Rank tracking for manufacturers and brands without their own OTTO shop

The manufacturer's problem

Many brands do not sell on otto.de themselves but through retailers, distributors or OTTO's own assortment. The retailers see their sales figures in the seller portal; the manufacturer only sees the retailers' orders. Whether the products show up in search, whether a retailer wrote the title so shoppers find it, and whether a competing brand is taking over page 1 – all of that stays invisible.

Yet visibility on otto.de is as much of an asset for a brand as it is on Amazon. Those who do not measure it only learn about problems when retailers reorder less.

What you can measure without a seller account

A rank tracker works with the public otto.de site, not with the seller portal. You therefore need no access to OTTO Partner Connect. Knowing the products is enough:

• Item number or URL of the product page – found in the address bar when you open the product on otto.de.
• EAN – you know it anyway as the manufacturer; the tracker uses it to find the matching product page.

For each of these products you create the search terms that matter in your category. From then on you regularly see position, page and whether it is an organic result or an ad – measured from Germany, the way your shoppers see it.

Four questions a manufacturer should answer

1. Are we found for our brand? Track your brand name and brand plus product type (“[brand] kettle”). If a third-party product sits ahead of you, you lose shoppers who actually wanted you.
2. Are we found for the product type? The generic terms of your category show whether your retailers' listings hold up in competition.
3. Which retailer listing is the strongest? When several retailers offer the same product, you see whose offer leads – a hint about which listing quality and which prices work.
4. Who is taking our places? Create the most important competitor products as separate entries. Your loss is often their gain, and vice versa.

Working with retailers

Measuring is one half, reacting is the other. Manufacturers cannot change titles and attributes on otto.de themselves, but they can give retailers concrete pointers: “For ‘glass kettle’ we sit on page 3; the title is missing ‘glass’.” Retailers usually welcome such pointers because they sell more themselves. A monthly export from the tracker (CSV) is enough as a basis.

Supplying retailers with complete product data – titles following otto.de's rules, attributes, images – improves the starting position for all listings at once.

Setup in MarktRank

Create one project per brand and add the products by item number, URL or EAN. The Find keywords function suggests for every product the search terms it is already found for – a quick start if you do not know the category yet. Add competitor products as additional entries. You need neither OTTO credentials nor a connection to the seller portal; the import through the OTTO API is an option for sellers, not a requirement.

Frequently asked questions