Amazon has long been one of the biggest online retailers and as well as selling its own products, it also offers access to what is effectively their own online marketplace. Recently, the Amazon Marketing Services (AMS) division has announced the launch of Pages, Posts, and Analytics – three features that are designed to give small businesses greater exposure and greater opportunity to sell their products via the Amazon marketplace.
Amazon Pages
Amazon Pages are custom destinations that are created by the page owner. They have branded URLs in the form of www.Amazon.com/brandname website addresses and they can be heavily customised using an apparently intuitive online editor. You can add photos, branded logos, and you can even add your own posts, which we’ll come to in a minute. Initially, users will pick from a selection of different templates before adding content and changing the layout to perfectly fit their needs.
Amazon Posts
One of the elements that can be added to the new Amazon Pages is the Amazon Posts social feature. These represent a direct move towards greater social media integration from the world’s largest online marketplace. You can create your own posts, add them to your branded Amazon Page and you can even cross promote them directly through Facebook too. As any good marketer will tell you, social integration is becoming a necessity for the modern business and whether you sell from your spare room or a bricks and mortar store you should be looking for ways to expand into the social marketplace.
Post To Facebook
With the Amazon Posts feature it is not only possible to post to both Amazon and Facebook simultaneously but you can also schedule posts to be published when you want them to appear. Posts can be further enhanced through the addition of products or images making Amazon’s foray into the social space a potentially beneficial one for sellers too.
Amazon Analytics
The final addition in this trio of Marketplace additions is Amazon Analytics. This isn’t a full analytics package but it does enable new Page users to be able to view the performance of their pages and posts. You will be able to view information such as page views and determine whether posting to Facebook and releasing new Posts on Amazon has any kind of direct influence over your Amazon Marketplace sales figures.
The New Social Amazon
This could represent the beginning of a new social Amazon. Customer reviews and ratings are already a staple part of the marketplace diet but with the introduction of these new features and the likelihood of Amazon being granted its own Top Level Domains in the near future, could it just be the first step towards trying to take on the likes of Facebook and Google Plus? Will there be any additional integration with social media sites like Pinterest and Flickr?
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