Great question! We are limited by Amazon in a few ways so in order to perform Amazon A/B tests, we must:
- Have a Product Feed to download a list of your products so we can see which ones are suitable for testing.
- Allow product listing updates such as changing the price, photo or copy on a regular basis.
- Gather sales data by downloading your sales reports, so we can see which variants perform better.
To do this, we use two methods to move data in and out of Amazon:
- Amazon's MWS which stands for Merchant Web Services, is an application endpoint to automate many tasks within your seller account. Amazon encourages third-party developers, such as Splitly, to create applications that enhance the seller and customer experience.
- Chrome extension: In addition to MWS, our Chrome extension plugs the gap between Splitly and Amazon, providing you with a fully automated solution to perform A/B tests on Amazon. In addition, it also accesses crucial bits of data, specifically sales data, that cannot be accessed via MWS.
The following diagram shows how MWS and our Chrome extension are used to move data in and out of your seller account: