How to Get an Amazon Choice Badge to Boost Your Sales

Getting the coveted “Amazon Choice” badge feels like you’ve just been invited to an exclusive club. Not many sellers know what it’s about but getting in is worth the effort. If you don't know what Amazon’s Choice is—you should! And if you haven’t considered joining the club yet, you should!

Aside from the joy that comes with having a dark blue strip with orange-and-white lettering attached to your product, the benefits of the coveted badge extend far beyond the aesthetics. Amazon actively favors such sellers by pushing their products to the top of its search pages, which ultimately gets you increased visibility and sales.

As always, we’re here to make sure our readers have every bit of advantage when it comes to selling on Amazon. That’s why we’re going to answer the million-dollar question: How to get an Amazon Choice badge!

Sound good? Let’s get on our way to an Amazon Choice Badge! 🚙

Amazon Choice Badge – How it All Started

The Choice badge is Amazon’s seal of approval which—needless to say—carries a lot of weight on the platform. The badge was first introduced back in 2015 to make the buying process even easier for customers ordering products through its Echo speaker. 

The idea was that Alexa would be able pick out the ideal product within a subcategory if the customer wants to order new products. After judging products based on fixed criteria (which Amazon never disclosed to the public), the Choice badge was awarded to top-performing sellers. Soon, sellers that were anointed with the badge saw an increase in sales  because they were put on Alexa’s list of voice-searchable products. 

With time, the role of Amazon’s Choice expanded to non-voice searchable items too which can be seen on both app and browser search pages. Whether you’ve just opened up a shop on Amazon or are a seasoned vet, earning the Amazon Choice Badge is worth aiming for to build buyer trust and have an indisputable positive impact on sales. 

Amazon’s Choice Badges vs. Bestseller Badges 

Buyers would be forgiven for mistaking the Amazon Choice badge for a Best Seller badge. After all, with so much information thrust into a single product detail page, it’s easy to brush over the tiny badges at the top to focus on the product features and description. Both badges have the potential to boost conversion and sales, but for two different reasons. 

The requirements to get a Best Seller badge are well-known-- Just rack in the highest sales within a subcategory, and the badge will appear on the top left corner of your product, as you can see in the image above. Because of this, some sellers consider it easy to “game” the system by targeting less competitive niches coupled with aggressive PPC campaigns to win the badge.

Earning the Amazon Choice badge, on the other hand, is anything but easy. For it to appear, there must exist a strong correlation between 👉the product and 👉a keyword. In this case, the algorithm does not consider sales velocity and product subcategory, and instead focuses on how well buyers associate the product with a specific keyword. 

How to Get Amazon’s Choice Badge

Now that we understand the advantages of gaining an Amazon Choice Badge, let’s go through the steps to earning one. As we previously mentioned, Amazon has never explicitly stated how you can be considered for the Choice badge.

So based on what we do know, it can be safely assumed that any product which consistently performs well will set itself up nicely for consideration. After all, Amazon’s sole concern is to promote products that customers want to buy. The more customers buy a product, the more money Amazon makes off third-party sellers.

✍🏻 Note: Back in 2018, Business Insider claimed that the requirements for a Choice Badge were high ratings, popularity, and low-return rates. However, the seller community has unanimously decided that the requirements stretch beyond these three metrics.

Below are three goals you should try to achieve to get an Amazon Choice Badge.

Be Eligible for Prime

Amazon will not hand out a Choice Badge to sellers that are ineligible for Prime. Unless you’re willing and capable of shipping a product out to customers within 2 days, the Amazon Choice Badge will remain a distant dream. If you’re after this badge, then consider switching over to FBA to increase your chances. 

If you insist on sticking with FBM and are confident in your ability to handle supply chain logistics, then you should enroll in the Seller-Fulfilled Prime (SFP) program to be in with a chance. The downside is that you’ll have to join the waiting list as registrations remain closed most of the time, not to mention adhering to strict SFP requirements.

Bring in Positive Reviews

It’s essential to create and promote high-quality products so that, at the very least, you’ll have a 4-star product rating. It’s highly unlikely that Amazon will ever ‘choose’ a product that customers don’t rave about. Also, even if you’re shipping products through FBA, there are other seller metrics to consider as well. Some of these include:

✔️ Preventing Out-Of-Stock (OOS) situations

✔️ Minimal Order Defect Rate

✔️ Low Return Rate

As far as negative reviews go, there are plenty of reasons why buyers are left dissatisfied. It could relate to poor product quality, inaccurate information on a product detail page, or incentivizing negative review removal, to name a few. Bringing in positive reviews is no easy feat, but ZonGuru’s Review Automator was designed to maximize your chances.

It does this by using Amazon’s own review request system to ask satisfied customers for a product review  once they’ve received the product. It complies with Amazon’s ToS, so your account will be safe, and it can be turned on with the flick of a switch. 

Keep the Price Competitive

The price of your product isn’t just important for sales, it seems to be key to winning a Choice badge.

But the real question is this: what exactly is a “well-priced” product? To answer this question, there are two things to keep in mind: the first is to try to keep the price as low as possible relative to the top sellers while still making a profit. A overpriced product will slow down your sales velocity and could even bring in negative reviews. Whereas a product that’s priced too low will likely increase sales but lower your chances of success. 

Secondly, avoid setting a price that ends at $0.99. Buyers are aware of this redundant pricing strategy and may overlook your product altogether. Try bringing down the figure ever so slightly without diverting too much from the original price.

✍🏻 Note: The Product Pulse tool is a handy feature that lets users keep track of any changes competitors’ make to their listing and act accordingly.

Optimize Product Listings

Listing optimization—otherwise known as Amazon SEO—should play a central role in your efforts to gain an Amazon Choice badge. We spoke about the importance of creating a strong link between a product and its related keyword, but this only pays dividends if your listings are correctly optimized. 

There are plenty of listing optimization guides online, which unfortunately don’t do justice to the topic. Yes, attractive imagery, well-thought-out bullet points, and extensive product descriptions are all important but only account for half of your product listing. There’s an entire ‘hidden’ section commonly referred to as the ‘Backend’, which plays an equally important role.

We recently wrote an extensive Amazon listing optimization blog that contains all the information you’ll ever need to break into the top ranks. 

Front-End Listing Optimization

Here’s is a quick summary of how to go about optimizing the front-end section of your product listing:

• Product Images: Upload 7 high-quality, high-resolution images. Make sure the product is displayed clearly against a white backdrop in the main image. Utilize the other slots for infographics, 3D images, and pictures highlighting product usage. 📷
• Product Title: To formulate an attractive and well-optimized product title, stick to the following sequence:
  Brand name, main keyword, and finally product features.
• Bullet Points: Utilize all 5 bullet points to explain your product’s features and functionality while incorporating keywords that fit seamlessly with the rest of the content.
• Product Description: This space is for any left-out information or other product details. Keep in mind that you will need to leverage basic HTML formatting to create spaces and paragraphs. ✒️

The image below is a good example of front-end listing optimization.

Back-End Listing Optimization

The front and back-end sections of a product listing are two sides of the same coin. If the front-end is catered (in some part) to the buyers, then the back-end is solely for Amazon. Access the back-end section of a specific product listing by:

• Hover over the Inventory Tab
• Select Manage Inventory
• Click on the Edit option at the far right of your product listing
• Select the Keywords Tab 

Once you make it this far, you will be greeted by an interface like the one below

Only after understanding what each field means are sellers able to input the correct values. Here are a few examples:

• Intended Use: Define the core function of the product, e.g., aquariums, building modules, agriculture, doors, windows, etc.
• Target Audience: Who the product is intended e.g. teens, seniors, unisex adults, etc.
• Other Attributes: Define additional attributes for your product e.g. portable, wireless feature, USB memory feature.
• Subject Matter: Here you explain what your product actually is. It’s one of the more important backend keywords fields. Examples include firm mattress for body pain or grooming gloves for pets. 
• Search Terms: The search terms field provides additional context about your products. 

Supercharge Your Listing Optimization with ZonGuru's New Tool

If you're serious about optimizing your Amazon listings for that coveted Amazon Choice badge, you'll be thrilled to know about ZonGuru's latest innovation: the Listing Optimizer. This isn't just another tool; it's your secret weapon for listing optimization. Powered by ChatGPT-4, one of the most advanced AI technologies, our Listing Optimizer can either auto-generate new listings or rewrite existing ones using the best keywords in your category.

What sets it apart? The tool offers an Optimization and Listing Strength scoring system, giving you real-time insights into how well your listing is optimized. Plus, it allows you to import keywords directly from our Keywords on Fire tool, ensuring your listing is not just optimized but hyper-optimized. If you're looking to gain a competitive edge and significantly boost your sales, the Listing Optimizer is a game-changer. Give it a spin by subscribing to our 7-day free trial.

We know, there’s a lot to it. To help with this, we designed a Listing Optimizer tool—this tool will save you time, money, and get you into the top 5 ranks of your product’s subcategory. To try it out for free now, subscribe to our 7-day free trial.