Amazon Accelerate 2024 Recap

After a whirlwind week in Seattle, I sifted through my notes and other posts from last week to document all the announcements and drops made at Amazon Accelerate. I am sure that I missed a few. If you see one, let me know. One thing to note, at events like these we start to get a look at where things are going. Many announcements are early-stage projects that will develop over the next 3, 6, 9, or 12 months. If you test something today, realize that it will change and evolve.

Here are my three biggest takeaways:

1. AI is creating efficiencies and providing a better seller experience. These products will only get better over time.
2. Amazon is flexing Prime to meet shoppers where they are shopping. This is evident in many of the advancements with Buy with Prime. You should if you have a DTC website and haven’t looked into this.
3. Amazon Shipping now provides end-to-end logistics, a trend that has been developing for years. Amazon can now transport your product from the manufacturer to the end customers at a competitive price.

If you are serious about selling on Amazon, this event is the FLAGSHIP conference. Every seller and service provider I spoke with shared that this is the show they circle and want to attend. While this recap covers the announcements, that is just one fraction of the show's value. The event hosts hundreds of seller cafe meetings, allowing sellers to get their questions answered. It also has high-quality content sessions that provide additional releases and a deeper dive into ways to grow your business with Amazon.

Generative AI and the Seller Experience

AI was the start of the second keynote, but I think it was the most relevant for most attendees. Remember that AI is evolving, and many of these tools are in their early stages. These tools will only become more valuable to sellers as they get smarter. Don’t expect them to do everything on day 1!

Amazon Ads launches a new AI Video generator.

What is it? It is a video generator that creates video content in minutes and at no additional cost. Using a single product image, the Video generator curates custom AI-generated videos tailored to a product's distinct selling proposition and features, leveraging Amazon's unique insights to vividly bring a product story to life. Amazon Ads also introduced a new live image capability that makes it fast and easy for brands to create short, animated campaign images.

Why should you care? Video has proven to be a valuable asset for product promotion, with this free tools anyone can test video ads to see how they work for their brand. Read more

AI-based selling assistant code-named Project Amelia

What is it: Project Amelia provides sellers with an all-in-one, generative AI-based selling expert that is always available to immediately provide sellers with the answers, advice, and tools they need to succeed.

Why should you care? Simply ask Project Amelia a question, and get a response with accurate information and guidance, allowing you to more easily and efficiently manage their business. Read more

Other AI Announcements

• Product Listing Improvements—Generative AI will help you refine your product listing to be more relevant to shoppers. Sellers can upload text, images, or a URL from their own brand website, and the AI tool will convert those inputs to an Amazon format and fill out product attributes on their behalf.
• Customer Return Analytics and Insights—This tool combines metrics from across your business—sales, traffic, inventory, and ad performance. It provides templates, or you can create your own interactive dashboard (Ready in the coming weeks).
• A+ Content Manager—Building upon last year's update, these new features allow sellers to generate more robust A_ content pages.
• Business Planner - A new tool designed to help you set, track, and achieve your goals.
• Next Gen Seller Central - Amazon is rethinking Seller Central and testing how they would build it fresh in 2024. This is an experience you can test at: Nextgenselling.amazon.com

Buy with Prime

The first keynote focused on over a dozen announcements related to Buy with Prime. This program has really evolved and provides your brand the opportunity to use the power of Prime to meet your customers where they shop. Buy with Prime has seen incredible growth: so far this year, over 25% more brands and 45% more orders year-over-year, driven by an average increase of 16% revenue per visitor.

• TikTok - Buy with Prime merchants will be able to display the Prime brand and real-time delivery estimates in their TikTok Ads next month. After clicking the Shop with Prime button within the merchant’s ad, shoppers will be directed to the merchant’s website to place their order.
• Ad Targeting—Amazon DSP will be available to sellers utilizing Buy with Prime on their DTC websites, increasing the amount of data and signals available to these brands.
• Paypal Shipping Option—Next year, Prime members can automatically link their PayPal and Amazon accounts to receive their Prime shipping benefits on merchants’ websites.
• Shopify: Prime members can purchase items with Prime and without Prime in one order on Shopify stores, increasing units per order and average order value for merchants.
• Faster Multi-Channel Fulfillment Delivery: Amazon increased the speed for Standard Delivery by 40% at no extra cost to merchants.
• Delivery Estimates: Buy with Prime merchants will be able to display Prime real-time delivery estimates in their TikTok Ads. Later this year, merchants using Amazon MCF can show a dynamic delivery date on their website, in their Google Shopping ads and search results, and in their TikTok ads.

Read about all the Buy With Prime Announcements

Amazon Shipping

• MK30—One-hour drone delivery will start testing later this year in Arizona and Italy. (Does anyone want to go on a trip?)
• Amazon’s three-day shipping will be listed on Google shopping tiles
• Launch of Amazon shopping app—The app allows sellers to schedule pickups directly from their warehouse, oversee inventory across warehouses, receive real-time updates on delivery vehicles, and access support from the palm of their hand.
• New Multi-Channel Distribution capabilities for moving products in bulk—MCD recently launched the ability to do custom labeling and prep, enabling the distribution of products to multiple sales channels, including other marketplace service providers, wholesalers, distributors, and sellers’ own physical stores.
• Faster Deliver—MCF is speeding up its Standard Delivery option by 40%, at no additional cost to sellers. Sellers can now enjoy a reduced Standard Delivery option from 5 business days to 3 business days, with deliveries made seven days a week.
• Proactive Reimbursements—Sellers no longer need to file reimbursement claims for lost items; Amazon will automatically reimburse them when they lose stuff.
• Inventory Defect and Reimbursement (IDR) Portal. This portal offers centralized visibility into sellers' defects, their status, and resolutions—all in one place for the very first time on Seller Central. The IDR Portal aggregates data from multiple reports, programs, policies, and help pages to reduce administrative burden and empower sellers with deeper insights into underlying defects. In beta, the IDR portal will be available to all US sellers in the coming months.

Read about all of the shipping announcements

Amazon Ads - Rising Stars

Amazon Ads unveiled "Rising Stars", a series of stories on small businesses from diverse industries and backgrounds in their own voices, featuring their ambitions, challenges and how they leveraged Amazon Ads to grow their business and brands.

See how CRBN Pickleball increased Prime Day sales by 14X

Learn how Kazi grew their business by more than 350%