What You Need To Know About New Amazon EBC Features

When most people think of Amazon, “search engine” is probably not the first thing that comes to mind. While the Amazon search engine doesn’t operate the same way as Google, Amazon is one of the largest—if not the largest—ecommerce platforms on the web.

In an effort to become a more effective search engine, Amazon recently adopted new practices and policies for Enhanced Brand Content (EBC). EBC is a deluxe feature available to Amazon sellers with a registered brand. It essentially offers additional real estate for sellers to talk about the product or the brand and is a great tool for Amazon branding.

EBC has had fairly vague standards in the past. EBC could be created for brands and for individual products. However, Amazon’s new guidelines make EBC more seller and consumer friendly both on desktop and mobile devices. These changes are intended to streamline the search process for consumers and improve the efficiency of seller listings. But these changes may offer new SEO best practices for Amazon optimization.  

With that in mind, let’s jump right into those EBC changes.

Alternative Text

For new EBC templates, alternative (alt) text can be added included with pictures to help brands or products index for additional words. Essentially, alt text describes images in detail. Alt text was created to be read aloud to visually-impaired users. Alt text allows these users to access online content and lets you reach a wider audience to build your customer base.

But alt text can do much more than that. These descriptions are indexed by Amazon. Therefore, they should include keywords for greater searchability and indexing potential. By including image alt text as a part of their EBC, sellers can increase the consumer traffic to their brand.

To make your use of alt text productive, you’ll need to be as descriptive and concise as possible. While Google does not have a character limit for alt text, Amazon has placed a cap of 100 characters (including spaces) on alt text.

While 100 characters aren’t much to work with, alt text a vital part of the new Amazon EBC structure, helping to improve a seller’s search potential and making listings more accessible to all users.

Specific Product Expansion

In the past, EBC was generally relegated to entire brand descriptions. With these new policies, however, sellers can expand EBC to apply to specific products. If a seller offers a range of products that are closely related or have particularly high selling rates, they can create EBC specific to those listings.

The new product-specific nature of EBC gives potential customers a more in-depth look at specific products so they can make a more informed buying decision. By offering more information, sellers can build consumer confidence and trust more readily, establishing a stronger fan base and greater customer loyalty.

Single-product EBC is limited to one EBC per parent listing. So if sellers have a group of related products, they are allowed one EBC to represent the entire group.

Comparison Tool

Another new feature Amazon has introduced to EBC is a cross-product comparison tool. This tool allows potential consumers to compare various products within a single brand side by side to see specific differences between products (dimensions, color, additional features, pricing, etc.).

While the comparison tool is only capable of doing comparisons within one brand and does not allow consumers to view comparisons across brands, it can be a helpful asset for consumers as they make purchasing decisions. This feature is compatible with desktop computers, laptops, and mobile devices.

Customizable Templates

In the early days of EBC, design templates were essentially the same across the board. With the new changes to EBC protocol, sellers are free to create their own templates to suit their personal preferences and needs.

With customizable options, sellers can include more graphics, break up text blocks, and choose the layout of their EBC to tailor it to their brand and goals. Rather than having to fit into a generalized mold, sellers can create an EBC that accurately represents their brand while staying within the bounds of Amazon protocol.

At the end of the day, the revamped EBC standards are designed to help sellers broaden their customer base and strengthen their online presence while allowing consumers to find relevant brands and products with greater ease. At Nozani, we have professional photography, design, and content teams to help you take full advantage of these new EBC benefits. To learn more, contact us!