Shopper Marketing Channels

In today’s digital commerce landscape, knowing where shoppers come from is just as important as knowing what they buy. Marketing Channels in Retail Intelligence reveal the digital paths that bring shoppers to a retailer or brand, making it easier to allocate budgets, optimize campaigns, and grow market share.

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The Value of Marketing Channels for Shoppers

Marketing channels provide a clear picture of how shoppers are discovering and engaging with your brand. By analyzing these paths, Retail Intelligence helps you to…

• Identify growth drivers: Pinpoint which channels are most effective in driving qualified traffic and conversions.
• Optimize spend allocation: Redirect investment toward the sources with the highest ROI, and cut wasted spend.
• Understand competitive strengths: Benchmark your brand’s channel mix against competitors to spot opportunities.
• Align strategy with shopper behavior: Ensure your media and messaging are tailored to where shoppers actually start their journeys.

In short, channel insights turn fragmented traffic data into actionable intelligence that drives smarter marketing and retail media decisions.

Report Location and Features

Within the Retail Intelligence platform, you’ll find the Marketing Channels report in the lefthand menu under the Traffic Sources module. 

Once in the report, the top section will provide you with...

• Total Clicks: all the traffic from all marketing channels going to the selected brand's product pages within the selected category and time frame, trended over time

  

• Internal vs External Traffic: whether the traffic comes from pages within Amazon or outside of it

  

• Internal Clicks - Organic vs Paid: whether the internal clicks were organic or paid (sponsored

  

• Most Changed Channels in Traffic: marketing channels with the biggest changes in driving traffic to the selected brand

  

The bottom half provides a comprehensive bar chart, broken out by each marketing channels. There are various ways in which you can compare the data...

• Category Average: how many clicks does the selected brand's product pages receive compared to the category on average
• Previous Year: the clicks to the selected brand's product pages for the current year compared to the previous year
• Other Brands: Compare the clicks from each channel across multiple brands

• Stack Paid Channels: combining or breaking out organic and paid OSS (on-site search) or external search

  

November 2025 Update: Marketing Channels Mix Expansion

The Marketing Channels Mix report is now live across all supported Amazon domains, providing complete visibility into both organic and paid traffic across US and non-US marketplaces, including Canada, UK, Germany (DE), France (FR), Italy (IT), and others.

This update closes a major visibility gap for Retail Intelligence users outside the US, allowing for a full omnichannel analysis across internal Amazon and external digital sources (search, social, display, retail media).

Users in all supported marketplaces can:

• Understand how competitors attract shoppers in their market
• Identify which channels drive traffic to your product detail pages (PDPs)
• Benchmark performance and optimize retail media investments with confidence
• Compare marketing channel strategies across categories and regions

Key Features of the Expanded View:

• Channel distribution for any brand with subcategory-level granularity
• Combined visibility into internal Amazon and external (search, social, display, etc.) channels
• Paid vs. organic breakdowns across all sources
• Omnichannel view across US and Non-US Amazon domains

Where to find it:

The Marketing Channels Mix is located under Traffic Sources → Marketing Channels in the Retail Intelligence platform.

Who benefits from this update:

• CPG brands and category managers in Canada and EMEA - gain regional visibility to benchmark competitors and optimize spend.
• Agencies - compare global channel performance to refine media planning and budget allocation.

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Traffic Sources

There are a multitude of traffic sources that you’ll find in Retail Intelligence.

INTERNAL SOURCES - Visits coming from pages within Amazon

• Brand Store: Traffic from shoppers who land on a brand's dedicated storefront within a retailer's site.
• OSS (Onsite Search): Traffic from visitors who use the retailer's internal search function, indicating direct product intent. OSS traffic, for example, can be broken down into organic and paid clicks.
• Product Page: Clicks that go directly to specific product detail pages, often originating from deep links or ads.
• Other: Miscellaneous, long-tail, or uncategorized traffic sources that don't fit into standard categories. This also include Rufus, Amazon’s homepage and the brand’s official store page. 

EXTERNAL SOURCES - Visits that arriving from outside of Amazon

• Direct: Shoppers who reach the site by typing the URL directly or using a saved bookmark.
• Email: Visitors arriving through promotional or triggered email campaigns.
• Referral: Traffic driven by links from other websites, affiliates, or partner sites.
• Search: External search engine traffic, including both organic and paid results, which signals active shopper intent.
• Social: Visitors from social media platforms, from either organic content or paid campaigns.
• Display: Traffic generated by banner and display advertising campaigns.

(Note: Depending on the market and category, the visibility of some sub-channels may vary.)