This is your host, The Badger, providing you with the top Amazon news stories this week. Welcome to Amazon Weekly Digest!
This week, Mark Zuckerberg’s trial continues as the government decides if Facebook should be regulated, backlash against technology grows, and Amazon Spark is failing to take off.
Amazon Spark is Amazon’s version of a social media site where Prime members can shop from.
Digiday explains “The idea is for Spark to focus on products Amazon sells — users can post pictures and run “polls” asking whether certain products are better than others. At launch, Amazon touted that people can follow interests and influencers, which it dubs ‘enthusiasts.'”
Amazon sellers are encouraged to hire influencers to post their products and be brand advocates and even offer to pay content contributors for “quality content.”
Digiday reports, “’We haven’t seen any push from them on Spark,’ said Andrew Sandoval, group director at The Media Kitchen. ‘I see lots of opportunities from them through search, for example, but Spark just doesn’t come up.'”
“Sandoval said his clients who are more lifestyle-focused mostly concentrate on Instagram, where you can ‘show people living their lives with your products. Amazon Spark is mostly just talking about your products, which is the hard sell,’ he said. ‘Ultimately, the e-commerce social experience is a little far from the social experience.'”
For more Spark testimonies check out this other article from Digiday.
In other Amazon news:
In this opinion article, Krystal Hu explains why Trump’s comments may hurt small businesses instead of helping them.
TechCrunch reports Amazon Prime Wardrobe is readying for launch almost a year after it was announced.
Amazon is angry. Hundreds of customers have explained they have been kicked off of Amazon Prime because they violated its review policy. Read more here.