The new tools allow skill developers to embed discovery and purchasing of products within the voice experience.
Amazon has new tools to build shopping into its voice-enabled experiences.
At a Wednesday event to announce new features for the voice tech developer community dubbed Alexa Live 2022, Amazon unveiled the Alexa Shopping Kit.
This creates a way for developers to embed product recommendations within an Alexa skill, which is an application for a smart speaker that allows it to perform tasks, provide information and connect to content.
Customers can also purchase the products that are surfaced. As for what to recommend, developers have a couple of options: For one, they can surface info about their own products. Starting later in 2022, they will also be able to earn a commission on qualifying products through a program known as Amazon Associates on Alexa.
Amazon breaks down the phases in which developers can use Alexa Shopping Kit to add product info and gain insights on the following levels:
Amazon’s announcement about the shopping kit offered a number of examples about how it is being used.
Spanish publishing company Grupo Planeta is providing product recommendations within a mindfulness tool it offers on Alexa. This information about books are offered at the end of a course, so as not to be disruptive to the listening experience within the primary content.
Ryan Jordan, who developed the role-playing game The Dark Citadel, integrated information about books he authored for the game into story-based skills.
wikiHow has integrated product recommendations and purchasing into a skill that offers how-to guides. With Associates on Alexa commission program, it has monetized these recommendations.
It all points the way toward voice-enabled experiences where brands and creators are not just offering advertising in skills, but making them shoppable.
The figure underscores the importance of the marketplace to Amazon's business.
When it comes to selling physical goods through online channels, the Amazon model is dominant.
The company’s commerce business has four distinct components: A marketplace with a constantly expanding assortment of goods driven by third-party sellers, an advertising network that helps sellers stand out, a fulfillment network that delivers items quickly and conveniently, and a membership program that builds loyalty, while connecting shoppers to the other parts of Amazon’s consumer ecosystem.
Each of these elements are mutually-reinforcing. At this point, it would be difficult to grow one without another. A third-party seller on the marketplace likely buys advertising to stand out in a sea of brands, and uses Fulfillment by Amazon to store and ship inventory in part because it’s the most convenient way to access Prime customers.
Yet these parts also exist as their own lines of business that have helped Amazon unlock new avenues for growth beyond the rote sale of goods. Services provided to third-party sellers, Amazon Ads, FBA and Prime all generate their own revenue, and most of these are growing rapidly.
Just how important are they to Amazon?
The company offered some details on one of these areas in a new report this week: Third-party sellers. These independent sellers that list, manage and ship their own products are distinct from first-party sellers, which effectively sell items to Amazon and leave the ecommerce company responsible for the sale to the consumer. As Amazon points out, most third-party sellers are small and medium-sized businesses. First-party sellers tend to be the larger name brands.
As it turns out, third party sellers are very important to Amazon. Key stats from the report:
Independent sellers account for 60% of sales in Amazon’s store.
U.S. sellers sold more than 4.1 billion products—an average of 7,800 every minute. These sellers averaged more than $230,000 in sales in Amazon’s store.
Brand owners in the U.S. grew sales over 20% year over year in Amazon’s store.
Amazon sellers are based in all 50 states.
Over 260 million products were exported globally by U.S.-based sellers.
The results in part underscore how much energy Amazon has put toward growing the marketplace, and the uptake in sellers that has arrived as a result.
“Amazon invests billions of dollars annually to provide entrepreneurs with a constantly improving set of valuable tools and resources to help them gain access to capital, quickly launch in our store, build their brands, and rapidly scale and reach more customers,” said Dharmesh Mehta, vice president of Worldwide Selling Partner Services at Amazon, in a statement. “Amazon is committed to the success of small businesses, and we are excited to continue innovating on their behalf and help them grow into thriving success stories.”
Make no mistake: There is also a massive benefit to Amazon’s business. In the first quarter of 2023, third-party seller services generated $30 billion, and grew 20%. Compare that to AWS, which is typically seen as Amazon’s big profit driver, and you’ll find that the cloud division generated about $21 billion while realizing 16% growth.
While third-party seller services aren’t always running ahead of AWS, the fact that they are growing in areas close to each other is a sign of how much opportunity lies in the marketplace for Amazon. Factor in that Amazon’s $9.5 billion (Q1) advertising business is also tied in part to the marketplace, and it’s clear that the impact extends beyond a single budget line.
Amazon’s success with third-party sellers is a big part of the reason why the marketplace model is being widely applied across commerce. Walmart is doubling down on growing third-party sellers on its marketplace as it follows an ecommerce playbook that has similar components of Amazon, and Macy’s opened its ecommerce business to third-party sellers last year. Shein recently brought its own marketplace to the U.S., and the fast fashion platform is using it as a means to expand the number of categories.
While Amazon will likely to continue to couch its communications about third-party sellers in the language of support for small businesses, it is a major reason that the company has been able to grow to the giant it has become, and remain there. With the growth of ecommerce and the rise of retail media, plenty of others in commerce will continue to apply the model, as well.
For a bit more info on Amazon, the company also shared the below rankings in the report on third-party sellers:
The most-shopped categories from third-party sellers:
The five states with the most third-party sellers:
