💰 TikTok Sellers, Amazon AI & Google Algo Update 👀

Amazon launches generative AI to help sellers

Tech giant Amazon has just turned turned 25. But more importantly, they have announced that they’ve integrated generative AI into its platform to help sellers tackle tasks such as product titles, product descriptions and listing details.

These are tasks which, as all sellers know, used to take significant time before the recent rise of accessible AI. Sellers just need to briefly describe the product, and the generative text feature will do the rest.

Amazon says this is a win-win for sellers and customers alike, making monotonous tasks easier for sellers while improving customer experience by providing consumers with more engaging and complete information.

Amazon goes on to highlight that this is just the tip of the iceberg for its use of AI… we’re watching this space closely to see what else the platform has to come.

The Outposts Opinion: Amazon has been slow on the uptake of AI in their e-commerce operations. However, it is now moving with the tide and this will be a good move for them in the long run. Going into the future, Amazon could be the one to watch when it comes to AI and shopping experiences. Watch this space…

Chinese sellers are taking over TikTok (…and the US)

Social commerce (the sale of goods to customers through social media) is taking off in a massive way. By the end of the year, social commerce sales are expected to exceed $56 billion in the US alone.

As reported initially by The Wallstreet Journal, TikTok is capitalising on this like no other, as they now offer a collection of services to Chinese merchants to break down barriers and give them easier access to the US market. These service solutions are believed to include shipping solutions to the US as well as on-the-ground product storage solutions to aid faster order turnaround times.

It has been made clear that this isn’t a case of TikTok targeting the US market outright, but a trial with the view to expand to other territories.

The Outposts Opinion: This could be very disruptive for the e-commerce industry - especially in the drop shipping space. Even big players like Amazon will be watching closely to see how this plays out.

Google Algorithm Update: What we know so far

Google has just finished rolling out its latest algorithm update on September 7th. According to the Google Search Status Dashboard, It took them a total of 16 days and 3 hours, in case you're curious about these things.

This time around, Google is focussing on helpful and authoritative content - possibly in response to the ever-growing influx of AI-generated content inundating the crawlers daily.

This content update is putting emphasis on the E-E-A-T approach just as much as ever. That means producing awesome user-friendly content demonstrating experience, expertise, authoritativeness and trustworthiness.

Google has also stressed that if your ranking has taken a hit on the back of this update, don’t panic - it doesn’t necessarily mean something is wrong. But if you are concerned, run an audit on your affected pages and see any key issues in need of attention.

The Outposts Opinion: We’re not expecting any huge fluctuations in the search rankings on the back of this update. However, it is too soon to say for sure and we’ll see how this develops. As long as you’re producing good content meeting E-E-A-T protocols, you should be fine.