Before You Build Anything, Get the Prerequisites Right
Brands want to jump straight into Store Builder and start designing. We get it — the creative part is more interesting than the setup. But skipping or rushing the prerequisites creates problems that are annoying to unwind later. Do these things in order and the actual build goes smoothly.
Step 1: Enroll in Amazon Brand Registry
There is no storefront without Brand Registry. Full stop. To enroll, you need:
- An active registered trademark — not a pending application, a registered trademark — in a country where Amazon operates (USPTO for the US, EUIPO for Europe, IPO for the UK, and others)
- An Amazon Seller Central or Vendor Central account in good standing
- The trademark must cover the brand name exactly as it appears on your products
If your trademark is pending, you can apply for Brand Registry through Amazon's IP Accelerator program, which connects you with Amazon-vetted IP law firms and can grant provisional access while your application is processing. This is not ideal — it has limitations — but it is faster than waiting for full trademark registration.
Once enrolled, Brand Registry unlocks the full suite: Store Builder, A+ Content, Sponsored Brands, Brand Analytics, and 360 Brand Protection tools. The storefront is just one piece of what becomes available.
Step 2: Access Store Builder
Log into Seller Central. Navigate to Stores > Manage Stores. Select your brand (if you manage multiple brands under one account, select the correct one). Click Create Store. You are now in Store Builder.
Store Builder is Amazon's drag-and-drop page editor. It is not sophisticated by web development standards, but it is capable enough to build a clean, functional multi-page storefront. The interface has three main sections: the page navigation panel on the left, the tile editing canvas in the center, and the tile settings panel on the right.
Step 3: Choose a Template
Amazon offers several starting templates: Marquee, Showcase, and Product Grid are the main options. Our recommendation: start with the blank template if you have a clear structural vision, or use Marquee as a starting point if you want a hero-image-led homepage layout. Do not let the template choice constrain your page structure — templates are a starting point, not a prescription. You will be customizing heavily regardless of which one you choose.
Step 4: Build Your Page Structure Before Adding Any Content
This is where most brands go wrong. They open Store Builder, start adding tiles to the homepage, and never think through the full page hierarchy. Build your navigation structure first. Decide on every page and subpage before you design a single tile.
Our recommended structure for most brands:
- Homepage — brand positioning + top sellers + category navigation
- Category subpages — one per major product category, built to serve as SB ad landing pages
- Bestseller or hero product pages — dedicated feature pages for your top 1-2 ASINs
- Featured Deals page — activate during Prime Day, Black Friday, and other promotional events
Brands with small catalogs (1-3 products) can run a simpler structure: homepage + one feature page per hero product. More pages are not better if there is no traffic strategy to match. Every subpage you build should have a defined audience and a defined traffic source.
Step 5: Add Tiles — The Right Ones in the Right Order
Tiles are the building blocks of every storefront page. Here is how each major tile type functions and where to use it:
Product Tiles
The core unit of any storefront. Product tiles pull directly from your catalog — price, rating, Prime badge, and add-to-cart functionality are all included automatically. Always lead with your bestsellers. On category subpages, organize by conversion rate — your highest-converting products go first, not your newest or your personal favorites.
Text + Image Tiles
Use these for benefit statements, not filler. A single strong claim — "Lasts 3x longer than the leading brand" — paired with a clean product image does more work than a paragraph of brand history. Keep copy to 1-2 sentences per tile. Buyers do not read; they scan.
Video Tiles
The highest-converting content type in a storefront. Videos autoplay without sound, so the first 3 seconds must communicate the product's core benefit visually. No talking-head intros. No brand logo fade-ins. Show the product doing something useful within the first few frames. Keep runtime under 30 seconds. If you have product video, use it — brands that include video on their storefronts consistently outperform those that do not on attributed sales per visitor.
Featured Deals Tiles
These tiles surface active promotions, lightning deals, and coupons automatically when they are live. They show nothing when there are no active deals. Build a Featured Deals subpage and activate it by including it in your storefront navigation during sale events. Point your Sponsored Brands campaigns at this page during Prime Day and major shopping events.
Shoppable Image Tiles
Lifestyle images with tagged product hotspots. Effective for home, apparel, outdoor, and any category where showing products in context helps buyers visualize use. Less effective for commodity categories where the buyer already knows exactly what they want.
Step 6: Optimize for Mobile Before You Submit
Do not skip this. In Store Builder, there is a mobile preview toggle — use it on every page before submission. Common mobile problems that pass desktop review:
- Text on hero banner tiles is too small to read without pinching to zoom
- Multi-column tile layouts collapse into a single column and the ordering becomes illogical
- Video tiles stack in a way that pushes product tiles below the fold
- Navigation subpages are hard to access on small screens
The fix is usually adjusting tile sizes, shortening headline copy, and reordering tiles so the most important elements — your shoppable products — stay above the fold on mobile. Do this before submission, not after the store goes live.
Step 7: Submit for Amazon Review
Once your pages are built and mobile-reviewed, click Submit for Publishing. Amazon's moderation team reviews all storefronts before they go live. The review window is typically 24-72 hours, though it can extend during peak periods (pre-Prime Day, Q4).
Common rejection reasons and how to avoid them:
- Comparative claims — "better than Brand X" or "the #1 rated" without a cited source will get rejected. Remove superlatives or add verifiable citations.
- Pricing claims in images — do not bake prices into tile images; prices change and static price claims violate policy
- Non-Amazon products — you cannot feature products that are not listed on Amazon
- External URLs — storefront tiles cannot link to off-Amazon pages
If your store is rejected, Amazon provides specific rejection reasons. Fix only what is flagged and resubmit. The second review typically resolves within 24 hours.
Step 8: Link Your Storefront to Sponsored Brands Campaigns
A live storefront that receives no structured traffic is a missed opportunity. The immediate action after your store is approved: update your existing Sponsored Brands campaigns to use storefront subpages as landing pages — matched by category. A campaign targeting kitchen organization keywords sends traffic to your kitchen category subpage. A campaign targeting your brand name sends traffic to your homepage.
This alignment between ad targeting and landing page content is what improves your SB quality scores over time and, with consistent volume, reduces your cost-per-click. It also gives buyers a better post-click experience, which improves conversion rates on the ad spend you are already deploying.
Work With OBG
Building a storefront correctly from the start — proper structure, mobile-optimized, connected to your PPC campaigns — takes more upfront thinking than most brands give it. We build storefronts as part of our full account management, always tied to a clear traffic strategy and a defined conversion goal for each page.
Our Growth Team OS™ includes full storefront design and ongoing updates, backed by a 30-day profitability guarantee. If we do not improve your account's performance within 30 days, you do not pay. Let us build something that actually works.