SIOC Extended; AmazonCommercial; External Partners
By Cleveland AdminAmazon Extends SIOC Deadline
During our LiveCast event this week, several manufacturers alerted us that Amazon announced yesterday that it was delaying the implementation of SIOC chargebacks until September 3rd. This is likely in response to the meaningful challenge brands are facing in adopting to these new standards, including developing new packaging or case sizes and backlogs at SIOC testing facilities. For instance, feedback from an earlier LiveCast indicated that some manufacturers were seeing delays as early as May.
Amazon Launches Private Label Brand for Business Customers
AdAge reported this week that Amazon quietly launched AmazonCommercial, a private label of commercial products aimed at business customers in June. The brand currently only offers a few products including toilet paper, paper towels, and tissues in bulk sizes. In a statement, Amazon said that AmazonCommercial is “a line of professional-grade products created with business customers in mind. The brand currently offers janitorial and sanitation products”. The brand appears similar to the AmazonBasics brand aimed at consumers, as well as a number of other consumer focused private label brands. Our research indicates that while Amazon has aggressively launched private label brands, only 10% of brands have seen significant market share taken by Amazon’s private label in their category.
55% of Brands Use External Partners to Help with Amazon Operations
Data from our recent Teams Benchmark indicates that 55% of respondents are using external partners to assist with their Amazon business. As the chart shows, key services provided by external partners include sales and share data, content auditing, and content creation/management.