New week, new Amazon updates—and we mean BIG ONES! There’s a high-stake revival of an old lawsuit threatening the retail titan’s selling regulations, as well as the unveiling of a new advertising feature.
Intrigued? You know what to do to know more. 👇
- Amazon vs. A 3-year-old lawsuit 🧑⚖️
- FREE report to get you started for the next Prime Day 📂
- New ad cost control strategy 🆕
BLACK MARKET
Amazon has been hit by several antitrust lawsuits in the past few years. And recently, one case was revived 2 years after it was initially tossed by the superior court.
In a report by Tom's Guide, an appeals court decided Amazon needs to face the lawsuit initially filed by Washington D.C. in 2021. Here’s a little refresher on the facts of this case:
🥊 Amazon vs. District of Columbia
The lawsuit centers on Amazon’s alleged “unreasonable demands of third-party sellers.” The official court filing of Washington D.C.’s Attorney General Karl Racine includes the following claims:
“Far from enabling consumers to obtain the best products at the lowest prices, Amazon instead causes prices across the entire online retail sales market to be artificially inflated, both for products sold on Amazon’s online retail sales platform and on its competitors’ online retail sales platforms.”
In simple words: The retailer doesn’t let sellers set lower prices on other platforms for products they also sell on Amazon. Those who don’t follow this lose their chance at getting their products highlighted on Amazon.com.
How does this affect you?
In a critical analysis of the FTC’s antitrust lawsuit against Amazon, Harvard Business Review pointed out that the outcomes would dictate ecommerce’s future.
- If Amazon loses, it’ll be forced to abandon the alleged unfair practices. This could promote fair competition among all online marketplaces. 🎆
- If Amazon wins (or the case gets dismissed again), all merchants selling on the platform must play by its rules to survive.
Brian Schwalb, D.C.’s current Attorney General, pledged their continuous pursuit of fairness for merchants and consumers. And of course, we’ll keep you updated on the progress of the case, so just keep calm and grow your business. 😉
TOGETHER WITH LEVANTA
Find out how your product category stacked up on Prime Day
Discover the detailed conversion rate lift Amazon sellers experienced from affiliate marketing, broken down by product category. See how your category performed and leverage these insights to drive even greater results next Prime Day.
Here are some key highlights:
🔶 10x sales volume on Prime Day compared to an average day
🔶 4x conversion rate compared to an average week
🔶 20% average conversion rate for top brands on Levanta
🔶 Highest Converting Category: Clothing, Shoes, and Jewelry at 36.81%
BITES OF THE WEEK
- Carrier List: Amazon compiled a list to help sellers choose reliable transportation providers.
- Seller Wallet Update: Get 80% off cross-currency transfer fees for a limited time!
- Lower Selling Fees: Starting September 9, Amazon.in will reduce selling fees in 59 product subcategories.
TACTIC TALKS
Increase customer traffic with Amazon’s new ad cost control strategy
With the holiday season lurking around the corner, you must be more than ready with tactics to increase customer traffic. Fortunately, Amazon Ads launched a new Sponsored Brands optimization to help you do exactly that!
💧 The new drop
Sponsored Brand's cost control is now available for the “Drive Page visits” campaign goal. This allows advertisers to target performance-based parameters without the guesswork.
- Success metric: The number of clicks determines the campaign’s success (click-through rate).
- Metric-based rule: The ad budget determines the value of each click (cost per click).
Amazon’s machine learning models translate your goals (Ex. 1000 clicks) into efficient bids.Then, the bids will be adjusted to increase the number of clicks and ultimately reach your cost control target.
📍 How to use it
Simply set a campaign goal with a daily budget and an average cost per click. Do take note of the 2 factors affecting marketing goals and expenses:
- Targets selected: The machine learning models adjust ads to target relevant shoppers AND other opportunities to increase reach.
- Bid values: Only pay the least bid amount needed to win.
And voilà! You can direct interested shoppers to your landing page or detail page without breaking the bank. 🏦
Try the feature now by accessing it in the Advertising console or via Amazon Ads API.
