Amazon is trying to alleviate concerns of brands who worry about having to compete with rivals on the giant marketplace. Digiday explains that storefronts are one way Amazon is catering to brands:
“The storefronts are effectively a branded site within Amazon.com where marketers can showcase products and promotions without having to worry about shoppers being recommended to buy similar items from a rival.”
By making brands happy, Amazon is helping protect and grow its ad revenue. As one employee of a brand told Digiday, “When you search for our brand, you’ll probably get our rivals too, which isn’t what we want when we’re paying money to drive people to the site.”
Amazon is running a TV commercial that combines its desire to showcase its brand storefronts with its desire to promote its site as helping small businesses, giving viewers a warn and fuzzy feeling (and subtly reminding lawmakers that it’s an economic force).
We saw the ad on television this morning and found a description on iSpot.tv, where you can also view the ad:
“Darlying & Co is a small, family-run business on Amazon, and it has created over 40 products in four years, from skin care to affirmation cards. Amazon says that more than half of everything sold on its website comes from small and medium-sized businesses like this one.”
The Digiday article points out, “the branded stores are also the only place on Amazon.com where marketers can track traffic from external sources through source tags.” It’s a good read for anyone who sells online.
