[News] Amazon paid a crime podcast more than Spotify paid Joe Rogan

Influence

Amazon just paid over $100 million for a one-week exclusive window to distribute the true crime series “My Favorite Murder”, one of the most widely listened to podcasts in the world—topping the estimated $100 million that Spotify paid to make The Joe Rogan Experience exclusive to its platform.

How does this affect sellers?

Amazon Top Terms

It's another Friday and that means another roundup of the top 10 Amazon terms and ecommerce trends from the past two weeks. We’ve taken some Amazon keyword data from January 16th to 29th to show you the terms that are causing a stir in the marketplace.

A new product is gaining popularity on TikTok and Instagram claiming to help relieve tension. "Chiroboard,” a back stretching board, has been making waves on both platforms—and videos featuring these devices have racked up million of views.

The keyword “chiroboard” has multiplied its searches in recent weeks, taking our #2 spot in today’s Top 10. Related products in this term have already sold 619 units in the past few days.

Folks on Instagram could be interested in your products, so knowing how to work with Instagram influencers is critical to your business.

Other noteworthy headlines:

Valentine´s Day is the biggest retail holiday in February. Love can move mountains, and indeed love can boost your sales this month. “Dildo penis” is taking our #7 slot, and this product has reached sales of up to 109 units per day in the past week. This year’s event will be unforgettable for sure!

Joe Burrow's glasses went viral. Social media was quick to point out the frames Burrow wore following Cincinnati's, causing an increase in sales in products related to this keyword, selling up to 311 units per day in the last two weeks.

Amazon “Ambassador” Program Shut Down

According to The Financial Times, the ecommerce giant abandoned its “ambassador” program, apparently due to poor reach and embarrassing backfires.

The program first cropped up in 2018, under which Amazon workers were paid to tweet positive things about the company. These include replying to posts criticizing how its fulfillment centers are being run and addressing comments from politicians and the public.

The FT said that workers were handpicked and were told to reply in a “blunt” but “polite” manner to Amazon’s critics online, but were also told not to target journalists.

The program was maligned by netizens from the get-go, with a number of fake and parody accounts popping up on Twitter to mock it. Nevertheless, hiring a twitter army was one of Amazon’s ways of improving its public image amidst mounting pressure from regulators and soaring demand for online goods during the pandemic.

Just this month, it’s “Sold by Amazon” program was also shut down after a government investigation exposed it as an illegal price-fixing scheme.

Where Your Amazon Returns End Up

CNBC’s latest expose reveals what exactly happens to Amazon returns and how the ecommerce giant is handling the soaring rate of returned orders two years into the pandemic.

The estimated return rate for brick-and-mortar retail stores is about 7.5%, but that pales in comparison to the roughly 25% return rate for ecommerce goods. In 2021, $761 million dollars worth of products were returned, with an estimated 10% of those being fraudulent.

Amazon has consistently received a lot of criticism over the destruction of millions of items and its implications to the ecommerce ecosystem and the environment.

Cash or Coin?

Elevate Brands has teamed up with Coinbase Prime to offer an option to Amazon sellers to get paid in cryptocurrency, making it the first Amazon aggregator to do so.

As of writing, Elevate Brands boasts a portfolio of over 30 private label brands, focusing on acquiring consumer product companies, and claims to be a Top 100 Amazon seller.

The company believes that third-party Amazon sellers are well-entrenched in crypto. Its Cash or Coin offering gives sellers who sell their brands to Elevate the option to get paid partially or exclusively in crypto.

Amazon Sellers Are 25% of US Ecommerce

A recent report by Marketplace Pulse reveals that the Amazon third-party seller marketplace makes up 25% of all ecommerce activity in the United States, adding that had such marketplace been an independent platform, it would be the largest online retailer in the US.

Source: Marketplace Pulse

Third-party Amazon sellers make up for over 60% of all Amazon retail sales. Oddly (and unsurprisingly), the second largest online retailer, Amazon retail itself, controls the marketplace, as third-party Amazon sellers are tied up to an Amazon service, one way or another.

Coming Out This Week

Amazon, Facebook, and other tech giants will be releasing their Q4 2021 earnings reports after market close on Thursday.

Amazon’s Q3 earnings report revealed that its retail business took a hit, although it managed to grow its logistics network throughout the pandemic (AWS continues to be a breadwinner for the tech juggernaut). According to Yahoo! Finance, Amazon’s Q4 performance could be a make-or-break for the ecommerce giant going into 2022 as markets reassess tech valuations.