Amazon Trends: How will the marketplace develop in the future?

Amazon trends and developments at a glance

In one of our last posts we met new features on eBay took a closer look. Now we should once again be concerned with the Amazon marketplace – and the question of how it will develop in the future. For quite a few retailers, Amazon is the most important channel, which is why developments in and around the corporate giant are likely to play an essential role in the strategic alignment of online companies. For this reason, in this article we look at the Amazon trends and developments that entrepreneurs will occupy in the medium and long term.

Amazon Trends: One thing is pretty clear

… namely that the group will continue to have a strong say in future developments in e-commerce. A world without Amazon? Hard to imagine nowadays. Since it was founded as an online bookstore in 1995, the US company has managed to push ahead and established industry giants from the throne in new business areas thanks to innovative solutions. According to statista.de Amazon is the most valuable e-commerce brand in the world, so it is clear what the giant is not lacking: resources. The financial possibilities are more than given so that Amazon can be an innovator for itself and an entire industry in the long term.

Amazon developments in the area of FBA

Fulfillment by Amazon, or FBA for short, is just one of the most diverse services that the marketplace operator offers its retailers. This is particularly interesting from the point of view of e-commerce newbies, as they do not have to set up their own logistics network first. Instead, they can use existing infrastructures and outsource order processing to Amazon. In principle, this will continue to be possible. The only question is whether and to what extent the service actually appears to be usable. In the past, one of the most consistent Amazon trends was that the company increased the fees for its services in various places. Of course, each increase makes FBA less attractive. This applies in particular to retailers who operate in the low price segment and are exposed to tough competitive pressure.

Reading tip: Learn how to use your Calculate FBA costs .

Apart from that, there will also be positive, primarily technological developments at Amazon. The group is constantly expanding its logistics network and is becoming more and more efficient in processing orders. In addition, Amazon promises to produce CO by 2040 2 -to want to become neutral. This goal alone requires technological changes that will affect the entire market. Traditional shipping service providers such as DHL, DPD & Co. also have to develop further if they do not want to lag behind Amazon’s developments.

Amazon trends in advertising: Sponsored Brands select SEA for Amazon

Amazon Advertising is a very dynamic area that has undergone a lot of changes in the recent past. These are also the ones that will permanently change the use of Amazon Ads.

This applies in particular to the so-called. Sponsered Brands . The feature initially went under the title in 2020 “Amazon Headline Search Ads” was launched and has enjoyed increasing popularity ever since. Sponsored Brands give you the opportunity to place personalized advertisements with your logo, a slogan and up to 3 product extensions. The advertisements are paid for according to a PPC (Pay-Per-Click) model.

As the use of sponsored brands increases, more brands will be registered on Amazon than registration in the Amazon Brand Registry is a prerequisite for using the sponsored brands; as a non-registered brand, the scope for action with regard to SEA is rather limited.

Presumably, there will be a trend at Amazon SEA that can already be observed on other SEA channels, such as Google Ads: a price increase. The more dealers who use the feature, the more bidders there are for individual keywords and categories, which in turn drives up prices. It is all the more important that companies precisely define their goals with Amazon SEA and use the existing budget as efficiently as possible.

Reading tip: Amazon Brand Registry and Sponsored Brands are exciting options in terms of that Branding on marketplaces . More about this in our blog.

Amazon DSP: The next level of Amazon advertising

With Amazon DSP (Demand-Side-Platform), Amazon is taking the path towards programmic advertising. In terms of online marketing, this is still a relatively new discipline. On the basis of user data, advertising space is purchased in real time and advertising banners tailored to this are displayed.

The biggest difference to conventional Amazon Ads is that Amazon DSP is not limited to the marketplace, but ads can also appear outside of it. In this way, users are made aware of certain products much earlier. The payment model also differs from the sponsored ads above and follows a CPM (cost-per-mille) approach. This means that you are always billed after 1,000 impressions, whether clicks and purchases were made by DSP is irrelevant for the costs.

Its payment model makes the feature an Amazon trend that probably only affects large companies. The algorithm needs a lot of data to teach it in, which in turn means high upstream costs before the system has become established and the right customers are addressed.

Amazon Attribution: Google Analytics for the marketplace

Amazon Attribution could be an exciting Amazon development for all those who try to attract buyers to their Amazon presence through a wide variety of channels. Attribution is something like the Amazon counterpart to Google Analytics, which shows the performance of social media, video or other campaigns and provides information about which product pages users find particularly interesting – and how they ended up on them. This makes the tool particularly interesting for professional dealers and agencies who want to conduct performance marketing as efficiently as possible.

Attribution is currently an Amazon trend in beta. However, the tool is already available for the German market and is now free of charge. As with sponsored ads, the prerequisite for use is a successful trademark registration.

Tools become the necessary standard equipment

In the long term, it is foreseeable that trading on Amazon will become more and more professional. Reasons for this are upcoming Amazon developments, new functions, but also the increasing competition within the marketplace.

In order to master these changes, you need suitable tools such as ERP systems, repricers and campaign optimizers that react to changes in the market and automatically make adjustments.

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Amazon SEO: An Amazon trend that actually isn’t one

Amazon likes what potential customers like as well. This has not only been the case for a short time. Nevertheless, the topic of Amazon SEO is getting more and more buoyant. The driver of this Amazon development is not the marketplace itself, but the increasing competition on it.

Companies want their products to attract attention (positively) among the majority of providers and consequently optimize their product information. This results in a win-win situation: while retailers get more visibility, the buyer enjoys clear images and detailed and, above all, credible texts. However, the increasing quality also leads to increased expectations: Amazon SEO becomes a hygiene factor. If you do not optimize your texts, you will not be able to build a successful Amazon business in the long term.

Reading tip: Amazon SEO stands closely with that Writing of product texts in connection. We have summarized all information on this topic for you in a blog post.

Seller = Vendor – at least when it comes to functions

Basically, there are two types of retailers at Amazon, seller and vendor. Sellers use the marketplace as a sales platform in the classic sense by offering their products to potential customers. In the case of vendors, it is not the end consumer, but Amazon itself that is the buyer of the products. We are therefore also talking about a first-party sale. Only those who receive an invitation to Vendor Central from the company become an Amazon Vendor. However, no invitation is required for Seller Central.

Perhaps the division between sellers and vendors will not be completely dissolved. For some time, however, it has been observed that Amazon is rolling out more and more functions for sellers that were previously only available to vendors. It is not to be expected that this Amazon trend will turn around in the near future. Rather, it seems to be the case that sellers are receiving more attention and, in perspective, more functions will be made usable for this group. To what extent this happens and which features this affects in detail, only the marketplace operator himself knows.

Amazon Trend Live Selling: More like something overseas?

With Amazon Live a feature is available to retailers that is reminiscent of the home shopping channels QVC and HSE24. Companies can use stream to advertise their products and showcase their advantages. In itself a great idea, since in e-commerce you naturally don’t have the opportunity to test a product before buying it. Depending on how interactive the stream is, interested parties could get in direct contact with the advertisers and, for example, ask questions about the product.

It is doubtful, however, whether so-called live selling will also be popular in this country. At least when it comes to fixed broadcasting times, we have our doubts as to whether these suit the taste of the European market. It is not for nothing that streaming platforms like NetFlix are so popular and able to overtake established TV channels, at least among the younger target group. It might look different if Amazon Live also offers a video-on-demand function. It is currently not known whether this will be the case. At the moment the feature is only available for the US market and is therefore more of a future trend.

An Amazon trend is leading away from the marketplace: multichannel and omnichannel

As nice and easy as it is to use marketplaces in general and Amazon in particular, more and more companies are positioning themselves more broadly and offering their products on multiple channels. So the multichannel became a buzzword of e-commerce, which is experiencing a further increase in the so-called omnichannel. The idea of multichannel as a sales strategy is only understandable, after all, common ERP systems make it possible to sell on a wide variety of platforms with just a few clicks. So why should you let this sales potential go unused? In addition, having your own online shop makes it much easier to tell a credible brand story and, apart from the legal framework, offers full freedom of design.

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Conclusion

The Amazon kitchen is seething. While some trending topics don’t really deserve the name, keyword Amazon SEO, the e-commerce group is pushing ahead powerfully elsewhere. Agencies and providers of professional Amazon tools are almost to be hoped that the US company will slow down a little and not throw one new feature after the other onto the market. Otherwise you run the risk of losing track of things.

In any case, Amazon cannot be accused of being tired of innovation. It is questionable whether every new feature will be accepted equally in this country. Especially with live selling, it depends a lot on the design. Other extensions such as Amazon Attribution and Amazon DSP, on the other hand, should arouse interest, especially among professional and larger retailers.

Frequently asked questions about Amazon Trends

Why follow Amazon trends?

For many retailers, Amazon is the most important channel – for some even the only one. In order to be successful in the marketplace in the long term, it is important to keep an eye on upcoming and current Amazon trends and to exhaust all possibilities for advertising, sales, order picking, etc.

What are exciting Amazon trends?

There are various areas that can rightly be described as Amazon Trends. In terms of the dynamics in terms of development, it is above all the SEA area with sponsored brands and Amazon DSP that is gaining enormous momentum. A real long-running topic, on the other hand, is Amazon SEO. With Amazon Live and Amazon Attribution, developments are in the starting blocks that offer retailers even more variety in order to draw attention to their products or to monitor results.

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