Testing on Amazon is a make-or-break game. Brands on Amazon can't afford to ignore constant testing. Using the scientific method—defining a question, forming a hypothesis, and conducting experiments—helps brands adapt based on data, not emotion. Thanks, Jeffrey. 

Jeffrey Cohen

➡️ Post | Profile

Testing and iteration are fundamental muscles that every brand on Amazon needs to develop and master. Failure to do so will lead to complacency and brand decline. Am I being over dramatic? I don’t think so.

In junior high, we learned the basics of the scientific method. The steps are: 1) Define a Question to Investigate, 2) Research, 3) Hypothesis, 4) Experiment, 5) Conclusion, and 6) Communicate (Action). This data-driven approach allows the data to make the decision, not the emotion. So, what does this have to do with eCommerce or selling on Amazon? Everything.

Here is an example. This system ensures that you are constantly improving your product to meet customer needs. The data that you gather may be reviews, customer interviews, a/b testing, competitive analysis, or more. But at the end of the day, your product has to evolve. Sure, one of you will point out a product that is successful and hasn’t changed, but do you want to search for the one, or do you want to build a system to be successful?

A few years back, I attended a local event where two well-known restaurateurs were speaking. Both of these individuals have built international companies starting from local establishments. During the Q&A part of the event, a question was asked, “When do you know if a new concept will be successful?” The response was something to the effect of our ability to react to customer feedback in the first 90 days, determines our success. We can plan for everything, the theme, the menu concept, the wait staff.. etc., but we don’t know how the customers will react until we open the door. We have to open with the idea that the market will dictate the changes we need to make and then react to those signals when we hear them.

Next week, I will be speaking at #amazonaccelerate with Destaney Wishon and Gabi Viljoen, MBA. While our presentation is on strategies for upper funnel advertising, it's rooted in the basics of junior high science. Many times in life, we have asked, “Why did we take this class?” Here is a great example of where our education is coming back to benefit us. Advertising is a mix of art and science. If you master Sponsored Products and only focus on conversation-focused tactics, you are limiting the reach and potential of your product. Moving upper funnel to awareness and consideration can be scary. It requires additional budget and a changing of your mental model around the metrics you use to measure success. But, if you go back to your roots and apply the scientific method, you can develop a framework that sets you up for success.

What methods are you using to test and learn? I would love to learn of additional frameworks for what has made you successful.

Want to learn more? Join us live in Settle (or online) on Thursday as we dive deeper into this topic. https://lnkd.in/eKN853BF