E-Commerce News Roundup: January Recap

With the first month of Q1 behind us, there’s plenty of important news for sellers to catch up on! Amazon rolled out several updates in January to improve seller and customer experiences. The key changes include enhanced image-related compliance notifications, streamlined product title rules, and updated packaging standards for sharp products. To boost post-holiday sales, Amazon offers strategies through Brand Tailored Promotions. Additionally, the new Inventory Defect and Reimbursement (IDR) portal provides greater transparency in inventory management.

Explore Enhanced Insights on Image-Related Compliance Issues with Updated Reports

Jan 01, 2025

In January, Amazon enhanced its notifications for image issues, providing more detailed information to help you resolve them more quickly. 

The key changes include the following: 

• Sellers will receive notifications for previously unannounced image issues. 

• For each issue, Amazon will provide guidance that explains how to fix it. 

Amazon is rolling out this change in phases, with additional issues to be announced later this year, while the existing image guidelines will remain unchanged. 

For more information, go to Product image requirements. 

New Amazon Product Title Requirements

Jan 03, 2025

Amazon is updating its product title policy to standardize listings and enhance the shopping experience across Amazon’s stores. 

Over time, Amazon has observed that product titles have become longer, and they sometimes include redundant wording or characters that can decrease customer confidence. These new policy changes will help ensure that product titles are clear, concise, and consistent. 

The following new requirements will take effect on January 21, 2025: 

• For most product categories, titles may not exceed 200 characters, including spaces.

• The special characters !, $, ?, _, {, }, ^, ¬, and ¦ are not allowed, unless they are part of the brand name.

• Titles may not contain the same word more than twice. Prepositions, articles, and conjunctions are exceptions.

If you have titles that do not comply with the requirements listed above, Amazon recommends that you update them. 

Starting January 21, all title changes will be subject to the updated policy, and you’ll be able to view and fix any non-compliant titles in Manage All Inventory. 

Additionally, Amazon will provide override suggestions for non-compliant titles to brand owners in Review Listing Updates. Brand owners will have 14 days to act upon on the suggestions before Amazon updates the titles to comply with its requirements. These suggestions will be rolled out gradually. 

Your listings will remain active during this process, and you’ll still be able to make edits to your product titles as long as your changes comply with the new policy. 

For more information, including character limits by product category and store, go to Product title requirements and guidelines. 

Tips to Help you Optimize Promotions After the Holiday Sales

Jan 08, 2025 

Once the holiday sales are over, you can continue to develop your marketing promotion strategy by using Brand Tailored Promotions to create promotional codes for select customers (Tailored Audiences). You can offer discounts ranging from 10% to 50% on all products within your brand or specific ASINs. 

Here are a few tips to help you engage customers after the holidays:  

If you want to acquire customers, Choose the In-market audience to engage customers who viewed (but did not purchase) similar products in the last seven days. An added incentive will encourage conversions. 

• If your goal is cross-selling: Choose the Complementary Products Remarketing audience, shortly after the sales season ends, to engage customers who purchased related products in the last 30 days. (For example, if you sell coffee pods, the Complementary Products Remarketing audience will automatically select customers who recently purchased a coffee maker.) 

• If you want to re-engage customers who browsed your brand: Choose the Cart Remarketing audience (refreshed weekly) to run another promotion for the ASINs you promoted during the holiday sale time frame. This allows you to re-engage customers who were interested but didn’t complete their purchase in the past 30 days. 

• Continue to build momentum: Offer a limited-time Tailored Promotion on your entire catalog, engaging the Recent Customers audience to encourage repeat purchases from those who shopped your seasonal sales deals. 

To learn more and get started, go to Brand Tailored Promotions Guide. 

Updates to Packaging Requirements for Sharp Products

Jan 16, 2025 

Effective April 14, 2025, Amazon will no longer offer prep services for sharp products and Amazon’s packaging requirements have been updated to ensure the safety of associates and customers. Amazon sellers will be required to own the end-to-end packaging of all sharp products before you send them to Amazon. 

To meet the updated packaging requirements and prevent exposure to sharp edges or points during handling, you must package all sharp products in secure, cut- and puncture-resistant packaging, such as hardened plastic or blister packs. To view the updated packaging requirements for sharp products, go to Packaging sharp units. 

To give you time to adjust to the new packaging requirements, a sharp product that arrives at Amazon fulfillment centers before April 14th will still be accepted as long as the sharp edges are boxed or bubble wrapped to meet current minimum packaging requirements. Sharp products that don’t meet Amazon’s current minimum packaging requirements will be disposed of immediately at your expense and without reimbursement. 

After April 14, any sharp products that don’t meet the updated packaging requirements when they arrive at fulfillment centers will be immediately disposed of at your expense and won’t be eligible for reimbursement. 

For more information about FBA inventory reimbursements, go to FBA inventory reimbursement policy. 

For more information about disposal fees, go to FBA disposal order fees. 

Discontinuation of the 360-Degree Image Feature

Jan 16, 2025 

On January 20, 2025, the 360-degree image experience on product detail pages have been discontinued. This change follows Amazon’s previous decision in December 2023 to discontinue new 360-degree image uploads. 

Instead, now you can upload 3D models to your listings and experiences, such as View in 3D, which is similar to View in 360, as well as View in Your Room, and Virtual Try-on. To add 3D models to your product listings, go to Upload 3D Models.To learn more about how to use 3D models, go to 3D shopping experience and supported product types. 

Launch of the Inventory Defect and Reimbursement Portal

Jan 22, 2025 

Amazon has launched a new Inventory Defect and Reimbursement (IDR) portal to streamline your operations and give you more transparency into your Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) inventory reimbursements. Now, you can more efficiently manage all your inventory-related defects and reimbursements within warehouse lost, warehouse damage, and customer returns, in one convenient place through the IDR portal. 

The IDR portal provides you: 

• Complete visibility into these defects and their status 

• Detailed information for each of these defects, including type, creation date, actions taken, reasons, and current status 

• A comprehensive view of these defects from multiple reports and policy checks to identify reimbursable opportunities 

• Insights into defect frequency and the resolution rationale 

For more information, go to Inventory Defect and Reimbursement (IDR) Portal. 

Key Consumer Trends for Shaping Your 2025 Marketing Strategies 

Jan 31, 2025 

While crafting your marketing strategies for this year, consider these four consumer trends: 

1. Consumers will further embrace AI when making purchases: 56 percent of online shoppers are comfortable using AI-integrated tools to buy products and services. You can use AI to help provide price comparisons, deal alerts, support, and tailored recommendations.
2. The effects of inflation will spark new shopping habits and attitudes: In 2024, one in three consumers spent less due to inflation. Brands can embrace evolving shopping practices by demonstrating support and empathy across messaging touchpoints and finding ways to reward fiscally conscious shoppers in the new year. 
3. Longform and shortform content will compete for attention: Marketers should take a balanced approach, using both short and longform content to reach broader audiences and better engage customers in an ever-changing media landscape. 
4. Trustworthiness will be the baseline for influencer marketing: Trust is more important than discount codes or exclusive deals in influencer marketing. Influencers are even more important to successful marketing strategies for brands seeking to engage younger adult consumers. Nearly half of Gen Z makes purchases based on influencer recommendations. 

To learn more about these trends and Amazon advertising solutions, go to advertising.Amazon.com. 

Pauline Thoméré

February 4, 2025

Pauline's passions lie in eCommerce and supporting individuals in their online selling endeavors. Currently, as a frequent contributor to the BQool Blog, she channels her passions into creating informative contents that break down the complex challenges Amazon sellers face on a daily basis.