Amazon’s Honeymoon Period: Is it really beneficial to sellers?
Overview of Amazon’s Honeymoon Period
If you recall, I recently declared Amazon’s “honeymoon period” as a bunch of b****** – well, as it turns out, it is just that!
If you’ve never heard of the Honeymoon Period or not sure what it is, it’s simply like a keyword tracking tool such as Helium 10, which sellers have been using to discover how they might gain a high organic ranking for their newly launched product.
Whilst that last part is true, the Honeymoon Period practically holds no benefit to new sellers. And that’s exactly what we’re going to uncover in this insightful piece.
Here’s why the Honeymoon Period has practically no benefit for new sellers
I firmly stand by my statement calling Amazon’s honeymoon period a “bunch of bollocks”. Consider these two simple stats, and hopefully, these will be an eye opener for you like they were for me:
- Between 78% and 92% of Amazon buyers use reviews to determine purchase, according to Oberlo, G2, Statista. This means that a very, very (very!) small amount of customers are likely to buy your new product.
- Understand that sales velocity runs ranking. Amazon makes more money on consistent product sales so without those reviews on a new line, it’s not going to build sales consistency.
Let’s quickly take a look at an example of our client, Grumpy Mule, outranking Lavazza and Amazon Basics. But how did Grumpy Mule outrank those two to begin with? Well, not to brag or anything, but our sales had a higher volume of sales consistency over a 30-day period, so there you have it.
It’s… that… simple!
Products that allegedly “succeed” during the so-called Honeymoon Period are not actually winning BECAUSE of the “honeymoon period”!
New Amazon products must shift the focus from short-term organic rank to long-term sales consistency and customer trust, it’s that’s simple, friend.
Brand credibility and reviews will always have a sizable impact on sales velocity, particularly in case of new products on Amazon. Therefore, building a recognisable brand and securing reviews is one of the formulas for success on Amazon, especially if you’re a new seller.
What is the honeymoon period, anyway?
The Amazon Honeymoon Period refers to the initial phase of launching a new product on the platform. The period typically lasts 15-30 days during which new product listings may achieve higher keyword rankings and better visibility in Amazon’s SERPs (search engine results pages) than their long-term performance – allegedly. Many believe this is the crucial opportunity sellers need to increase sales, gather more reviews, and better align their products for success over the long term – or so they think!
It’s called a “honeymoon” period because just like a honeymoon in an actual relationship, the period represents a time of exceptional advantages and excitement for Amazon sellers – allegedly. Sellers may be able to enjoy more visibility and sales as their product pops up on the market – again, there’s no proof that this has actually ever happened. If anything, existing products with an established customer base have almost always annihilated new products.
Another very important thing we need to understand is that the Honeymoon Period isn’t something Amazon actually sat down and planned in order to benefit sellers. It is simply a by-product of their A9 search engine algorithm which ranks product listings on the platform. Now, the issue here is that Amazon has never shared the principles governing how the A9 algorithm works – and they shouldn’t have to because then sellers would be manipulating it left and right!
So, we can say one thing with certainty that no one except Amazon truly knows how the algorithm works and, therefore, cannot exploit it.
Now that we know that the Honeymoon Period is a consequence of the A9 algorithm, let’s attempt to understand some of the principles by which search engine algorithms generally work so that we can, perhaps, understand if the Honeymoon Period can actually help new products rank higher during these 15-30 days or not.
Amazon’s search engine algorithm is designed to help people find the most relevant results in product searches so that conversions rates and sales can be maximised on the platform. This is why sellers must continuously optimise their product listings with the right keywords used throughout the product description and title, as well as the backend, while also striving to get as many reviews as possible and improving images – all that good stuff!
Other than images, reviews, and keywords, the A9 algorithm also ranks products according to their conversion rates history per search term. In fact, I want to stress on the fact that your product’s conversion history and sales history both play a very important role in how your listings are ranked. But what about new products? You just launched them and they have no sales history as such.
Sales history holds a lot of weight when it comes to the way the A9 algorithm performs calculations – so much so that the likelihood of successfully launching new products would be next to none – unless Amazon had a measure in place to identify the sales potential of new products quickly and then rank them reasonably.
So, Amazon’s solution is not to factor-in sales history to rank new products but rather rank them solely according to their images, keywords, descriptions, etc. during and after the products have been launched. Amazon believes this solution gives new products the exposure they require so that the algorithm can then do its job – that is, to calculate conversion rate and collect sales history to start ranking the new products.
In practice, this sounds all dandy and everything but it doesn’t actually provide any real opportunity to boost sales, get more reviews, or promote your listing during the first four weeks or so after you’ve launched the product – aka. the Honeymoon Period.
Is the Honeymoon Period a myth or does it actually work?
Some sellers swear by the Honeymoon Period being a real phenomenon where they report having their products receive a search ranking boost and higher visibility during the first few weeks after launch. Others say that it is just a myth and that Amazon’s A9 algorithm, in fact, does not give any kind of preferential treatment or strategic advantage to new products.
The latter back up their argument by stating that the increase in both sales and ranking during the first few weeks post-launch is simply because of the novelty of a new product arriving on the marketplace as well as people having a natural curiosity and inclination to try it out.
Since 2023 and beyond, I’ve been seeing a lot of hype surrounding the Honeymoon Period, and that’s all it is: hype and glorified BS, for lack of a better term. The real performance metric you should be focusing on is sales velocity and consistency, apart from building your brand and getting great reviews, of course.
Don’t get too hung up on short term organic ranking just because you’re new in the marketplace. Focus on building long-term consistency and customer trust from day one!
I can think of many more ways to prove that the Honeymoon Period is indeed just marketing hogwash and doesn’t really benefit new sellers in any real way: (+44) 01743 816191 or (+001) (646) 791-4154 if you’re in the US.
