Weekly Buzz 9/19/25: Amazon Accelerate 2025 Recap

We’re back with another episode of the Weekly Buzz with Helium 10’s VP of Education and Strategy, Bradley Sutton. Every week, we cover the latest breaking news in the Amazon and E-commerce space for serious sellers of any level.

Join us for a thrilling recap of Amazon Accelerate 2025, where we uncover the latest releases and initiatives that are reshaping the seller landscape. With Andrea Marquez, Senior Producer and Host of the This Is Small Business Podcast by Amazon, as our special guest, we reflect on how the event has grown to offer sellers an increasingly valuable experience. Andrea shares insights on the importance of attending Amazon Accelerate, not just for learning about new product releases, but also for the unparalleled networking opportunities and direct support through the Amazon Seller Café. Sellers can resolve complex issues face-to-face with Amazon experts, turning potential problems into quick fixes. The event is a community-building hub, enhanced by social activities like the popular block party.

We explore Amazon’s efforts to improve the customer experience, emphasizing the new measures that ensure customers receive the exact product they ordered from brand owners. The discussion covers enhanced return policies that allow for partial refunds and the option to send missing pieces rather than entire replacements, offering sellers increased flexibility and cost savings. These changes, coupled with the strategic use of AI as highlighted in the event, aim to enhance both customer satisfaction and seller profitability. The conversation underscores how these developments enable sellers and entrepreneurs to better incorporate returns into their business models.

Celebrate 25 years of independent sellers on Amazon with us as we highlight key milestones and future aspirations. The introduction of an AI creative studio is democratizing access to high-quality creative assets, empowering entrepreneurs to compete with larger companies by reducing the barrier to entry. This innovation allows sellers to focus on product quality and customer satisfaction while reshaping the entrepreneurial landscape. Listen in as we discuss regional product launch testing, A+ content enhancements, and the transformative potential of the Amazon Marketing Cloud for targeted marketing. Discover the inspiring stories of innovative entrepreneurs like Brendan from Lalo and the honor of presenting the Sellers Force for Good awards, recognizing entrepreneurs making a positive impact through their ventures.

In this episode of the Weekly Buzz by Helium 10, Bradley and Andrea cover:

• 00:00 – Amazon Accelerate 2025 Recap of New Releases 
• 02:35 – Impact of Seller Cafe at Accelerate
• 09:06 – Amazon Labeling Changes Impact Sellers
• 10:28 – Improved Customer Experience and Returns Flexibility
• 13:13 – Celebrating 25 Years and AI Advancements
• 17:09 – AI’s Impact on Entrepreneurship and Creativity
• 20:23 – Product Launch Testing and A+ Content
• 26:09 – Enhancing Customer Experience and Targeted Marketing

Transcript

Bradley Sutton:

Today we are live at Amazon Accelerate, recapping all of the hottest new releases that are going to affect sellers worldwide. How cool is that? Pretty cool, I think. Hello, everybody, and welcome to another episode of the Serious Sellers Podcast by Helium 10. I’m your host, bradley Sutton, and this is the show. That is a special edition of our weekly buzz. We normally talk about all things e-commerce. Today we are focused on all things Amazon Accelerate and to help with that for the. I think this is the third year that we’re doing this now. Andrea from Amazon.

Andrea:

Thank you so much for having me. It’s always a joy to talk to you, especially because you I feel like you’re the person who knows it all. Okay, I don’t know about that, but when it comes to how important this is for sellers, right, and you’re here always representing and I love talking to you on and off the podcast, so thank you for having me again. This is so cool.

Bradley Sutton:

Thank you for being here. We were just talking about this off camera. This is your fourth. You’ve been to all the in-person. This is only my third, but any just overall differences that you’ve seen as from the first to now.

Andrea:

It’s really easy to say this, but it just keeps getting better. I feel like every single year we get much more intentional about what we are bringing for the sellers and we are working backwards from what is the best experience that they can have. And let’s start there. For me, it’s been a joy to see how, from the first Amazon Accelerate to today, we have more people coming, more people having fun, because I mean, at the core of it, that’s what I think is important More people networking, finding other sellers to build a community. And I think another thing that is super exciting to see is how people are coming because they see that they there’s support in the seller cafes, there’s account managers that are here to help you in person when you don’t get that a lot in person. So that’s one of the biggest opportunities here and to meet Amazonians that are also here to get to know you and to hear your stories. Because, being part of the seller external relations team that I am now, I think one of my favorite parts is we get to tell the seller stories right and we get to hear them in the first place and be part of the amplification. So to me, it’s been the best really to be part of every single year of this journey.

Bradley Sutton:

Yeah, I think it’s important that we talk about this just a little bit before we get into the new releases. Is is all the other reasons that come to Accelerate. I mean, people are listening to the weekly buzz, so if it was just about the new releases, they can just wait until this episode comes out. Let me find out what the new stuff is. I don’t need to go to Seattle. But one thing that is important you mentioned is actually probably my favorite thing or most impactful of of Accelerate is the seller cafe. You don’t know how many stories I’ve heard of sellers who have had an issue that they couldn’t resolve after a month, even a year sometimes. But they get in front of the right person and seller cafe and like in 15 minutes it’s solved. I actually told somebody about that and he he flew here from Israel. He came here from Israel. He was a seller. He’s like, hey, I need to get this. All I haven’t heard if, if you got it solved, I’m pretty sure he’s going to.

Bradley Sutton:

But it just shows that sellers understand the power of seller cafe, where I mean like when else are you going to get like face to face with somebody from here in Seattle, from you know, top, top customer service teams who can solve your problem. So that in itself, for some sellers who have like big issues that are very complicated, I mean that it could mean thousands, hundreds of thousands of dollars a 15 minute meeting that you have here. Yeah, and some sellers who have like big issues that are very complicated, I mean it could mean thousands, hundreds of thousands of dollars a 15 minute meeting that you have here.

Andrea:

Yeah, and dedicated time too. Right Like it’s. As a seller, I feel like you come here and you have a good three days of dedicating time to some of the things that maybe you put off along, because as an entrepreneur, you’re doing a million things at once, you’re wearing a lot of different hats, you’re learning so many things on the go, and these three days you can dedicate them to just maximizing your time as a seller in the Amazon store.

Bradley Sutton:

Yeah, absolutely, and I think you mentioned networking too. I mean, there’s no place in the world outside of China where you have so many sellers in one place for an Amazon event. And so I mentioned China because I went to an event put on by Amazon there once and it was like 10,000 sellers that was crazy, but I mean at that level it’s hard to even, like you know, network. There’s so many people. But I always have said at events, networking is so important. You know, I my very first Amazon event was like in 2016, and people I met there I are still in my network, you know, today. So that’s another reason why Accelerate is important, and then it’s good just to have fun too. Like there was a block party last night. I didn’t. Did you go to the block party?

Andrea:

I did not go to the block party I wasn’t able to go but in the past years I think it’s one of the best, most fun engagements that we get to do here at Amazon Accelerate. I know Amazonians love being there too, because they they get to speak to sellers as well in another environment. Right, it’s not just business related. You’re also just meeting them as people, Right, and getting to know their story as entrepreneurs, as individuals.

Bradley Sutton:

Yeah, I was actually going to a concert last night and was next door to where the block party was and like a whole like three block radius was like taped off and there was like live bands I saw playing and, like I just saw some of the pictures, I was having some FOMO. I was happy because my favorite K-pop band was in town and I went to the concert, but I was having still a lot of FOMO, like from that block party. But yeah, as entrepreneurs, I think and you talk to many yourself sometimes we forget to have fun and to enjoy ourselves, and so when Amazon is able to tie it into the event, I think it’s a great thing.

Andrea:

Yeah, to go a little, just to turn off your phone and go touch some grass. I was talking to a seller from Playtime Adventures His name is Kevin In one of the interviews I did the other day and he said that one of the biggest pieces of advice he got as an entrepreneur was turning off his cell phone and just living life, because we get so caught up in all the to-do lists we have to do as entrepreneurs that we forget to go to the block party, have fun, meet people, dance, eat.

Bradley Sutton:

And then don’t wait and just do it once a year at Accelerate. Obviously, the lesson is you know, try and have some fun at home too. So at Accelerate, you know pretty much, if you’re looking for fun, this is the place to be, if you’re looking for new releases, if you’re looking to network. So if you guys have not come to an Accelerate, please, please, please, make sure to come next year.

Andrea:

It’s a place to be If you’re selling in the Amazon store, and you should come once a year. Yeah, everything happens here. Let’s talk about the things that happen.

Bradley Sutton:

Hold on. One more thing, however if you’re trying to be on a carnivore diet, like me, it’s very difficult because there’s so much good food here and ice cream stands and all this stuff. I was tempted. Oh no, I might have failed and gone against my diet. But anyways, other than that, it’s great. But yeah, like you said, we’re here to talk about all the new releases, and there was a lot of them. If you were to look just on LinkedIn at Amazonian’s posts and the press releases and stuff, you’re not going to see. This one thing I’m going to ask you do you know what the word commingled inventory is? Have you ever heard that?

Andrea:

I hadn’t until this accelerate and it was because so many people posted about it on LinkedIn. I was like, wait, wait, wait, what is this? And I heard it on the main stage and I was like I I think that it’s one of those terms that, unless you’re a seller, yes, exactly, tell me what is it.

Bradley Sutton:

Yes, okay. So here’s the thing, and the reason why I’m bringing this up first is actually, to me it was the most like what. I didn’t see that one coming and and like well, that’s actually kind of game changing, and people broke into spontaneous applause when it was announced. And I don’t think I’m not sure amazon was expecting that, because it’s like not even in any of the press releases. We’ll talk about the and all the stuff in the press releases is good, yeah. But basically what happens is is, let’s say, I’m, I’m selling the these cups here and as an Amazon seller, I don’t want to use the Amazon, what’s called the FN skew, like the barcode, right? I just want to use my own UPC, which all products have anyways, and so I can put my UPC on there and then that I put in as commingled inventory. But what that means is five other people could come in and maybe they’re selling the legitimate product and it people could come in and maybe they’re selling the legitimate product and it has that same barcode. So, since everything has the same barcode, what I’m sending in, what you’re sending in, what they’re sending in, it gets into Amazon’s altogether.

Andrea:

So what happens-? But it’s the same product coming from the same Theoretically Okay.

Bradley Sutton:

But what happens is there are some nefarious characters out there who, either purposely or they’re trying to take advantage, they’ll send in maybe something similar but not high quality, and it’ll have that barcode, but now it’s mixed in. So I’m this brand that developed this high quality product, but somebody comes in with an inferior one, just trying to steal the buy box and things like that, but it’s all mixed together. So somebody gets one of the nefarious characters cups and has a bad experience and they leave a bad review on my listing, but it’s untraceable. You know, it’s like untraceable, like you don’t know which which seller it came from. Now, this is not completely common, but it can affect anybody who does it. That’s why me personally I have actually taken the time to always use the Amazon labels, and so I’ve never. I personally have never had this problem. But at the same time, like a man, I really wish I didn’t have to put another sticker on every single one of my products, just just for us. So I think that’s why so many people were excited about that. I don’t think it was completely clear yet how it’s going to work, because they even talked about maybe a world without the label. So I’m sure announcements will come out. But yeah, that was like a big sigh of relief for many sellers out there.

Andrea:

So, in the simplest terms, what does this mean for a Amazon seller?

Bradley Sutton:

It basically means that you no longer have to worry about having your inventory of your product mixed with any random seller’s inventory Like my inventory is mine, somebody else’s inventory, even if they’re selling on my listing. So then, like, maybe there is a problem and they don’t have the right product, they’re gonna be able to trace it to that seller and like, if a whole bunch of people leave bad reviews, they’ll probably be able to get it removed and everything. And especially, I think this affects like people who are wholesale sellers, arbitrage things like that, who they often share the buy box, you know with other sellers, you know with 10 other sellers, and they’re probably having a label every single one. And so, yeah, that was like the under the radar thing that I think probably blew everybody away.

Andrea:

Would it be right for me to say, then, that for a customer, that means that you can rest assured that you got the actual product you were looking for from the brand owner?

Bradley Sutton:

Yes, and I, you know, amazon is is very customer centric and that’s what motivates the moves, and I would imagine that there’s probably been issues with that and that was why they’re they’re making this move, because it’s not a great customer experience when you know you could order the same product a couple of times and it’s different and there’s no traceability. It’s like where did this come from?

Andrea:

Yeah, okay, I love that. Another thing that I also speaking of the stuff that I saw on LinkedIn posts coming from sellers, coming from Amazonians, coming from just brands talking about this is the ease of returns, or helping returns, where now you can get partial refunds and also, if there’s a customer that is missing a certain piece from your product, you’re able to send just that specific piece instead of having to resend the whole product.

Bradley Sutton:

Yes, yeah. So that’s important. Like maybe somebody orders these gigantic chairs and there’s cushions and maybe you put it together and there’s one piece the leg cushions and and maybe you put it together and there’s one piece the leg the effect. Yeah, the perfect example the little leg down here.

Yeah well, you’d have to send them the whole entire thing, or you could send them the piece on your own maybe, but you know you’d have to refund them almost for the whole entire thing, as opposed to, like you know, maybe here here’s, here’s, you know, fifty dollars to replace, to replace this, or whatever the case may be. Now there’s just gonna be to be more flexibility, it seems like, with the return process.

Andrea:

And what do you think this means in the larger scheme of things for sellers, for entrepreneurs, that they’re able to now account for this in their business models.

Bradley Sutton:

I think it’s important because flexibility is important. You know like sellers don’t like to be just, you know, put into a box where it’s like, hey, it’s all or nothing. It makes them worry. It actually adds cost, right? Like, hey, I have to factor it If I have 3% of people are going to return, which you end up doing, things happen. But now that 3% I have to factor in, that’s going to be 100% losses because I have to refund completely or replace the whole thing. Well, now, that’s a little bit less your budget for these kind of situations.

Andrea:

So that’s definitely good for their profitability. I think that’s a huge deal, because I have heard that be a pain point for some sellers because for some reason or other, they have to account for larger refunds than usual or something like that, depending on their product. So I think that was a big one that I saw on LinkedIn. What were some other things that you really like?

Bradley Sutton:

I know AI was a huge deal. Ai was a theme From the very opening. Did you see how Andy Jassy was talking about it? He’s like, hey, what’s that two-letter word that we’re going to talk about? He also mentioned another thing. I didn’t realize. What is 25 years old?

Andrea:

25 years of celebrating oh, that was. I was very excited about that. 25 years of celebrating independent sellers in the Amazon store that’s crazy, I know.

Bradley Sutton:

I saw that there’s like Letterman’s jackets, isn’t it? They were selling. Did you get yours? I didn’t get mine, but I saw they all had 25. And I was wondering about that. You can still get one. I can still get it.

Andrea:

Yeah, yeah, yeah All right, but 25 years that I mean it is a huge deal for us. At least we’ve been celebrating I mean, that’s part of what we do at Amazon, too. We’re always celebrating independent sellers because they’re a huge part of the Amazon store right of the Amazon store right. And so 25 years of this for us means that we get to see it as a milestone of, okay, how did we start? Where are we now? How can we keep delivering? How can we bring in more people? What does it look like to have the next generation of entrepreneurs and future Amazon sellers come into the Amazon store? So I know 25 years was a big deal for us and we’re already looking forward to year 26. And then, what is year 50 going to look like? How different are things going to be? How much better and easier are things going to be for people who want to start their business and start it with Amazon?

Bradley Sutton:

Absolutely, Absolutely, and so that was a cool milestone. And then, you know, going back to what you said about the AI, I think maybe one of the splashiest ones was this AI creative studio that is being released. You know like are you much of an artsy person yourself?

Andrea:

You see, I feel like that is subjective. Okay, I think I am the Picassos of graphic design. No, maybe not, but I think I get along fine. But then every time I show some of my work to the creative team, they’re like you know, we’re just going to help you a little bit with this, because it could be maybe a little bit a lot of it.

Bradley Sutton:

For me, it’s not very subjective. I’m just a terrible artist. I cannot even draw a stick figure. Well, as an entrepreneur, as an entrepreneur, as an entrepreneur, yeah, it’s period. It’s not great, because it’s like hey, you need graphical assets for so much of what we do, whether we’re talking about advertising, yes, yes, um, you know website, you know images for your list people know you exist in the first place and want to click right.

Andrea:

So I think it’s important to have the right type of help and it’s amazing that we’re now able to offer that and make it a lot easier for people like me maybe need a little bit more help than we think.

Bradley Sutton:

I think people like me need a lot more help. But the basic thing is, I think it’s one of two things. For those of us who are not graphically inclined, it means that we either have to pay a professional a lot of money to do it or we just don’t do whatever aspect. That’s not 100% necessary, it’s just like a nice to have.

Andrea:

Yeah.

Bradley Sutton:

Just because it’s like nah, like I can’t afford to do that, you know, like I don’t want to hire a full video team to make a video ad for my product, or I don’t want to hire this team to edit all these images, and so we don’t do, probably, things that we should.

Andrea:

And now you’re competing against the people who did do them Exactly, and it puts you in a lower position where you’re wondering why aren’t people clicking or why aren’t people seeing? It’s because of those nice-to-haves that maybe now are turning into. You can do it, yeah.

Bradley Sutton:

Right, but now it’s almost a need-to-have have yeah, you know like to, to, to really be successful on on amazon. And so now you can literally like they were demoing, like you literally say here, take my product or take these images and just make me a 30 second ad for this product and then a full video, you know, will come out, which you know, like three years ago, if you said that that was happening- wild to me, like I still can’t.

Andrea:

I don’t know, like at this point I point, I’m like, am I old? Because like this seems so crazy? And I talk to my younger cousins who are like in their teens and they’re like sure, like AI for them is second nature at this point I’m like how it just it just started like a year ago. What do you mean?

Bradley Sutton:

Yes, that, I think, is just going to be very game-changing for those who have been reluctant to invest in creatives. Now it kind of levels the playing field when some of these bigger companies, like I might have thought, as a smaller entrepreneur, oh I can’t compete with their graphic team and all the creatives they do. But hey, guess what? Now maybe you can be a little bit on that level.

Andrea:

The barrier to entry is a lot lower. I feel like that’s another thing you asked me at the beginning what has changed from the first Accelerate to this In only four years? I feel like the barrier to entry to be not just a seller in the Amazon store, but an entrepreneur in general, is getting a lot lower. And what does this mean? Not just for as an individual, if you want to be an entrepreneur, but what does this mean at large of, like creativity, how people are able to. It’s a lot easier to save money, save time and let AI do all of those little things that were taking your time away, and you’re able to focus on just doing bigger, better products and delivering better for your customers, right? So I think there’s a beauty in how much AI is helping us in so short amount of time, right?

Bradley Sutton:

Absolutely Speaking of AI, another thing that, if you mentioned cousins, I think I have a cousin named Amelia, but when we’re talking about Amelia for AI, what are we? Do you hear about that? What we’re talking about?

Andrea:

Yes, it also reminds me we have a building, an Amazon building, called Amelia. You’re saying Amelia, I would say Amelia.

Bradley Sutton:

Amelia, I need to say it like that.

Andrea:

No, no, I like Amelia too. But yes, we have a building named Amelia, but tell me what it means for AI.

Bradley Sutton:

So that was like the project name for a while I think it was announced, might have been even announced last year at Accelerant, but now it’s actually coming to fruition where it’s like a seller assistant, where it’s generative AI, whereas sellers, we can go to Seller Central and start, like you know, asking it to do stuff. But it’s not just going to be theoretically I haven’t actually tried it yet but theoretically it’s not just going to be hey, let me find out information, but you can now tell Amelia to do stuff, to actually take action in your account, which is something that definitely was not announced last year.

Andrea:

And this is on the Seller Central tool. Yes, and so now it’s turning from a reporting tool into an execution tool, so it’s much more involved and personalized in the things that you need as a seller making it easier, making it faster, am I right?

Bradley Sutton:

Yeah, that’s what the seller is getting Pretty much Because before, yeah, in Seller Central, it’s like I as the seller have to go in and take action and I can see all the data, analytics and things, but then I have to do stuff off of seller central or I have to go back and put more input. So, theoretically speaking, there’s gonna be a world very soon where you can actually see the data like, like normal, but then actually tell it like hey go and do this or hey, go lower my budget, yeah, so that’s pretty cool.

Andrea:

It’s just getting easier and better. What else are we missing? Good, she’s excited, but no, say you’re okay.

Bradley Sutton:

Yes, that level of excitement we have to go, we have, we have to go with it.

Andrea:

First, regional great minds think like we’re thinking of the same thing. That was exactly what I’m saying yeah, so regional.

Bradley Sutton:

This is like. I’m passionate about launch and launching products. I used to be on my specialty before I worked at helium 10. But this is like. I’m passionate about launch and launching products. I used to be on my specialty before I worked at Helium 10, but this is very like. I would have never even come up with this idea. So hats off to whoever came up with it.

But sometimes we want to test something out, but we don’t want to have to have, you know, like 300 units all at once, because there are so many distribution points in Amazon to really have coverage across the country. If I’m launching a product, you probably should send minimum 100, probably 200, 300 at the very minimum, so that it’s distributed to all the states. But now you’re like, I have this idea. I’m not 100% sure about it. Before I go invest and buy a thousand products or something, I want to test it out in just maybe a small region. So now you’re going to be able to launch products I don’t know exactly, you know what the regions are going to be a much sure if we know that. But like, maybe, who knows? Like, hey, let me just launch it for Texas, let’s you know, with 50 units, let’s see how it goes. And it’s not gonna be available across the country.

Bradley Sutton:

Because what happens is when you send your inventory, even if you have 100 units, you said it, or uh, to amazon, in the first few days it’s live, but it hasn’t been distributed across the country. So if you turn your listing on and, let’s say, you send it to a, to a warehouse in in Dallas, right, but we’re here in Seattle and I’m shopping on amazon and I click, oh, this looks interesting, let me click on it and I see, oh, three week shipping. It doesn’t take three weeks, but that’s just what they put, because they’re you know it takes time to distribute it. Like I’m, I’m not going to buy this, but now it’s like, hey, let me just send this stuff to Dallas, and I only want people in the uh, Dallas area to, or, or you know, general Texas area to, to see this, and it’s kind of like you’re in a bubble testing your product. So that’s something I never even would have thought that we would ever do.

Andrea:

I think that’s also huge. Would I be right in thinking here that, as a as an amazon seller, if you are in one of your dashboards and you’re looking at, oh, I’m seeing that my, this second product that I put on up in my brand store is doing very, very well in Florida or it’s doing very, very well in California? Let me just focus it on on this region instead of to see like, maybe, if we can do better or what’s happening there versus I don’t know, it’s not being bought in Texas, it’s not being bought in other states.

Bradley Sutton:

It could be. I think that’s the future, like this one is mainly about for new products, like launching new products, but that you bring up a very interesting point, because that would be the next logical state which also makes sense for some things Like, for example, beach balls is my product. Like, is there a big need for me to advertise my beach balls in North Dakota? Like maybe, maybe not, I don’t know, what do you have against North Dakota? I don’t have anything against it, but I just don’t think they have much need for beach balls.

Andrea:

They might need beach balls in there.

Bradley Sutton:

I don’t know, but I’m sure we can come up with other examples. You know, you know too on the on the flip side, like you know, like really, really heavy coats that somebody in Minnesota definitely needs half of the year but somebody in Miami never needs at any point of the year. So so that would be the next iteration. So this would be interesting to see. Like right now it’s just about like launching a product in kind of isolation, but then the future, if works, and now all of a sudden we can start maybe advertising at the regional level or keeping our inventory there where it’s not showing up in the search results and other places. That would be very interesting, I think.

Andrea:

Taking notes for maybe in one or two years, when we come back. Next time Amazon Accelerate, we’ll be talking about that.

Bradley Sutton:

Yes, all right. So those powers that be at Amazon, take some notes and let me know if you want to talk about that. Yes, all right. So those powers that be at Amazon, you know, take some notes and let me know if you want to talk about that idea further. You heard it from Antea Love it, love it, all right. Another thing that was an interesting announcement and you guys will get more details in next week’s episode or following, because I was able to interview some of the product managers on the team is A plus content. You know what A plus content is on the way you’re looking at Amazon listing.

Andrea:

No, Bradley, tell me what is it All right.

Bradley Sutton:

So when you’re scrolling and all of a sudden you see a whole bunch of cool graphics that’s not part of just like the regular images. That’s what’s called A plus content. It’s like a kind of like a way you can graphically talk about your product in a different way, especially it looks good on mobile, and so historically it’s only that graphics, graphics or infographics or text. But now from what they announced is you’re going to be able to start putting like shoppable content, like there will be actually add to cart buttons, like, let’s say, you have other products in your store that you’re cross promoting, and so I think that’s big, because it’s kind of like advertising. Without having advertised, you’re not going to get a pay per click, onclick, uh on that. So if so, like maybe I’ve got, um, you know, a coffin shelf, uh, one of my coffin shelves, and I’ve got like some other spooky product I have and I can just advertise it right in my own content. They’re like oh, I’ll buy this coffin, so let me go ahead and get that bat-shaped bathroom rug. I do have a product, uh, like that you do have the coffin coffin shelf, bat-shaped bathroom rugs yeah, that again that’s like what I’m known for the coffin shelf. But that’s true, I’m the least gothic you know person you would you can imagine. But uh, that’s I, I don’t want to say, I’m not gonna say take advantage, but hey, if there’s a community out there that has a thing that they like, I am very happy to supply it for them, in this case, spooky decor.

Andrea:

What does that mean for a customer?

Bradley Sutton:

So for a customer now it’s maybe less shopping time too. Like they might have gone around and eventually found that bat shaped bathroom, or they might not have found it because they were searching for a coffin shelf. So now they’re going to be exposed, kind of like, to products without advertising it’s not going to feel advertising because it’s not literally not an advertisement and they’re like oh wow, yeah, like I like coffin shelves, I would like a bat shaped bath mat. Let me go ahead and add that to cart. And so it’s going to kind of like show them products that they’re probably interested in. Okay, that they didn’t realize existed.

Andrea:

Depending on your past purchases, I’m guessing right.

Bradley Sutton:

So it is it could be no, but I don’t think it’s personalized. It’s like if you have a brand usually and you’re going to use this section, I’m only going to put products on there that make sense. If I have the teacup and I also sell coffin shells, I’m not putting my teacup in my A-plus content, because who wants to buy it? Unless it was like a spooky tea cup? Yeah, what would make a spooky, like a coffin shaped tea cup or something I don’t know hey, there you go.

Andrea:

It’s something in a regional place a little troll.

Bradley Sutton:

Try that in texas. Are they into those kind of um?

Andrea:

I don’t know if that would be your exact market. Maybe, who knows?

Bradley Sutton:

yeah, I’m not sure a very big state, but anyways, this is something that yeah, like it can enhance the customer experience as well, because you know especially a lot of these niche products, you don’t even know these things exist Like I’ve given this example before, when I was selling wooden egg trays, one of my popular keywords that I would get conversions for in advertising was the keyword porcelain egg tray. And that blew my mind because I’m like why would somebody searching for porcelain egg tray buy my wooden egg tray? And then it kind of dawned on me later it’s like they probably don’t know a wooden egg tray exists. If somebody’s looking for a porcelain egg tray or a glass egg tray that was another keyword I was doing so they’re kind of like looking for something fancy, something to display, so that’s really what they’re looking for. But they’re like, oh, the only thing that’s available is probably this porcelain one, so let me just type that in now. All of a sudden they saw like an ad for my wooden eggs, like, oh, that’s kind of like rustic and nice decor, let me go ahead and get that so. So sometimes people don’t know what they want and then so this is just another way for them to just to see products. I think it’s gonna be good for customers, good for sellers too I love that.

Andrea:

Another thing that I really I saw thrown around that I will admit I really don’t know much about AMC.

Bradley Sutton:

Yes. Do you know what that stands for? There’s so many acronyms at Amazon I know I don’t know what that stands for. So the A obviously stands for Amazon and it’s marketing cloud, and it’s something that I’ve never used before much. Recently I’ve used it a little bit, but the reason why I haven’t used much is you have to know what is. It’s like sequel or something like all these. like literally, you have to code oh, wow to be able to use it or like, maybe connect with, like a, an agency or software that that has it integrated. And so for somebody who’s a, maybe a smaller seller I’m not a million dollar seller anymore, but you know like, I’m like I’m not going to go invest in in learning how to do sequel you know coding and I’m like I’m not going to go invest in in learning how to do SQL you know coding and different things like that but now it’s kind of like democratized for everybody, um, and so we’re we’re going to actually have another interview about that where, uh, somebody from that team is going to teach me about it, because I’m I’m not one to teach you, but I know what it means. And basically one of the big benefits and this actually this part of it already launched a few weeks ago is the audience targeting. So when we add this certain like demographic to our audience, it’s actually way more likely to convert into a sale, because it’s not just like here I’m just I want everybody to see this, which has, which has a conversion rate in itself, like, let’s say, it’s 2%, but then if you’re specifically going and showing this ad to a cohort that is very likely to buy. Maybe your conversion rate’s like 15% so you can afford to have like a higher cost per click because you know it’s going to convert. So it’s very technical, I know, but-.

Andrea:

But another way that it makes it easier for Amazon sellers in the Amazon store to be able to get to the customer that actually wants what they want Exactly. They’re giving right.

Bradley Sutton:

And in a way that before now sellers at my level or below probably haven’t had realistic access to.

Andrea:

I love that. Anything else big that you think we missed.

Bradley Sutton:

Those were some of the main things.

Andrea:

There’s a lot of smaller things there’s, so many things and it’s hard to keep up because everywhere, and even things that are not even announced on main stage, you’ll find out about them If you’re in the pavilion on the first floor when you’re talking to representatives Seahawk, like on the stage with you for something.

Bradley Sutton:

So, like I missed you on stage this year, did you do something like that this year? Did you have any programs that you presented?

Andrea:

I did. I actually had five wonderful interviews where I had the opportunity to interview some Amazon sellers that are doing great. One of them was a. Their brand is called Lalo, his name is Brendan, he’s one of the founders, and they have a drink that is based off of kava And-.

Bradley Sutton:

What is that?

Andrea:

Kava is a plant and it helps you relax, okay, and so it is a drink that they. It’s not super saturated. The kava drinking market is not super saturated, so it’s really interesting to hear from someone who decided to start a product that they didn’t have much info for. They didn’t you know, they couldn’t do that market analysis and like who are our competitors and their biggest goal is to be the red bull of relaxation. So that was really fun. I got to be on stage with him and then the biggest, most the biggest honor, for me at least, was that I got to give three sellers force for good awards and basically what that means. Similar to Justin Forsett last year on the main stage. These are people who are able to beautifully balance being an entrepreneur, having a profitable, successful business, while having an impact in their community and giving back in some way either to their local communities or in the world. Right, and so the three sellers that I was able to talk to were Playtime Adventures. Right and so the three sellers that I was able to talk to were Playtime Adventures, ezra Coffee and Plant Therapy. All amazing products, and I think obviously that’s the most important part. Right, amazing products, but from day one. These three brands intentionally wanted to give back in some way, right, so they have beautiful stories. We even teared up on stage Audiences, teared up with us.

Andrea:

It was. It was such a great thing, for me at least, to be able to not just speak to them, hear their stories, help them tell their stories, but also to award them which it’s a, it’s a little something from Amazon to remind them that we support them, we’re here with them and we hear their stories and we just want to continue to see them grow so that they’re able to continue giving back to their community. So for me, that was some of the most exciting things and I think that every year for me it’s just an honor and it’s so fun to be here and talk to all of the entrepreneurs, who some are just getting started. Some come to the to Amazon Accelerate to just to get to know us, to get to know other sellers. They don’t even know what they’re doing quite yet. They don’t have a super clear product in mind, and then others who have been here for since the beginning, from 25 years that we’ve been here, right, so it’s been great. I love it Awesome.

Bradley Sutton:

Awesome. So back to that force for good. Like I think every year on the weekly buzz we actually announced because usually I noticed in Amazon news when they put out like a I don don’t know if I want to call it a casting call or more like a open call, kind of like hey, if you want to apply for this? So you’ve probably heard me talk about that so if you want to get on stage next year at Accelerate with Andrea, then make sure to tune in to the weekly buzz and we’ll let you know when you’re able to apply for that. All right, Well, this was our third time together here next year.

Andrea:

100% sure, let’s make it a fourth yes, Bradley, this time with everybody there out there. Thank you so much. It’s always a pleasure to talk to you.

Bradley Sutton:

Thank you so much and I’ll see you next year. Yeah.

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