This Issue's TLDR...

• Since Search Query Performance data was released, the Shipping Speed metrics have been largely ignored and misunderstood by the Amazon seller and service provider community.
• What you can actually learn from Shipping Speed is the relative proportion of Prime vs non-Prime customers in a "category".
• This information can then inform more effective promotions and fulfillment strategies.

BEST from Me

I know exactly zero Amazon sellers or service providers that have the faintest idea how to use the Shipping Speed data that Amazon provides in the Search Query Performance (SQP) report.

I think it's because most of them -- myself included for a long time -- thought of Shipping Speed as an "uncontrollable" input for your business. After all, if you're using FBA, Amazon controls every aspect of the order fulfillment process, starting with the fulfillment centers to which you send your products.

But there were two fallacies in this thinking that I overlooked:

1. The Shipping Speed data in SQP isn't for your brand/ASIN, it's for the total. (Put differently, the relevant denominator is not Brand Count or ASIN Count, it's Total Count)
2. You actually can control where your inventory is placed.

Let's unpack that first fallacy a bit more.

SQP tells us, for a given search term, how many Impressions/Clicks/ATCs/Purchases have Same/1Day/2Day Shipping Speeds attached to them, relative to the total for that search term. So what?

Well, here's the key detail: Amazon shopper searches are contextualized (that's the internal Amazon term) and Prime members are shown faster Shipping Speeds than non-Prime members.

This means that we can infer, from the Shipping Speed data, the relative proportion of Prime customers that shop a particular search term.

And we can back into the Prime/non-Prime split for a given ASIN or Brand.

🤯 🤯 🤯

Cool, right?

It gets cooler.

Because even though it's maybe interesting intellectually to know the Prime/non-Prime split, it's all about how you use that information. The "hacks" if you will.

Here are the ways that I have used it with my brands, which I tested over the course of April-June:

Hack #1: Use Shipping Speed data to optimize your Prime Exclusive Discounts for maximum ranking impact

I had a hypothesis that Prime Exclusive Discounts would perform better with ASINs that had a larger % of Prime customers.

The thinking was...the discounted PED price is displayed to Prime customers more prominently, and there's not any added friction to the check-out process (i.e., sign up for Prime to get this discount), so it would stand to reason that ASINs with PEDs in more Prime heavy "categories" would perform better than those in less Prime heavy categories.

In my small sample testing, I observed that PEDs were most effective in driving post-PED ranking improvements in categories with 75%+ Prime customers.

My Statistics 101 professor wouldn't consider these results significant, but they're good enough for me to inform how I spend promotion dollars and use PEDs for maximum impact.

Hack #2: Use Shipping Speed data to rebalance your inventory across Amazon's fulfillment network

The inference from above still applies: Shipping Speed data in SQP provides an indication of the split of Prime/non-Prime customers in a category.

So, the hack here is...

• In categories that have large concentrations of Prime customers (75%+), you should work to ensure even distribution of inventory in Amazon's fulfillment network.
• In categories that don't have large concentrations of Prime customers, you should be OK with some network imbalances.

This was learned from painful experience, rather than tested thoroughly like the PED hack above.

For the first half of this year, I got a little too clever with my FBA inbounding strategy on my Oversize products. I didn't love the LTL freight rates to the West coast, so I shifted my shipments to FCs in the Midwest (where my warehouse is) and the Northeast.

Around May, I observed 20-30% sales declines across nearly all of my Oversize products. My deep dive into "why" this was happening took a long, winding path, but I ultimately discovered that my California sales were down substantially YoY. Going deeper, I found in my FBA inventory reports that my stock levels in West coast FCs were in the low double- and single- digits.

In short, customers in one of my largest sales states (California), and in categories that were Prime heavy, were seeing longer delivery promises on my Oversize listings.

I've since corrected the issue, but...lesson learned.

PS: There are a lot of moving parts to this hack; far too many to cover in this newsletter. If you want a primer on how to route inventory, see the thread below. If you want a more detailed walk-through of either of these hacks, book some time with me.

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Bearded Egg FBA 🛠️ @guyfosel Ok, I promised a thread on this. But here's the deal. I'm keeping my hacky workaround close to the chest. If too many people do it and it gets shut down, I'm f*cked. So, instead, I'm going to walk thru an alternative. Still works; just has a cost. 1/n https://twitter.com/guyfosel/status/1653467774755192843?s=20 Bearded Egg FBA 🛠️ @guyfosel In 2022, I sent 36 inbound FTL/LTLs to Amazon, for a total cost of $46k ($1.2k per LTL shipment). Through April 2023, I'm averaging $654 per LTL shipment. There *IS* a hacky, roundabout way to reduce inbound LTL costs. Comment a pic of a trucker hat, and I'll do a thread. https://twitter.com/Molson_Hart/status/1653454695606648836 11:20 AM • May 5, 2023 0 Retweets 9 Likes Read 1 replies

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BEST from Everyone Else

This week's BEST from Everyone Else is in 3-1-2 format: 3 videos, 1 article, 2 tweets.

3 Videos

​ How To Use Amazon’s Search Query Performance Report To Increase Sales! (pro tips) 3 ChatGPT takeaways from this video: Amazon's SQP tool offers a comprehensive analysis of the sales funnel, tracking customer actions from viewing to purchasing, while excluding certain data like headline ads. The lack of an API for Amazon's SQP tool necessitates a manual download process, making the creation of reports more challenging and emphasizing the importance of the super template. Creating a "super template" enables detailed analysis and visualization of market trends by comparing different time periods through tools like Google Data Studio.

​ Powerful Uses of the Search Query Performance Report // Amazon PPC Masterclass #1 w/Joe Shelerud 3 ChatGPT takeaways from this video: Keyword Discovery: The SQP Report allows sellers to identify keywords where they have a competitive advantage, enabling more targeted and effective advertising strategies. Seasonal Trend Analysis: The report helps in identifying and preparing for seasonal trends by analyzing historical data, allowing for timely adjustments to campaigns. Branded Search Impact Testing: By experimenting with branded search campaigns, sellers can assess the true impact of advertising on organic sales, enabling more nuanced and cost-effective strategies.

​ 5 Ways to Use Amazon Search Query Performance Report | Ritu Java | Ep.386 3 ChatGPT takeaways from this video: Insights into Sales Funnel: The Amazon SQP Report provides a detailed breakdown of the sales funnel and helps in understanding where potential customers might be dropping off, allowing for better optimization of strategies. Competitor Analysis and Share of Voice: The report includes features that allow sellers to understand their share of voice (percentage of Impressions) for various search terms. Discover Missed Keyword Opportunities: With the report's recent update, a download button allows sellers to identify important search terms they may have missed.

1 Article

​Why Amazon’s Search Query Performance Dashboard Is Awesome. I would maybe re-title this article as "Why Michael Facchin and Elizabeth Greene are Awesome" because the two of them put out heaps of high value content ALL THE TIME. In this article, they've teamed up Avengers-style to deep-dive the SQP reporting dashboard.

2 Tweets

Cameron @CameronWalkerSZ Amazon’s Search Query Performance report is a game changer. The recent ASIN level data doing back 12 months has made this an insane tool for sellers. Here are a bunch of ways we are using the data: 🧵 7:46 PM • Oct 17, 2022 14 Retweets 146 Likes Read 11 replies

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George Reid @_GeorgeReid_ 👉 Brand Analytics tools get more organized! ➡️ The different options are now grouped under: 1. Search Analytics - Search Catalogue Performance, - Search Query performance, and - Top Search Terms. 2. Consumer Behaviour Analytics - Repeat Purchase Behaviour, - Demographics, and… https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1688442966635864064 1:52 AM • Aug 7, 2023 0 Retweets 2 Likes Read 1 replies

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Updates to the Amazon Private Label Pathway

Since the topic of this newsletter issue was SQP data, I thought I would double down on that topic and add something cool to the Amazon Private Label Pathway:

Important Context: I consolidate content from a large sample of paid courses and masterminds in an internal repository that I call 'Corpus', which I then use to train my team and keep my own skills sharp. These are meant to be internal, and not shared broadly. For that reason, I won't leave this video up on Amazon Private Label Pathway forever.

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You can get access to the Amazon Private Label Pathway here: https://auxo.gumroad.com/l/amazonpathway (it's free; but if you want to buy me a beer, I won't object)​

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Amazon Questions? Amazon isn't easy. Everyone needs a little help from a friend sometimes. If you ever have a tough Amazon question, I'm only a phone call away. Let's Chat

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