Time for another Amazon influencer storefront audit, and this one is a good example of a storefront that’s getting product selection mostly right but leaving clicks and commissions on the table in how the content is built. Erica asked for the audit, so I ran my auditing tool across her last 50 videos, watched the content, and checked how it competes in the carousel. Here’s the breakdown, including the one thing I’d pivot on immediately if Amazon is the main platform.

In This Article

The Product Selection Numbers

I built a tool for myself that pulls the last 50 videos on a storefront and gives me a blueprint of the products being tagged. The question it answers is simple: are the products you’re saying yes to likely to make you money?

On this storefront, 74% of the last 50 videos contain a product with a real sales history. That’s three out of four videos sitting on something that actually sells, and it’s a solid number. Average product price is around $35, which is right where mine sits, and I don’t believe price matters much anyway. When a product is selling, it’s moving roughly 2,500 units a month, which lands squarely in the 2,500 to 3,500 range I typically see on healthy storefronts. No notes on any of that.

74% Creator Connections Is a Good Start

Roughly 74% of those 50 videos also have Creator Connections campaigns attached. I’d like to see that closer to 80%, and if I’m honest I’d love 100%, but 74% tells me Erica is deliberately targeting Creator Connections products that are selling. That is exactly the right instinct and it’s the foundation most storefronts I audit are missing.

When there is an upper carousel, the average is 4.76 influencers in it. The cap is five, so yes, that’s crowded, but it’s normal now. Given how many of these are Creator Connections products, I’ll take the trade-off every time. Competition in a carousel on a product that pays a bonus is better than an empty carousel on a product that doesn’t.

Why Clothing Caps You at 50% Upper Carousels

Only 50% of the products checked have an upper carousel at all, and the reason is clothing. Amazon does not allow upper carousels on clothing, shoes, and a few other categories. Nobody knows why. What it means in practice is that every clothing video, best case, lands in the lower carousel, which a lot of shoppers never scroll to. Your visibility is severely limited before the video is even judged.

If you’re choosing products specifically to earn on-site commissions, my takeaway is to stop doing so much clothing and move toward categories with upper carousel opportunity like home goods. I’ll explain in a minute why I suspect the clothing is there for a different reason.

Parent ASINs and the 63% Mystery

Only 63% of all tagged products had a sales history, even though 74% of videos did. That gap is almost certainly parent ASINs. Parent listings often carry no sales history of their own, and this storefront tags parent IDs on nearly every video. The main product the video was made for is selling; the parent sitting next to it isn’t registering. So this isn’t a red flag, just something to understand when you look at your own numbers. If you run Storefront Cross Check in Oink and see a similar spread, check whether parents are inflating the “no sales” count before you panic.

Vertical-First Is a TikTok Tell

Nearly everything on this storefront is vertical with very little horizontal, and that gives me the vibe these videos are being created for TikTok first and dropped onto Amazon afterward. If that’s the case and Amazon is just extra commissions on content you already made, I’m fine with it. You get what you get.

But if Amazon is the main thing and this is the content being made first, I’d pivot to horizontal first. There’s no hard data behind this, but the big earners I know in the Amazon Influencer Program predominantly shoot horizontal first and cut vertical later. If you want to be a fast runner, do what fast runners do.

Lead With the Buyer’s Question, Not the Brand

Most of these videos open with “the brand sent me this” or “the brand gifted me this to make a video.” Buyers have no connection to that. They clicked your video to get a question answered, and if they don’t believe you’re about to answer it, they move to the next influencer.

Open by connecting. If it’s a vacuum: “You’re probably wondering, does this thing actually work, or is it worth it?” If it’s a toaster: “Does this burn the toast? Is it worth the money?” Then say the brand part. The order matters because the first sentence is the moment they decide to stay.

On the expertise, authority, insight, and demonstration side, this storefront does a really good job. Products are shown doing what they’re supposed to do, the clothing is worn, and the videos run close to two minutes, which is a healthy length for a product page.

Inconsistent Audio Will Cost You the Sale

I am going to pick on the audio. Several videos are echoey and sound like the camera is across the room, then a voiceover kicks in and suddenly it’s loud. Inconsistent audio throws off an otherwise good video, and if a buyer can’t hear the information, they go to somebody else’s video.

Grab a $40 to $50 lavalier mic. I use a Boya Mini, and I’m not linking it, it’s just a good one. Any content creator should be using audio equipment on every single video. If the video is worth making, it’s worth making well. Visually everything here is fine, lots of outdoor shooting with good natural light.

Thumbnails, Titles, and Amazon’s Crop

In a carousel you have two tools to win the click: a thumbnail that highlights the product and tells a story, and a title that creates mystery and gives the buyer a reason to click. Erica is doing a great job on both. Every thumbnail features the product. Titles like “See it on an XXL” and “Why I keep adding more of these towels to my collection” make you want to find out the answer. A couple miss, like “Get this feeder assembled and filled in 15 minutes,” which is a statement instead of a question. Flip it to “How long does it take to fill this thing?” and it works.

One important note on vertical thumbnails: Amazon crops them. Even when the video is vertical, Amazon takes the middle of your thumbnail for the carousel and cuts the rest off, and I watched it chop a perfectly good shot in half on this storefront. Going forward, make horizontal thumbnails even for vertical videos. Leave the existing ones alone, just change the habit.

Stop Posting the Same Video Twice

There are multiple places on this storefront where the same product has two videos that are essentially identical, just shot in a different location. Same value proposition, same information, posted separately. That’s wasted effort for the buyer and for you.

If you want two videos on a product, make the second one a follow-up three months later: “Here’s why I still love this after three months.” That’s a different story with a different reason to click, and it gives you a second real shot at the carousel instead of a duplicate. This is also where the Comparison Video Schedule in Oink earns its keep. Instead of re-shooting the same hooded shirt in a new spot, compare it against the other hoodie on your storefront and give the buyer something they can’t get from either video alone.

Watch the Full Audit

Want the same breakdown on your own storefront? Oink for Influencers runs the Storefront Cross Check on your tagged products so you can see your sales history, Creator Connections coverage, and carousel opportunity in one place, before you shoot the next video.

I'm an Amazon Influencer since 2023 and blogger since 2021. My goal is to help you succeed in the Amazon Influencer Program.

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