Amazon Accelerate News & Takeaways

Every year, Amazon Accelerate draws the attention of eCommerce enthusiasts, business owners, and tech enthusiasts alike. This conference serves as a platform for Amazon to showcase its latest innovations, strategies, and plans for the future. This year, Amazon Accelerate has once again lived up to its reputation, unveiling a plethora of exciting announcements and insights.  Check out some of the top announcements and takeaways.

1. Supply Chain by Amazon
   Amazon introduced various tools to enhance their supply chain processes for sellers.
   1. Amazon Global Logistics: A comprehensive ocean freight forwarding solution for cross-border shipping, offering all-inclusive pricing with a 25% discount.
   2. Amazon Warehousing and Distribution: Now open to all sellers, eliminating peak pricing and offering storage at an 80% lower cost. Sellers can reserve storage space in advance for better inventory management during peak seasons.
   3. Auto Replenishment: Ensures that products are consistently in stock at fulfillment centers, resulting in faster delivery times for customers.
   4. Amazon Shipping: This program extends Amazon's logistics system to non-FBA (Fulfillment by Amazon) sellers. It offers cost savings of 30% compared to other delivery providers, with no residential surcharges or weekend delivery fees. Currently available in 15 metro areas and expanding.
   5. Veeqo Improvements: Veeqo, a free shipping management tool, now includes 45 new features and supports Amazon Shipping. It negotiates lower shipping prices and offers up to 5% back in Veeqo credits. 
2. Artificial Intelligence
   1. Amazon is introducing a feature called Unified Listing Management that uses Generative AI and large-language models to simplify the listing creation process. Sellers can input a few words, and the tool will generate complete listing content, including titles, descriptions, and bullets. This feature is already available for US sellers. In the near future, sellers will be able to submit a product URL or photo, and the system will provide all necessary attributes for creating a listing, even for existing products. 
3. View in Your Room 
   1. View in Your Room is an augmented reality tool that allows shoppers to visualize how the product will look in their home reducing returns and improving customer experience.  This feature has been updated to allow for table top view, for products such as coffee makers.
4. Seller Central Enhancements
   1. Amazon highlighted several changes within Seller Central aimed at improving the overall selling experience. They introduced "Escalate My Case," a feature coming soon that will provide better support for complex seller problems, including the option to speak with a live support agent.  Additionally, a new Seller Forums experience with improved user interface features aims to facilitate seller networking and learning from each other, with thousands of sellers visiting forums daily.  The Homepage Control Center, launched earlier, centralizes critical information and actions for sellers, streamlining their focus on tasks, recommendations, and communications.  
5. Seller Protection
   1. Amazon is taking steps to address issues related to fraud and false claims in its marketplace. They are introducing a signature on delivery option for sellers who ship their own products. Additionally, sellers can provide more information about the condition of items they ship, which can help prevent costly refunds.  To combat review abuse, Amazon is automating the review process, blocking reviews from abusive accounts in real-time.  These changes are aimed at improving the experience for product sellers, addressing long-standing concerns. 
6. Improved Customer Sentiment Insights
   1. This tool allows sellers to access comprehensive analytics regarding topic insights, trends, and benchmark customer sentiments, providing sellers with tips for the development of new products that are meeting your customer needs. 
7. Two-Tap Ratings
   1. To streamline the review process and increase the likelihood of a review being left, Amazon introduced two-tap ratings.  This allows purchasers to leave a review without written feedback by only providing a star rating.  If the feedback is negative, shoppers can add more information.
8. Customer Loyalty Analytics Dashboard
   1. This new dashboard allows you to understand customer behavior and segment customers based on loyalty.  With these segments, sellers can better analyze behavior and develop strategies to market to them.  The goals of this dashboard are to reduce customer acquisition costs, target high value customers, and tailor coupons and discounts based on audiences. 
9. Brand Tailored Promotions
   1. This feature allows you to target customers with discounts and promotions based on many different factors. This provides sellers with the opportunity to provide more segmented discount offers that are specific to a given purchaser.  Amazon will also be launching an email integration for this later this year, allowing sellers to send email marketing messages to targeted audience segments.
10. Buy with Prime 
    1. Buy with Prime announced various enhancements to their system at Accelerate.  First, the launch of BwP Assist, a 24/7 support line that connects sellers to the BwP team.  Also, their partnership with Shopify provides sellers with a more seamless experience in integrating their DTC website and Amazon presence.  Check out their app for more information!

From customer-centric initiatives to seller empowerment, sustainability efforts to cutting-edge technology, Amazon's announcements at this year's conference demonstrate its determination to shape the future of eCommerce and beyond. As we look ahead, it's clear that Amazon's influence on the business world will continue to grow, setting new standards and driving innovation across industries.

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