1. new inventory report for Amazon Seller 

Beginning Sept. 30, sellers will have the ability to view an even more comprehensive inventory report through Sellercentral. Called the Inventory Book Report, it will allow Sellers to review book inventory, inventory received, customer orders, customer returns, refunds, adjustments, removals and ending inventory at any time. The report contains their current inventory in the logistics centers on a daily basis, including quantity, location and availability, which can be checked up to 18 months retrospectively. 

The new inventory report should enable sellers to better manage their inventory in the future. In our opinion, there are opportunities in the area of item tracking, inventory optimization and the allocation of capacities to the individual warehouses. 

2. new function: "Forecast" at campaign level

Amazon has introduced a new feature that allows users to forecast weekly clicks and orders when creating a new campaign. A daily and monthly forecast will be added in the future. The forecast is based on campaigns with similar ASINs, targets and bids. In order to access such a forecast, you have to select at least one product and determine the budget or the target of the campaign.

It is definitely an interesting innovation whose validity remains to be seen. As has been known for a long time, it is already possible to select bids suggested by Amazon when optimizing campaigns. However, experience shows that these can deviate from real CPCs by up to 500 %. Therefore, one should be extremely careful when assessing this forecast. 

3. same-day delivery from brick-and-mortar stores in the U.S.

Amazon has announced the launch of same-day deliveries from local retail stores in ten metropolitan areas in the USA. Thus, products will be delivered directly from stores/shopping centers to customers rather than from distribution centers. Delivery is free for Prime customers with an order value of 25$ or more. 

The new same-day delivery service intensifies Amazon's efforts to get as many products as possible to customers as quickly as possible. In the first step, the first cooperating companies are mainly fashion brands. With same-day delivery from local stores, Amazon could also increasingly compete with delivery apps in the retail sector in the future. Companies that cooperate with Amazon and thus offer same-day delivery could accordingly achieve a not inconsiderable market advantage over brands with the current shipping model. A roll-out date for Same Day Delivery in Europe, or Germany, is currently not known.