November 1: Amazon Weekly News Digest
Amazon Demotes Organic Results in Search, Project Zero Could Squash Counterfeits, and more
Welcome to this week’s Amazon News Digest. First I’ll cover news applicable to both Sellers and Vendors, then Seller-specific news. No big news for Vendors this week, except that some vendors are still reporting low PO volume, down up to 75% YOY. Vendors are also reminded to submit PO outage dates (e.g. for business closures) in advance ahead of the holiday season.
Listen to the audio version here (perfect for your commute!)
General News (Seller & Vendor)
Amazon Demotes Organic Results in Search
Analysis from Marketplace Pulse shows that organic search results are limited today, with prime position in search going to paid or Amazon-endorsed products. “A typical layout now has a sponsored brand as the first row of results, 3 sponsored products plus 2 organic results as the second row, best rated or Amazon’s Choice in the category as the third row, followed by editorial recommendations by 3rd party websites as the fourth row, and then Amazon brands as the fifth row. It’s only in the sixth row or later do organic results start.” Source: Marketplace Pulse
What this means for brands:
It’s pay to play on Amazon! It has been for a while, but it’s never been more true than now. You can’t control Amazon’s forays into private label brands, you have limited control over which products get featured by ‘editorial’ publishers, but you do have control over your advertising strategy. Make sure you’re maximizing it.
Speaking of those editorial publishers….
If you’re wondering what’s going on with those “Editorial Recommendations” that are increasingly popping up, here’s a quick primer: Amazon has sourced some third party publishers like The Wirecutter and others to create editorial content within search. These publishers then get a commission on the sales they help to generate on Amazon. Learn more about this program here. Though many details are still under wraps, we are seeing many more such placements on Amazon. And the program is reportedly now rolling out to the UK market too.
Project Zero now out of beta
Good news for brands with persistent counterfeit issues on Amazon. Amazon Project Zero is out of beta and open for all Brand Registered brands who can prove they’ve had issues in the past (i.e. reports of infringements from the past 6 months, with an acceptance rate of 90% of higher).
So what is Project Zero and how does it help? It gives brands the ability to police third-party sellers themselves and remove counterfeit listings directly, without relying on Seller or Vendor Support.
There’s an AI component to it as well, Amazon says that “Brands provide key data points about themselves (e.g., trademarks, logos, etc.) and we scan over 5 billion daily listing update attempts, looking for suspected counterfeits.” They say tests show this technology prevents 100X attempts at counterfeit attempts. Now I wouldn’t suggest fully relying on this technology but it hopefully helps prevent some problems before they happen.
Product serialization is optional, but recommended for brands with serious issues. Brands can add a unique barcode to each unit, and Amazon won’t sell any enrolled product without the presence of the barcode. This is the only part of the program that incurs a fee. This was previously called “Transparency”. I have spoken with some brands who were very happy with the outcome, despite the additional expense.
Read more about the program here: https://brandservices.amazon.com/projectzero/faq
What this means for brands:
Any improvement in Amazon’s current system is welcome. The fact that they are putting so much trust in the hands of brands to self-police is indeed unprecedented. It’s also available to both Vendors and Sellers, so covering all bases there. But this program is not designed to address Unauthorized Sellers, which for many brands represents a bigger issue.
Schedule Storefront launches
You can now schedule a new/updated storefront to go live at a future date within Advertising Manager. Scheduling allows advertisers to choose a launch date for a new Store, or a version of an existing Store. There are some rules about seasonal/event-focused storefronts not going live too early.
What this means for brands: This is a great feature that can allow you to be more strategic with your promotional calendar throughout the year. We do recommend refreshing your storefront at least every 6 months, and if you have the ability, also refreshing the storefront for seasonal events.
Live Chat pop-up seen on some storefronts
I spotted this feature on a storefront from a Seller this week - a live-chat feature that launches from the storefront and on mobile, allowing shoppers to chat with the brand directly. A very cool feature that appears to be in beta. If you get an invite, try it out! Just make sure you have staff on-call to interact with shoppers and make it a good experience like I had.
Clearer guidelines on which Keyword Attributes are actually indexed in search
Amazon finally published definitive guidelines on which back-end fields (keyword attributes) are indexed in search. Turns out that many product attribute fields are not indexed for product discoverability; including the much-misunderstood “Platinum Keywords” field.
What does this mean for brands:
Less back-end fields to complete when setting up new products and optimizing existing ones.
Seller Central News
New Pilot Program: Product Bundles
Product Bundles allow you to bundle your FBA products together for sale on a single page. In the past, you’d have to kit items yourself and then ship the kits to FBA. Amazon also says that they will be “improving the discoverability of Product Bundles on Amazon”. This is invite-only but you can check if you have access to the program here.
What this means for brands:
If you’re invited to the pilot, we definitely recommend accepting and testing it out, if only for the “ discover enhancements” that Amazon is promising for these ASINs. It can also be used to gather customer data on what physical bundles you should consider offering in the future.
Changes coming to Subscribe & Save
Currently, customers who subscribe to up to 4 products get 5% off their orders, and customers with 5+ subscriptions got a 15% discount. These discounts were funded by the brands selling those products.
Now, sellers can choose to offer a 5% or 10% discount immediately to customers who have up to 4 subscriptions. However, once a customer tiers up to 5 subscriptions, Amazon will fund the extra 5% discount, for a total of 10% or 15% discount offered to the customer.
What does this mean for brands? If you’re using this program, you can now choose how aggressive you want the subscribe & save discount to be. This is pretty smart on Amazon’s part - while they kick in an extra 5% discount to customers as well, they are also allowing brands to pitch in. The decision on whether to offer a 5% or 10% discount upfront should be made with data - while you’ll likely see an increase in subscribers with the deeper discount, you’ll need to determine whether the margin erosion is worth it.
What else we’re reading & writing this week:
What Amazon’s New ‘Ultrafast’ Grocery Delivery Announcement Means For Grocery Brands [Forbes]. The good: Free, fast grocery delivery (previously $14.99 a month - gulp) will certainly drive more shopper adoption and increase unit sales on the platform. The bad: Amazon Fresh is still invite-only and runs on the Vendor platform, meaning brands don't have much control over pricing & availability.
Modern Retail talked with the owner of one popular brand that has been on Amazon for years, but is still wary of platform dependence. Anonymity was exchanged for candor, and this online retail entrepreneur described what it's like to build and maintain a differentiated business on the 800-pound gorilla.