Amazon review has changed again!

After Amazon used AI to summarize seller reviews, Amazon's reviews have changed again. Some sellers found that Amazon modified the review viewing information, and sellers can only view the first 100 reviews that are not arranged in chronological order. This move by Amazon seems to have further underestimated the number of reviews. At the same time, Amazon has frequently released new tricks: launching brand promotion functions, opening up private domain traffic to sellers, and issuing large discounts and subsidies. Why is the platform so generous?

Amazon review has new changes

Some time ago, many people in the industry discovered that Amazon began to use AI to summarize reviews and present them above other reviews. Recently, Amazon quietly adjusted its reviews.

Some sellers found that Amazon has modified the review viewing information and only the first 100 reviews can be viewed.

Sellers who have done this have tried to use crawler software to crawl all the text reviews for a product link, and it was confirmed that there were only 100 reviews, and these reviews were not displayed completely in chronological order. There were reviews from 2021 and 2022, with a large time span, which means that Amazon will display reviews from multiple time periods. The same is true for star ratings. There are 5-star reviews and 1-4-star reviews displayed in proportion, basically all levels are available.

Industry insiders speculate that Amazon is likely to screen the reviews through AI because the reviews are very evenly distributed in terms of time and star rating.

As soon as this news came out, some people in the industry believed that it might have a significant impact on product development. Normally, product development would develop products by analyzing some data from competitors' comments, but if only the first 100 comments can be viewed, and this data contains different levels, then the accuracy of this data will be greatly reduced.

Some sellers believe that the change in reviews is not a big problem for consumers and sellers. In their opinion, few people will read too many reviews, usually only two or three pages at most, which also saves consumers' time. In addition, Amazon has been testing the AI ​​review summary at the top some time ago, which further weakens the importance of the number of reviews.

Amazon has been quietly changing, and it can be said that it is influencing and eventually eliminating a group of sellers through changes. Not only the comments mentioned above, but also the fact that some products on the front page start to display the number of views mentioned earlier, which is guiding for consumers and makes it easier to lock in the products they want, but it is becoming increasingly difficult for small and medium-sized sellers.

Recently, Amazon will use another big move: launching a brand customized promotion function.

Amazon launches new brand customization feature to open up private domain traffic

"There was a notification in my backend that the brand promotion function will be released soon," said a seller, who said that he felt it was good after trying it. It is understood that the launch of this function is Amazon's opening of private domain traffic to sellers.

Specifically, brand sellers that meet the requirements can use the brand customized promotion function to create exclusive discounts for "buyers who follow or have purchased their products" in order to attract old customers to repurchase and recover traffic.

At the same time, this feature will also be seen by some other buyers, including potential buyers who are interested in your products (clicked on your products or added them to the shopping cart, but did not purchase your products within 12 months), high-spending buyers (buyers who ranked in the top 5% of your brand's consumption in the past 12 months) and brand followers (fans who follow your brand).

Buyers only need to set discounts without paying other costs. To a certain extent, this feature launched by Amazon is to allow sellers to use previous traffic or missed traffic to promote their products. However, this feature is still in the testing phase, and Amazon has also set restrictions such as promotions are only valid for a limited time, Amazon can cancel them at any time, and apply to specific sellers.

As we all know, Amazon has always regarded its traffic as its lifeline. If sellers want to obtain traffic, they can only rely on the two major channels of natural traffic dominated by Amazon and purchasing advertising traffic. Even top sellers such as Anker need to purchase private traffic generated by their own brand words.

Now, with the Temu platform approaching, Amazon is also trying to open up private domain traffic, perhaps to cope with the competition in the overall environment.

Amazon offers big discounts, contrary to its usual practice

I don’t know if it’s because it noticed the trend of traffic being divided during the peak season, or because it was competing with other platforms on price, but Amazon has gone against its norm and is issuing large discounts and subsidies.

Some sellers said that they received an email from the platform, which would provide them with advertising discount coupons of up to $1,100, hoping that sellers could use display promotion ads. However, this discount involves fewer sellers, basically larger sellers, and more sellers received advertising discount coupons of $250.

"Amazon sent out $250 advertising discount coupons," one seller said. However, the advertising discount coupons are not immediately available, but sellers need to activate a brand promotion campaign on the platform before July 17 and keep the campaign running for 30 days. Amazon will not issue the advertising discount coupons to the seller's account until August 25, and the coupons are valid for only 30 days from the date of issuance.

Before the coupons are issued, sellers need to bear the click fees and all advertising costs that exceed the advertising coupon amount. At the same time, the email also pointed out that not all sellers can participate in this event. Only sellers who have received an invitation for Amazon advertising discount coupons can apply for it.

The sellers who received the email directly hit the pain point: "Using discount coupons may increase the advertising costs during Prime Day." Amazon's large-scale distribution of advertising discount coupons is probably just to stimulate sellers to pay, just like the consumption coupons issued by cities. Sellers who receive coupons will naturally spend more on advertising costs, and Amazon can also increase advertising revenue. However, some sellers are worried that if they do not use them, it will affect their orders.

Throughout this year's Member Day, sellers' reactions were quite polarized. Some sellers were very enthusiastic about the Member Day and said they would actively participate and strive to achieve the set goals; some sellers said they would not participate in other Amazon activities and would only prepare member-exclusive discounts and adjust advertising budgets and product prices according to specific circumstances; some sellers had already given up and said they had not submitted any products and just wanted to be a bystander and watch the big sellers' grand occasion this year.

Most sellers have lowered their expectations for the Prime Day, and they are welcoming the upcoming Prime Day with the mentality of "explosive orders are better, but less losses are fine if there is no explosion of orders." Even if Amazon offers large discounts and subsidies, it has not attracted much attention from sellers.

In the current uncertain economic environment, Amazon's coupons may not be generous, but to ensure its own income. With the step-by-step approach of platforms such as Temu and SHEIN, Amazon is facing: a decline in sales of sellers on the platform, further escalation of price wars, and a grab for market share.

In the future, cross-border e-commerce competition will become increasingly fierce, and Amazon will continue to update policies, advertising rules and other services, which may seem to be preferential and reduce prices, but in fact, the opposite is true. This will also have a certain impact on sellers, and sellers also need to be vigilant at all times and adjust their strategic deployment in time according to changes in the platform to avoid being kicked out.

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