October 6, 2022

What's inside:

• A Message from our CEO

• Announcing: Webinar on Q4 and setting up January success

• Key Amazon Dates

• Our Favorite September Amazon Tidbits

• Highlights from our team summits!

A Message from our CEO

Hi everyone,Happy Fall and happy Q4. It's a big season for eComm: half of Amazon's year is made in the next 3 months. And even if you're not a holiday oriented product, what you do in Q4 sets up how well you perform in January. More on this below... This Past MonthHistorically we've projected September flat from August. This year we came in -5% MoM. Labor Day started slow (long weekends are always slow), but sales grew as the month wore on. Interestingly, we saw a slight 5% increase in ad dollars. Brands with a stable Amazon business are testing if they can push more profitable growth. 

Looking AheadWe’re in busy season now: Amazon’s Fall Prime Day (technically PEAS: Prime Early Access Sale) is Oct 11 and 12, meltable products are back October 16, and then the holidays. Amazon is buying media to push PEAS Day. Prime [PEAS] Day, Black Friday, and the Holidays will help boost the next few months.“Holiday gifts” and related terms have started trending already, though we have a week or so before Halloween and Thanksgiving start trending. If you have holiday flavors keep a close eye on these trends as getting search placements early on can make for a big sales season.A notable story this month: The CA Attorney General sued Amazon for their "most favored nation" clause, which drives most of the price matching of CPG product. The nuance of the topic is complex: regardless of whether it raises or lowers prices in aggregate, it prevents a lot of CPG brands from being able to sell smaller units profitably on the platform. This follows a settlement with the state of Washington on price fixing. We'll be watching closely, as this has big implications for emerging brands.What we're excited about: - Buy With Prime. But for a unique reason: with this module, and new advertising formats, you can target past Amazon brand purchasers and direct them to your DTC, where you can sell them into a DTC offer.- Virtual bundles. You can now use these in SP (standard search) ads. Say goodbye to competitors in your branded search results.

We loved seeing so many of you at Expo East! Please reach out if you'd like to chat.Cheers,Chris MoeCEO, Cartograph

Cartograph Dashboards Beta - now open to non-clients! 

We are opening up our P&L and Repeat Purchase Dashboards (both a big part of our process!) to non-clients. They're connected to a direct API data feed, which has more data than you can get from Amazon's dashboards. Reply to this email to be added to the waitlist for our Beta!

Upcoming Webinar Amazon: How to Spend Smartly in Q4.. and Set up a Big New Year

We're back - Chris Moe, Co-founder and CEO of Cartograph on October 26th at 1:00pm CST will discuss holiday and promotional strategies for Q4. Even if you're not a Holiday or Gift focused brand, he'll discuss how a thoughtful Q4 can set up a strong January and New Year. Chris will also dive into our philosophy on how Amazon works, and how that should inform your stance on digital spend on and off the platform.

An ex-McKinsey consultant and water polo player turned CPG and eCommerce expert, Chris writes most of this newsletter and loves nothing more than giving away all of Cartograph's secret sauce. It’s a discussion you don’t want to miss!

Join our Team! Cartograph is hiring for Brand Management Roles

[email protected]

Prime Early Access Sale

➞ October 11-12 - Prime Early Access Sale Dates

Meltables

➞ October 16 - Meltable Season Begins on Amazon➞ April 14  - Meltable Season Ends on Amazon

Black Friday and Cyber Monday

It's already time to start thinking about Black Friday and Cyber Monday!

➞ November 2 - FBA Inventory Deadline*➞ Two Weeks Before Event - Prime Exclusive Discounts DueChristmas

➞ December 1 - FBA Inventory Deadline**Inventory should arrive at the Fulfillment Center by this date.

Launchpad Stopped Charging Referral Fees

Amazon’s Launchpad program recently stopped charging the 5% referral fee for participating brands. Amazon Launchpad is a supplemental program designed to jumpstart and accelerate your Amazon business.  Some of the benefits include 50% off coupon redemption fees, Premium A+ Content, Vine enrollment fee waiver, one free Lightning Deal or 7-day deal per week, and more.

More Visibility in Search Query Performance ReportAmazon’s new Search Query Performance report now has a view by ASIN. See search term performance for each ASIN in your catalog, tracking the term through the funnel from Impressions to Purchases. You can use this to understand exactly which terms actually drive business per product, and then use them as controls to experiment with content and advertising campaigns.

Vendor Central Revenue DiscrepanciesOur team has found significant revenue discrepancies in Vendor Central between the old dashboard (Amazon Brand Analytics) and the new dashboard (Amazon Retail Analytics) for the same time period, when comparing the same metrics (Ordered Revenue, Shipped COGS, Shipped Revenue). For the time being, we recommend using the data from the old dashboard (Amazon Brand Analytics). 

In September, we had Team Retreats for each of our Brand Management Teams. The teams met up to cowork and have fun together in Austin, Denver, and Salt Lake City. Enjoy a few of our photos from our outings one day.

Be sure to follow us on LinkedIn to see our weekly Amazon tidbits and company updates.