of a product to be highlighted. Similarly, only 11

of the 50 brands were using simple text on secondary images

for all products, to call out product details.

The number of brands with many third-party sellers offering

the same products was extremely high. While competition can

be good for consumers, it also creates the risk of a poor

perception of the brand. 42% of brands had an average of six

or more sellers on their top three listings.

Finally, customer service is another overlooked area which

can impact how well a product listing converts; as poor

reviews and unanswered questions are likely to put off

potential customers. 32% of brands didn’t reply to any

customer questions on their listings.

We hope you find the benchmarks and recommendations in

the next 40+ pages of use to optimise your Amazon presence.

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METHODOLOGY

We analysed the presence of 50

consumer brands from a variety of

categories across the German and UK

instances of Amazon. All of the

brands have products listed for sale

directly by Amazon in Germany.

Our scorecard looked for all the key

elements of listings best practice that

are visible to customers. We analysed

three products for each brand, and

averaged the results for each criteria

based on the three product scores.

For the localisation elements, each

brand’s score was based on whether

the products were being sold on the

UK instance of Amazon, and how well

their product information had been

translated to English.

Products were chosen by searching

for brand terms and picking those

which appeared on the first page in

search results, as these are the

products that customers are most

likely to be clicking on.

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SCORING CRITERIA: WHAT WERE WE LOOKING FOR?

During the reviews of brands selling on Amazon.de we were particularly looking for:

• Product information – We checked for relevant, detailed and uniform information on product pages, but also how well product information had been optimised to best-practice standards.

• Product imagery – We assessed whether image stacks adhered to Amazon’s guidelines and added value to the product information on the page.

• Brand content – We judged how well the content on Amazon represents each brand’s story and pedigree.

• Ratings & Reviews – We calculated each brand’s Average Review Rating and evaluated customer service management on listings.

• Seller proposition & competition – We judged brands on their fulfilment offering and the average number of resellers on their listings, as more sellers can be confusing for customers. We also looked at competition on two Amazon advertising types: Sponsored Brands and Sponsored Products.

• SEO & Keyword Analysis – We researched how prominently each brand appeared in organic search results for its brand term.

• Localisation – We evaluated whether each brand was listing the same products on Amazon.de and Amazon.co.uk, and whether those product listings were being properly translated for the UK market.

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AMAZON GERMANY REPORT: RANKINGS

Category Brand Score

Smart Home Philips Hue 70%

Baby Hauck 69%

Home & Kitchen CASO 68%

Home Appliances iRobot 68%

Smart Home Tado 68%

Home & Kitchen Zwilling 67%

Baby Lässig 67%

Smart Home Steinel 67%

Home & Kitchen Brabantia 66%

Baby Britax 66%

The top ranking brands in our researchThe brands shown here were the

top 20 performers of the 50

brands that we reviewed. For the

full list of brands that we

assessed please see page 12.

If your brand was scored as part

of our research please get in

touch and we would be delighted

to share your full results with you.

If your brand was not included,

then we may still be able to

review it against our scoring

criteria to help benchmark your

Amazon presence. For all

requests contact us at:

[email protected]

Category Brand Score

Smart Home Ei Electronics 66%

Baby BabyBjörn 66%

Home Appliances Melitta 66%

Home Appliances Rowenta 65%

Smart Home Nuki 65%

Home & Kitchen Fissler 64%

Smart Home Homematic IP 64%

Tools Fiskars 64%

Smart Home Smartwares 64%

Baby Cybex 63%

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TOP RANKINGS BY CATEGORY

Brand Score

Hauck 69%

Lässig 67%

Britax 66%

Brand Score

iRobot 68%

Melitta 66%

Rowenta 65%

Brand Score

Philips Hue 70%

Tado 68%

Steinel 67%

Brand Score

CASO 68%

Zwilling 67%

Brabantia 66%

Baby Home & Kitchen

Smart Home

Home Appliances

Tools

Brand Score

Fiskars 64%

Ikra 62%

Wagner 62%

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AMAZON GERMANY: KEY BENCHMARKS

Product

Information

46%had product titles of a

length that is beneficial

for Amazon SEO on all

products

48%kept similar products

rooted under parent ASINs

to enable browsing across

variations

54%provided uniform and

detailed, value adding

information in all product

descriptions

12%added clear, concise and

uniform bullet points to

all of their listings

Brand

Content86%linked to a branded

storefront from all

product listings

86%included A+ content

on all their product

listings

30%of brands had all their

product listings marked

as Amazon’s Choice

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Product Imagery

46%included lifestyle

photographs as

part of their

image stacks for

all products

36%used close-up images

to show product

details and features

for all products

22%added simple text to

secondary images for all

products outlining special

features or dimensions

36%included videos

within all image

stacks

80%had Amazon winning

the Buy Box on all 3

of their top products

96%offered Fulfillment by

Amazon for all the

products we assessed

Seller Proposition & Competition

2%of brands had on

average 0-1 sellers

on their top 3

listings

56%of brands had on

average 2-5 sellers

on their top 3

listings

42%of brands had on

average 6 or more

sellers on their top

3 listings

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8%had a third-party

seller listing for their

brand as the top

search result

92%of the brands

ranked first on their

brand term in

organic search

results

4%of brands had all

three products

appear in the Top 50

Amazon Bestsellers

in their category

Search results ranking on the brand term

SEO

Ranking

94%had an average

review rating of 4*

and above on all their

listings

26%replied to customer

questions

Reviews &

Ratings

66%appeared in all

10 of the top

10 organic

search results

for the brand

34%6-9 listings

0%0-5 listings

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Localisation26%of brands were selling

all the same products

on Amazon in

Germany and in the

UK

46%of brands had

sponsored products

on Amazon.co.uk18%of brands localised all

their product content

to a best-practice

standard

The brands we

reviewed were:

alfi

AVM

BabyBjörn

Bosch Smart

Home

Brabantia

Britax

CASO

Clatronic

Cybex

Ecovacs

Ei Electronics

Fiskars

Fissler

Gedore

Gloria

Graef

Grundig

Hauck

Hazet

Hekatron Vertriebs

Homematic IP

IKRA

iRobot

Julius Zöllner

Jura

Knipex

Lässig

Lurch

Maxi-Cosi

Medela

Melitta

Mepal

Nuki

Philips Hue

Reer

ROBA

Rommelsbacher

Rosle

Rowenta

Smartwares

Stanley Rogers

Steinel

Tado

Venta Luftwäscher

Wagner

Wera

WMF

Wolf-Garten

WORX

Zwilling

© PATTERN INC

PRODUCT

INFORMATION

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WHY PRODUCT INFORMATION MATTERS

Product content determines placement in search results.

Relevant and complete information on product pages helps

brands to increase their products’ visibility in search results

and also sales conversion. Best practice product information

helps customers to find the right product and decide to buy it.

The majority of brands were not delivering best practice

product information on all of their top three product listings.

Just under half of brands (46%) had product titles of a length

suitable for Amazon on all products, but only 12% had an

optimal number of bullet points on all of their products we

checked.

54% provided clear, concise and useful product descriptions

for all of their top three product listings, and the rest on only

some of their listings.

We also encourage the use of product variations on listings, to

cross-sell and up-sell related products, and here brands did

well. 48% of brands utilised best-practice product variations on

all listings, and only 12% made no use of product variations.

Did brands provide useful product descriptions

for their products?

46%Yes, on some

products

54%Yes, on all products

0%On no products

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PRODUCT TITLES

Product titles should be clear, concise and of suitable

length. Including targeted search engine optimised

keywords - such as specific model information - is

recommended to ensure visibility in search results.

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PRODUCT DESCRIPTIONS

Your product description should contribute useful, value-adding

information to your product listing, as shown in this example.

Highlighting special features and sharing your brand story here

can help to reinforce key messaging.

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PRODUCT VARIATIONS

Keeping similar products rooted under

parent ASINs where possible to enable

browsing of product variations is

encouraged. It can help to boost product

discoverability for your brand.

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BULLET POINTS

Bullet points should

highlight your products’

features, advantages and

benefits.

To further assist product

discoverability in non-

branded search results,

we recommend that

brands consider keywords

and terms their

customers typically

search for and ensure

they are included.

© PATTERN INC

PRODUCT

IMAGERY

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WHY PRODUCT IMAGERY MATTERS

Optimising your images on product listings is crucial to drive

conversion on Amazon. Images display on the product search

page as well as the product listings page. High-quality,

attractive imagery will help new customers to discover your

products; and allow you to stand out from the millions of other

listings on the marketplace.

It was pleasing to see that all brands were consistently using

high-quality images. However, none were using the maximum

number of images allowed on all product listings reviewed.

Simple text on secondary images and badges on secondary

images were the most underutilised image features. It was

also disappointing to see only 36% of brands using close-up

images on all products.

We find product videos aid conversion, and 76% of brands

were using them to help sell at least some of their products.

While video is expensive, it is particularly useful for

demonstrating complex and technical products, and therefore

was widely used given the product categories reviewed.

36

46

36

6

22

100

40

42

54

26

36

24

12

10

68

42

0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%

Video

Lifestyle images

Close-up images

Image badges

Text on images

High quality images

How consistent are brands with their use of

product images and video?

All products Some products No products

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CLOSE-UP IMAGERY

Close-up imagery can be a useful tool in aiding purchase decision where customers are unable to physically touch

or try the products beforehand. Here are examples of some of the brands in our research that did this well.

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LIFESTYLE IMAGERY

Including lifestyle imagery within your

image stack is a helpful way to

communicate how your product is used to

potential customers, whilst visually

showcasing your product’s selling points.

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SIMPLE TEXT & BADGING ON SECONDARY IMAGES

Brands should consider adding simple text or graphics that can inform customers of special

features and product dimensions. Equally, adding badging that highlights awards and

certifications to secondary images can help to increase customer confidence in products.

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VIDEO CONTENT

Video content allows shoppers

to receive a large amount of

information quickly. A good

product video will educate

customers, and dive deeper

into what a product can do

and how it works. It should

increase the likelihood that

visitors to the page are

converted to customers, by

answering product questions

they may have.

© PATTERN INC

BRAND

CONTENT

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WHY BRAND CONTENT MATTERS

Branded storefronts allow you to create a dedicated Amazon

URL for prospective customers to shop from. The multi-page

storefront lets you curate brand-specific content to help

shoppers discover your full product selection. 86% of brands in

our research had a branded storefront for all listings reviewed.

A+ Content enables brands to describe product features using

enhanced images and text placements, to reinforce their key

messaging. When used effectively, A+ Content helps a brand to

make a stronger first impression; or reinforce its credentials

with consumers who already have awareness of the brand.

86% of brands also had A+ Content showing on all of their

products we reviewed. A further 12% had A+ Content on some

of their products, and only 2% did not employ A+ Content at all.

The Amazon’s Choice badging also provides further legitimacy

to a brand’s product listings, and is given based on a mixture

of popularity, high review rating and a low returns rate. 92% of

brands had this badge on at least one of their top three

products that we reviewed.

30%

30%

32%

8%

Did the brands have Amazon’s Choice badging for any of

the products we reviewed?

Amazon’s Choice

badge on no

products

Amazon’s Choice

badge on all three

products

Amazon’s Choice

badge on one

product

Amazon’s Choice

badge on two

products

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BRANDED STOREFRONT

Branded storefronts provide a brand-

centric shopping experience for

customers, allowing them to discover

your full product portfolio

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A+ CONTENT

A+ Content integrates aspects

of product descriptions, bullet

points, rich images, and more.

By creating high-quality A+

Content, brands can align brand

messaging with that of other

key sales channels, while

offering customers an

enhanced shopping experience

on the marketplace.

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AMAZON’S CHOICE

The Amazon’s Choice badge helps

with product visibility in search

results, and gives customers more

confidence in purchase choices.

© PATTERN INC

SELLER

PROPOSITION &

COMPETITION

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WINNING THE BUY BOX ON AMAZON

Competition is fierce on Amazon.de with a high number of

third-party sellers. All of the brands we reviewed have products

that are sold directly by Amazon, and we were keen to see how

well brands were competing against third-party sellers who

may also be listing and selling the same products.

The Buy Box on Amazon allows customers to make a quick

purchase without considering who they are buying from. Many

factors contribute to the algorithm that decides who wins the

Buy Box; price is just one. 20% of brands had third parties

winning the Buy Box on at least some of their top three

products.

Offering Fulfilment by Amazon is also important to winning the

Buy Box. For 96% of brands, all of their top three products

were available for Fulfilment by Amazon (whether Amazon was

the seller or not). Not having this fulfilment option for any of

their top three products was only a problem for one of the

brands we reviewed.

How many brands had Amazon winning the Buy

Box on their listings?

18%had Amazon winning

the Buy Box on some,

but not all listings 80%had Amazon

winning the Buy Box

on all 3 listings

2%had Amazon

winning the Buy

Box on no listings

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COMPETITION FROM THIRD-PARTY SELLERS

Many brands on Amazon are

competing against resellers

on their bestselling products.

Having too many resellers on

your product listings can be

damaging to your brand

reputation. Not only this, the

varying pricing, delivery costs

and timing, plus warranty

offered can create a

confusing customer

experience.

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AMAZON ADVERTISING

Having a consumer-focused advertising strategy in place on

the marketplace is essential, especially if Amazon is a major

sales channel for your brand.

We find that Sponsored Products and Sponsored Brands are

the best performing ad types, and can be used target

customers at different stages of their shopper journey.

In doing so, brands can maximise the visibility of their ASINs in

search results to capture more top of the funnel customers, as

well as driving lower funnel conversion.

Our researchers found that there was strong competition

among the brands in our study for Sponsored Brand

placement; with over half (56%) unable to win the top

placement on a branded term search.

Sponsored Products seemed to be even more competitive,

with only 12% of brands being able to secure the top

placement for their branded term in search results.

24 64

56

12

44

0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%

Sponsored Products

Sponsored Brands

How brands fared with Sponsored Brand/Product

placement on a branded term search

Not using this ad type

Competing against other brands for Sponsored Brand/Product placement

Winning the top Sponsored Brand/Product placement

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SPONSORED PRODUCTS

Sponsored Products are

ads that appear in shopping

results and on product

pages on the marketplace.

They help customers to

discover listings and can

highlight your brand or

products to shoppers who

may be searching for

similar items to yours.

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SPONSORED BRANDS

Sponsored Brands reach

customers when they’re

looking for what to buy,

helping you to drive

product awareness.

When used effectively,

they can help to improve

product visibility with

direct links to best selling

products and branded

storefronts.

© PATTERN INC

CUSTOMER

SERVICE

PROPOSITION

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WHY CUSTOMER SERVICE MATTERS

Good reviews are key to building your brand’s reputation on

Amazon. Customer reviews and ratings determine where your

products rank in search results, and help to increase

conversion rates. Amazon previously allowed brands and sellers

to respond to negative reviews, but as this feature has now

been removed it’s even more crucial to ensure product

descriptions are accurate to prevent negative reviews.

Customer questions help you to understand what your

audience wants to understand about your product. You should

consider whether to add information that is requested to your

listings. We recommend that brands address questions

themselves; rather than leaving other customers or third

parties to answer, as they may not give the correct response.

The majority of brands had a customer question on at least one

of the product pages we analysed. However, 32% did not reply

to any customer questions, reducing the likelihood of visitors to

those pages completing a purchase.

26 42 32

0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%

Customer Questions

How many brands responded?

Responded to all Responded to some, but not all Didn't respond

1323The lowest average number of

reviews was for the Tools category

2838The highest average number of

reviews was for the Smart Home

category

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CUSTOMER QUESTIONS & ANSWERS

Customers often ask questions

about products that are crucial

to their purchasing decision.

Answering these questions in a

professional manner can help

to build confidence and trust

from existing and future

customers of the brand.

© PATTERN INC

SEO

RANKING

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FINDABILITY AND ACHIEVING PROMINENCE IN SEARCH RESULTS

While high placement in search results on non-branded terms

can be harder to achieve, every brand should be able to

occupy the top spot for an Amazon search on its own brand

term. The optimal result is for a brand to occupy at least the

top 10 organic results on its brand term; assuming its product

range is large enough for this to be possible.

Some 66% all brands were occupying all top 10 organic

positions with their products when we searched on their brand

term. The rest were occupying between six and nine of the top

10 positions. We also checked how prominent third-party

sellers were in each brands’ top search result. Though there

was much competition from third-party sellers on the listings,

they were winning the Buy Box for the top product in search

results for only 8% of brands.

Appearing in the Top 100 category Bestseller lists on Amazon

shows both that the product will have sold well in the past and

is likely to continue to rank highly in branded and non-branded

search term results in the future.

How many brands had products in the

Bestseller rankings for their category?

18%4%

78%of brands had no products

in the Top 100 Bestsellers

of brands had all products

in the Top 50 Bestsellersof brands had

some products in

the Top 100

Bestsellers

© PATTERN INC

LOCALISATION

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WHY LOCALISATION MATTERS

Amazon’s dominant position for ecommerce sales in several

markets means that many brands consider the marketplace as

a shortcut to internationalisation. This is particularly true for

Europe where it is possible to list products in one market and

have them sold on all seven European instances of Amazon,

with Poland expected to get its own local site soon too.

Accurately translating all product descriptions for each market

– including localised keywords - is crucial to ensure those

products will rank in search results and convert.

We also assessed whether brands were boosting their products

in search results with sponsored listings. Brands were often

paying for product ads, so they appeared at the top of search

results, but were not properly localising the product content in

their listings; to maximise the chance of the consumers

converting once they had clicked through to the product page.

Only 18% of brands localised all product content in the listings

we viewed, but 46% had invested in sponsored product ads.

How well did brands localise their product content?

of brands had not

localised the product

content on their top 3

ASINs

18%of brands localised their

product content to best

practice standards

78%of brands had localised

product content that

could be improved

4%

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WHAT GOOD LOCALISATION LOOKS LIKE

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AMAZON GERMANY REPORT: TOP RECOMMENDATIONS

Based on the findings of our benchmarking study, we would recommend that all brands selling on Amazon.de:

• Implement an ongoing product content optimisation strategy, and ensure that product content drives sales conversion. This should focus on product titles, descriptions and bullet points to aid discoverability in search results and to enhance purchase rates once Amazon customers reach the product page. Insight to amend product content should be drawn from negative reviews and customer questions.

• Enhance your image stacks using close-up photography, simple text and badging to highlight product benefits and attributes, and ensure each image adds value for the customer. Videos should also be considered for complex and technical products that are worthy of demonstration.

• Analyse and optimise your use of Amazon Advertising types for different points of the customer journey.

• Make use of Branded Storefronts and A+ Content – as most brands in our research were doing – to maximise your brand presence on the platform.

• Ensure your Customer Service strategy includes Amazon; so customer questions are promptly dealt with to build trust and maximise sales conversion.

• Regularly inspect listings by third-party sellers, to ensure they are not damaging to your brand’s Amazon presence, and that only sellers legally permitted to sell your products online are doing so.

• Consider working with an authorised third-party seller to manage your Amazon presence and maximise your marketplace sales growth.

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GLOBAL OFFICES

Americas

Lehi, Utah

Europe

London

Munich

Middle East

Dubai

Asia Pacific

Hong Kong

Guangzhou

Shanghai

Australasia

Sydney

Melbourne

DISTRIBUTION

CENTRES

Kentucky, USA

Utah, USA

Toronto, Canada

Thrapston, UK

Tegelen, Netherlands

Melbourne, Australia

Third Party

Distribution

Dubai, UAE

Guandong Province,

China

OUR GLOBAL FOOTPRINT

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ABOUT PATTERN

For more information on how we could support you in developing your marketplace

strategy - or if you are interested in us becoming the authorised Amazon Seller for your

brand anywhere in the world - please contact us at [email protected]

GET IN TOUCH

We are the ecommerce partner of choice for a growing number of consumer brands –

acting as their authorised marketplace seller. As well as being one of the largest Amazon

sellers in the world, we are also present on Tmall, JD.com, eBay and others.

Our unique model delivers growth and control to brands selling on Amazon, with Pattern

taking care of every aspect of their Amazon presence, utilising our proprietary technology

to optimise and report on key success metrics. Unlike an agency, we buy stock from our

brand partners, and so when you sign up to work with Pattern, we pay you.

In addition, our consulting team can support with your strategic ecommerce challenges,

including whether you should be present on Amazon and which markets you should

expand to.

Amazon Germany Benchmarking Report 2021 - Practicology

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