ChannelAdvisor Amazon 360 What this Could Mean for the Future

ChannelAdvisor Amazon 360 What this Could Mean for the Future

Two weeks ago I was kindly given a walk around the new Amazon 360 as part of the Autumn Release which also included Buy.com upgrades and comparison shopping merchandiser from ChannelAdvisor.

What struck me the most was what ChannelAdvisor has been and created, could be the foundation parts of a much larger offering which I’ll cover in this article. I decided that it would be easier to explain the points covered in this article in a discussion video and have included this above.

ChannelAdvisor Amazon360

What is Amazon 360?

This is a great question as the Amazon 360 feature includes the follow new elements:

  • Improved seller dashboard
    Displays key information on your Amazon sales, top-performing products, orders pending shipment, and product listing status
  • Amazon seller metrics
    Highlights important seller metrics monitored by Amazon integral in your seller status
  • Detailed feedback
    Imports all negative feedback notes for quick response
  • Product performance view
    Covers seller performance down to individual SKU details
  • Competitive landscape view
    Shows a compact view of your major competitors on Amazon by SKU
  • Rule-based price adjustments
    Configures rules based on margin to automatically change product price

Basically it’s the combination of multiple elements from Amazon, into a single dashboard to empower merchants to have the information that they need know, instantly available to them.

How Do I View Amazon & Why is this Important?

I always refer to Amazon as a person, this “person” has several key attributes and requirements from 3rd party merchants, these are:

  • Have the highest regards for their customers
  • Expects the best possible pricing for their customers
  • Will not be mucked around by merchants that poor results to their customers
  • Is looking for and at the long term relationship
  • Expects that ALL customer queries are answered ASAP
  • Does not tolerate disgruntled customers for whatever reason
  • Doesn’t like competitors (amongst other things)

If Amazon had a gender, it would be a woman.

Firm, but fair and you’d never cross her (ever).

That’s why (to me) a dashboard system like Amazon 360 is so critical. You need to know this information and if you don’t then that’s asking for trouble.

What Could this Mean?

This is curious as it became glaring apparent that what ChannelAdvisor has done is bring in the core information that sole merchant needs to survive on the marketplace, but has also opened the potential for providing key information to a business that has multiple employee levels.

For this example, we’ll assume that we have three people in company XYZ, their roles are:

  • Company Director
    Dave runs the entire business and manages both staffs and provides the direction for the company.
  • eCommerce Manager
    Ian, is Dave’s “man on the ground”. Ian is responsible for ensuring that all the channels are working effectively and efficiently
  • Miss Fix-it
    Zoe, she’s the do-er. Give her an issue and she’ll fix it. When Ian has an issue, Zoe resolves the issues for him.

Now can you realise that each of these people have different business roles to perform. Dave needs to information to help guide his company direction, Ian needs detailed information to identify where attention is needed and Zoe needs to the information & tools to action Ian’s requests.

What we can see in Amazon360 that this is on-the-way to being able to provide these differing requirements to different business roles. Not only can you see the account status, but also identify issues such as products, account status and feedback, but also identify products that require further attention, whether that be to focus upon pricing, data or to look at bringing in adjacent lines to complement the lines that are performing.

An Open Suggestion

Also digging deeper down this rabbit hole [think Alice in Wonderland], let’s think beyond what we can see from the screenshot above. ChannelAdvisor now “has” access to the information that each of these key business roles need to operate effectively.

An open suggestion to ChannelAdvisor is not stop where they are right now, but to introduce a multi-tiered dashboard that can be tailored to each role function and also to not stop at just Amazon, but include company-wide information. Combine all the channels together, but also tailor the information to specific business roles.

Take Zoe in our example above, she does not need to know how well the channels are performing, she needs to know what needs her urgent attention to solve issues. Now!

Ian as the eCommerce manager, needs to know how each channel is performing and also as a group, to identify where the staff should focus their attention and to focus his time upon expanding the business.

Where as Dave needs to know where the business is heading, not only individually on a per-channel basis, but company wide and help steer the direction or follow the direction its following as needed.

Summary

Firstly, nice work!

This was the first time I have seen a 3rd party solution provider incorporate this information into their solution and not only is it fabulous to see, its also exceptionally exciting what could be done with this information, when you look at the larger picture and realise the ramifications of combining data & metrics together.

13 replies
  1. DP
    DP says:

    Hi Matt, I noticed the shake too. Better to get a sturdier fixing / base than edit it post-production. Video quality is great IMO, still a slight buzz on the audio. Keep up the good work!

    Reply
  2. Rob Cubbon
    Rob Cubbon says:

    Really good, Matthew. It’s amazing how much a little experience with video goes a long way. I think you’re doing so much better than you were only a few weeks ago. The only thing I noticed this time which I’d never noticed before is that the camera appears to be shaking ever so slightly. I think this would be hard to sort out as you would probably have buy a more sturdy desk! Thought I’d point it out though. :)

    Reply
    • Matthew Ogborne
      Matthew Ogborne says:

      Howdy Rob,

      Agreed on the shake, its because I’m nudging the desk as I present the video, which makes one of the screens wobble.

      There is a feature to stop/limit camera shake in the editing software, although I need to stop the cause. So I’m chopping my hands off :D or rather I’ve got some shelves I need to move into my office and will use that as the stable base for the camera (rather than the mount and bluetack welding it to the top of one of the screens).

      Great point though, I’ll see if I can lick this one for the next video!

      Matt

      Reply

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