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Amazon got off to a very fast start on the first day of the conference with their announcement of Supply Chain by Amazon, a fully automated set of supply chain services that gets your products from manufacturers to customers around the world. 

In 2006, Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) was a big game changer. At this year’s Accelerate Conference, Amazon has exponentially expanded that model. 

It’s like Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) on steroids! 

Supply Chain by Amazon

Amazon picks up inventory from your manufacturing facilities, ships it across borders, handles customs clearance and ground transportation, stores inventory in bulk, manages replenishment across Amazon and other sales channels, and delivers directly to customers.

Instead of navigating different companies, you can deal directly with Amazon. Sellers across all sales channels can leverage Amazon’s scale and capabilities – taking advantage of the advancements in artificial intelligence to optimize logistics, fulfillment and transportation. 

Starting in October, Amazon will be expanding their origin services closer to overseas factories. 

Sellers will be able to book full container load – AND less than full container load shipments – right from Amazon Seller Central.  

Amazon says that “you can expect discounts up to 25% lower costs when compared to alternatives” and that additional innovations will be coming in the next months.

Here’s how Supply Chain by Amazon will work:

• Your FBA and MCF products are considered in stock and buyable when they’re received by Amazon Warehousing and Distribution (AWD)
• Amazon’s advanced logistics, transportation, and fulfillment capabilities move your products faster and more reliably from manufacturers to customers around the world
• AWD auto-replenishment gets your products to the right Amazon fulfillment centers in the right quantities, increasing the potential for same-day and next-day delivery speeds
• You can use Seller Central to track and manage your AGL shipments, AWD storage, and FBA and MCF inventory

Introducing New Amazon Shipping Benefits for All Sellers

The second big reveal of Accelerate 2023 is Amazon Shipping, their all-new ground shipping service for ecommerce selling partners. Within this new program, you can ship your Amazon orders, as well as those from your own website and other selling channels. 

Yes, that means that Amazon will handle shipping for products sold on your own website as well as off-Amazon platforms. That’s going to help take multi-channel selling to a new level. 

For those of you storing products in your own warehouses, this crucial last mile fulfillment service represents a 100 billion dollar investment by Amazon. Until now, it was only available to FBA sellers. Now, Amazon shipping is available to all sellers. 

Here’s how it works

• Sell via your website, Amazon.com, and other channels
• Purchase labels and schedule a pickup from your warehouse
• Track your packages from your warehouse to your customers
• 24/7 warehouse-to-door tracking includes photo on delivery and stop-by-stop tracking 
• Pickup and delivery, seven days a week
• No residential fees or weekend delivery charges

Amazon is Leaning Heavily on Artificial Intelligence

The second day of Accelerate 2023 shows that Amazon is leaning heavily towards AI and data modeling as they create new tools and strategies for ecommerce sellers. 

First up, Amazon’s New Improved Customer Sentiment Insights depends on AI to show sellers data-driven insights across all platforms and strategies using comprehensive information from reviews and returns. 

AvaIlable later this year, this will make possible:

• Unparalleled insights helps inform future decisions 
• The ability to discover trends quickly, then, make changes right away
• Capitalize on advances to AI to quickly summarize valuable, actionable information 

Amazon also released the new View in Your Room. It’s an AI and augmented reality tabletop feature that will help shoppers see if a product will look good in their room. It’s available now for more than 200 product types and located in Seller Central. 

Last, the new Fit Insights helps shoppers to identify fit issues. It deals with high review ASINS and its goal is to increase customer confidence 

Generative AI has been helping Amazon sellers in increasing ways. Whether it’s building spreadsheets, or anticipating supply chain problems before they occur, artificial intelligence has  made its presence felt throughout ecommerce. Now, Amazon is using the latest advancements in AI to dramatically improve listing creation and management for sellers. 

Generative AI Copywriting Help is Here

Amazon’s new capabilities take advantage of large language models (LLMs), a type of machine learning model specifically trained on large amounts of data that can recognize, summarize, translate, predict, and generate text and other content, to build more comprehensive product descriptions.

Amazon says that to get started, “sellers only need to provide a brief description of the product in a few words or sentences, and Amazon will generate high-quality content for their review. At that point, sellers can make niche-specific adjustments or directly submit the automatically generated content to the Amazon catalog. 

“This is just the tip of the iceberg on how we plan to use AI to help improve the seller experience and help more sellers succeed,” Mary Beth Westmoreland, Amazon’s vice president of worldwide selling partner experience, wrote in a blog post.

Buy With Prime on Shopify? 

It seems that Amazon is serious about cross-platform selling. Next up is a supercharging of Buy with Prime, revealed in last year’s Accelerate conference. Amazon has added several significant features as well as a groundbreaking new collaboration with Shopify. 

Now, you can easily integrate Buy with Prime into your Shopify store to increase shopper conversion. Amazon says that sellers can register now for early access to the pre-release app.

With this new collaboration, you can:

• Integrate the Buy with Prime button into your existing Shopify checkout and automatically match your existing theme with no changes to the shopper experience.
• Manage Buy with Prime through your Shopify admin, including product listing updates, tax settings, promotions, and performance analytics.
• The app works with most of the industry’s third-party apps, boosting operational efficiency and helping you scale
• View your Buy with Prime order and return information directly from your Shopify orders page.
• Prime members check out using their Amazon account within the existing Shopify checkout flow and can use gift cards and promotions.

Additionally, Amazon has now added a feature that allows sellers to place reviews from Amazon on the product page. That feature has shown a 38% increase in conversions. At the same time, Amazon sellers can also now use cart building (multiple products) strategies that have shown a 15% increase in units per order. 

Still, the big news is Amazon’s reaching across the ecommerce aisle to connect with customers on Shopify. With this move, it seems that bipartisanship isn’t quite dead in North America. Amazon (and Shopify) have both decided that making online sales easier for everyone benefits both marketplaces. 

This Year’s Biggest Takeaway Is…

It’s been said before, but it bears repeating: the modern world is quite literally accelerating faster than most of us can keep up. And as usual, Amazon is putting an enormous effort behind being on the cutting edge of that constant change – not only to grow their bottom line, but to give brands that rely on their platform even more reasons to stick around.

But among all of the new tools and tactics that Amazon revealed this year, there’s one takeaway to rule them all: the brands that use these tools will thrive, while those that ignore them will fall behind. 

As a full service Amazon agency, it’s not just our job to stay on top of the latest and greatest that Amazon has to offer. It’s also our duty to our Partners to actually use these new features to help them grow their brand.

If you’re looking for expert advice on how to implement these new features into your overall business strategy in the coming year, look no further. Our experienced Amazon specialists are standing by to help you develop a personalized strategy that can help you get more growth for your brand in less time. Click here to schedule a personalized strategy session today.