23+ Predictions for 2023...Ladies First

As we wind down 2022, I see many people making predictions for 2023 so I thought I would collect 23 predictions for the new year. In doing so, I just couldn't settle on only 23 people so I thought, why not see how 23 ladies predict the year vs 23 gentlemen? So, here we go, ladies first.

The Predictions:

Probably my favorite prediction of the year comes from Lori Barzvi , to know her is to love her as she is never one to shy away from telling you how she feels.

I’ve never made a prediction. I honestly have no clue. I just go with the flow.

Now, Melissa Burdick came back to me with an email full of notes. Choosing one was not easy.

Brands will prioritize performance. Retail Media is easy to measure and closer to the sale. Brands will demand high performance given so many options and innovation Brands want 1) Profitable sales growth 2) market share 3) incrementality

Melissa also sees shifting proprieties as consumers adjust their spending habits. Robotics will also play a big role as warehouse/fulfillment operations look to automation to solve employee hiring challenges.

If you follow my posts you know that I highly covet the information shared by Destaney Wishon , she is one of the smartest in our space.

Amazon continuing to make investments in the data and analytics space. The marketplace has matured and naturally gotten more competitive, which means people need more data to justify an increase in spending.

I agree with Destaney and shared this in my write-up last week covering top products from 2022. Agencies and advertisers need more insights and brands that can take action on these insights will be able to deploy their budgets more strategically.

Laura Meyer has a background in the beauty/personal care space both from her time at Amazon and the brands that her agency works with.

I predict that consumers will opt for the DIY options rather than paying for services. This includes lash extensions, hair coloring, nail tips etc. These categories boomed during covid and as a result, the products in this category have continued to improve.

My wife was defiantly one of those who moved to DIY during the pandemic, I will have to check with her to see if she is going back.

If you haven't met Abi Harmon , add her to your list. Her smile and laugh light up the room and she is wicked smart when it comes to Amazon Advertising. She recently was named COO for Perpetua , and I can't think of a better choice.

In 2023, we’ll see brand collaborations explode with creators, other brands, and a focus on generating demand and visibility via real time content and inventory, limited time product runs, commerce through shared manufacturing resources (either through more acquisition strategies or strategic joint ventures), and connecting to new generations of consumers with always on shopping and targeted advertising.

I agree, micro-influencers were defiantly part of the story in 2022 and will continue to be part of the story in 2023. As attribution improves and brands learn to use clean rooms to measure performance, investment into these types of campaigns will drive more value.

I met Andrea K. Leigh a number of years back when she ran an agency with her husband. Andrea has always had a keen eye on the 1st party Amazon space and has become one of the top educators for Fortune 500 brands and top agencies.

Omni-channel becomes simply “Commerce” – The lines will continue to blur between eCommerce and physical commerce, becoming just “Commerce.” Shoppers don’t think about shopping in terms of channels – it’s all commerce to them!

Andrea is working on a report which will go deeper into this topic and more. Once it's published, I will make sure to share it with this audience.

Connecting with people over the year has enriched my knowledge of the space. I met Jessica Wright and invited her to one of the first Resonate conferences. Before I left, I recruited her to come work for me at Seller Labs .

My gut feeling is that Amazon is making sellers more aware of their account health and compliance issues because their intends to step things up in terms of holding sellers accountable for policies.

I think the changes that Amazon has made in 2022 have gone a long way in restoring the relationship between Amazon and sellers. Andy Jassy is running a different business and I covered that earlier in the year. Sellers need to know the policies and having visibility into potential violations is a good thing.

As the nature of business changes, so do the roles of service providers. Ritu Java embodies this as she helped shepherd her company away from one software into the PPC world and they didn't miss a beat along the way.

Amazon will share more organic data with advertisers to help them make better PPC decisions.

I agree with this and we are already seeing some hints of this. When I covered the brand experience I shared some of the new data points being shared. Ritu also reminds us of one of the top Amazon products of 2022 the search query performance report which has gotten rave reviews from many sellers.

One of the top thought leaders in our space is Kiri Masters , she has been sharing our thought via Forbes articles as a regular contributor.

Amazon’s ad revenue growth will be driven by non-endemic brands

Signals point to this with the unBoxed announcement that Sponsored Display will be open to non-endemic advertisers. Kiri has more predictions in her latest article.

I can't say that many people attend more shows than I do but Brianna Kipnis is at almost everyone I attend. As part of a company that helps sellers with suspension, its not surprising her prediction is in that arena.

With the account Health Assurance program, fewer sellers will be suspended without warning. Instead, an increasing number of sellers with policy violations will receive 72-hour notices requiring them to solve problems quickly or face suspension.

Sellers should keep an eye on this dashboard and take action as soon as they see anything that looks concerning.

The world of acquisitions looked a lot different in 2022 than it did in 2021. So I thought I would check in with Yael Cabilly to see what may be in store for 2023.

I predict (and hope) that Amazon will finally acknowledge the FBA acquisitions and will formalize the seller-buyer-Amazon relationships: Aggregators (or buyers that acquire several brands) will be able to apply for a special “aggregators program”, whereby: 1. Accounts transfers will become official, with clear rules and verifications, perhaps similar to those set in Europe. 2. Buyers will be allowed to use the same entity, and the accounts won’t be linked. 3. Amazon will set clear rules when it comes the Aggregator’s liability for seller’s past actions and beaches of TOS.

The world of acquisition has not been limited to brands as we have seen many agencies and tool providers deal with similar challenges.

Now, I would have guessed that Vanessa Hung would have had a prediction based on the Spanish-speaking population in the United States, as she has so beautifully demonstrated this to many sellers helping them to tap an underserved market, but she took a different approach.

Amazon will give more data about products and keywords at a category level to incentivize more product launches.

I will remind you, don't sleep on the Spanish market for US sales.

Podcast host and educator Sharon Even shared some predictions related to the current economic conditions.

Products in which the buying decisions of consumers were more “design dependent” (rather than review or price dependent) may become a mixture of design + price?

This would mean that if you are niche where you could get away with higher pricing due to being the only one with a specific design/functionality differentiation point, you may now see a shift in the way buyers make their buying decisions.

A trend I was starting to see in 2022 is one that Liz Saunders of Jungle Scout thinks will continue in 2023.

Amazon sellers will look for additional supplier options outside of China.

Liz also commented on the importance of influencers and off-Amazon traffic which are topics we already covered.

Now this prediction may have political influences as Jana Krekic thinks that...

TikTok is going to be the dominant social media shopping platform by the end of next year.

I have no doubt that TikTok is an untapped resource for many Amazon sellers, just search "TikTok made me buy it" and you will see. But, with governments getting weary of the platform, it will be interesting to see what transpires.

Speaking of influencers, Julia Arheden knows the space and has a prediction as well.

2023 will be the year when influencers with unattainable lifestyles will loose their relevance.

I think my response to Julia was...."I finally have a chance". But all joking aside, shoppers are looking for "real" and "authentic" content and I agree with Julia that as economic pressures increase shoppers will look for content they can relate to.

Staying on the topic of influencers I will add one more from Gracey R. who has built a career developing content and generating sales on Amazon.

“short-form shoppable content” that is quick, engaging, and product-focused.

This is similar to what we are seeing with the recent launch of Amazon's Inspire. Grace also agrees with Julia that we will see a shift to smaller-scale influencers and media creators.

All this talk of influencers reminds us that organic tools on Amazon like stores, posts, and follow will become more important. Rachel Johnson Greer shared her prediction for how brands need to think about this trend.

I predict that Amazon will become the top channel to connect with customers ready to engage directly with a brand and buy their product in 2023.

As this occurs brands need to think about how to attract new customers to their brands, not just their products.

So with all these predictions, how do you plan for the future? Jing Gao shared that we need to look to 2019 and 2020 as our baselines for growth.

we are preparing to stock wisely, with a heavier focus on the growth from 2019 and 2020 instead of the more recent two years.

This makes a lot of sense as the past two years had inflated growth as much of it was fueled by the pandemic.

Vermont Teddy Bear Company is a company rich in history growing from a traditional catalog retailer to the eCommerce Teddy Bear that they are today. Over the years I have learned a lot from Liz LaVallee and greatly respect her opinions.

What do customers want today? Authenticity. There will continue to be more brand features, more badges to flag yourself as a legitimate brand, more opportunities for brands on Amazon to engage with their customers.

Liz loves Tailored Audiences which was a beta in 2022 and hopes that Amazon will introduce more ways for authentic brands to engage with customers.

And one of the best ways to learn more is to dive deeper into data. Elizabeth Greene has always been data-driven, which is why her prediction doesn't surprise me.

The first is access to data. Not only in available reports but continuing to develop dashboards and update the existing UIs so sellers can better understand and take action based on that new data.

I think that Elizabeth is right, and we will see more data sets.

What are your predictions for 2023? Let me know below.