The onset of COVID-19 triggered a denser, more competitive ecommerce environment, especially on marketplaces like Amazon. Data from Digital Commerce 360 reveals that the coronavirus pandemic added $219 billion to U.S. ecommerce sales in 2020-2021. In the two years since everyone’s world turned upside down, brands are still adjusting to increased demand and a new set of rules for digital advertising.
Now more than ever, brands need help with advertising from the right Amazon marketing services agency to stay ahead of the competition. This article unpacks how COVID-19 continues to change Amazon marketing services for 2022, and how increased market density and competition are putting more pressure on agencies that have neither the technology nor the capacity to help brands keep up.
The uptick in ecommerce spending appears to be here to stay. U.S. online shopping sales totaled $870 billion in 2021. While that boom may seem like a net positive for digital sellers, many brands continue to struggle to meet the growing demand for their products, especially those with siloed fulfillment and ecommerce marketing solutions. Plus, the market is saturated with competition, which means costs of customer acquisition and digital advertising are growing, too.
It’s important that brands partner with agencies that can provide a unified data picture of marketing and fulfillment to make each work for the other. But many ecommerce marketing agencies don’t have the technological infrastructure to provide such data.
Brands need a marketing agency like WBX Commerce. Our proprietary technology helps brands use data from across verticals and channels to inform smart advertising strategies. For instance, our platform’s multi-channel fulfillment data can show when a product is almost out of stock, informing our Amazon-accredited marketplace management experts when to pull back on advertising for that product. Conversely, if fulfillment data shows that the product is coming back into stock, our experts can push advertising accordingly.
The COVID-19 pandemic placed significant strain on ecommerce marketing agencies that didn’t have the capacity to scale.
Many agencies still do not have the infrastructure to support brands’ growing advertising and fulfillment needs. Brands should choose a scalable solution prepared to handle future ecommerce expansion.
In addition to being an ecommerce marketing agency, WBX Commerce is a third-party logistics provider that operates a high-volume, low-defect network. We help brands to reach customers where they shop with strategically placed, nationwide warehouses, 99.9% order accuracy and two-day shipping to most of the U.S. Plus, our tech-enabled warehouses are optimized to give brands flexible shipping options that reduce costs.
The boom of ecommerce and subsequent factory shutdowns caused by the pandemic have placed significant strain on the supply chain — and nearly everyone is affected. As such, brands should seek ecommerce partners that have the ability to accurately forecast advertising spend in the wake of any unforeseen supply chain issues. For example, as brands scale in a more unpredictable way, they could be overspending their marketing dollars if supply chain challenges prevent the brand from getting a product in stock. WBX Commerce is equipped with innovative decisioning tools to help brands stay nimble in an ever-changing market.
The pandemic brought lasting change to consumer shopping behaviors. To increase visibility and conversions on the Amazon Marketplace, brands need Amazon marketing services — and the right partner.
Amazon’s core marketing solutions provide brands with the tools they need for product promotion throughout the advertising funnel:
WBX Commerce is proud to be a verified partner for Amazon Ads. As a verified partner, our team has premier access to resources, tools and data to help our brand partners drive growth on Amazon. WBX Commerce offers managed advertising services as well as a range of marketing and fulfillment solutions. A team of dedicated marketplace management experts leverages the full power of WBX Commerce’s solutions to help brands meet their goals faster and more effectively.
When a brand partners with WBX Commerce, it receives access to an advanced data infrastructure designed to produce insights that drive smarter and faster decisions and improve brand performance. Many agencies need to spend years building their architecture to produce the same quality of insights that WBX Commerce can. With our solutions, brands gain a full data picture and can drive stronger Amazon marketing campaigns.
Choosing the right Amazon Marketplace management partner can be a challenge. Brands should look for providers that exhibit certain differentiators.
Brands need a partner that empowers them to harness the full power of data. As a result, brands should seek an agency that exhibits transparency in its ecommerce marketing strategy and the data that drives it.
The agency should provide the brand with all available data about its marketplace performance, as well as the positive and negative impacts of its strategies. With this transparency, the provider empowers the brand to execute changes necessary to improve its Amazon performance.
Agencies that focus solely on marketing rarely provide the quality of data that brands need in 2022. Partnering with a provider that offers a range of services puts brands in a better position to develop a comprehensive ecommerce marketing strategy. WBX Commerce uses omnichannel data in its advertising approach to give brands a competitive edge and customers a seamless buying experience.
Additionally, WBX Commerce offers a range of Amazon fulfillment options. Brands that partner with WBX Commerce receive advertising solutions that work with fulfillment operations, and vice versa. For example, if a certain product is more popular than others, the brand may choose to sponsor it on Amazon. WBX Commerce has the expertise and infrastructure to prepare the listing and gives brands confidence that enough inventory is available to meet customer demand with our demand planning tool.
Proprietary technology drives ecommerce success — without it, people are solely responsible for implementing marketing strategies. It is equally important to have technology that empowers data-driven decisions as it is to have a team of experts.
WBX Commerce’s proprietary software pulls data from Amazon’s application programming interfaces (APIs) and other marketplaces, such as Walmart and Shopify, to layer on top of brands’ marketing data and inform campaigns. This multichannel solution provides a complete picture of a brand’s ecommerce performance. WBX Commerce empowers brands to use multiple data sources to implement well-informed Amazon marketing strategies — an approach that is necessary for ecommerce success in 2022.
Based on how COVID-19 continues to change Amazon’s marketing services for 2022, it is clear that brands must invest in these services now to capitalize on the marketplace’s future success. The quicker that a brand invests in its growth today, the easier it will be to maintain future growth.
WBX Commerce empowers brands to leverage their customer, marketplace and fulfillment data to deliver a high-quality experience, positioning brands for modern ecommerce success. Contact us today to learn more about our Amazon marketing services.