Satisfaction Guaranteed: How We Reduced an Aquarium Brand’s Amazon Return Rates by an Average of 68%

An international aquarium brand was experiencing frequent returns on Amazon, caused in part by customer uncertainty over product details from unclear content.

Our ContentStudio service carried out a full refresh of the brand’s catalogue, removing the causes of confusion for a more frictionless customer experience.

By doing this, we were able to achieve:

• A 68% average reduction in Amazon return rates.
• Taking a major product category from a 1 in 5 return rate down to 1 in 15.
• Stronger margins and happier customers.

The Challenge

Our client, an international aquariums and accessories brand, had a large Amazon catalogue but was struggling to achieve consistently strong margins due to frequent customer returns. This was one of the key issues we identified in our initial consultation, and something the client was keen to work on as a priority.

After a thorough content audit, we identified several touchpoints contributing to customer returns, including:

• Product images that weren’t setting the right expectations.
• Copy that wasn’t properly explaining the key features and benefits of each product variant.
• Missing info causing buyer’s remorse.

Our Solution and Strategy

When the client came on board, we carried out a full content audit of their catalogue, analysing their historic conversion rate, organic visibility, and how their content compared to close competitors in their niche.

We used this, combined with information from the brand on which product lines were creating the most value, to develop a content optimisation strategy designed to both earn more orders and fix the underlying problems that were causing customer returns.

The roll-out of this strategy covered:

• A full-catalogue listing copy refresh, ensuring that Amazon users could understand the details of each product and find the one that’s right for them.
• Creating a new brand story, infographics, and A+ content to share broader info on the brand and their products.
• Building a new Amazon storefront that put the brand’s bestsellers front-and-centre, while still making it easy to navigate their whole range.

The Results

Over time, our content optimisation work led to major reductions in the client’s monthly return rates across several distinct product categories:

LED Lights: 20.2% → 6.9% (65% reduction)

Air Pumps: 9.8% → 6.2% (38% reduction)

ShutOff Valves: 5.8% → 1.8% (69% reduction)

Flagship product: 20.0% → 0% (100% reduction)

This means that within the LED lights category, roughly 1 in 5 customers who bought were returning their products. Following our content optimisations, this figure was closer to 1 in 15.

Though return rates as a metric can often fly under the radar on Amazon and D2C channels, it’s still an important aspect to consider when you’re crafting a content strategy or looking for new angles to increase your profitability.

Fewer returns means stronger margins, healthier content, and more customers who actually get what they’re looking for.

Want to build a better shopping experience for your customers? Our ContentStudio service provides bespoke, full-catalogue content optimisation so you can sell more and keep returns to a minimum.

Meet the Experts

Danielle Thompson

Danielle is a true content marketing veteran who has worked on both sides of the Amazon-brand relationship.

After 3 years as a Lead Site Merchandiser for Amazon, she filled a number of in-house and agency-side roles in ecommerce marketing, before joining WAKE in 2024 as our Head of Content.