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

On the UK marketplace, we discovered a new brandstore format with a variety of new modules. In addition to a size finder and 3D models with sliders, the design enables the simultaneous display of several videos playing at the same time as well as other slide effects through a module. The format is currently only available to fashion brands on the British marketplace, but an expansion to other marketplaces is planned for the coming months.

?? We have not yet discovered such a wide range of slider effects and video display to utilize a brand store, and we see exciting potential for other brands in this.

The US marketplace is currently testing a new method for controlling campaign targeting of sponsored brands with theme-based targeting . A large number of keywords are generated, which are then assigned to the two preselected targeting groups "keywords related to the brand" and "keywords related to the landing pages". The new function is available via the Amazon Ads API.

?? This new method could simplify the creation process of campaigns

Amazon is currently testing the use of an AI tool to make it easier for sellers to create product titles, bullet points and product descriptions in the future. The online giant points out that the tool is only intended to reduce the effort of text creation, but not to replace human review and editing.?

?? We see the tool as a potential time-saving factor, especially for the initial creation of content. We are curious to further explore the tool’s compliance with brand-specific guidelines as well as the quality of the AI-created content. From our tests so far we can tell however, that product content should not be created without additional supervision and adaptation by qualified content managers.?

In the Amazon Ads console, it is now possible to view the number of store followers for your own stores.?

?? For us and also brands, this makes it possible to measure whether investments are worthwhile and what effect advertising measures are having.

For Sponsored Brand Campaigns, up to five images can now be added and displayed as a slideshow .?

?? This new feature may additionally make it easier to conduct A/B tests.

Amazon recently informed Sellers about the new policy, "reserves after delivery date." According to this policy, payments will now be made seven days after the delivery date instead of after the shipping date, so that merchants can meet financial obligations such as returns, directly. It is not yet clear when exactly this change will come into effect. In the UK, this change will only be valid from January 31, 2024. The reason for this delay in the UK is allegedly an effort to help smaller Sellers who will face cash flow issues once this policy is in place.

?? The new policy may have a negative impact on the cash flow of smaller sellers in particular, and thus harm them.

Since August 16, 274 additional product attributes for 200 product types are required for new listings on Amazon. This is intended to make it easier for customers to find product information and help increase sales. This change only applies to active listings, but it is still necessary to fill in new attributes when editing or updating existing listings.

?? The addition of further product attributes will mainly lead to increased time spent on new and active listings. Whether this will really lead to an increase in sales remains to be seen.

News: Amazon

Amazon Expands Sponsored Product Ads to Third-Party Sites

Amazon plans to expand its Sponsored Product Ads beyond its own platform to third-party sites such as Pinterest and BuzzFeed . The ads will be served automatically, without advertiser intervention, when Amazon believes customers may be interested in a product.

• All ads link directly to the Amazon product page, allowing customers to proceed to purchase with just a few clicks.
• Only in-stock products are displayed along with information such as customer reviews and Prime delivery promises.
• Amazon has already expanded its sponsored product ads from search results to other areas of the platform.?

?? Amazon has already expanded its sponsored product ads from search results to other areas of the platform. The newest expansion may aim to increase the visibility and sales of merchants.

New Fee for Merchants and Price Advantage for Brands for Product Launches

Amazon is planning fee adjustments and discounts for merchants and brand owners in the coming months, not only offering more benefits but also trying to strengthen its own position in the market.

• Sellers in the US who use the "Seller Fulfilled Prime" programme (SFP, also known as "Prime by sellers") will have to expect an additional fee of 2% per sale from October 1st 2023 . It is unclear whether the adjustment will also affect other marketplaces in the future.
• Brands selling newly launched eligible ASINs via FBA are to receive an average discount of 10% from August 31st 2023 . The discount is to apply to up to 100 units of eligible items in standard size and for 120 days, and up to 30 units in oversize for up to 90 days.

?? Especially the discount may be presumably an attempt to make the FBA programme more attractive to brands.

3 Amazon Shipping Updates

Amazon plans to take over parcel delivery for external US web shops that are not Amazon sellers , thus entering into competition with UPS and FedEx. In addition, the marketplace giant introduced “Amazon Shipping” in the US, and there is to be a charge for Prime Same Day delivery in the UK in the future.?

• First requests for the Amazon delivery service have already been sent to selected web shops and interested parties can also register on their own. For the time being, the offer is only available in the US, the introduction in France, Spain, and Italy is planned.
• From September 18th 2023, Amazon will charge a fee of ￡1.99 for extra fast deliveries (Prime Same Day) in the UK . This applies to products with the promises "Today by 7pm" or "Tomorrow by 1pm". The charge applies from ￡20.00 order value for Prime members and from ￡5.99 for non-Prime members. It is not yet clear whether this adjustment will also reach other marketplaces.
• With the introduction of “Amazon Shipping”, orders can also be delivered by the internet giant outside of the Amazon marketplaces, e.g. on their own website and other channels. Packages up to 50 pounds (approx. 23 kg) can be delivered within 2-5 business days, including weekends.

?? With its own delivery service as well as “Amazon Shipping”, Amazon is entering into direct competition with large delivery companies and we are curious about whether Amazon will pose a serious threat to current big players in the market.

Amazon Announces Second Prime Deal Event for October?

The second Prime sale event will take place this year in October under the name "Prime Big Deal Days" for Prime members from 19 countries, with specific dates to be announced.?

• In 2022, Amazon held an October sale for the first time after its Prime Day in the summer. This year's event was announced with more lead time.
• It is predicted that the "Prime Big Deal Days" will have an impact on retail price cuts and traditional Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales, as they did last year.

?? In times of persistent consumer depression, deal events are needed to motivate consumers to buy. Prime Days can of course be used for this. However, it is questionable whether this will weaken Cyber Monday and Black Friday in the short term and whether too many of these events will weaken the effect in the long term.

Amazon.com Releases Brand-Tailored Promotions

With brand-tailored promotions, brand owners and selling partners can now create customized discounts and offers for Amazon customers . According to experts, the expansion to the European region is also expected in the coming months.

• With Brand Tailored Promotion, brand owners and selling partners can create exclusive discounts for customers who follow or buy from the brand

• Brand-tailored promotions can be used for exclusive offers. They are designed to strengthen loyal customer relationships and increase conversion rates while maintaining or reducing promotion costs.
• Promotions can be tailored to repeat shoppers, cart abandoners, potential new shoppers, high-spending shoppers, and new shoppers as well as shoppers who follow the brand.

?? We see brand-tailored promotions as having the advantage of being able to address a wide range of customers at different points in the customer journey with suitable promotions, and thus increase the conversion rate at a comparatively low cost.

Amazon Cuts In-House Brands

Amazon is cutting many of its in-house brands . Reasons for this, as reported by The Wall Street Journal, are antitrust investigations and a slowdown in sales growth.

• In textiles in particular, Amazon is eliminating 27 of its 30 private brands and is only continuing with the Amazon Essentials, Amazon Collection, and Amazon Aware brands.
• The US antitrust authority Federal Trade Commission (FTC) accuses Amazon, among other things, of favoring its own goods to the detriment of independent sellers on the platform.
• The vice president of Amazon Private Brands emphasizes that the restructuring serves to adapt to customer needs. Many private brands will simply be rebranded and will remain on the market under the labels Amazon Basics and Amazon Essentials ; only products that do not meet Amazon's profitability standards will be discontinued.

?? Whether the delisting of unprofitable private label products and the re-listing under profitable ones will hold up in the long run under the eye of the FTC remains to be seen.

News: E-Commerce

Q2 2023: Global Online Marketplaces Exceed Expectations

Chinese e-commerce company Alibaba and U.S. commerce platform Etsy beat expectations with their Q2 2023 results. Latin America's leading e-commerce player MercadoLibre and European fashion group Zalando also posted strong Q2 quarterly results.

• Alibaba's revenue is up 14% and net profit is up 51% year-over-year to $4.6 billion. This is attributed to improved consumer sentiment, the "618" discount promotion and internal restructuring measures.?
• MercadoLibre achieved 32% year-over-year revenue growth to achieve $3.415 billion in Q2 2023 . The platform added 8.1 million new users and recorded a total of 108.6 million active users in the quarter.
• Etsy Inc. revenue grows 7.5% year-over-year to $628.9 million in Q2 2023, exceeding experts' estimates by around $10 million.?

?? Looking at the strong Q2 results of the marketplaces, the relevance of retail media is clearly increasing; especially outside of Europe, the marketplace business is doing better. All in all, Amazon seems to make concessions for the failure of private labels in the context of the big and powerful marketplace business.

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