Have you ever searched for your own product on a retailer’s site only to find your competitor’s “similar” item staring back at you? It’s a bit like showing up to your own birthday party and finding out someone else is blowing out the candles.
At Swell Media, we know why this happens. We’ve studied over 1 million interactions across the biggest retail sites. We looked at Amazon, Walmart, Target, Kroger, and more to see how they decide who gets the top spot. Our team maps out all the variables that determine where you show up in search and browsing. The results are surprising for most brands.
The Secret Sauce (It’s Different Everywhere)
The first thing you need to learn is that there is no single “algorithm.” Every retailer has its own biasing and weighting rules based upon their priorities and capabilities of their ecommerce engines.
For example, if you are selling on Amazon, they are obsessed with historical sales performance. Swell estimates that approximately 55% of their search ranking is based on Historical Performance. They want to see that you’ve sold well before they give you the prime real estate. For new brands that’s means you won’t show up, even if someone’s searching your name.
But over at Kroger, the rules change completely. They care about how fast a customer can get the product. A whopping 60% of their search weight is based on Delivery Speed and Location. If you aren’t close to the customer, you’re basically invisible. Meanwhile, Walmart and Target play a more balanced game, mixing keywords with delivery speed.
The table below breaks it down by major retailer.
So what’s the best advice for a brand….
Treat Your Product Like an Island
One of our core philosophies at Swell Media is to “Treat Each Product As An Island.” Since 75% to 85% of searches are “non-branded” (meaning people search for “salty snacks” instead of your specific brand name), your product page has to do all the heavy lifting.
Your Product Detail Page (PDP) is a mini-version of your entire brand. It needs to have the right keywords, but it also needs to look good. While “Rich Assets” like videos and PDFs only account for a small slice of the ranking math (less than 3%), they are the reason people actually click “Add to Cart.”
Keywords remain a critical part of the formula, but product attributes, merchandising configuration (aka parent/child) and fulfillment options play a critical role for your brand. The days of simply getting a listing ‘up’ are over. You need to deliver content and attributes that will help get you found.
Boosting Your “Local” Delivery Strategy
One of the challenges of a brand selling to Walmart, Target, or other retailers is the ‘limited store count’ that’s often associated with new launches. That puts your brand at a disadvantage in terms of ranking and positioning. All platforms not only use delivery speed / location as a rule, but also use overall performance as a ranking variable. How can you move up if you’re only in 1/4 of the stores?
Consider drop ship, 1P, or 3P options to get you a national footprint. It may not delivery as much sales as instore, but it ‘makes you bigger’ in terms of the overall ecommerce site. Swell executed this type of strategy for a brand that was launching in 1,200 Walmart stores. Once we added the ‘national’ alternative ad impressions shot up 50%, ROAS also grew 25% and (most importantly) store sales increase 35%
Don’t Skimp On Images & Rich Media
Images and videos aren’t actively used by any of the major ecommerce platforms yet, but improving them today pays immediate short and long term benefits. First – they’ll increase your close rates, which boosts your historical performance index. Our most recent study showed a 27% increase in sales just by adding infographics
Second – they set you up for the longer transition towards AI integrated search ranking. To be clear, it’s not in use yet. In fact, Amazon’s Rufus is the only engine that current scans images and videos as part of its AI logic. This change is coming and it’s built upon great base content.
Next Steps
Modern retail is complicated, but it doesn’t have to be a mystery. By understanding that each retailer has different priorities, you can stop guessing and start growing. This is what we do. Contact us today to discuss how we can help your brand, instore and online.
References:
- Swell Media Research: Retail Commerce Search and Navigation Weight Factors (2025)
- Swell Media – Retail Media & Marketplace Capabilities Report
- Swell Media – Retail Search Engine Optimization Strategy Guide