hey what's up guys so last october i was
the best man at one of my best friend's
weddings shout out to andrew and sarah
for their wedding and you know what came
after that the honeymoon came after that
they went to spain
and based on the photos it looked like a
great trip that is not what we're
talking about today though we are
talking about the amazon merch and not
really amazon merch this really applies
to pretty much all amazon products
published to their catalog we're talking
about the honeymoon period that is
granted let's say granted like amazon
has granted us this privilege when we
publish new products to their catalog as
a function of the amazon algorithm so in
this video we are going to kind of deep
dive into it and what's fortunate is
we're gonna basically piggyback off of
some other people that have done their
due diligence and put together a really
well written article on the subject so
we're gonna look that over in this video
let's get started
quick reminder in the description of
this video i run a free weekly print on
demand giveaway you can enter it takes
like 10 seconds two winners are gonna be
randomly selected and announced this
sunday also down there i've got a free
merch by amazon seven day mini course
all i need is your email address i'll
send you one lesson a day and it's
pretty thorough i got really good
feedback on it and i've got a great
amazon merch facebook group if you guys
like to join you can find the link down
there
so we are here on quantify ninja i will
include a link to the article in the
description in case you want to follow
along so the article was published may
of 2021 it's an eight minute read and
i'll probably just read through it and
give commentary as we go
and it is titled what is amazon's
honeymoon period and how to capitalize
on it for product launches
so as an fba seller you may often feel
like you'd like to break up with your
fickle partner amazon so for all the fba
sellers out there you know what i'm
talking about of course this is going to
apply i believe to more than just fba so
if you're not an fba seller stick with
me
but don't forget the good times like the
honeymoon period the honeymoon period is
a somewhat controversial issue we've
seen some of our members
of our amazon sellers community asking
whether the honeymoon period really
exists or is it merely a rumor
nevertheless in this post we're going to
answer all of your questions regarding
the honeymoon period why it happens when
it starts how long it lasts and how
sellers can benefit from it for a new
product launch on amazon and how sellers
get a second honeymoon period but first
these things let's define what exactly
it is and what sellers uh when they
refer to the amazon honeymoon period
sorry it's written in like a like a
weird english like old english style or
something
what is the amazon honeymoon period
sellers refer to the time right after a
product launch on amazon as the
honeymoon period
new product listings can easily rank
higher than normal for keywords on
amazon search results during this period
sellers who capitalize on the honeymoon
period can get more visibility in front
of shoppers during their product launch
boost sales get reviews for their new
listings and eventually position their
products for long-term success
how can we know if the honeymoon period
is real
amazon didn't create the honeymoon
period intentionally rather it's a
byproduct of how their search algorithm
the a9 algorithm ranks product listings
the problem is that amazon keeps the
principles by which amazon's search
algorithm works as a secret similar to
how google does guys so that sellers
won't manipulate the algorithm therefore
one thing is certain no one outside of
amazon knows for sure how the algorithm
works and it take 10 seconds to
elaborate on that because i had someone
email me a question similar to this just
the other day
guys when it comes to web development
there is front end and there's back end
front end code is everything that your
web web browser sorry compiles and it's
what you see right here on the screen
behind me okay and you can always right
click view source see all the code i was
a front-end web developer so that's the
stuff that i dealt with there's also
back-end web developers and they write
the code that runs on amazon servers
before they figure out what code to send
to the web browser that ultimately
renders in the form of this page you see
behind me so we cannot see the back end
code that stays private on amazon's
servers
alright so wikipedia defines an
algorithm as a finite sequence of
well-defined computer implementable
instructions typically to solve a class
of problems or to perform a computation
since an algorithm is finite we can
measure its results how it behaves in
various situations and decipher how it
works in order to predict its results
after measuring the results of many
product launches sharing and receiving
information from thousands of sellers in
the community we now know for sure that
the honeymoon period is real and that
sellers can certainly benefit from it
when launching new products the
honeymoon period explained
as we mentioned above the honeymoon
period is an outcome of the functioning
of the a9 algorithm so let's explain a
few main principles by this by which the
search algorithm works and then we can
easily understand the honeymoon period
and why new products rank higher than
normal during this period
everybody knows that amazon's search
algorithm helps customers find the most
relevant products for their searches in
order to maximize conversion rates and
sales
sellers continuously optimize their
product listings for search by adding
keywords to their products title
description and backend improving their
images getting reviews etc so that their
listings can rank higher quick note of
course if you're doing merch by amazon
or even kdp
you have limited access to what you can
change but you can still change you know
the title you can still change some of
the bullets etc you can't get the back
end keywords through merch and uh you
can't get yeah you can't get back in
keywords through merch you can get them
through kdp actually though you can get
back in keywords through kdp uh so just
merge you can't besides the keywords
images and reviews the a9 algorithm
ranks products based on their conversion
rates history per keyword or search term
in fact your product's conversion rates
and sales history plays a very
significant role in search ranking but
how does amazon's a9 algorithm deal with
new products that were recently launched
and have no sales history yet so of
course guys if we had to write an
algorithm and we want to put the right
product in front of the right customer
the easiest signal
that provides verification and
validation is well in the past customers
who searched for this phrase clicked
this product and bought it so we want to
rank that product higher right it's
pretty simple and we can measure these
as percentages you know click-through
rate conversion rate etc
sales history holds so much weight in
amazon's a9 algorithm calculations that
the chances of successfully launching
new products would be slim to none if
amazon had not found a way to identify
their sales potential quickly
and rank them accordingly amazon's
remedy for the problem is not to factor
in sales history when the algorithm
ranks new products instead it ranks them
solely on their keywords images etc
during the period after their launch
this solution ensures that new products
get the exposure they need in front of
customers so that the algorithm can
measure their conversion rate and
collect sales history data in order to
rank them this is something that we have
long suspected
with regard specifically to merch by
amazon because yeah like these new
products would get absolutely buried but
it's really not the case if you've
launched enough of them
in
you know
you can't just say like oh new shirt
called dog shirt or funny cat shirt you
know what i mean too broad but if you
give it a chance you do tend to get some
uh sales and you're like man how do i
get a sale in this niche when it's so
saturated it's because they'll give it a
chance guys now we have a phrase for it
the honeymoon period
in practice the solution amazon uses to
rank new products presents a terrific
opportunity for sellers to boost sales
get reviews and promote their listing
during the first four weeks after a
product
when does the honeymoon period start and
how long does it last
the amazon honeymoon period starts when
your inventory reaches amazon warehouse
and product is live and ready for sale
so for non-fba products guys basically
as long as you have inventory greater
than zero if it's fbm if it's merch you
have infinite inventory if it's kdp
infinite so
so basically as soon as it's live
our experiments show that it takes the
search algorithm roughly four weeks to
collect enough sales history data on a
new listing after which the grace period
is over and the benefits are gone
hence sellers are encouraged to prepare
beforehand because once their listing is
live it's game on there are only four
weeks to make the most of this
opportunity and have a successful
product launch
now i mean i've definitely like had
successful product launches beyond just
the initial four weeks when i have you
know wasted that initial four weeks
before um it's not like i definitely
trust what i see in this article but i'm
just saying like even if you waste this
grace period you can still be successful
because i've done it firsthand um but i
do agree that like generally speaking
if your listing is live like if you have
quantity of product available for
purchase greater than zero and the buy
it now button is there you really want
your listing to be polished if it's
merch you don't have control over that
many things but if it's like fba
you especially that's why i'm in my fba
course it's very detail-oriented because
if you're going to spend money on
launching a product you know you're
invested you better do the best you can
to make it a success
how to capitalize on amazon's honeymoon
period during your product launch
there's a lot to be written on how to
successfully launch a product on amazon
that we don't cover in this post however
this special period can give your new
listing such an advantage in the future
that we can't stress enough how
important it is to have the best product
launch possible you should be absolutely
ready with a marketing plan to generate
traffic sales and reviews and a
perfectly optimized listing before your
inventory is received at amazon's
warehouse or before your listing goes
live typically guys if it's fba when
you're listing or when your inventory is
received that's when it goes live right
because you don't create the fba inbound
shipment before creating the product
listing and when you create the shipment
and you order the products and they get
to the warehouse well guess what your
quantity is going to be greater than
zero it's going to be live so you really
need your stuff to be ready
many sellers prefer to take a slow
approach of uploading their product to
amazon and invest time and money in
marketing it later down the line
it's a viable approach if you're not
sure that your product will be
successful and you don't want to risk
too much but in terms of getting the
most out of their out of the honeymoon
period it's a mistake even if you're on
a tight budget you should try and reap
the benefits of the honeymoon period
with at least a minimal product launch
so then they say learn the most advanced
techniques that top amazon sellers use
when they launch products and i can
probably guess most of those set a
sufficient budget for your product
launch whether that's external traffic
to amazon or you know just internal
traffic on amazon through amazon ads i
did do a video a couple months back
maybe two or three months back where i
partnered with an amazon agency they set
up a bunch of facebook and google ads
and drove external traffic to my product
listing it was actually before christmas
so it was um probably in like november
when i was doing the work and i did a
video on it in december it actually
worked it took me from the eighth spot
to the second organic spot on the
primary keywords extremely valuable
keywords especially that time of year so
external traffic don't sleep on that
do your homework and find the most
relevant keywords for your product and
make sure these are keywords you have a
fighting chance of competing on right
like not just funny cat shirt you're
wasting your time there if not amazon
won't put much stock in ranking your
listing for that for for them
include medium and low volume search
keywords in your title
description bullet points and back end
not just high search volume ones so you
don't just want to have the high level
generic funny cat shirt um you know you
want to have funny cat shirt gift for
grandma or you know what i mean um
mother's day cat shirt something like
that like a little bit more specific so
you don't miss out when amazon shoppers
search for those your listing's main
image must be spectacular
i'm going to repeat that one your
listing's main image must be spectacular
the main image is the one that counts
guys it counts way more than the others
because that's what they see in search
results you need to get clicked before
they are on your product listing and
they decide whether or not to convert
into a paid customer by adding to cart
and checking out
so this is the image that customers see
when search results come up and this is
your chance to grab their attention make
them click you
if you can't afford it start running
auto ppc ads on a significant budget
immediately after the product launch to
find relevant keywords for your listing
quickly
now i mean
auto campaigns yeah like if you didn't
speak english and you were launching a
product on the english market you would
lean exclusively on an auto campaign of
course if you speak the language you can
also pretty much guess what a lot of
your primary keywords are going to be
but when you run auto campaigns you also
get some long tail suggestions as well
and so you want to cast a wide net with
auto campaigns and then move some of
those keywords that are converting over
to manual campaigns where you control
the match type you control the bids etc
and you can control like how much money
you really invest into ranking on each
specific term the higher you convert the
more money you want to spend to invest
on you know building your rank
request a review for each sale and try
to get a get at least 10 to 25 reviews
during the honeymoon period
there's a way of requesting reviews by
the way without triggering like amazon
getting mad at you
make sure your first shipment is large
enough that you don't run out of
inventory and that can sometimes be
easier said than done because you don't
want to order too much and get stuck
with a bunch of inventory that you can't
move as well to close out the article
how can sellers get a second honeymoon
period so you can do it by restarting
your product listing some sellers call
it restarting a product listing or a
reset or relevancy reset employing this
technique means to do over the entire
content of your listening the title the
description the bullet points the image
images and the keywords taking your
listing through such a dramatic change
will force amazon's search algorithm to
recalibrate and rank your listing all
over again this process may provide a
similar opportunity to the first
honeymoon period where you can get
higher keyword rankings and boost sales
but at the same time your listing will
lose all of its existing keyword
rankings
so you're really not supposed to do that
by the way because on amazon's catalog
it's supposed to be like hey this asin
is this upc which is this unique product
um so if you do do this you know you run
a little bit of a risk but i mean hey if
it works it works and we're going to go
ahead and trust this article that they
did due diligence and they know that it
works
two relaunching your product listing
relaunching an amazon product is similar
to launching a brand new product in a
relaunch sellers create a new asin for
their existing product and start ranking
again from scratch so this would apply
more to like fba sellers most likely
the upside is that the new a sim will go
through a honeymoon period just like any
other new listing and the seller already
knows the keywords and has the images
needed for the listing so they don't
have to redo all the work the relaunch's
major downside is that the listing loses
all of its previous sales rank history
and reviews
so the important takeaway about the
second honeymoon is that it doesn't mean
that a successful listing can get
special ranking benefits no it means
that if your product isn't successful
due to bad reviews fierce competition
etc and you're willing to throw away its
sales history you can relaunch it then
when you start fresh you can get the
benefits of the honeymoon period once
more now i've never actually done like a
hard reset on any of my product listings
i have gone in and like tinkered with
old merch listings to try to get them
back up into the sales ranks and i have
actually at times had some success but
oftentimes a lot of my best-selling
older products lost their sales because
somebody just came in cloned the product
basically just kind of stole the listing
i don't even know if they stole pixel
for pixel they relaunched it or i mean
redesigned it similar and then they just
undercut me
and i don't really you know personally
like to spend time you know just kind of
scraping through amazon's catalog every
day for hours on end trying to see if
people undercut my existing listings
like i personally that's not how i go
about doing my approach to merch by
amazon but i don't hate on people that
do do that we're all different there's
lots of ways to go about it that is one
tactic because yes if you're making
sales people will undercut you it just
it just comes with the territory because
it's so easy too all right guys but
that's it guys how did you like this
video what do you think did you learn
something i know i learned quite a bit
i'm assuming again that they did their
due diligence they've got good data to
support what they asserted in this
article so
as far as merch goes though because we
wanted to put a merch by amazon slant on
it hey have you guys ever gone back in
and done one of these like hard
refreshes of your uh older merch
listings like redid the title completely
redid the bullets the description etc
and tried to get and probably redo the
price as well and try to get amazon to
resurrect it from the dead let me know
if you had success with that in the past
or let me know your thoughts guys but
thank you for watching please like
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tomorrow with a new video