Amazon launches new feature! Charge for processing customer messages?!

Recently, Amazon released an announcement in the background, saying that the background has now launched a new customer support tool Zendesk suite , which can efficiently help Amazon sellers handle customer messages and other support channels!

Amazon said that Zendesk Suite is deeply integrated with Amazon backend, pre-built and integrated to display relevant customer messages and other content, so that sellers' customer service staff can handle and solve multiple buyers' problems on the same work page. And because Amazon data is accessed in real time, sellers can view Amazon order details and product data next to each customer message, use relevant information to automatically make personalized replies, and have extremely efficient functions such as custom labels and signature notes.

According to the official internal test data, Zendesk Suite has increased the processing volume of customer service messages by up to 4 times. Many sellers who customize their products and deliver them by themselves have a heavy workload for customer service, and using Zendesk Suite can greatly improve the ability to handle messages.

The official introduction looks pretty good, but when I clicked on the details, I found that this Zendesk suite is not an official function, but a customer service component developed by ChannelReply, an Amazon-certified third-party service provider, and it requires payment!

Just like some Tmall and Taobao stores, it is a component that needs to be paid for separately. It can indeed bring some convenience and functions to sellers, but these components on the Amazon platform are not as fancy as those on domestic platforms. The functions are generally simple and the fees are quite high. For example, this Zendesk suite costs 40 dollars a month. However, Zendesk currently provides a free trial. Self-delivery sellers who usually need to handle a large number of customer messages can try it out. It should be worth the money.

The third-party function suite of the seller backend has existed for a long time, but there is no precedent for official endorsement and promotion in the backend. What is Amazon planning behind the scenes?

As we all know, the profit model of Amazon and domestic e-commerce platforms is slightly different. Although Taobao does not have sales commissions, it has a very rich number of third-party stores and order management plug-ins, and the service prices are not cheap, which is a huge source of income. Without these plug-ins, Taobao's backend is almost a blank slate without any functions. Amazon, on the other hand, relies solely on product sales commissions and provides backend functions to sellers for free (although not many functions).

Both have their pros and cons. Amazon has not thought about developing third-party add-ons, but there are very few sellers using some of the backend components, and there is not even a single review. On the one hand, because Amazon's backend already provides all the basic functions, small and medium-sized sellers do not necessarily need to spend a high price to use components to improve efficiency. On the other hand, the improvement is relatively limited, and the functions provided by the components are not very useful. Therefore, Amazon has only tried third-party components superficially and has not explored the possibilities in depth.

But now it is different. Amazon is facing an antitrust investigation and is at great risk of being split up. If it divests its self-operated e-commerce business, and even its logistics and advertising businesses, the income from the mall commission and monthly rent alone will be quite narrow. At this time, the sale of supporting components is worth planning carefully.

The third-party component that Amazon has launched is a signal and attempt to deeply deploy peripheral supporting plug-ins and services. In the future, Amazon will definitely continue to do bigger things in this regard, and it is very likely to become another important revenue point for the mall business. For sellers, it is not necessarily a bad thing to enjoy a more diverse set of functional suites. Many sellers complain that the backend functions are not very user-friendly. After the third-party plug-in service is widely deployed, sellers can find more suitable operation plug-ins for themselves.