Dmexco: New video features to be embedded into Amazon's e-commerce ads, says VP ad sales, Lisa Utzshcneider
Amazon is set to embed new features including video into its e-commerce adverts, its vice president of advertising sales Lisa Utzshcneider has revealed.
The new e-commerce features will see videos embedded within some of the company's product adverts, offering a demo of the product before allowing the customer to purchase directly through them, as well as plans to include the Wish List function and "subscribancy" into its adverts as well.
Speaking at Dmexco, Utzshcneider discussed how the company's advertising and e-commerce strategy converged to make a better experience for its customers.
She said that e-commerce and advertising "should inform customers and not interrupt them" while discussing the new multiscreen discovery journey that consumers take to purchase and cited eMarketer, claiming that e-commerce was set to grow to $1.2t this year, a forecast that is expect to double over the next four years.
She went on to explain that Amazon, with its 215 million active customers, was aiming to improve the shopping experience across mobile, tablet and PC, by focusing on three aspects of the purchase journey; find, discover and buy.
She described the first and third part of the process as "pretty straight forward," but cited the process of discovery as "a huge opportunity" for marketers and consumers, as well as for an e-commerce platform to help its customers discover new products, services and brands.
"We make this happen through our personalisation engine. We apply everything that we've learned in this discovery process to our advertising programme," she explained
"With ecommerce and advertising, we are intersecting at he customer."
She continued to state that Amazon aimed to focus on making it "really simple" for customers to shop. "We don't expect what our customers want will change in the next 10 years. The same goes for advertising goals...we think that with advertising, these goals won't change in the next ten years. E-commerce and advertising, where they intersect with the customer, that is where we see huge opportunity."
She continued: "The goals of e-commerce and advertising, they're not dissimilar because they are focused on the customer perspective. They should inform customers and not interrupt them. They should help customers in the process of discovery and not just deliver impressions."
By embedding functions such as Add to Cart, Wishlists, couponing, and ratings and reviews within Amazon's adverts, it is enriching the customer experience.
She revealed that the e-commerce adverts were "performing better than standard ads" with, on average, a 20-30 per cent increased performance than standard adverts.
She revealed that Amazon was now working on integrating video functionality into the e-commerce adverts.
"Our customers love video. They love coming to Amazon and learning more about products through videos," she claimed.
The integration will allow consumers to watch the video within the advert and then make a purchase within the advert also.
"In addition to that we are focusing on a number if other features and functionalities that we are embedding within the ads. Subscribe cry, our replenishment programme, where you can click on it and partake of 'subscribancy' and Wishlist - if you see a product that you like, you engage with the ad and participate by adding it to you wish list," she explained.
"These are examples of how we are innovating to create a better experience for our customers and we're also making sure that this experience is seamless for our customers across all devices."
Of its cross screen adverts, Utzshcneider also revealed that those were proving to be 18 per cent more effective than adverts running on single screens alone.