This Week in Ecommerce: July 6, 2018

Developments, updates, and announcements; here’s what stood out to us this week.

Prime Day Revealed!

Some would call it Christmas in July, others might write it off as an over-hyped event — regardless, Prime subscribers are ready for Prime Day. Amazon finally revealed this year’s Prime Day and it’s right around the corner. Set for July 16 and July 17, Prime Day is the best day to buy Amazon’s own products (Echo speakers, Kindle products, etc.). It’s also an amazing day for all other products, as the holiday promotes many site-wide deals. It’s time to tune those wishlists and set some reminders for the 16th. You won’t want to miss out on what this year’s Prime Day has to offer.

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Google Shopping Feed Specification Updates

Google recently announced some changes to their Google Shopping feed specification that may delight advertisers. Usually, these changes cause more problems than they resolve, but this year Google is relaxing the way they enforce certain rules. The result? Some previously disapproved products may now be approved with little work. These changes include:

• “Title” and “description” attributes that exceed character limits will no longer be disapproved.
• You no longer need to have the “condition” attribute for new products.
• A new metric to be introduced to reporting: “cost_of_goods_sold” attribute.
• Products with more than one “size,” “color,” or “link” attribute input will now generate warnings.
• Redirect links for Google Ads tracking will need to direct to the same domain as the values in the “link” and “mobile_link” attributes.

It seems as though the devs at Google feel comfortable about their product feed standards and have decided to loosen the rules a bit.

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Amazon’s Upcoming Holiday Catalog

Amazon is set to do something else that no one saw coming. That is, leverage a print catalog for the holiday season. The downfall of Toys R Us means many toy sales are up for grabs. This resulting toy void has left relevant retailers scrambling to innovate. Amazon plans to harness the power of a holiday catalog like Toys R Us’ yearly “Big Book.” The seasonal catalog made Toys R Us a holiday sales titan even when they were struggling. Print may be a peculiar medium to use, but holiday catalogs are still a hit (especially among kids). Amazon plans to mail out their catalog, but they’ll also be available at Whole Foods Market locations.

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