Amazon in the News Spotlight

• Lawsuit against Amazon business practices by the FTC
• Amazon opens up “Sponsored Display Ads” to outside merchants
• 25 million USD fine against data protection complaint
• Low-cost mobile flat rate, Boost Infinite, listed on Amazon

Further E-Commerce News:

• TikTok launches shopping program for Chinese goods

Updates: Amazon Marketplace

After the results of the Prime Days in July have been evaluated, the attention is now on the shopping events in Q4. On this topic, Amazon has already announced the deadlines for submitting the lightning deals. For the Prime Fall Deal event, which will probably take place in October, the deadline is August 11, and for Black Friday/Cyber Monday, lightning deals can be submitted until September 1.

Amazon is currently testing a feature on the U.S. marketplace that enables a variety of tailored promotions for different target groups. These target groups include repeat customers, cart abandonment customers, and potential customers who have engaged with a brand in some way. The promotions work similarly to the coupon system. Amazon should also be able to create promotions specifically for ASINs and send them to shoppers accordingly.

The “Customer Questions & Answers” section is no longer available. Instead, there is now a new section titled “Looking for specific info?”. In this new area, customers can search for reviews, ask questions, and view answers to previously-asked questions.

News: Amazon

Amazon Enters U.S. Mobile Communications Market with Flat Rate Offer

At the beginning of June, we reported on rumors that Amazon could expand its Prime membership program in the U.S. to include a mobile service. Now it is clear: Amazon is entering the U.S. mobile market, but only with the sale of the flat-rate plan, Boost Infinite, from the mobile provider, Dish.

• For $25 per month, the plan offers access to the 5G network, unlimited data and calls, and one month free at the beginning.
• Amazon supplies the necessary SIM kit free of charge, and customers can activate the service themselves via an app.
• The low-cost offer could put pressure on the prices in the U.S. mobile market.

Amazon Opens “Sponsored Display Ads” to External Merchants

Amazon has opened up its exclusive “Sponsored Display Ads” advertising format, which was previously only available to Amazon retailers, to external providers in the U.S. A threatened lawsuit by the U.S. antitrust authority FTC, which is scrutinizing the advertising business, may have contributed to the decision.

• Opening up the advertising business could be a measure to reduce the attack surface for the lawsuit.
• The advertising format is to be limited to companies that offer services that are not available on Amazon (e.g., restaurants or hotels).
• All Amazon websites and those of the group subsidiaries Twitch and IMDb as well as the DSP network are available as advertising spaces.

Amazon to Pay $25 Million to Settle Privacy Complaint

Amazon has agreed to pay $25 million to settle a complaint filed with the FTC. Privacy advocates accuse Amazon of violating the Children’s Online Privacy Protect Act (COPPA) by keeping recordings of children’s voices through Alexa longer than legally permitted.

• According to COPPA, websites may retain children’s personal information only as long as reasonably necessary to fulfill the purpose for which the information was collected.
• Amazon denied the allegations of the complaint, but agreed to pay a settlement to the U.S. government.
• Amazon plans to delete data from children under 13 who have not used Alexa for at least 18 months.

Amazon Enters U.S. Mobile Communications Market with Flat Rate Offer

At the beginning of June, we reported on rumors that Amazon could expand its Prime membership program in the U.S. to include a mobile service. Now it is clear: Amazon is entering the U.S. mobile market, but only with the sale of the flat-rate plan, Boost Infinite, from the mobile provider, Dish.

• For $25 per month, the plan offers access to the 5G network, unlimited data and calls, and one month free at the beginning.
• Amazon supplies the necessary SIM kit free of charge, and customers can activate the service themselves via an app.
• The low-cost offer could put pressure on the prices in the U.S. mobile market.

News: E-Commerce

TikTok Launches Shopping Program for Chinese Goods in the U.S.

According to the Wall Street Journal, TikTok is launching a shopping program in August that will be designed to sell goods from China within the U.S. This news builds on the success of Chinese online retailers Shein and Temu.

• The program, known as “Full Service”, is already being tested in the UK, among other places.
• It will make it easier for retailers and manufacturers from China to sell goods in the U.S., with storage and shipping to be handled by TikTok.
• The Chinese company is currently under increased scrutiny by U.S. authorities due to concerns about data security.

Commentary: Amazon Prime Day

According to Amazon, Prime Day 2023 was the most successful Prime Day ever. So it’s all the more important to take a closer look at the figures and analyze what impact this had on sales, traffic and advertising.

We analyzed Amazon Prime Day 2023 using our tool Remdash. The analysis is based on almost 200,000 products from all categories in the European core markets (Germany, the UK, France, Italy, and Spain).

Prime Day 2023:

• On July 11th., the first Prime Day (PD1), the EU5 marketplaces recorded a 443%* increase in sales. On the second day of Prime Day (PD2), July 12th, sales were still 300%* higher on average than the comparable figure.
• Traffic also grew. On product detail pages of EU5 marketplaces on PD1 by + 163 %* and PD2 by + 84 %*.
• Products on which Prime Day deals were posted saw sales increase by 1,291 %* on PD1 and by 889 %* on PD2. Products without deals also benefited from the attention and recorded a revenue increase of + 130 %* (PD1) and + 90 %* (PD2). In a country comparison, Germany, followed by Spain, recorded the strongest increase in sales.

Amazon Advertising on Prime Day 2023
If you look at the sales development of the deal event, it is clear that the first deal day was significantly stronger than the second – this pattern is evident on each of the Amazon marketplaces studied. But also in terms of advertising KPIs, the first deal day was more successful on all Amazon marketplaces studied.

Prime Day 2023:

• More impressions, more clicks, more conversions and, above all, more ad sales (+ 597 %* on PD1 vs. + 387 %* on PD2) were generated.
• Ad Spend was also significantly higher on the first day (+ 522 %* vs. + 467 %*) and speaks to the increased traffic and the resulting increased advertising pressure on the platform.
• The average CPC increased up to €0.77 (+ 72%) during Prime Day. This took place on PD2, on PD1 the average CPC was € 0.71 (+ 60 %).

*All comparisons refer to a calculated average day in June.

Remdash: Share Dashboards within the Team

An unlimited number of custom dashboards can be created in Remdash to visualize your most important KPIs.

• Get an overview of what’s happening in the Amazon account and make better, data-driven decisions.
• Instead of sharing manually created Excel spreadsheets repeatedly with the team, the dashboard can be shared with everyone with just one click.
• The result: Every team member is always up-to-date.

Interested in Remdash?
Just click here and book a personal product demo with our team.

Top 5 Amazon Keywords

These are the top 5 most searched keywords by country from July 23 – 29, 2023.

The hype surrounding the new Barbie movie has now also reached Amazon: “Barbie” appeared increasingly in the search terms. Additionally, Prime Video offerings such as the series, The Summer I Turned Pretty, the Transformers movies, and the animated series, Invincible, dominate search queries in the U.S., Germany, and the UK. In France, Italy and Spain, on the other hand, technical devices and fans were high in demand as heatwaves persist in Southern Europe.

In Case You Missed it

Best practice: Our 10 Favourite Product Optimisations on Amazon.

Here’s How Delta Pronatura Saves More than 600 Hours of Work Every Year with Remdash’s Custom Dashboard Feature.

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Senior Finance Manager ? Hamburg

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For more details and other open positions, take a look here.