The Remazing News Package – LinkedIn Edition

Here are the most important 亚马逊 and e-commerce news of the last month. Our evaluation of each update is marked in italics.

Updates: Amazon Marketplace.

A few weeks ago, Amazon announced its intention to organise a second Prime event this year. Now the October Prime Day for Amazon UK is here, with the retail event taking place over the? 10th and 11th October. Prime Deal Days promise many discounted offers in several categories.

??In times of persistent consumer downtrend, deal events are often needed to motivate consumers to buy. Prime Days can of course be used for this. However, as with last year, it remains to be seen whether the long-term effect of this is to weaken Cyber Monday and Black Friday in the short term and whether too many of these events will simply result in “Prime Fatigue”.

Within Amazon’s Sponsored Display console, we discovered a new bid option "Cost control". Depending on the selected bid optimisation, the desired value is set and Amazon automatically sets bids based on this. The Cost control metrics vary depending on the selected optimisation (reach, visits, conversions) and allow better control over the desired results.

??It should be taken into account that by setting up the Cost control function, manual editing of bids will no longer be possible; insight into the amount of the bid is also affected. The function is currently still in beta and not visible in all accounts.

There are also further innovations within the Advertising Console: Hourly reports can now be downloaded for sponsored product campaigns.

??This new update will help to know at what time of day a campaign performs best. We will continue to test this new feature and are curious to see how valid/applicable the data it provides can be.

In addition, there is now a new section in the Amazon Advertising Console called "Multi-country sponsored ads campaign manager".?

??So far we have only seen this function as a beta version in the Amazon Advertising Console , but in the future, it could prove particularly useful for reporting and converting currencies between countries.

After first noticing the "Lowest price in the last 30 days" button for Prime Day on the Italian marketplace, we also spotted it on some product detail pages on the UK marketplace.?

??This button is part of the EU's Omnibus Directive, which requires retailers to inform consumers about the discounted price and the percentage discount of products. On the other hand, they must also provide information about the previous price at which the product was sold within the last 30 days.

The new update of the Helium 10 extension now displays the organic competitive share as a percentage for search terms on both product and brand levels.?

??This not only provides a good insight into the corresponding niche, but also shows which competitors should be targeted more closely.?

Finally, advertisers can now also look to test not just the main image of a product, but the other gallery images via the A/B testing feature within Vendor and Seller Central.?

??We have only seen this function available in UK-based Vendor and Seller Central accounts thus far; it remains to be seen whether it will also be available for Vendors and Sellers in different countries in the near future, but it is likely to offer key insights to those with a surplus of available imagery for use on Amazon, or for retailers looking to precisely define what aspects of an image have the biggest impact of conversion and sales.

News: Amazon.

Which? Survey finds Amazon Shoppers “bribed” by Amazon sellers for positive review

A recent consumer survey study in the UK has revealed nearly 10% of all UK shoppers on Amazon are apparently being bribed with gift cards, free products, or refunds in exchange for a favourable product review.?

The survey comes amidst a UK government investigation into “fake reviews” in online retail,? with planned amendments for the digital markets, competition, and consumers bill currently being debated in parliament.

??The topic of misleading or questionable reviews on Amazon is nothing new, despite the existence of its own verified schemes such as Amazon Vine to support sellers looking to receive customer feedback on their products. The current action of the UK government suggests that there remains a way to go for Amazon when it comes to cracking down on sellers trying to circumvent regulations to make their products look more appealing. Rival Zalando also shut down their own ratings in a recent attempt to curb “fake reviews”.

New tools and a Sustainability Solutions Hub at Amazon

At its annual Accelerate seller conference, Amazon presented new tools for retailers and also wants to further reduce pressure on sellers throughout the delivery process with Supply Chain by Amazon.

• Amazon automates supply chain services with Supply Chain by Amazon in order to reduce logistical effort, optimise transport, reduce storage costs and simplify inventory management through automation. Sellers should thus be relieved and be able to focus on their products and customer satisfaction.
• At the Accelerate conference, Amazon will present new tools for retailers, including improved "Customer Sentiment Insights" to use customer feedback for targeted product development. In addition, the "Customer Loyalty Dashboard" sorts customer ratings according to loyalty and integrates them into advertising strategies.
• Also at the conference, Amazon will present the "Sustainability Solutions Hub", which enables retailers to monitor their sustainability efforts. Programmes such as "Climate Pledge Friendly", "Amazon Renewed" and "Ships in Product Packaging" are integrated. This hub will be available to merchants in different countries from the end of October.

??The initiatives presented show a clear focus on improving the vendor experience and promoting sustainability efforts.

After reserve change: Amazon grants longer transition period

It was only in August that Amazon introduced a change in the payment modalities for merchants, according to which, payments would in the future only be made seven days after the delivery date.

• Previously, merchants could debit revenues either immediately or seven days after the date of sale. The change was made to bring the basic guidelines for reserves in line with international standards.
• After some displeasure, the changeover, originally scheduled for August 3, 2023, will now be postponed until January 31, 2024.
• Merchants who have already converted also have the option to rescind the conversion until January 31, 2024

?? It’s anticipated that a longer transition period will be of particular benefit to smaller traders and will allow them to better prepare for the changeover.

News: E-Commerce.

Zalando wants to appeal to customers with a new story format

?Inspired by social media platforms such as Snapchat and Instagram, Zalando is launching "Stories" as a new content format to encourage customers to buy.?

• The aim of the format is to encourage customers to discover fashion and culture through visual content that is seamlessly connected to the shopping experience and is editorially created. The content also seems to permit Partnerships with specific brands.
• Five different story series will be updated weekly to highlight the latest and future fashion trends on different channels. These include the specially curated "Content Hub", available via the Zalando website, mobile app and social media.
• The format will initially launch in Germany, Austria, Italy, France, Spain, Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland, and the UK, with plans to expand to other markets in the coming year.

??The introduction of "Stories" reflects the growing trend in e-commerce to use social media-like content to meet changing customer demands and use it to enhance the customer experience and shopping experience. It follows Amazon’s own launch of Brand Stories not too long ago, and their planned content-focused elements: Posts and Inspire

eBay launches new listing tool with AI?

The new tool will allow sellers to extract item information from images, making it easier for sellers to post items and for buyers to get more details.

• The new image-based tool allows sellers to use AI to automatically generate titles, descriptions, release dates, categories, prices, and shipping costs. First-time sellers in particular receive valuable support in creating competitive offers.
• Previously, sellers could use the AI to enter a title and category, from which it generated a description. Positive customer feedback led to about 30% of US sellers trying out the AI-generated descriptions in the eBay app.
• eBay aims to make the entire selling and buying process more efficient and engaging. This includes using AI to improve listing and image quality through an improved background removal tool for sellers.

??eBay's new AI tool underlines its efforts to improve the user experience and optimise the sales process. This makes the company competitive with the other big players that also use AI. Amazon also debuted similar technology to try and use AI-based tools to support sellers on the platform.

TikTok: Launch of "TikTok Shop" in the US & million-dollar fine for data breach

TikTok launched its shopping feature, previously introduced in the UK, in the US on 12 September. The Chinese company was also fined millions for numerous violations of European data protection law.

• "TikTok Shop" allows both creators and brands to offer and sell products in their videos. In the US, dedicated fulfilment centres are already being set up and there is an affiliate programme where creators receive commissions for selling products.
• To promote the new marketplace, TikTok plans to offer significant discounts during the holiday shopping season and Black Friday and Cyber Monday events. The platform creates a lucrative incentive, even for small businesses, by offering merchants to subsidise discounts of up to 50%.
• At the same time, TikTok was fined 345 million euros by the European Union for allegedly violating European data protection law, in particular the GDPR.
• A central accusation concerns the handling of data of minors and their age verification during registration. TikTok has already responded, but disagrees with the amount of the fine and criticises the Commission for referring to outdated practices from three years ago.

??"TikTok Shop" perhaps represents the platform’s attempt to catch up with its own success as we’ve seen more TikTok-style feeds appear in e-commerce? in the form of Amazon’s “Inspire” in the US. Whether these attempts to monetise short-form video are effective enough to become a competitor is something we’re awaiting with baited breath…

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