Amazon Badges: Increase Traffic & Conversions on Your Product Listings

You’ve got a great product, optimized your listing copy and had gorgeous professional photos taken. You’re going to make a killing on Amazon, right? Not so fast! Competitors out there have been selling longer than you and may have snagged some Amazon Badges that give them a boost. 

These little icons or ribbons across products signal a variety of different benefits to the customer. From creating a sense of trust for the customer about the product’s quality or easing anxieties about shipping times, badges not only help the customer but the seller too. 

In this post, we’ll go over the different Amazon badges and how they can help you drive traffic to your product listings and increase conversions. 

What are Amazon Badges?

Amazon Badges are small colored ribbons or icons that show up on both the SERP (search engine results page) as well as on a single product listing page. The example below shows just a few of the different badges available: 

Where Do Amazon Badges appear?

You can find Amazon badges… 

• In the top left-hand corner of the main product image on both SERP and product listing pages (for Amazon’s Choice, Best Seller Badge and occasional special badges like the Holiday Gift Guide in the example above) 
• Below the star ratings on SERP and product listing pages. Depending on what kind of badge it is, the exact location varies 

• Within the buy box. Subscribe & Save or delivered by dates show up on the side of the product listing page 

In this post, we’ll be covering some of these badges including: 

• Amazon’s Choice Badge 
• Best Seller Badge 
• Climate Pledge Friendly Badge 
• Coupons and Sales 
• Prime & Fresh Badges 
• Limited Inventory 

Why Are Amazon Badges Important?

Amazon badges are crucial in creating a sense of trust and perceived value in a customer. One of the biggest obstacles that prevents someone from making a purchase online is trust – how can a customer be sure what they see is what they’ll get? Amazon badges help nip that anxiety. 

Not only do they offer the customer relief – we’ve combed through the many products on our marketplace and stand behind this one – they also help products stand out on the search results page, which will drive clicks to the product listing page. 

Just look at how similar all the products look in this screenshot of the SERP below:  

Having an extra ribbon, box or text under your product can: 

• Signal products that sell well (Best Seller or Amazon’s Choice Badge) 
• Align products with a customer’s values (Climate Pledge Friendly Badge) 
• Urge customers to buy through scarcity, limited deals, or lower prices (coupons, discounts, deals badges) 
• Create trust for a product because it is vetted by Amazon as well as customers (Best Seller or Amazon’s Choice Badges, reviews) 

Because you have just a few seconds to catch a customer’s attention before they fly by, badges are visual cues that stop the scroll and help customers make a quick decision. 

For more on how to stand out on the SERP, check out our complete Amazon SEO Walkthrough.

The Amazon’s Choice Badge

The Amazon’s Choice badge is probably the most sought-after and curious badge of them all. It was originally created in 2015 to match customers using voice search on Amazon’s virtual assistant Alexa with the right product. Now the scope has expanded, and Amazon’s Choice badge is visible on the search results page to all customers on both mobile and desktop and there are three iterations:

• Overall Pick
• Overall Brand Pick
• New Arrival Pick

When a customer is at home and realizes they’ve run out of toilet paper, they can simply say “Alexa, I need toilet paper”. The algorithm will first look at any previous purchases in that category. If there are none, they will have to suggest a product. The product it chooses is the one with the Amazon’s Choice badge. 

What Does Amazon’s Choice Mean?

An Amazon’s Choice product is determined by the best possible match for a given keyword. It should have high ratings, good reviews, a fair price, immediate shipping availability and come from a professional, reliable seller. From the customer side, Amazon’s Choice means the same thing: it’s a high-quality product at a good price, vetted by other buyers as well as Amazon itself. 

Amazon’s number one priority has always been the customer. It wants to ensure that they get the most out of their experience on the website so that they’ll return to make a purchase. To do this, they analyze all of the aspects mentioned above (price, seller reputation, shipping, reviews) and select the product that best matches a keyword query.  They are doing their best here to match the intent of the customer with the right product.

If you’re lucky enough to get the Amazon’s Choice badge, you can count on increased traffic as well as a boost to your product’s conversions. 

How to Get the Amazon’s Choice Badge?

An Amazon’s Choice product needs to be a product that: 

• Matches the keyword query exactly (we don’t want unrelated surprise products showing up) 
• Is eligible for Prime shipping (products without Prime shipping don’t qualify) 
• Converts for the keyword query (lots of frequent sales mean the product is popular and doing well and that customers are choosing this particular product to match what they typed into search) 
• Has many positive reviews (Amazon wants to keep the customer happy and good reviews reflect that) 
• Has low return rates

The products below each have the Amazon’s Choice Badge for a different keyword phrase. As you can see, each keyword phrase is slightly different – sometimes specific to a certain brand, material or unit amount. If you are as specific as possible about your product and the keywords that a customer might use to find it, then you’ll have a higher chance of getting the badge for that keyword phrase. 

Amazon’s Choice Overall Pick Badge

One of Amazon’s most recent additions to their badges is the Overall Pick. Products that appear with this badge:

• Have a 4+ star rating
• Are purchased often
• Have few returns

By looking over these criteria, the best chance to get this badge is by focusing on the quality of your product and getting as many sales as you can. A listing like this should be completely optimized – with copy and images that set customer expectations to limit customer returns.

Amazon also mentions that the product is highly rated, well-priced and available to ship immediately (could be related to Prime shipping, which we cover further down in the article as well as enough inventory across Amazon’s warehouses).

After all, more sales mean more reviews, and more reviews mean more sales. It’s all part of the Amazon Sales Flywheel that we really dive into in this article.

Amazon’s Choice Overall Brand Pick Badge

Another subset of Amazon’s Choice is the Popular Brand Pick. Amazon highlights these brands for being popular with customers and checking off those same criteria mentioned above: rated 4+ stars, purchased often, and returned infrequently.

Amazon’s Choice New Arrival Pick Badge

The last of the new Amazon’s Choice badges is the New Arrival Pick.

It has the same criteria as the previous 2, except that it’s new – meaning that it’s been released in the last 90 days. The best strategy to try and get this badge is to have everything ready before launching and starting to sell.

Optimizing for conversion rate, optimizing the listing, the keywords, the graphics and A+ content, will ensure that once your product goes live, the honeymoon period Amazon grants new sellers will help get the ball rolling and hopefully enable you to snag one of these badges.

Amazon Best Seller Badge

The Amazon Best Seller badge, like the Amazon’s Choice badge, appears at the top left corner of the product on the search results page in the form of an orange ribbon icon.  Now when you hover over the ribbon, the category appears like below – “Best Seller – in black tea“.

The Best Seller badge might seem similar to the Amazon’s Choice badge, but it’s not. The Best Seller badge is awarded to the products that have sold the most units in the main category (more competitive) and the sub-category (can still be competitive but less so than the main one).

The Best Seller badge can change from product to product every hour because it’s the A9 algorithm that performs product BSR (best seller rank) updates. This is because everything depends on sales velocity. Whichever product sells the most in a category per hour receives the Best Seller badge. 

What are the benefits of the Amazon Best Seller Badge?

The best thing about getting crowned as the best seller of the hour is that Amazon puts your listing at the top of the search results. Your product might even appear to customers using a different or unrelated search term that fits within the same category. 

How Do You Become a Best Seller?

Whereas Amazon’s Choice depends on past sales and lots of reviews, the Best Seller Badge can be earned with some careful and strategic planning. 

• Optimize your product listing with the right keywords (this means title, bullet points, description and backend search terms 
• Select the right category for your product (some sellers choose unrelated categories because there is less competition. This can have a negative effect on your conversion rate as customers will see that your product is not what they were searching for) 
• Get your advertising right (PPC campaigns can help increase sales and rank as Amazon reserves the top portion of the SERP for sponsored products) 
• Price your product appropriately (keep a close eye on what competitors are doing so you can offer a fair price) 

Some product categories are much more competitive than others so it’s important to keep that in mind when working towards this goal. If you focus on providing a good-quality product that keeps customers happy, you’ll make Amazon happy. And if Amazon is happy, it’ll reward you. More on the Amazon Flywheel and how every aspect of the listing and stats affect each other here.

Amazon’s Climate Pledge Friendly Badge

Amazon is finally starting to make moves on climate change. In 2019, they made a commitment to be net zero carbon by 2040, 10 years ahead of the Paris Agreement.  

What is Amazon’s Climate Friendly Badge?

The Amazon Climate Friendly badge is now a small green leaf that appears under certain products that fit in with Amazon’s qualifying certifications.

The climate pledge friendly badge makes it easier for customers to find and buy products that are in line with their values: sustainable, ethical, fair trade, and more. You can read more about what the Climate Pledge Friendly badge is in this post here.

How does the Climate Pledge Friendly badge help you stand out? 

Firstly, the green logo text with the hourglass doesn’t appear under every product. If your product is one of the only ones in its category to have this badge, people will notice it. Since it’s a relatively new feature, they may want to learn more about what it is. 

From the search engine results page, you can hover over to view the certification. The more information the customer has from the SERP, the more likely they’ll know whether they want to click through to see more information on the product listing page. 

When a customer recognizes that a product or brand is more conscious than others, it sets them apart. If the customer already shares these values, it’s a win for them. If a customer isn’t consciously looking to buy more sustainable products, at least the green badge will draw their attention and they might begin thinking about changing the way they buy products. 

On some search results, Amazon has even started suggesting products in the climate pledge category. This is yet another chance to stand out among products that don’t have any green certifications. 

To find out how to win the Climate Pledge Friendly Badge read this.

Amazon Small Business Badge

Amazon’s Small Business Badge is a program that helps small businesses stand out. The badge helps signal to customers that they’re buying from a small or local business. This can appear attractive to many people especially during the pandemic or to customers who are worried about buying from such a large marketplace.

Although the badge isn’t as flashy as some of the others, it can still be the thing that differentiates one product from another. It usually appears below the product details on the search results page, in a similar to position as the climate pledge friendly badge.

The requisites for eligibility are quite simple and don’t require much effort:

• Be a brand-registered seller (or be an Amazon Handmade seller). 
• Have fewer than 100 employees 
• Have an annual revenue of less than $50 million

Learn more about the small business badge here.

Amazon Limited Time Deals, Coupon Badges and Low Inventory

Amazon coupons and limited time deals are yet another way you can attract customers from the search results page. The coupon badges appear in a neon green color and either offer a percentage value off or discounted monetary value. The Limited time deal is a maroon-colored rectangle. Both badges appear under the product price.  

The inventory “badge” is a bit of maroon text that appears beneath the shipping details and shows that inventory is running low on a product. 

Coupons on Amazon

Customers love to feel that they’re getting a good deal. Isn’t it always a great feeling what you get something special (usually more expensive) on sale? There’s a feeling of satisfaction that makes a customer feel like they’re receiving money.  

In a crowded market where the products are all similar and sell for the same price, some brands might raise their price and offer a coupon. The price with the coupon still ends up being the same as the other products. The only difference is that the product now has the coupon badge.  

The mere appearance of the coupon among products that are priced the same can make the customer feel like they’re getting a deal. This is a simple technique that makes your product appear more valuable. 

Limited Time Deals

The little maroon rectangle with the text limited time deal is a powerful psychological tool that creates both scarcity and urgency. Scarcity because not every product has this badge – it’s special. Urgency because the deal won’t be around forever. The idea behind it is to get the customer to act. Buy it now! Or forever hold your peace.  

Low Inventory

This little bit of text is a big-time force of persuasion. When you see that there only a few units of something left, the wheels in your head start spinning. How come there are so few left? Does that mean it’s better than the others? People must be liking it!  

The low inventory text creates scarcity and urgency – there only a few left! The little bit at the end that encourages customers to order soon might just be the push they need to act now before it’s too late. When you get a customer to think about other customers, this is a form of social proof. They believe that other customers buying it makes it a good product.  

I wonder if the customer thinks about these things as they’re scrolling through the SERP? 

Amazon Prime & Fresh

Amazon’s paid membership Prime offers a variety of benefits to the customer. The biggest one being free 2-day shipping. It essentially makes them a VIP. Amazon Fresh – which is available to Prime customers in certain regions – offers fast and free grocery delivery. The Amazon Prime and Amazon Fresh badges stand out to Prime members immediately because they already understand the benefits.

Customer Benefits of Amazon Prime

What does the customer get as a Prime member? For just $12.99/month, they receive: 

• Free 2-day (or less) delivery  
• Free same-day delivery (in eligible ZIP codes) 
• Free 2-hour delivery on orders grocery orders over $35 (Amazon Fresh) 
• Free 2-hour delivery from Whole Foods Market on orders over $35
• Access to Amazon’s video streaming service 

For a customer who doesn’t have Prime, the badge appears prominently under the product price on the search results page along with the date of earliest delivery. This intrigues them about what Prime is and how it’s possible to receive a product so quickly.  

One of the biggest obstacles for a customer shopping online is the waiting time. Amazon has revolutionized online shopping by addressing this very issue. It wants the customer to know that if they’re shopping online, they can get products faster than they imagined. That’s a big plus a lot of e-commerce stores can’t compete with. 

Seller Benefits of Prime

Prime isn’t just great for the customer. It boosts your opportunities as a seller too. Having your product fulfilled by Amazon and getting the Prime badge works in your favor because: 

• Prime products receive a higher ranking in search than non-prime products (this feeds into Amazon’s happy customer model, fast shipping equals a happier customer) 
• Your product won’t get filtered out. Many customers have become so used to 2-day shipping that they won’t accept anything less – why would they? 

Having your product fulfilled by Amazon (FBA) is one of the best things you can do for your business. Your products stands out to customers and signals the quality and efficiency that Amazon stands behind. 

Key Takeaways

Badges on Amazon are a great way to draw a customer’s attention to your product. Although some are easier to get than others, they each have their own benefits. 

• The Amazon’s Choice Badge and Best Seller Badge drive traffic to your listings because they’ve been vetted by both Amazon and other customers 
• Climate Pledge Friendly is a way for brands to position their products and target customers who share their values 
• Coupons and deals create scarcity and urgency that encourage action now 
• Shipping badges make online shopping easy and instant – customers love fast shipping and they like it even better when it’s free