It’s the season of trick and treats but for Amazon sellers, it’s the busiest time of year of the year. Amidst the hustle and bustle of Q4, it’s easy for sellers to miss out on the important updates Amazon makes to is advertising console, Seller Central dashboard, policies and guidelines and more. Continue reading our monthly updates blog to catch up on all the Amazon updates, news and happenings.
#1: Sponsored display launches bid recommendations
Eliminate the guesswork. Amazon has introduced machine learning-powered bid recommendations sponsored ad bid recommendations CPC-based Sponsored Display product targeting or views remarketing campaign. The bid suggestions are updated daily, based on the increase or decrease in competing bids and ads in each auction. If you are unsure of what bid to apply to a keyword, you can either ask your Amazon marketing consultants or use Amazon’s suggested bids because you’re more likely to deliver an impression in the detail pages.
Where is the feature available?
North America: United States, Canada
Europe: Germany, Spain, France, Italy, United Kingdom
Middle East: United Arab Emirates
Asia Pacific: Japan
#2: Dynamic segments launched for sponsored display product targeting
Sponsored display now features dynamic segments such as Similar to Advertised Products for Sponsored Display product targeting campaigns. With these segments, advertisers and PPC experts can leverage machine learning and reach relevant audiences on detail pages of similar and complementary products. Launch campaigns more effectively and create product consideration.
Where is the feature available?
North America: United States, Canada
Europe: Germany, Spain, France, Italy, United Kingdom, Netherlands
Middle East: United Arab Emirates
Asia Pacific: Australia, Japan, India
#3: Measure brand awareness with top-of-search impression share
Know how effective your campaign is in driving brand awareness with the top-of-search impression share (top of search IS) metric. The metric shows the percentage of top-of-search impressions your campaign received from the total top-of-search impressions it was eligible to serve on. The metric is now available for Sponsored Brand and Sponsored Product campaigns. To increase the top-of-search impression share, adjust bids by placement and improve the chance of serving impressions at the top-of-search.
Where is the feature available?
North America: United States, Canada, Mexico
South America: Brazil
Europe: Germany, Spain, France, Italy, United Kingdom
Middle East: Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates
Asia Pacific: Australia, India, Japan, Singapore
#4: Amazon introduces three mandatory ASIN attributes
Effective October 26, 2021, Amazon has introduced the following three mandatory attributes for listings created one at a time or in bulk:
- Net Content: A new attribute set for eight Product Types
- Item Form: A previously optional attribute that will become mandatory for 86 Product Types
- Number of Items: A previously optional attribute that will become mandatory for 154 Product Types
With these changes, all ASINs for select Product Types must have these attributes populated when you submit new ASINs or update existing ASINs. If you or your Amazon SEO expert fail to populate these mandatory attributes, they won’t be able to create any new selection creation in the relevant Product Types after October 26, 2021.
#5: New returns performance dashboard
Manage holiday returns effectively with the returns performance dashboard. Before the launch of the returns performance dashboard, there wasn’t a single tool that could help sellers monitor returns
The dashboard includes a section for each of the three returns performance metrics:
- Approved return requests in less than 24 hours
- Total return requests that are declined
- Return-related buyer contact rate
#6: Now, you can add a custom image in sponsored brand ads
Amazon sellers can now add a customer image to their Amazon Sponsored Brands ads for mobile. Sponsored Brand ads are an effective way to build awareness and improve brand recall. Up until now, advertisers could only add a brand logo and a tagline, but with a custom image, they can encourage customers to engage with the brand. The custom image should show your brand story or product in use. It cannot be a brand logo or product-in-white image and neither should it include any text in the top.
In Amazon’s words, “A custom image is not just a product shot on a solid background or the product image from the product detail page, and it is not a standalone brand logo. The image must meet Amazon standards for appropriateness, and make sense in context with the rest of the ad (the headline, logo, landing page, and products).”
Amazon recommended custom image size: 1200 x 628 pixels, under 1 MB and in PNG, JPEG, or GIF file format.
#7: Amazon extends holiday returns period yet again
The retail giant has extended its return policy for a second year. Items purchased between October 1, 2021, and December 31 will be eligible to be returned till 2021, January 31, 2022, to return items they purchase. Amazon, in its official announcement, said, “The Amazon Extended Holiday Returns Policy for 2021 requires that most of the items purchased between October 1, 2021, and December 31, 2021, be eligible for return through January 31, 2022. This is an annual, temporary extension of the standard return window. Although the return window for most orders is extended, return eligibility for all orders remains the same. You can see return eligibility for each category on our Returns Help page.”
However, sellers did not look very happy about the extended return policy. One of the sellers who reacted to the announcement said, “OH GOOD … I can’t wait to get all my Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas costumes and decorations back on January 31st.”
#8: Sponsored Display enables Creative Editing
Advertisers can now add or edit their headlines, logos or custom product images for existing Sponsored Display ad campaigns. Adding images, headlines and logo builds brand awareness and helps you better tell your brand story. What’s great about this update is that instead of rolling out this feature for new campaigns, Amazon has allowed advertisers to make edits to their existing campaigns.
Where is the feature available?
North America: United States, Canada, Mexico
South America: Brazil
Europe: Germany, Spain, France, Italy, Netherland, United Kingdom
Middle East: United Arab Emirates
Asia Pacific: Australia, India, Japan
#9: Sponsored Display new-to-brand metrics available for product targeting and audiences
New-to-brand metrics are now available for Sponsored Display product targeting and audiences to advertisers. New-to-brand metrics help you to measure product orders and sales generated from first-time customers. Leveraging these metrics, advertisers can create future marketing strategies and drive customer acquisition and brand loyalty. This feature is especially useful for Sponsored Display ad campaigns because, as per Amazon, Sponsored Display audience campaigns on average see up to 82% of sales driven by new-to-brand customers. An order will be considered new to brand if the shopper hasn’t purchased from your brand in the past 12 months.
Where is the feature available?
North America: United States, Canada, Mexico
Europe: Germany, Spain, France, Italy, United Kingdom, Netherlands
Middle East: United Arab Emirates
Asia Pacific: Japan, India, Australia
#10: Amazon Launches in Egypt
On September 1st, 2021, Amazon launched in Egypt. Amazon launched Saudi Arabia in June 2020 and the United Arab Emirates in May 2019. The launch of Amazon in Egypt is replacing a localized Souq.com store. Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) service is already available in Egypt, but Prime is not available yet. Egypt is the smallest market launched by Amazon yet. According to Marketplace Pulse, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates websites combines to represent less than 1% of Amazon’s total web visitors while 80% comes from other bigger markets, including the U.S., Japan, Germany, the U.K., and India.
#11: Sell to NZ customers on Amazon.com.au – MFN Exports to NZ
Amazon Australia sellers can now sell to millions of shoppers in New Zealand from their Amazon AU store. Sellers can ship their products directly to NZ through the Exports to NZ program.
You can set up a new International Shipping template in your Seller Central account, if you haven’t already, and assign all your export-eligible SKUs that you wish to make available for NZ customers. Just go to Settings > Shipping Settings > Create New Shipping Template. Under International Shipping you can create your new shipping template for the NZ region by selecting the transit time and shipping fee for both standard and expedited and clicking “Save”. You need to then assign the SKUs you want to export to NZ to the newly created shipping template.
Here is why you should sell to NZ customers:
According to Amazon, over the past three months, sellers that made at least one export sale to NZ customers experienced an average increase in sales of 10.7% since participating in NZ Exports.
Staying updated is as easy as reading monthly updates blogs
There are so many updates going on within the Amazon ecosystem every day; it’s hard to keep up. But with our monthly updates blog, you can stay on top of all Amazon developments and changes. Every month we round up the most essential and need-to-know updates for and relating to Amazon sellers. Check-in here every month and catch up on what’s making news on Amazon lately.
There’s more. Amazon Consultants at eStore Factory collect all the need-to-know updates that concern you as a seller and we post them on our Amazon Seller News page. Bookmark this page and return every week to stay updated.