11 Things to do Before you Start Selling on Amazon FBA

- Want to be an Amazon FBA seller in 2017? Here's what you need to do!

How to Decipher Your Amazon Suspension and Write a Compelling Appeal

By Conner Gillivan

Were you recently suspended from selling on the Amazon Marketplace? Or has it happened in the past? Thousands of Amazon sellers are suspended each month and Amazon has an entire team that is dedicated to reading the suspension letters that are submitted.

If you’re familiar with the suspension process, the Amazon Seller Performance team sends you a performance notification that states that your selling permissions have been temporarily suspended because of reason XYZ. The non-descriptive letter encourages you to appeal the suspension by following their Plan of Action guidelines and then you just hope for the best.

At my company we’ve become experts at understanding how the Amazon Marketplace functions. Over the years, I have researched and learned a tremendous amount about the suspension process. Its mysterious characteristics intrigued me to dig deeper and to really understand what Amazon is saying when they send out their suspension letters.

In this article, I will provide practical advice on:

How to decipher why you were suspended.
How to structure your formal appeal letter.
How to escalate your appeal letter to the next level if you aren’t getting a proper response from the Seller Performance team.

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Why Sellers Get Suspended
As I said above, all Amazon suspension letters arrive in a similar template that dryly outlines that fact that your business has been temporarily shut down. In every situation, Amazon has identified a way in which you, as a seller, have failed to comply by the standards and expectations that they hold for their sellers.

The majority of the situations stem from two areas. The first is from a failure to follow one of the Seller Policies that you agree to when you create your seller account. For example: selling inauthentic products or drop shipping from retailers. The second is from one of your seller metrics going above the allowed maximums that Amazon holds all of its sellers to. For example: order defect rate, late shipment rate, refund rate, etc.

Amazon’s main goal as a marketplace is to provide their users with a positive shopping experience. When a seller fails to uphold their expectations, it creates a situation that could lead to a poor customer experience. Amazon will provide you with Performance Notifications and fair warnings that your actions may lead to a suspension, but they can only do it for so long. If you are unable to fix your account quickly, it can lead to you receiving the dreaded Amazon suspension letter.

Part One: How to Decipher Your Amazon Suspension Letter
The one good thing about Amazon’s templated suspension letter is that it is easy to find the place where they communicate why they are suspending you. Most of the time, the reason for your suspension will appear in the first two sentences of the notification. It reads something like this:

You currently may not sell on Amazon any longer because…[reason]
As you can tell, the difficult part is not necessarily finding where Amazon communicates what you have been suspended for. Rather, the difficult task is understanding what their reason actually means with regards to your seller account. To help you in your efforts, I have provided a list of the 5 most common reasons for suspension and a short explanation of each.

1. Inauthentic product complaints
This means that there has been a complaint about a product that you sold to a customer. It is the most open-ended reason that Amazon provides for suspended accounts and can boil down to a handful of issues that you may have as a seller.

Sellers may receive this reason because:

Someone complained that the product they received was not the same as that described on the Amazon product listing.
Someone complained that they received their order in damaged or used condition when they purchased it as new.
Someone complained that the product they received is counterfeit.
To decipher this particular reason, you should go to the Performance Notifications center in your seller account and look for past warnings from Amazon regarding such possible issues. If you find similar warnings, look further into the order, ASINs, and customer to determine if there could have been an issue with the order.

If you cannot find similar warnings in your dashboard, go to where you manage your Amazon customer emails and search keywords like “used”, “inauthentic”, “counterfeit”, etc. If you find any emails that bring back these keywords, look into what the customer is saying and how you handled the situation. Sometimes customers will immediately complain to Amazon instead of contacting the seller because they don’t understand the difference between the two.

When you go to write your suspension appeal letter, Amazon wants to see that you fully understand where the complaint came from and how you could have handled it better. Diving into your records to find what could have been the issue is a key first step to getting reinstated.

2. Rights owner notice of infringement
This means that there was a complaint directly from the brand owner of a given product that you were selling through your store. In most situations, the rights owner is complaining that you, as the seller, do not have the rights to sell their product through your store because you do not have an authorized reselling relationship with them.

With the growth of the internet and ecommerce, it has become much more difficult to monitor who is selling your products online. Amazon receives a lot of negative feedback from brands because of the number of sellers that are reselling their products without authorization directly from the brand.

In some instances, the seller is blatantly going around the rights owner to sell the product. In other situations, there is a misunderstanding because the seller received rights to sell the product through a distributor, and the distributor did not communicate the seller’s name to the rights owner of the product.

No matter what the situation, Amazon will always request that you submit invoices directly from your supplier and contact information for your supplier. In the case that you do not have invoices, your case to get reinstated will become more difficult.

3. Order defect rate
This means that your Order Defect Rate has most likely gone above the allowed maximum of 1.0% within the past 30 or 90 days. The Order Defect Rate can be found in your seller metrics by navigating to Performance and then clicking on Account Health. On this page, you will find the main metrics that Amazon tracks for all of its sellers.

As defined by Amazon:

An order has a defect if it incurs a negative feedback, an A-to-z Guarantee claim that is not denied, or a service credit card chargeback. Your order defect rate is defined as the number of orders with a defect divided by the number of orders in the time period of interest. Order defect rate is the key measure of your ability to provide a good customer experience.
Again, it is a key measure to make sure that you are providing a positive customer experience.

The best way to understand your Order Defect Rate is to compile a list of all the negative feedback, A-to-z claims, and credit card chargebacks that you’ve received within those given time frames where your ODR is over 1.0%. Look at how you handled the order and find where you fell short as a seller. That reason is what Amazon wants to hear you explain in your appeal letter.

4. Late shipment rate
This means that your Late Shipment Rate has gone above the maximum allowed level of 4.0%. Each Amazon order has an expected ship date associated with it that is built off of the lead time to ship that you associate with your products. In your account, you have the ability to change the lead time for each product, but it starts as 1-2 days by default. If you do not mark your order as shipped and add a valid tracking number by the end of that assigned lead time, Amazon’s system will mark the order as a late shipment.

Here is an example to better understand:

You have a popular product that you sell on a daily basis.
The lead time associated with this product is 1-2 days.
You sell one of the products on Monday.
Amazon’s expected ship date is going to be Wednesday.
If you do not mark the product as shipped with tracking information before the end of Wednesday, your order will be considered late and it will go against your Late Shipment Rate.

When appealing a Late Shipment Rate suspension, you want to look into each order that went late, determine how it happened, and create a plan to adjust your operations to make sure that it does not happen again. Most of the time, it is better increasing your lead times or adjusting your fulfillment operations.

5. Cancellation rate
This means that your pre-fulfillment Cancellation Rate went above the maximum level of 2.5%. As defined by Amazon:

[This] metric measures your in-stock rate for seller-fulfilled items sold on Amazon.
When you sell a product from your store that you do not have in stock, you have to cancel the order and notify the customer. Amazon does not like it when this happens because it creates a poor customer experience. Cancelling orders is held against you and can lead to a suspension if you go above Amazon’s threshold.

When appealing a Cancellation Rate suspension, you want to compile a list of all the orders that you had to cancel within the given time frame that your cancellation rate went above 2.5%.

Next, you want to look into each order and understand why you were cancelling so many orders. The biggest reason that sellers go over 2.5% is that their inventory management is very poor, and they are selling a lot of items that are not in stock at the time that a customer makes a purchase.

If you can explain how you are improving your inventory management practices, you should be able to create a good case for unsuspension to Amazon.

Part Two: How to Structure and Write your Amazon Suspension Appeal Letter
Now that you know why you were suspended from selling on Amazon, it’s time to outline your appeal letter so that it meets Amazon’s expectations and clearly explains how you are going to make this situation right.

In every suspension appeal, Amazon wants to see three things:

Acknowledgement of where you messed up and a clear understanding of what exact actions led to your suspension.
Action steps that you’ve already taken in the time that you were suspended and that you are submitting your suspension appeal.
Action steps that you will take in the near future if you are to be reinstated.
If you can successfully communicate those three details in an organized fashion, you have an amazing chance of being unsuspended. When you don’t address these three areas that Amazon wants to see, your chances of being reinstated go significantly down.

Below is an example format that you may use to organize your suspension letter to focus on these three areas.

1. Introduction
State who you are, the name of your seller account, and the reason that you were suspended. Write a paragraph about your situation and what you’ve learned from the process of being suspended.

2. The Main Issues that Lead to Your Suspension
State the main reason that you were suspended from being an Amazon seller. Explain how you determined this to be the main issue and what actions led to this happening on your account. Take responsibility for your actions and express that you messed up.

If there is more than one issue that you identified, be sure to add a bullet point for it as well.

3. The Action Steps You Have Taken Since Being Suspended
State the action steps that you have taken since being suspended to address the main issues that you outlined above. Go into the detail of what you and your team have done, to show how you understand what the issue was and how you are making changes so that it won’t happen again.

Make it as easy as possible to read. State the main issue and then add bullet points underneath it so that it matches fluently with the top section. There is a team that reads hundreds of these each day. They need an organized document that they can read efficiently.

4. The Action Steps You Will Take When Unsuspended
State the action steps that you and your team will take once reinstated. Focus on how you will change your operations to ensure that this issue does not happen again.

5. Summary
Provide an overall summary of the action steps that you have taken and will take to ensure this problem does not happen again with your seller account.

Call to Action: write a clear sentence asking for your seller account to be reinstated.

The structure of your appeal letter is almost as important as the content within it. It is important that you make your appeal letter focused on the three main areas that I outlined above and that it is easy for someone to identify those core areas upon reading through.

If the Amazon employee reading your appeal letter has to search for the three core areas of content that they are looking for, there is a better chance that they will reject your appeal letter and ask for more information.

Bonus: How to Escalate Your Appeal Letter Past Seller Performance
Amazon is a massive company and despite their rigid organization, they do make mistakes when handling seller suspensions and appeal submissions.

I’ve witnessed sellers who have submitted their appeal letters and never received a response. I’ve seen sellers submit multiple responses and be advised each time that Amazon needs more information regarding their suspension issue. And in the worst cases, I’ve seen sellers reinstated based on the appeal letter they submitted, then immediately suspended again by the Seller Performance team.

It’s impossible to fully understand what is going on at Amazon as they are reviewing hundreds of seller suspension letters each month. The good news is that you can escalate your situation to the next level in the case that something wonky occurs.

Here’s the secret… email Jeff Bezos. That’s right… email the CEO and founder of Amazon explaining your situation with a copy of your appeal letter attached to the email.

Anyone can send Jeff Bezos an email by emailing Jeff@Amazon.com. We return to a theme that has been present throughout this entire article: Amazon’s number one priority is creating a positive customer experience. If customers don’t feel that they are being treated correctly, they can email Jeff and he will take care of it. The same goes for Amazon sellers.

I’ve seen this method work and I’m sure that it has helped hundreds of Amazon sellers circumnavigate the odd situations that sometimes occur when communicating with the Seller Performance team with suspension appeals. If your email is convincing enough and your appeal letter clearly addresses the three main points that I outlined above, “Jeff” will forward the email along to Seller Performance and urge them to make the situation right.

Conclusion
I hope that this article helps you navigate the muddy waters of Amazon seller suspensions.

(SOURCE)

Multiple Amazon Accounts: What’s Happening and What You Should Do

By Chris McCabe


If your household only has one account, total, then this won’t apply to you.

Do you have anything to declare?

This is what travelers are asked whenever they pass through Customs at airports around the world. Amazon is asking you this too, if you have more than one account. Which one is it? What’s the email associated with it, so we can have a look and decide if you need it?

If you don’t declare items to customs and they find them later, you pay more, right? The same principle applies here. If Amazon sends this message now they’re doing more than looking for a confession. They’re sending a warning shot prior to taking more aggressive actions, if past policy matters are any guide.

Subject: Multiple Accounts Policy

Dear Seller,

Amazon’s policies prohibit a seller from operating or maintaining multiple accounts; however, we understand that in certain circumstances, sellers may need to own multiple accounts.

We would like to ask you a few questions:

Do you have multiple Amazon selling accounts?
Have you opened or operated more than one seller account in the past?
In addition to your seller account, do any other members of your household also have a seller account?
In order to protect your account, please reply to this email with the following information:

The email address(es) associated with each account you own
The email address(es) associated with each account owned by members of your household other than yourself

The reason(s) why you need each account

If you own just one account, have never owned more than one account in the past, and no one else in your household has or has had an account, please disregard this notice.

What You Should Do

Respond to Amazon truthfully, following their instructions. Indicate the dates you received the email from Seller 
Performance allowing a second account, if you have it.

If you have a dormant account that you have not used in a long time, terminate it. Then it will not show up as a related, and potentially active, account.

If you have an account that you opened to separate out different business entities, you need to ask yourself if you ever asked to get approval, and if Amazon properly annotated that account at the time. The only way to know or prove that Amazon actually annotated is to produce the email they sent you assuring you that they have done so. Anything else is just an assumption.

If you have family or friends or anyone signing in from your location, or even selling from the same house, provide Amazon with enough info to distinguish the accounts from each other. They can already see this in the tools, in most cases, and may be ready to act on it if they consider those account profiles to be too similar to each other.

Secondary accounts and accounts in the same household should not sell the same products if you want to stay off the radar. Best practice is to sell in different categories.

Don’t try to game the system by masking your sign-ins and don’t make excuses for why you are one of the sellers who can ignore the email.

The Right Way To Use Multiple Accounts

You need to specify “legitimate business reasons” for a separate account and email Seller Performance requesting approval.

You need to show a significant business need for separate operations of different businesses

What’s considered legitimate? You need to show a significant business need for separate operations of different businesses, or a need to separate inventory or accounting processes, and also demonstrate that the different businesses don’t share financial or tax ID information.

Amazon is interested in preventing unfair competitive advantage across all categories. Sharing inventory, suppliers, and locations or sign-ins won’t be a good idea if you have two accounts doing more or less the same work. Having a different bank account, a different name on the account, or different physical addresses is not enough. You must demonstrate entirely unrelated operations and an understandable reason why you need them to function apart from each other. Anything else will be thought of as an excuse and means extra work for them.

Make sure you have written confirmation that Amazon annotated your account with the approval. This is not something to contact Seller Support about. Note that they do not necessarily say in their message that previously approved and annotated accounts are exempt from this query.

If you have two or more accounts and can’t produce an email acknowledging and approving them, well, Amazon’s now very interested in what other accounts you operate, and why. They want to hear which ones you may have run in the past, even if you’re no longer using them.

They also want to know if your friends or family are running a business similar to yours, especially from the same location. 

They may someday want to know why you’re not following the overall policy if you aren’t producing the email approvals and legitimate business reasons for extra accounts.

Why Are They Doing This Now?

On the surface, this looks like a renewed interest in separating out who in what household operates which accounts, and why. Or, if you opened a second account for your own reasons and did not know they considered that against policy, here’s your chance to take action yourself before a warning comes in. I don’t think they are going to go after approved accounts, but they could be looking into which “legitimate business needs” are valid, and which are not.

Unapproved accounts could spell competitive advantage for sellers looking to game the system

Amazon wants control over who can have another account, instead of leaving it open to debate, discussion, and a seller’s own decision or judgment. This loophole existed years ago when I worked in Performance and Policy, and it stayed around right up until now. Amazon appears keen to find any unapproved accounts that could spell competitive advantage for sellers looking to game the system. They’re also looking to reduce unnecessary work reviewing extra accounts in the future.

In my time at Amazon, sellers often presented explanations without regard to whether or not their reasons presented them with an unfair advantage in their category, or in general.

When I approved requests for second accounts, I made sure to annotate each one, stating the other account was OK’d. In the absence of that wording now, investigators may look over related accounts in the course of another investigation and conclude that the seller took it upon themselves to open one up for their own reasons.

If Seller Performance approved your request for another account, then you have a paper trail documenting that permission. Ostensibly, the reasons for that approval are clear in your account annotations. Is Amazon simply re-confirming that you still have a legitimate need for that extra account? Time will tell. Don’t forget, more accounts for you means more work for them. It takes Amazon time, but they eventually find time to clean up everything when it comes to policy violations.

Where Does that Leave You?

Think you can outwit the Amazon tools for detecting related accounts?

You can try that out, but if there are consequences later, embrace those as tightly as you have the effort to evade Amazon’s tools. Asking “how will they know?” has rarely worked long-term in the past. Don’t try it now, either.

Anyone with approved accounts established for valid business and legal reasons should have no problem providing email addresses and details about such accounts. Everyone else needs to decide what kind of risk they want to take heading into the peak holiday season with more than one account.

Accounts that were established to create a backup plan just in case you’re suspended do not belong in operation. Best to take the hint here and move it on out of existence. If you have orders to fulfill, by all means do so. But do not leave active listings up solely because no one has yet bothered you about running two accounts.

(SOURCE)

Amazon FBA : 5 Keys To Making Money In 2017 And Beyond

When it comes to Amazon FBA, these truly are the 5 keys to making money in 2017.

U.S. Tax Considerations for Amazon FBA 

International Sellers

By Ephraim Moss and Joshua Ashman

Over the past several years, Amazon’s Fulfillment-by-Amazon (“FBA”) service has become an enormously popular business model for international merchants looking to sell products online to U.S. customers. Under the FBA model, Amazon sellers store their products in one of Amazon's dozens of fulfillment centers across the United States, which then pick, pack and ship products to customers, as well as provide customer service, including product returns.

Amazon FBA has become so popular that it has actually restricted new merchants from sending inventory to fulfillment centers during this year’s fourth quarter because of capacity concerns leading up to this year’s holiday season.

With every new business model that touches the U.S. market, there are a number of important tax issues that need be considered. The popularity of Amazon FBA has prompted both Amazon and its overseas merchants to try to fit the FBA model within the framework of the federal and state tax rules and regulations. The following are certain key U.S. federal and state tax considerations facing international merchants using Amazon’s FBA to sell products to U.S. customers.

Amazon FBA and State Taxation

From a state tax perspective, Amazon international sellers are potentially subject to two main methods of taxation – sales tax and income tax. The fundamental principle underlying a state’s right to tax transactions under both of these methods is “nexus,” which generally means the connection a taxpayer has to a particular state.

Just as state tax rates are determined on a state-by-state basis, so are the parameters of nexus. Some states focus on so-called “physical presence” (e.g., employees or property within the state), while others focus on so-called “economic presence” (e.g., a significant amount of sales within the state) or other factor methodologies. A layer of complexity is added by the fact that nexus is often defined differently for sales and income tax purposes. As a very general rule of thumb, states require a greater connection for income tax nexus than for sales tax nexus.

Sales Taxation

Most states generally take the position that third-party fulfillment centers do create sales tax nexus. As such, if a state has an Amazon FBA warehouse (more than two dozen states currently do), and your products are stored in such a warehouse, you’ll most likely be viewed as having nexus in that state and you’ll be required to register for a sales tax permit and collect and remit sales tax on sales to that state’s customers. Notable exceptions include Virginia and New York, which have specifically ruled that fulfillment centers do not create sales tax nexus in their respective states.

Managing sales tax obligations across many states can be challenging for international FBA sellers. To the taxpayer’s detriment, Amazon is known to be quite elusive about where it has fulfillment centers and where your particular product is stored at any one time. To Amazon’s credit, however, it does provide its online sellers with access to service providers and software that offer solutions that make sales tax compliance more manageable.

Income Taxation

In recent years, states have become increasingly aggressive in trying to impose taxes on online sellers. Some states, for instance, have reframed their method of taxation from an income tax into a broader “gross receipts tax” for the purpose of capturing more taxpayers within their nexus net. These states argue that while they are constitutionally restricted from imposing income taxes on businesses whose only contact with the state is soliciting sales (under a law known as P.L. 86-272), they are technically not so restricted with respect to non-income-based taxation.

In a similar vein, in the international context, some have argued that constitutional protections against income taxation with respect to limited activities are meant to apply only in the context of interstate transactions and not in the case of international transactions.

In the case of third-party fulfillment centers, Bloomberg BNA’s recently published Multistate State Tax Report for 2015 is instructive. In the report, senior state tax officials were surveyed on a variety of gray areas of state income and sales taxation, including the issue of third-party fulfillment services. While the survey rightfully disclaims that the responses should not be viewed as official state positions, they can be seen as giving a good indication as to each state’s general approach to the issues discussed.

In the survey, state officials were asked specifically whether “unrelated third parties located in your state provid[ing] fulfillment services (i.e., fill product orders from corporate-owned inventory)” was a nexus-creating activity. Most state officials answered “yes,” and only a small minority (Oklahoma, Rhode Island and Vermont) answered “no.” The answers provided by the officials on this and other issues are indicative of the overall aggressive approach by most states in this and other controversial areas of state income taxation.

In the case of Amazon FBA, unfortunately, Amazon seems to provide little direction for its online sellers regarding issues of state and local income taxation, and instead, caveats on its website that state and local income taxation obligations are solely the responsibility of the independent sellers.

Due to the complexities and uncertainties surrounding the state income tax implications of utilizing Amazon FBA, international sellers are often left with a difficult choice between taking a more conservative, but costly, approach that generally assumes nexus creation or a more aggressive, but risky, approach that generally assumes a lack of nexus under the Amazon FBA business model. Clear and official guidance by state taxing authorities would certainly be of significant help to today’s many uncertain taxpayers situated in the U.S. and abroad.

Amazon FBA and Federal Taxation

Similar to state taxes, the extent to which the U.S. government can impose federal taxes on an international merchant depends greatly on the level of connectedness that the seller has to the U.S. Whereas “nexus” is the key principle in this regard in the area of state taxation, federal tax is triggered if the activities of a foreign seller in the U.S. rise to the level of a “U.S. trade or business” or “USTOB,” and the seller’s income is effectively connected to such U.S. trade or business.

In the case that a foreign seller is resident in a country that has an income tax treaty with the U.S. (which generally trumps U.S. domestic law), a foreign seller’s U.S. business profits may be exempt from U.S. taxation so long as they are not attributable to a “permanent establishment” or “PE” in the U.S. The PE threshold is generally considered to be more taxpayer friendly than the USTOB threshold.

The parameters of USTOB and PE have been the subject of decades of litigation in U.S. courts, which has at least led to the development of some judicial precedent in this area. More recently, in the international arena, the PE concept has been the main focus area of the recent so-called Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) project of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), with a special emphasis on today’s digital economy.

At the risk of delving too deeply into a technical analysis, suffice it to say the Amazon FBA model may present USTOB or PE risks depending on the particular terms of an agreement between Amazon and the international seller. As a rule of thumb, the more an agreement represents an agency relationship, the greater the risk generally becomes.

Currently, Amazon requires foreign online sellers to simply provide a Form W-8BEN to demonstrate their non-U.S. tax residency and avoid U.S. federal withholding tax. Interestingly, the Form W-8BEN is appropriate in cases where the foreign payee does not have income effectively connected with a USTOB. Amazon is careful, however, to include in its Amazon FBA agreements a tax indemnity clause stating that the seller acknowledges that storing products in its fulfillment centers may create tax nexus in any country, state, province or other locality in which the seller’s products are stored. It also says that it is the seller’s responsibility to fulfill any resulting tax obligations.

As with state income tax, the tax characterization of the Amazon-to-seller relationship can have significant federal tax implications from both a substantive and reporting perspective. In an uncertain tax world, an international seller’s tax risk appetite will often be the guide to its ultimate approach.

(SOURCE)

Amazon FBA - Moving Forward With Nothing But Success

- Amazon FBA is going to change, but as long as you keep your head up, adjust to Amazon's ever-changing rules, and never stop replenishing your inventory, then you will be a success. 

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Tools For Amazon Sellers Ready To Scale

Tools For Amazon Sellers Ready To Scale

Doctors need stethoscopes, carpenters need hammers and startup founders need pretty, overpriced MacBooks. The best practitioners in any trade, from plumbing to brain surgery, make sure they have the tools they need to succeed. Amazon provides some great free tools for new sellers … but that’s not enough to make it in the big leagues.

That’s why there are literally thousands of tools for Amazon sellers, spread across dozens of categories. Finding the right areas to focus on, let alone the right tools, can seem impossible, with solutions available for, for instance, (deep breath) inventory scouting, listing optimization, UPC barcoding, review sourcing, FBA Prep, inventory and order management, warehousing, multi-channel selling, returns and reverse logistics management, tax, accounting, customer management, and marketing.

What types of tools do private label sellers really need? Well, we’ve rounded up some recommendations on core categories for the rapidly growing seller.

Product Research

Amazon sells over 200 million products. So what’s one more? Product research tools leverage science to find the perfect product when you are looking to branch out, cutting through a plenitude of possibilities, bearing in mind customer demand, competition and margin opportunity.

Of the many tools to choose from, Jungle Scout has some big supporters, like Steve Chou of MyWifeQuitHerJob.com. Their spin? Huge databases of Amazon products, together with anticipated monthly sales, seller rank and more, all exportable to CSV for even more data crunching. Together with tools for coming up with new products and competition monitoring, it’s easy to see why they’re ahead of the crowd.

Also highly recommended is Amasuite 4, that uses powerful filtering to trawl through Amazon product sub-categories. As a bonus, it also helps find both reviewers and product reviews, to improve product rankings.

Product Sourcing

Found the perfect niche and now looking to source international? Most Amazon FBA sellers use Alibaba to connect with agents, suppliers and manufacturers, and probably also use Aliexpress for sourcing products. Aliexpress should be used as a stepping stone to try out a new product, making a small order to test the market.

But another great option (in superior English) is Global Sources, who juggle hosting huge sourcing trade shows in Hong Kong for specific categories (fashion, electronics, home goods) , and running a large-scale website for online sourcing. Depending on the product, it may make more sense to try sourcing in India, in which case TradeIndia should do the trick.

International Freight and Shipping

One of the biggest obstacles to finding new sources is having to work out how to get the goods from overseas ready for sales fulfilment in America. This scares away many sellers … but as the British SAS say, “who dares, wins”.

Freight companies can be backwards so it can take days to get quotes from forwarders, making it hard to compare prices. Our company Freightos launched an online freight marketplace to help you compare and book air and ocean quotes from multiple freight providers. Additionally, we recently released a freight calculator for Amazon FBA sellers in order to get freight estimates from anywhere in the world directly to FBA warehouses.

When it comes to sales fulfilment, the UPS Savings Program for Amazon Sellers is a great program. For the Amazon seller that’s graduated beyond, there are literally hundreds of trucking carriers to choose from, and their rates can vary dramatically. Finding the best fit, and negotiating a discount for bulk shipping, could mean a lot of research. Shippo is a highly recommended shipping platform (API and app) that connects with leading freight forwarders at discounted parcel rates and bulk discounts. It is clearly a winning proposition, and the company has recently raised $7 million to further its goal of becoming “Twilio for shipping”.

Presentation

This is probably more applicable for arbitrage sellers, who regularly need images. Expanding businesses lose the time that’s needed to get images to up to Amazon’s requirements. Fortunately there are many cheap speedy services to that can help out. Upgraded Images is a highly recommended service. They know what Amazon is looking for in their product images, and provide high quality images at a reasonable price.

Those on a budget, should check out Upwork, to connect with photographers. Similarly, those on a tight budget, looking for artwork for packaging or promotional activity, should check out Fiverr to connect with freelance graphic artists. One tip though – Fiverr sellers tend to nickle and dime on licensing images, while some have a propensity to copy material from other designers. Buyer beware.

Competitive Analysis

What seller doesn’t want to know where their competitor is sourcing from? Perhaps the competitor’s edge comes from better sourcing. Sellers branching out to a new product can save themselves the cost of a trip to China to vet suppliers if they knew where their new competitor’s product source.

It is actually possible, but cumbersome, to access public import records for free, by using the US Customs Import Data tool. Fortunately there are a stack of companies that republish or repackage this information. Two that are highly recommended are Panjiva and Import Genius. Panjiva users can very quickly find and evaluate legitimate businesses and spot trends. Import Genius users quickly evaluate suppliers, find sales prospects and monitor competitors. Import Genius even keeps its users up with the play, sending product-relevant email alerts.

Pricing

Camelcamelcamel has to be the most recommended pricing tool in this category. It returns the price of most Amazon listings, shows how that price has changed, and shows the extent to which price movements have been influenced by Amazon Retail or by Amazon sellers. It also provides best seller rankings. What’s more, even users on a free account can sign up for email alerts (for when the price drops below a certain amount). But if you’re looking for automated pricing management with algorithmic bidding, look into options like Appeagle or Feedvisor – both highly recommended services for intelligent algo-pricing.

Amazon has opened up a world of opportunity for entrepreneurs. For astute sellers, tools like these expand those opportunities even further. No knight goes to battle without a sword; no seller should battle without the right outsourced services, plug ins and SaaS platforms.

(SOURCE)

Amazon UK Training: How to List inventory on Amazon UK FBA Tutorial

- Watch this step by step tutorial video on how to list inventory on Amazon UK

5 Critical Amazon Mistakes: What They

5 Critical Amazon Mistakes: What They 

Are and How to Avoid Them

By 888Lots

Is it possible to get ahead in a giant retail center that is Amazon? Many novice sellers think that it takes years to build up their Amazon profile and start generating bigger bucks. Here’s the good scoop: you don’t have to wait for years to make good money through Amazon!

Both new and veteran sellers alike can get ahead of the curve if they know what selling practices compromise their business and how to avoid these practices.

Here are the top 5 critical mistakes Amazon users make and how you can avoid them:

Mistake #1: Not Providing Enough Photos

A picture illustrates a thousand words, and it also boosts your chances of making a sale. Consumers today prefer fast and easy information. An average customer will most likely skip paragraphs of product description, and would rather browse through a photo gallery of an item they want to buy.

How You Can Avoid This Mistake:

Provide sufficient and good-quality photos of your products. It is also wise to post pictures of the item from different angles. Your prospective buyers will decide faster if they have seen the item from different perspectives.

Providing a short but relevant caption for each photo is also helpful. Customers will no longer need to research or message you if you have already provided details of the product.

Posting clear photos also prove that you are a trustworthy seller with quality merchandise.

Mistake #2: Complicated Buying Process

Although the shopping process in Amazon is straightforward, you would be surprised that some merchants still have a way of complicating it. A difficult buying process may include vague product descriptions, low-quality photos, and posting the product in the wrong category.

If customers get confused about what they are getting, chances are they will just skip your page and look elsewhere.

How You Can Avoid This Mistake:

Put yourself in the customer’s shoes. What information would you like to see on your page? What will make the buying process most convenient for you?

It is also smart to take a look at what your competitors do to make the shopping process work to their advantage. Test out the process if it will work for you as a merchant and your prospective buyers.

Mistake #3: Poor Customer Service

Do not make the mistake of thinking that you no longer have to entertain customers just because your products are posted on Amazon. Some sellers think that Amazon’s credibility as a marketplace will already cover their business. As a result, they no longer feel the urgency of replying to customer inquiries or responding to bad reviews.

Amazon gives sellers 24 hours to reply to customer inquiries. Failure to do so may result in account suspension.

How You Can Avoid This Mistake:

Reply to customers as soon as you read their questions. Putting off this task will only make the questions pile up.

There are tools to help you manage inquiries such as ReplyManager.Aside from helping you receive and send messages, this tool also helps you organize your messages based on urgency following Amazon guidelines.

Mistake #4: Failure to Utilize Social Media

Facebook and Twitter make millions from companies who advertise on their networks. These social media giants customize the news feed of users according to their online activities. That is why business owners who fail to use social media to their advantage are missing out on reaching their target market.

Buyers are more likely to buy from merchants with active social profiles and skip over the ones who don’t.

How You Can Avoid This Mistake:

Create a Facebook page or Twitter profile for your business. You can link your Amazon page here and advertise for free. Share engaging posts and make sure to respond to comments and messages.

Users are also likely to visit your Amazon page if they see activity on your social accounts. This proves your credibility as a seller and extends your audience in the social platform.

Mistake #5: Bad Writing

Wrong grammar, spelling mistakes, and punctuation errors – these are red flags to look out for if you are a customer.

Shabby descriptions or insufficient content gives an impression that the owner does not care enough to give prospective buyers a good customer experience.

How You Can Avoid This Mistake:

Be concise in describing your products, but don’t make customers feel like they are missing out. Invest on relevant content that is easy on the eyes.

Another option would be to hire virtual assistants. They can take on all these tasks as well as provide customer service, refund management and other daily Amazon selling tasks. Now that you know the critical mistakes to avoid in Amazon, what business improvements are you making today?

(SOURCE)

Suspended from Amazon? Here’s How to Reactivate Your Account

Amazon is one of the largest and most popular online marketplaces in the world today. With more and more vendors taking their business to this shopping hub, competition has definitely become a lot tougher. As a result, Amazon has established certain rules to uphold its credibility. One of these is to suspend vendors who do not meet the company’s standards. If your selling privileges have been suspended by Amazon, take heart because there is a solution to get your account back on track.

Why does Amazon suspend accounts?

Before mapping out the different ways to lift your account suspension, it is important to know why your selling privileges were revoked in the first place. Understanding why Amazon blocked your account will not only help you figure out the best resolution, it will also save you from getting into the same fiasco in the future.

Take a look at these different scenes which could warrant account suspension on Amazon:

When you get poor seller performance rating:

Amazon thrives because its customers believe in its authority as a marketplace. No wonder Amazon suspends vendors who threaten its image as a reliable company. When sellers get a high volume of negative reviews, Amazon is on high alert to monitor the seller and eventually suspend their account should things get worse.

Here are the most common reasons why sellers fail to keep up with Amazon’s selling metrics:

• Frequent order cancellation
• Late shipping
• Negative customer reviews

It is important to keep an eye on these metrics and to make sure that you at least hit the minimum target set by Amazon:

• Less than 2.5% for the cancellation rate
• Less than 4% for delayed shipment
• Less than 1% for defects in goods

When you sell restricted products:

Amazon has outlined the different kinds of products and brands which are banned from the website. Sellers would do well to check out these items on Amazon’s Restricted Products section.

When you sell fake items:

Counterfeit products are a blow to Amazon’s image as a trustworthy marketplace. From DVDs to beauty products, electronic devices to shoes, Amazon takes pride in selling original products only.

When you have two accounts:

Duplicate accounts are not tolerated in Amazon. The company also does not allow users to create a new account when their original one has been suspended. It uses an algorithm that detects this particular activity which in turn shuts down the secondary account.

Now that you know the possible causes of suspension, it’s time to take a look at the steps to get your account up and running again.

Here are the steps on how to reactivate your Amazon account:

1. Find out the reason for your suspension.

Know the root of the problem so you can get to the right solution. Read the suspension notice sent by Amazon to determine what went wrong.

2. Generate an Action Plan

Let Amazon know that you are a reliable vendor. Your action plan should outline the following:

• Clear and practical steps on how you will address the issue.
• A strategic plan which shows how you will prevent this from happening in the future.
• A list of positive attributes which show how you are an important contributor to the Amazon marketplace.

3. Appeal to Amazon

Send a petition to Amazon to have your account reinstated. You can do this by following these steps:

1. Go to the Seller Central portion of your account.
2. Navigate the Performance tab and choose Performance Notifications from the dropdown.
3. Locate the Suspension Notice and click on Appeal.
4. Fill out the Appeal form by stating your plans of action.

Bonus Tip:

Amazon receives many requests for account reinstatement but you can make yours stand out through these tactics:

• Make sure you mention the reason for suspension. This lets Amazon know that you understand the issue at hand and you take responsibility for it.
• List down the strong selling processes you have in place. This will lay down a solid framework in your image as a vendor.
• Be straightforward when outlining your plans on how to provide Amazon customers a better shopping experience in the future.
• Be firm and professional, but keep a positive tone.
• Hire a virtual assistant to help you keep track of your emails, page content, and social media profiles. The good news is there are many credible companies where you can get virtual assistance so you need not worry about Amazon suspension pertaining to customer service issues.

Getting suspended from Amazon may be tough, but as a good entrepreneur, you should take this in stride to improve your business. Does your business have what it takes to get back in the game when it hits this block?

(SOURCE)