RESOURCES

June flew by and we are already well into July, the month that holds the internet’s largest online shopping event – Amazon Prime Day! Here at Marketplace Strategy, that’s a major holiday. And this year, it is more exciting than ever because Prime Day is not only one day—it’s a 72 hour event! We’ve been busy gearing up all of our accounts for the big event and ensuring everyone’s Lightning Deals, advertising and promotions are ready to go.

Key Industry Happenings & Platform Updates

• Prime Wardrobe, Amazon’s own personalized shopping experience, officially launched in June after being in beta since last summer. The shopper picks at least 3 items from Amazon to fill their box and has a week to try on and return before being charged. Rather than focus on stylists and algorithmic clothing recommendations like some of its competitors, Amazon is utilizing their superior fulfillment and returns infrastructure to allow the consumer to try, buy or return as much as they want at no cost. Amazon is putting a big focus on this new platform with Prime Wardrobe landing pages sorted by category, style, occasion with other features like editor’s picks, blogger recommendations, and brand spotlights. This is another big step in increasing discovery on Amazon. Read more here.

•  In a new study by RichRelevance, it was found that 30% of US internet users have searched for or purchased a product via a voice assistant (Google Assistant was used most, followed by Apple Siri, followed by Amazon Alexa). This number seems impressively large to us, but the search also found that roughly 63% of people do not trust any voice assistants to get voice-assisted shopping right. Although the trust might not be there yet, the need for brands to be present in voice search results is growing in importance as devices increase and user search habits evolve. Check out more of the survey results from the study here.

• Amazon is on pace to increase its share of overall US digital ad revenue from 2.7% to 4.5% this year, slowly but surely whittling away at the duopoly (Google and Facebook). So far this year, Amazon has made some big advancements that are fueling growth, including: the introduction of new retargeting tools, expansion of their advertising teams and agency partnerships, as well as opening up access to their Amazon Ad Platform (AAP) which connects advertisers to display and video inventory outside of Amazon (we have access if you are interested in checking it out!). But, one of the biggest reasons Amazon’s ad growth is skyrocketing is their compelling pitch to brands: by combining media with retail, they are now able to truly provide a view into the full funnel, from discovery to purchase. Here are some interesting thoughts on Amazon's plan to dominate advertising.

Great design inspiration we’ve found recently:

• Vita Coco Product Images
• Unique Way to Use The Cross Sell Feature to sell categories instead of products
• Coffee-mate’s New Product Detail Pages (MPS designed!)

A few of our top blogs from the month:

• If You Missed the May Newsletter, you can read it here.
• Guide to Keyword Strategy on Amazon
• Enhanced Brand Content Gets an Enhancement
• Transitioning your Branding to Amazon