The top New Amazon Tools You May Be Missing in 2023
It’s 2023 and with almost 60% of Amazon products being sold by third-party sellers, the platform is continuing to release new selling features and advancements. Most business owners are familiar with popular Amazon services such as Fulfillment by Amazon or Amazon advertising campaigns. But there may be many other beneficial tools you’re not taking full advantage of as a seller. Here we’re breaking down the top new Amazon tools that you may be missing, and how they can enhance your eCommerce business.
brand story
The Brand Story feature on Amazon is a tool sellers can use to further highlight their brand on product pages. The Brand Story is what it sounds like, a service that allows sellers to tell their brand’s story. The Brand Story can be thought of as a supplement to your A+ content that allows you to provide your brand’s history, mission statement, and visual cues. Sellers can add things like a logo, brand carousel background image, brand description, and Q & A’s to the Brand Story. You can also highlight your most popular products and direct customers to your Stores page. With Brand Story, sellers can create multiple modules for shoppers to scroll through, creating a comprehensive customer experience.
Shoppers will find your brand story below the bullet points and above the A+ content and product description on your listing. The option to create a brand story can be found within the A+ Content Manager. The Brand Story feature was enhanced in 2022 to give sellers more formatting and design options to express their brands. The service is a simple way to further convey the look and feel of your brand to consumers and to get your message across. If there is more you want to include that is not already displayed within your A+ content, the Brand Story is a great feature to utilize. Amazon Brand Story is currently available to sellers who are registered with Amazon Brand Registry.
premium A+ content
You may have heard of A+ Content, but did you know that Amazon has an even more elite version known as Premium or A++ Content? This feature was typically only available to vendors at a high cost, but in 2022, Amazon allowed sellers to try it out for free during a promotional period. Now, if sellers meet the requirements, they can gain access to this exclusive program for free. You can be eligible for the program if you have published a Brand Story across your product catalog and have had at least 15 A+ content projects approved in the past year. Access to A++ content is granted at the end of each month. If you are approved, you will see a banner in the A+ content manager inviting you to join the program.
Some available features that come with A++ Content include integrated, high-quality videos up to 3 minutes in length, an interactive user experience using hotspot or carousal modules, and product pages that are voice-friendly and connect with the Alexa system. The tool also allows sellers to utilize the entire space of the product page and full width of the screen for content. Additionally, with A++ Content, sellers will have access to clickable Q & A’s, testimonials, and interactive graphics. Premium A+ Content provides a truly modernized and enhanced customer experience. Compared to standard A+ content, Premium A+ content is more focused on visuals and the aesthetic experience for the consumer. A++ Content is best for top brands that want to go the extra mile to give their customers a superior user experience.
amazon warehousing & Distribution Program
You probably are already familiar with Fulfillment by Amazon, but did you know that Amazon not only offers shipping and fulfillment of orders for sellers, but provides an option for long-term inventory storage? The Amazon Warehousing & Distribution (AWD) program is a useful service that allows sellers to have long-term, unlimited storage of their inventory before it makes its way to Amazon fulfillment centers. The AWD program allows sellers to store their inventory in Amazon distribution centers on a pay-as-you-go basis. The service is available to all Amazon sellers who are currently using fulfillment by Amazon or FBA. The program gives sellers access to bulk storage for their products, and they only have to pay for the amount of space they need. The service is meant to replace the need for separate inventory storage and distribution, allowing sellers to work exclusively with Amazon for storage, distribution, and fulfillment.
There are many benefits to using the AWD program. One useful feature is automated replenishment- Amazon will monitor your inventory in the FBA warehouse, and when supplies fall under a certain amount, they will automatically replenish the products from the distribution warehouse. This way, sellers will not have to worry about going out of stock of any products. A second major advantage of the program is that sellers can consolidate their global inventory. This simplifies things for sellers by giving them one pool of inventory for all of their operations that they can use to fulfill orders across different sales and distribution channels. By consolidating their inventory, sellers can fulfill orders both from Amazon and from their other sales channels using Multi-channel Fulfillment. Lastly, coming this year, sellers will be able to send their inventory anywhere they like, not just to the FBA warehouse. This includes locations like wholesale customers and brick-and-mortar shops. For more information on the AWD program, check out our blog here.
customer engagement emails
A final Amazon tool you may not know about but that could improve your business and marketing strategy is customer engagement emails. In 2021, Amazon made it possible for sellers to reach out to consumers who follow their store or brand through Amazon Customer Engagement. Amazon then released the Tailored Audiences tool in 2022, in which sellers can reach out to customers who have purchased their products within the last 12 months. With this tool, sellers can reach out to consumers through email marketing to inform them of new product releases and offer promotions. Customer engagement emails are a great way for sellers to maintain relationships with current consumers and build their brand loyalty.
The Tailored Audiences tool is a free service that will become available this year to all sellers on Seller Central who have a brand registered with consumers within the past year. This service will be a part of the Customer Engagement tool in Seller Central. With customer engagement emails, sellers can reach three different audiences- repeat customers, high-spend customers, and recent customers. Repeat customers are those who have ordered your products more than once within the past year. High-spend customers are the top 25% of shoppers who spent the most on your brand within the past year. And recent customers are the most recent 20% of shoppers who have purchased from you. Sellers can manage their customer engagement emails by tracking metrics such as open rate, click-through rates, emails delivered, opt-out rate, sales, and conversion within Seller Central.
Some tips from Amazon on how to best utilize customer engagement emails include:
· Advertise promotions and new products
· Use a lifestyle image for your main product’s supporting image
· Add supporting products to your campaign
· Send one email campaign (or less) per brand per week
· Send your campaign when customers are most engaged
· Use a brand logo image with a transparent background
These relatively new Amazon tools will allow you to bring your brand to the next level. Keep an eye out for new features coming this year for the AWD program and customer engagement emails and give all of the tools a try to see what they can do for your business. Happy selling!