[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n

1. If Amazon is doing it, it needs to be on your radar.<\/h2>\n

\u201cIf Jeff Bezos is doing it, I want to do it. If Amazon is using that technology, we should be using that technology,\u201d said the Prosper keynote speaker, Koffee Kult Founder and President James Mardis, who launched his artisan coffee brand on Amazon in 2014. For Mardis, following Amazon\u2019s tech lead has resulted in a new and innovative packaging design, the implementation of AI and robots across his operation, and testing out new marketing strategies like livestreaming.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”4560″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Other retailers also are following Amazon\u2019s lead, whether they know it or not, evidenced by the recent explosion of third-party marketplaces and retail media offerings. The model that Amazon first pioneered 22 years ago \u2014 an online shop of products from third-party sellers (as opposed to its own inventory) and advertising offerings to help those sellers connect with consumers \u2014 is becoming commonplace across the retail industry. One after another, legacy retailers are adding third-party marketplaces to their websites, and for many, a retail media network quickly becomes part of the mix as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we think about why these companies want marketplaces, it\u2019s because they\u2019re looking for additional revenue streams and an ability to attract customers in a very intensely competitive digital ecosystem,\u201d explained Fareeha Ali, Director of Competitive and Market Intelligence for enterprise marketplace solution Mirakl at Prosper. \u201cSo if the first phase of that is a marketplace, what is the second phase? It very well might be [advertising].\u201d<\/p>\n

Indeed, watching the progression of Amazon\u2019s marketplace business model gives a glimpse into the future for other retailers. As Amazon\u2019s marketplace has matured, the company has turned up the volume on its advertising business. The tech giant broke out the revenue from its advertising business for the first time in its Q4 2021 earnings and the numbers were eye-popping, with Amazon bringing in more than $31 billion from advertising services in 2021. Amazon also is increasingly sharing data from those advertising services with sellers, making the proposition on its platform all the more appealing as competition increases.
\n[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”4583″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes” alignment=”center”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Speaking of competition, Amazon \u201cfast-follower\u201d Walmart reported at Prosper that it had brought in $2 billion in ad revenue of its own in 2021. With numbers like that, combined with data privacy crackdowns that are making channels like social media less beneficial to advertisers, it\u2019s only natural to assume that other retailers will look to follow Amazon\u2019s lead and capture more of those brand dollars on their own platforms \u2014 particularly if they\u2019ve already invested in expanding the reach of that platform with a third-party marketplace.<\/p>\n

Beyond marketplaces and retail media, there is another burgeoning area of e-commerce that was pioneered by Amazon (although it doesn\u2019t necessarily get credit for it) \u2014 \u201cheadless commerce.\u201d This is the latest buzzword in e-commerce design, touted by everyone from Shopify to Salesforce, but as Faisal Masud, CEO of headless commerce solution fabric and a former Amazonian tells it, Amazon was headless before it was known as \u201cheadless.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAmazon has been headless for decades; that\u2019s how they built their entire platform,\u201d he said in an interview with Retail TouchPoints. \u201cThey didn\u2019t have OMS [order management systems] and PIM [product information management], because everything at Amazon was a service \u2014 the order service, the item service, the price service. Amazon did that way before anybody else even entered the game; they just never sold it.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to experts at Prosper, however, that may soon change: \u201c[Amazon has] been buying up off-Amazon seller services companies for the last few months, so there\u2019s probably a Shopify competitor coming this fall or at least within the next 12 months,\u201d predicted James Kelly, a former Amazonian turned Amazon seller and Founder of Jagerita Holdings at a Prosper session. Other panelists agreed, saying that the most likely place for it to originate would be the company\u2019s cloud division, Amazon Web Services (AWS), which is already packaging and selling other Amazon tech such as Just Walk Out to other retailers.<\/p>\n

2. Brand matters everywhere (even on Amazon).<\/h2>\n

Another trend \u2014 one that feeds the growth of these third-party marketplaces \u2014 is the growing number of brands now selling their products on marketplaces in addition to selling on their owned digital platforms, something that was anathema to companies just a few years back.
\n\u201c[Earlier in my career] I worked for many specialty brands and department stores where we sort of fought Amazon,\u201d said Stacey Renfro, CEO of the born-on-Amazon home d\u00e9cor brand mDesign. \u201c[The attitude was], don\u2019t sell there, it\u2019ll kill your brand. I spent so many years of my career fighting Amazon that what I really loved about the model of mDesign was just the opposite \u2014 it was embracing Amazon and realizing that when you have 70% to 75% of online business happening in marketplaces, why fight it? You have to join in, and you have to figure out how to do it well.\u201d
\nAmazon also has made that easier, recognizing the need for brands to bring their aesthetic and storytelling onto the marketplace platform, and other marketplace operators should take note.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”4564″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes” alignment=”center”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]For established brands, being able to customize the experience to replicate their brand ethos has been critical, and it drives home an important lesson \u2014 as you increase the number of channels you sell on, creating a consistent brand experience across those ecosystems is more important than ever. \u201cWe wanted to meet [our customer] where she was,\u201d said Caitlin Brydon, Senior Manager of Amazon Ecommerce for beauty brand Sol de Janeiro at Prosper. \u201cIt didn\u2019t make any sense not to be a part of the Amazon experience and make it as convenient and as accessible as possible for her. But if she\u2019s coming to Amazon and looking for our product, then every touchpoint on Amazon has to feel like our brand. [Our Amazon store] offers a brand experience in a place that can oftentimes feel very, very generic.\u201d<\/p>\n

These changes have led many established brands to the Amazon platform, as well as other marketplaces, and they\u2019re realizing it hasn\u2019t killed their business as they feared \u2014 quite the opposite. \u201cFor us, Amazon was a diversification strategy,\u201d explained Liz LaVallee, Director for Online Marketplaces at the 41-year-old Vermont Teddy Bear Company at Prosper. \u201cIt was a way to find incremental audiences and incremental categories as well. Initially, there was a pretty big institutional wariness of selling on Amazon, but we were able to grow our business pretty significantly.\u201d
\nBeyond that, Amazon has become a place where brands go to be born (and then perhaps eventually get snapped up by an Aggregator). \u201cmDesign is a brand that started first as simply an Amazon seller,\u201d recounted Renfro. \u201cWe went where there were customers and [focused on] selling great product, and over the course of years built a brand. I do believe that the brands of the future will emerge from Amazon. Over the course of the last six years we have become an almost $300 million business with the majority of our business still on Amazon, but diversified to many other marketplaces and expanding into wholesale as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

3. Be \u201ccustomer obsessed.\u201c<\/h2>\n

To his credit, Jeff Bezos centered his company on one clear (and clearly very effective) principle \u2014 \u201cbe customer obsessed.\u201d While seemingly uncomfortably broad, the company\u2019s relentless focus on finding ways to improve the lives of its customers (arguably everyone) has been nothing short of a revolutionary force, not just in Silicon Valley but across the entire American retail ecosystem.<\/p>\n

The mantra recognizes that with the rise of ecommerce has come a more individualistic way of shopping. It\u2019s no longer about frequenting a handful of favored, trusted stores. Instead, customers buy from brands and voices that speak to them in whatever moment they choose to shop, whether walking down the street or scrolling through their feed. So being tuned in to those consumers, and what they are responding to, has never been more important.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”4566″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Online channels also offer more nuanced customer feedback than ever before. For example, Koffee Kult\u2019s Mardis said his company changed its bag design after realizing the original was hard to open and customers were complaining about spilling coffee everywhere: \u201cWe don\u2019t want our coffee on the floor, we want it in people\u2019s coffee pots,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis has been an amazing decade to be a small entrepreneur,\u201d said Bernie Thompson, Founder of the born-on-Amazon brand Plugable Technologies and PPC Ninja at a Prosper session predicting what\u2019s ahead for 2023. \u201cFor the first time, you can reach a global audience with just your idea, your product. You\u2019ve got a lot of other companies that have looked at what
\nAmazon has done and they can\u2019t quite compete with them head to head, but look at Shopify doing its own thing and Walmart basically becoming a fast follower of Amazon. Those sorts of patterns are being repeated around the world, and as a result, there are going to be so many micro-opportunities popping up all around the world in the coming decade. There is going to be no end of opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n

[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s easy to vilify Amazon. But for all its somewhat terrifying clout, questionable business practices and stories…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":4567,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[139],"tags":[80],"class_list":["post-4570","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-trends","tag-retail-en","destacadas-destacado-blog-en"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n