Study: Amazon's role in online shopping presents opportunity for big brands

Dive Brief:

Kenshoo released a report, "Amazon: The Big E-Commerce Marketing Opportunity for Brands," with data points including: 56% of consumers will look on Amazon first to begin online shopping, 22% won’t look anywhere else if they find what they want, and 51% will still check with Amazon after finding what they want elsewhere. The report highlights the stranglehold Amazon has on the e-commerce marketplace.
For basic purchase research Amazon (72%) comes in second only to search giant Google (85%), with eBay coming in third. Among social media platforms, Facebook leads the way with 27% of consumers visiting the social media giant when conducting product research. Individual retailer websites also play a research role.
Kenshoo also introduced Kenshoo E-Commerce Marketing, a new solution that will help brands manage and optimize e-commerce campaigns, such as Amazon Marketing Services efforts.

Dive Insight:

The report is the latest sign that brands should be considering how to adjust overall marketing strategies to take advantage of e-commerce marketing.

A number of digital marketing services providers like Kenshoo are ramping up expertise this year in developing and deploying campaigns targeted specifically at online consumers who are looking to make a purchase. Several months ago, WPP-owned digital advertising agency Possible acquired Marketplace Ignition, a consulting firm that helps brands with Amazon marketing and e-commerce strategies while a New York Times report listed numerous brands and agencies that have created specialist jobs and teams focused on Amazon.

While e-commerce marketing encompasses reaching consumers across the web and on mobile, Amazon is a big focus for agencies and brands for several reasons, including the proliferation of Amazon-related touch points where brands can engage consumers, such as Echo. Additionally, like Kenshoo's research indicates, Amazon already plays a big role for consumers who are looking to make an online purchase.

No less an industry luminary than WPP CEO Martin Sorrell has seen the potential for Amazon to shake up digital advertising, and by extension digital marketing. In a Q4 earnings call this March, Sorrell said Google, Facebook and Amazon are all "frenemies" of WPP, and characterized Google as the friendliest and Amazon on the unfriendly end of the list and cited Amazon as a threat to Google in search ads. His reasoning pointed to the power of e-commerce marketing — Sorrell said while people conduct research on Google, when they visit Amazon they are more likely ready to make a purchase, making those search ads more valuable to brands. Amazon also receives 44% of shoppers' online searches, beating out search engines by 10%.