Amazon is ever-changing. From rolling out Diagnostics tool to troubleshoot PPC campaigns to increasing FBA fees for the year 2022, the eCommerce behemoth has constantly been making tweaks to make it easier for the sellers to sell and the shoppers to buy. Sometimes amidst the chaos and the hustle, it can be difficult to keep up which is why we have brought our monthly updates blog. Read on and stay updated.
#1: Sponsored Display audiences expands with purchases remarketing and custom lookback windows
Amazon has expanded Sponsored Display’s custom-built audiences with “purchases remarketing” to drive repeat purchases and cultivate brand loyalty. The purchases remarketing strategy helps advertisers reach audiences based on historical purchase behaviors. Along with this launch, Amazon has also added customizable “lookback windows” for both views and purchases remarketing audiences. With these new updates, advertisers and Amazon SEO consultants are now better equipped to encourage repeat purchases using Sponsored Display.
#2: Amazon expands Responsive Ecommerce Creative (REC) features
Amazon has expanded Responsive eCommerce Creative (REC) customization features so advertisers can add their own images to supported placements and edit the product title in the ad copy. Until now, the default auto-generated images and ad product titles were pulled directly from the product detail page. But with this new feature, advertisers can adapt their messaging and advertising look and feel to the specific needs of their campaign.
Where is the feature available?
North America: United States, Canada, Mexico
South America: Brazil
Europe: Germany, Spain, France, Italy, Netherland, United Kingdom
Middle East: Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates
Asia Pacific: Australia, India, Japan
#3: Troubleshoot your Amazon PPC ad campaigns with the Diagnostics Tool
Know what’s affecting your Sponsored Products ads and campaigns with the Diagnostics tool. Advertisers can diagnose and troubleshoot issues by selecting the campaign from the pre-populated drop-down menu and just in a few seconds; they can see the issues affecting the campaign’s delivery. The Diagnostics tool will also give you detailed information and steps to fix the problem. This saves a lot of time and eliminates the need to contact support. Advertisers can quickly and independently resolve issues. In addition to technical problems, the Diagnostics tool also identifies optimization opportunities.
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
#4: Measure brand marketing impact with Amazon Brand Lift
Amazon Brand Lift helps advertisers identify how their ad campaigns are driving marketing objectives such as awareness, purchase intent, and ad recall. It offers an easy, insightful, private-safe way to measure the impact of upper and mid-funnel campaigns. The reports and data in Brand Lift provide valuable insights, such as how much your campaigns have impacted the percentage of shoppers who report being aware of a brand or interested in purchasing from a brand.
Where is the feature available?
North America: United States
Where do I access it?
Amazon DSP Amazon Advertising API
#5: Create cross-country sponsored products campaigns at once
Advertisers in the US, Canada, and Mexico can now create Sponsored Products auto-targeting campaigns for one or multiple countries in one go. Before the launch of this update, advertisers and Amazon PPC experts were required to manually create separate campaigns in each country which was time taking. The campaign settings for budgets, bids, and advertised products can be localized for each country.
Where is the feature available?
North America: Canada, United States, Mexico
#6: FBA fee changes 2022
On November 16, 2022, Amazon announced a hike in fees starting from January 2022. The fee hikes is one of the ways to recover the loss Amazon has faced during the pandemic. Amazon said, “Throughout the pandemic, we have worked to support you—postponing and keeping fee changes low, reducing or eliminating select fees like those for customer returns, and absorbing billions of dollars in increased costs on your behalf.” There are changes in numerous services, including the following:
- Launch of dim-weight pricing for large standard-size products excluding apparel
- Higher monthly off-peak storage fees
- Increase in removal and disposal fees (liquidation fees will remain unchanged)
- Increase in FBA Prep Service fees
- Introduction of a tiered rate structure for long-term storage fees
Read the full announcement on Amazon’s News page to know the exact changes in the fees.
#7: New ways for shoppers to follow brands on Amazon
In an attempt to make the shopping experience of its customer social media-esque, Amazon has rolled out the “follow” button –across Amazon seller storefront, Posts, and Amazon Live. According to Amazon, this can help shoppers connect with the brands and know about the latest deals the brands have to offer when they visit their Amazon homepage. Shoppers also get mobile notifications when a brand is about to stream on Amazon Live. When a customer decides to “follow” a brand, it helps foster long-term, loyal connections. Amazon says that there are more than 20 million Follow relationships between shoppers and brands in their store. All brands that have a Store on Amazon will automatically be enrolled in Brand Follow.
Follower Count is available within Store Insights and Posts Publisher.
#8: Returns performance dashboard now available
Returns performance dashboard helps proactively manage and handle returns. After the holiday season, sellers face a wave of returns and this is exactly what they need to efficiently monitor their returns performance. Amazon announced the launch of the returns performance dashboard about a month ago and now it’s finally rolled out and available to sellers. The returns performance dashboard focuses on the following metrics:
- Return requests approved after 24 hours
- Return requests that are declined by the seller
- Return-related buyer contact rate
Amazon has also launched Returns Analysis page, which helps you to identify and take action on any product listings that experience return issues.
One of the things that triggered sellers is “Return Requests Declined: Target = under 2%”. One of the sellers letting out his frustration, said, “This sounds like another case of “yeah, this metric was rushed, and may have issues, but we won’t penalize you for our logic flaws until later, and but we aren’t ever going to read 3PS comments here to decide what needs fixing. If it results in our customers getting more of your money through our failures, they aren’t failures.”
#9: Update on sending inventory for the holidays (for USA only)
We are into Q4 and sellers are busier than ever. Running out of inventory in Q4 is probably the worst nightmare for any Amazon seller. If you are an FBA seller, make sure you plan your inventory in advance and create shipments, so it reaches the Amazon warehouse on time. Amazon recently announced that your inventory for the holiday season should arrive on December 2 to ensure that you have enough stock available for your most popular products. For more information, go to Key Dates For Amazon FBA Sellers 2021.
#10: Free returns on Fashion items for seller-fulfilled orders (for the USA only)
All seller-fulfilled offers on Fashion items are featuring a free return message. This means that FBM or SFP sellers will no longer be able to deduct the return shipping fee for Fashion items listed under Apparel, Shoes, Jewelry, and Watches in the USA marketplace. This has come as a shock to sellers as it would add to their costs and increase buyer frauds. Luckily this policy has only been applied to fashion items – at the moment. Whether the orders are fulfilled by Amazon or merchant, the retail giant wants its customers to have a consistent shopping experience.
To cope up with the increased costs, sellers can either increase their shipping charges or switch to FBA.
Staying updated is as easy as reading our blogs
There are so many updates 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. Our Amazon Consultants at eStore Factory collect all the need-to-know updates that affect you as a seller and we post them on our Amazon Seller News page. Bookmark this page and stay on top of everything.