What’s New: Amazon Accelerate 2024

Year 5 of Amazon Accelerate was the biggest one yet – 4,000 sellers plus Amazonians and provider/agency teams.

The 3-day event in Seattle is designed specifically for sellers, so content spans the gamut from compliance and brand safety to logistics and warehousing. Many sellers view Accelerate as a direct line to Amazon support and use it as a chance to resolve issues or alleviate concerns.

Occasionally, Amazon sprinkles in a few Advertising updates, but that’s not the focus at Accelerate, they save most of those launches for their unBoxed event in October. This year’s event is in Austin, TX. Stay tuned for that recap!

During Accelerate, Breakout Sessions provide deep dives courtesy industry leaders – while the morning keynotes are jam-packed with announcement after announcement of new features and launches. Here’s our roundup:

Day One

The opening session was entirely focused on logistics, warehousing, and cross-channel expansion. Never mentioned? Amazon.com or the app.

New features announced centered around helping sellers succeed beyond Amazon – including updates to Supply Chain by Amazon, Amazon Shipping, and Amazon Warehousing & Distribution, and how those services can now extend to off-Amazon channels.

The biggest announcement that was met with whoops and hollers from the crowd:

A partnership between Buy with Prime and PayPal. Starting next year, merchants can use prime delivery at PayPal checkout & link their PayPal and Prime accounts. Something they’ll only need to do once.

Other updates of note:

• Those who use Amazon multi-channel fulfillment (MCF) will now see faster delivery, from 5-day to 3-day. This was an update that resulted in an immediate round of applause from the audience. MCF allows FBA inventory to be used to also fill sales from other channels, like DTC and social.
• Also, merchants using MCF will soon be able to harness it with Google – that new 3-day shipping speed will be highlighted on their Google Search ads.
• Buy with Prime & TikTok: This fall merchants will be able to highlight Prime badge and use Buy with Prime on TikTok.
• The new MK30 is a semi-autonomous electric drone that allows for delivery in 60 minutes or less. Their fastest delivery to date has been 13 minutes.
• Veeqo Profit Analyzer: Tracks profits, revenues, inventories, etc. across your channels. This is a free Amazon application and available today.

Day Two

The second session focused on the day-to-day inside seller central and many, many updates came connected to generative AI. 

Amazon Ads

• Video Generator: Creation of short videos using AI. Rolling out in limited beta now but will be available in a few months.
• Live Image: Adding small movements to Image Generator feature.
• Product Performance Spotlight: Combines all your performance metrics for actionable insights within your sales dashboard and includes an additional new feature called Optimize Ads. These two solutions will be ready later this year.

Seller Central

• Project Amelia: A new AI-powered personal selling assistant and expert.
• Business Planner: An AI-powered tool to set, track and help achieve goals. Creates a business plan based on your goals. (You can use this today.)
• Custom Analytics: Another AI-powered tool that combines metrics from across your business – sales, traffic, inventory, and ads performance. Provides templates or you can create your own interactive dashboard (Ready in the coming weeks.)
• Next-generation selling experience: They are rethinking Seller Central and testing how they would build it fresh in 2024. This is an experience you can test at: Nextgenselling.amazon.com.

Product Listings

• You’ll soon be able to identify product compliance requirements up front (The crowd liked this one!)
• AI generated content support within A+ Content Manager.
• They are testing product titles that are tailored to customers based on their shopping habits.

Brand-tailored Promotions

• Customer Journey Analytics: Allows an understanding of metrics at different stages of the journey – awareness, consideration, intent & purchase.
• Enhanced Audience Tailoring: Better segmenting for brand-tailored promotions.

Returns

• Customer Returns Analytics and Insights: This new dashboard will be launched in existing dashboards within Seller Central later this year. 

Compliance

• The compliance process will now be done in the listing process.
• They will now automatically collect compliance documents.

Seller Support

• Proactive Reimbursements
• Inventory Defect and Reimbursement dashboard
• Live chat can now help with 100% of issues. That is up from 1/3 of issues.
• “Connect with a Specialist”: A pilot program that allows sellers to connect with a specialist on a given issue. The specialist owns the issue & solution from start to finish.

Accelerate Takeaways

Amazon is leaning into AI and multi-channel growth, understanding that sellers need to save time and improve efficiency to keep up with consumer demand.

Is Amazon Accelerate worth attending? It depends on your seller journey and objective, but the opportunity to connect directly with Amazon specialists, resolve issues, and stay ahead of industry trends offers a persuasive argument to invest in attending.

No official date for 2025 has been announced quite yet, but keep the third weekend in September open for a fall visit to Seattle. UnBoxed is next – October 14-16 in Austin, TX.