Amazon is expanding to South Africa

After the function was deactivated some time ago, it is now once again possible to write product reviews on Amazon without buying the product. Customers who do actually make a purchase before reviewing, will have their reviews marked as “verified purchase”. This could prove to be an important tactical update, especially with regard to product launches.

Amazon’s drones will soon be flying in Europe

Amazon has announced plans to offer its drone deliveries in the UK and Italy by the end of 2024. It also has its eye on a third U.S. state after California and Texas.

• The drones would be able to deliver packages approximately the size of a shoebox with a max. load of 2.2 kilograms.

• But before this happens, a permit to fly from the Federal Aviation Administration will be necessary.

Amazon Transparency aims to prevent counterfeiting

In an effort to combat product counterfeiting, Amazon has announced the expansion of its transparency program. Since 2016, registered companies received serialized barcodes from Amazon that had to be affixed to the product or its packaging to indicate authenticity.

• Now, companies that independently add serial numbers to their products can register them with Amazon Transparency and continue to use them.

• When the product is delivered, it can then be ensured that it is a registered product and not a counterfeit.

• Transparency is available in Europe in France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK.

From 2024: Amazon in South Africa

Amazon has announced that it will launch Amazon.co.za in South Africa next year.

• Third-party vendors, which already account for 60% of sales, were able to register online in advance to prepare with articles and webinars, among other things.

• The South African market is currently dominated by Naspers’ TakeAlot, South Africa’s largest online retailer.

New guideline for Amazon Sellers in Spain

For third-party Sellers who sell their goods via Amazon in Spain, but are not based there, must now consider the following:

• Sellers must share Unique Identification Numbers with Amazon for product categories such as packaging, batteries and electrical and electronic equipment.

• If the UIN is not shared, Amazon will pay the environmental taxes itself, but will request them back from the Sellers.

Black Friday: Purchasing desire greater than in the previous year

Consumers want to spend more money on Black Friday again, according to a survey by Shopify.

• 73% have saved more in recent months than in the previous year, but 69% say they want to spend more money on the weekend between Black Friday and Cyber Monday than in the previous year.

• Two-thirds of respondents said they will also use AI to compare prices and products when shopping.

TikTok sells ads in search results

With TikTok Search Ads, TikTok now offers brands the opportunity to place ads in the search results.

• The ads are labelled as sponsored content.

• They are displayed to users based on relevance of the search term and behavioural analytics in the results.

• TikTok says that 58% of its users use the platform to find new products and brands.

Firefox tests detection of fake product reviews

Browser manufacturer Mozilla is currently testing a feature with Firefox that is intended to detect fake product reviews in e-commerce.

• The function, known as Review Checker, is intended to show users how trustworthy reviews are when they shop online.

• It is based on Fakespot’s AI technology, which grades reviews from A – F and highlights only relevant reviews.

• The experiment consists of a small user group in the US, and the company is yet to announce an official release date for the feature.

AI images from Google search

In the US, Google users can create AI-generated images directly from a text description in the search engine using the Search Generative Experience.

• Results from image generation can be further refined.

• Google would like to offer this feature in Google Image Search in the near future, as well.

• To make the AI images recognizable as such, they are watermarked.

Amazon Prime convinces users above all with its fast shipping: 73% of Prime subscribers value faster shipping over additional benefits of the membership programme. In addition to fast shipping, the most important benefits of Prime mentioned are the elimination of shipping costs (64%) and watching movies and series (54%). Special offers on the online marketplace, on the other hand, only account for 37% of a reason to use Prime. Only a few members read eBooks with their Prime account (17%) or watch video content on Amazon’s streaming platform Twitch (1%).

(Source: Amazon Shopper Report 2022, Remazing & Appinio)