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Conquering Your Metadata
Challenges
Joshua Tallent
@jtallent @firebrandtech
© 2020 Firebrand Technologies
© 2020 Firebrand Technologies
Agenda
• Metadata testing results
• Four major publishing data challenges
• Five suggestions
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Your
metadata
is
important!
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© 2020 Firebrand Technologies
Online vs. Offline Sales
80%
50%
20%
50%
2010 2019
Online
Offline
Industry estimates
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Preferred shopping method (February 2018)
https://www.statista.com/statistics/913198/digital-shopping-method-preference-usa/
41%
28%
16%
7%
5%
3%
Search and buy on Amazon
Search Google, buy on Amazon
Search Google, buy elsewhere
Search and buy on another site
Search on another site, buy elsewhere
Search on Amazon
The everlasting backlist
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The Importance of Metadata
for Discovery and Sales
Nielsen, December 2016
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© 2020 Firebrand Technologies
Metadata
Testing
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© 2020 Firebrand Technologies
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© 2020 Firebrand Technologies
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Delivery Time in Days
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© 2020 Firebrand Technologies
© 2020 Firebrand Technologies
• Care and concern
• Description
• Author Bio
• Reviews
• Excerpt
• TOC
• Linked series name
• Edition
• Clean design, minimal
ads
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© 2020 Firebrand Technologies
• Duplicate Reviews, inconsistent display
• Longer text is always hidden, requires multiple
mouse clicks
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• Almost everything
• Description
• Author Bio
• Reviews
• Excerpt
• Publisher’s Comment
• Flap/Back Panel Copy
• Series name
• Edition
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• Design is cluttered and inconsistent
• All extra content hidden behind “See all
Editorial Reviews”
• Plus “Read More” for excerpts
• No TOC
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© 2020 Firebrand Technologies
© 2020 Firebrand Technologies
© 2020 Firebrand Technologies
• Description
• Author Bio
• Series
• Edition
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• No Reviews
• No Excerpt
• No TOC
• No additional content
• Publisher’s content can be overwritten by site
editors
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• Description
• Author Bio
• Reviews
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• Only the last review shown
• <em> tags have italic style removed
• <p> replaced with <br>
• No Series
• No Edition
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• Description
• Short Description
• Series
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• All copy mashed together, no headings
• No Author Bio
• No Reviews
• No Excerpt
• No Edition info
• Publication month and year, not day
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• Issues finding products
• Duplicate descriptive copy
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• Duplicate copy, weird copy, and more
• Some titles mysteriously have no descriptions
• No Edition info, no Excerpt, no TOC
• Ampersands all switched to “and”
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© 2020 Firebrand Technologies
© 2020 Firebrand Technologies
Metadata
Challenges
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Challenge #1:
Metadata
Overwriting and
Ownership
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© 2020 Firebrand Technologies
FIRST
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Challenge #2:
Third Party Sellers
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~40,000 titles from
50+ publishers
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Third party sellers on Amazon
have won the buy box on
50% of these titles at least
once
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Third party sellers win the buy
box only about 15% of the
time on average
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We have tracked ~7,500
individual third-party sellers in
the Amazon marketplace
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Of those, 43% have taken
the buy box fewer than
10 times.
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The top 30 third-party sellers
make up 50% of buy box
wins
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Current top 7 sellers:
Book Depository US 7%
DK Outlet 5%
What America Buys 4%
itemspopularsonlineaindemand 3%
Teach&Play 2%
book182wire 2%
ayvax 2%
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© 2020 Firebrand Technologies
Average sale price offered
by third party sellers is
34% off the list price
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Average sale price offered
by Amazon is
26% off the list price
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Publisher
Third Party
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About 52% of third party
sellers use Amazon fulfillment
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Challenge #3:
Invisible Branding
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© 2020 Firebrand Technologies
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© 2020 Firebrand Technologies
© 2020 Firebrand Technologies
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Brand recognition is
a key indicator of
success on Amazon
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© 2020 Firebrand Technologies
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Amazon Brand
Registry
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© 2020 Firebrand Technologies
© 2020 Firebrand Technologies
© 2020 Firebrand Technologies
amazon.com/dummies© 2020 Firebrand Technologies
© 2020 Firebrand Technologies
Caveats
• USPTO Principal Registry, not Supplementary
• Or Canadian Intellectual Property Office registry
• Can take years to get registered
• Distinct brand with Words/ Letters/ Numbers
• Reports from some publishers that reporting
violations causing problems
• Integration with Amazon Advantage is not great
(better with Seller Central)
© 2020 Firebrand Technologies
© 2020 Firebrand Technologies
Samuel Maverick
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Challenge #4:
What You Miss
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of publishers manually check their
metadata
of publishers say their metadata is
altered
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You miss one hundred
percent of the shots
you don't take.
- Wayne Gretzky
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List Price
Sale Price
Buy Buttons Disappearing
Titles Disappearing
Review Counts
Review Stars
Sales Rank
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© 2020 Firebrand Technologies
#1
Assign Someone
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#2
It Takes a Village
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#3
Prioritize Metadata
Quality
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© 2020 Firebrand Technologies
Images
• At least 1600px on shortest side
• RGB, not CMYK
• 300dpi
• JPG
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Look inside
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Interior Images
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Sales Handle / Promotional Headline
• No retailers utilize the ONIX field
• Add it to the top of your description in bold
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© 2020 Firebrand Technologies
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© 2020 Firebrand Technologies
#4
Refresh, Refresh,
Refresh
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Author Bio
Book or Author Awards
New Reviews
Keywords
Book Description
Comp Titles
Interior Images
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#5
Watch Your Titles
© 2020 Firebrand Technologies
Joshua Tallent
Director of Sales and Education
joshua@firebrandtech.com
978-225-2757
@jtallent @firebrandtech