Amazon opens next-gen store data to brands
CPG companies selling products in high-tech Amazon Go and Amazon Fresh stores now have access to in-depth analytical data.
Amazon is introducing Store Analytics, a new service offering brands data-driven insights about the performance of their products, promotions, and ad campaigns in Amazon Go high-tech convenience stores and Amazon Fresh high-tech grocery stores. Store Analytics provides brands with aggregated and anonymized insights about the performance of their products, promotions, and ad campaigns in “Just Walk Out”- and Amazon Dash Cart-enabled Amazon Go and Amazon Fresh stores in the U.S.
These insights will help those same stores continuously improve the shopper experience by making the store layout easier for shoppers to find their favorite items and discover new ones, improving selection and availability of products, and delivering great value through relevant promotions and advertising.
With Store Analytics, brands will have access to details on how their products are discovered, considered, and purchased in applicable stores to help them inform decisions related to selection, promotions, and ad campaigns. Through the secure Store Analytics dashboard, brands can obtain aggregated and anonymized data about how their products rank and perform.
In addition, advertisers running in-store campaigns via solutions such as digital signage will see associated performance metrics in their ad campaign reports. Amazon intends to allow brands to better understand the path to purchase for their products, helping them to evolve and refine their assortment, merchandising, and advertising over time.
In all use cases, Store Analytics will only provide aggregated and anonymized data to brands, meaning that what is shared with brands is presented as a grouping and does not contain any personal information. Amazon will not share anything that can be linked back to any individual shopper; rather only offer totals, averages, and percentages about product, promotion, and ad campaign performance.
For example, a brand will be able to see the percentage of how often their product was taken off the shelf and then purchased either during that store visit or later on Amazon.com. Furthermore, no video or images of shoppers will be shared with brands as part of this service. Shoppers will be able to opt-out of having their data included, and still use Just Walk Out technology and Amazon Dash Carts in Amazon Go and Amazon Fresh stores.
Amazon also hopes to leverage data and insights from Store Analytics to help Amazon Go and Amazon Fresh stores continuously improve the shopper experience by making the store layout easier for customers to find and discover items, improve selection and availability of products, and provide maximum value through relevant promotions and advertising.
Amazon now operates 35 Amazon Fresh stores across the U.S. with two to open soon, including 15 in California, eight in Illinois, four in Washington state (including one designed to be zero net carbon), five in Virginia (three open and two to open soon), and one each in Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Washington, D.C.
Amazon Fresh stores are designed from the ground up to offer a seamless shopping experience, with extra features for members of the Amazon Prime paid loyalty program. The stores offer a wide assortment of national brands and produce, meat, and seafood, along with a range of prepared foods made fresh in store every day.
[Read more: First Look: Amazon debuts new high-tech grocery store]
Meanwhile, the retailer opened the first Amazon Go in January 2018, in Seattle. The concept has since expanded to 26 locations across the United States including a “Starbucks Pickup with Amazon Go” location jointly operated with Starbucks in mid-town Manhattan. Amazon is also adapting Amazon Go with a new format for suburban locations, still called Amazon Go, which debuted in April 2022 in Mill Creek, Wash. and will open in the Los Angeles metro area in the coming months.