Welcome to our weekly roundup of the top five Amazon news stories of the week.
Amazon warehouse workers are getting utility belts that ward off robots: James Vincent at The Verge reports that Amazon has more than 100,000 robots in its warehouses, and so, naturally, needs to ensure that the machines play nice with human employees. The company’s latest solution to keep robo-human relations ticking over smoothly is what it calls the “Robotic Tech Vest” — a bit of kit that warehouse workers can wear to make them visible to nearby machines. Continue reading…
Amazon knows what you buy and is building a big ad business from it: Karen Weise at The New York Times reports that ads sold by Amazon, once a limited offering at the company, can now be considered a third major pillar of its business, along with e-commerce and cloud computing. Amazon’s advertising business is worth about $125 billion, more than Nike or IBM, Morgan Stanley estimates. At its core are ads placed on Amazon.com by makers of toilet paper or soap that want to appear near product search results on the site. Continue reading…
Amazon merchants selling more than $1 million a year: Joe at Marketplace Pulse reports that 24,000 small and medium-sized businesses eclipsed $1 million in sales in Amazon’s marketplaces worldwide in 2018; the number grew by 20% from 20,000 in 2017. Millions of sellers from around the world are selling on Amazon, but less than one per cent have been able to achieve $1 million in sales. 50,000 sellers exceeded $500,000 in sales, and 200,000 sellers sold more than $100,000. These three figures were reported by Amazon. Continue reading…
Amazon pushing hard into ocean shipping, making it easier for Chinese goods to get to you: Elizabeth Weise at USA Today reports that Amazon has been ramping up its ocean shipping service, sending close to 4.7 million cartons of consumers goods from China to the United States over the past year, records show. This marks a significant move into what many believe is the company’s overall strategy of eventually controlling much of its transportation network, from trucks to aeroplanes and now to ships. Continue reading…
Facebook staff wrote 5-star Amazon reviews for their product, will take them down: Holly Brockwell at Gizmodo reports that it seems staff at the beleaguered social networking giant have been caught red-handed posting excessively positive, not-very-honest Amazon reviews of their own product, Facebook Portal. The weak effort at astroturfing seems to have happened at the end of last year after the product came out in October as a competitor to devices like Amazon’s own Echo Show. Continue reading…
Bonus: The Resellers Guide to FBA: February
Quote of the week:
“You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.”
Wayne Gretzky, ice hockey player
Have a great weekend!
