How to get Amazon customers to your website (without breaking the rules)

Customer loyalty and repeat purchases are the lifeblood of successful businesses: their cost to acquire and lifetime value make them a key target for the marketing efforts of eCommerce stores. Naturally, retaining your customer's information is invaluable, because you need to ensure you can actively market to them. This can be a conundrum for sellers who are sharing their wares on Amazon.

Third-party platforms are great for getting your products into the hands of new buyers - Amazon in particular has over 150 million loyal Prime customers - but they can also be costly. Third party sites will take a percentage off every sale you make and charge hefty fees if there are returns due to customer policy violations or any other reasons at their discretion.

At first, this can seem like a tough choice to make: do you focus all your marketing efforts to drive traffic to your site, but miss out on an extensive potential customer base, or do you sell your products on Amazon but miss out on the opportunity to build your brand identity and get loyal customers?

The answer is simple - you don't have to make the choice, but you do need to be careful. Amazon can introduce new buyers to your brand, while your owned store can build deeper loyalty over time. The safest approach is to create a strong product and brand experience, then let customers find you naturally rather than using packaging, inserts, discounts, or QR codes to push them off Amazon.

Why is marketing on Amazon difficult?

Access to the Amazon marketplace obviously has enormous benefits, but it can also be incredibly restrictive. You aren't allowed to directly refer customers to your site before they can use their purchase, and you're also unable to retain valuable customer information such as email addresses, names and other customer data.

In 2021, Amazon deviated from its policy slightly and tested allowing brands access to email addresses for support queries only. Whilst this looked like a step in the right direction, brands should still assume customer data will remain limited on marketplace channels - the cut that Amazon takes from brands who use their platform is a key part of its model, and keeps customers coming back to the Amazon site.

So as it stands, customer data is scarce and you can't explicitly direct customers to your site as part of an Amazon marketplace listing. That does not mean Amazon has no role in your retention strategy. It means the strategy needs to be brand-led, compliance-conscious, and focused on earning direct demand rather than diverting customers from Amazon.

How to turn Amazon customers to direct customers

1. Don’t put your whole product catalogue on Amazon

One way to create an intrigue around your brand is to only list a few of your products on Amazon. This means that once customers have bought from you they will be curious about what else you offer and want to find out where they can get it.

If at all possible, your products should suggest the existence of adjacent products. If you can release a few parts of a set, for example, your customers will likely be curious as to where they can find the rest!

This tactic can interestingly also work in the reverse! That tactic would be:

2. Bundle your products

Sometimes you can create intrigue by not sharing the entirety of your wares in one go, but you can create a similar effect by packaging your wares into bundles too. For example, you could sell a skincare bundle on Amazon containing moisturiser, day and night cream, face masks etc., but only sell the individual products on your own site.

Both of these approaches are an attempt to encourage the customer to search if they can find your missing products, or bundled products individually. The aim is to have them Google search for your products, leading to them organically discovering your store.

While these approaches can initially frustrate your customers, the satisfaction they have for your product should still drive them to search for additional products, meaning they are likely to buy from your own website if it's offering them what they're looking for.

One thing to be careful of is that you cannot explicitly state that bundled or missing products can be bought on your site. If a customer asks whether items can be purchased separately, answer accurately within Amazon’s communication rules. Avoid directing them to an external site or implying they should complete the purchase elsewhere.

3. Leverage your packaging carefully

Amazon's seller policies prohibit attempts to divert customers away from Amazon or circumvent the Amazon sales process. That means sellers should avoid package inserts, QR codes, discount offers, or calls to action that encourage customers to buy elsewhere, leave Amazon to complete a transaction, or move support conversations off Amazon.

Packaging can still support brand recall when it is part of a normal, compliant retail experience: clear branding, product education, usage instructions, care guidance, and packaging that feels memorable. The line to avoid is turning that packaging into an off-Amazon shopping prompt.

We've made a guide to nailing the unboxing experience, which is a useful starting point for making the customer experience stronger without relying on risky redirection tactics.

If you are considering inserts, QR codes, warranty cards, social links, or website references inside Amazon orders, review Amazon's latest Seller Central guidance and get compliance advice before scaling. Policies and enforcement can change, and the risk is higher when a message includes an offer, cheaper-price claim, review request, email capture, or direct buying CTA.

For example, a handwritten note can thank the customer, explain how to get the best from the product, or reinforce the brand story. It should not tell the customer to use a discount code on your website or buy the next item outside Amazon.

What not to do

Avoid tactics that create obvious policy risk:

• do not offer discounts for buying direct
• do not tell customers an item is cheaper on your website
• do not use QR codes that land on a shopping page or lead capture form
• do not ask for positive reviews or steer negative feedback away from Amazon
• do not collect Amazon customer data for off-Amazon marketing without a compliant basis
• do not move customer service conversations away from Amazon when Amazon requires them to stay there

4. Be social!

Whilst directing customers to your own eCommerce site is a clear risk, brand discovery can still happen outside the Amazon order flow. Build social channels, content, search visibility, and product education that customers can find when they look up your brand independently.

Be cautious about using Amazon packaging or inserts to push customers to social channels, especially if the destination is designed to capture data, offer discounts, or route people to off-Amazon purchases. A stronger long-term play is to make the brand memorable enough that customers search for you later.

5. Don't neglect Amazon reviews

Even though you naturally want customers on your own site, it's important not to neglect your Amazon customers. After all, if you're using the above tips and tricks, some of your loyal onsite customers may have started out on Amazon too.

Amazon will be where a lot of customers find your brand for the first time, and it's important to offer them an excellent service so that you can nurture them into loyal brand-evangelists.

Customers will always be more passionate about brands that give them all the support they need. Respond to your Amazon reviews and deal with any customer service issues as quickly and efficiently as possible. Once a customer falls in love with your products, it's only a matter of time before they find their way onto your store.

In short: make Amazon work FOR you

It's easy to look at Amazon as a 'win some, lose some' situation, but that doesn't have to be the case. Amazon has everything you need to build a successful business: traffic, brand recognition and customers. The only thing you have to worry about is how to get those Amazon customers onto your own website so that you can turn them into loyal repeat customers.

If you're smart about what you're doing, Amazon can be an incredibly powerful acquisition channel for your business. As long as you stick to the rules and follow our tips, the Amazon marketplace can be an invaluable tool to grow your native customer base.