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Amazon tests letting sellers email customers directly about new products and sales

Amazon tests letting sellers email customers directly about new products and sales

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Brands will be able to email Amazon customers directly for the first time

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Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Amazon is testing a new feature for sellers that will let them contact customers directly by email to notify them of things like new product announcements or sales. It’s a major change from Amazon’s current policy, which is to limit the amount of interaction between customers and companies that sell on Amazon, outside of resolving things like returns or order issues.

As CNBC reports, the new “Manage Your Customer Engagement” tool won’t let companies just spam previous customers with promotional emails. They’ll only be able to contact Amazon users who have specifically chosen to follow a particular company, and Amazon (not the sellers) will be the one to actually send out the emails.

Crucially, Amazon isn’t giving sellers blank-check access to customers’ personal contact information. Rather, Amazon will tell brands how many customers have opted to receive the emails, along with performance metrics for the campaign (the specifics of which haven’t been disclosed at this time) but not the names, information, or email addresses of individual customers.

The new email campaign option is a free service for sellers, but it’s only available to brands registered through Amazon’s Brand Registry program (a list that includes big names like Garmin, GoPro, KitchenAid, and more).

But the new tool should be a useful one for brands that rely on Amazon’s store as a way to reach their customers by giving them a new way to loop in their most enthusiastic buyers of new products or deals. Customers who are wary of getting bombarded with thirsty brand deals, though, might want to take a look at which companies they’re currently following on Amazon.

Update, April 23rd, 4:27pm: Added additional information on the mechanics of Amazon’s email campaign program.

Correction: Amazon will provide brands with performance metrics on this campaign. This article originally stated that it would provide click-through information. We regret the error.