Amazon Combines Enhanced Brand Content and A+ Content for Sellers

Amazon recently combined its Enhanced Brand Content and A+ content features into one. Now, Amazon Sellers will see the A+ content Manager tab in Seller Central rather than their old EBC dashboard. Pattern’s eCommerce experts weren’t surprised by the change, as the services offered by each have been growing more similar (and having two names for essentially the same service makes little sense). However, the changes do mean there are slight changes to how brands implement A+ content to their product pages and what services are available to them.

What's the difference between EBC and A+ content?

Amazon has two different seller platforms: Seller Central and Vendor Central. Sellers in Seller Central have a 3P (third-party) relationship with Amazon, selling directly to Amazon customers. Sellers in Vendor Central have a 1P (first-party) relationship with Amazon, selling directly to Amazon itself. Thus, EBC was name of content improvements available in Seller Central while A+ content was the name of content improvements available in Vendor Central. Learn more about A+ content. This comparison chart outlines the differences between the two (there weren’t many to begin with):

Basic feature comparisonEBCA+ ContentEligibilityBrand registry 2.0All vendors eligibleAvailable default modulesLogos and descriptionsNo default modulesLocationProduct description sectionFrom the manufacturer's sectionOverride your existing description?YesNo

New/changed features in A+ content

These new features in A+ content are all part of Amazon’s apparent efforts to make it easier than ever for sellers to optimize and enhance their product listings. After all, the ’Zon is all about pleasing the customer! Here is a brief list of the changes to the combined EBC and A+ page.

1. New dashboard look + feel

Of course, the old EBC dashboard has been redesigned into a new, user-friendly A+ content dashboard. Sellers can easily sort through their A+ content listings (including the EBC changes they made before the update) by name, type, language, date modified, and content status.

2. New modules

A+ content includes two new modules: Product Description Text and Standard Text. Some modules now require adding content and images (e.g. adding a logo). Additionally, the Image Header with Text module (previously only available in EBC) is available in A+ content to Vendors as well.

3. No more predefined templates

Back in 2018 Amazon added some templates to EBC to try and help Sellers to optimize their content. However, these templates have now been removed and Sellers have more freedom to choose which templates they use to design their own enhanced content. At Pattern, we have an awesome team of creatives who help our partners’ product pages stand out from the competition. heck out these examples below:

4. Upload multiple A+ pages at once via ASIN

In EBC, Sellers could only upload enhanced content via SKU (Stock Keeping Unit). With the A+ update, Sellers can now upload new content by ASIN, saving them time (and tears) by being able to add content to an entire parentage and then marking off any child ASIN they don’t need.

5. View mobile previews

Before, only A+ content users could see a mobile preview of their enhanced content. Now, a mobile preview is available to all sellers. Optimizing your content for mobile is extremely important seeing as nearly 80% of smartphone users have bought something online in the last 6 months.

Why combine EBC and A+ content?

Like the chart above points out, not many differences existed between EBC and A+ content in the first place. Amazon’s recent name change most likely represents recent efforts to simplify the seller experience across their platforms, said Juliana Hacken, Pattern Senior Brand Manager. “Amazon is trying to provide a more consistent seller experience across Seller Central and Vendor Central.

As such, they've been slowly changing things to more consistent terminology. Enhanced Brand Content and A+ content have always been essentially the same thing but with different names. As the two platforms have become more similar to A+ content, it made sense for Amazon to finally rename it,” Hacken said. Pattern’s eCommerce experts can help you learn more about the latest Amazon changes. Reach out to get a free analysis of how we could help your brand win on eCommerce.