New features added? Amazon's dark horse site is about to take off

The Japanese site’s performance on Prime Day this year was truly outstanding. Not only did it achieve remarkable sales results, but even without the two free activities of exclusive discounts and PD coupons, small and medium-sized sellers were able to achieve good sales. The Japanese site also secured its position as Amazon’s dark horse site this year.

Now that the Black Friday and Cyber ​​Monday peak season is coming at the end of the year, Amazon has promptly brought Prime exclusive discounts to the Japanese site. This time, sellers can also choose to run Black Friday and Cyber ​​Monday together, and can get a discount event for about two consecutive weeks during the big promotion festival, which is equivalent to signing up for a BD without additional exposure for free. Sellers who can give discounts and don’t want to spend money on LD should not miss it.

Just after introducing Prime exclusive discounts, Amazon recently brought another feature of the US site, the "Early Reviewer Program", to the Japanese site. This can be said to be good news for sellers who are watching and preparing to enter the Japanese site.

Next, let’s take a look at the mature functions of this American site and what changes and modifications have been made to this year’s dark horse Japanese site.

Early Reviewer Program for Japan

In the US, Early Reviewer is a very old feature, almost the same time as Top Reviewer. The latter has been shut down by Amazon due to abuse by sellers, but the Early Reviewer program is still alive and well.

The fee for the Japanese site's Early Reviewer Program is 6,000 yen, and the conditions for participation are as follows:

1. SKUs with less than 5 reviews can participate

2. The product price must not be less than 1,500 yen

3. Pharmaceutical products are not allowed to use this plan

Just like the US site, the participation fee is a one-time non-refundable one. The fee will be deducted from the first review received. The entire program will last until 5 reviews are received. If no reviews are received, no fee will be deducted. And reviews from normal sources will not be counted in the 5.

From this point of view, except for the price and some categories being banned from participating, the rules are basically the same as those of the US site. Although Japanese sellers are new to this program, the experience of the early reviewers program on the US site can still be used as a reference for the Japanese site.

In the early stage of creating a new product, reviews are a very critical point. Whether or not there are reviews can make a huge difference to the listing. As an officially recognized channel for obtaining reviews, the role of early reviewers is self-evident. Especially now that there is no green label on the Japanese site, early reviewers are almost the only "legal" way to obtain reviews (except for requesting reviews).

However, the flaw of this plan is that it does not guarantee that the reviews will be positive. Amazon officials will pursue a real product experience and will not influence the reviewers based on the quality of the content.

This will test the quality of the product itself. If the product is excellent, then this program is a very good channel for requesting reviews for new products. The reviews left through the early reviewer program will also have an orange "Early Reviewer Rewards" logo, which will also significantly improve the conversion rate.

However, for sellers whose products are not strong, participating in this plan will undoubtedly be a waste of money, and this will be even more serious on the Japanese site. As we all know, Japanese people are very picky about product quality, and they will leave bad reviews for products that are not good enough. So whether to participate in the plan or not, everyone should make a decision after fully understanding their products.

What surprised me was that Amazon itself seemed to be intentionally cultivating the Japanese site, and the entire gameplay of the Japanese site was constantly moving closer to that of the American site.

Whenever Amazon makes a move, the US site is the first to implement it, whether it is a new activity or a new policy. There is nothing to say about this, as the US is Amazon’s home base.

But if you want to know which site other than the United States has a large scale and fast activity updates, it is the German site, at least it used to be like that.

However, the situation has changed this year. Amazon wants to bring Prime exclusive discounts to the Japanese site. Even the A+ module page that was recently updated on the US site has been synchronized to the Japanese site. In addition, the Japanese site is constantly updating some unique welfare policies and plans such as CSBA. This year, Amazon seems to be leaning towards the Japanese site.

Amazon's Q3 financial report can explain some problems. The failure of the emerging market India caused Amazon's market value to plummet, and the seat of the world's richest man was once again lost to Bill Gates. Amazon needs a developed country market with high consumption level and mature system to recover from its failure. Apparently, Amazon thinks Japan is such a place.

Amazon’s attitude towards the Japanese site is to let this dark horse run faster and wilder, so I guess that support for the Japanese site will be the norm in the future, and there is a tendency to surpass the European site. Sellers who are waiting and watching the Japanese site can make good plans.

The above early reviewer program can be used by newly opened stores and new products. Sellers who want more reviews for old products should still use the review request or evaluation. Finally, I have prepared a safe review condition analysis for everyone. Please scan the code to find me to get it~

PS. If you want to join the seller discussion group, you can also private message me to let me add you to the group