eCommerce Deep Dive · 2023-05-10 · 4 min
Key moments - from our scoring
Substance score
19 / 100
Five dimensions, 20 points each
This episode provides a comprehensive monthly roundup of significant e-commerce industry developments, with particular focus on Amazon's evolving advertising and retail infrastructure. Nate Hogel walks through seven major Amazon updates alongside competitive moves from Walmart and emerging trends on Twitch. Key Amazon changes include the deprecation of simple remarketing pixels in favor of the new Amazon ad tag (which supports web-based and off-Amazon signals for improved audience creation), the launch of Brand Profile for consistent brand storytelling across the platform, and new flexible store visit insights in Amazon Marketing Cloud (AMC) for cross-journey analysis. Operationally, Amazon is expanding just-walkout technology to college campuses via Transact Campus, introducing a dashboard showing brand impression share by ad type, and implementing return rate transparency warnings to discourage low-quality products. For Amazon sellers and DSP advertisers, these changes require immediate action on pixel migration and present opportunities to leverage new brand visibility and measurement tools. Walmart's redesign emphasizing personalized recommendations and streamlined checkout signals intensifying competitive pressure in the retail space.
Amazon will deprecate simple remarketing pixels in June 2023. Advertisers should transition to the new Amazon ad tag, which tracks web-based and off-Amazon signals for complete audience creation and conversion measurement with Amazon DSP.
Brand Profile allows sellers to showcase their unique logo, content, name, and colors across Amazon to help tell their brand story and create a consistent, recognizable presence that may attract more customers. MediaMonks teams can also test brand content in different placements.
Amazon Marketing Cloud now supports flexible store visit insights that advertisers can combine with advertising signals to gather deeper cross-journey insights and better understand cross-channel marketing efforts.
Amazon now warns shoppers about frequently returned products, increasing transparency, discouraging purchases of low-quality items, and incentivizing sellers to address issues that lead to higher return rates.
Our reviewer’s read on each dimension, with quotes from the episode.
Eight updates are crammed into four minutes but each receives only 2-3 sentences of surface-level summary with almost no analytical depth or non-obvious takeaways; the episode functions as a changelog digest rather than a source of real operator insight.
We encourage all of our partners to use this new feature as an opportunity to identify and address any issues leading to higher return rates.
This new feature is currently in beta but our teams are on the lookout for widespread rollouts
There is zero contrarian or first-principles thinking; every 'recommendation' is obvious (transition to the replacement tag, monitor your return rates) and the framing is purely reactive news-reading with no original perspective added.
Our team recommends everyone transition to their new ad tag before the deprecation.
Walmart hopes that this new rollout will help it compete more effectively with other retailers in the e-commerce space.
This is a solo monologue by a host who identifies himself as Director of Program Development at an agency; there is no guest at all, and the host shares no practitioner war stories or proprietary experience to justify his authority on these topics.
I'm your host, Nate Hogel, Director of Program Development at MediaMonks.
Our team is here to assist with these changes, so feel free to reach out to your advertising manager for any questions
The episode names a few real entities (Transact Campus, Amazon DSP, AMC, Brand Profile) and one concrete date (June 2023 deprecation), but provides zero performance data, dollar figures, case studies, or measurable outcomes to substantiate any claim.
Amazon will deprecate the creation of new simple remarketing pixels in June 2023.
Amazon continues to push traditional retail boundaries by collaborating with Transact Campus to bring its just walkout technology to college campuses.
This is a scripted solo monologue with no interview, no questions, no follow-ups, and no productive tension whatsoever; the format structurally precludes any conversational craft.
That's all for our monthly updates in March 2023. We hope you found this episode helpful in staying up to date on the latest trends in e-commerce.
Computed from the transcript - who did the talking, and the words that came up most.
In this episode of eCommerce Deep Dive, Nate Hogle, Director of Program Development at Media.Monks, covers the latest Amazon updates for the month of March 2023.
Transcribed and scored by The B2B Podcast Index.
Welcome back to the e-commerce deep dive, where we bring you the latest news and trends in the e-commerce world. I'm your host, Nate Hogel, Director of Program Development at MediaMonks. Today, we'll take a look at some of the most significant updates in the e-commerce industry that occurred in March 2023. First up, Amazon will deprecate the creation of new simple remarketing pixels in June 2023.
Our team recommends everyone transition to their new ad tag before the deprecation. The Amazon ad tag is a viable alternative as it can track web-based and off Amazon signals for complete audience creation and conversion measurement with the Amazon DSP. The simple pixel had measurement and efficiency limitations and required third-party cookies for identity resolution. This change will hopefully enable improved measurement off of the platform, especially given the limitations of the pixel.
Our team is here to assist with these changes, so feel free to reach out to your advertising manager for any questions Next up Twitch has seen fast growth in VTube content which is content from digitally created avatars The success of the VTube genre on YouTube is a big win for content creation across platforms. As live streaming continues to evolve, we are keeping an eye on how Twitch leans into AI and impacts the industry. Moving on to our third update, Amazon continues to push traditional retail boundaries by collaborating with Transact Campus to bring its just walkout technology to college campuses.
The technology provides a more seamless shopping experience for tech-savvy students and benefits campus stores by improving labor efficiency and providing valuable insights into the store and shelf performance. Our fourth update is about a new program in the ad console called Brand Profile, which allows you to showcase your brand's unique logo, content, name, colors, and more to shoppers across Amazon. This helps you tell your brand story and create a consistent, recognizable presence that may attract more customers.
Creating a brand profile also lets our team test your brand content in different placements across Amazon Moving on to our fifth update Amazon now supports flexible store visit insights in Amazon Marketing Cloud Advertisers can use this to their advantage by combining store visits and advertising signals to gather deeper cross-journey insights. AMC will continue introducing new paid features and capabilities over time to better understand cross-channel marketing efforts and customize your AMC experience.
Next, Amazon has started warning shoppers about frequently returned products sold on its platform. This feature leads to greater transparency, discourages shoppers from buying low-quality products that are often returned, and encourages sellers to improve on issues that lead to higher product returns. We encourage all of our partners to use this new feature as an opportunity to identify and address any issues leading to higher return rates. Moving on to update number seven, Amazon has also added a new dashboard to the brand metrics tab in the Amazon ad console, which shows brand impression share across branded terms for any given week and breaks it out by ad type This new feature is currently in beta but our teams are on the lookout for widespread rollouts Lastly Walmart has recently launched a new redesign of its e-commerce site and mobile app to enhance the shopping experience for its customers.
The site also includes new features such as personalized recommendations based on a customer's previous purchases and search history. In addition, the redesign aims to create a more seamless and efficient checkout process for online shoppers. Walmart hopes that this new rollout will help it compete more effectively with other retailers in the e-commerce space. That's all for our monthly updates in March 2023.
We hope you found this episode helpful in staying up to date on the latest trends in e-commerce. If you have any thoughts on the latest e-commerce news, notes, changes, or want more insights, head to our LinkedIn page to stay updated on the latest e-commerce trends. Thanks for tuning in to the e-commerce deep dive. We'll catch you in the next episode when we review the month of April 2023.
Cheers.
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