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Amazon Japan under increased scrutiny
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timu and shien revolutionizing Black
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Friday marketing with aggressive keyword
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bidding and the first ever live selling
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analytics platform in the Tik Tok Shop
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app store this and more on this week's
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episode of the weekly Buzz how cool is
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that pretty cool I
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think hello everybody and welcome to
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another episode of the series sellers
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podcast by helium 10 I your host Bradley
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Sutton and this is the show that is our
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helium 10 weekly Buzz we give you a
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rundown of all the new stories that are
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going on in the Amazon Walmart and
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e-commerce world we highlight the latest
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new feature alerts from Helium 10 and we
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review a training tip of the week
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that'll give you serious strategies for
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serious sellers of any level in the
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e-commerce world today our host is going
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to be chiali Patel and so chiali take it
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away and let us know what's buzzing the
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first article we're covering today is a
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spicy news piece from brutter on
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November 26th Japan's Fair Trade
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Commission conducted an on-site
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inspection of Amazon Japan on suspicion
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of antimonopoly law violations the
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investigation stems from allegations
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that Amazon Japan pressured sellers to
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lower their prices in exchange for
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favorable placement on its platform a
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government Source disclosed that these
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practices might constitute irrational
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demands on sellers but this isn't the
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first time that Amazon Japan has faced
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scrutiny in 2018 in fact it was
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investigated for allegedly forcing
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suppliers to absorb costs related to
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Discount promotions while Amazon Japan
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has not addressed these current concerns
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they did address those concerns back
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then so hopefully in a bit of time
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that's going to change as well for this
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concern now Rutter has also reported
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last week that Amazon is likely to face
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a EU investigation next year on
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allegedly prioritizing its private label
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products over third party sellers I
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don't sell in the Japanese Marketplace
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but I would love to hear from you guys
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what has been your experience and if
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this is the first time that you're
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hearing about it maybe this is one of
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those things that you'll want to keep a
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on just to be safe and to see what sort
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of changes this brings about in the
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marketplace practices over there as this
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investigation does signal a potential
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tightening of regulations around
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e-commerce platforms cases like this are
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really what end up leading to changes in
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platform policies pricing strategies or
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seller agreements right so if you don't
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sell in Japan alternatively this with
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simultaneous investigations in Japan and
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Europe regardless of if you're a seller
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or agency you should expect similar
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regulatory measures in other markets
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noting that adapting to these sort of
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changes proactively could protect
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long-term business growth okay next up
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we have some more chatter on Rufus from
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Amazon so I've talked about Rufus quite
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a bit before on the weekly buzz but I'm
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covering it again this time of year
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simply because I do believe that this
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generative AI powered shopping assistant
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is about to be super powerful for
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millions of Shoppers designed to
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simplify shopping in General Rufus is
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likely to assist with tailored gift
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suggestions product comparisons party
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hosting help and even even help with
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crafting ideas and cooking advice okay
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so for example customers can ask rofus
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things like gifts for stem loving
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7-year-olds or practical tips such as
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comparing holiday Decor options the AI
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also tracks orders to help customers
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stay informed about their deliveries
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during the bustling holiday season so in
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addition Amazon's new AI shopping guides
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and Amazon lens enhances that shopping
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experience helping summarize product
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details to assist in
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decision-making while Amazon lens allows
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users to find products by scanning
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images or barcodes this is why if you're
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a seller I want to urge you to
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understand how these tools can direct
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traffic to your listings and optimize
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for AI queries rufus's ability to
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provide tailored suggestions means you
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really ought to need to focus on
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creating detailed optimized descriptive
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product listings to increase your
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chances of being recommended especially
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aligning your listing with seasonal
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specific prompts such as hosting
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gifts and crafting to capitalize on
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holiday Trends by using relevant
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keywords and highquality images to make
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products more likely to appear in rofus
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recommendations ensuring that your
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product information aligns with common
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decision-making factors summarized in
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those guides and that your images fit
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those holiday themes as well all right
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Switching gears what else do we have
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multiple sites like fmis are reporting
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fast growing e-commerce platforms timu
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and shien as revolutionizing Black
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Friday marketing by bidding
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fiercely on competitor Search keywords
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like Walmart Black Friday deals and Zara
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jeans okay this strategy has driven up
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cost per click prices forcing
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traditional retailers to reconsider
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their advertising budgets The increased
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costs are cutting into marketing Roi
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prompting many businesses to shift their
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focus to platforms like Facebook and Tik
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Tok or even traditional advertising
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channels to attract loyal high margin
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customers rather than bargain shoppers
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this approach signals a broader Trend in
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retail marketing prioritizing long
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longterm Customer Loyalty over those
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short-term Sal spikes and if you're a
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seller here are three reasons why this
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could be relevant to you one Rising CPC
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costs with timu and she and increasing
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competition for high value keywords you
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might see higher ad costs so re-evaluate
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your ad budgets and keyword strategies
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to maintain profitability we actually
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post strategies every single week on
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YouTube and I recommend going in and
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watching some of those to make sure that
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you are finding places of opportunity to
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tee up I also think that this showcases
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the importance of a pivot towards social
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platforms like Tik Tok and Facebook and
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finding those alternative cost-effective
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ways to reach your audience and build
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brand loyalty that you can then later
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retain by providing exceptional value
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and service regarding the same platforms
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where is that Kermit drinking tea mean
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when you need it the fashion law reports
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the legal fight between Ultra fast
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fashion Giant shien and timu has
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intensified as shien urges a federal
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Court to reject teemu's motion to
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dismiss its lawsuit shein accused timu
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of engaging in unfair competition
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through trade secret misappropriation
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false advertising trademark dilution
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liable Etc the lawsuit filed in August
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alleges that timu unlawfully use shien's
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trademarks and confidential business
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information directing influencers to
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disparage shien's products and infringe
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on copyrights Teemu on the other hand
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claims that Sheen is leveraging the
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lawsuit to stifle competition and
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disrupt its operations in the US teemu's
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parent company PDD Holdings down here
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has filed to dismiss the motion arguing
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jurisdictional issues and alleging that
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Sheen has acted as a bad actor by
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issuing unwarranted takedown notices and
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interfering with Merchant relationships
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I think this legal dispute highlights
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the Cutthroat competition in the
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e-commerce space where fast growing
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platforms like shien and timu POS
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significant challenges to establish play
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like Amazon and Walmart I know as a
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seller when both platforms were Rising I
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was pretty concerned about pricing Wars
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but things like this can also cause
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potential shifts in consumer Behavior
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driven by these platforms and they
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remind us just how important it is to
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protect your intellectual property and
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have honest marketing practices so
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review your brand protections and
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advertising claims to protect what you
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own and as always diversify you guys can
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you imagine getting stuck in business
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practices because you're just on one of
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these platforms anyways we'll continue
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to monitor the outcomes to understand
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how these rulings might impact future
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business practices so stay tuned on
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future episodes of the weekly Buzz going
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back to Amazon Amazon ads also just
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unveiled the dynamic traffic engine it's
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in beta and it's a groundbreaking tool
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designed to optimize programmatic ad
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buying by sending low demand or high
00:07:49
demand signals to supply side platforms
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otherwise known as ssps Dynamic traffic
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engine helps ssps prioritize ad requests
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that are more likely to generate impress
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this reduces unnecessary bid processing
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and network costs improving efficiency
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for all the stakeholders in the ad
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supply chain in early tests ssps saw a
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40% reduction in low demand requests and
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a 7% Improvement in fill rates as well
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as increase ad spend per million
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requests this tool is already being used
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by other ssps but you guys since this is
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meant to streamline the delivery of
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relevant ads ensuring that buyers and
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sellers are connecting more effectively
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this is the sort of thing that can help
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you target audiences with greater
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Precision boosting your ad campaign Roi
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by minimizing those inefficiencies in
00:08:37
that buying process and the ad buying
00:08:39
process this goes hand inand with
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improved campaign relevance as accessing
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a more targeted pool of Impressions
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leads to the higher quality traffic and
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better campaign results hopefully those
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of you that are using Amazon ads can
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experience lower costs and better
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performance myself included ensuring
00:08:56
that our marketing dollars are going
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better and further we also have Amazon's
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discounted Prime membership for young
00:09:02
adults ages 18 to 24 and higher
00:09:05
education students provides all the
00:09:06
benefits of a standard Prime membership
00:09:08
at half the cost for just $749 per month
00:09:11
or $69 annually eligible members can
00:09:13
enjoy perks like fast free delivery
00:09:16
access to Prime video exclusive Prime
00:09:18
Day deals and more additional benefits
00:09:21
include travel discounts through student
00:09:22
Universe offering 10% off flights Amazon
00:09:25
gift cards for hotel bookings Etc yada y
00:09:29
y but the discounted membership does
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specifically Target young adults and
00:09:32
students who represent a significant
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section of online Shopper so if it makes
00:09:38
sense for your products I would consider
00:09:39
optimizing your product offerings for
00:09:42
catering to this audience's preferences
00:09:44
and needs lower cost Prime memberships
00:09:46
May encourage those young adults to shop
00:09:48
more frequently on Amazon and I have one
00:09:52
last fun one for the road because I'm a
00:09:53
Steve Madden shoelover that is Amazon
00:09:56
announced that the buy with Prime
00:09:59
program is now going to be on
00:10:01
stevemadden.com giving us-based Prime
00:10:03
members access to their beloved shopping
00:10:06
benefits directly on the iconic shoe
00:10:07
Brand's website Shoppers can now enjoy
00:10:10
fast free delivery easy returns and a
00:10:13
streamlined checkout process when
00:10:15
purchasing that signature shoe style be
00:10:18
it the Madrid or Aster collections
00:10:20
launched in 2022 by with prime enables
00:10:23
direct consumer Merchants to integrate
00:10:25
Amazon's fulfillment Network into their
00:10:26
own websites participant Merchants have
00:10:28
seen a 16% increase in Shopper
00:10:31
conversion rates and improved inventory
00:10:33
turnover the program's expansion to
00:10:36
Brands like this really illuminate their
00:10:38
ability to extend an influence beyond
00:10:40
the platform enabling sellers to tap
00:10:42
into Prime loyal customer base on other
00:10:44
sites this also cross sells trust in my
00:10:47
opinion and offers a really seamless
00:10:49
shopping experience so overall summation
00:10:51
here would really be that this serves as
00:10:53
an example in transforming
00:10:55
DTC e-commerce by reducing the customer
00:10:58
acquisition costs and building long-term
00:11:02
Shopper loyalty utilizing other brands
00:11:04
so if you operate a DTC website consider
00:11:07
adopting buy with prime to attract new
00:11:08
customers and enhance operational
00:11:10
efficiency really make sure that you're
00:11:12
emphasizing the benefits of like fast
00:11:14
delivery hasslefree returns to reassure
00:11:17
those customers and drive conversions so
00:11:20
that does conclude our news piece for
00:11:22
this week for new feature alerts let me
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pass the Baton to Bradley all right next
00:11:26
up let's get into our new features alert
00:11:29
um all right so these two new features
00:11:31
are again I'm going to use go ahead and
00:11:32
use the word game changer this is
00:11:34
something that you have never been able
00:11:35
to do in any other tool guys uh all
00:11:37
right uh it's taking what we had with
00:11:40
our historical Amazon or historical
00:11:42
cerebro and taking it to the next level
00:11:43
all right this is available in the
00:11:45
diamond plan uh and above um it was only
00:11:48
available in Elite for a while now it's
00:11:49
down to the diamond plan but basically
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let's say you're looking at a competitor
00:11:53
or even your own listing um but let's
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just say in this case I'm looking at a
00:11:57
competitor coffin shelf and I'm looking
00:11:58
at their BS s r history over time all
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right so let me look all time so like
00:12:03
maybe right here I see that wow look at
00:12:05
this August September of 2023 their BSR
00:12:09
was sub 100,000 like they were they were
00:12:12
doing pretty well but then look at this
00:12:15
in November all of a sudden their BSR
00:12:19
was like over 200,000 so in other words
00:12:23
I can see clearly that my competitor
00:12:25
lost sales right uh I could look at this
00:12:28
the opposite way let's say from one
00:12:29
month to the next they actually gain
00:12:31
sales like look what happened in 2021
00:12:33
and then the next month you know uh they
00:12:35
gain sales but what do you want to know
00:12:37
right you'd probably want to know like
00:12:40
can I tie this drop in sales to them
00:12:43
losing traction on a keyword like maybe
00:12:47
they fell off the search results for a
00:12:49
keyword maybe they stopped advertising
00:12:51
top of search maybe their organic rank
00:12:54
dropped you can do that now with just a
00:12:57
few clicks you cannot do this with any
00:12:59
other keyword research tool guys all
00:13:01
right let me just show you how you can
00:13:03
do that uh going into cerebro you put
00:13:05
the as of the product that you are were
00:13:09
looking at on Amazon right and then
00:13:11
you're going to go to this monthly
00:13:13
comparison all right new button so I'm
00:13:16
going to go ahead and select here
00:13:17
October of 2023 I think um November uh
00:13:22
October November of 2023 let me just
00:13:24
check was that the good sales yeah
00:13:27
October was good and then all of a
00:13:29
sudden November became bad right so I
00:13:32
put October 2023 November 2023 hey in
00:13:35
month one where was a keyword rank in
00:13:38
the top 10 organically and then the
00:13:40
second month I'm going to put Z to zero
00:13:43
meaning hey it wasn't even ranking at
00:13:45
all all right and then as you can see
00:13:47
here a couple keywords came up small
00:13:49
home decor for shelves and shaped wall
00:13:52
shelf and you can see that in October
00:13:54
it's ranked three and eight and November
00:13:56
not R not me but my competitor dropped
00:13:59
off the rank maybe he got D Index uh the
00:14:02
more likely one is hey where were they
00:14:03
ranking the top 10 in October but maybe
00:14:06
they were outside of the top 10 from 11
00:14:09
to
00:14:10
306 in rank all right so I'm going to go
00:14:13
ahead and hit apply all right and then
00:14:14
as you can see here I put 1 to 10 11 to
00:14:16
306 and wow look at this 27 keywords
00:14:20
they had a drop like look at this one
00:14:21
home decor goth all right they were
00:14:24
ranked number four in October and then
00:14:26
they were ranked 28th they dropped off
00:14:28
the top of the page
00:14:29
uh here's another one witchie home decor
00:14:33
2,500 search volume in October November
00:14:36
had, 1500 search volume they were ranked
00:14:38
page one position one in October and
00:14:41
then in November dropped to page one
00:14:44
position 33 meaning that hey we can
00:14:47
definitely probably say that they
00:14:48
probably got some Less sales on this
00:14:50
keyword in November and again we can tie
00:14:55
their drop in sales to sear keywords
00:14:59
that they dropped in rank here's here's
00:15:01
one that's a big one goth home decor a
00:15:04
misspelling spelling Decor
00:15:06
dcore they went from rank three to rank
00:15:10
139 right you think they were getting
00:15:12
sales from a keyword that were they
00:15:13
ranked 139 probably not so this is a
00:15:16
really cool way to to kind of like you
00:15:20
know gauge where did your competitor
00:15:23
sales come from the the sales increase
00:15:25
where your competitor uh sales decreases
00:15:28
come from did it uh come from a loss in
00:15:31
rank uh a gain in rank you can do that
00:15:34
by looking at both organic rank or
00:15:36
sponsor like hey where did they take
00:15:37
their foot off the gas as far as
00:15:40
advertising goes maybe that's why that
00:15:42
they they uh you know stop selling as
00:15:44
much you could play with this tool a lot
00:15:46
of different ways guys speaking of uh
00:15:48
cerebra another kind of tool you can use
00:15:51
is AI filtering let's say I wanted to
00:15:53
search all of the keywords that uh this
00:15:56
collagen peptides is this called yeah
00:15:59
collagen Essence Korean face mask is
00:16:01
ranking for uh well I I would go ahead
00:16:03
and pull it into cerebro uh
00:16:06
9,700 keywords now we have got this AI
00:16:10
filter so for example I can s hit hey
00:16:13
show me all the Spanish keywords that
00:16:15
come up out of these 9,000 so I would
00:16:17
write with natural language the uh
00:16:20
filtering so that um you know whatever
00:16:22
I'm put in here was going to come up now
00:16:24
this is not a filter this is not AI to
00:16:26
kind of like ease these filters up here
00:16:28
like search volume volume and sponsored
00:16:29
Rank and title density no this is just
00:16:32
filtering with AI that has to do with
00:16:34
the keyword so watch I'm going to say
00:16:35
show only Spanish keywords and hit apply
00:16:38
filter and now as you can see here look
00:16:39
at all these Spanish keywords that came
00:16:41
up mascaria paros Negros
00:16:46
mascaria all of these Spanish keywords
00:16:48
came up within a few instances uh what
00:16:51
if I want to say hey um exclude all of
00:16:55
the Branded uh keywords I actually made
00:16:58
that one here so I I would say here
00:17:00
brand name removal and I would say
00:17:03
exclude any keywords containing brand
00:17:05
names like I don't want that to be in my
00:17:07
keyword list right and so here's my list
00:17:09
of all those keywords that do not have
00:17:11
brand names I could do the opposite I
00:17:13
could say
00:17:15
show
00:17:17
only keywords containing brand names put
00:17:21
that into the AI right here hit apply
00:17:23
filters and now let's take a look all
00:17:25
right look at all these keywords with
00:17:27
brand names biod Dan well nature medah
00:17:29
heal Tony Moy Freeman face mask the face
00:17:32
shop uh AI is going to detect which
00:17:35
keywords here in these search results
00:17:38
had brand names now ai is not 100%
00:17:41
always going to get things right you
00:17:43
guys know with any AI you know might
00:17:46
hallucinate and do some weird things but
00:17:48
play around with this guys all right let
00:17:50
us know what you think uh where doesn't
00:17:52
it give you the answers that you were
00:17:53
looking for make sure to let us know so
00:17:55
we can we can take a look and see if we
00:17:56
can train the model uh any better but
00:17:58
it's pretty cool you can now you know go
00:18:01
ahead and take out brand names take out
00:18:03
Spanish words see only Spanish words see
00:18:05
only brand names do all these uh fun
00:18:07
things with uh the results of cerebro
00:18:11
thanks Bradley how cool yeah I do hope
00:18:13
you guys take advantage of all the new
00:18:14
features we share with you every week
00:18:16
because they do originate from things
00:18:18
that you either request or because we
00:18:19
genuinely believe that they'll make your
00:18:21
life easier and of course this week
00:18:24
simply wouldn't be complete without you
00:18:26
receiving a training tip from us since
00:18:27
one of our new segments was about
00:18:29
upkeeping your listing to be aligned
00:18:30
with seasonal or holiday themed words
00:18:32
let me show you just one way of many
00:18:34
ways on how you can filter for gifting
00:18:36
keywords and phrases inside of helium 10
00:18:39
for this let's navigate over to magnet
00:18:41
magnet is a keyword for keyword research
00:18:43
tool meaning you can essentially input
00:18:45
in a keyword as I've done here I've
00:18:47
typed in coffin shelves you can type in
00:18:50
anything for your Niche and it's
00:18:52
essentially going to give you additional
00:18:54
related phrases that the products
00:18:56
showing up for this main keyword may
00:18:58
also be showing up for so here if we
00:19:00
take coffin shelf and click get keywords
00:19:02
this is sort of what we come to and we
00:19:04
can then filter for words like gift or
00:19:06
gifts so right here we are taking a look
00:19:08
at phrases containing and if I go in and
00:19:11
I type in gift or gifts and then I click
00:19:14
any if you want you can select all if
00:19:17
you have a series of keywords and as you
00:19:19
can see we have three come up here we
00:19:21
have coffin gift box this is a really
00:19:23
Niche down item you guys so I only have
00:19:25
three but you guys might have more and
00:19:27
so you can use this to to find keywords
00:19:29
that are trending now that might be
00:19:30
unique to this time of year for PPC
00:19:32
campaigns so another example of this
00:19:34
could be coffin gifts Gothic mom gifts
00:19:38
gifts for morticians has come up before
00:19:40
when we've done the search and you can
00:19:42
use this outside of just using that
00:19:43
historical Trends feature inside of
00:19:45
cerebra hopefully you know what I'm
00:19:46
talking about and if not you are maybe
00:19:48
scouting on Google or Tik Tok whatever
00:19:51
it is make sure that you guys take
00:19:52
advantage of this as well I've run the
00:19:55
search before for coffin shelves we have
00:19:57
gifts for morticians come up as a key
00:19:59
phrase so outside of using historical
00:20:01
Trends inside of cerebro or scouting for
00:20:03
keywords on Google or Tik Tok make sure
00:20:06
that you guys are taking advantage of
00:20:07
this too with that that is it for this
00:20:09
week I hope you learn something from
00:20:10
this week's weekly buzz and we'll see
00:20:12
you next week to see what's buzzing
00:20:14
[Music]
