Amazon Solution Provider Summit took place in Seattle from July 15–17. Chris Sisco (Chief Technology Officer), Courtney Taylor (Director of Product Development), and Kiman Shrestha (Senior Software Engineer) attended the Summit on behalf of Kapoq, and have compiled the most important updates below!
Here’s a recap of the event, and what it means for future product developments at Kapoq!
What is the Amazon Solution Provider Summit?
The Amazon Solution Provider Summit is an annual event focused on the non-ads APIs from Amazon. (The Advertising team has their own summit about a month later.) According to Amazon, this event is limited to those with an “active Amazon Solution Provider account in good standing.”
Why Did Kapoq Attend?
Kapoq is an active Amazon Solution Provider, and we were invited to attend because of our Partnership status with Amazon. Our team was approached by many people at Amazon to join betas and new opportunities at the event because of the unique work we’ve done to integrate their APIs and provide exceptional support for our clients.
This summit is also an opportunity for our development teams to collaborate directly with the developers at Amazon, as well as our peers and competitors in the industry. It’s a meaningful experience for our team to learn, grow, and share!
What Updates Did Amazon Release at the Show?
Pricing API
Amazon announced a new private beta within the Pricing API with the ability to validate pricing so it will not result in lost Buy-Box before updating the price. Additionally, sellers can see prices in the Buy Box by postal code, which may be an indication that Amazon will soon allow for pricing by region.
This update isn’t confirmed, but it’s our team’s best guess as to Amazon’s next steps after this update.
Brand Building API
Amazon also announced a completely brand new set of APIs that will allow us to interact with Brand Building features, specifically A+ premium content and Brand Tailored promotions to start. This is the first time Amazon has allowed for promotion creation through the APIs, so this is a huge announcement!
Amazon invited Kapoq as one of the first beta testers for these APIs because of how many of our clients are using these promotion types currently! Stay tuned for more updates.
Finance API
The new Maturity Date attribute helps us solve the deferred transactions question. Previously, within the existing Finance API, the deferred transactions status had not appeared for any transactions.
Amazon also fixed another big issue related to duplicate deferred transactions, which means we can display accurate data in Kapoq now! Previously, there was conflicting data available.
How These Updates Influence Kapoq’s Product Roadmap
Pricing API
Between recently released features and upcoming releases, Kapoq will have very powerful data to provide suggested pricing changes and tools to manage them — something our clients have long asked for! Being able to validate pricing before it’s set, and price against similar items, will make a huge difference.
Plus, sellers can now see prices by postal code, and Amazon confirmed they will likely allow pricing by region (considering down to state level) in the future. We’ll keep you updated on when these features will be available in Kapoq!
Brand Building API
There will be a completely new set of APIs specifically made for empowering brands to succeed, so eventually you’ll see totally new features in Kapoq. Amazon is starting with A+ Premium (which they are still working on documentation for, but we will see it when it’s ready) and the Brand Tailored Promotions, which will be the blueprint for all other promotion creation via API.
Amazon has already requested our feedback on the documentation and API build, which we’ve provided. And of course, we’re in the beta test group and are super excited to contribute to how it’s shaped! They also let us know that 42% of our current sellers have used or are using this promotion type currently, which means this update will be impactful to many of our sellers!
Finance API
The new maturityDate attribute that gives us an estimated number of days solves a question we often get asked by clients — when can they expect their deferred transactions to drop? Turns out, this API team also doesn’t get dates, but this was the next best thing they could do.
This paired with the recently fixed bug of duplicated deferred transaction data means we will soon be able to display deferred transactions confidently and with estimations of when they’ll be released to the seller. The Finance API team is also focused on making this API the source of truth, and has floated providing updated reporting in Seller Central to aid in reconciliation, which is often a pain point for our customers too.
Conclusion
Attending this summit is always a high point of the year for our team — it makes us excited for the future product developments we’ll be able to provide our clients. We always want to stay on the cutting edge of the latest Amazon updates so that your brand and agency can have the best API integrations to help you succeed. We look forward to incorporating these updates into our product roadmap!
If you’re interested in learning more about selling via Amazon Business, watch our webinar with Carolyn Lowe of ROI Swift.
