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The Latest ECommerce & Amazon FBA News
Amazon FBA news, along with the latest in ecommerce and online marketing content to help you succeed.
First Half of Prime Day 2023 Was the Biggest Sales Day Ever on Amazon
All the Prime Day stats are out, and it’s set records. The two-day event saw over 375 million items sold worldwide, with more than $2.5 billion in savings, while Amazon claims the first day of the event was Amazon’s largest sales day in their history.
The event was also the biggest Prime Day ever for independent sellers, with some small businesses seeing an 18x increase on their average daily sales.
The TikTok Impact on Prime Day
TikTok played a big part in Prime Day’s success, with more than 400 million views of videos with the tags #primeday, #primeday2023, and #amazonprimeday2023. The number of Prime Day-related views has shot up in the last few years, almost doubling year on year.
The catch? TikTok didn’t make anything from these views. These organic posts directing viewers to Amazon delivered zero revenue for the social media platform.
Off-Amazon Prime Day
Prime Day has gotten so big that it’s not even contained to Amazon.com anymore. Off-Amazon Prime Day is now a thing, with the introduction of Buy with Prime, a program letting brands offer Prime fulfillment when selling on their own site.
As Buy with Prime is still relatively new, this is the 2nd year it’s been possible, but already we’ve seen a huge jump in the number of brands offering Prime Day discounts on their own site.
Temu Sellers Cloning Amazon Storefronts
Some Amazon sellers have noticed a copy of their Amazon storefront showing up on one of Amazon’s new competitors, Temu.
The storefronts and product listings on Temu are an exact duplicate of what’s on Amazon, but offering products for sale significantly cheaper.
Though Temu have officially condemned illegal activity like copyright infringement on their platform, this is in line with their competitive strategy of undercutting the competition and offering products at prices hard to compete with.
Shein Exec Discusses Business Model Makeover
In the latest from another new Amazon competitor, an executive from fellow marketplace Shein has given an interview where he discusses their strategy for the future.
His answers paint a different picture to Temu’s strategy, discussing a desire to boost sustainability and transparency on the platform, along with planned upgrades to their supply chain.
Google’s Shopping Marketplace is No More
Google were another who had briefly flirted with the idea of competing with Amazon. Google Shopping for some time had a section called “Buy with Google”, which allowed shoppers to browse and buy products directly on Google.
While Google Shopping is still alive, Google has reportedly killed the Buy with Google part of it, with all results now pointing to merchants’ own websites, shutting down the idea of Google being a direct competitor to Amazon.
TikTok Trying to Fast-Track Merchant Signups
TikTok, which is offering merchant-driven marketplaces in their UK and Saudi markets, is aiming to break through and become Amazon’s newest competitor in the US by offering merchants and manufacturers big discounts on listings, commissions, shipping and more.
Amazon’s Strict Rules on Child Compliance
A number of sellers have been caught up in Amazon’s very strict rules around children’s products, whether or not they’re specifically targeting children.
Anything that could be used by children must comply with strict requirements, including testing for lead, cadmium, and phthalates.
A huge range of products have wound up being affected – in one example, many backpacks sold by smaller sellers have disappeared from the platform, due to Amazon requiring any backpack complies with their children’s school supplies policy.
Amazon Seller Consultant Avoids Jail, Sentenced to Probation
Well-known Amazon consultant Ed Rosenberg, accused of bribing Amazon employees, has been spared from a jail term.
A federal court sentenced Rosenberg to two years’ probation, 12 months house arrest, and a $100,000 fine – significant, but not as steep is it could have been.
FTC Proposes Making Fake Reviews Illegal
Soon, fake reviews may not only be against Amazon’s rules. They may be illegal.
The FTC is proposing a rule that will allow them to apply a $50,000 fine for fake or deceptive reviews. A big price to pay for the tens of thousands (at least) fake reviews floating around out there.
Published 7.26.2023
$12.7 Billion Sales and 375 Million Items Sold in Biggest Prime Day Ever
This year’s Prime Day once again broke records, with reported data making it the biggest ever.
The event, which took place Tuesday-Wednesday this week, generated $12.7 billion in sales (up 6.1% from last year), with more than 375 million items purchased (up from 300 million last year).
Small and Light Program Replaced by Low-Price FBA Fees
The Small and Light program, which offers lower fulfillment costs for smaller products, is about to be discontinued for the US marketplace.
As of August 29th, it will be replaced by a new initiative: Low-Price FBA fees. This gives lower FBA rates for products priced under $10 (not exclusively small/light products).
The new fee structure will be slightly higher than the Small and Light program, but offers faster fulfillment and wider eligibility.
Amazon Sellers Suspended Over Stolen Goods
A number of sellers have reportedly been suspended by Amazon for selling stolen goods – unknowingly, they claim.
Amazon comes down strongly on sellers found to be dealing stolen items, which is what lead to the permanent removal of dozens of small businesses. However, these businesses said to CNBC they had no idea that they were selling stolen products, and claimed that Amazon was of little help to find the suppliers from which these items could have come from.
FTC Taking Action Against Amazon
While Amazon is trying to fight alleged illegal activity on their platform, they’re in a bit of hot water themselves.
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has launched legal action against Amazon over deceptive practices regarding the Amazon Prime program.
The FTC claims that Amazon tricked or trapped people into subscribing to recurring subscriptions, as well as making it difficult to cancel.
Amazon Holding Funds from Unverified Sellers
Amazon has already started holding funds from sellers who fail to provide the necessary information to comply with the INFORM act.
Many sellers have gotten notices over the past few months saying they need to complete additional verification checks, or risk losing access to funds in their account.
Amazon put their money (or your money) where their mouth is, starting July 7th. If you haven’t already, make sure you send the required information through to avoid payout delays.
TikTok Launching Ecommerce Initiative
TikTok has been trialing a new in-app shopping feature in the UK. The feature, called “Trendy Beat”, allows users to browse and purchase a number of items which have recently appeared in trending videos.
These products are sold and fulfilled by a company related to TikTok (a fellow subsidiary of ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company).
We’ll have to wait and see if this feature makes it to the US as well, but if it does, it could shake up the ecommerce game.
Free Amazon Vine Enrollment Lasts Until July 21
For a little while longer, sellers can take advantage of fee-free enrollment for up to two units and up to 200 ASINs with the Amazon Vine program.
This program enables sellers to provide free products to reviewers, who will then provide an unbiased review (which they are compensated for) on Amazon.
It’s one of the best ways to get the first couple of reviews for a new product, and this initiative allows you to skip the program fees for a limited time. Look into it if you have any new products with no reviews yet.
Opinion: Amazon Sells Shipping, Not Products
In an interesting piece from Marketplace Pulse, the claim is made that Amazon’s product primarily revolves around their fulfillment and logistics, rather than the actual products being sold.
The piece is in response to growing competition of late, from new players such as Temu and Shein. The belief is that, while consumers can generally buy the same product from a number of different places (potentially cheaper than Amazon on these new platforms), what they can’t get is the reliable 1-2 day shipping they can from Amazon.
It’s an interesting thought, and shows why it’s going to be so hard for any new player to take over from Amazon as the top player in the ecommerce marketplace game.
Walmart Rolls Out FBA Competitor
If there is a company that may have the resources to challenge Amazon’s fulfillment network, it may be Walmart.
Walmart has been growing for some time as the biggest competitor in terms of third-party marketplace platforms. And they may be adding the final missing piece, with the new Inventory Transfer Services offering.
This service is essentially the same as FBA, allowing sellers to send their stock to one location, from which Walmart will ship them to buyers with next-day or two-day shipping.
If successful, this could certainly shake things up as a legitimate competitor to Amazon’s third-party marketplace for sellers.
Published 7.12.2023
Prime Day Announced: July 11-12
Amazon has officially announced the date for Prime Day this year. One of the biggest events on the online shopping calendar will start at 3am EDT on July 11 and run through to July 12.
The event is only two weeks away, so if you haven’t already, get a plan together for how you’re going to capitalize on the excitement of Prime Day to generate positive momentum for your store.
Amazon’s Problem with Fake Review Brokers
Fake reviews on Amazon are not a new problem. The company has been trying for years to curb the rising number of fake or misleading product reviews, which included over 200 million reviews being blocked in 2022.
Though Amazon’s hard line has made it harder to post fake reviews, they recently pointed out the growth of a fake review broker industry that’s maintaining the flow of paid fake reviews.
In a blog post, Amazon describes the issue in detail, and explains three steps they’re taking to combat fake review brokers.
Seller-Fulfilled Prime Opening New Enrollments
A little while ago, Amazon made the decision to pause new enrollments to their Seller-Fulfilled Prime (SFP) program, which allows sellers to handle fulfillment themselves while remaining Prime-eligible.
They’re now preparing to re-open new enrollment later this year. This is a great opportunity for sellers with the infrastructure in place to provide fast and reliable fulfillment, and who want to take more control over the process without losing the benefits of Amazon Prime.
Brands and Customers Upset About Misleading Discount Code
Amazon recently advertised a 20% off discount code on a large number of listings on Amazon.com, which ended up with backlash from both customers and brands.
The discount code, despite being shown on many third-party sellers’ listings, was only eligible for products sold by Amazon.
Shoppers were left angry that the code didn’t work on the products they wanted to buy, and brands confused about a discount shown that the hadn’t set up. Worse, they had to deal with angry complaints from customers who tried unsuccessfully to use the code.
Amazon Using AI to Summarize Product Reviews
Another week, another AI story. Amazon is now using generative AI to provide a short summary of a product’s reviews, above the individual reviews.
This review uses the content from actual customer reviews to give a basic overview of what you’ll read if you dive into the product’s full list of reviews.
It’s not yet live everywhere on the site, and it’s still in its early stages. So it will be interesting to see if this improves the shopping experience for customers, which would likely result in higher conversion rates for sellers.
Brand Story Feature
As a general rule, you should take any opportunity Amazon gives you to promote your brand to customers. One of these is the Brand Story feature – a short section on product detail pages that allows you to share with customers what makes your brand special, link to your storefront page, and highlight other product lines.
It works in combination with A+ Content, designed to complement the A+ Content section with supplementary information about your brand.
Like with all Amazon branding features, this is free, so there’s no downside to adding this to your product listings. Best case scenario, this could provide a big boost to conversions and help drive customers to buy more products from your store.
Amazon Won’t Enter Price War with Temu
Amazon’s algorithm that compares their prices with products sold on rival sites will exclude one of their big new competitors, Temu.
Amazon have said that Temu doesn’t meet requirements for their fair pricing policy.
This means that Amazon will not compete on price with Temu, which has become known for extremely low prices – which raise concerns about counterfeit and copyright infringement on the platform.
It’s this potential unfair and illegal advantage that’s behind Amazon’s decision to essentially ignore Temu as a legitimate competitor (at least as price is concerned).
Amazon Adding Buy Now Pay Later Option
Amazon announced they’ve linked up with Affirm to allow customers to pay with installments when using Amazon Pay.
Everyday purchases can be broken up into four interest-free payments, while high-ticket items can be paid for using monthly installments.
It’s also only available on purchases over $50.
For sellers, this is good news. More flexible payment options means a higher likelihood of converting shoppers into buyers, which means more money in your pocket.
Published 6.28.2023
Prepare for a Fall Prime Day Event in Q4 This Year
Amazon has seemingly confirmed there will be a second Prime Day event later this year, held in Q4. A notice in Seller Central says that submissions are being accepted for the event, which need to be in before the end of August 11th.
This is great news for sellers, as it gives you another opportunity to build excitement with your customers and get more sales with Prime-exclusive deals.
Skip the Enrollment Fee for Amazon Vine
For a limited time, you’ll be able to enroll products on Amazon Vine for free.
Free enrollment is limited to two units per ASIN, and is open from June 5 to July 21. If you enroll more than 2 units, you’ll be charged a $200 enrollment fee as normal.
Amazon Vine is a great way to get the first reviews for a new product – Amazon offers up free products to Vine testers, who will try it out and give an unbiased review. If the reviews are good, this can be a jumping off point for your product to start making organic sales and getting organic reviews.
Registration Open for Amazon Accelerate Conference
If you’re a conference person, now’s the time to register for Amazon Accelerate. This year’s event, which takes place on September 13-14 in Seattle, is now open for in-person and virtual registrations.
Registrations before July 14 get a $100 discount on the in-person registration fee. This is a good opportunity to network with other high-level Amazon sellers and stay up to date with the very latest innovations in the Amazon game.
Amazon Tests a “Small Business” Search Filter
People have noticed Amazon testing out the ability for customers to filter search results to show only products sold by small businesses.
This lets people shop exclusively by small/independent sellers if they wish, excluding those sold by large, corporate brands.
This is off the back of news that 60% of Amazon marketplace sales come from independent sellers, despite fears from some that it’s too hard to compete as a small business on Amazon today.
15,000 Sellers Drive 50% of Amazon’s 3P GMV
Data from Marketplace Pulse shows the distribution of Amazon sellers by the number of orders they generate each year.
In the data, we can see that 15,000 sellers in the US generate more than 100,000 orders per year. Altogether, this makes up nearly half of all orders for Amazon third-party sellers.
To put that in perspective, there are more than a million active sellers on Amazon US – yet only a tiny fraction of these sellers contribute the bulk of the sales.
New Feature: Amazon Ads Status
There’s a new feature here for Amazon advertisers. The Amazon Ads Status dashboard gives an update on the status of all Amazon Ads services, including Sponsored Ads, Amazon DSP, and Amazon Measurement & Reporting tools.
This dashboard shows if there are currently any interruptions to any of the services, along with any updates on features that have been degraded, helping advertisers stay informed and on top of their campaigns.
Increase Profitability with the Brand Referral Bonus
Amazon is still pushing an incredible bonus, which is an easy way for sellers to increase profits.
The Brand Referral Bonus gives you an opportunity to earn money back from sales you drive from external traffic channels. The bonus is, on average, 10% of the sale price, but varies from 2% to 30% depending on volume and category.
This is essentially free money. All you need to do is sign up for the Brand Referral Bonus program, and send any traffic originating from outside Amazon through links with an Amazon Attribution tag.
That’s all you need to do. And LandingCube’s link shortener lets you create one-click Attribution links, which you can also measure and manage in a single dashboard. It’s all too easy to ignore. If you’re not taking advantage yet, do it now.
The State of AI In the Amazon Space
No, AI is not going away any time soon.
HubSpot’s excellent report, The State of Generative AI, gives some awesome insight into how professionals are using AI today.
According to the report, the top 5 ways marketers are currently using AI are:
- Social media posts
- Product descriptions
- Emails
- Images
- Blog posts
Many of these – product descriptions, social media posts and emails in particular – are things you can use AI for in your Amazon business.
And yes, Amazon is using it too. Not for marketing necessarily, but at least two Amazon warehouses are using AI to detect damaged goods before sending them out to customers. AI is expected to roll out to 10 more Amazon warehouses in the near future.
You don’t need to build an AI robot to inspect your stock – but there’s a lot more that AI can do to help you grow, or help you cut operating expenditures.
Our guide on 9 Ways to Use AI in Your Business has some great ideas. But there’s likely even more that AI can do for you, especially as its capabilities grow.
Published 6.14.2023
US Sellers Averaged $230,000 in Sales in 2022
The recently released Small Business Empowerment Report from Amazon shines some interesting data on the performance of independent sellers in 2022.
A few key takeaways include:
- US sellers sold more than 4.1 billion products in 2022
- Approximately 7,800 products were sold by independent sellers every minute
- Sellers averaged $230,000 in revenue
- Brand owners grew sales over 20% year-over-year on Amazon
Get more interesting takeaways, along with the report in full, from the link below.
Amazon Competitors Taking Over the World
Amazon is still top dog, but competition is heating up. Chinese-based competitors Shein and Temu are bringing pressure and rising in popularity around the world.
In many major markets, these two apps are either the first or second-most downloaded shopping apps – including the US, where they rank #1 (Temu) and #2 (Shein).
Do you think either has the ability to seriously challenge Amazon as the world’s biggest ecommerce platform?
Start AB Tests Faster with the New Manage Your Experiments Experience
Amazon just added a simplified version of the “Manage Your Experiments” tool in Seller Central. This makes it quicker to set up AB tests, with default settings in place that save you time.
AB testing is hugely valuable for generating data-driven insights that help you optimize your store and boost conversion rates, rankings and sales.
Check out the new update now, and start testing and optimizing your product listings.
Engaging Repeat Customers with Amazon Email Marketing
There’s also been an update to Amazon’s native email marketing tool, Manage Your Customer Engagements.
The Brand Tailored Audiences feature now lets you send emails to repeat customers (those who bought at least two products from you over the last 12 months).
You can also send emails to those who opted in to receive marketing emails from your brand by following your brand on Amazon.
This looks to be a powerful (and free) new feature from Amazon. Are you using MYCE to do email marketing yet?
Bill Gates Announces the End of Google and Amazon
Bill Gates just predicted the end of search engines.
He believes that the evolution of AI will spell the death of the search experience we know today, including those of Google and Amazon.
Gates says, “you will never go to a search site again, you will never go to a productivity site, you’ll never go to Amazon again.”
Do you agree? Or is this just scaremongering?
Either way, you should be prepared for the possibility that fewer people are going to use search engines in the near future. A great way to do this is by building your own audience, so you can proactively drive traffic instead of relying fully on Amazon search and PPC.
Amazon Hiring AI Engineers
It looks like AI is coming to Amazon, too.
Bloomberg reported that Amazon put up job postings looking for developers with AI experience. The expectation is that Amazon will look to build its own Chat GPT-like experience to reimagine how Amazon search works.
It’s still unclear how far off this is, or what sellers need to do to adapt. But it’s worth following the growth of AI on Amazon to make sure you don’t get left behind.
Published 6.1.2023
Is a Review Purge Coming?
SoStocked revealed in a blog post that Amazon has been quietly deleting reviews from a number of Amazon Basics listings.
The company’s efforts to stop review manipulation, counterfeiting and other tactics from bad actors seem to be ramping up in recent months, bringing the speculation that a big review purge is about to come.
It could be nothing – but pay attention to this if you notice big changes to product review numbers in the near future.
New Search Query Details Dashboard
There’s a new toy in Seller Central – the Search Query Details Dashboard.
This dashboard displays the top 10 performing ASINs for search queries (chosen based on search funnel impressions, clicks, cart adds, and purchases), letting you compare your products against those at the top of the heap.
This is a great new way to do a competitive analysis, and see where your product may be falling short against the competition.
Amazon Offers Shoppers $10 to Pick Up Purchases
Certain customers are being offered a special promotion if they pick up their order themselves, instead of having it delivered.
Select customers can choose to receive $10 in this Amazon Pickup promotion. Amazon reps say this promotion is nothing new, but it may be a sign that Amazon is trying to cut down the cost and stress put on their delivery network.
New Product Attributes Required From June
In a couple of weeks, certain product types will need to provide color name, size name, or product description attributes.
The list of product types that will need to provide each attribute is as follows:
- Color name: backpack, underpants, bra, apron, keychain, costume outfit
- Size name: leotard, scarf, sunglasses
- Product description: light fixture, art supplies, hardware handle, kitchen, artificial plant, wireless accessory, home furniture and decor, office products
If you’re selling any of these products, make sure you’re up to date and that your product listings comply with Amazon’s rules.
Amazon Prime Day Playbook
Prime Day 2023 is coming up. It’s always a huge event on the ecommerce calendar, and if you don’t adequately prepare, you’re leaving money on the table.
Feedvisor have provided a great playbook to let you know what you need to do to prepare. Get it, read it, and set yourself up to have a more lucrative Prime Day than ever before.
Shein Marketplace Launches in the US
A big potential Amazon competitor has officially launched on US soil (digital soil, at least).
Chinese-based Shein Marketplace is now in the US, with local and international sellers coming on board. Shein is already a successful fashion retailer, but they’ve signaled plans to enter the third-party marketplace game, in competition with the likes of Amazon and Walmart.
Already, they’re selling products from Anker, a successful Amazon-native brand. It will be interesting to watch in the coming months which other well-known brands jump on board and start selling on Shein.
Consumers Hesitant to Shop Directly on Social Media
A lot of social media platforms have been dipping their toes into ecommerce in the last few years. You’re now able to buy products from some brands directly on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and Pinterest.
Many sellers see this as a threat to Amazon, or ecommerce platforms like Shopify. But so far, it doesn’t seem to be the case.
HubSpot reports that shoppers are wary about buying things directly from social media. They don’t trust the quality, and are also concerned about providing their card details in a transaction on a social media platform.
Social media is still a great way to get sales. But you need to take the customer off social media, onto a platform they trust – like Amazon.
(Set up a landing page funnel to take full advantage of the Amazon trust factor, as well as the freedom to build your own audience from social media).
Seller University: Sending Emails with the MYCE Tool
Amazon has slowly been rolling out their Manage Your Customer Engagements Tool – aka email marketing direct to Amazon customers – to more brands.
Amazon Seller University just released a video showing sellers how it works.
Norman Farrar goes more in-depth into the MYCE tool, what it does, and its benefits, in this post. Though it’s not as powerful as building your own list and emailing that list, it does have a ton of value, and any brand should check it out and see how it can help them drive more engagement, and more sales.
Published 5.17.2023
Amazon Growth Remains Stalled
Data from Marketplace Pulse shows that Amazon has not yet returned to its regular levels of first-party sales growth.
In 2020, these numbers grew nearly 50% per quarter. But since the second half of 2021, growth has stalled, hovering between negative and sub-10% growth.
Third-party seller revenue is still growing for Amazon, however. So, while some of this is due to increased fees from Amazon, it’s still and indicator that third-party sales are still somewhat strong.
Amazon Middle East Sales Projected to Reach $8 Billion by 2025
Amazon has made big moves into the Middle Eastern market in recent years, launching marketplaces to serve markets like the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, as well as Egypt in North Africa.
Though Middle East and North Africa sales aren’t at the level of some of the more established global marketplaces yet, experts suggest that Amazon’s investment in the area could be set to pay off in the coming years.
Amazon Announces Anti-Counterfeiting Exchange
More efforts from Amazon to protect legitimate brands, and stamp out counterfeiters and bad actors, with their new Anti-Counterfeiting Exchange (ACX).
ACX provides a way for brands to share information about confirmed counterfeiters, creating a shared list of these people, so that they can identified and stopped faster in the future.
Pinterest and Amazon Ads Ink Deal
Amazon and Pinterest have just made a deal to make Amazon Pinterest’s first third-party advertising partner.
The deal will provide a more seamless experience for consumers, along with more visibility for Amazon ads on the platform.
This move signifies Pinterest as one of the top players in the game when it comes to social media ads for Amazon sellers – alongside other heavyweights like Facebook and TikTok.
If you’re interested in trying Pinterest ads for your store, check out this article for all you need to know.
New Amazon Fulfillment Center Opened in Kansas City
A big new fulfillment center was just opened in Liberty, Missouri, in the Kansas City metro area.
The fulfillment center is dedicated to oversized items, such as furniture, sporting equipment, and other big and bulky products.
It’s another big move from Amazon to further improve their fulfillment network, which is also in the process of decentralization to create eight, independent fulfillment regions across the US.
Amazon Rolling Out Email Marketing Feature to More Brands
Launched in beta in the second half of last year, Amazon’s own email marketing feature is starting to go into wider availability.
This feature lets brands send custom marketing emails to some shoppers, including their repeat customers, high-spend customers, recent customers and brand followers.
It’s still something that’s controlled by Amazon, so if you can build your own email list, this is preferable. But on-Amazon email marketing can definitely be a powerful way for brands to boost sales.
Temu: Amazon’s Newest Competitor
There’s no shortage of players out there who want to take a slice of Amazon’s pie. Though no one has been able to really challenge Amazon’s hold over the third-party ecommerce seller market, we’re getting a few more competitors jump on the scene as of late.
One of those competitors is Temu. It was launched in September 2022, and made waves in February with a Super Bowl ad.
This article from EcomEngine takes a deep dive into Temu, what it’s all about, and whether it can be a legitimate competitor to Amazon.
Published 5.4.2023
Amazon Update on Counterfeit Protection: 800,000 New Accounts Blocked in 2022
Amazon’s recently released Brand Protection Report gives an update on their efforts to stop bad actors in their tracks.
The report states that, in 2022, they blocked over 800,000 new accounts from being created by suspected counterfeiters.
If you’re a brand owner, this will give you the peace of mind to know that Amazon takes this kind of thing seriously.
Bad Actor Targets Seller with Negative Feedback Campaign
On a sadder note, this post on the Amazon seller forums shows that bad actors are still doing their thing on Amazon.
The post states that this seller has been hit with what appears to be a coordinated negative feedback campaign, with one buyer repeatedly making and cancelling orders, before leaving 1-star feedback.
Food for thought if you’re a seller in a similar position. Though we hope that Amazon will deal with bad actors like this, have a backup plan (such as an email list) in place to drive sales, should negative tactics hurt your sales and rankings on Amazon.
Andy Jassey’s Letter to Shareholders
You can now read Amazon CEO Andy Jassey’s 2022 letter to Amazon shareholders.
In it, he outlines where Amazon stands in terms of revenue and growth, as well as a bit about the direction of the company.
Most interesting is that they’re in the process of splitting up their fulfillment network in the US. Instead of one single network, they’re splitting it into eight independent networks, geographically aligned to be able to offer cheaper and faster delivery to customers.
No More Free Returns on Amazon?
Amazon’s easy return policy for customers is well known. Though it provides a great customer experience for legitimate buyers with legitimate issues with their product, it also makes it easy to abuse, frustrating sellers.
But could that all be coming to an end? Amazon have mentioned aims to lower return rates, and have now started charging $1 for some returns.
The question now is how much further is Amazon going to go when it comes to returns? Will things start shifting more in sellers’ favor? And how will that affect customers’ willingness to buy on Amazon?
Latest Changes to Amazon Return Policy (Plus Return Insights Tool)
On the subject of returns, this article outlines everything sellers need to know about Amazon’s return policy in 2023.
The most notable change/update is the addition of tools in Seller Central to allow you to monitor and control returns.
The “Return Insights” tool gives you a range of metrics, such as:
- Returned units
- Return rate percentage
- Product return category
- Return time frames (by 30, 60, and 180 days, and into the previous year)
- Return reasons
- Returns by ASIN
This is definitely worth looking at, as it might have some valuable information you can use to lower returns and offer a better customer experience.
“Frequently Returned” Badge Appearing on Listings
In one more piece of return-related news, some listings are now showing a “Frequently Returned” warning to shoppers.
This is another step towards greater transparency, after Amazon also started to show sales approximations in the SERPs recently.
Published 4.19.2023
Amazon Advises Sellers to Get Ready for Prime Day
We don’t have a date for Prime Day yet this year, but Amazon have made a statement urging sellers to get ready.
The post in the Amazon Seller Forums encourages sellers to get their preparations done early, notifying the following cutoff dates:
- Prime Day deals should be created by April 28th
- Inventory should arrive in fulfillment centers by June 15th
Last year’s Prime Day was held on July 12-13, so plan for a similar date this year. If you haven’t already, start thinking about what you’re going to do to take advantage and grow your sales during this year’s event.
Understand Who Shops on Amazon
Feedvisor just released a great guide for anyone who wants to know more about their Amazon customers.
The Today’s Amazon Shopper guide gives in-depth insights into shopping habits, preferences, and how they differ for different generations. This is a super valuable resource, which will help you create an informed marketing strategy.
The Top External Traffic Sources
We analyzed over 2,000 campaigns driving external traffic to Amazon products, to see which traffic sources are most popular among Amazon sellers in 2023.
Here are some key takeaways from the data:
- Google Adwords are #1, with nearly half of the campaigns we looked at.
- Facebook Ads are not as popular as they once were, but are still responsible for 29% of the campaigns.
- TikTok has become the clear #3 choice, though is still probably underutilized by Amazon sellers.
- Email and YouTube are (perhaps surprisingly) rather low down the list. Both represent an opportunity to get ahead and do something few other sellers are doing.
Amazon Targets Bad Actors with Lawsuit
This will be welcome news to any law-abiding Amazon sellers. Amazon recently filed three lawsuits against several sellers who reportedly made thousands of false copyright infringement claims to try and take down competing products.
Amazon’s Fastest Growing Markets
New insights from Marketplace Pulse show which international marketplaces are growing the fastest, with Brazil, Australia and Mexico leading the way.
The data, showing web traffic growth, has Brazil up 200% in the last three years, followed by Australia and Mexico, both of whom have grown by 2-2.5x in the same period.
It’s worth mentioning this is web only, so doesn’t include the share of growth for mobile shoppers on the Amazon app.
These marketplaces are around the bottom of the top 10 when it comes to overall web traffic for Amazon’s international sites. As of February 2023, the top five marketplaces are:
- Amazon US (2.2 billion visitors)
- Amazon Japan (553 million)
- Amazon Germany (408 million)
- Amazon UK (328 million)
- Amazon India (286 million)
Thinking of expanding your Amazon business overseas? Check out these helpful guides: