Brands that sell on Amazon have grown accustomed to sudden changes and having to adapt to unannounced updates. However, when an entire section of a product detail page seems to vanish, it raises a concern and causes frustration. Within the past few weeks, brands have noticed their product descriptions disappearing and occasionally reappearing. Continue reading to learn what missing product descriptions mean for brands and what the team at Marketplace Strategy has learned.
What’s Happening?
Over the past several weeks, product descriptions have periodically vanished from product detail pages without warning or notice from Amazon.
What Do Missing Product Descriptions Mean?
Since product descriptions began to disappear, there has been discussion throughout the industry as to why this is happening. Theories range from this simply being a glitch, to the testing of something more permanent.
We’ve noticed this happening with some of our clients, but it hasn’t been consistent across any particular category.
What Marketplace Strategy Has Learned
While working to update content for a client, our strategists spoke with Amazon Support, which provided the following insight regarding missing product descriptions:
“Our team is constantly experimenting on the details of the ASINs in catalog on behalf of customers, and this ASIN is one of them. During this test, product description will not be showing up on the detail page of ASINs. Please know that this test will be running for a limited period of time and will help us improve how we present product information to customers.”
Marketplace Strategy’s Perspective
We believe Amazon may be testing to see how often shoppers scroll down to the product description section of product detail pages, as well as the level to which product descriptions influence conversion rates.
During this phase of Amazon’s testing, our strategists have been working closely with our clients to reproduce product descriptions and return their catalogs to normal. It seems this test will mostly impact categories more heavily dependent on product descriptions to present details and specs of products, including, Business Industrial and Scientific (BISS), Consumer Electronics, and Office Supplies.
Although there is potential for Amazon to switch how content is displayed in the future, for now, missing product descriptions are nothing to fear. If your brand needs support from a strategic partner or has any questions, we’re here to help.