US elections and Prime Day 2020

General Updates

What does the US election mean for Amazon?

Jeff Bezos and the heads of important US tech companies have reacted positively to Biden’s election victory as US president. The concrete consequences for Amazon & Co. are not yet clear; if it were up to Biden, there should be tax increases and stricter competition control for the big tech companies. If the Republicans retain the majority in the Senate, the legislators will have to compromise, which would benefit the big companies. Further, Biden wants to relax visa restrictions for foreign specialists, a plan that is also advantageous for Amazon. It seems that the big tech companies will ultimately benefit from the outcome of the US elections.

Triple turnover with Amazon in Q3 2020

Amazon tripled its sales in the third quarter of 2020 compared to the same period in 2019 – and this even without the sales of the Prime Day, which this year took place unusually late in October. The Verge explains the reasons for this and the expectations for Q4 in this article.

Amazon threatens competition penalty of the EU

Amazon is accused by the EU of abusing its market power and using the business data of its independent dealers for its own competitive advantage. Because Amazon not only provides the platform, but also offers goods on it as a retailer, unfair conditions would be created.

Digital Christmas Shopping in the USA

American customers plan to do more than 60% of their Christmas shopping online this year, according to a study by Deloitte. This is surprisingly high, especially considering the current 15% share of e-commerce in total US retail. A similar development can be expected in the European core markets due to the second wave of the pandemic.

New communication guidelines for sellers on Amazon

Since November 6, Amazon Seller has had stricter guidelines for customer communication. The new guidelines are intended to make the platform more secure and protect sellers from “unscrupulous actions” by competitors. For example, messages thanking the buyer for the purchase or messages containing order confirmations are no longer allowed.

Automatic reordering thanks to Dash Smart Shelf

The sale of the Dash Smart Shelf from Amazon has started. The smart shelf sends a notification when the stock of the product placed on it runs low or reorders it directly. The new gadget is particularly interesting for everyday products such as food, personal care, and household goods.

“Climate Pledge Friendly” also in Europe from now on

Environmentally friendly products on European marketplaces will now automatically receive the “Climate Pledge Friendly” badge on Amazon. This allows customers to recognize more sustainable products faster; the badge is clearly visible in the search results, additional information is available on the product detail pages and the articles are displayed in an extra shopping area.

The biggest US retailers’ Black Friday strategy

This year, Walmart, Target, and Best Buy are extending Black Friday and spread their deals across the whole month. The retailers claim the extension being made as a safety measure in times of COVID-19 to avoid big crowds in the shops. But it seems like they are also adapting Amazon’s strategy of having started early Black Friday deals at the end of October already.

Comment: Amazon Prime Day 2020

We wanted to know whether Prime Day 2020 was really as successful for companies as reported in the media and therefore we took a closer look at 400,000 products.

The sales increase in the Prime Day week compared to the previous week:

• brands that used deals: 115%
• brands that did not take advantage of deals: 27.5%

The sales increase compared to the previous week for brands that started deals was

• in France: 44%
• in Germany: 97%
• in Spain: 107%
• in UK: 166%
• in Italy: 220%

The sales level in the week after Prime Day compared to the week before Prime Day:

• brands without deals: -26%
• brands with deals: -6%

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All the Best,

Your Team at Remazing

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