Amazon Changes Title Character Counts & Rules For Kitchen Sellers

Did you know that …

• Amazon has an extensive list of do’s and don’ts when it comes to creating product listings?
• Amazon does not apply the same restrictions to every category?
• Amazon provides Style Guides (also called Inventory Templates) that outline the specifics of what you can and can’t do when writing titles, bullets/features and product description copy? (And many other restrictions.)
• Many sellers are breaking the rules without knowing it?

According to Amazon, these chronic violations have caused the e-commerce giant to roll out some serious changes.

I’ve had several conversations with Seller Support over the last four months or so about this topic, including a talk with a representative from the Leadership Team. She mentioned that they have been aware of these types of listings for quite some time and were working on a way of helping sellers be more aware of the rules and compel them to work within the listing criteria. No easy task considering the volume of information available and the fact that not all of it is consistent.

Amazon’s Contradiction & Confusion

Here’s just how confusing Amazon’s system can be. The maximum title character count you’ll find in any of the Style Guides for any category is 150 (consumer electronics). However, the actual Product Name field in Add A Product has a small note that tells you the maximum is 250 characters. However, the field itself will hold much more than that. So, Amazon says one thing and does another in many cases. No wonder so many sellers are in violation without knowing it!

Regardless of what the website says, if Amazon contacts you because they have deactivated your listing, they will hold you accountable to whatever is stated in the Style Guide or their most current policy change.

Home Category Call-Out

The first category to be reined in is the one that Amazon identified as having the most listings in violation: Home. Starting gradually a few months ago, reports from our clients (and the Facebook groups we belong to) began to roll in.

Amazon had implemented forced character limits for titles and bullets/features in the Kitchen sub-category. As the weeks went on, more were added to the list. Not everyone is seeing these at the moment, but I’ve been told by Amazon that this will be a category-wide change to take place over time.

So far we have heard accounts of two situations: First, sellers have been notified that existing listings have been deactivated until changes were made. Second, new listings have encountered forced character limits in the Add A Product section of Seller Central and the inventory upload.

Since those original reports, I’ve heard about pretty much every home sub-category being affected, including:

• Pets
• Lawn & Garden
• Home
• Patio
• Dining

I have also seen this expanding out into Crafts and certain select Sporting Goods sub-cats.

Where Do We Stand Now?

As of today (July 2015), for the Home & Garden category (and all sub-categories under it), the following character counts apply:

• Title/Product Name: 100 maximum (stated in the Style Guide)

• Bullets/Features: 156 maximum (stated in the Style Guide, but the guide also says “recommended maximum of 80 characters”).

Short Copy Can Be Compelling

Since Amazon has put their foot down on exceptionally long titles and bullets, where does that leave you? Short copy doesn’t have to be boring. Let’s take a look at some practical tips and tricks you can use when whittling down your longer listings.

Here’s an actual example from one of Skip McGrath’s listings. Here’s one way we can tweak it to comply with the new character counts while still being compelling.

The current title is:

Seven-Piece Premium Ceramic Knife Set, Advanced Zirconium Ceramic Blades, Non-slip Handle; Includes a Peeler, a 3″ Paring Knife, 4″ Slicing Knife, 5″ Utility Knife, a 5″ Santoku Knife, a 6″ Chef Knife and an Acrylic Knife Holder

This equals 228 characters. (Yes, spaces count.) While it is an informative title, I wouldn’t necessarily call it “enticing.” It doesn’t take much to capture attention. Sometimes just a word or two can catch the eye of shoppers and sway them to click on your product.

An alternate 100-character title Skip might try is:

Professional-Quality 7-Piece Ceramic Knife Set | Advanced Zirconium Blades With Non-Slip Handles (96 characters)

The terms “professional-quality” and “advanced” let Amazon visitors know that this isn’t some cheapo knife set, but one that is of high value. I chose to skip the types of knives included because they can see those from the images. You can’t see professional quality or that they have ceramic blades from a picture.

The types of knives and their sizes can easily be put into the Search Terms fields. The details can go into the bullet points and description sections.

The current bullets are:

• Third Generation Ceramic technology – Advanced Zirconium Ceramic Blades
• Don’t be fooled by the low price. These are very high-quality knives and come with a Lifetime replacement guarantee
• Includes: 6″ Ceramic Slicing knife, 5″ Ceramic Santoku, 5″ Ceramic Utility Knife, 4″ slicer, 3″ Paring Knife Ceramic peeler and knife holder
• Ultra pure ceramic composition prevents browning of fresh fruits and vegetables – The knives are dishwasher safe – but not the holder.
• Prevents transfer of metallic ions and bacteria that can alter the taste and smell of fresh foods

All of these are under 156 characters (per bullet), but I’d make some changes to enhance readability and draw in home cooks even further.

• What The Pros Use: Zirconium ceramic is the blade of choice for chefs. Now you can have the same advanced 3rd generation technology for your home kitchen.
• Affordable Luxury: You would expect to pay more for knives of this quality, but thanks to innovations in ceramic manufacturing, you don’t have to.
• No Browning or Bacteria: Ceramic composition prevents browning of fruits & veggies, transfer of metallic ions & bacteria. Knives are dishwasher safe.
• 6″ + 4″ Slicing knives, 5″ Santoku for chopping, 5″ Utility knife for small tasks, 3″ Paring knife for detailed cutting, Peeler & Knife Holder included.
• Lifetime Replacement Guarantee: If any of the pieces of your set ever fail, please return them for an immediate replacement … forever.

Personally, I like to give a teaser/benefit at the front of bullets. So, instead of “Third Generation Ceramic technology – Advanced Zirconium Ceramic Blades,” which is strictly a feature, I changed it to immediately connect with home cooks with a benefit:

• What The Pros Use: Zirconium ceramic is the blade of choice for chefs. Now you can have the same advanced 3rd generation technology for your home kitchen.

I did the same with the rest of the bullets except for the list of items included.

If you give some thought to what the target customer really wants and make that the focal point of your bullets and title, you don’t have to use a lot of words to entice and attract buyers.

More Confusion from Amazon Starts Today (July 15, 2015)

Many Amazon sellers received an email from Seller Support a few weeks ago. It mentioned that the maximum character count for the Product Name filed would be reduced to 200. Many people believe that this gives them license to use 200 characters per title for every category on Amazon.

I contacted Amazon immediately to find out if this was what they meant and was told that it was not. They explained that the character counts in the Style Guides would still apply, but that the actual Product Name filed would not hold more than 200 characters.

I explained how confusing their email was and that there was different information in multiple places of their site. They are in the process of trying to clean up their internal system now and – HOPEFULLY – will issue a blanket, one-size-fits-every-category character count. Only time will tell.

If you have a minute, I encourage you to contact Seller Support and make these requests:

1. That they issue an across-the-board character count for all titles regardless of category.
2. That they allow Seller Central users the same features as Author Central and Vendor Central. Both of these are legally allowed to use bold, line breaks and bullets to format their product descriptions and it makes them much easier to read. Seller Central users should have the same abilities.

I’ll keep you posted. In the meantime, check out my Amazon Product Listing Boot Camp.  You and I will walk through the entire process of doing Amazon keyword research then writing exceptional titles, bullets and descriptions right before your eyes in this 4-session video series. Get all the details and buy now.