Amazon Changes on The Horizon & The Boost Conference

From July 27-28 Amazon hosted their Amazon FBA Boost conference in New York for select sellers. Here are some quick take-aways from the event. The conference didn't reveal any ‘secret' information per se but it did emphasize recurring topics which many of us know are of increasing importance on Amazon – Enhanced Brand Content and selling globally.

Enhanced Brand Content – Videos Coming, Trademark Requirements Possibly Going

The Amazon Brand Registry and Enhanced Brand Content has been one of the biggest changes for Amazon Sellers recently. It gives sellers the opportunity to really make their pages stand out as well as keeping away unauthorized piggy backers. Amazon reports that Enhanced Brand Content can increase conversions as much as 5% (my experiences would seem to support this).

Since May 2017 Amazon made getting brand registry quite a bit harder through the requirement of having a trademark for your brand. I personally had no desire for a trademark for my brand but I paid the $350 just so I can get brand registry. Amazon suggested at the Boost Conference they may be lightening up on this requirement which would be good news for new brands.

The biggest change coming, however, is that Amazon will soon allow videos to be used with Enhanced Brand Content. Videos have been allowed for quite some time for Vendor Central clients. With the new changes, everyone with Brand Registry will be able to use these. With Vendor Central, videos are simply embedded in the photos section of product pages and presumably this will remain the same format with Enhanced Brand Content. Videos are a huge coupe for conversion rates so you should start looking into getting some videos done now. 

Global Selling is The Future

Amazon is really pushing sellers to start selling globally. This isn't entirely surprising as that's where the biggest growth opportunities remain for Amazon as it is the dominant player in the U.S. but not yet so dominant in many other countries. However, Amazon bias aside, this is one of the growth potentials I've been trying to emphasize to other people as well. Amazon.com is ultra competitive. BUT there are many other countries where you can go from being on the 4th page on Amazon.com to the #4 listing on a site like Amazon.ca. Yes, the sales are small compared to Amazon.com but to be a successful ecommerce seller your expectations and effort are rising.

Amazon is trying to make it easier for sellers to sell international. They're removing the local language requirements when selling globally. Second, as you may have noticed, you can now easily “Enable FBA Export” for your products which simply allows international buyers to buy on Amazon.com and have it shipped from a U.S. FBA warehouse (albeit at crazy shipping rates). At the very least, you should be enabled FBA export for all of your listings as it requires nothing more than a couple of clicks.

To enable FBA Export simply go to Settings -> Fulfillment by Amazon and enable FBA Export. It's that simple and there's no extra fees or tax obligations to you.

Promotions Getting Promoted More

As you may or may not know, you can use Promotions within your Seller account to do things like having a Buy One Get One Half Off deal. It's an effective way to increase your average order value.

Amazon used to hide these promotions somewhere between the bullet points and product description text but they are now moving it to below the pricing. This without doubt will result in more customers using the available promotions and make them more effective. Unfortunately, I haven't seen any data regarding how effective promotions are either before or after this change.

Offering promotions can be done by going to Advertising -> Promotions. Typical offers include Buy One, Get One Free or Buy One, Get One xx% Off.

Conclusion

Many of us are aware of the importance of Enhanced Brand Content and selling internationally. The Boost conference re-iterated many of these points, directly from Amazon's mouths.

Becoming a true international  company and selling globally is still daunting, especially if you're just starting off and Enhanced Brand Content via the Brand Registry has become similarly tricky because of the trademark requirements. However, enabling FBA Export and experimenting with promotions are two strategies any seller can take right away.

Did you have a chance to attend the Boost conference? If not, do you have any predictions for changes on the Amazon horizon?