George's Blog

Sep 15, 2023 12:00AM

Amazon's Next-Level Tools Unveiled at Accelerate Day 2. Amazon Accelerate reveals key tools for better customer targeting and fewer returns. Get ready for loyalty analytics, sentiment insights, AR-based 'View in Your Room,' and smarter apparel sizing with Fit Insights. Thanks, Prem.

Prem Gupta

➡️ Post | Profile

Customer analytics, View in Your Room and Fit Insights announced at Accelerate

Here are some highlights from the Day 2 of Amazon Accelerate:

Customer Loyalty Analytics Dashboard

✅Amazon's new customer Loyalty Analytics Dashboard offers a quick look at consumer behavior and historical trends.

✅Analyze purchasing trends and adapt your products, offers, and communications to the proper customers to maximize your marketing efforts and boost your overall customer lifetime value.

✅Customer Loyalty Analytics will be available soon to registered brands in the US.

Customer Sentiment Insights

✅You'll be able to receive complete analytics on customer preferences with the newly updated Customer Sentiment Insights tool with the touch of a button.

✅New feature additions will provide more information on consumer sentiment, including not only reviews but also customer returns.

✅Analyze trend changes over time and compare customer sentiment for all ASINs to the best sellers in a category to better understand customer wants and boost your brand positioning.

✅These insights will be available later this year in the US, UK, DE, FR, IT, and Spain, with Japan following soon after.

Visualize products on tables and countertops

✅Amazon is improving product discovery experience to help customers identify products and make smart purchasing decisions.

✅View in Your Room tool employs augmented reality to assist buyers in visualizing how your product will appear in their environment.

✅In addition to objects placed on the floor, the capability is now available on iOS and Android devices for items that fit on your tabletop. The new experience is accessible for over 200 different tabletop product kinds, including lamps and home décor.

Fit Insights

✅Fit Insights assists brands in better understanding the size and fit of their apparel and shoe items, allowing them to improve their product offering and reduce returns.

✅Fit Insights analyzes returns data, size charts, and consumer input on fit, materials, and style to recommend modifications to a brand's size chart and product listings using machine learning, including big language models.

✅Beginning in October, Fit Insights will be available to US apparel and shoe makers and their authorized distributors.

0 0

Sep 12, 2023 12:00AM

Aggregator Gold Rush Ends: Impacts on Amazon FBA Sellers Explained. The once-thriving aggregator model for Amazon FBA sellers is seeing shifts—layoffs, bankruptcies, and mergers. Despite challenges, it's not all bad news for FBA sellers planning an exit. Thanks, Kevin.

Kevin King

➡️ Read the full article

AGGREGATOR GOLD RUSH OVER - NOW WHAT?
The gold rush to launch and fund new aggregators has been over for 15 months, but the remaining players are pivoting, maturating or simply surviving.

Last week, Bentigao became the latest aggregator in a long line to declare bankruptcy with liabilities of $50-$100 million. They have 15 brands that sell over 300 products, including health supplements, office products and beauty items.

Earlier this summer SellerX acquired Elevate Brands to create a company with 80 Amazon brands, 40,000 products and a $431 million run rate.

The most famous aggregator, Thrasio, acquired more than 200 brands and raised more than $3.4 billion in funding before radically cutting back with layoffs and the departure of key executives.

Source: The Fortia Group Insights Report - July 2023

This Thursday in London, the eCommerce Acquiror Conference is happening with 20+ aggregators in attendance. Topics include “M&A amongst Aggregators” and “The future of the aggregation space.”

The Fortia Group’s Q2 2023 Quarterly Insights report dives deep into eCommerce brand valuations and is worth a gander.

Quietlght brokerage recently published a blog article called “The Rise and Fall of Amazon Aggregators: What It Means for Your FBA Exit Strategy.”

The article details the swift ascent and decline of Amazon aggregators and its implications for FBA sellers. As Amazon aggregators experienced a sharp increase, especially in 2021, they impacted the valuation of Amazon businesses.

However, the decline in their prominence has brought about challenges and changes in how Amazon business owners should strategize their exits.

Source: The Fortia Group Insights Report - July 2023

What went wrong for Amazon aggregators:
- 2022 saw a return to brick-and-mortar shopping, though ecommerce still stayed above pre-pandemic levels.
- Revenues decreased, competition rose, and Amazon seller fees increased, affecting profitability.
- Aggregators began layoffs and mergers, and investments in them plummeted to $68 million by May 2023.
What You Need to Know to Successfully Sell Your Amazon Business in the Post-Amazon Aggregator Boom:
- Amazon business valuation in 2023:
  - Valuations of Amazon businesses have dropped due to changing consumer trends and the retreat of aggregators.
  - Even with decreased valuations, successful exits are still achievable.
- Who Is Buying Amazon Businesses in 2023?:
  - Despite the decline of aggregators, they only made up 30% of buyers at their peak.
  - Potential buyers include individuals and partnerships, private equity groups, and other businesses.
  - Strategic buyers look for businesses that align with their existing strategies, offering another pool of potential buyers.
Things You Need to Know to Navigate a Successful Amazon Exit:
- Now is still a great time to sell: Current valuations are on par with historic standards, waiting for another 2021-like peak may be futile.
- There is always a market for strong businesses: Focus on internal improvements to make the business more attractive.
- Know how to position your business correctly: Highlight potential growth opportunities to stand out to potential buyers.
- Find an experienced advisor and get a valuation: Engage a qualified business advisor to guide through the selling process, from valuation to final transfer.

0 0

Sep 12, 2023 12:00AM

Amazon's A9 Algorithm is set for a major shakeup. Amazon is upgrading its search with AI. Forget keyword stuffing; the new system understands context and matches queries to products in a smarter way. Existing keyword tools may become outdated. Thanks, Kevin.

Kevin King

➡️ Post | Profile

COMING TO THE AMAZON A9 ALGORITHM

Amazon is working on both physical GPU-based technology and its own unique e-commerce LLM. It can process massive AI-related search analyses to serve up results in the blink of an eye.

This could take away the need to be indexed for everything, eliminate keyword stuffing, and change how we try to optimize listings to rank today.

Let me introduce you to Amazon’s new LLM:

Formerly introduced by Amazon this past May in Osaka Japan at the 27th Pacific-Asia Conference on Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining.

Traditional methods of matching products with search queries just look for exact words or phrases in the product data & descriptions. This is fast and simple but has some problems. For example, a small spelling mistake or a synonym, might not get the results someone wants.

To fix this, newer methods use something called "semantic matching" which tries to understand the meaning behind words rather than just the words themselves. Like a search for "sneakers," would also show "running shoes."

Now Amazon will soon be launching a new method to improve search results using a large language model called BERT.

There is a four-step method to train an e-commerce LLM model that can efficiently match queries to products to buy:

1. Domain-Specific Pretraining
Train it on e-commerce data. E-commerce language is different.

Amazon created a special vocabulary from around 1 billion product titles and descriptions from 14 languages, fine-tuning with 330 million query-product pairs using Amazon Web Services (AWS).

Tools like Deepspeed and PyTorch were used, and training was done on AWS P3DN instances.

2. Query-Product Interaction Pre-finetuning
They improve the model by making it understand how search queries relate to products. They use a dataset where the queries and products have a strong relation, and they mask parts to train the model to predict the missing parts.

3. Finetuning for Matching
This stage trains the model to match queries to products. They employ a bi-encoder system which is efficient for large-scale data.

4. Knowledge Distillation to a Smaller Model
The final step is to transfer the knowledge from the large, well-trained model to a smaller one that can work quickly in real-time for product search.

Bottomline: A single sentence in a product listing could soon match hundreds of search phrases without keywords needed explicitly mentioning them all.

Tools like Helium 10, Jungle Scout, and Data Dive will need to pivot with their keyword tools, or they could become irrelevant.

The rest of this story and many more tips for Amazon sellers are published 2x per week in my FREE Billion Dollar Sellers dot com newsletter (link in comments). Many of the industry elite and loads of big sellers read it religiously.

TAKE NOTE: There is no such thing as an A10 algorithm - that’s marketing click bait. It’s the A9. It evolves over time like you did during puberty. But its name doesn’t change.

0 0

Sep 07, 2023 12:00AM

AI-Books on Amazon: Risky Business? AI-generated books are flooding Amazon, causing concerns over quality, plagiarism, and even safety. Calls for regulation are on the rise as distinguishing real from fake gets trickier. Thanks, Kevin.

Kevin King

➡️ Read the full article

Amazon’s sandbox

Amazon earned $52.9 billion from its online sales in the second quarter. Additionally, it made $32.3 billion from marketplace transaction and fulfillment charges, and $10.6 billion from advertising. Together, the revenues coming from Amazon's online retail infrastructure services were 81% the size of Amazon's actual e-commerce sales.

Over the past five years the growth of Amazon's online retail infrastructure business outpaced its online sales. If this growth trajectory persists, within two years the revenue from services provided to sellers and brands could exceed Amazon's online product sales.
AI-generated pseudo-books are spamming Amazon and other online bookstores, sometimes borrowing real authors' names to squat on their virtual real estate.

Partly due to videos like this where some users claim they have made $1 million in four months using Chat GPT to write Kindle books.

Amazon is estimated to control at least half of all U.S. book sales, and an even bigger share of the growing e-book market.

Authors and booksellers are urging the US Justice Department to investigate Amazon, claiming Amazon’s power affects the free exchange of information.

It doesn’t help that Amazon search is increasingly turning up mediocre AI-generated titles filled with unreliable information and soggy prose.
- Travel guides have become a key niche for this flood-the-zone-with-crud tactic, The New York Times has reported. Move over Rick Steves, Fodor’s and Lonely Planet. Mike Steves (an AI travel writer) has the best reviews!
- AI-generated titles have also begun to infiltrate categories like cooking, programming, gardening, business, crafts, medicine, religion and mathematics, as well as self-help books and novels.
- It's not always easy for buyers to distinguish these ersatz titles from human-written products.
- Reviews can help — but the reviews are beginning to fill up with AI-generated posts intended to skew the ratings.
Additionally, concerns have arisen over AI-generated mushroom foraging and cook books found on Amazon.

The foraging guides appear poorly researched and might pose health risks. Many of the books have repetitive content, likely generated using ChatGPT, and feature filler material with no real value. Some include mistakes, like omitting crucial ingredients.

0 0

Sep 06, 2023 12:00AM

The traditional annual planning needs an AMC upgrade. Stop relying solely on intuition; use AMC's data-driven insights for precise targeting, budget optimization, and enhanced engagement. Thanks, Jack.

Jack Lindberg

➡️ Post | Profile

🔥 Introducing a Fresh Take on Annual Planning: The AMC Series! 🔥

Hey AMC Fam! As we embrace the final quarter of 2023, many of us are knee-deep in charting out the path for 2024. The whiteboards are filled, the meetings are intense, and the coffee is flowing (except for me cause I hate caffeine!). But here's a question: Are we simply going through the motions, or are we genuinely innovating our approach?

🚀 Ditch the Old, Embrace the New with AMC!🚀

Let's be honest - rehashing the same strategies and hoping for different results isn't just tedious, it's counterproductive. If you're on the brink of signing off on that "safe" 2024 plan, I urge you to consider the transformative power of AMC.

🎯 Reimagine Customer Profiles with Data-Driven Insights 🎯

Picture this: Customer profiles that are not just a mishmash of focus group feedback, panels, and the sixth sense of brand managers (no offense to that gut feeling - it's gotten us far!). But imagine if we could *validate* those intuitions with hard data? This is where AMC shines. By leveraging AMC, we can:

1. **Gauge Real Demographics**: Get a granular view of who your customers truly are.
2. **Delve into Interests**: Understand what really piques their interests and tailor your messaging accordingly.
3. **Unearth Lifestyle Traits**: Customize campaigns that resonate with their life choices and aspirations.

But here's the clincher: AMC doesn't just stop at giving you insights about your customers. It juxtaposes this data against the folks of those viewing your ads. Now, imagine the power of aligning these two!

🌐 **Strategic Implications of Reframing Customer Profiles** 🌐

1. **Precision Targeting**: By understanding the delta between your perceived audience and the actual one, your ad campaigns can be far more precise and effective. USE AMC AUDIENCES!
2. **Budget Optimization**: No more wasteful spending on demographics or audiences that don't align with your brand. Efficiently allocate resources where they matter.
3. **Enhanced Engagement**: Tailored messaging based on real data leads to better engagement, loyalty, and ultimately, conversion.
4. **Future-proofing**: By continuously updating profiles based on real data, you ensure that your strategies evolve as your customers do.

As we gear up for 2024, let's not just plan. Let's innovate, evolve, and lead with insight. Looking forward to delving deeper into how AMC can revolutionize our strategies in the upcoming posts!

Stay tuned, and as always, let's drive the future, together! 🚀

0 0

Sep 06, 2023 12:00AM

Risks of Using Amazon Authorized Resellers. While authorized resellers on Amazon offer convenience, they often shortchange your brand. Cutting corners to profit may limit growth. For many, in-house management or an agency offers better brand expansion and full margins. Thanks, Jason.

Jason Landro

➡️ Post | Profile

Authorized Resellers can harm your brand on Amazon

A lot of brands are sold on authorized resellers because it's easy

The brands sell wholesale to a company that will resell those products on Amazon

However, the brands don't think about the bigger picture

Those authorized resellers have to buy products at a wholesale cost

Yet the authorized resellers still have significant overhead to sell those products

And the cost to sell products on Amazon is typically higher than in store

The authorized resellers are the middleman

So they have to minimize overhead to be as profitable as possible

That includes graphic design, copywriting, advertising, overall strategy, and more

Or they can only sell the best products from each brand's assortment

That means your brand isn't getting the comprehensive resources it needs to grow

However, there are legitimate reasons to use an authorized reseller:

1. Your Amazon business is brand new or so small relative to your revenue that it doesn't justify an additional overhead investment

Let the authorized reseller get the business going

2. You have large products and don't have the capability to fulfill them D2C

Authorized resellers typically have those capabilities

3. You have a very small selection of products

It's relatively easy to generate the creative you need and be relatively hands off and still see success

However, I'd argue a reseller is still not the best option in this case

4. You aren't set up to sell on Amazon or your organization won't get behind it

Use an authorized reseller and let them grow the business until it makes sense to change your approach

If you don't fall into one of these groups, it likely makes sense to hire resources in house or hire an agency

Then you can focus on growing your brand holistically

And you'll have the full margin to make that investment

Because you'll be cutting out the middleman

We've partnered with so many brands that used to work with authorized resellers

And we see fantastic results every time by putting a comprehensive plan in place and the resources to scale

If you're currently working with an authorized reseller or considering it, don't hesitate to reach out if you want to chat about your channel strategy

0 0

Sep 06, 2023 12:00AM

Testing on Amazon is a make-or-break game. Brands on Amazon can't afford to ignore constant testing. Using the scientific method—defining a question, forming a hypothesis, and conducting experiments—helps brands adapt based on data, not emotion. Thanks, Jeffrey.

Jeffrey Cohen

➡️ Post | Profile

Testing and iteration are fundamental muscles that every brand on Amazon needs to develop and master. Failure to do so will lead to complacency and brand decline. Am I being over dramatic? I don’t think so.

In junior high, we learned the basics of the scientific method. The steps are: 1) Define a Question to Investigate, 2) Research, 3) Hypothesis, 4) Experiment, 5) Conclusion, and 6) Communicate (Action). This data-driven approach allows the data to make the decision, not the emotion. So, what does this have to do with eCommerce or selling on Amazon? Everything.

Here is an example. This system ensures that you are constantly improving your product to meet customer needs. The data that you gather may be reviews, customer interviews, a/b testing, competitive analysis, or more. But at the end of the day, your product has to evolve. Sure, one of you will point out a product that is successful and hasn’t changed, but do you want to search for the one, or do you want to build a system to be successful?

A few years back, I attended a local event where two well-known restaurateurs were speaking. Both of these individuals have built international companies starting from local establishments. During the Q&A part of the event, a question was asked, “When do you know if a new concept will be successful?” The response was something to the effect of our ability to react to customer feedback in the first 90 days, determines our success. We can plan for everything, the theme, the menu concept, the wait staff.. etc., but we don’t know how the customers will react until we open the door. We have to open with the idea that the market will dictate the changes we need to make and then react to those signals when we hear them.

Next week, I will be speaking at #amazonaccelerate with Destaney Wishon and Gabi Viljoen, MBA. While our presentation is on strategies for upper funnel advertising, it's rooted in the basics of junior high science. Many times in life, we have asked, “Why did we take this class?” Here is a great example of where our education is coming back to benefit us. Advertising is a mix of art and science. If you master Sponsored Products and only focus on conversation-focused tactics, you are limiting the reach and potential of your product. Moving upper funnel to awareness and consideration can be scary. It requires additional budget and a changing of your mental model around the metrics you use to measure success. But, if you go back to your roots and apply the scientific method, you can develop a framework that sets you up for success.

What methods are you using to test and learn? I would love to learn of additional frameworks for what has made you successful.

Want to learn more? Join us live in Settle (or online) on Thursday as we dive deeper into this topic. https://lnkd.in/eKN853BF

0 0

Filter By