If you sell a smart home product on Amazon, you can now apply to have your product certified as Works With Alexa, which allows you to add the ‘Works With Alexa’ badge to your product listing.
Benefits of ‘Works With Alexa’ Certification
Not only does this program benefit sellers by giving them a competitive edge, but it benefits customers by ensuring a higher level of quality and compatibility for smart home products sold on Amazon’s website. Having a product Works With Alexa certified also means that your product will be included in the Amazon Smart Home Store, which features smart home products that work with Alexa.
Within this store, customers can shop by product category or type, or by brand. Being able to list your product in this store can go a long way in increasing discoverability of your smart home products, not to mention adding a stamp of quality and legitimacy.
Before Submitting a Product for Certification
There are a few key steps to take before you submit your smart home product for Works With Alexa certification. Be sure to follow this process closely to best ensure a successful and smooth certification process.
Step 1: Review the Works With Alexa Program Guidelines
Before you do anything else, review the Works With Alexa program guidelines to ensure your product meets the standards of the Works With Alexa certification. These guidelines include both general guidelines that address specifics on Alexa device integration, as well as product quality guidelines.
Step 2: Determine Your Alexa Integration
In order to certify your device as Works With Alexa, your device needs to integrate with Alexa in one of three ways:
- Communicate with Alexa via integration with Echo Plus
- Communicate with Alexa via a hub with a smart home skill associated with it
- Communicate with Alexa via a smart home skill
So, if your product doesn’t meet one of these three integration requirements, you’ll need to create a smart home skill (via the Smart Home Skill API). Be sure you follow the guidelines found under Works With Alexa Requirements for a Smart Home Skill.
You can submit your application for Works With Alexa certification even if your smart home skill isn’t yet completed, but your product will not be certified and you will not receive your Works With Alexa badge until the smart home skill is live in the skill store.
Submit Your Products For Testing
Once you’ve ensured Alexa integration, you can move on to submitting your application for Works With Alexa certification. You’ll just need to follow three steps to complete the process.
Step 1: Get the Submission Form
Once you are ready to apply for Works With Alexa certification, you can request the WWA submission form. On the form you’ll complete basic information including your name and company name, ASINs, smart home skills (as applicable), and some other basic details. Once you submit the completed form your eligibility will be determined.
Step 2: Submit Your Products For Testing
If you are found to be eligible, a representative will contact you within 48 hours to provide directions on submitting your product to a certification facility.
Step 3: Complete Device Testing Process
From here you will work with the certification facility to get your products certified. They will notify you of costs to certify your products, as well any issues that arise that prevent successful certification, and what needs to be done to address the issues. You’ll be charged a certification fee each time you submit a product for certification testing. Once your products are successfully certified, you’ll receive a certification confirmation ID.
Get Your Works With Alexa Badge
Once your products are successfully certified, they will be listed in the Alexa Smart Home Store. You’ll also receive information and guidelines on how to use the Works With Alexa badge in your product listing and offline marketing. To maintain certification you’ll need to be sure to comply with these guidelines for using the Works With Alexa badge, as well as the Works With Alexa Trademark Usage Guidelines.
Increase Product Reviews and Improve Your Listing
Having the Works With Alexa badge on your product listing will give you a competitive edge, but without a significant number of product reviews you will still lag behind the competition. If you aren’t yet using Salesbacker to quickly and easily grow the number of product reviews for your listings, be sure to sign up now for your free 30-day trial. With Salesbacker you can automatically email each customer who buys your product to ask them for their feedback, quickly growing the number of reviews for your products and giving future customers the information they need to make a confident purchasing decision.