Amazon vs Zalando: a comparison of marketing tools

In the vast world of marketplaces, selling on Amazon and selling on Zalando can be essential for anyone who owns an e-commerce and wants to increase their sales in Europe, especially in the fashion sector. Knowing their strategies and operational tools means effectively growing your business online. In this article, we will provide an overview of the marketing tools that the two platforms offer.

SOME DIFFERENCES BETWEEN THE TWO MARKETPLACES

ADVERTISING TOOLS AVAILABLE FOR AMAZON

A famous internet quote states that “the best place to hide a dead body is the second page of Google”. The same goes for Amazon.

It is therefore essential to make the best use of the marketing tools that Amazon makes available to brands (vendors) and sellers.

Amazon sellers, depending on the country they are targeting, have access to multiple advertising tools. Each of them has specific characteristics, functionalities, and benefits. Let’s see them together.

• SPONSORED PRODUCT: These are ads aimed at increasing sales of specific products. They are pay-per-click campaigns that increase the visibility of one or more products and therefore the likelihood of a sale. Sponsored Product ads appear on the first page of search results and on product detail pages. They are activated in relation to specific product searches. Clicks on the ads drive traffic to the corresponding product page. Sponsored products are labeled with the gray “Sponsored” tag.
• SPONSORED BRAND: Sponsored Brands are pay-per-click campaigns that increase the visibility of a brand and its catalog on Amazon. Like all PPC campaigns, Sponsored Brands are governed by an auction mechanism. Each seller sets a maximum cost per click (CPC) that they are willing to pay. The user sees the ad with the highest CPC and the highest degree of relevance to the search.
• SPONSORED BRANDS VIDEO: Sponsored Brands can also be of the video type. In this case, the user does not see a banner, but a video that automatically plays when 50% of it is visible on the screen. The video (which can last from 15 to 45 seconds) is accompanied by a box that shows some product details: photo, title, price, rating, and whether it is a Prime product. Each Sponsored Brand Video promotes a single product.
• SPONSORED DISPLAY: Sponsored Display is one of the most powerful tools on Amazon. It allows to:

1. Defend your product pages from competitors (targeting on your own products)
2. Create cross-selling and up-selling opportunities (targeting on own products)
3. Increase traffic (targeting competitor product pages)
4. Capture the interest of users who are searching for a product similar to one’s own (product or category targeting)
5. Target users with specific interests (targeting by audience segments: for example, “gift buyers”, “fashion enthusiasts”, etc.)
6. Re-engage users who have already viewed your own product or a similar one (retargeting)

• AUDIO ADS: These ads are prominently featured during playback breaks, reaching audiences during their listening of the free version of Amazon Music on Alexa-enabled devices such as Echo and Fire TV, as well as on mobile and desktop devices.
• VIDEO ADS: These are ads aired during movies, TV shows, news, and live sports events.
• DSP: Demand side Platform, available for both endemic and non-endemic advertisers. Both self-service and managed depending on the advertiser’s investment.

POINTS OF AMAZON MARKETING SERVICE

Unlike Zalando, Amazon allows for better optimization of product pages, thanks to:

• BRAND STORE

What they are and what they are for. Brand Stores are “mini e-commerce” within Amazon, dedicated to each brand. They have a dual objective:

1. They tell the brand and product story with greater flexibility and level of detail compared to product listings. Stores offer multi-page browsing experiences, up to 3 levels of depth. In addition, they can host additional formats, such as shoppable videos and images.
2. They increase the likelihood of conversion. Brand Stores are a selling tool: they attract organic or paid traffic (in fact, they are the “natural” landing pages for Sponsored Brand campaigns).

• A+ CONTENT

A+ contents are visual, graphic, and/or textual contents that enrich the product pages. According to Amazon, A+ contents increase the likelihood of sales by 10 to 20%.

ADVERTISING TOOLS AVAILABLE FOR ZALANDO

Just like Amazon, in order to sell on Zalando, increase visibility and brand awareness, this marketplace also offers various tools with specific features that cater to the different needs of sellers. Let’s summarize them below:

• ZMS AD MANAGER: ZMS Ad Manager is a module within zDirect that allows users to create and manage their marketing campaigns for their Partner Program business on Zalando. This tool enables the creation of self-service campaigns called “Sponsored Products”: the ads will be visible at the top of users’ search results.
• ZALANDO MARKETING SERVICE: Zalando Marketing Service is a tool provided by Zalando to support brands and partners in presenting and promoting their products; in particular, it offers access to in-depth consumer insights and understanding of customers, as well as the development of creative content.
• ZMS INSIGHT: Partners have access to purchase data and customer surveys, including competition benchmarks.
• ZMS CREATIVE: It provides all the necessary tools to create integrated campaigns across all touchpoints, from advertising formats to social media.
• ZMS MEDIA: It manages 360° advertising campaigns with integrated media strategies based on Zalando’s data and insights to help achieve sales and marketing objectives.
• COLLABARY BY ZMS: It is Zalando’s Influencer Marketing platform that creates a point of contact between sellers and influencers, who can help grow the brand.

Collabary by ZMS combines three different types of products:

• Collabary Insights: It allows monitoring of the brand’s Share of Voice on social media and understanding its position relative to competitors;
• Collabary Discovery: A “catalog” that helps identify the best influencers for the brand or find inspiration on the most popular content.
• Campaign Manager: It consists of automated campaign management.