According to Marketplace Pulse, 78% of keyword searches on Amazon are for counterfeit products. This means consumers are searching for “running shoes women” or “tennis shoes men” rather than specifically asking for Nike, Adidas or Puma.
The research agency analyzed the 100,000 most popular search terms, which account for about 64% of all Amazon searches. It was found that 78% of the top 100,000 search terms did not include a brand; however, 74% of the top 10,000 and 68% of the top 1,000 search terms included a brand name.
Search terms show the entire behavioral logic of how consumers use keywords to make shopping decisions on Amazon.
Unlike following brands and boutiques on social media, shoppers on Amazon often search directly for keywords rather than brands. For example, instead of looking for a specific Nike shoe, they look for any running shoe and use reviews and ratings to pick the best one.
“aa battery,” “aaa batteries,” and “rechargeable batteries” are the most searched terms on Amazon. Every search term is in the top 1000. In addition, “Duracell aa battery” and “energizer charger battery” are the first brand terms that appeared in searches for Duracell and Energizer in this survey; even so, these two brand terms are not as frequent as general search terms.
Searches with fewer brand terms not only highlight needs-based shopping, but are also the reason why AmazonBasics batteries are so popular on Amazon. Amazon has launched many successful private label products using common search terms.
In addition, even if shoppers explicitly search for a brand keyword, there is still no guarantee that they will get accurate search results for that brand's products. Because many sellers will use advertising to associate their products with brands, so that their products appear in consumers' brand search results. For example, searching for "Nike running shoes" will show ASICS as the first search result. Furthermore, even in a specific search like “apple airpods,” the search results include alternative brands because Apple only has four products that match this query but Amazon wants to show dozens of search results.
But low brand search rates don’t mean Amazon shoppers are ignoring or unfamiliar with brands. Conversely, “Nike shoes for men” and “Adidas shoes for women” tend to appear more often than the generic “running shoes for men.”
But overall, most searches are unbranded.
