Amazon’s Auto-Generated Variations Under Listings
Amazon has been making some exciting changes to its platform. First is a controversial yet unsurprising change to their A9 Algorithm. And now, Amazon created auto-generated variations.
Amazon automatically creates the variations, and they appear below a product listing (SERP).
Understanding Amazon’s Auto-Generated Variations
Katharine Johnson, Account Manager at Envision Horizons, took a deep dive to get a better understanding.
“I did a quick deep-dive to see where exactly the feature could be found. It seems the only category where it can be found is in Automative and Accessories,” Katharine explained.
This is primarily interesting because Amazon monitors KPIs to test how this may improve conversion rates, profitability, clicks, etc. Categories with heavy variation listings won’t have Amazon’s Auto-Generated Variations feature.
For example, in “Clothing, Shoes, & Jewelry,” you may find the same shirt in 10 different colors. Similarly, in “Beauty & Personal Care,” you can find the same brand of foundation in 10 different shades.
What would be really interesting to know is if Amazon is doing this to increase its profitability. For every conversion made on the marketplace, they receive a 15% referral fee. In theory, if a consumer clicks into a product detail page because of multiple choices they see on the SERP, and they convert with a higher balance, Amazon makes a higher percentage on fees.
However, they aren’t listing the top-performing product variations – at least this is the case for our clients.
“What I’d really like to know is if and when we can manage the variations ourselves. Also, these variations don’t appear on Sponsored Advertisements, so we don’t have to worry about ad spending. Ultimately, this gives us much more room to toggle with best-selling variations.” Katharine said.
Conclusion
This is an interesting feature as they were just under-fire for allegedly putting consumers second as they self-promoted their own products in their A9 Algorithm change. However now, they enabled a way to offer a positive user experience before consumers even entered the page. While at the end of the day this could be another play at profitability, I believe the new auto-generated variations will increase clicks, page views, and sessions ultimately benefiting the brands and consumers as well.
