Amazon A+ and Premium A+ Content: Pros and Cons Brands Need to Know

Amazon product listings have changed a lot over the years. You used to create a simple product description, five bullet points, and eight photos. Now you need a team of strategists to optimize the copy, image types, keywords, and more.

As the marketplace, and number of sellers, has grown, sellers have had to be more and more strategic and eye-catching to increase traffic and conversions on their listings. Brands can design their Amazon storefronts using one of two of Amazon’s content tools: A+ Content and Premium A+ Content (or A++ Content). Here are the pros and cons of using A+ Content vs. Premium A+ Content:

What is Amazon A+ Content?

Amazon A+ Content is a standard feature available to all Amazon sellers. It’s free as one of the many benefits of Amazon Brand Registry. With A+ Content, a product listing can offer more than a plain text description and standard photo reel. Brands can use high-quality photos, videos, and other eye-catching types of content to better share their product story. You can also run A/B tests using A+ Content to see which types of imagery are most likely to convert sales.

Amazon A+ Content helps brands create listings that offer a better product experience, more information, and engaging elements like text placements, product comparisons, and more.

The three types of Amazon A+ Content

Amazon offers three levels of A+ content tools to suit any brand’s budget or content capabilities.

1. Basic A+ Content: This level allows you to augment your product descriptions and help customers understand key features. It offers more image options, customized text placements, and charts to help customers comparison shop.  
2. Premium A+ Content: Brands who choose Premium A+ Content can upload larger images, videos, interactive features like clickable images, carousels, Q&A modules, and comparison charts.
3. Brand Story A+ Content: This level makes it possible to connect shoppers to your brand’s values and mission with a module across all your product listings You can also use this to drive traffic to your Amazon Brand Store and highlight other products.

Amazon’s Seller Guide offers great information for how to best utilize any level of A+ Content to make your listings stand out. 

According to Amazon, using Basic A+ Content can boost your sales by up to 8%, while thoughtful, well-executed Premium A+ content can increase your sales by 20%.

Pros and Cons of Amazon A+ vs. Premium A+ Content

Although their purposes are similar, there are some key differences between A+ Content and Premium A+ Content. Here are the pros and cons for each tool:

Basic Amazon A+ Content

Pros:

• Free and unlimited use for all professional sellers
• An effective tool to enhance customer experience and product listings

Cons:

• Fewer features than Premium A+
• Not as visually appealing as Premium A+

Premium A+ Content

Pros:

• More modules/tools to choose from that offer a bigger impact
• Better branding and product experience for customers
• A sales boost of up to 20% with Premium A+, according to Amazon

Cons:

• You must qualify to use Premium A+ content 
• Currently free for eligible brands, but Amazon mentions they may begin charging a fee

How to qualify for Amazon A+ Content

Brands that want to use Amazon A+ Content must have a professional selling account with Amazon. The brand must be enrolled in Amazon Brand Registry or have generic products in their catalog. Users implementing A+ Content need to be a brand representative.

In order to qualify for Premium A+ Content, brands must currently be using the Brand Story module across all their product listings. Amazon also wants them to be active users of Basic A+ Content—they must have at least 5 A+ Content projects published in the last year.

Elevate Your Amazon Content with Pattern

Ultimately, both of these tools exist to help you and your brand provide customers the best online shopping experience possible. Although Premium A+ offers plenty of exciting new options for enhancing customers’ buying experience, it may be difficult for some brands. Those with small teams and limited time already struggle to optimize their product listings and create engaging photos and videos.

Our creative and digital marketing experts at Pattern can help brands use Basic A+ Content, Premium A+ Content, and Brand Story modules to increase conversions and give buyers an amazing experience. 

Get in touch to learn how Pattern can help you create Amazon A+ Content for better conversion.