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Within the fast-paced and dynamic selling environment of Amazon, keeping up with new trends is crucial for competitive advantage. Amazon is constantly diversifying and innovating their features with sustainability and enhancing the customer journey in mind. Below are top trends for businesses that are key to leverage in 2022.
1. Growth of Climate Pledge Friendly Program
Amazon’s ‘Climate Pledge Friendly’ program, designed to recognize products that have made improvements in sustainability, continues to grow across the US and Europe now with over 200,000 products and 10,000 brands certified through the program, across verticals such as beauty, wellness, apparel, electronics, household and grocery. Additionally, Amazon now partners with over 36 third-party certifiers, including government agencies, non-profits, and independent laboratories. Customers can now more easily find these products via Amazon customized search during the holiday season, and Amazon looks to continue to grow this program further into next year as The Climate Pledge remains a massive focus for the retailer.
2. Environmental Sustainability with Custom Grocery Packaging
According to Triangle Business Journal, grocery eCommerce sales grew 300% from 2019 to 2020, which was largely powered by the pandemic. With the increase in demand for online grocery and Amazon’s commitment to The Climate Pledge, they recently developed a new, more environmentally sustainable form of insulated food packaging—made from recycled paper but also is easily recyclable. In a blog post by Stephenie Landry, VP of Grocery at Amazon, she noted that Amazon is sourcing the new packaging regionally in the United States. Thus the company can deliver the packs to Amazon Fresh and Whole Foods Market locations “with fewer miles traveled across the supply chain.” As grocery delivery continues to grow in scale, we look for Amazon to continue to find ways to sustainably innovate within the space, keeping pace with their dedication to the Climate Pledge.
3. New payment method for Amazon customers
PayPal, Venmo’s parent company, announced last month that beginning in 2022 Venmo will be an available method of purchase in the Amazon shopping cart. This is yet another move by the retailer to expand and diversify the purchase options available to customers beyond the traditional credit-card-only method it has operated under for years, and follows their announcement earlier this year of ‘buy-now, pay-later’ capability that was recently added through their partnership with Affirm. While the Affirm addition works on a credit basis, the Venmo move is more inline with traditional payment methods, acting as a de facto bank account for customers to access and use to purchase goods on the platform. Customers can look forward to this enhancement sometime over the next year.
4. Vendor Central Trainings for Shipments
Amazon’s focus on vendor chargeback reduction was a theme in 2021, and training continued last month with the availability of new ASN trainings for 1P vendors. These trainings focus on the new shipments experience, and are a must-watch for all operational teams interacting with Vendor Central on a routine basis. We highly encourage all of our clients to review these materials to ensure their fulfillment and shipping processes stay within Amazon’s regulations and keep chargebacks and fines to a minimum.
Additionally, Amazon has updated their NA Vendor Shipment guidelines documentation into two separate guidebooks, ‘Transportation’ and ‘Prep and Receive’ categories. This change highlights the importance and focus brands need to take in properly packaging and prepping their goods for Amazon’s fulfillment centers, and by now having a manual completely dedicated to these practices, brands should be able to more easily understand the regulations Amazon has in-place to ensure a smooth and accurate receipt at an Amazon FC.
5. Amazon Advertising Updates
The Responsive eCommerce creative (REC) template now allows Amazon advertisers to add customer reviews in their ad copy. This feature is available in a variety of creative configurations, and gives customers additional key data points to consider right at the time of ad placement. Ad creatives with customer reviews typically receive higher ad engagement and product detail page visitations, which when paired with polished, retail-ready detail pages should naturally lead to higher conversion rates. Compared to fixed-size dynamic ecommerce ads, REC brings advertisers greater efficiency and is yet another data tool to add to the advertisers’ toolbox.
On top of that, advertisers have the opportunity to look back at increments of 60 and 90 days for views remarketing, and 60, 90, 180, and 365 days for purchases remarketing. This expansion and enhanced access to Amazon’s shopper data will allow marketers to target and fine tune campaigns to relevant audiences on the platform.
Amazon trends are rapidly unfolding, that’s why we’ve rounded up the latest Amazon updates going into 2022. Let us help you navigate these changes, contact our team today. Submit your information below for a free consultation.
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