Amazon launches new features, sellers’ sales will increase!

In April, many sellers experienced a decline in orders, and the decline has continued recently. However, Amazon's new feature Creator Connections is expected to help sellers increase sales, increase exposure, and accelerate the promotion of new products. Some sellers have already seen the function entrance in their backends .

To continue to boost the number of orders, Amazon will hold Pet Day 2024. Pet food, toys, clothing, pet care, home products and other products will be hot-selling, and sellers in this category are expected to usher in explosive orders. At the same time, the Member Day promotion activities are being reported in North America and other sites. With the grand occasion of last year's collective explosion of orders, sellers are enthusiastic about this year's promotion.

At the same time, platforms such as SHEIN and Temu have risen rapidly, the cross-border landscape has become more diversified, and sellers have begun to explore new sales channels. Research data shows that 20% of Temu and SHEIN sellers also sell on Amazon. The overlap of sellers and products on these platforms is increasing, and Amazon's market position has been impacted.

Amazon launches new features, sales are about to take off

Recently, Amazon has launched a new sales feature. Open the Amazon backend, in the Brand Content of the advertising interface, some accounts have added a new "Creator Connections" entrance, which will become a shortcut for sellers to increase sales and quickly launch new products.

According to informed sellers, Creator Connections (content creator program) was already in beta testing in domestic U.S. stores last year, and Chinese stores also began beta testing this feature in January this year. Currently, many stores have entry points to the feature, and sellers can check it in the background.

Sellers with US company accounts said that the Creator Connections feature is currently displayed directly in the backend , but Chinese accounts may need to apply. One seller said that the store did not have this feature, but after opening a case and asking customer service, it was successfully activated ; another seller just applied for the feature, hoping to clear out inventory during Mother's Day.

Amazon introduces Creator Connections as follows: Increase sellers’ product visibility and sales by connecting with leading content creators in the Amazon Alliance.

The pioneer sellers reported the usage: create a campaign , provide information such as brand introduction and product advantages , name the campaign , set a suitable commission and publish it. Interested affiliates will contact the seller after seeing it. One campaign can reach 200 affiliates, but only one ASIN can be added. Sellers can publish more to reach more.

This feature has two major advantages:

1. The commission ratio can be set independently, and influencers are highly motivated to bring goods

Although Amazon previously provided a promotion channel, Amazon Alliance, when sellers promoted through Alliance influencers, they did not know the data such as clicks, conversions, and commissions, and could not accurately judge the promotion effect. In addition, since the commission was generally low at around 3%, influencers were not very enthusiastic about promotion, and it was difficult for sellers to match high-quality influencers. The new function solves these pain points.

Using the Creator Connections feature, sellers can freely set the commission rate, with the lowest commission rate being 1% and no upper limit. This means that if sellers offer a higher commission rate, such as 10%, they are likely to attract high-quality influencers to bring goods and increase sales. Sellers who participated in the internal testing of the feature revealed that with the help of this feature, sales increased by hundreds of thousands of dollars a year.

Sellers can also track key performance indicators such as click-through rate, sales, and revenue. Clicking on the hyperlink to a campaign will bring you to the campaign dashboard.

2. Sellers can use this to accumulate talent resources

Off-site promotion is a very laborious job: high-quality influencers cannot be contacted, and the quality of promotion resources delivered to the door is uneven. Sellers often spend money on promotion but the effect is poor, and the relevant service providers shirk responsibility or even turn their backs on them.

Through campaigns , sellers can chat with influencers to establish connections, and can also view influencers’ homepages and contact information through the event page, and accumulate resources such as review websites, Facebook groups, YouTube influencers, etc. For influencers with good promotion effects, follow-up cooperation can be carried out.

In terms of applicable products, this new feature can be used to promote new products, activate old products, or handle redundant inventory. Some categories, such as adult products, cannot use in-site advertising, but this feature can also be used to start celebrity promotion to increase exposure.

Last month, Amazon revised its coupon usage rules, requiring that products with a sales record be offered coupons to customers , and that the promotional price be lower than the historical price or the lowest price in the recent past. The threshold for promoting new products has been raised, and the sellers' common practice of raising prices and offering larger coupons has also been stopped. Sellers analyzed that the emergence of Creator Connections is timely and can be used for the cold activation of new products.

In terms of cost-effectiveness, this feature is paid for by effect, which is also very user-friendly. Seller @Jerry who doesn't understand Amazon gave an example:

If you create a campaign for a product ($50 MSRP ) with a $3,000 campaign budget and a 10% commission rate for up to 10 creators, then when Creator A makes 10 qualifying sales, they will earn $50, leaving you with a remaining budget of $2,950.

On the project details page, sellers can see a summary of information such as pending activities, completed activities, and rejected activities, all at a glance.

How is it used in the industry? One seller revealed that he has been using it for more than a month and it is very helpful for low-priced products, but the effect is not good for high-priced products. A seller of high-priced products said that his products are priced at several hundred US dollars. After enabling this function, many "experts" came to him and asked him to send samples.

The popular categories participating in the Creator Connections event are closely related to Amazon's popular categories , including travel accessories ,

Fashion , toys , electronics , crafts , personal care products , etc.

Before using the new function, sellers need to confirm whether the product is suitable. Some professionals have made an inventory from several aspects:

1. Product Reviews

If you have recently launched a new product , or have limited reviews on your Amazon product page, the Content Creator Program will be a great addition to your marketing strategy. Note that you need to ask creators to purchase the product on Amazon, rather than sending the product directly to the creator to get a product review .

2. Brand Awareness

Since you can't turn away creators once your campaign is launched, your campaign will have a large number of micro- influencers . These smaller influencers are usually good at generating views and exposure, but tend to bring in less revenue. However, there is strength in numbers , and you can get a lot of exposure through the large number of creators that the platform attracts.

3. Amazon Live

Amazon Creator Connections is the only way to work directly with Amazon Live influencers and get paid on a cost-per-performance basis.

In addition, sellers need to consider some additional factors: Is your product attractive to a wider audience ? If the product does not have broad appeal, the applicants for the event will be very limited ; ensure that there is enough inventory to meet the needs of influencers and buyers. It is very important to strike a balance between promotional samples and sales inventory . Promotions are paid for results, and product shortages will bring negative experiences to creators and customers. More importantly, sellers should evaluate product profit margins to ensure that providing samples and commissions to influencers will not have an adverse impact on their own profitability.

This feature of Amazon allows sellers to find a large number of influencers to promote their products and accumulate influencer resources, which has also made some promoters feel a sense of crisis. "If the company has a promotion position, will this position be no longer needed after the creator mode is released?" However, it seems that the influencers in Amazon's resource pool are still limited and can be used as one of the promotion channels, but more influencer resources still need to be contacted and developed by promoters.

Amazon conducts promotional activities to boost sales

Since the beginning of this year, many sellers have seen a decline in sales or profits compared to the same period last year, or even a decline in both. To boost sales, Amazon has held several promotional events in succession.

In March, Amazon held its first spring promotion in North America, and the European site also held it at the same time. Because it was the first spring promotion, sellers in North America were not optimistic about the effect of the event and were not very enthusiastic about participating. But judging from the results, the promotion was effective. The 2024 Amazon Spring Promotion Survey data released by Momentum Commerce showed that Amazon's US site sales increased by 5.9% compared with the same period in 2023, twice the 2.9% increase last month. Among them, sales of seasonal categories such as patios, lawns and gardens increased the most compared with previous weeks.

Next month, Amazon will hold another sale.

( Photo source /Amazon )

Amazon Pet Day 2024 will be held from May 7 to 8, when the US site will launch a 48-hour discount event on pet products and supplies, and thousands of products from multiple brands will be sold at special prices. The Amazon Pet Sale page will provide coupons, Lightning Deals, etc., with discounts ranging from 10% to more than 70%. Buyers can choose pet food, toys, clothing, pet care, home products, electronic products and other products.

During the event, sellers can increase advertising budgets and keyword bids , contact internet celebrities for off-site promotion to increase exposure, and provide discounts and promotions for products through flash sales , Prime exclusive discounts, social media promotions, and setting coupons to expand sales.

On April 23, early Pet Day discounts have been launched, with discounts of 30% to 40% on some products from brands such as Beneful and Active Pets. Products participating in the early discounts include pet food, toys and clothing, pet supplies and accessories (dog car seat covers, no-pull dog leashes, cat beds), pet cleaning and grooming products (hair removers, grooming kits, cat litter, etc.), electronic products (self-cleaning cat litter boxes, automatic cat feeders), etc.

Due to the fluctuations in the economic environment, consumer purchasing power has been suppressed to a certain extent. Therefore, some sellers still have high expectations for this category-exclusive event, hoping for a small boom.

What will be launched next is the annual Member Day promotion.

At present, the promotion activity submission of each site is in progress. For the North American site, the submission window for Prime Member Day Flash Sale and Prime Exclusive BD is: March 19 to May 3 for the US site, and March 19 to May 17 for the Canadian site; Prime exclusive discounts have been launched on April 17, and the FBA warehouse entry deadline is June 20. (All are local time of the site)

For other sites, the submission deadline for Prime exclusive limited-time offers, Prime exclusive flash sales, and Prime exclusive Best Deals on the Japanese site is mid-May; for Japanese IXD/AIX sellers and suppliers, and FC sellers and suppliers, the FBA warehousing deadline and warehouse transportation deadline are both in early July.

For sellers in the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, Poland, Sweden, and Belgium, the deadline for submitting Prime exclusive limited-time offers, Prime exclusive flash sales, and Prime exclusive Best Deals is mid-May; the FBA warehousing deadline and warehouse transportation deadline are both in late June.

To ensure smooth participation in the Member Day promotion, sellers should submit activities in a timely manner, ship as early as possible, and deliver the goods to the Amazon operation center before the deadline.

In 2023, Amazon's Prime Day sales hit a new high. During the promotion, Prime members purchased more than 375 million items worldwide, and third-party sellers' sales growth exceeded that of Amazon's own business. Many sellers saw their orders increase by more than five times, and experienced the feeling of receiving thousands of orders a day during this promotion. It is not difficult to imagine that this year's Prime Day promotion will have many participants.

Seeking new growth, 20% of Temu and SHEIN sellers also sell on Amazon

Although Amazon has taken many actions to optimize the experience of both buyers and sellers, such as launching new features, adjusting pages, and organizing promotional activities, overall, the competition on the platform is becoming increasingly fierce, and the cost is increasing, which makes it more difficult for sellers to operate and reduces their profits. Some Amazon sellers have begun to explore new sales channels, with the popular SHEIN and Temu becoming the first choice, and other platforms have also come into view.

Temu

As inflation intensifies, American consumers are increasingly turning to Chinese e-commerce platform Temu to meet their shopping needs. With strong marketing and attractive shopping slogans, Temu has become the number one shopping app in the Apple App Store, surpassing Amazon, Target and Walmart, which ranked third, fourth and eighth respectively. Apptopia's analysis shows that the average user usage time of Temu app is 7-8 minutes longer than that of competitors such as Amazon and eBay.

Amazon's position is challenged. Compared with FBA delivery, the goods purchased from Temu are shipped from China and are expected to arrive within 10 days. In order to compete with Amazon's fast delivery, Temu opened its market to domestic warehouses in the United States last month. Shopping from these sellers can greatly shorten the delivery time and further improve the user experience on the basis of high cost performance.

As of April 23, Temu semi-hosting has been launched in nine countries, including the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Germany, France, Italy, and Spain, covering sites in major developed countries. Sellers with overseas warehouses have reaped the first wave of benefits.

Most of the sellers who can meet Temu's semi-managed logistics requirements are mature sellers who have worked on platforms such as Amazon for many years. Minsheng Securities analyzed that these sellers joined Temu for two reasons: on the one hand, Temu's traffic was booming and it was seen as a new sales channel; on the other hand, sellers used Temu as a clearance channel to clear out the backlog of inventory on other platforms such as Amazon at a break-even price, and combined multi-platform promotions to achieve long-term sales booms.

According to Marketplace Pulse’s research, about 20% of sellers on the Temu platform also sell on Amazon, and there is a high degree of overlap in the products of the two platforms, proving that Temu has shaken Amazon’s position to a certain extent.

Temu's impact has also spread offline. Although its actual share of the U.S. retail market is still small, in the discount store category, Temu already occupied nearly 17% of the market share in November last year, surpassing the dollar chain Five Below (8%) and closely following Dollar Tree (28%). Researchers believe that Temu's low prices for household goods and consumer staples make it a greater threat to physical discount stores such as dollar stores. Discount stores such as Dollar Tree have announced large-scale store closures and layoffs.

SHEIN

Not only Temu, but also platforms such as SHEIN are accelerating to seize market share. In 2023, SHEIN downloads increased by 47%, exceeding 250 million times, the company's annual GMV was about 45 billion US dollars, and its profit reached more than 2 billion US dollars. It is expected that in 2025, its GMV will increase to 80.6 billion US dollars.

The overlap of sellers on Amazon, Walmart, Temu and SHEIN platforms is accelerating. At least 20% of SHEIN sellers also sell on Amazon, and more than 50% of new sellers on Amazon and Walmart in March came from China, many of whom have already joined or are about to join SHEIN and Temu.

In terms of price, due to Amazon's indirect price comparison requirements, sellers usually sell at the same price on Amazon and Walmart. Temu and Shein platforms have lower fees, so sellers can sell at lower prices. Although the delivery speed is not as fast as two-day delivery, it still cannot stop their market size from expanding. In terms of product categories, the overlap between the two and Amazon is also increasing, and sellers can develop their businesses on several platforms at the same time.

OTTO

Under the diversified pattern of cross-border e-commerce, sellers are more willing to develop new channels. For example, Zhiou Technology successfully expanded platforms such as SHEIN, TikTok, and Mercado Libre last year, and entered the US offline channel Hobby Lobby.

New channels are expected to contribute to growth. Zhiou Technology said that the company's fastest growing third-party platforms other than Amazon, such as the German supermarket platform OTTO, have become the company's second largest B2C channel platform. In addition, the independent website has grown well, but the overall revenue is not high. The products sold on the independent website tend to be medium and large items, and the average customer price is higher. This channel is more conducive to the company's serialized display of products, and customers may buy multiple products at one time.

The OTTO platform mentioned in the article has recently gained popularity in the cross-border industry. It is the largest online retail e-commerce platform in Germany, with products covering multiple categories such as fashion, household goods, home appliances, electronic products, sports goods, and beauty products; OTTO is also the largest furniture and household goods e-commerce platform in Germany, covering about 45% of German households, and ranks second among the global comprehensive B2C platforms.

In terms of market layout, Europe and the United States are still the main markets for cross-border e-commerce. Zhiou introduced that the company's development focus is expected to remain on Europe and the United States, where the market is relatively prominent in terms of scale and consumption capacity, especially the US market, where the company's penetration rate still has a lot of room for improvement. The growth rate of other emerging markets is also very good, but the sales contribution will not be that high.

Competition in cross-border e-commerce is becoming increasingly fierce. Zhiou Technology believes that it is becoming increasingly difficult for small sellers to do business. Due to the lack of competitive advantages, small sellers cannot completely compete with homogeneity through low prices. But overall, the cross-border e-commerce market is becoming larger and larger, and more and more domestic companies are going overseas, which will further increase the overall market share.