Second "Prime Day" in October

Despite ongoing economic challenges, the second quarter was a relative success for most e-commerce companies. Not only Amazon recorded higher growth than in the previous year (more on this in the commentary), but Zalando, Alibaba, Etsy, MercadoLibre and Shopify have shown positive results as well.
Amazon also has a number of innovations in the pipeline: In addition to brand-tailored promotions and the use of AI for the creation of product content, the e-commerce giant has again announced a second Prime Day deal event for this year.
Amazon News at a Glance:
Amazon announces second Prime deal event for October
Amazon.com releases brand-tailored promotions
Amazon divests itself of private label brands
Further E-Commerce News:
Q2 2023: Global online marketplaces exceed expectations
Shopify on track for growth after logistics sale and layoffs
TikTok launches logistics offering “Fulfilled By TikTok” in the UK
Updates: Amazon Marketplaces
Amazon is currently testing the use of an AI tool to make it easier for sellers to create product titles, bullet points and product descriptions in the future. The online giant makes it clear that the tool is only intended to reduce the effort of text creation, but not to replace human review and editing.
In the Amazon Ads console, it is now possible to view the number of store followers for your own stores. This makes it possible to measure whether your own investment is worthwhile and what effect advertising measures are having.
For Sponsored Brand Campaigns, up to five images can now be added and displayed as a slideshow. This new feature may additionally make it easier to conduct A/B tests.
Amazon recently informed Sellers about the new policy, “reserves after delivery date.” According to this policy, payments will now be made seven days after the delivery date instead of after the shipping date, so that merchants can meet financial obligations such as returns, directly. It is not yet clear when exactly this change will come into effect. In Great Britain, this change will only be valid from January 31, 2024. The reason for this delay in the UK is allegedly an effort to help smaller Sellers who will face cashflow issues once this policy is in place.
Since August 16, 274 additional product attributes for 200 product types are required for new listings on Amazon. This is intended to make it easier for customers to find product information and help increase sales. This change should not apply to active listings, but it is still necessary to fill in new attributes when editing or updating existing listings.
News: Amazon
Amazon Announces Second Prime Deal Event for October
The second Prime sale event will take place this year in October under the name “Prime Big Deal Days” for Prime members from 19 countries, with specific dates to be announced.
In 2022, Amazon held an October sale for the first time after its Prime Day in the summer. This year’s event was announced with more lead time.
It is predicted that the Prime Big Deal Days will have an impact on retail price cuts and traditional Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales, as they did last year.
Amazon.com Releases Brand-Tailored Promotions
With brand-tailored promotions brand owners and selling partners can now create customized discounts and offers for Amazon customers. According to experts, the expansion to the European region is also expected in the coming months.
Brand-tailored promotions can be used for exclusive offers and are designed to strengthen loyal customer relationships and increase conversion rates while maintaining or reducing promotion costs.
Promotions can be tailored to repeat shoppers, cart abandoners, potential new shoppers, high-spending shoppers, and new shoppers as well as shoppers who follow the brand.
Amazon Cuts In-House Brands
Amazon is cutting many of its in-house brands. Reasons for this, as reported by The Wall Street Journal, are antitrust investigations and a slowdown in sales growth.
In textiles in particular, Amazon is eliminating 27 of its 30 private brands and is only continuing with the Amazon Essentials, Amazon Collection, and Amazon Aware brands.
The US antitrust authority Federal Trade Commission (FTC) accuses Amazon, among other things, of favoring its own goods to the detriment of independent sellers on the platform.
The vice president of Amazon Private Brands emphasizes that the restructuring serves to adapt to customer needs. Many private brands will simply be rebranded and will remain on the market under the labels Amazon Basics and Amazon Essentials; only products that do not meet Amazon’s profitability standards will be discontinued.
News: E-Commerce
Q2 2023: Global Online Marketplaces Exceed Expectations
Chinese e-commerce company Alibaba and U.S. commerce platform Etsy beat expectations with their Q2 2023 results. Latin America’s leading e-commerce player MercadoLibre and European fashion group Zalando also posted strong Q2 quarterly results.
Alibaba’s revenue is up 14% and net profit is up 51% year-over-year to $4.6 billion. This is attributed to improved consumer sentiment, the “618” discount promotion and internal restructuring measures.
MercadoLibre achieved 32% year-over-year revenue growth to achieve $3.415 billion in Q2 2023. The platform added 8.1 million new users and recorded a total of 108.6 million active users in the quarter.
Zalando reported a successful quarter with EBIT growth of 87% to €144.8 million. Optimized cost per order and increased shopping cart values contributed to the business performance.
Etsy Inc. revenue grows 7.5% year-over-year to $628.9 million in Q2 2023, exceeding experts’ estimates by around $10 million.
TikTok Launches “Fulfilled By TikTok” Logistics Service in the UK
In the last newsletter, we reported on the launch of TikTok’s new shopping program for selling Chinese goods in the US. Now the Chinese company is expanding its e-commerce activities and officially launching its logistics offering “Fulfilled By TikTok” (FBT) in the UK.
TikTok takes care of the storage, collection, packing and shipping of goods for merchants on TikTok Shop UK.
The goal is to reduce delivery times and increase customer satisfaction, so brands can focus on other aspects of their businesses.
Since November 2022, FBT has already been tested in the UK and, according to initial reports, offers a profitable addition to other sales platforms.
Shopify on Growth Track After Logistics Sale and Layoffs
Shopify’s second-quarter revenues grew 31% year-over-year to nearly $1.7 billion, showing growth after focusing on building e-commerce stores.
Despite a higher net loss of $1.31 billion, the company posted a 17% year-over-year increase in gross merchandise volume. After facing challenges, Shopify focused on key accounts and wholesale expansion, also highlighting AI integration.
Shopify is gaining momentum in B2B, targeting untapped potential. New tools such as Marketplace Connect are expected to strengthen wholesale.
Comment: Amazon's Q2 2023 Growth Back in Double Digits
In early August, Amazon released its second quarter results for 2023. While e-commerce is struggling in many countries, the marketplace continues to grow and exceeded expectations with net income of $6.7 billion.
Amazon’s Q2 2023 revenue grew 11% year-over-year (YoY) to $134.4 billion, with the North America segment (+11% YoY) growing to $82.5 billion. The international (+10% YoY to $29.7 billion) and AWS (+12% YoY to $22.1 billion) segments also grew at similar rates. The high demand for Amazon Advertising is also reflected in the growth figures: 22% increase to $10.6 billion in Q2 2023. Amazon’s advertising revenue is equivalent to one-third of Meta’s advertising revenue in Q2 2023 – and is growing faster at that.
Other key growth areas were:
Amazon’s 3P services: +18% YoY to $32.3 billion
Amazon’s subscription services: +14% YoY to $9.9 billion
Profitability was also up, with Amazon more than doubling its operating income to $7.7 billion in Q2 2022, compared to $3.3 billion in Q2 last year!
Overall, Amazon beat analysts’ expectations and increased its stock value by over 8%. For Q3 2023, the company expects a growth rate of 9% to 13% YoY. In the current economic environment, Amazon’s growth is impressive and with a strong focus on efficiency improvements, we expect profitability to continue to increase in the coming months.
Did You Know?
Amazon has announced that it will hold a second Prime Day – the “Prime Big Deals Days” – in October. However, a look at the second Prime Day last year (“Prime Early Access Sale” on October 11 and 12, 2022) shows that it was much less successful than the initial Prime Day 2022 on both offer days. We are curious to see how successful this year’s second sale event will be.
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Top 5 Amazon Keywords
These are the top 5 most searched keywords by country from August 06 – 12, 2023.
In the U.S., Germany and the U.K., only Prime Video offerings such as the hyped series, The Summer I Turned Pretty, or the other popular book adaptation, Red, White & Royal Blue (released on August 11), dominate Amazon searches. In France, Italy and Spain, on the other hand, technical devices, fans and accessories continue to be highly popular.
In Case You Missed it
Studies: Prime Day Analysis 2023 – by Alexander Schenck, August 02, 2023
Content: Optimising content for Amazon: Which is the best keyword tool – by Elisabeth Delfs, September 07, 2022
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