💩 Taking a sh*t pays big $ on Amazon

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Remember the Carnival of Dreams party? That was just the beginning.

🎄 Watch for an announcement soon on how you can 'Light Up the World' this holiday season with 400 other Amazon sellers in Austin, TX on December 13.

🗓️ Mark your calendar, you don't want to miss it. [ sponsorships available ]

💰 BILLION DOLLAR STRATEGIES
→ what you need to know to make moolah

Should you include humans in your product images?

When determining whether to feature people in product images, consider the product type. For items where customers rely on human representation to gauge quality, such as apparel, beauty products, or jewelry, it's beneficial to include people in the images, as supported in a study by Hassanein & Head.

For most other products, it's preferable to display items on their own. For example, a 2023 study analyzing 10,000 Instagram photos found that travel destinations garnered fewer likes when a person was present in the image.

This trend also negatively impacted sales.

The reasons include:

• Sense of Ownership: If the product appears to belong to someone else, it diminishes the personal connection. Instead put it in usage context.

• Contagion Concern: Items touched by others can be perceived as less pristine.

• Perceived Commonality: Products seem less exclusive or unique when associated with others.

In non-sales or lead-gen, photos or videos where you are trying to make an emotional connection, and not a straight up sale, it’s OK and often advisable to include human faces to get a conversion lift. Showing a human face over just a non-identifiable human body can lift conversion by 37% in these cases.

To be clear, it's advisable to exclude images of symbolic customers. However, showcasing service providers, especially when they don't represent potential buyers, remains beneficial.

QUICK HITS:

→ More aggregators in trouble. Thrasio is exploring bankruptcy after raising $3.4 billion to buy Amazon businesses. Benitago filed bankruptcy in August after raising $345 million and Perch can’t find a willing buyer.

→ Fake reviews: Up to 10% of Amazon shoppers in the UK are offered bribes by sellers to leave 5-star reviews or change negative ones, via package inserts or email.

 🔥 PRIME PICKS
→ Amazon’s sandbox

WALMART HITS 100,000 SELLERS, AMAZON 2 MILLION

The number of sellers in Walmart’s marketplace has doubled since the beginning of 2022. There are now 100,000 active seller accounts.

Early growth was mostly from Chinese-based sellers, but as of late that trend has reversed, with most new sellers now being from the USA. 95% of the items sold on the Walmart Marketplace are from third party sellers.

By contrast, Amazon has about 2,000,000 active third-party sellers. Between them, they sell about 7,500 units per minute in the US marketplace.

AMAZON INVESTS $4 BILLION in CHAT GPT RIVAL CLAUDE

Amazon has agreed to pour as much as $4B (£3.3bn) into Anthropic, the AI firm that created Claude, a ChatGPT competitor. The initial investment is $1.25 billion.

The move mirrors Microsoft's earlier partnership with OpenAI, highlighting the ongoing race among tech giants to harness the potential of AI.

Amazon plans to first utilize AI to enhance the conversational capabilities of Alexa.

The collaboration will allow Anthropic access to Amazon's vast computing power. Amazon developers will be able to utilize Claude 2, Anthropic's latest AI model, to develop new applications and improve existing ones.

The partnership also signifies the tech giants' ambition to challenge Nvidia's dominance in the AI chip market. Anthropic will be using Amazon's Trainium and Inferentia chips, specifically designed for generative AI applications.

💰 SPARE CHANGE
→ immediate impact tips

RE-PRICER WARNING + MAKE $ with DYNAMIC PRICING

A lot of third party Amazon re-pricing tools have “blindspots” that can make them inaccurate and ineffective. This was the finding of Peter Valley of FBA Mastery, who set up a sting operation to catch companies making false promises about their tools.

He sent emails to 22 repricing companies, posing as a potential customer, to inquire about any data blindspots in their software. The goal was to determine if these companies would admit to the known limitations.

• 15 companies denied the existence of the FBA blindspot

• 2 companies were honest about the blindspot (Sellery & RepriceIt)

Check out the entire test he did and his hall of shame of bad re-pricers.

However, did you know there is a GOOD re-pricing option built into Seller Central?

Amazon’s built-in Automate Pricing tool adjusts prices based on factors like demand, supply volume and competition.

It enables sellers to remain competitive, optimize product prices, boost conversion rates, and generate more profit using algorithms. 

• Factors Amazon Uses in Dynamic Pricing:

  • Demand Volume: Prices may rise with high demand and low inventory, and decrease with low demand.

  • Stock Volume: Prices might increase when stock is low to prevent stockouts and decrease when there's excess stock.

  • Product Visit: Based on how often customers visit a product page, prices might be adjusted.

  • Day and Time of Purchase: Amazon may adjust prices based on when customers are more likely to browse and buy.
    

• Benefits of Dynamic Pricing:

  • Increased Sales: Competitive prices can attract more buyers.

  • Competitive Edge: Helps sellers remain competitive in pricing wars.

  • Enhanced Customer Experience: Tailored prices based on customer data can improve the shopping experience.
    

• Drawbacks of Dynamic Pricing:

  • Lower Profit Margin: Constantly adjusting prices can affect profitability.

  • Privacy Issues: The data-driven nature of dynamic pricing can raise privacy concerns.

  • Negative Customer Perception: Frequent price changes might make customers feel they're not getting a fair deal.

Sellers can use pre-defined rules or create customized ones based on various criteria, such as the Buy Box price or prices on other online platforms.

Step-by step guide on how to use automated pricing on Amazon.

If you prefer a more advanced tool not run by Amazon, try Profasee. It let’s brands predict and make adjustments to deliver the perfect price for every product at the right moment.

AWESOME → AMAZON COUPONS on STEROIDS

This new tool from Amazon will allows you to supercharge customer retention and boost repeat sales.

You know those promotional text messages you receive from brands after making a purchase, offering exclusive discounts?

Amazon has now launched its own version called "Reordering Customers" available within the Seller Central Coupon Module.

Essentially, these are exclusive coupons presented solely to returning customers, aiming to secure their loyalty. These offers should be more enticing than those for first-time buyers, emphasizing the value of these repeat customers.

By providing a standout customer experience, you can significantly boost the lifetime value of each customer. Experiment with different discount values and coupon stacking to see what resonates most.

Amazon charges a fee of 17¢ per customer who clips the coupon, and another fee of 8¢ if they redeem it.

🛠️ FEATURED TOOLS and RESOURCES
 → all the kool kids use these

24 MONTHS of SEARCH VOLUME & RANK DATA

Bradley Sutton says this is by far one of his favorite tools at Helium 10. For the past year, it has only been available to Helium 10 Elite members. But now it is available to Helium 10 Diamond members as well.

Using Cerebro, you can explore historical search volume and historical rank for the past 24 months. It's like having a time machine for your Amazon research. Compare one or many ASINs at once.

Reverse engineer success of your products and your competitors. Dive deep into research on seasonal keywords, especially as Q4 is upon us.

WALMART MARKETPLACE QUIETLY INTRODUCES SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Late last month, Walmart discreetly launched a subscription service, rivaling Amazon’s Subscribe & Save program that debuted in 2007.

Customers can set intervals from one week to six months and choose from both private-label and national brands.

While Amazon offers up to 15% discounts on subscriptions and reported over $1 billion in customer savings last year, Walmart.com is set to introduce Brand Shops, akin to Amazon Storefronts.

🗣️ COMMUNITY SHOUT-OUTS
 → Tidbits from readers who share the newsletter

🔌 ECOM POWER VIRTUAL SUMMIT

The very first in-depth virtual summit for both new and experienced sellers navigating selling on the Walmart.com marketplace is happening next week.

Hosted by Michal Chapnick and Norm Farrar, the eCom Power Summit features 21 speakers helping you grow your business on Walmart by showing you what’s working right now.

It’s a free virtual event. You can register here.

Want to be featured in this section? Use your referral link in this email to refer at least 10 active subscribers, then email me to get your event, course, webinar or tool “Shouted-Out” free to 5,000+ subscribers.

🛒  MONEY NEVER SLEEPS
→ real products … real sales … real reviews

Who says taking a poop doesn’t pay?

The creator of the Toilet Timer says it does!

This is a classic example of creatively re-purposing a common product - a timer, and tailoring it for a specific niche to make bank ($400,000/year).

It’s selling 2,000 units / $30,000 a month on Amazon. It’s racked up more than 18,000 reviews too and was featured on ABC’s Shark Tank TV show.

With white elephant and stocking-stuffer season coming, look for sales to skyrocket.

✌🏼 Eso es todo por hoy!

Be sure to tell a couple friends about the newsletter so I can send you the 186 hacks pdf!

See you again on Thursday …

The answer to today’s STUMP BEZOS is
12% according to Business Insider