Do more badges make it easier or harder for shoppers?

A key tenet of Amazon is their customer obsession, which manifests itself in many ways.

While competitors such as Jet focus more on the curation of products on a much cleaner page, Amazon is often criticized for how busy and convoluted the website looks.

Sure, there are many more products and services it needs to convey (think home services, music, entertainment and more), but for shoppers it can be overwhelming.

So to assist consumers Amazon have applied “badges” to some product listings and more filters to help people find the item/s they want.

But how many badges is too many? And what is the criteria for each badge? 

Unfortunately only Amazon knows the answer to both questions. Which makes it challenging for brands as well – they don’t know how, where and when such designations will be applied, thus complicating their advertising, pricing and inventory strategies.

What are the badges?

First, Prime members may want to filter by Prime eligible products – that they know will be delivered fast, and free.

Then for many products the first large image is of Amazon’s private label inclusion “Our Product”

Then a “Sponsored” product

Prime “Early Access” deals

The “Amazon’s Choice” – often a whole range of products

“Best Sellers” can feature many times on a single page

“Deal of the Day” – a limited time sale

Recently Amazon has been testing the “Top Brand” badge

And now there is a “New” badge (as reported by CNBC)

So even apart from style, price and all of the other buying criteria that pass through a consumer’s mind during the shopping process, there are now at least 9 different ways Amazon is badging products.

And savvy sellers aren’t helping the situation either – putting their own badges into their images, to mimic those that Amazon bestows. In this example, the “New” product had reviews dating back for years.

Only time will tell if this multitude of designations will simplify or confuse consumers, but from both a consumer and brand/advertiser perspective it would be great if we could understand what the criteria is for these badges.

Recently US Senators have taken issue with such labels and asked for Amazon to clarify how they select products, and if such decisions are in the best interests of consumers and sellers, or solely Amazon.