Selling on Amazon using generative AI is a new frontier of opportunity for brands and manufacturers to merchandise and advertise their products. Generative AI is a type of artificial intelligence where software is able to produce new text, images, and audio with a provided input. Amazon announced a few new tools to help brands provide better content for Amazon customers in the form of more engaging product images and more effective product detail pages. For Amazon Sellers, this creates a unique opportunity to potentially save on image generation costs (not having to put together a professional photo shoot) and writing more engaging text copy. Generative AI can be a sales driver if the content that is created helps convert impressions and clicks into more sales and new ways to engage with customers. This post will explore what generative AI is and how Amazon is using it to provide tools to sellers that can help them create more engaging ads and product listing content for Amazon customers.
What Is Generative AI?
Generative AI is software that is capable of generating new text, images, audio, and other media forms using software models that help it learn and structure input training data that is then used to generate new data with similar characteristics. When it comes to selling on Amazon, Brands can utilize this new tool to increase engagement with their products and reduce merchandising costs. For example, image generation typically requires a professional photographer which can be costly and take weeks before images of the product in use and stand-alone are available. Now, using generative AI tools, sellers can input a single product image with a text input or prompt and create a lifestyle image all digitally. Not only can this provide major cost savings and revenue drivers, but this also allows them to test new images or texts to see what best highlights their products and resonates with Amazon customers.
Amazon Ads and Generative Lifestyle Images
At Amazon’s Ad conference, unBoxed 2023, Amazon Ads announced the beta launch of their generative AI-powered tool that aims to help brands move past creative barriers and produce richer product images to enhance their Amazon Ads. This provides sellers with a unique ability to create more engaging content and learn more about their customer’s shopping behaviors. According to an internal survey by Amazon in March 2023, they found that “among advertisers who were unable to build successful campaigns, nearly 75% cited building ad creative and choosing a creative format as their biggest challenge.” Building engaging ad content can be time-consuming and often requires additional costs or input from outside sources. This new image creation tool is not meant to replace humans’ creative aspects but rather work with you to create new, engaging Sponsored Brand images and creatives. By simply clicking “generate” within your Amazon ad console, you get a set of new lifestyle and brand-themed images based on your inputs from the existing product details and images. This process can be refined and improved by continuing to enter short descriptive text prompts as well as choosing from preselected themes that will help enhance your images. The generative AI also provides you with multiple versions of the created content so you can test to see which version performs the best in your marketplace. This simple tool can help sellers test and generate new engaging Amazon Ad content, all at no additional cost. This release is timely because starting on January 31, 2024, all Sponsored Brand product collection ad format will require a custom image, and on May 31, 2024 existing product collection ads that don’t contain a custom image will stop serving.
AI Generated Listings Content
Product detail copy is another area that Amazon has improved upon with the use of generative AI for Amazon Sellers. The words that are used in a product listing, including the title, description, and bullet points, are very important as they articulate what a customer is going to receive when they purchase and share value propositions or why they should purchase the product. The new generative AI for writing product listings will help sellers create more effective copy that will help shoppers better understand products and find what they are looking for. With the sheer number of product listings and words on product detail pages, they have a very large language model data set that is used to recognize, summarize, translate, predict, and generate text that can build out effective product detail pages. With just a brief description of the product, the Generate Listing Content tool writes high-quality titles, descriptions, and bullet points. Sellers can also use the generative AI combined with their experience to create multiple versions of the content to test and see which one has a greater impact on conversion rates. Since this is an early access and new tool, it is always suggested to review it to ensure accuracy and brand voice consistency.
Future of Generative AI for Selling on Amazon
These new tool announcements by Amazon around image and text generation show a glimpse of what the future will look like for selling on Amazon. Sellers can use these tools to both save money in production costs, as well as increase the speed of testing to find what is most effective and engaging with Amazon customers. It is important to keep in mind that these programs are in beta and early access so they are meant to be improved upon and are not perfect, so sellers should always check the content before submitting. Generative AI has a wide range of applications, and it is likely that Amazon will continue to utilize its capabilities across other areas of selling on Amazon including customer messaging, reporting, or logistics recommendations.
Frequently Asked Questions for Selling On Amazon Using Generative AI
Why should Amazon sellers use generative AI?
Amazon sellers should use generative AI as it could reduce the cost of content production and increase the ability to test new merchandising and advertising materials.
What is the Choose an AI-generated image tool?
The “Choose an AI-generated image” beta tool for Amazon Ads allows sellers to generate a custom lifestyle and branded image using product listing details, image descriptions, and themes.
Will AI-generated images be better than real professional photography images?
Depending on your current set of image assets and ability to take lifestyle photography, AI-generated images may be better than nothing. It is always worthwhile to test and confirm for yourself if the generated images best represent your product and brand or if the generated image resonates with customers.
What is the Generate Listing Content tool on Amazon?
The “Generate Listings Content” is an early access beta tool on Seller Central that generates titles, product descriptions, and bullet points (key product features) for sellers with a simple text input.
How do I get access to Amazon Generative AI tools?
You can get access to Amazon generative AI tools by checking to see if they are added to your Amazon Ad console for images or Manage Inventory edit section for listing content. Reach out to Goat Consulting to help see where to get access to these tools.
Is this Chat-GPT for Amazon?
Chat-GPT is a different tool created by OpenAI. It is a popular generative AI platform, but not a tool built specifically for Amazon. Chat-GPT could be another testing tool for images and content generation.
Conclusion
The announcement and launch of the generative AI image and product detail text tools to help brands and manufacturers sell on Amazon is a great step forward for reducing costs and improving testing capabilities. Goat Consulting will continue to be at the forefront of using and understanding new tools and software to help you accomplish your goals on Amazon. If you want us to see how these tools can help you and your business on Amazon, reach out through our “Contact Us” form.
About the Author
This post was written by Matt McGinty, an Account Manager at Goat Consulting. Matt helps his clients sell on Amazon by increasing sales, mitigating risk, reducing costs, and solving problems. He has experience and expertise in utilizing Amazon merchandising and advertising tools to achieve goals for his Goat Consulting clients. If you want Matt to see how these generative AI tools can help with your business, or assist with other aspects of selling on Amazon, he is happy to lead your account.