This Week's Amazon News: Major Search Result Changes, AI Chatbot Traffic Analysis, European Beauty Expansion, And More...
Amazon Tests Sending Shoppers to Brand Websites: Search Results?Show?Non-Amazon Products for First Time
Amazon is testing a?feature that displays products from external brand websites alongside Amazon's inventory in their shopping app's search results - marking a strategic shift from pure marketplace to product discovery engine, while potentially creating new revenue streams through advertising and Buy with Prime integration, all under the guise of expanding customer selection.
Beyond Flat Fees: The Rise of Hybrid Subscription Models
As subscription fatigue grows with consumers spending an average of $91 monthly on subscriptions, companies are moving away from traditional flat-fee models toward hybrid pricing strategies that combine tiered, usage-based, and ad-supported options to retain customers and combat churn - a shift particularly evident in streaming services like Netflix and Spotify.
Transactional AI Traffic: A Study Of Over 7 Million Sessions
While AI chatbot traffic currently represents less than 1% of organic traffic, it's driving significantly higher engagement with users spending 2.3 minutes longer on sites - notably, 80% of this traffic goes to major ecommerce players, with ChatGPT sending 3x more traffic to homepages than Google (30% vs 10%), suggesting AI's superior ability to pre-qualify users before directing them to businesses.
Amazon To Expand Beauty & Personal Care Online Offerings In Europe While Opening First Physical Store In Italy
Amazon is significantly expanding its beauty and personal care presence in Europe through both digital and physical channels, launching its first Italian retail store (Amazon Parafarmacia & Beauty) in Milan while simultaneously expanding its online beauty offerings across five major European markets - indicating Amazon's strategic push to capture more market share in the beauty and personal care segment.
There's an expensive comfort zone on Amazon that brands are afraid to leave: branded keyword advertising. Every day, thousands of brands throw money at branded keyword ads on Amazon, believing it's the only way to protect their market share.
For our premium bedding client, their branded keyword strategy wasn't protecting sales – it was burning through their ad budget and suppressing organic growth. By strategically redirecting their spend, we slashed branded keyword investment from 70% to 28%. Instead of losing ground, they saw organic sales soar to 60% of total revenue.
Post From Laura Meyer :
Don't make this common mistake when optimizing your Amazon Ad spend for "profitability."? One of the biggest pitfalls in optimizing Amazon advertising for "profitability" is over-investing on branded search terms. Last year, this issue felt like an epidemic. In the majority of audits I conducted, brands were allocating over 50% of the Amazon Paid Search budget to branded keywords. While defensive advertising has its place, the true goal of ad spend should be incrementality—not just capturing existing customers.
Through myHorizons, Envision Horizons' proprietary analytics suite, we can track ad spend distribution across branded, category, and competitor terms in real time using our keyword-identifying algorithm. Additionally, we cross-reference this data with New-to-Brand (NTB) vs. returning customers, providing deeper insights into acquisition efficiency and long-term growth.
One of the biggest educational moments we introduced to clients and prospects was that a high ROAS doesn’t necessarily mean business growth. In many cases, it just means you're paying for customers you’ve already acquired through other channels.
Take, for example, a premium bedding client we onboarded in Q3. Their branded keyword strategy wasn’t protecting sales—it was draining their ad budget and suppressing organic growth. By strategically reallocating their spend, we reduced branded keyword investment from 70% to 28%. Instead of losing ground, they saw organic sales climb to 60% of total revenue. Here’s how we helped them make this strategic shift…
Post From Justin Bomberowitz ?? :
David Protein Bars is winning the Amazon Protein Bar War
This morning I got the?news that the two most popular flavors, Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough and Fudge Brownie, David protein bars were sold out. Naturally, I went on Amazon to order more before they were gone.?But then I started looking at their demand signals on Amazon since I can't see DTC but can back into it on Amazon.?
Back of the envelope math has then in the past 4 weeks selling north of 20,000 bars or flirting with a $10+MM ARR at top line (seemingly low inventory on both leading flavors now on Amazon so this isn't linear for next 2 months). Their branded search frequency (think search for "david protein bar") has skyrocketed, which means they're not paying outlandish CPCs on category terms all day to win new buyers (or partially).? It will most likely take our Quest and Barebell for top branded protein bar search term (see top right image below) and these skus have been on Amazon for a long time with tons of subscriptions and reviews. Their conversion in clicks on branded terms is north of 80% so the intent to buy David on those terms is great and if conversion holds, CPCs will stay lower for them on these.?
Now, they just launched into UNFI and soon to be other distributors I'm sure, while having a large DTC presence I'm sure.? Right time, right place for this product. This is the fun operational buzz you want. All while launching new flavors!
Post From Envision Horizons :
What do you do when you have strong brand recognition but plateauing growth?? A premium skincare brand was facing this classic challenge on Amazon. Their brand searches were strong, but category visibility and customer retention were suffering.
Here are the first 3 steps we would take to address the issue:
1. Flip the script: Shift 80% of ad spend to category terms (vs. branded)
2. Elevate the digital shelf: Enhanced imagery + A/B testing for luxury consumers
3. Build loyalty: Strategic Subscribe & Save optimization using Amazon DSP Sometimes the answer isn't more brand awareness—it's smarter category presence.
Post From Dirk Van de Put :
I’m proud to share our 6th annual State of Snacking report, the leading source of data on global consumer snacking habits, produced with our partners at Harris Poll. Snacking remains a universal staple, with 91% of global consumers having at least one snack per day and 61% having at least two.
Grab your favorite snack and learn more: https://lnkd.in/gsBrwzdE
Did a friend or colleague share this email with you??They're staying up-to-date on eCommerce news with our weekly newsletter! Sign up here to continue receiving trending updates and insights from industry experts.