Amazon’s Q2 revenue & acquisition of One Medical

While Amazon plans to expand its presence in Belgium in the coming months with the launch of Amazon.com.be, Zalando is supposedly aiming to establish itself in the US in the foreseeable future. Whether Zalando will be able to assert itself in the competitive fashion industry in Amazon’s home market remains to be seen though.

At the moment, Amazon is especially pushing forward in the U.S. healthcare market with its newest acquisition of One Medical. Remazing Managing Director Filip Egert shares his thoughts on the billion-dollar acquisition in our latest blog post.

Additionally, Amazon is testing new services such as “Amazon Today” and the “Amazon Seller Wallet,” as well as an updated version of the “Account Health Rating” in the US. More on this in the latest news updates.

New Blog Post

Analysis: Amazon’s acquisition of One Medical

Updates: Amazon

Amazon acquires One Medical

Amazon announced it is buying One Medical for $3.9 billion. The healthcare provider offers its users in the US teleconsultations with primary care practitioners via app and in-person treatments at its more than 180 technology-enabled practices for a monthly fee. The deal is another foray into the profitable healthcare market for Amazon, which already sells prescription drugs through “Amazon Pharmacy”.

Improved success metrics for sellers

Amazon is looking to accommodate sellers in North America with enhancements to its “Account Health Rating” (AHR). The rating is designed to give sellers a better overall view of the health of their account, including a final score stating if it is “healthy,” “at risk,” or “unhealthy.” Additionally, the severity of potential violations shall be accurately displayed, making it easier to track performance and comply with Amazon’s policies. It is expected that the updated AHR will be available in the US and Canada in August, with the rest of the world to follow in 2023.

Amazon is launching a new marketplace in Belgium

Amazon has announced that it expects to open its Belgian marketplace in September this year. Merchants and brands can already register to sell their products on Amazon.com.be. The “Amazon Prime” membership program is also expected to be available in the country after the launch. For the implementation of the expansion plans, the construction of a distribution warehouse near Antwerp has been announced, which is to be completed by the end of 2022. According to insiders, Amazon is pursuing the goal of expanding its activities also in South America and Africa in Q1 2023.

Test phase: Amazon Seller Wallet launches in the US

A new tool within Seller Central will soon make it easier for sellers to manage and view their sales revenue as well as to make transfers. There is no cost or minimum amount required to sign up for “Amazon Seller Wallet.” Although the account management is free of charge, volume-based currency conversion and international transfer fees may apply. Whether the tool is worthwhile for sellers selling outside the US remains to be seen.

Same-day delivery for products from retail stores

Prime members in select cities in the US (including Atlanta, Chicago, and Seattle) can now order items from PacSun, GNC, SuperDry, and Diesel brand stores via the Amazon app and website and have them delivered the same day. The company said it plans to add additional retailers and expand the service to other parts of the country later this year.

Sustainability: Amazon’s emissions increased last year

The e-commerce boom triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic has prompted Amazon to expand its own logistics network at a rapid pace over the past two years. The consequences for the environment are now visible in the company’s latest sustainability report. According to the report, Amazon’s operations emitted the equivalent of 71.54 million metric tons of carbon dioxide in 2021 – an 18% increase year-over-year and nearly 40% more emissions than in 2019. 

Updates: Other Marketplaces

Marketplaces to account for nearly two-thirds of online sales by 2027

According to the 2022 Future of Marketplaces Report from Edge by Ascential, sales through online marketplaces will account for 59% of all global e-commerce by 2027. The report predicts that third-party sales through online marketplaces will be the largest and fastest-growing retail channel globally, climbing from $2.5 trillion to $4.3 trillion in revenue in five years. In contrast, direct sellers’ share of global e-commerce sales is expected to shrink from 44% today to 41% in 2027.

Zalando supposedly plans to expand into the US

According to insiders, Zalando plans to enter the US market starting in 2023. For now, the expansion – which supposedly gets planned under the alias “Project Kangaroo” – is to focus on the northeastern part of the country, which includes, among others, the states of Connecticut, Maine, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, and Vermont. The European fashion e-commerce giant wants to facilitate the project through investments in the three-digit million range. It remains to be seen whether the currently rather poor business figures of the Berlin-based group will stand in the way of such large investments and thus the step overseas.

Alibaba closes Tmall in Hong Kong

Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba will close “Tmall Hong Kong,” the localized arm of its online retail platform Taobao, on October 31. Consumers will still be able to order from Tmall’s product range, which includes goods from major Chinese and global brands as well as fresh produce, until August 21. After that, the group said it would focus on Taobao as the main e-commerce platform for the Hong Kong market and optimize logistics service and customer support, among other things.

What caught our attention

Sponsored Brand Video ads can now link directly to a Brand Store, not just to a specific product detail page. This makes it possible to create video ads not only for a specific product but for a whole product group linked to the Brand Store. Moreover, it is now possible to add a headline to the ads.

Sponsored Brand Videos can now be created by yourself using the new “Video Builder” and templates provided by Amazon. The feature is still in beta testing and is not expected to be available to all advertisers until Q4 2022.

With the new “Expanded Product Targeting” selection, similar articles to one’s own products can now also be targeted. The feature sounds interesting, but could also be quite similar to “broad” targeting for keywords.

A separate dashboard for Amazon’s “Subscribe & Save” has recently been added to Vendor Central. The company’s own products, which customers receive as regular deliveries via the “Saver Subscription” program, can be analyzed at ASIN level for various KPIs such as sales, number of subscribers, and discount level.

Hej Sverige! Sponsored Display campaigns are now also available on the Amazon marketplace in Sweden. 

Comment: Amazon’s Revenue in Q2 2022

Amazon released its Q2 2022 results at the end of last week. Here is a quick analysis of the most important financial KPIs: The overall revenue reached $121.23 billion with a growth rate of 7% year-over-year (YOY). The e-commerce and cloud giant outperformed analysts’ expectations, making its share price go up by 12.

A closer look at the different segments shows some interesting results:

• While Amazon’s online revenue decreased by 4%, the revenue of its brick-and-mortar stores increased by 12%.
• In the US, the company’s revenue grew by 10%, but internationally it decreased by 12%

Amazon’s advertising revenue was $8.76 billion, based on a growth rate of “only” 18% YOY (compared to +23% YOY in Q1). But: This is still a bigger increase than for its main competitors in the advertising market, namely Alphabet (+12%) and Meta (-1.5%).

Remdash: Content Monitoring

With Remdash, you can monitor your products’ content in various ways:

• Control the optimized content being live on Amazon
• Automatic case upload and tracking of content changes
• Analyze your products’ content performance at one glance with Remdash’s Remdash Retail Readiness Score
• Control the matching of your products with your SEO-Benchmarks 

Interested in Remdash?
Just click here and schedule your personal product demonstration with our team.

Top 5 Amazon Keywords

The summer heatwave that has left its mark across Europe during the past weeks – which is also reflected in the recent search behavior of Amazon users. In Germany, the UK, France, Italy and Spain, fans and air conditioners in particular have recently been in high demand. In Italy, Germany and the USA, searches for summer clothing also increased.