My wife often makes fun of me, saying that I shop at Amazon once a day. It means that I shop at Amazon at least once a day. It has been almost two years since I brought m19, which can fully automatically optimize Amazon sponsored ads, to Japan, and I have gotten into the habit of looking at Amazon’s site even more often. In this blog, I would like to look at the state of the Amazon marketplace this year, citing an excellent report by Jungle Scout: a software company for Amazon sellers in the US.

Question 1: What is the extent of Amazon Japan’s marketplace expansion?
The number of sellers on Amazon Japan has grown by about 53% over the last year. Saudi Arabia, Australia, Brazil, and Turkey are in the top 5 of this fastest growing market with YoY growth rates of 50%, 47%, 80%, and 220% respectively. (Surprise!)

Question 2: Which channels are Amazon sellers spending their marketing budgets on?
In terms of the main advertising channels Amazon sellers are using to promote their products, e-commerce platforms like the Amazon platform continue to be the most popular, while social media has maintained its No. 2 position with about 15% growth over the last year. Interesting. (e.g., in 2022, 36% of sellers used social media to advertise their products, growing to 41% this year).

https://www.junglescout.com/amazon-seller-report/

I also see that Amazon product ads and branded ads continue to be the most important ad formats, with 75% and 41% of sellers using Amazon product ads and branded ads, respectively. Amazon video ads may grow this year and be used more than display ads. Creative strategy is becoming more important.

https://www.junglescout.com/amazon-seller-report/

Also growing in social media advertising, especially vs. last year, are TikTok and YouTube ads. It seems that an increasing number of sellers are focusing on influencer marketing and video advertising.

Question 3: What are the biggest challenges for Amazon sellers in 2023?

Top 3 of the top 10 business challenges are 1. product research and development, 2. customer review acquisition, and 3. managing Amazon advertising. All of these can be done using a variety of 3rd party tools to significantly increase the efficiency and effectiveness of the task, so it is a good idea to pick a tool that fits your company’s needs and try to solve the issue. In addition, the external factors that are of most concern are 1. rising costs, 2. price competition due to increased competition, and 3. increased shipping and fulfillment costs to the warehouse. With the simultaneous occurrence of various factors that put pressure on profits, it seems that the key point is how to add value and get customers to accept higher product prices.

https://www.junglescout.com/amazon-seller-report/

We have the tools/solutions necessary to solve the various issues Amazon sellers face, including those mentioned above, as well as m19. We welcome inquiries such as, “I have this problem, is there anything you can do to solve it?” Please feel free to contact us anytime!

Masaki “Mark” Iino
Founder & CEO
SOPHOLA, Inc