On June 23, Amazon announced they would begin using machine learning technology to flag orders highly likely to be reported as "not received" or "lost" the customer. This technology accomplishes this by analyzing "hundreds of signals," including delivery issues, customer order history, item value, and delivery address.
In addition to the notification, Amazon will also provide an option for sellers to request signature confirmation for the delivery. Once a seller accepts the recommendation for signature confirmation, they can be charged between $3-$6 per order.
While this update could benefit many sellers, some expressed questions, such as whether the high-risk order would still be covered for claims if they declined to pay for the extra signature confirmation service.
Additionally, there were concerns that drivers would accept any signature, which could still impact sellers because Amazon could still refund "item not delivered" claims regardless of who the signature belongs to.
Lastly, one seller mentioned that some customers refuse to sign delivery confirmations, sharing an example of a buyer who rejected the delivery, leaving a low rating with nasty comments about their company that Amazon refused to remove.
KEY BITES
Beginning August 1, 2022, Amazon will update the Returns and Refunds policy information on all Seller Profile pages. This change clarifies that buyers may return products following Amazon's Return and Refund policies.
What does this change imply? Sellers won't be able to share brand return policies on the "Your Information & Policies" page for their customers and are expected to conform to Amazon's procedures.
What's the reason for this change? According to Amazon, their "return and refund policies ensure a consistent returns experience for buyers, and apply to all sellers in the US store." Amazon intends to standardize the process so that customers know the process applies to any purchase throughout the US platform.
Shopify doesn't do Prime Day, but some Shopify merchants were offering Prime Day discounts for members this year. Off-Amazon customers got to experience Prime Day deals with stores implementing a "Use Buy with Prime to get a 20% discount applied at checkout" banner on their sites.
To further promote this, Amazon featured participating stores on their website at www.amazon.com/buywithprime. Although Buy with Prime is technically available to various e-commerce platforms, most stores featured on Amazon's Buy With Prime page were Shopify-powered.
Prime Day discounts do not affect Amazon just yet.
Because the Buy with Prime feature just launched, sales from these discounted deals will hardly affect Amazon's Prime Day sales. This is because only a few dozen e-commerce stores are participating, making it more of a marketing strategy to introduce what Buy with Prime is.
Some speculate that Amazon's Buy with Prime page could eventually morph into a DTC brand discovery tool should it take off. Although Shopify holds up a marketplace independently, a partnership with Amazon could be possible.
Advertisers using Sponsored Display can now customize their creatives by adding a headline, logo, and lifestyle image together or individually. Because of this, ads display these three elements to allow potential customers to discover your brand and products.
This new feature provides increased flexibility and control over the creatives in their ads. It also allows them to match their style across all creatives on other platforms or repurpose existing assets. Then, ads with lifestyle images will support promotional deals and savings badges, which can help improve ad performance.
Registered sellers and vendors can customize their creatives while building a campaign or from the "creative" tab while managing a campaign. This feature applies to new and existing creatives.
While customizing your creative, you will now see a menu of customizable assets that provides real-time feedback and moderation status to give your work a holistic status. For example, assets not meeting upload requirements will display a real-time warning icon next to the asset name and an in-line warning message.