The front-end search function of Amazon has changed again. Small sellers: It’s too unfriendly to me!

After displaying sales, page views, and return rates on the front page, Amazon has recently taken action on the search box. Not only will the subdivided product options pop up under the search box, but the proportion of warehouse locations in the search ranking has also increased.

The closer the storage location, the higher the search ranking. Amazon sellers have different joys and worries.

According to foreign media reports , the consumer search results on Amazon's US site have changed, with listings that are closer to the storage location ranking higher.

When the news came out, sellers were happy and worried at different times, because it meant that the natural traffic of sellers with different inventory amounts would also change differently.

For example , large sellers with inventory in various regions will receive more natural search traffic, while small sellers with less inventory may see a decline in natural search traffic because the inventory is not evenly distributed among warehouses .

But compared to showing return rates and page views, the vast majority of sellers interviewed by En.com said that this change actually has more benefits.

Seller Tim said, " If there is a lot of inventory and it can be distributed to different warehouses, wouldn't that give me an advantage in search rankings? But now I don't dare to stock too much, and this is not very friendly to small sellers. "

However, "guiding ranking position based on warehouse location is not a new phenomenon. Amazon has had this operation before," seller Tim told Een.com, "but Amazon may have intentionally increased the proportion of this influencing factor recently."

Generally speaking, search ranking is related to the sales volume, ratings, etc. of the listing. In addition, seller Jerry said, "If you use FBA, it will also have a positive effect on the ranking of the listing." But this time, Amazon updated its algorithm mechanism and used warehouse location as one of the important considerations for search ranking.

Why this move? Udit Madan, Amazon's vice president of transportation , said this was to improve logistics efficiency, because the faster the delivery, the more likely consumers are to consume on the platform again .

In the past, Amazon operated its domestic delivery business in a nationwide model, requiring products to be delivered to all parts of the United States as long as consumers placed an order, no matter how far the distance was.

In order to achieve localized delivery and improve logistics efficiency, Amazon has divided its U.S. logistics distribution network into eight regions and no longer easily allocates goods across regions.

Seller Jerry said, "In fact, this is the same as the domestic JD warehouse and Tmall warehouse, which can achieve local delivery and nearby delivery. Buyers in Guangzhou will be shipped from the Guangzhou warehouse, and buyers in Beijing will be shipped from the Beijing warehouse. The logistics efficiency is greatly improved, which can reduce the return rate to a certain extent."

In addition, the sellers interviewed also linked it to Amazon's "crazy warehouse division" this year . In January this year, Amazon launched the " Logistics Multi-Destination Plan ".

Jerry said that in the past, all the products were sent to a certain warehouse, but now they are distributed to different receiving warehouses. In a batch of goods that Jerry sent to Amazon warehouse, 255 products were distributed to 42 warehouses .

Many sellers have complained before that "two boxes of goods are divided into N warehouses" and "Amazon's warehouse division is crazy, 100 products are divided into 20 warehouses, which is too scattered to make people panic"...

The split warehouse will lead to a rise in the first-leg freight. Some sellers said that if the inventory is not large (less than 100KG), the more warehouses are split, the higher the first-leg freight will be . Even though Amazon said that this plan can enjoy preferential treatment, it is not very attractive. Many sellers still cancel their participation in the plan and choose to consolidate warehouses.

Therefore, some sellers interviewed believe that the change in search rankings this time is Amazon "forcing" sellers to join the " multi-destination plan ."

However, in Jerry's opinion, this type of warehouse division improves delivery efficiency and is beneficial to store sales. " With the receiving center as the main point to radiate surrounding warehouses, it is ensured that multiple receiving centers have the seller's inventory, and the transaction success rate will be much higher than before. "

Amazon search box is more precise, product prices, attributes, etc. will pop up

Not only have the ranking search rules changed, but the Amazon search bar is now more precise.

Not long ago, several Amazon sellers said that when searching for keywords on Amazon, the search box will provide some segmented options based on the keywords, including product specifications , product attributes, prices , etc.

For example, if you search for "table", options for tables of different sizes will pop up below the search box, accurate to every inch.

This requires sellers to describe product information more carefully in the listing keywords, because consumers can directly find the products they want from the search box. With a more accurate customer base, the seller's transaction success rate will also be greatly improved.

However, as soon as this change occurred, it disrupted a lot of operations.

Jerry said, "As soon as the company found out about this, they checked and changed the listings overnight. The order volume was average to begin with, and we couldn't let it be affected by these things that we could do."

As for whether this change has affected store traffic, Jerry said it is hard to say, "Because our store traffic and order volume have fluctuated greatly in recent times, it is hard to judge whether this search box change has had any impact."

Compared with the previous search that would pop up all results containing keywords, this change makes the traffic more accurate. For Amazon, this preliminary screening step will greatly improve consumer favorability, but for sellers, this may not be a good thing.

The search change mentioned above also includes price reminders. When searching for "phone", the search box will pop up a specific price range.

For consumers, price often affects whether they browse and buy. If it is not within their budget, they may not pay attention to it at the beginning. In addition, low prices are always more attractive than high prices.

“How many buyers don’t like low-priced products? The lower the price, the higher it ranks in the search box, and the more buyers it matches . Traffic will increase, and there will be exposure. With so many people coming in, there will definitely be some successful transactions. It is not friendly to products with higher prices. ”

In addition, Jerry also said, " Showing prices will exacerbate internal competition . Some peers are happy to engage in low-price wars, which not only makes no money but also destroys the industry's ethos. "

However, according to Yien.com, not all categories are able to accurately pop up relevant options. Currently, the categories that have adapted to this change are those with obvious product specifications, such as tables, shoe racks, bookshelves, computer desks, garden sofas, etc.; the mobile phone category will also pop up price ranges; the vast majority of categories are still unable to provide accurate search information.

The more accurate the search, the less time consumers need to spend. In the long run, consumers will have a better shopping experience. For sellers, this change has more detailed requirements for product target customers, product selection, listing writing , etc. , and will also have a certain impact on product traffic and sales.

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