Amazon's major update: Coupon display and rating star changes

Recently, the front-end display of the Amazon platform has undergone two major adjustments:

1. The product coupons on the search results page will directly display the price after use ;

2. The rating display rules have changed. Products with 4.2 to 4.4 stars are now uniformly displayed as four and a half stars .

These two changes are extremely important to sellers, please pay attention!!!

In the past, the search page would display the discount amount of the coupon through the prompt "Save XX% with coupon"; however, now, this display method has been changed to directly display "You pay $XX with coupon". What's more, the prices in front of some products are presented directly without any English labels!

As shown in the figure below, some sellers have discovered in the past two days that some products on the search results page have adopted this new display method, that is, directly displaying the coupon price of "You pay $14.99 with coupon".

Image source: Know everything

The effects of this change are:

1. The appeal of high-ratio coupons has weakened:

In the past, some sellers would first increase the original price and then offer a large discount (such as 70% or 80%) to attract customers to click. However, now consumers directly see the final price paid, the effectiveness of this strategy has been greatly reduced.

2. The calculation method of flash sale discounts is affected by the new mechanism:

Under the new Amazon flash sale rules, the discounted price of the coupon is included in the calculation of the final transaction price of the deal.

For example:

A product with an original price of 26.99 is discounted to 24.99 (equivalent to a 10% discount) when participating in the BD event.

If a 10% coupon is added, the final amount that consumers need to pay will be calculated as follows:

$26.99 × (1-10%) × (1-10%) = $21.86

It is worth noting that Amazon’s latest flash sale mechanism emphasizes the impact of coupons on the discounted transaction price: in flash sales and 7-day promotions, the final discounted price of the product must remain below 85% of the lowest transaction price in the past 30 days , and the discounted price of the coupon will be considered as a factor in determining the lowest transaction price .

This means that for sellers who set up LD/BD, coupons, and Prime member-exclusive discounts, their product prices will eventually be reflected in Amazon’s lowest price display.

According to current information, the feature of displaying the price after applying the coupon on the front page of Amazon is still in a small-scale testing phase and has not yet fully covered all accounts and product categories. This change is currently limited to some buyer accounts being able to preview the price after applying the coupon.

In addition, sellers have also found that Amazon's rating display mechanism has changed:

Past: Ratings were rounded to the nearest integer, with ratings between 4.0 and 4.4 being displayed as four stars.

Now: The ratings are more refined, 4.2-4.4 is directly displayed as four and a half stars, while 4.1 is still four stars

Amazon’s adjustment this time is critical because there is a big gap in conversion rates between four-star and four-and-a-half-star products.

Now, simply increasing a product rating from 4.1 to 4.2 can significantly increase exposure and sales, especially for products with a lot of reviews.

In addition, products with 4.2 stars and above are more easily seen by consumers , and their choices are more accurate . Therefore, it is recommended that sellers optimize the ratings of 4.1-4.2 star products and guide high-quality feedback.