Amazon is a fast-changing marketplace and undeniably a powerful force in ecommerce. As we kickstart 2020, Amazon has seen many updates already, with changes to their Amazon Advertising setup, globalisation of the marketplace and improved law enforcement of counterfeit products.
Here are six of the latest updates and news from the world of Amazon from January 2020.
#1 – New Manchester Office!
Amazon have just opened a new 600 person office in Manchester’s Northern Quarter, which will be made up of software development engineers, solutions architects, applied scientists, business development specialists and finance analysts. Amazon’s UK Country Manager, Doug Gurr, says “Manchester offers an incredible talent pool, a thriving hub of fast-growing UK tech start-ups and is a centre of academic and intellectual excellence.”
#2 – Improved Amazon Advertising Reports
Amazon Advertising reports have become a whole lot more insightful. Previously restricted to the past 90 days, Campaign Reports can now be downloaded with all data back to 1 April 2018, which can be segmented by day, week, month or quarter. This dramatically reduces reliance on the Amazon Advertising API or third party tools for reporting over longer date ranges.
#3 – Product Targeting for Sponsored Brands
Product Targeting for Sponsored Brands has reached the UK. Previously only available to Sponsored Products Ads, the ability to target categories and products rather than just keywords is now available for Sponsored Brands Ads. This follows recent changes including the availability of search term reports for Sponsored Brands as well as negative keywords. While it has hit the US first, video options for Sponsored Brands also appear to be on the way, along with custom images.
#4 – Investment in Indian Businesses
Bezos has come under fire in a recent visit to India, and the Competition Commission of India recently began an anti-trust investigation. Amazon will invest what seems to be a $1B USD olive branch to help bring Indian businesses online, in a rapidly growing ecommerce market set to reach $120B in revenue this year.
#5 – Crackdown on Counterfeit Products
In the never-ending war against counterfeits on the platform, Amazon will now more actively inform law enforcement across the US and Europe when it confirms a counterfeit product has been sold. It wouldn’t be outrageous to speculate that Nike’s recent departure from the platform might have influenced this shift, as one of their biggest challenges was the high volume of counterfeit products being sold.
#6 – Amazon Fashion Platform?
Amazon are planning a luxury fashion platform. This platform is reported to operate more like a concession within a department store, with brands having a store within the store that they will have far more control over compared to selling on Amazon. Reportedly they have 12 brands lined up for a US only launch before expanding internationally.
Amazon Marketing
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