The eCommerce giant Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) billed merchants for ads on products that were unavailable for purchase. According to Bloomberg, this issue surfaced when a merchant discovered charges amounting to thousands of dollars for promotions in California, despite no longer selling his advanced gaming computers in that area.
Amazon Response
The company has committed to improving its automated advertising processes. Amazon confirmed that only a small number of its sellers were impacted by the issue. It intends to reach out to those affected sellers and provide them with refunds.
The misstep highlights the shortcomings of engaging automated tools at scale. Despite this, Amazon is continually incorporating new automation functions into its platform. One such feature being introduced allows merchants to simply paste a link from an external website, enabling artificial intelligence to create a product page on Amazon. This tool aims to streamline the product listing process for sellers by reducing the time required.
In another development, patients can now order healthcare major Eli Lilly’s (NYSE:LLY) diabetes, obesity, and migraine products from Amazon Pharmacy. The partnership also includes Lilly’s popular weight loss treatment, Zepbound.
Is Amazon Stock Expected to Rise?
Despite occasional hiccups, Amazon’s eCommerce juggernaut continues to gather strength. The stock has rallied by nearly 91% over the past year. Overall, the Street has a Strong Buy consensus rating on Amazon alongside an average price target of $208.48. This points to a potential upside of about 18% in Amazon’s share price.
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