Amazon just announced that it’s making it easier for merchants to participate in the company’s Shop Direct feature by enabling third-party product feeds. This gives businesses not selling on Amazon the chance to reach Amazon’s millions of customers and drive more traffic to their site or store.
Amazon Enabling Third-Party Feeds on Shop Direct
In a recent blog post, Amazon revealed that the company is making it easier for merchants to participate in Shop Direct by letting them connect their product catalogs through third-party feeds.
For those unfamiliar, Amazon launched Shop Direct last year, and it’s an AI-powered shopping experience that shows products that aren’t currently sold on Amazon when customers search for an item. These third-party product feeds give even more businesses a chance to reach Amazon’s customers through AI-powered product discovery.
While this move primarily benefits merchants and sellers not on Amazon, the sellers on Amazon have also gotten some good news recently, as the company introduced new AI features to help sellers visualize data and better understand business performance.
AI in general has also been a hot topic for Amazon recently, whether it’s this new change to Shop Direct, new AI features for sellers, or even the fact that Amazon announced a strategic partnership with OpenAI a few weeks ago.
The Benefits of Product Feeds for Merchants
This new third-party product feed offers several benefits for merchants. For example, through feeds, merchants can offer real-time product information to Amazon shoppers through traditional search, but also through Amazon’s AI shopping assistant, Rufus.
Merchant store names are also clearly displayed, so customers always know who they’re buying from. This is great for brand recognition, as if store names weren’t displayed, many customers may not associate your products with your brand if they purchase from you via Shop Direct.
The way these feeds work is also quite simple. Merchants can use the same product feeds they already give to other partners, such as Feedonomics, CEDCommerce, and Salsify, to automatically sync their catalog, pricing, and inventory in real-time with Shop Direct.
To get started, merchants can contact their account rep at Feedonomics, CEDCommerce, or Salsify. However, if the feed syndicator you use isn’t participating in Shop Direct, you’re able to contact Amazon directly to discuss other ways to potentially participate in the program.
How the Experience Works for Customers
In addition to being beneficial for merchants, the experience also needs to work well for customers. Thankfully, using Shop Direct is nearly identical to using Amazon to search for products on the platform. When you search for an item, any relevant products from merchants not on Amazon will be clearly labeled “Shop Direct”.
When customers view products in the Shop Direct selection, they have a few options for how to move forward. First, they can tap Shop Direct to get directed to the merchant’s website and complete the purchase there.
On certain eligible products, these shoppers can also use Amazon’s Buy for Me to have Amazon automatically purchase on their behalf, using their primary Amazon address/credit card. Of course, this information is encrypted to ensure the details are kept safe and secure.
After a purchase, customers will get order confirmation information from the merchant, and will be able to track their orders through Amazon. However, while customers can track through Amazon, it’s the merchant itself that handles product delivery, exchanges, returns, and customer support.
This feature seems like a win-win to me, as it gives merchants a wider reach and makes it easy to sync their product catalog with Amazon. On the other hand, it provides plenty more products for customers to search through to ensure they can find the right one.
