Slaaaay bells ring, are you listening?

As we go into the last month of 2022 and into the holiday season, we hope your sales are slaying pocket after pocket! In other words, it’s time to get your game on if you want to make some serious profits this holiday season.

Here are a few key takeaways:

• Amazon Ads had a major dashboard issue on Black Friday that caused some major ad spending variances.
• Get paid! Amazon is willing to pay you $2 monthly just for allowing them access to your advertisement data.
• Lights out for Amazon as they experience a blackout affecting many consumers' purchasing abilities.
• Instacart's recently launched Big & Bulky fulfillment service is now bringing live and artificial trees right to customers’ homes.

The Amazon Corner

#AmazonAds: Yikes, A Black Eye for Black Friday

Well, that one left a (temporary) mark. Amazon ads started reporting inaccurate data on, yep--you guessed it, Black Friday. Insider Intelligence shares, "By Friday night, Amazon had reported advertising expenditures that were approximately half of what advertisers expected them to be. Ads were still running—but advertisers didn’t know how much they were spending." By Sunday, Amazon admitted to the error and told sources that the issue had been fixed.

Why is this important? Well, for starters, this dashboard allows advertisers to track their ad spending across a multitude of formats. This includes sponsored items, sponsored brands, sponsored display ads, and more. Retail brands and Amazon ads work in tandem to determine ad spend based on accurate real-time sales reporting. When this dashboard is off, well you can see where the problem comes in. 

Side Note: Is your brand protected on Amazon? Double-check that you aren't in a potential Amazon pitfall, here.

Having accurate, real-time data is the absolute bare minimum to have during any campaign, but especially during Black Friday. Errors in this process could lead to deceiving ad performance and unnecessary ad spending which is exactly what happened in this most recent Amazon ad oops. 

Retailers are skeptical of Amazon ads after this mishap and we don't blame them. The good news-- there is more than one way to profit on Amazon. Matter of fact, here are 5 Ways to Increase Your Amazon Profits

Learn more about the Amazon Black Friday bruise! 

#SideHustle: Amazon is Willing to Pay You to Track Your Ad Data

Did someone say free money? Amazon is now willing to pay users $24 a year just for allowing the company access to their advertisement data. The new service, called "Ad Verification," will allow marketers to target ads more efficiently by understanding how potential customers interact with them on and off Amazon's platform.

If the extra cha-ching wasn't enough, you can also earn an extra $10 a month for submitting 10 receipts from purchases you made that are not from Amazon. The Amazon Shopper Panel is an opt-in, invitation-only program where participants can earn monthly rewards for submitting receipts from other sources other than Amazon, filling out short surveys, and enabling ad verification. 

Amazon ads can be tricky to navigate, so if you are looking for a place to begin, look no further than this Beginner's Guide to Amazon Advertising. 

This feature was designed to help customers get more personalized recommendations. According to the Amazon Q&A, it will "help advertisers understand the relationship between ads and product purchases at an aggregate level." They also mention that it will not be shared with "third parties."

Money from Amazon wouldn't be the worst thing, but optimize your revenue by keeping the control in your hands! Learn about 8 Ways to Instantly Improve Your Amazon Listing.

Learn more about getting paid from Amazon! 

#PowerOut: Uh-Oh! Amazon Was Lights Out On Wednesday

Photo Credit: REUTERS/Pascal Rossignol

Don't worry, lights are back on! Amazon has since resolved the issue causing an outage this past Wednesday, Dec. 7th. According to Reuters, a spokesperson from Amazon mentioned, "We're sorry that some customers may have temporarily experienced issues while shopping. We have resolved the issue." 

Nearly 12,000 users reported issues on Amazon at around 10 a.m. ET on Wednesday morning. This was logged by Downdetector which tracks outages from various sources including user-submitted errors. 

Don't be left in the dark! Continue to capitalize on your sales using Amazon Automation: 4 Ways to Scale Your E-Commerce Business.

Learn more about how Amazon went lights out! 

Top Retail and E-commerce Stories

Insta-Tree: Instacart Brings Your Holiday Tree to You

Dial ho ho ho for Christmas tree on-demand delivery! Looking to avoid the Christmas rush? Instacart has you covered with its new ability to deliver holiday trees — fresh-cut or fake — right to your door. The holiday trees will be delivered using Instacart's Big & Bulky fulfillment solution for large items, which was unveiled earlier this year in August. This particular solution allows for same-day or scheduled delivery of items that weigh up to 60 pounds.

No more strapping a giant tree to your roof or hoping the box fits in your trunk this holiday! You can order a tree up to 5 feet in height as well as all of your holiday decor to go with it. Christmas tree spending is on track to exceed $6.6 billion this year (that's a lot of trees). 

According to Finder research, consumers are paying an average of $85.59 for a live tree and $122.60 for an artificial one. These sales are not expected to slow down, and now with Instacart, more people can celebrate with a click of a button. Talk about convenience!  

Speaking of holidays, are you prepared? Check your list twice: Preparing Supply Chain for Holidays.

Learn more about Instacart's Big & Bulky fulfillment!

A Little More

• SMEs: Riding The E-Commerce Wave Using Technology
• Amazon launches new tool to help users pool data and improve supply chain visibility
• Despite pandemic-induced supplier disruptions, many companies are still struggling to get back on track. In fact, long lead times might continue well into 2022.

THIS WEEK'S POLL

We've been talking about moving out of Amazon so we'd love to know which of these platforms are driving the most sales for you! We will publish the final results in next week's Click & Conversion newsletter. 

QUICK TIP

Try this. Invest in SEO and link building for your e-commerce website to make sure potential customers can find you. Use Google Analytics to track your progress and ROI.

FUN FACT

Live commerce is gradually becoming a popular marketing tool. In the United States, 20% of online shoppers have admitted to participating in live commerce.

LISTEN UP

On this 62nd episode of The E-Comm Show, our host and BlueTuskr CEO Andrew Maff is going to be all-out when it comes to diversifying your revenue streams outside of Amazon, how to handle Amazon suspensions, and how to make move out of your Amazon store and make your Shopify website your ultimate cash cow.