#603 – Amazon Accelerate Recap & AI-Generated A+ Content

51 minute read

Published: October 8, 2024

Modified: October 16, 2024

What if you could revolutionize your Amazon business with cutting-edge AI tools? Join us as we uncover the latest advancements from the Amazon Accelerate event in Seattle, with exclusive insights from Andrea Marquez of Amazon’s This Is Small Business podcast. We dive into the game-changing world of AI-generated A+ content, as well as the exciting debut of Project Amelia, Amazon’s generative AI that promises to transform seller capabilities.

Our discussion takes you to the heart of Amazon’s evolution in supporting sellers, highlighting the critical role of video content and improved analytics. Explore new tools designed to help brands create high-quality video content, alongside a detailed look at the updates that brands can benefit from. We also shine a light on Amazon’s “Sellers in Your Community” initiative and hear the inspiring stories of Amazon entrepreneurs and their impact on communities.

In the second part of this episode, let’s discover how A+ content has evolved, with insights from Lauren Coury, Senior Product Manager at Amazon, and learn how to utilize your basic, shoppable A+ content, premium, brand story A+ content and AI integration to elevate your brand storytelling. Get ready to explore this wealth of knowledge and uncover new ways to make your Amazon presence more engaging and impactful than ever before.

In episode 603 of the Serious Sellers Podcast, Bradley, Andrea, and Lauren discuss:

00:00 – Amazon Accelerate Highlights and A+ Content Powered By Generative AI
04:36 – Innovative Video Generation Revolutionizes Advertising
06:29 – Enhancing Amazon Seller Experience and Analytics
10:16 – Improved Amazon Seller Support Features
12:43 – Entrepreneurial Stories and Amazon Product Ideas
18:48 – Success Stories From The Amazon Accelerate Event
21:56 – Brand Experience and A+ Content Creation
25:19 – A+ Content and Brand Story
26:59 – Importance of A+ Content for Brands
32:50 – Shoppable A+ Content and AI Benefits
42:00 – Enhancing A+ Content With Graphics
46:23 – Leveraging A+ Content and Generative AI

Transcript

Bradley Sutton:

Today we get a sneak peek behind the curtains with the team from Amazon that has developed new tools for AI generated A+ content plus We’re going to get a recap of all the main Amazon Accelerator releases with the host of the Amazon this Is Small Business podcast. How cool is that? Pretty cool, I think. Hello everybody, and welcome to another episode of the Serious Sellers Podcast by Helium 10. I am your host, Bradley Sutton, and this is the show that is a special Amazon Accelerate edition that we recorded in Seattle with Amazonians. We’ve got kind of two episodes in one. We have with us on the show someone who is responsible for generating a lot of the AI-generated A+ content tools that was released at Amazon Accelerator. We’re going to get a little bit of a sneak peek as to how exactly those work and how Amazon sellers can use it, and we’re also going to recap a lot of the main events that happened at Amazon Accelerator with Andrea, who is the host of the Amazon podcast This Is Small Business. So let’s go ahead and hop into this episode.

Andrea:

This is the 3^rd Accelerate I’ve been to Accelerate 2024. I thought I feel like every year, just like they up the ante, like it gets better and better every year, and there’s a lot that happened this year. I’m like in my mind trying to like, make the list of like, where do we even start? So much happened. What was the experience like for you?

Bradley Sutton:

This is only my second, so you have one more under the belt than me. But when anybody ever asked me like, hey, is it worth it to go to Accelerate. Just from even before my one experience, I was like if you are going to go to one event in the year, it’s got to be Accelerate. First of all, there’s not any other event where there’s going to be 4,000 other brands and sellers all in one place that you can network with. In my opinion, whatever event you’re talking about, networking is so crucial. And then this is the place to also get sneak peeks at all this new stuff that Amazon has been working on. That, if you know, if you weren’t here, you might have to be, you know, waiting weeks from now to like see these things roll out. But those who are here were able to hear it directly from Amazon executives. So a lot of new, exciting announcements.

Andrea:

Yeah, in the general session stages, and then we had breakout rooms, and what I also think is exciting is that there are account services here too, so sellers are able to come here and talk through those like what their journeys and what their experiences, and get one-on-one with account service teams, which I know that a lot of sellers love. That about Accelerate and it makes a huge difference to be able to do these things in person.

Bradley Sutton:

I totally forgot about it. That was like the third reason that I tell everybody, because I don’t know how many brands and sellers, I talked to that have told me I’ve had this one issue for like a month. A couple of people said I’ve had been working with this one issue for a couple of years and they had like a 15 minute session with somebody in the, I think it’s called Seller Cafe, right, and they got it fixed and they’re like so happy of that, right, and they got it fixed and they’re like so happy of that. So like this is, this is the only place where you can have that kind of opportunity, where you can sit right in front of a specialist who can help you with your issues. So again, guys, if you weren’t here this year, make sure to make 2025 the year you come.

Andrea:

Next year and I’m sure it’s going to be bigger and better and there’s going to be more things, and I want to talk about what we heard a lot. And I want to talk about what we heard a lot me being walking around. One of the words I don’t know if it’s a word, but acronyms that I got a lot was AI all over. AI, AI, AI. Anything that stood out to you on that?

Bradley Sutton:

There was five different AI announcements and a lot of them. I think a lot of sellers are excited. I think, just in general, even before this conference, I was looking on LinkedIn at people saying, hey, put your predictions here of what might happen, and I think the predominant thing was, like AI is going to be. Yeah, a lot of people were talking about AI and so here at the conference, one of the things that was announced was this I love how Amazon does these like little code names, project secret code name. So this was Project Amelia. I know we were trying to like think about what might be the origin of that. I’m not sure what the origin of that is, but basically what Project Amelia is like a generative AI for sellers and brands where in Seller Central, you can just start, you know, being able to look at information like, hey, show me where my sales are going down on which products, and then you know it’s not like I can’t do that now but I would have to go to different dashboards or use like Helium 10 and know where those dashboards and filters are, but now you can just have a conversation and then get that information instantly. So that was one cool AI announcement. Another cool one that I think you know got some reaction from the crowd was this new video generation. You know so last year at Accelerate. Did you see the tea one?

Andrea:

Yes, they were amazing. They were. It’s gonna change the game for a lot of brands.

Bradley Sutton:

Yeah, like they take a picture. They showed a picture of like a teacup.

Andrea:

The ocean one with –

Bradley Sutton:

The ocean one, and then the teacup had like steam coming out, but then somehow it just became a video now and it just like totally changes the vibe. And so the main use I think that they were talking about was for a sponsored brand, Amazon advertising campaigns and things like that, where you know you need something a little bit more dynamic. But I think in the looking ahead to the future, like maybe you could even start using this tool to even make videos that actually just go in the regular carousel of your listing. So a lot of sellers were really excited about that as well.

Andrea:

What I also love is that they look amazing in the general stage when they’re presenting all of this, but what I wanted to say about that also is I think it makes it more budget friendly as well. For small businesses that are just starting out, this is such an important tool that is going to make all the difference so that they’re able to stand out and also utilize the analytics which, by the way, something else I want to ask you about what you heard about big changes with analytics and Amazon products, because what I’ve been hearing a lot from sellers is that you, you need to really sift through that data. You need to do all the A-B testing, like go all in and really understand what’s happening. But before you can do that, you need the images, need the imagery, you need what the product to A B test, and a lot of the times, there isn’t the budget to be able to do that, so you’re kind of like guessing, like where do I start? Where could I do paid ads? Do I put my money here? Do I invest my money there? So now that we have those tools available, I think it’ll be even easier for sellers to be able to do all of this testing and run through that data and do all of the analytics to be able to know what’s working for them or not.

Bradley Sutton:

Yeah, what you just mentioned is something I think that’s very important. It’s not like video is some new medium that we never knew about. Every Amazon seller understands that video is better than still imagery, but the reason why you don’t see it so as much, like in every single listing, is because it costs a lot of money to have an HD video of a steaming cup of coffee on some wild beach that looks like it was shot in 4K and amazing lighting.

Andrea:

Can you imagine how many takes like getting the ocean to come?

Bradley Sutton:

Zero takes for me, because I couldn’t do it, like I don’t have that kind of equipment to be able to do that. I would have to hire someone for, like you know, $1,000, $2,000, $3,000. And you know what you? You know that $2,000 we probably need for products and other things. And so it’s not a matter of good video versus bad video. It’s a matter of video or no video, and for many sellers it’s no video, but now this is going to change it. And then you mentioned the analytics too. I think that was a lot of good releases on analytics. Especially the customer loyalty dashboard is something that was announced where you know before, it’s just like all right, I’ve got these. You know a thousand customers. They bought 2000 products. That’s the limit of my knowledge. Now Amazon has made these kind of like groups of customers like hey, who are your top tier customers? Who are the ones that have added your product to the shopping cart but never actually purchased? Who haven’t purchased in a long time, who has ordered for like now there’s all these audiences and then I can tailor, uh, tailor, make like special, like marketing campaigns for each of them.

Andrea:

That’s going to make a huge difference, because that way you’re able to tailor campaigns specific to them and have so much more information on your customer, which I think will also feed into the wheelhouse of like okay, so what’s next for the product and how are we changing the product? Are we changing branding? What’s working with who and why not? And you’d be surprised too, on like new customers that resonate with your product that you didn’t even think as a seller that that’s who you would be buying what you have, and also the keyword searches. You get a lot more going as a seller there too.

Bradley Sutton:

I mean, if you’re the first time buyer of my product, the way I want to speak to you is probably different than the person who has been buying five times and maybe stopped for a few months. So I think that this is going to be critical for how sellers like even myself, market to customers.

Andrea:

Yeah, and how you keep them coming back or why they stopped coming back, how they got to you in the first place. That’s wild. There’s so much okay, and another thing I wanted to also talk about is just being a seller and being part of Amazon and what that means and telling your brand story and all of the possibilities that you have with Amazon to be able to reach customers by telling your story and one of them I don’t know if you caught that at on main stage, but it’s through the sellers in your community program. What I also think is important about being having the opportunity to meet your local representatives, as they understand the challenges that you go through and you can potentially be influencing policy, and they know what your struggles are. They know the challenges that that you face every day as a seller, which, by the way, if you go to the sellers in your community.amazon website, there’s also so many cool things that that team talked about, one of them being like the engagements. There were people, there were sellers, who were part of this, a super bowl ad. There were sellers who met with their local representative and then they were tapped to go talk about their seller journeys, and these like community engagements as well. So I think it was cool if you didn’t it out, I invite you to do it.

Bradley Sutton:

I think one of the things just thinking back to something that I start applauding about or that other sellers did when they were in the audience. There was one individual who was talking about all that Amazon does to kind of protect sellers from like, you know, bad players out there who are trying to attack your listings and people who do fake reviews and stuff. So that was really encouraging to see, like the steps that they’re actually taking for that. And then the other one was kind of like the evolution of the seller to Amazon customer service experience. Like me as a seller having a customer service issue, like something wrong with my account or I need to change the dimensions on my product, now I’m going to be able to like open up cases and chat live. I mean, I’ve always been able to chat live but now, like you’re going to have more of an opportunity to just go ahead and finish whatever issue you have live with a representative. And even they had the opportunity, or we’re going to have the opportunity as sellers to live screen share like our screen. Like hey, let me show you talking to the rep at Amazon, let me show you exactly what issue I’m having with my seller central or my listing or something I can actually share, live screen share with a live human being. So everybody was like cheering about that. And then the last one was I would have cheered, you would have cheered too, I would have cheered, I love it. And then the last one was like that, I think, really got a big kick out of the crowd and me was being able to talk directly to specialists about a certain problem, because, you know, I don’t know how it works behind the scenes at Amazon, but how it seemed like it was just like. You know, if I have an issue, you know I’m going to be talking to somebody who only deals with a specific issue, and so that probably means like less time that they go have to research on their own. They can probably oh yeah, I’ve dealt with this 75 million times. I know exactly how to fix this issue, so I think that’s very promising as well.

Andrea:

Specialization makes all the difference when you’re talking to people I mean, just as I’m not a seller but I can, all of this resonates with me, one with IT, just always having computer issues it really helps when you’re talking on someone on the phone and they’re like they know they can go in virtually to see what’s happening. And then two, customer service. When you’re talking to someone and they’re like, yes, let me pass you to this other person and let me pass you to this person, and you’re like why, what is happening? So all of those things sound really exciting. Anything else that caught your attention?

Bradley Sutton:

I loved how they always integrate a lot of seller stories and that’s the whole basis of your podcast right there. And sometimes we’re our own little worlds and we forget that hey, there’s people that have all kinds of different stories and different backgrounds who start selling on Amazon and as consumers, I think people out there don’t you know they. They just say, hey, this is from Amazon. It’s like only 40% of the products you buy on Amazon are actually from Amazon. 60% are from small business owners or private label brands that just come from people with these interesting backgrounds. Like you live on stage were interviewing somebody who used to be a professional football player I saw that and now he has a business. And then they what is it called? The community award that people-

Andrea:

Force for Good Award winners.

Bradley Sutton:

Force for Good and there was like crazy wild stories about some of these products. But there was one story I was like this is classic, I forgot the name of these products. But there was one story I was like this is classic, I forgot the name of it already, but a guy had an invention. I don’t know if you saw this, but it’s like something that keeps your beer can full while you’re fit and it’s like a fishing yeah, so the fishing line is attached to it. And I was like this guy is doing all this business. I was like that’s that, I love it.

Andrea:

It’s really important to be able to share their stories. I also really enjoy that about Accelerate. That it’s all about sellers. Everything we work backwards from the seller, we’re always telling their story, we’re meeting them in person. One of the things I also think is at least for me, it resonated a lot. I don’t know how you felt about this, but learning about how sellers have an impact in their community, whether it’s not just the product, it’s not just the business strategy, but how are they influencing the community landscape and hearing those stories, I always feel like I always get like. I get like goosebumps, because it’s so much more than just a business, it’s so much more than just a product. It’s making a difference and influencing. And it’s like you wake up every morning with this passion and you hear these entrepreneurs telling their story, being so passionate about what they’re talking about that you’re almost like should I be an entrepreneur? Should I work for you? Like I feel so inspired all the time. I think that’s also why I love doing this as small business. I love being able to tell their stories, to hear from them, to learn from them. Sometimes I feel like I’m getting an MBA through just listening to business owners every day. I don’t know how you feel through Helium 10.

Bradley Sutton:

Yeah, the benefit of doing the podcast, I think, is not just I know we’re inspiring people, not me, I don’t even talk much in my podcast, but it’s the guests. Having the guests being able to provide their stories inspires a lot of people. But then I’m listening there and learning the same way that you know the audience is actually listening. I think that’s like super, super wild. I’m going to throw you a quick curve ball. I guess it’s like this like well, you were talking right now almost off topic, but it’s I’m going to bring it back to on topic. So you said you’re not you, you haven’t sold on Amazon. Now, one thing I remember last year I was living vicariously through your Instagram, through all your wedding, like you had an amazing wedding and things like, like, like total storybook wedding it was. It was so awesome. But I was just thinking with your experience, with all that you did, with what you know setting up the, you had like multiple weddings too, like I think like I don’t know it was. It seemed like it lasted like seven days or something. I bet you can think of a product that you know like a party favor or something that used for decoration, something that you needed for planning your wedding. But let’s take 60 seconds right now. Can you think back to everything that you did at the wedding? And let’s see if you can think of a product that from there, that you’re like you know what? I bet you anybody who’s getting married. I don’t have that experience. I’ve been married twice to the same person that’s a side story Both times in a courthouse with no big wedding. So me I don’t know. I don’t know about what, which is why I was living vicariously through my career, but I don’t know much about what would be really good for a wedding. So let’s make an Amazon product right now.

Andrea:

Okay, I thought of like one of the I didn’t have a lot of challenges or issues, but what I will say, one thing that caught my attention. I was like why haven’t we invented something that helps with this is there is not one friend that’s gotten married or myself who didn’t go through this, which is your wedding dress. Usually, if it has a train and I know now it’s like trendy to have two wedding dresses. I just had one. So you’re dancing and everything, everyone’s stepping on your train and so you have people trying to help you with your train. Or there’s like little buttons that you put it’s an intricate thing your train. Or there’s like little buttons that you put it’s an intricate thing, but there’s little buttons you put. Those buttons always break Inevitably. It never works out. I’ve never seen somebody whose dress, unless they changed it to a short one, has gotten there but like my friends who helped on their knees sewing, sewing the train like mid party because I couldn’t move.

Bradley Sutton:

Okay.

Andrea:

And I was like why is there not something faster to help with this sewing? Like, cause you can’t. It’s a, it’s a nice wedding dress, so you can’t just like staple it.

Bradley Sutton:

Yeah, as a guy that was like literally the first thing I was like just staple it. Yeah, how that’s a guy that was like literally the first thing I’ll say just staple it.

Andrea:

Yeah, like you can’t do that either because you’re ruining the dress. So there has to be a way that, like you can still and it’s specifically made for wedding dresses, where you can still do that you can still kind of staple it on, but you don’t, you know, ruin the wedding dress. I know there’s ways to do it around with the dress, like remove the veil, but that cost I mean the train, but that costs more money.

Bradley Sutton:

All right. So, offline, let’s think about this more and let’s see if we can get that started. And I already see our Force For Good 2025 winner right here. Is that allowed to happen?

Andrea:

Too big for me. You’re dreaming too big. I’ve seen how much work it is to be an entrepreneur. I like my nine to five.

Bradley Sutton:

Hey, a lot of people have nine to five jobs and they sell on Amazon.

Andrea:

That’s true. It’s crazy, like when people tell me they started as a side hustle. Like Justin who was on stage, Justin Forsett, who I had the privilege to be able to interview on stage, he started his business as a side hustle while being in the NFL.

Bradley Sutton:

Now that that’s overachieving, I think.

Andrea:

What, like what, and not just that. Like he started his business and then he started figuring out how to give to his community as well, and so he has two other ventures that he that are just forgiving and helping his community. So sure, let’s start small. Let’s start small, why not? Why not? Let’s see what we come up with. But anything else that you liked about Accelerate, that you want us, that you think is important, that we shall.

Bradley Sutton:

For me it’s just again going back to what we originally were talking about the networking. You know Helium 10, we had a booth there, and so it was really nice to have everybody come to the booth and like people that maybe I’ve talked to on Zoom or done trainings with and maybe I’ve kind of known virtually for years, and then to be able to shake their hand and hear their stories. And then the most inspiring is when I hear these stories of people who were inspired by somebody who was on the Serious Sellers podcast or maybe one of the training things. That is like you know what I heard? This four years ago I decided like we did something called Project X was like a kind of like a little mini reality TV show about how we found coffin you know, shelves shaped like coffins and that became like this big fan, I’ve sold hundreds of thousands of dollars of Shelves. Like a coffin shelf. Okay, that you could put your books. Like a hierarchy, even there you go. But I mean like I’m not like a gothic or kind of like morbid kind of person, but hey, that that’s the, that’s the beauty about selling on Amazon. It’s here’s the thing it sells throughout the year. So, I, the people I do not judge what anybody buys at all, especially when they’re giving me money, but yeah, like, I totally thought that I’m like, oh yeah, this is only a halloween right product. But no, throughout the year people are buying coffin shaped-shaped shelves, and now it’s this whole line of coffin and bat-shaped things that I’ve been selling. But anyways, the very first one, we did a little case study on it so people could actually see on YouTube the whole process of how we found the product with Helium 10, and then how we sourced it from China and then how we launched it and this and that. And then people still like that was years ago. People at this conference came up to me and saying you know, bradley, I looked at that Project X and that inspired me, and now I’ve sold millions of dollars on Amazon. Thanks, you know, and they tie it back, you know, to there, and so that’s always like super, super, kind of like validation. I’m sure you get the same thing to where people come up to you and it’s like oh yeah yes, this is why I do what I do, and so that’s always great to have at these.

Andrea:

Oh yeah, every time someone emails me afterwards and they’re like wow, I’m so excited about this episode that came out. Thank you so much for the opportunity to tell my story, I’m like, yes, yes, win, win, like it’s just being able to tell the stories and helping them out in any way you can, because I think one of the things that they always say, because I’m like how, how, how can we help you? Like what else can we do? And they’re like this telling my story, having people hear my story, that is already a huge win. So congrats to us that we have the privilege to speak to these entrepreneurs every day. T

Bradley Sutton:

Thanks everybody, and thank you Andrea. We are doing a special episode right here in Seattle at Amazon Accelerate. Lauren, it’s so great to meet you in person.

Lauren:

Thank you for having me here. It’s nice to meet you.

Bradley Sutton:

Before we get in, I need to know a little bit about you. We were talking just a little bit beforehand. You said you flew in here from Phoenix, right?

Lauren:

Yep, I am born and raised in Phoenix, Arizona, and some of the things I like to do outside of work are lots of trail running and running in general. But yeah, that’s where I came in from, a lot hotter than here in Seattle. What do you prefer the heat or the cool? As I get older, I like the cool. I’m getting less tolerant about the heat, a little bit more cranky about it.

Bradley Sutton:

So yeah, okay. Now I like to ask my guests like kind of like their journey to e-commerce. You know how they got to Amazon, so do you study something about e-commerce at all in university?

Lauren:

Nope, I actually have a background in marketing. That’s what I graduated with.

Bradley Sutton:

And where did you go?

Lauren:

Arizona State University.

Bradley Sutton:

Sun Devils.

Lauren:

Yeah, yeah, and I. That’s where I started. I went into after I graduated college. I went to General Dynamics, where I was there for 11 years in marketing and some product management as well, and so, like very similar position a lot of our brands are in, where I was crafting branded content and messaging for a lot of our different product lines and working with graphic design teams.

Bradley Sutton:

Okay, now, what’s your official position now and what department do you work at?

Lauren:

Yeah, I am a senior product manager with Amazon and I’ve been with Amazon for almost five years and I’m currently leading the user experience within the A+ content manager for brands on both Seller and Vendor Central.

Bradley Sutton:

Okay, Now we’re going to get into a little history, but I like giving people a little tease about what’s coming. So what’s new with A+ content now?

Lauren:

Yeah, so we’ve been working on a lot of different things over the past year, incorporating a lot of brand feedback, as I have been talking to brands understanding their different pain points, how they go about creating A+ content. So we’ve been working on all the different features, but the one thing we have been focusing on this past year is Gen AI. Thing we have been focusing on this past year is Gen AI. Amazon created A+ content to allow brands a way to go into their products and who they are as a brand in a visually compelling place and really elevate who they are as a brand on the detail page. It’s their place to showcase who they are and I have an understanding of just how intensive that process can be the iteration, the back and forth of the graphic designer and with the advancements in Gen AI, we’re now able to tackle some of that content creation process and help brands through it. And the way we’ve built the Gen AI feature is to weave in our understanding of how brands are going about creating A+ content and try to help them through that process.

Bradley Sutton:

So I think you know a lot of people are familiar with A+ content, some aren’t. We’re going to get into the history Like I don’t know if you said you were there five years. I remember back in the day it used to be called Enhanced Brand Content EBC, and then it changed to A+ Might have been around five. A brand content ABC, and then it changed to A+. Might have been around five, six years ago, yeah. Now, how do you, just in general, though, how do brands approach the creation or how should they approach the creation of A+ content?

Lauren:

Yeah, I’ve actually heard a lot of them. They start with kind of a wireframing concept. You know, A+ content is a series of modules that get built out and that has images and text, and so there’s a lot of different ways brands could choose to build out that A+ content to talk about their product. And it’s a free offering for brands to do this and they will go about the wireframe. They come up with that text. So brainstorming, like what are the most important key features to focus on for my product? And then they have to go get imagery and put that into a graphical style that represents their brand elements. And so from that initial brainstorming, the iteration to get to a design that you like and onto the detail page. That’s generally how brands go about creating A+ content.

Bradley Sutton:

All right. So some might be hearing that and say, okay, that sounds like a little bit you know a lot to have to do. So like what is it at its core, like why it was it used to be called Enhanced Brand Content. So like that in itself like tells you a little bit about you know what it is? Yeah, but like A+ content, what’s the structure of it and why is it important for brands to even use it?

Lauren:

Yeah, I mean, A+ content has been around, I think, since 2012. So we’re quite established and really used a lot by brands and it’s a free tool for brands to use to talk about their product and they can use the different modules to go into specific features about the product and the benefits of it, really telling the customers why they should buy that product and knowing that e-commerce it’s online shopping, so you really want to overcome the purchase barriers of not being able to touch that product and evaluate it in person. And we also provide another feature with brand story that allows the brands to elevate their brand presence and go into more about who they are as a brand and not just product, but like who they are as a brand. The other the benefits of using A+ content is we’ve seen that high quality A+ content can actually increase sales by up to 20%, so it helps with that conversion as you’re engaging with your customers. And then we also have shoppable comparison charts which have a higher conversion rate almost two times higher than that of not having no shoppable content. So we encourage brands to get into A+ content and use that feature. And then the last piece I think is really important about A+ content is, like I said, being able to address common customer concerns. They can’t evaluate that product in person, so how do you get them to a place where they feel informed about that purchase decision? And I think A+ content is a great place to do that.

Bradley Sutton:

I think it’s important that brands understand that. You know, yes, you have to optimize listings for like the Amazon algorithm to be searchable. But at the end of the day, if you have some just like keyword stuff listing, that’s not talking really to the direct customer and A+ content really kind of like you know, goes through their emotional, you know points and you know talks about pain points and things like that. Now you know somebody shouldn’t just copy the. You know you might think, hey, I’ve got images, I got seven images, I’ve got bullet points. Now why can’t I just go ahead and copy those images and copy those bullet points right to my A+ content? Is that not the correct strategy to do?

Lauren:

Yeah, I mean brands do reuse content because, again, they’re trying to get all of this information in front of their customers on the detail page in the most efficient way possible. But A+ content allows brands to craft that messaging and have that imagery that’s essentially theirs, to talk to their customers and further engage with their customers. And the customers might be looking at bullet points or some of the imagery higher up, but if they’re on the fence about a purchase decision on your product, you can go in and it’s what’s in it for me that we want the brands to get at. So you know you can showcase different aspects of your product. You know we’ve got different modules to use and you know we see brands. You know they might focus on a key feature of one aspect of their product and then they’ll go to the next module and focus on a different key feature. And that way, you know, you can provide some close-ups of the product and go into some of the finer details, and all within the brand you can feel and I think that that’s the nice thing is being able to bring your brand presence to the detail page.

Bradley Sutton:

Now one thing in the last year or two that was opened up to more brands is premium A+ content. You know, in the past I believe that was gated to like larger brands. Can you talk a little bit about the difference between regular A+ content and then the premium A+ content? In the past I believe that was gated to larger brands. Can you talk a little bit about the difference between regular A+ content and then the premium A+ content?

Lauren:

Yeah, so originally, premium A+ content was just available to our retail vendors and in October 2022, we opened it up to our selling partners on Seller Central. And the difference between the two? Basic A+ is our free kind of main offering, whereas premium A+ is a gated offering and it requires some criteria to get to it and it just ensures that you know brands really understand our tool and they’re creating high quality A+ content. And once we’re there, the Premium A+ offers some more advanced modules interactive hotspots, some of the navigation carousels, Q&A modules which are great, but they’re both meant to be product specific. So Basic A+ and Premium A+ are what I call our product specific A+ content, where it allows brands to go deeper into their product details with text image in a cohesive way that represents their brand. And, you know, again, try to educate the customers, build trust there that you know they’re buying the correct product, which ultimately encourages repeat purchases.

Bradley Sutton:

And I mentioned that there’s criteria to qualify for premium A+ content. What is that?

Lauren:

Yeah, so to qualify, we just ask that you have done five basic A+ content projects. So again getting familiar with our tool, understanding how to create that quality content and then brand story across the brand’s catalog and that you know is meant to be high level and really kind of bring the consistency across your brand catalog.

Bradley Sutton:

Brand story. That’s something that I think a lot of people might fully understand A+ content, or maybe those who are new might not, but then the one that even experienced sellers might be sleeping on is that brand story. Can you talk a little bit about that?

Lauren:

Yeah, Brand story is actually my favorite A+ content. It allows brands to go into more about who they are as a brand. It allows them to share their vision, their mission. It links to the Amazon store their Amazon store. It also allows them to share their different products across their brand and it’s meant to go across their brand catalog. So where Basic A+ and Premium A+ are product feature focused, Brand Story is that brand level and meant to go across the catalog and use in conjunction with Basic A+ and Premium A+. So, as a brand, you now have your brand level content and then your product level content and really maximizing that space on the detail page. But I really I like it, I think because it’s so brand focused and I’ve seen brands just use it in great ways. That’s very visually compelling.

Bradley Sutton:

So then, A+ content that is specific to an ASIN. But now the brand story. Does that automatically go to all of my ASINs under a brand, or I pick and choose which listings it shows up on? How does that work?

Lauren:

Yeah, so it’s going to be across your brand catalog and so you know you have to own all the ASINs associated with that in your brand and it doesn’t get automatically applied. Brands do have to be cognizant about what ASINs they’re putting on brand story, but it is meant to allow them to put that brand level content across all of the ASINs that they own and that they’re selling.

Bradley Sutton:

Okay, another thing you mentioned there that’s semi-new, I think, with a lot of sellers is the shoppable A+ content. Now, first of all, is that available in the basic A+ content or is it only available in the premium? And then can you talk a little bit about it?

Lauren:

Yeah. So last year we announced the shoppable A+ content in premium and accelerate, and it was something that brands have been asking for for a while. They want the A+ content shoppable, and this past year we did extend it to basic A+. So now the shoppable comparison charts are available in both premium and basic A+ and what it does is your typical comparison charts. Now you have an add to cart function so your customers can, as they’re viewing your A+ content and your comparison charts, they can add to cart right from there and it shows pricing information, customer reviews along with different product attributes, and the brands control all of this. They only show their products within their catalog for customers to compare, and so it can be a great way to educate customers on what else you have to offer that might better suit their needs. So you might have a like a latest revision or even a higher value offering. So some of that upsell that allows them to kind of compare details of your products and instead of navigating away from your detail page, they decide they like a different product in your catalog better. They can add to cart right from there from the comparison chart.

Bradley Sutton:

Another benefit of that, I think, is, you know like, I’m going to be talking to some in Amazon advertising Maybe they might not want to hear me say this but there’s no cost per click, right? Like I think it’s important. I think it’s important to do Amazon advertising even what I call defensive ads on your own listing, because, hey, you want to maybe push some of the brands to go down the page, and so to me it’s absolutely worth it. I’ll pay the cost per click if it means that I get to sell my own product and not another brand. But then this is even better than that, because now, in addition to that, I’m taking up real estate on my page and I’m not having to pay any extra for somebody to go there. So I think that’s a no-brainer to do. Now. At the beginning, you kind of tease some stuff, you use that buzzword AI, right and then you know, for all of us who are selling on Amazon, we might be like wait a minute, I haven’t seen anything AI related. That’s an A+ content. So what is this built on? What’s this new feature that we’re launching?

Lauren:

Yes, I mean Amazon as a whole has been working on a lot of Gen AI to help brands with all the selling tools that are offered to help brands be successful in the Amazon store. And I know and I hear from brands that there’s just so much Amazon offers that sometimes you know they don’t know where to start or you know they’re trying to get through all of this, and so Gen AI, I think, is a great place for a lot of products within Amazon to help kind of reduce some of that burden on brands. And so, the same thing with the A+ content is, we’re trying to use Gen AI to reduce the content creation process, and we have been developing our gen AI in-house. We know we’re leveraging text and image models that were developed in-house, and even the text model or the image models some of these are kind of readily available on Amazon’s bedrock.

Bradley Sutton:

Okay now for me. I own a few brands on Amazon and I’ve been selling on Amazon for years and you know, unfortunately I’ll admit, I haven’t put A+ content in all of my listings. But the thing that usually draws me is my drawback is I’m not a graphic designer, so I have to outsource, you know, my graphics and things like that, and sometimes I’m like I’m not sure if this is worth it or not, because maybe the agency I’m using is charging a lot, so that’s what’s held me back. So to me, that’s like the first benefit of like, hey, maybe I don’t have to go pay $500 to get some custom images done for my A+ content. But can you talk a little bit more about that? And then some of the other benefits of how AI can help with this process.

Lauren:

Yeah, so I mean, we know that not all of our brands have, you know, huge marketing budgets or agencies to craft this content. In my, you know, previous experience I did have, you know, the budget to go and create content and it was still, you know, brainstorming. You know I had a great graphic designer and we would go back and forth and then you have to, you know, get the approvals and everything like that. So we’re constantly kind of looking for ways to reduce that and I know that brands, when they speak to us, they do, you know, they prioritize their A+ content on kind of their best-selling ASINs. And we’re hoping that with Gen AI we can help kind of tackle some of the churn in the creative process or the cost, such that brands can put A+ content on more of their listings and realize the benefits of A+ content sooner. So we’re trying to kind of kickstart some of the copywriting or provide that graphic design to brands who like to use that.

Bradley Sutton:

Okay, Excellent, Excellent. Now for this AI driven A+ content like, is this going to become mandatory now that you have to use this AI or can sell it as an opt in and out, etc.

Lauren:

Yeah. We always want brands to stay in control of the content they’re creating, and we just want to provide them some of these creative options, and so they don’t have to use the AI tool. It’s an option. It’s there for them to use it if they want to use it. They’re the ones that are in the driver’s seat on what content they create, what content they publish to the detail page.

Bradley Sutton:

Now, Amazon Advertising, I think, was one of the first departments to leverage AI-generated images, and actually us at Helium 10 with our Atomic tool. We were in the beta program. We actually were able to integrate that into Helium 10. And then how it worked was hey, I can put like a white background image of maybe my main product, and then there would be a prompt that I would say, hey, put this in the background of this and that, and then it would generate the image. Is that kind of like the direction that this tool will work? What do I need to feed the AI and then what else do I need to tell in order to get back some good results?

Lauren:

Yes, we’re actually a very similar experience to ads. We’re leveraging the same image models and we try to make this as simple as possible, where all you have to do is provide your ASIN, your brand-owned ASIN, and then we will generate both text and image based on that listing information. So we’re taking the information from the listing to generate text and then we’re taking that same information from the listing to come up with an image, and we use product shots on white backgrounds as well. That’s what we recommend. It works best and it just kind of puts it on like a graphically, you know pleasing background.

Bradley Sutton:

When you say text and image, obviously I think the image you know speaks for itself. But can you put and if not, will that be a feature iteration? Can you put text on the image you know, like making an infographic? Or when you say text, you’re talking about, like the captions and things like that that go in A+ content.?

Lauren:

Yeah, so the A+ content, you know, is built out with a series of modules and those modules are comprised of image and then some text fields. So it’s got like title, you know, body that they can put text in, and our Gen AI feature basically fills out that information for you. So when you go and you put your ASIN, you can provide additional information too. We do allow for some custom prompting, but if all you wanted to do was start out with how to, let’s see how this feature works Just go in, you put your ASIN and, you know, allow the content to generate and it will spit out essentially text in those text fields and then that image with your product shot in it.

Bradley Sutton:

Okay, how would you compare this AI tool with other you know maybe image AI tools that are out there.

Lauren:

Yeah, I mean images. It’s complex to try to get right. You know, in our solution, as we were building it, we realized kind of early on that you know we’re not just building text, we’re not just building image, we’re building both text and image that have to go together and they have to be cohesive and make sense. And you know, text is kind of the easier one to get right. The imagery is a little bit more complex.

Bradley Sutton:

Like three, you know three hands, seven fingers on each hand.

Lauren:

Yeah so it definitely has its quirks. You might have an object floating in space, and it’s something that we’re working on to continuously refine, and even in the past six months that we’ve been kind of testing out this feature, I’ve seen the image quality approved in the Gen AI models. So we’re constantly working on it and trying to refine it such that we can get to a point where it’s very similar to working in like a photo editing tool and you put your product shot in and you’ve got some nice background. And the thing with the product shots too is we always want to maintain the integrity of the product shot itself. So with images, we’re never trying to replicate the product shot or create it in its likeness. You know we want customers to trust that this is the product that they’re looking at. We’re just trying to help with some of the graphic content with A+ content.

Bradley Sutton:

And one thing you mentioned just now registered with me was going back to advertising tool. I always had to upload an image first, but are you saying with this one, I can just upload the ASIN without even uploading an image and it’s going to go ahead and scan my images, scan my copy and then generate content based on that?

Lauren:

So what it does is it actually pulls images from the media block that you’ve already uploaded and it will pull it in and you have options to select from. So if you have multiple product shots, you can choose from multiple product shots you can go into. We have the concept of an asset library with an A+ content. So typically when brands are creating A+ content, they have an asset library that they’ve already uploaded images to and it might be images that are not necessarily in the media block. But that’s what we’re allowing for is the you know product shots to be chosen and then we, you know, we’ll kind of synthesize information about the listing to make some graphics that go along with the theme of that product, and we also actually allow brands to use kind of what we call lifestyle imagery. So if they wanted a little bit more versatility or diversity within their modules, they can toggle off the product shot image and just allow the images to create some imagery that doesn’t have a product shot.

Bradley Sutton:

Okay, yeah, I think it’s important because I think, as AI gets better, that it’s really gonna to speak to customers more, because we’ve all seen those kind of photo chopped, you know, images that don’t even they’re not even to scale, and it’s like, you know, like, and just for me as a buyer, as a consumer, when I see a listing like, it’s like I’m kind of, you know, the product might be great, but I’m like I might not even end up buying it because just that listing, turned me off. I’m like, well, if this brand can’t even make a professional listing, how can I trust that the product is going to be good? So I think utilizing this kind of imagery is going to be a lot better. Now you’re in charge of all of A+ content, not just this AI part. So just last words of wisdom maybe, regardless if somebody is going to go ahead and use this generation or they’re just going to do the regular, premium or basic A+ content, what’s some words of advice, words of wisdom you can give our brands out there?

Lauren:

Yeah, so if you’re just starting out with A+ content or just you want to go and explore the feature and you don’t have all of the assets in place, I would recommend actually taking a few product shots of your product and different angles on a white background, and I don’t think you have to have professional photography or anything like that. A lot of our smartphones have really great resolution so you know, you could really kind of DIY it and, of course, make sure their product charts are high resolution and then go into the A+ content manager and, like I said, build out modules that focus on a different key feature and a different product shot. So if you’re using the AI tool, you go in, you add a module and then you put that ASIN in and you can custom prompt the text. So my recommendation would be that you put in, like, the first key feature and choose your first product shot, allow that to generate, go into the next module, choose a different key feature to focus on a different product shot and, of course, explore that lifestyle imagery and maybe you know, put that in between different modules and build out the A+ content that way. But you know, whether you’re using Gen AI or not, the importance of A+ content is to show you know the features and the benefits, you know what it is and then what it does for customers, and really remember that again, this is things that people are buying online. They want to know that they’re going to get the product that they’re expecting to get, and so really try to make sure that you’re addressing any sort of customer concerns and highlighting your products such that customers understand that they’re going to get something and then, when they get something that they like, it’s ultimately trust building in that brand and they’re going to go back and buy from that brand.

Bradley Sutton:

So everybody out there, all you brands, make sure you are not like me and using A+ content only for some of your listings. Make sure to use A+ content premium, A+ content if you have access to it for all of your listings. Put brand story there. Make sure you are leveraging the shoppability of A+ content and, lastly, utilize Gen AI that is now going to be involved in A+ content generation. For those of you who might need some inspiration for creativity or maybe your budgets aren’t that big where you can go and hire a big fancy design agency to make your A+ content Amazon has now made it accessible for everybody out there, so I hope everybody leverages all these new tools from Amazon. Next year I look forward to what new and exciting things you’re gonna bring to it.

Lauren:

Absolutely, thank you.

Enjoy this episode? Be sure to check out our previous episodes for even more content to propel you to Amazon FBA Seller success! And don’t forget to “Like” our Facebook page and subscribe to the podcast on iTunes, Spotify, or wherever you listen to our podcast.

Get snippets from all episodes by following us on Instagram at @SeriousSellersPodcast

Want to absolutely start crushing it on Amazon? Here are few carefully curated resources to get you started:

Freedom Ticket: Taught by Amazon thought leader Kevin King, get A-Z Amazon strategies and techniques for establishing and solidifying your business.
Helium 10: 30+ software tools to boost your entire sales pipeline from product research to customer communication and Amazon refund automation. Make running a successful Amazon or Walmart business easier with better data and insights. See what our customers have to say.
Helium 10 Chrome Extension: Verify your Amazon product idea and validate how lucrative it can be with over a dozen data metrics and profitability estimation.
SellerTrademarks.com: Trademarks are vital for protecting your Amazon brand from hijackers, and sellertrademarks.com provides a streamlined process for helping you get one.