Social media influencers – like Instagram stars or YouTube celebs – often promote products they like, either as part of a brand relationship or as means of generating income through affiliate sales. Now, Amazon is looking to get in on this action as well. The company has quietly launched the “Amazon Influencer Program,” which is currently in beta testing as of a couple of days ago.
Similar to the Amazon Affiliate program, the new program will offer influencers commission on products sold, but is not open to the public.
One of the key things that makes the new Influencer program different from Amazon Affiliates is its exclusivity.
Today, anyone can sign up to be an Amazon Affiliate, which lets you build links and shopping ads that you can use on your own website or blog. When a reader clicks through to buy the product, the affiliate receive a commission on those sales, which varies by product type.
Amazon Influencers, meanwhile, must submit an application to be considered for inclusion....
Today, anyone can sign up to be an Amazon Affiliate, which lets you build links and shopping ads that you can use on your own website or blog. When a reader clicks through to buy the product, the affiliate receive a commission on those sales, which varies by product type.
Amazon Influencers, meanwhile, must submit an application to be considered for inclusion.
A new report answers the questions, how many products does Amazon actually carry, and in which categories. And it shows the incredible impact third-party merchants have on Amazon's selection.
The report from 360pi shows that Amazon alone carried 12,231,203 total products as of May 2016, excluding Books, Media, Wine, and Services - note that product variants were not included in the analysis.
But when products available from marketplace sellers were included, the total number of products increased almost 30X to a total of 353,710,754 products offered by Amazon and its marketplace sellers combined (applying the same exclusions noted above).
The top 5 categories based on the number of products listed on Amazon's U.S. site, including marketplace sellers (again, the same exclusions apply) are....
Jeff Domansky's insight:
Very interesting look at the number of products Amazon carries.
It looks as if Amazon is getting into the food business.
A new report from The Wall Street Journal says the online retail giant is gearing up to launch its first brand of foodstuffs by "as soon as the end of the month."
These "private-label brands" will reportedly include Happy Belly (including nuts, tea, and oil), Wickedly Prime (snacks and treats), and Mama Bear (baby products). But they are designed and created by Amazon, with all the profits going straight to the company....
Jeff Domansky's insight:
More disruption ahead by Amazon, this time in the food business.
The e-retailer, which has had trouble getting some apparel manufacturers to sell to it wholesale, is now selling apparel for women, men and kids under its own brands. Here’s a close look at these Amazon brands and their prospects.
Amazon.com Inc. over the last eight months rolled out a series of Amazon-owned private-label apparel brands. The lines follow through on plans previously hinted at by Amazon executives, and represent a way for Amazon to become a bigger force in apparel, a segment where it’s been limited by the reluctance of some higher-end fashion brands to sell to Amazon.
KeyBanc Capital Markets analyst Edward Yruma identified the brands in a research note released earlier this week based on his research. Amazon has not commented or confirmed the brands directly, but Internet Retailer located trademark applications filed by Amazon Technologies Inc. for six of the seven brands dating to March 2015. Amazon did not respond to inquiries....
Jeff Domansky's insight:
Will Amazon fashions impact big fashion retailers or brands without its own bricks-and-mortar stores? That depends on how they build and carry out their own e-commerce and mobile strategies.
The e-commerce technology company announced on Monday a new Seattle location, Amazon Go, that has no registers. Instead, shoppers scan into the store with their free Amazon Go app, shop as normal, and leave the store with the items billed to their Amazon.com account.
While some stores have used a wedding-registry technique to allow this kind of shopping, Amazon takes it one step further. Using computer vision — the kind of technology that lets self-driving cars “see” — the store recognizes the user, making it unnecessary to individually scan items.
According to the Seattle Times, the 1,800 square-foot store, featuring ready-to-eat meals and snacks, is open to Amazon employees participating in a testing program. The store will open to the public in early 2017....
Jeff Domansky's insight:
Amazon is now testing three different types of retail – bookstores, pickup/drive-through and now, an innovative no cashier, no checkout, no lineups, convenience store. Retailers look out!
Selling through Amazon is extremely tempting for a simple, logical reason: you don’t have to pay for digital marketing to drive traffic to Amazon. The volume is bigger than any marketer can dream. Before Journelle, I worked at an Amazon subsidiary, Quidsi, and during my tenure, our core strategy pivoted from investing in its stand-alone sites like Diapers.com and Soap.com to rapidly scaling sales on Amazon’s Marketplace, exactly for this reason.
Amazon Marketplace vendors simply need to offer the most competitive price on a product to win the coveted Amazon “Buy Box”. “Buy Box” winners take all of the sales volume without any marketing spend required, making up for margin loss and commission to Amazon. To scale on Amazon, Quidsi capitalized on selection breadth and uniqueness, and created effective and predictive pricing algorithms to beat their competitors. Overnight, day-to-day business became more like trading stocks than traditional online marketing.
At the same time, there are downsides to relying too much on Amazon. First, there’s the risk of having too much of your revenue coming from a platform you don’t control. There’s also the risk that if you offer all your products on Amazon, you’ll cannibalize your own direct sales (and lose those higher margins). Finally, for high-end brands, Amazon’s site does not offer luxury customers a distinctive experience....
Jeff Domansky's insight:
Harvard Business Review shares key questions to help e-commerce companies decide.
Big box retailer stocks are getting hit hard Wednesday, following Macy's dismal earnings report.
Macy's shares are down 13%, while some of the largest retailers like Sears, Target, and Nordstrom all dropped by at least 5% during the day.
Amidst all this, Amazon, the online retailer that just opened its first physical store last year, is trading at an all-time high, reflecting a clear shift in consumer behavior.
The growth of online shopping is nothing new. But this chart that compares the 12-month stock movement of Amazon, Walmart, Macy's, Target, and the retail index fund "XRT" clearly illustrate the online retailer's growing dominance in this space:...
Jeff Domansky's insight:
Retailers online and off-line struggle while Amazon crushes it.
Amazon's services are in constant evolution. Its growth is surely not threatened for the moment, on the contrary! Its innovative status is crushing its competitors and in the near future they'll maybe be the major retailer in the world, if they continue like this.
Some 40% of all adults “always” or “most of the time” search Amazon, compared to 10% who say they never do, according to the latest CNBC All-America Economic Survey.
And half of Americans searching Amazon also make a purchase there, compared to the paltry 3% that retailers on average see search turn to purchase, the survey found.
The phenomenon is an all ages affair. While most consumers searching Amazon are in general younger, wealthier, better educated, and more likely to live on the West or East coasts, Amazon also snags 41% of American consumers 65 years old or older for search on its site, and almost half of them also buy....
Jeff Domansky's insight:
Research report shows the power of Amazon in the consumer's journey to purchase.
To get content containing either thought or leadership enter:
To get content containing both thought and leadership enter:
To get content containing the expression thought leadership enter:
You can enter several keywords and you can refine them whenever you want. Our suggestion engine uses more signals but entering a few keywords here will rapidly give you great content to curate.
Your new post is loading...
Get ready for Amazon influencers, coming soon.