How eCommerce Content Teams Can Leverage AI to Prep For Amazon Prime Day
Ever since the concept of Amazon Prime Day was launched, Amazon has seen an uptick in sales every passing year. And how could it not—after all, it’s the second most popular shopping event of the year, right after the good ole’ Black Friday Sale.
In fact, the Prime Day bonanza has been such a popular phenomenon that it’s impacted sales even beyond Amazon.
For example, Amazon’s competitors such as Target, Walmart, Costco, BestBuy etc., who hosted similar sales near the Prime Day event, started noticing an increase in traffic by up to 85%.
But that’s still not the long and short of it—The Prime Day effect has not only made a positive change for Amazon competitors but has impacted the entire eCommerce industry as a whole.
Studies report that businesses of all sizes with alternative eCommerce sales channels (such as social media stores, marketplaces, and brand websites) also saw an increase in purchases during the Amazon sale. And preceding the Prime Day event, more than a hundred million items were purchased from small businesses.
This just goes to prove that Prime Day is now bigger than Amazon itself; it lends itself to being one of the most awaited eCommerce events of the season. And regardless of the fact if you’re selling or not selling on Amazon, you can still cash in on the Prime Day frenzy.
On that note, let’s dive in to see how you can leverage AI (specifically Describely) to improve your listings for this year’s shopping event!
How to use AI to optimize product descriptions fast
1. Create and update content in bulk
Nearing major sales and holidays, the most crucial benefit any AI can provide is being able to create and update product descriptions in bulk to match user search intent during that time.
For example, the same fairy lights can be sold during the Christmas holidays and Fourth of July celebrations, but descriptions might need to be altered to match the theme and vibe of the event.
In the Amazon Prime Day context, you may need to update product descriptions to provide promotional information, increase SEO visibility, remove all restricted keywords, improve customer experience, etc.
On Describely specifically, you can import your products from Amazon stores through the help of CSV files. From there on, you can select the products you wish to create (or update) descriptions for, and simply click on “Bulk Generate.”
Side Note: You can also import your product catalogues not only from Amazon, but also from WooCommerce, Shopify, Squarespace, etc. (This might be helpful considering eCommerce businesses see an uptick in sales near the Prime Day Sale even on other sales channels.)
2. Banish Amazon restricted keywords from your descriptions
On Amazon, there are certain keywords that are blacklisted or “restricted,” so to speak. (You can access the full restricted keyword list here.)
A couple of pointers to know about Amazon’s restricted keywords:
- This list gets updated every year.
- You could unknowingly be using the keywords from this list as some of them are awfully common in product content (e.g., “made in,” “on sale,” and “perfect for”).
- If you use these keywords often enough, Amazon will penalize you by either hiding your listing, removing it, or banning you as a seller.
- These keywords could also have other associated issues, too, such as misrepresentation of product benefits, trademark infringement, etc.
All of this brings us to one conclusion: It’s time to banish these Amazon restricted keywords from our product descriptions (especially near bonanza events such as the Amazon Prime Day Sale).
Describely has an in-built Amazon-restricted keyword list, which you can find in your “AI Rulesets” tab. If this option is hidden, click on Add Rule > Restricted Keywords.
This feature will allow you to add all the Amazon restricted keywords to your Restricted Keyword Set. You can also ask Describely to refrain from using certain keywords or phrases that are not to your liking. (You can even choose to remove certain keywords from Describely’s Amazon-restricted keyword list.)
3. Add need-to-know product details with data enrichment
AI tools like Describely stand to be eCommerce retailers’ best friends when their suppliers fail to provide them with adequate product details.
For example, your product could easily be on your website, but are you providing your customers with enough information for them to make an informed purchase?
For reference, you could’ve mentioned you sell black t-shirts from size S to XL made from cotton-polyester blend, but have you considered mentioning the sizing chart you consider, the warranty of the purchase, or the cut of the fabric?
Describely can fill this gap for you by scraping the manufacturer’s site to get adequate product details (or even do an in-depth internet search to find the details you need).
All you’ll need to do is go to your catalogue, select the products you want to enrich with missing details, and click on Data Enrichment (this option would be available on the top-right corner of your screen).
From here on, select the search fields you’d like Describely to use, and—this is optional—provide Describely with product attributes (e.g., color, material, brand name) or a link to the manufacturer’s website so it can come back with accurate details.
4. Customize your rulesets to create a sense of urgency
Since the Amazon Prime Day lasts for only 48 hours, making an impactful purchase (and scouring the best deals) during this time is crucial for the busy customer.
If you wish to vye for their attention in this limited time, you’ll need to alter your descriptions a bit to create a sense of urgency, and to make the customers stop and consider the deal they’d be missing out on.
Good news for you is you can customize your AI rulesets to add these instructions. For reference, here’s a real-life example of a custom rule on Describely’s AI Rule Set, which asks it to write a description that creates an urgency to buy during 48-hour Amazon Prime Day sale, highlight 50% sale off entire store.
This prompt generates product descriptions like these:
And meta descriptions like these:
Side Note: You can leverage multiple use cases from the AI Ruleset. For example, you can ask it to change the output language to create localized content for Amazon—this might be beneficial if you’re a company that caters to different markets and regions, and can target customers in their local language.
If you’re reading this after Amazon Prime Day has passed, don’t worry – these tips can be useful for any sale.
Other best practices for content teams to consider
1. Ensure you meet your brand guidelines
To ensure your customers get a seamless experience regardless of where they choose to shop from, ensure you keep a consistent brand voice and stick to your brand guidelines across multiple channels.
For example, a brand like Citizen maintains its luxurious and professional tone when publishing descriptions even on Amazon.
In comparison to this, Samsung, an electronics company that sells smartwatches takes the more serious, professional, and feature-oriented approach when writing its descriptions on Amazon.
If you’re using AI to write product descriptions, you can customize your AI rule set to ensure it aligns with your brand tone, formatting, structure, and instructions.
2. Always keep the user’s potential questions in mind
Kayla Heesseltine, our senior account executive, hosted an interview with Wade Cline (GM and Head of Sales at RaveCapture) on how to increase trust in product pages.
An insightful advice she shared during this interview was to always address potential buyer questions. In her own words:
“Think about what the product will look like on the customer—is it a dress they can wear in the summer or the winter? Is the dress A-line or fit-and-flare? Does it come with pockets or not?”
Another example: Imagine you’re selling a sofa set. You might think you provided your customers with plenty of information vis-a-vis product features (e.g., storage, spring, style, etc.), but a potential customer would still want to know product dimensions too to understand if the sofa could fit in their living room.
3. Add visual cues and experiences
In the same interview, Wade highly recommended sharing visual experiences. That’s to say, instead of sharing the product features, he recommends highlighting how customers would imagine themselves using the product.
For example, some brands leverage the product description page to share product images, videos, interactive elements, and visual experiences. Case in point:
On that note, it’s best if you demark your product’s features with the help of written cues as well. For example, pointers like those in the image below might help, too.
4. Check your competitor’s descriptions
Last but not least, one best practice is to always monitor competitor descriptions, content, structure, formatting, and everything else in between to keep up with the market.
Analyze their content strategy, look for common themes in their product descriptions, and find things you (or your audience) might like that could potentially serve as inspiration for your brand too.
On that note, if you’re writing product descriptions for your own brand from scratch, here are some best practices as suggested by experts:
- Use descriptive and persuasive words that paint a picture for your audience.
- Structure content in bullet points and/or use multiple paragraphs.
- Lean toward shorter descriptions as opposed to longer ones (so as to not bore the reader).
Get ready for Amazon Prime Day Sale with Describely
Just to recap, we discussed how an AI technology like Describely can help you with the following tasks ahead of the Amazon Prime Day Sale:
- Create and update product descriptions in bulk
- Remove the use of Amazon-restricted keywords
- Fill product gaps with data enrichment
- Customize your AI ruleset (e.g., you can personalize descriptions to create urgency in your offer)
- Localize your output language
- Not to mention other SEO benefits it offers that can help you get noticed
So, if this is the kind of tech you need to prepare for Prime Day and make your descriptions sales-ready, you might want to sign up today and learn how Describely can help you create content that sells more and ranks higher.