Helium 10 Buzz 9/5/24: WFS Fulfills Beyond Walmart | MCF Faster Delivery | TikTok Ban Impact

We’re back with another episode of the Weekly Buzz with Helium 10’s Chief Brand Evangelist, Bradley Sutton. Every week, we cover the latest breaking news in the Amazon, Walmart, and E-commerce space, talk about Helium 10’s newest features, and provide a training tip for the week for serious sellers of any level.

Amazon checkout process hits technical snag during Labor Day sale
https://www.cnbc.com/2024/08/30/amazon-checkout-process-hits-technical-snag-during-labor-day-sale.html

Walmart wants to beat Amazon at its own e-commerce game
https://www.foxbusiness.com/lifestyle/walmart-wants-beat-amazon-its-own-e-commerce-game

Walmart to Compete Directly with Amazon on Marketplace Logistics
https://www.webpronews.com/walmart-to-compete-directly-with-amazon-on-marketplace-logistics/

Most retailers not prepared for a TikTok shut down
https://www.retailcustomerexperience.com/news/most-retailers-not-prepared-for-a-tiktok-shut-down/

Amazon launches AI shopping assistant Rufus in the UK
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/amazon-launches-ai-shopping-assistant-121706169.html?

Temu and Shein packages are flooding delivery networks. Will the surge persist?
https://www.retaildive.com/news/temu-shein-shipping-delivery-industry-impact/725707/

For Amazon sellers, we’ve got game-changing strategies up our sleeves, featuring a deep dive into Helium 10’s  BlackBox tool Competitor tab. Learn how to pinpoint your closest competitors through shared keywords, supercharge your product listings, and fine-tune your Amazon PPC campaigns to stay ahead in a fiercely competitive market. Don’t miss out on this invaluable news and insights!

In this episode of the Weekly Buzz by Helium 10, Bradley covers:

• 00:53 – Amazon’s Technical Snag
• 02:03 – Walmart Levels Up
• 03:17 – Using WFS Beyond Walmart
• 04:59 – TikTok Contingency Plan
• 07:00 – Faster Delivery for MCF
• 07:45 – Rufus Launches in UK
• 09:14 – Temu & Shein Changes?
• 10:36 – Training Tip: Black Box Competitor Tab

Transcript

Shivali Patel:

Walmart now offering competitive rates to fulfill orders beyond its platform, Amazon, rolling out faster delivery options for multi-channel fulfillment and potential regulation changes that could affect pricing on Temu and Shein. This and more on this week’s episode of the Weekly Buzz.

Bradley Sutton:

How cool is that? Pretty cool, I think. Hello everybody, and welcome to another episode of the Serious Sellers Podcast by Helium 10. I’m your host, Bradley Sutton, and this is the show. That is our Helium 10 Weekly Buzz, where we give you a rundown of all the new stories that are going on in the Amazon, Walmart and e-commerce world. We highlight the latest new feature alerts from Helium 10, and we review a training tip of the week that’ll give you serious strategies for serious sellers of any level in the e-commerce world. Today, our host is going to be Shivali Patel, and so, Shivali, take it away and let us know what’s buzzing.

Shivali Patel:

First up, we have this news article from CNBC discussing the technical snag Amazon faced during its Labor Day sale. On Friday, customers were unable to complete purchases due to some technical issue in the checkout process. Sometimes the consumers would encounter error messages featuring Amazon’s famous dog photos. This glitch occurred just as Amazon was rolling out major discounts for the holiday weekend, frustrating those customers eager to grab deals, leading to it quickly becoming a topic of conversation for social media. For sellers on Amazon, this should serve as a reminder for you guys of the impact that technical challenges can have on sales, especially during big promotional events. While Amazon saw a robust $148 billion in the second quarter, things like this can really damage both sales performance and consumer trust. So, as that holiday season peaks around the corner, make sure that you guys are staying vigilant during peak sales periods to manage your customer interactions and monitor any potential issues that could affect your business.

Shivali Patel:

Next up, some Walmart news. We have Fox Business reporting on Walmart stepping up its e-commerce game with bold new strategies aimed at expanding its product offerings. Currently dominating brick-and-mortar retail, Walmart has only a 6% share of the online marketplace, compared to Amazon’s commanding 38%, but they’re working hard to close that gap. Walmart’s leveraging its vast physical store network as fulfillment hubs, while increasing its focus on its online marketplace. The company’s actually been rolling out new categories, such as the premium beauty category. This is gonna feature brands like T3 and CauseRx if you’ve heard of them and they’re launching initiatives like Resold at Walmart for pre-owned goods on the Walmart marketplace, which is designed for sellers like you and I, not to mention that Walmart’s marketplace has achieved over 30% sales growth for four consecutive quarters and while it’s not at Amazon’s level, this expansion is only one more reason for you guys to begin considering Walmart as a viable e-commerce platform. If you’re not actively selling on it. Increase competition or new opportunities to diversify sales channels and take advantage of Walmart’s lower fees and growing customer base. You decide. And this leads me into the next news piece from WebPro News.

Shivali Patel:

You guys, if you didn’t know, Walmart now has a Walmart’s multi-channel solutions program, which allows sellers to fulfill orders from any e-commerce site using Walmart’s fulfillment services, offering competitive rates that are 15% lower than its competitors. I mean talk about making the platform an even more attractive option for third-party sellers. Starting September 10th, sellers will be able to use Walmart’s extensive warehousing, delivery and return services to fulfill orders from other e-commerce platforms, including Target, Etsy and even Amazon itself. This initiative expands Walmart fulfillment services and directly challenges Amazon’s fulfillment by Amazon model, allowing sellers like you and I to manage logistics with Walmart’s resources For sellers, using Amazon or other platforms. So if this is you, this means you will now have an alternative fulfillment solution that offers cost-effective logistics, helping you streamline operations while reaching customers across multiple channels. Walmart’s logistics services will feature plain, unbranded packaging and two shipping options expedited and standard, though there are going to be some limitations for specific products, like multi-box orders, so just make sure that you read up on those things. Despite these challenges, Walmart is aiming to reshape the logistics landscape and offer more flexibility for sellers across the board. This, you guys, has really big implications for e-commerce and, as a seller, I would just encourage you to keep an eye on how this logistics network evolves over time and provides even more opportunities for growth.

Shivali Patel:

Okay, let’s switch over to TikTok. A news report from Retail Customer Experience has revealed that, while a majority of retailers 68% of them believe that a potential ban or sale of TikTok would negatively affect their business, only 28% actually have some sort of contingency plan in place. TikTok has become a crucial platform for product discovery, with over two-thirds of the actual consumers finding products on the app and then purchasing them elsewhere. So I would say for Amazon and Walmart sellers, this sort of uncertainty around TikTok’s future could potentially pose a disruption in customer acquisition, particularly as 81% of retailers are actually using TikTok to sell directly to consumers. I think we all recognize how monumental viral content can be for a business, and it’s no secret that viral content on the platform has led to issues like stockouts and delays. So are you prepared for any impact associated to a possible shutdown? According to the article, 73% of consumers plan to use TikTok as inspiration for their holiday shopping and 59% intend to make purchases directly through TikTok shop, whereas 39% of consumers named Facebook as the platform where they will spend a majority of their time if something happens to TikTok, meaning that there is going to most likely be increased competition for attention on those platforms, on the social media platforms that are not TikTok, where people are finding inspo. Consider diversifying your marketing channels from now and create those contingency plans to prepare for the potential loss of TikTok as a sales tool.

Shivali Patel:

Now I’m not saying that it’s gone just yet, but be prepared is what I’m getting at. Of course, quite a bit of things are category dependent, but as the holiday shopping approaches, I really think it’s important to have a robust strategy across multiple channels, and that will be paramount to maintaining visibility and customer engagement. All right now directly from Amazon and you can find this inside of Seller Central News. But Amazon just rolled out faster delivery of multi-channel fulfillment orders, and this gives sellers a big advantage in meeting customer demands. The updated delivery speeds come at no additional cost, and standard delivery has improved to three business days, which is down from five business days. Expedited delivery has improved to three business days, which is down from five business days. Expedited delivery has improved to two business days, down from three, and priority delivery has been discontinued. Any new orders will be charged at the expedited rate. This improvement means your customers can enjoy faster shipping, helping you boost satisfaction and sales across your channels. Take advantage of these updates to grow your business by providing even quicker delivery. For more information, you guys can just go in and tap this link right here.

Shivali Patel:

In other news, amazon just introduced its newest tool in online shopping an AI-powered assistant named Rufus. Are any of you guys familiar with it? Let me know in the chat. I feel like I’ve mentioned this before on Buzz, but I was in the UK just a couple weeks ago and actually got to see this during my shopping experience in the app, so it’s now in beta for select UK customers. Rufus is designed to enhance the shopping experience by answering your customer questions, offering personalized recommendations. Like, let’s say, you say I’m preparing for a camping trip. It would give you recommendations based off that and just helping in general with product discovery. So, using Amazon’s vast product catalog and web data, rufus can assist with everything from suggesting the climbing gear, the camping gear, to comparing products like lip gloss versus lip oil, and I think for sellers, this represents an interesting and exciting development in how customers can find our products. So, with Rufus, shoppers can save time and make more informed decisions, ultimately improving the overall experience and potentially driving more sales. This AI integration really highlights the future of e-com, you guys, and it’s only going to continue to evolve. As Amazon continues to roll out this tool, I anticipate that more AI-driven features will come out that can change how customers interact with our products, which is why, of course, you’ll want to keep tuned in to weekly buzzes to ensure maximized product visibility.

Shivali Patel:

And finally, let’s talk about Temu and Shein, as they’ve surged in popularity, now sending about 900,000 packages daily. That is insane. That is a lot of packages, and I know a lot of you are concerned on whether this signals incoming price wars. These packages enter the country using the D Minus exemption. Now this helps keep shipping costs low, which allows the company to offer highly competitive prices. However, increasing scrutiny from lawmakers could actually impact this exemption and potentially affect both companies and the carriers that depend on their volume. What I mean by this is parcel carriers like UPS have seen notable growth with the rise of Temu and Shein, and both rely on low-cost shipping rates, which help them keep their product prices affordable, while slower delivery speeds 6 to 22 days for Temu and then 10 to 13 for Shein are the trade-off for shoppers. The high volume of packages keep those carrier trucks full and routes efficient. However, if regulatory changes alter the shipping process, costs could rise, impacting the current delivery boom. So keep an eye out for any potential changes in regulations. With that, that is it for this week’s news.

Shivali Patel:

Now let’s talk strategy. Let me show you how you can easily find your closest competitors for any Amazon product. Now, why is this important and how can it help you make money? Well, if you’re researching a new niche, you need to understand who your competition is. Who do you need to watch out for? Who should you study at the keyword level to understand where they’re getting their sales from? This tool will help you do just that. Using Black Box’s competitors tab, you can input any ASIN that has some sort of history, something that’s sold decent volume, and you’ll want to avoid new products that aren’t ranking yet, because the tool works best with established products. What it does do is it shows you the closest competitors based on how many keywords they rank similarly for. So, for example, let’s say I were to input something in like an LED makeup case, I would see other products that are ranking high for the same keywords that that LED makeup case is ranking for, such as lighted makeup case or LED makeup bag.

Shivali Patel:

Let me actually share my screen and show you how it’s done. You’re going to navigate over to the fourth tab inside of Black Box, which says competitors. You’re going to input in your own products ASIN or, let’s say, a competitor’s ASIN, which is what I’m doing, and then click search. In doing so, in my case, I got back 187 products here. So in my case, I got back 187 products here. If you are unfamiliar with the P index that’s listed right here. This is what it is sorted by default. It tells you how closely related the products are based on shared keywords. So a product with a higher P index, closer to 10, means that the product is ranking for many of the same keywords as the one that you entered. Now. This is useful because you can immediately gain insight into how relevant these products are compared to yours.

Shivali Patel:

A lot of what we’re looking at here in these results is makeup cases. They’re just a bunch of additional makeup cases. However, you really never know Like. When I run the same search, typically with coffin shelves, I see other products like makeup shelves, spiderweb shelves or even goth themed items. So, depending on your niche, running the search is really really great for understanding what other products are closely competing with yours. From there, the next step would be to take these and jump into Cerebro to check out exactly which keywords these products are ranking for. From here, the next step would be to jump into Cerebro to check out exactly which keywords these products are ranking for. From here, the next step would be to jump into Cerebro to check out exactly which keywords these products are ranking for, or even take one of these products and start a fresh competitor search inside of Black Box to dive a bit deeper. Or let’s say that you need to discover which products to target for your sponsored display or sponsored product campaigns Products that you know have a better offering or maybe some incentive over, so that if you appear on their product pages, you could potentially capture the sales.

Shivali Patel:

You can just use the filters at the very top to narrow down your search, and that is going to be these filters right here. So let’s say, for example, you are looking for products that have fewer reviews than yours you would input in a max for review count. Or maybe you’re looking for products that have fewer reviews than yours you would input in a max for review count. Or maybe you’re looking for the ones where your product is actually priced a little bit lower you can type in a max for price point. So, in short, guys, this tool is invaluable for competitor research, generating PPC targets or identifying product opportunities in your niche. If you’re seeing irrelevant products after the top five or so, then that’s a sign that there are not many close competitors, giving you even more insight into the market space. Okay, that’s a wrap. Hope you enjoyed this week’s episode. We’ll see you next week to see what’s buzzing.

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