Amazon Expands New Image Policy to Most Product Types

At the beginning of the year, Amazon rolled out a new product image policy for hardline products. Now, Amazon is planning to roll out the policy for softlines and consumable products. This essentially means that they’re rolling the policy out to most product types.

If your product detail pages are missing lifestyle, infographic, and size chart images, you are at risk of another seller’s image contributions taking over and misrepresenting your brand. If you don’t have a solid plan in place to continually monitor and optimize your product pages, now is the time to start considering how you will maintain your brand’s image on Amazon.

What is the New Image Policy Change on Amazon and How Did it Change?

Amazon’s new image policy has essentially allowed them to overwrite your brand’s product images with another seller’s contributions if Amazon deems it to be more closely aligned with their standards. Amazon is requiring product pages to contain 1 of each:

• Product with pure white background (main image)

• Product in an environment (lifestyle image)

• Size and fit information (infographic)

View the full list of requirements here. Amazon’s image policy has changed in two ways:  

1. Expanded to include most product types (hardlines, softlines, and consumables). Hardline goods refer to a large array of products such as electronics, appliances, furniture, etc. Softline goods are fabric-based, like clothing and curtains. Consumables are anything ingested, from dietary supplements to frozen foods.

2. The original policy update has been tweaked to consider the feedback from brand owners. In Amazon’s words: “Based on seller feedback, we’ve also made adjustments to how these images are selected and will prioritize brand owner images. We’ll only use Amazon or brand-registered sellers’ content if the required images are missing in the product detail page or to upgrade low-quality content, such as sketches or low-resolution images.”

Why Does Amazon's New Image Policy Impact Brand Owners?

Although Amazon claims they have adjusted the policy to ensure brand owner images are prioritized, many brands are skeptical of this based on the Seller Forum comments. Brand Registry, unfortunately, does not provide brands with the safeguards that one would assume are available. This is a perfect example of being in Amazon’s playbox and needing to adapt to their rules and way of auto-optimizing product pages.

In our experience, brands are more at risk of images being overwritten by other seller's contributions when their product pages are unoptimized and lacking images such as lifestyle and infographics. It’s important that you build great product pages on Amazon, not “bare bones” minimum input listings. If you need help with optimizing your catalog, our team of experts at Blue Wheel can help!

If you're a client looking for more information, contact your account team! If you’re interested in learning more about how Blue Wheel can aid in your brand efforts in online marketplaces, schedule a consultation with our team, we would love to hear from you.