Amazon have released their 2016 Amazon.co.uk Trends Report which, while it’s definitely worth browsing, is somewhat short on marketplace seller trends this year.
An interesting date for your diary is that sales of Christmas related products indicated that our Christmas shopping started in earnest on Wednesday 19th October. Unsurprising Christmas sales on Amazon.co.uk then peaked during their extended Black Friday Sale event, which this year ran from 14th to 25th of November.
For 2017 you’ll want to be set up ready with your Christmas stock live by the middle of October as that’s when shoppers start buying gifts in earnest. Preparations for Black Friday shouldn’t be left to the last minute and, as well as knowing any discounts you’re be running, you should be preparing your website and marketplace shops to take full advantage.
There’s no surprise that the Trends report touches on Amazon’s media empire (largely intended to attract consumers to sign up for Amazon Prime), fast delivery including Prime Now and smart homes including the Amazon Echo, Dot and Dash series of products.
What’s lacking in the report is some serious indepth analysis of what makes a marketplace seller successful. Indicating that “Tens of thousands” sell on Amazon.co.uk’s marketplace, half of all purchases on Amazon’s global sites come from Marketplace Sellers and that 60% of UK sellers export is about as far as Amazon go although they do reveal that Amazon.co.uk experts were £1.8 billion in 2016, up 29% year-on-year.
We’d have liked to see some seller profiles which indicated success compared to peers and what tools or services the merchants used to merit mentioning. Sellers highlighted in the document are merely deemed worthy based on product catalogue and location within the UK, but we’re sure they probably have interesting stories to tell and tips to share.
Are they FBA sellers? Are any of them on the Seller Fulfilled Prime program? Do they export and which of Amazon’s export programs have they found more successful? These are the questions we’d have like to see asked but are sadly missing.
Download Amazon’s 2016 Trend Report for yourself today and let us know what you’d like to see it contain next year.
One Response
Quite an entertaining little document. Though they are obviously careful about what they are prepared to release publicly. Be nice to see some data and graphs – but I don’t see that happening.
However – I love the fact that Scotland still loves The Broons and Oor Wullie (used to be a Christmas staple for me), and that Aberdonians buy the CD of local lassie Emilie Sandie.
Most important page I think though is the Fast Delivery summary and the push for more immediate gratification from all of us. Amazon are continually setting the expectations in this area, interesting times.