Amazon Badges

It is not always clear exactly how the products that get a specific badge are selected, since Amazon rarely publishes any criteria. Therefore it can sometimes be difficult to determine what one must do to attain them. But through observation it is possible to spot commonalities and trends in products with the same badge designation.

Usually obtaining a badge on Amazon results from a combination of many different factors. But what they have in common: For almost all of them, optimized content, a good advertising strategy and healthy sales numbers are a prerequisite.

Amazon’s Choice Badge

The Amazon’s Choice badge is selected based on Amazon’s algorithm, meaning that the corresponding criteria are not made transparent to sellers. However, this badge is typically assigned products that rank well for a range of specific, commonly-searched keywords. The badge is relatively exclusive, as it is only assigned to one product per keyword.

This badge originated in 2015 as a way to help customers make purchasing decisions over smart speakers, like Amazon Echo, more easily. It has since been expanded and today it is also visible for customers shopping with a screen. The purpose of the badge is to help customers orient themselves despite the mass of options on Amazon, providing a signal that a product is likely to be a good decision. When browsing for products using Alexa or another voice search assistant, these Amazon’s Choice products are the first ones the smart speakers recommend. Based on existing badges, the selection of Amazon’s Choice products seems to be based on the best customer experience rankings and conversion rate for the given keyword.

How do I get it? 

Products that receive the Amazon’s Choice badge are all-around performers. First, the product’s customer rating has to be high. Low customer ratings can be improved by prompting buyers to provide feedback and by putting in effort to follow up on and improve negative reviews. Additionally, the item needs to be optimized for commonly-searched keywords that qualify for an Amazon’s Choice badge. Finally, it is also important to price competitively and be sure that your product is Prime-eligible so it is ready to ship immediately. 

Best Sellers Badge

Best Seller badges are awarded to the top selling product within a product category. Originally, there was only one best seller per category, but nowadays there are generally around 100 best sellers per category of which one receives the badge. However, the number of best seller products differs based on the category – in more specific or niche subcategories there may be fewer. Products that have the Best Seller badge are displayed on a category page in the site navigation. Since these products are all grouped together, they become more visible to customers who are browsing the site without a specific purchasing goal.

Amazon explains that the badge is awarded to the “most popular products based on sales” and is “updated hourly”. This means that the bestseller status is volatile and can change around 24 times a day. Therefore, a product could have a badge for five hours, lose it for another two hours as it dips lower in sales, and then it could regain the badge again – or just as well, lose it forever. Additionally, if there’s not enough sales data at the moment in a certain category, there may not be a badge displayed at a certain time.

How do I get it?

The key is to have optimized content and generally performing well (good ratings, competitive prices, quick shipping, etc) and finding the best category for your product. If Amazon brand products are dominating in the category, it might not be worth the effort to gain the badge as Amazon’s own products mostly have the advantage – but even they can be beaten by high quality products at a similar price. One way to optimize chances of success is to target smaller, nice categories where there is less competition. However, if a product is listed in a category which is only vaguely connected to the product, it could result in a high exit rate and ultimately hurt the product’s ranking in the algorithm.  

In many ways, the Amazon Best Seller badge is more of a nice bonus of having good sales than an end goal itself – although it is a good indicator to both the seller and the buyer that a product is performing well. But the marketing effect is still big: Once a product gains this badge, it will gain a lot of trust, especially if the brand is not that well known, and sales will most likely experience an additional push.

New Release Badge

Just how it sounds, this badge is given to newly released products that have generated high sales velocity within the first days of being listed.

How do I get it?

To get the “New Release” badge, a product needs to catch a lot of attention, ideally ranking on page one for the main keyword and standing out from the competition. Products will likely need to outperform the Best Seller in the most relevant category, potentially by achieving around 1-1.5x as many sales as the Best Seller in their first few days on the platform. 

Top Brand Badge

The objective of the Top Brand badge is to give precedence to large brands, helping them stand out amongst smaller competitors on the platform. Amazon is traditionally a platform where brand is not the deciding purchasing factor, as it takes a backseat to the ranking and price of the product. Large companies sometimes suffer on Amazon, because consumers gravitate towards lower prices as long as the ratings are good. By giving large brands special treatment with the Top Brand badge, Amazon is making an effort to make the platform more appealing to them. 

Like Best Sellers, items with the Top Brand badge also have their own page. This clear identification of high-quality brands makes it easier for users to find the familiar products that they are interested in buying, but prefer to order from Amazon instead of from the brand’s online shop. At one time Amazon was a site that represented an opportunity to find deals, but today it has become so mainstream that many customers would prefer to make all of their purchases on the site. This could be out of habit, for faster shipping or due to obstacles to making in-person purchases. 

How do I get it?

According to Wired, the Top Brand badge selection is based on two factors: first, the amount of products a brand sells and second, how many different products the brand offers. In other words, companies that make a narrow range of goods, but sell a lot of them, are likely to be categorized as Top Brands. This means that smaller companies who meet these requirements could still have a chance at obtaining the badge. However, there is a chance that the selection could include further aspects such as overall customer purchase satisfaction, high sales volume and high conversion rates. 

Climate Pledge Friendly Badge

Unlike many of its other badges, Amazon has outlined clear criteria for its new Climate Friendly badge. This badge is part of Amazon’s Climate Pledge initiative and it indicates products that meet certain sustainability criteria or other specified environmental certifications. 

If customers click on the Climate-Friendly badge while considering a product, they can view which certifications the product meets and learn more about how those certifications positively impact the environment. It looks like this:

Like with Top Brand and Best Seller items, Climate-Friendly items are also grouped into a storefront. The Climate-which has information about the badge and a shop for items that have acquired the badge.

How do I get it?

To be granted this badge, products must be certified by one or more of Amazon’s 18 sustainability certifications partners, which can be viewed here. Once this qualification has been met, Amazon will automatically display the badge on the corresponding product and list the appropriate certifications. If the badge does not appear, its addition can be requested by opening a case in Seller Central or Vendor Central. In addition to partner certifications, products can acquire Amazon’s own “Compact by Design” certification, which measures “unit efficiency” design that aims for more environmentally-friendly and compact packaging. The calculation behind unit efficiency and additional information can be found on Amazon’s Compact by Design website. Additionally, the respective product category packaging standards for the certification can be found in the Seller or Vendor Central product catalog.

Conclusion

All in all, the criteria for the Amazon badges are quite mysterious sometimes. But even though the exact details Amazon takes into account for giving products a badge might remain unknown, it seems clear that for most of them it is important that the product is healthy all-around. Many of the badges we talked about are even more an indicator of success on Amazon rather than a goal in themselves.

Still, the badges help attracting the customers’ attention and setting oneself apart from the competitors. With our software Remdash it is easy to monitor your products’ overall performance on Amazon and to keep track on which badges they have.