1. Amazon and Snapchat join forces for a new AR Fashion Experience
Snap Inc, owners of Gen Z favourite Snapchat, have joined forces with Amazon to offer a new try-on Lenses filter for Snapchatters.
Launching with Eyewear Lenses from popular brands like Maui Jim, Persol, Oakley and Costa Del Mar, the partnership will create a fun, interactive and seamless Amazon shopping experience for Snapchat’s young, engaged and growing audience, which currently stands at around 350m daily users.
More product lines are planned for future roll-outs.
How will the Amazon X Snapchat AR Partnership work?
The partnership offers an exciting way for brands to leverage their Amazon AR assets on a new platform, showcasing products to a new generation of digital buyers where they regularly hang out.
With various ways to access the Lenses, Snapchatters will be able to virtually try on thousands of eyewear styles directly on Snapchat, and then seamlessly head over to buy their chosen items in the Amazon Fashion store.
Amazon Fashion is always looking for new ways to collaborate with brands and create fun, innovative shopping experiences for customers. Millions of customers regularly use Amazon’s AR shopping technology across categories in our stores, with Virtual Try-On for Eyewear being a long-time customer favourite. We are delighted to partner with Snapchat and further expand AR shopping for both fashion brands and today’s new generation of digital shoppers.
Muge Erdirik Dogan, president, Amazon Fashion
Snapchatters will be able to access Shopping Lenses:
- Through @amazonfashion’s Public Profile on Snapchat
- In Snap’s Lens Explorer via the “For You” and “Dress Up” tabs
- In the Snapchat Camera Lens Carousel
They will also be able to discover, browse and buy thousands of additional products directly from the @amazonfashion Snapchat profile (in the Amazon Fashion store tab).
Love to explore how your brand might benefit from this new partnership? Speak to our experts today.
2. Amazon increases sea transportation between Italy and Spain, reducing emissions and improving delivery times
Amazon has announced it will be shipping thousands of truckloads of inventory between Italy and Spain, rather than transporting by road.
The move will make use of multiple sea routes between the two countries, benefitting customers with a broader selection and faster deliveries, and Sellers with a greater geographical reach for their products in foreign marketplaces.
To ensure maximum benefits all round, Amazon will be analysing which items are ordered most frequently by location, enabling them to place inventory closer to where customers live.
Amazon has been using sea transportation to move products between its European locations since 2019, and is now operating more than 170 sea routes across the continent.
As part of their overall plans to become a net zero carbon business by 2040, they partner with European carriers like the Grimaldi Group, leading to more sustainable waterborne transportation by using eco-friendly hybrid vessels.
Almost half of our warehouse transfers between Italy and Spain are now transported by sea. By moving these products by sea, instead of via road by trucks, we can significantly reduce our carbon footprint on these routes. In 2022, Amazon will transfer thousands of truckloads between its buildings by sea in Europe, saving thousands of tons of CO₂ emissions, Sea routes provide a more efficient, less carbon intensive, and, in some cases faster mode of freight transport in comparison to other alternatives.
Helder Velho, EU Vice President, Surface Transportation
Wondering how this might affect or benefit your European market strategies?
Contact our team for the expert guidance you need.
3. Free Unbranded Packaging now available for UK Multi-Channel Fulfilment Orders
One of the biggest hang-ups we see for Sellers considering Amazon MCF (Multi-channel fulfilment) is a worry that their customers will be surprised – or worse, put off – when they receive products bought on the Seller’s other sales channels, but delivered in Amazon-branded packaging.
In response to these concerns, Amazon have now launched the MCF unbranded packaging programme, which allows Sellers to fulfil orders from off-Amazon sales channels in non-branded packaging, for free.
All MCF Sellers are now automatically enrolled in this programme, which covers all sortable items and items less than 45.72 x 35.56 x 20.32 cm, 9 kg or both.
Unbranded packaging materials include boxes, tape and poly bags.
But it’s worth noting that packages will still ship with an Amazon Logistics label.
Here’s how it works:
- Send your inventory to your Amazon fulfilment centre/s as normal, using your standard MCF inbound shipment creation process you follow for MCF.
- MCF will automatically place your inventory in the Amazon network for unbranded packaging fulfilment.
- MCF orders will be prioritised to ship in unbranded packaging when inventory is available for unbranded packaging.
- To find out how many of your orders are being shipped in unbranded packaging, check your performance dashboard.
Does this open up MCF as an option for you? Our team are on hand if you need help to get started.
4. Amazon launches Legal Action again Fake Review Brokers in Europe
Few things are more upsetting or frustrating for a brand than being targeted by fake reviews on Amazon.
Fortunately, Amazon are showing their determination to fight these “bad actors”, with unprecedented legal actions launched in Europe.
Amazon’s legal efforts to shut down these fake brokers have seen new criminal and lawsuit cases filed in Italy and Spain, and cease and desist letters obtained from 5 German websites that were directing visitors to a fake review broker.
Alongside 10 new lawsuits in the US, the 2 new proceedings in Italy and Spain target fake review brokers running more than 11,000 websites and social media groups that attempt to orchestrate fake reviews on Amazon and other stores in exchange for money or free products.
In Italy, Amazon’s criminal complaint targets a high-profile broker who claims to have built a network of individuals who are willing to buy products on Amazon and post 5-star reviews in exchange for a full refund.
In Spain, a civil complaint has been filed against fake review broker, Agencia Reviews, who communicate via Telegram to avoid detection.
Holding bad actors accountable through litigation and criminal referrals is one of many important ways that we protect customers so they can shop with confidence. In addition to continuing to advance our robust detection and prevention of fake reviews in our store, Amazon will remain relentless in identifying and enforcing against bad actors that attempt to engage in review abuse. There is no place for fake reviews on Amazon or anywhere else in the industry.
Dharmesh Mehta, Vice President of Selling Partner Services, Amazon
Amazon is devoting significant resource to investigating and bringing legal actions against fake review brokers, with a dedicated global team of expert investigators, lawyers, analysts, and other specialists tasked with tracking down fake review brokers, piecing together evidence about how they operate and taking legal action to stop the fraud where it starts.
Amazon will continue to devote significant resources to fighting fake reviews and ensuring customers have a trustworthy shopping experience. We continue to improve our proactive controls, invent new technologies and machine learning to detect bad actors, and find new ways to hold them accountable.
Dharmesh Mehta, Vice President of Selling Partner Services, Amazon
