[Crew Review] Top Amazon seller ceases operations

Fair accompli

One of the biggest Amazon sellers is cutting jobs and ceasing operations after it failed to go public. This is not unlike what happened to top Amazon aggregator Thrasio a few months back.

What’s their common denominator?

Peloton, Now on Amazon

Peloton reached its revenue peak during the lockdowns when people were looking for ways to get healthier and avoid dying from boredom. But as gyms reopen, the exercise equipment company has been struggling with sales.

It went through a series of layoffs and tried various ways to increase revenue. Its latest move is setting up shop on Amazon.

As early as May this year, CEO Barry McCarthy remarked that Peloton is going to sell its gear to third-party retailers in the near future. Chief Commercial Officer Kevin Cornils said that the company wants to “meet consumers where they are,” which is why it chose to partner with Amazon.

This shows that despite Amazon’s e-commerce slowdown, brands still trust that it can facilitate growth with its huge customer base.

Under the Amazon deal, the company offers free delivery and assembly. This partnership is Peloton’s first with another retailer, but it will welcome more partnerships in the future.

Humans, Not Search Engines

Google just rolled out one of its biggest updates yet—and it’s one that content writers can’t ignore.

If you run an e-commerce business, you know how important SEO is. Whether you’re writing an Amazon product description or a blog article for your content site, you’ll find more success if you appear on the first page.

That’s why it’s important to write blog articles that contain valuable information and are search engine optimized. However, with Google’s latest Helpful Content Update, writers will be forced to concentrate on the former.

The update, which rolled out earlier this week, will target content that seems to be primarily written for search engines instead of actually being useful for people who search for the topic. Think of articles packed with keywords to the brim they sound almost robotic.

The algorithm update is designed to help Google users find high-quality content by ranking them higher. These changes will be applied sitewide and will impact tech and shopping-related topics the most.

Your e-commerce and content sites will either be benefited or hurt by the Helpful Content update. EcomCrew has been an advocate of writing for a human audience instead of search engines, so this major update has blessed most of our sites. We talked about our content-first strategy in one of our most recent Secret Sauce classes even before the update was rolled out.

The Shorter, the Better

Here’s a list of things that are better when shorter: commutes, awkward conversations, and—according to Wall Street analysts—videos.

TikTok exploded during the pandemic, when people were looking for creative outlets. But even as things went back to normal, it seems like short-form videos are here to stay. You can see its influence on other social media platforms:

• Youtube Shorts
• Instagram Reels
• Snapchat Spotlight
• Netflix Fast Laughs

This content type has become so popular that Wall Street analysts are comparing it to crack cocaine. However, these short addictive videos have marketers worried.

One of the reasons why is their limited options for monetization. Sponsored videos can easily be skipped over, especially when they clearly show that it’s a paid ad (a requirement based on FTC guidelines). Short-form videos also limit marketers’ abilities to add direct-response ads.

So how do you make sure your audience pays attention to your product? This is where influencer marketing comes in. It has never been more important to reach out to content creators, so you better get those email and DM templates ready.

Etc.

Why the poor review? Sellers still can’t see how this customer contacting feature is helpful when it’s just a viral TikTok video away from being a disaster.

Instagram is copying something. Aside from the TikTok-inspired Reels, Instagram is also finding inspiration from the social media app BeReal to encourage users to be more candid.

Black-owned. It’s now easier for shoppers who want to support Black-owned businesses because of Amazon’s new badge.