Why I'm thankful to be an amazon FBA Private Label Seller

- Watch this interesting video on why Mark Scott Adams is thankful he's an Amazon seller. Are you thankful you're a seller? 

New Amazon ‘Simplify Global Selling’ pilot to remove VAT obstacles

Amazon are piloting a new Simplify Global Selling programme to make it as easy to sell to overseas customers as it is to sell to those in the UK.

Amazon know that global selling can be complex for sellers. They try to make it easy for retailers to list on more Amazon sites with offers to translate listings and through the Fulfilment by Amazon (FBA) programme with their European Fulfilment Network, Pan-European FBA, and Multi-Country Inventory offers. What Amazon can’t help with under these existing programmes are the legal complexities and cost of VAT registrations in multiple countries.

Now to simplify global selling and to remove the VAT obstacles, Amazon have created a new FBA pilot programme. To help win you international sales without any of the complexity of international transactions Amazon simply list your stock overseas and then Amazon themselves buy it from you to resell to the end consumer once they have a confirmed sale.

Amazon describe the process saying “In this programme, Amazon may list your products outside Amazon.co.uk on our European websites. When we get a sale from a customer on these websites, Amazon will purchase your product at your local offer price and sell it to this customer. There are no additional fees for the pilot programme, and you will be paid like any other domestic sales transaction. Moreover, Amazon will manage all cross-border VAT requirements – you will only have your existing VAT obligations in UK, not in the foreign countries“.

If Amazon purchases your inventory, your experience will be nearly identical to a domestic FBA sale. There are no additional fees to be part of the programme, Amazon simply purchases the product from you at the price you listed it at. This program has no impact on your sales to other domestic or out-of-country customers.

The only change to your experience will be related to invoicing but you don’t even have to raise an invoice. Amazon will self bill themselves and at the end of every month will email you the self billed VAT invoices that they generate on your behalf. Your only liability is to ensure that your billing details are bang up to date and of course to file your VAT and other tax returns as normal to include Amazon’s self billed invoice.

Put very simply, if you agree to opt in to Amazon’s ‘Simplify Global Selling’ pilot programme, you list on Amazon.co.uk and Amazon re-list your products on other sites around the world (currently within the EU). If they get a sale they buy a product from you on Amazon.co.uk, issue themselves an invoice from you and pay you for the product at the price you said you wanted for it. You’re liable for UK VAT and Amazon deal with all international VAT, taxes and shipping.

If at any point you decide that don’t wish to be part of the programme you can opt out at any time. Sadly, as it’s a pilot you’ll have to wait for an invitation to opt in.

(SOURCE)

Fulfillment by Amazon hooks more marketplace sellers

BY FAREEHA ALI

The percentage of sellers using FBA for sales on other sites is decreasing, however, according to ChannelAdvisor data.

More of Amazon.com Inc.’s marketplace sellers are using Amazon’s fulfillment services, in part because of Amazon Prime’s popularity.

In September, 40.6% of the value of goods sold on Amazon’s marketplace by ChannelAdvisor Corp. clients was handled through Fulfillment by Amazon, up from 33.7% in September 2015. ChannelAdvisor produces monthly reports that compare merchant clients’ sales through online marketplaces and marketing channels, including Amazon, eBay Inc. and Google Shopping.

Amazon Prime, the $99 annual subscription service that provides customers with free two-day shipping and such perks as streaming video and music, is pushing more sellers on Amazon’s marketplace to use Fulfillment by Amazon. With Fulfillment by Amazon, merchants ship their goods to one or more Amazon warehouse and pay Amazon to store them. Amazon then picks, packs and ships those goods when consumers purchase them from the sellers. When marketplace merchants use Fulfillment by Amazon, their products become eligible for Prime shipping.

“Our data indicates that more retailers are adopting Fulfillment by Amazon for shipping and handling and to stay in front of the Prime consumer,” executive chairman Scot Wingo said in March. “If you’re not using FBA, you’re likely losing share.”

Separately, Amazon this week began restricting shipments from new-to-FBA sellers, saying if a new FBA seller had not completed its first shipment before Oct. 10, it would have to wait until Dec. 19 to do so. The e-retailer said it wanted to "have the capacity necessary to receive and store inventory and to ship products to customers quickly." The service suspension period covers the busiest parts of the holiday shopping season.

Amazon, No. 1 in the Internet Retailer 2016 Top 500 Guide, allows marketplace sellers to use its fulfillment services for sales through other channels, such as a retailer’s own website and other marketplaces like those operated by eBay. ChannelAdvisor tracks whether the products fulfilled by Amazon were Amazon sales or sales on other sites, which the vendor calls “non-Amazon.” Of the gross merchandise value fulfilled by Amazon, 2.2% was not fulfilled for Amazon sales in September 2016, according to the report. That’s down from 3.0% in the same period a year ago.

“We are hearing from some customers that Amazon is discussing sun-setting this option,” Wingo wrote in a blog post. Amazon has not announced plans to discontinue fulfillment services for sales on other websites.

Same-store sales for ChannelAdvisor’s clients through Amazon.com increased 11.6% year over year in September, up from August’s 10.5% and July’s 6.4% growth rates.

Sales through eBay were up 4.0% in September compared with the same period a year ago. Auction sales declined 30.1% year over year and sales of fixed-price goods increased 2.0% in September. EBay Motors, which includes purchases of auto parts and accessories, increased 12.6% from the year-ago period.

Sales on marketplaces that aren’t Amazon or eBay, such as marketplaces operated by Wal-Mart and Sears Holdings Corp., increased 28.7% in September compared with the same month a year ago. The growth of Wal-Mart’s marketplace and Jet.com is likely contributing to the big jump.

Sales though Google Shopping and Product Listing Ads increased 51.7% year over year in September. Conversion rates on Product Listing Ads declined to 2.02% in September 2016 from 2.49% in September 2015. Average order value increased 2.7% to $119.27 in September 2016 from $116.18 a year ago.

(SOURCE)

CAN I SELL ON AMAZON WITHOUT RUINING MY EXISTING BUSINESS?

If you don't understand the details of your business you are going to fail. -Jeff Bezos

Recall the latest “Doomsday” scenarios hyped up in every media outlet along the lines of Y2K, Swine Flu, or Africanized Killer Bees. The fallacy ignored, likely for the sake of ratings or eyeballs, in all of these situations was that they were all or nothing scenarios. The idea that because these things could be an issue that then inevitably meant that they would be world shattering events.

Although not as threatening as robots taking over the world or a worldwide pandemic, many brand owners and retailers view Amazon as such a threat. Its size and perceived complexity creates a looming atmosphere of gloom and worry. This perceived threat to the success of their business is really a set of three completely different issues.

The first issue is the most obvious: Amazon, the competitor, eats away at the customer base of the retailer by offering a different combination of value along with the same products. Similarly, for the brand owner, Amazon sheer size and ubiquity throws a wrench in the best laid plans and distribution system that may have been decades in the making. However, these worries are easily debunked for those willing to “play the Amazon game.”

At its core, Amazon is primarily a marketplace--like a mall, it is a place people go to shop. Bringing the mall comparison forward, the “Amazon Mall” has the added feature of the anchor stores being owned and operated by the mall owner itself and often selling the same products as other independent stores in the mall. With these prime locations the mall is both an independent mall store’s landlord and competitor. This puts the other mall stores at a disadvantage, especially those selling like items to the anchor stores. Unfortunately, this is where many retailers and brand owners give up. They see themselves as one of those independent mall stores that have significant disadvantages in this set up and therefore decide to leave the mall, or in other words, rebuff Amazon entirely.

However, the correct way for the retailer and brand owner to view this scenario is to turn it toward their advantage. Except in the rarest of items, Amazon does not have its own products. In order for Amazon, owner of those anchor stores in our example, to sell they must source products to offer from somewhere. These items are still rarely sourced directly from the manufacturer and almost never offered on Amazon by only the manufacturer. Therefore, by joining with Amazon and supplying them the products the brand owner or retailer already offers they turn the inherent advantage Amazon has to their advantage. Clearly, the suppliers to those mall owned anchor stores are not complaining about the marked advantage their products are given by being in those stores. They have joined the “winning” team and reap the rewards. How to do this is forthcoming, but there are a variety of ways to turn Amazon from a competitor to a savior.

Of course, after realizing that adding Amazon may be a boon as a new channel instead of a competitor, the second major reason for reluctance to get on board appears: what will selling on Amazon do to my existing distribution network and/or brand? For many mid-market companies their distribution network or brand is the key driver of value for their whole business. Making Amazon part of their business has an unknown effect on how their current customers will react and this concern is often enough to cause otherwise enthusiastic business owners to freeze.

However, like with the seemingly disastrous situations in the past that begun this chapter, many people do not take the time to realize that Amazon is a not an all-or-nothing proposition. For example, a retailer or brand owner can decide to offer just one or a handful of products to be sold on Amazon. This method of dipping in their toes allows a company to familiarize themselves with the experience of selling on Amazon and prove that it is the right fit for their company without putting in a bunch of administrative work or processes ahead of time. If things work out and it creates additional sales with minimal disruption to their existing customers then the business can continue adding incrementally to their offering. If they decide that the amount of sales does not warranty the backlash from their distribution network they can easily scale back down or exit Amazon. Since many products were unaffected with the Amazon affair it will be minimally disruptive to the business in general and result in no lasting harm.

To a similar degree, many companies concoct alternate product bundles or private label versions of their items to eliminate direct competition with their current sales channels. This method allows companies desiring to jump all-in into Amazon a way to do that without directly impacting their current customer base. As a bonus, these Amazon-only packages or products have the secondary benefit of allowing the seller to confirm that Amazon is driving new sales and not simply cannibalizing sales that would have occurred elsewhere.

There are many ways to incorporate Amazon into a business. It just needs to be done purposely and creatively. A business needs to decide what their major concerns are and then combat those issues by molding their Amazon strategy to fit those objectives. It may take a little investigation, joining a forum or hiring a consultant, but fairly quickly many companies can determine a strategy that is all reward, no risk.

Of course, in addition to the perceived risk to one’s market, the additional concern for many businesses, especially smaller ones, is how to handle any new administrative duties. Expedited shipping, feedback, ratings, optimization, and sponsored search are often new frontiers for retailers or brand owners. These are all legitimate and demand a new Amazon seller’s attention, but wonderfully there are many solutions to these problems. Outsourcing these activities that are highly unlikely to be a strength for new Amazon sellers is not only affordable, but effective. In the same way Amazon let’s you outsource the promotion and customer acquisition of your products, these service let you outsource the activities that are specific to the Amazon marketplace.

No one knows the business better than the business itself. Joining the Goliath that is Amazon can be intimidating, but by sculpting how one enters the Amazon marketplace in a way that fits its goals and company structure it can be done with limited risk. Once the business is up and running then many programs can be used to simplify the selling process. With these strategies and services available to limit downside risk there is plenty of upside to cause many businesses to join one of the largest markets in the world.

Amazon Selling - If You Can't Beat Them, Join Them is a book authored by Andrew Tjernlund which will be released as a series of blog posts on AMZHelp.com. If you have any questions about our services or wish to sign up, please reach out.

(SOURCE)

FBA Paused For Some New Amazon Sellers

By Jim Cockrum

The below graphic is far scarier than reality. In the worst case scenario this MIGHT effect 1% of our community- and that 1% has numerous options to plow forward IF this restriction is put on them.

If you’ve sent in an FBA shipment to Amazon in the past, this article DOES NOT apply to you.

This temporary “pause” of FBA services is reported to have been applied only to SOME new sellers & is seemingly only being applied randomly at that. Only SOME new sellers on Amazon attempting to use U.S. based FBA warehouses for the FIRST TIME ever have been effected so far – and there’s even reports that the warning was put up and then pulled back down again for nearly all sellers!

How can you know if you are effected by this temporary limitation or if you soon will be?

When attempting to send in an FBA shipment (if you never have before), you could encounter a block on that option that looks something like the below graphic.

IMPORTANT TO NOTE:

Even if this happens to you, you CAN still sell on Amazon! Anyone can!

What are your options to sell on Amazon if you are brand new and seem to be blocked temporarily (until mid Dec) from shipping to FBA?

You have PLENTY of great options. Here are some things to keep in mind:

1. You can still sell via “merchant fulfill” – this means when something sells you ship it to a customer.
2. You can partner with someone near you or from our community who is FBA approved. Use our “world map” located here: mysilentteam.com/worldmap.html to find someone near you and negotiate a possible temporary arrangement where they sell in their own account, or sell via merchant fulfill in your own account. This is one great option for those who live outside the U.S.!
3. Consider eBay as well as Amazon (we should all be doing that anyway!)
4. Sell your great finds in bulk to someone else and wait for the FBA doors to be open again.
5. Buy a used but inactive Amazon account from someone (I don’t know if this is allowed or not, but some simple research will tell you)
6. Work with a prep center that provides pack-n-ship fulfillment for you. It works basically the same as Amazon FBA. Here’s a list of our prep centers: Fulfillment Companies
7. Spend more time on PPI, PPP or other courses in the ProvenAmazonCourse.comcourse that offer you incredible alternate opportunities and DON’T rely on your FBA eligibility for the next 2 months.
8. We are only a short few weeks from it being virtually too late to ship anything in via FBA anyway for Q4. Many of the best profit opportunities WILL be “merchant fulfill” opportunities. With LONG warehouse delays expected, selling the product via an Amazon listing, and then shipping the product yourself (aka Merchant fulfill) saves you processing time, Amazon fees, and the potential for delayed inventory stranded in the Amazon processing system.
9. Selling via merchant fulfill is less risky than FBA this time of year ESPECIALLY for newbies b/c it allows you to acquire inventory (via retail arbitrage for example), keep the receipts, and if your items don’t sell – you return them after the holidays for a refund and you’ve lost none of our investment. If you send your inventory to FBA however, this is a far more expensive and complex strategy to “get out” of our inventory investment.
10. If you’ve been “kicking around” the idea of starting an online business at some point, this is the time to do it. I suggest you purchase the ProvenAmazonCourse.com course and get in while Amazon is still welcoming new sellers with open arms. This opportunity is in its infancy, and Amazon is growing rapidly. New restrictions on sellers could come in the future, so NOW is the time to act and be “grandfathered in” on any future changes. Having a diversified online strategy that includes Amazon is ideal if you are serious about the future of your online business!

If you see conversations pop up on this topic, please direct folks here for updates and even more options for the 1% of our audience who is effected by this. We are here for you!

Here’s a link to a very active discussion on Facebook on this same topic.http://jimc.biz/2dceoQp

(SOURCE)

- Are you affected by this new Amazon rule? Share your experience on the comments!

Want to Make 6 Figures From Your Amazon FBA Business? Here's How.

By Thomas Smale

If you want to grow your business to six figures, it must be scalable, regardless of the business model. The advantage of a Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) business is that you don’t have to warehouse products or handle the picking, packing and shipping. This is part of what makes an FBA business so attractive and, ultimately, scalable.

However, there are two major challenges. In order to get to six figures as an Amazon seller, first, you will have to put a lot of your financial resources into inventory. Second, you will need to sell large quantities of products.

Many business owners make it their goal to make six figures online, as that is a major milestone to hit. Here are some important steps to take as you look to reach a new level of growth in your business.

Crunch the numbers.

Let's assume you have a profitable business already. But if you’re looking to scale, you can’t ignore the numbers. Here are several tips to ensure you have a business worth growing:

• Use the FBA revenue calculator to establish the viability of your product(s) after all relevant fees and expenses. In particular, pay attention to the adjusted gross margin, which should be between 15 percent and 20 percent.
• Track all of your financials the moment you open for business. If you want to sell your business at some point, this information will prove critical to the selling process.
• Track your numbers using multiple methods so you can keep your finger on the pulse of the business and adjust your strategies as necessary.

Build a dedicated brand website.

You likely started your FBA business absent any intention of subjecting yourself to the technical minutiae of building a website. Steve Chou from MyWifeQuitHerJob.com tells of a student of his who shared that she'd had a six-figure success on Amazon but also plenty of frustration building a website with an open source shopping cart. She said she eventually found some solace with the Shopify platform.

Even if you’re not technically proficient, any long-term view of your business will convince you that building a website is a step worth taking. Here are four reasons why:

First, you don’t have access to customer data through Amazon. One way to gain access to this invaluable information is a tool like Seller Tools, which will help you track orders and customers. Seller Tools is a great solution, but there is nothing quite like building a website when it comes to capturing customer data.

Second, when you establish a website, you can build your brand, which creates another channel for sales, as well. This will also help you mitigate the risks of building your business on a third-party platform. Amazon of late has had a penchant for changing its terms.

Third, you can take advantage of the Amazon Associates affiliate program to earn affiliate commissions on related products and boost your revenue. By writing reviews on relevant offers and promoting them with a tool like BuzzBundle, you can even generate income on autopilot, assuming you’ve set it up correctly.

Fourth, you can build your email list, which will give you a way to communicate directly with your prospects and customers while collecting the data you need. Knowing your customers will help you find more people just like them to sell to. Don’t forget to set up a follow-up sequence to convert more prospects into customers.

Leverage paid advertising.

As we all know, SEO takes time. You don’t implement a 100-point checklist today and shoot to the top of Google or Amazon tomorrow. Paid advertising will not only help you build some immediate traction with your products, but also lower your customer acquisition cost.

The key to success with advertising is testing. You’ll need to play with your ad images and copy to determine the best way forward. Even if you think you know your customers and your business, you may be surprised to discover what works and what doesn’t.

Building your email list will also come in handy when you’re looking to optimize your advertising, as you’ll be able to create retargeting ads and lookalike audiences.

Grow slowly and sustainably.

Ryan Moran from Freedom Fast Lane has been successful in selling over six figures' worth on Amazon FBA with just two products.

What we can learn from this is that launching too many products too soon can actually be detrimental to your business. It’s not difficult to see why. When you have a lot of different products to sell, most of your money will be tied up in your inventory. In addition, too many products makes tracking the viability and sales of each product harder. This is a key piece to ensuring profitability, and can’t be ignored.

Moran also shares his two steps to scaling your Amazon business:

1. Rank higher for your keywords. This takes time. You will begin to rank higher with reviews and sales. Beware of gaming the system, as Amazon has been coming down harder on sellers that are buying or automating reviews.
2. Release more products. Moran suggests launching more products once you are satisfied with the results of the ones you already have. He notes that launching too many products too early is actually the downfall of many business owners.

Additionally, optimizing your best seller rank is essentially the same process. You need to outsell the competition and get positive reviews for your products. If you can’t seem to outrank the competition, you can always switch to another product offering.

Bottom line: Grow your offerings slowly and sustainably.

Final thoughts

The FBA business model is still relatively new. Slowly, but surely, however, new resources and tools are becoming available. There are now SaaS for Amazon FBA tools you can leverage to grow your business, and these make it easier for you to increase your search rank, track and measure your marketing and sales and ultimately succeed as an Amazon seller.

Scaling, like anything worthwhile, takes time, and it won’t happen overnight. It might be a matter of finding the right product niche. It might be a matter of sticking it out with a single offer until that offer starts converting at a satisfactory level.

Just remember not to take any shortcuts, as they are likely not within Amazon’s terms of use, and could get your business shut down before you reach that coveted six-figure milestone.

(SOURCE)

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5 Tips For Using A Sourcing List For Amazon FBA Sellers

By The Selling Family

There are a lot of services available (including our own) that will send you product finds that have been found online from various vendors.  The basic premise is that you pay to get access to an online sourcing virtual assistant, and share the cost with multiple members to bring down the per person cost.  Not only does your cost come down versus having a full time virtual assistant, you don’t have to worry about hiring, training or keeping track of your own team.

We have found benefits to both having your own online sourcing virtual assistant as well as using a group sourcing list.  

Today, we wanted to share some tips with you on how to best utilize a sourcing / finds list to the best of your ability.

1. Remember to do your own due diligence on any products that you consider purchasing.  One of the misconceptions of using a finds list, is that you should just purchase every item on the list without doing further research.  No matter how careful the list owner is, there are items that will slip through that are not good.  Sometimes items are considered hazmat by Amazon, but don’t raise any red flags to us that they would not be allowed FBA.  Other times, there are mistakes in the listings, be it the weight is off, the packaging has changed, or there are multiple listings.  One of the big benefits of our list is that we have 3 people checking every item before it makes it to your inbox.  Unfortunately, there are still things that slip by for one reason or another.  Ultimately, you are responsible for the items that you purchase, so you want to just use any of these services as a starting point.

2. Research the products history for rank and price.  This is a spin off of doing your own due diligence.  Before making any purchase online, be it from a list or from your own research, it is important to check out the history of that item on Amazon.  You can see a video of me doing this in our online sourcing course.  The two tools that I use to do this are Keepa and CamelCamelCamel.  I am looking for ranks that may only be low today, but that were way higher in days/weeks past.  Plus, any price increases that may be temporary.

3. Remember that no deal is ever exclusive.  One concern that I have seen many people have is that they see some of the same finds shared in multiple places.  When virtual assistants are browsing online, it is common for them to find some of the same items because they are looking at the same stores.  Or, they are specifically sourcing special sales or clearance events.  When we hear about a special event at an online store we will have the virtual assistants look at them.  The goal of the team is to save you time from looking at the sale yourself.  So, in the same way that you and other people may come across the same deal, this happens with virtual assistants as well.  This is why I always recommend going very wide with your online purchases.  That way if there are changes in the marketplace, you aren’t too deep on any one items.

4. Pay attention to any notes on your finds list.  With our service, we will make notations of any special coupon codes, limitations and/or product variations.  Sometimes you can only link to one page of a website, but there may be multiple options available.  So, it is important to make sure that you are checking the notes and comparing the Amazon page to the retail page to make certain you are getting the correct items.

5. Recalculate your profit with any extra fees that may be incurred.  There are fees that are different for every seller, so it is important to make sure that you calculate them into any products you are purchasing online.  With our service, we calculate the cost of the item shown on the site and any Amazon fees.  There would also be inbound shipping costs, any sales tax you may incur and any shipping charges if there was no free shipping available (or you didn’t meet the minimum purchase amount).

If you are not currently using a shared product finds list, it is a great way to add in more online sourcing to your Amazon FBA business.  We have used shared virtual assistants in many ways.  We’ve done paid lists shared with hundreds of members, paid lists shared with small amounts of members, paid private Facebook groups sharing finds, free Facebook groups sharing finds, cost sharing multiple assistants with a small group of sellers as well as just having our own private virtual assistants.  If you would like to check out our current shared virtual assistant program, you can see all the details here.

As we said in the beginning there are positives to any way of doing it.  You really just need to find a system that works for you and your business.  This looks different for everyone and that’s ok!  What works for you today, may change over time as your business transforms too.

If you have any comments about your experiences sharing virtual assistants or using product sourcing lists we would love to hear them!  Feel free to share below.  

(SOURCE)

- Hope these tips help!

How To Get Approved In Gated Categories On Amazon (Selling On Amazon 2016)

- Think you can't get into gated categories on Amazon? Watch this!

Why Amazon’s Automated Repricer Is Not The Answer

By Peter Valley

Amazon’s new “automated repricer”: The good, the bad, and everything FBA sellers need to know.

I’ve spared no words talking about what a mistake it is to turn over your Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) inventory to repricing software.

So when Amazon debuted it’s “automate repricing” feature this summer, I was excited. The primary gripe with third-party repricers is that they are probibited from “seeing” any FBA offer that’s priced outside the bottom 20. Which might be (partially) useful for toys and beauty items. But not books.

Books are unique in that there are more cheap used third party offers than any other category, which means most FBA offers are not in the bottom 20. That means you can’t reprice against most FBA offers. Which, for smart FBA sellers, is the whole point of pricing.

Yet a repricer created by Amazon would not be subject to the “lowest 20” limitation. With this new (and free) repricer, were we now living in repricing paradise? It only took me a few minutes of testing to have an answer…

First: The three reasons I was massively excited for Amazon’s repricer

1. With Fulfillment by Amazon, the money is in two things: Sourcing & Pricing. (Meaning a repricer that works = big revenue boost)
2. I was paying serious money to a virtual assistant to do my FBA repricing manually.
3. Then my virtual assistant quit. (That’s another story, but my FBA repricing ground to a halt and I was desperate for a solution).

Was this the FBA repricer we’d all been waiting for? When my VA repricer quit, I was finally motivated to put this reprcier to the test.

Here’s how Amazon’s repricer works

The idea is to create repricing “groups,” where different bundles of your inventory are repriced according to different criteria. (Basically how all repricing software works.)

There are two pages of options to set these options and create a group.

Here’s the first page:

The first set of options let’s you compare your price against one of two offers:

1. The Buy Box price.
2. The lowest price overall.

Once you set that, we move on to the “pricing action.” Basically, now that we told Amazon what offers to compare to, how do you want it to price your offer in relation to that?

Your options are:

1. Price below
2. Price match
3. Price above

Pretty straightforward.

Then you set whether you want the price set to be a dollar amount, or percentage. (I have a lot to say about this, but I’ll hold that until the end.)

Then you can tell Amazon what type of seller to compare your prices to.

1. “Only offers with same fulfillment method”
2. “Only offers from third party sellers”

Checking number one tells Amazon: “Only compare against FBA offers.”

Checking number two tells Amazon: “Ignore Amazon’s offer” (I guess).

(You can check both.)

And if you choose to compare against the lowest price overall (vs the Buy Box price), you get two additional options:

3. Only Sellers with a feedback rating within 5% of yours

4. Only offers with the same or better sub-condition

And that’s the extent of your pricing options. (Hopefully its glaringly apparent what’s missing here, but if not, I’ll explain in just a moment.)

But there’s one more page of this process: Choosing which books to put in each pricing group.

Page Two: Choose the SKUs to Reprice

First you enter the SKU, title, ISBN (or whatever) you want to add to the Pricing Group. This brings up results that include what you type in this field.

I assumed I could enter a partial SKU, and it would bring up every SKU that contained that text-string. But you must enter the whole SKU to return results – it will not let you enter a partial SKU.

Then you go down the list of results and set a minimum price and maximum price (floor and ceiling) for each. You must enter this info for each item in your inventory.

And for each book, you hit the “+” sign to add it to the pricing group and begin repricing.

And that’s it.

Ok, so what’s *great* about Amazon’s “Automate Repricing”?

The biggest breakthrough is that it lets you match the lowest FBA offer – no matter how much higher it is above the lowest merchant fulfilled offer. Remember: Every other repricer only lets you price against FBA offers if they’re priced in the bottom 20. So the ability to reprice against all FBA offers is huge.

(A lot of FBA sellers swear their 3rd party repricer can do the same. Look more closely – it can’t.)

In terms of significance, this is big. And it solves the biggest problem of all other repricers. So what’s the catch?

The Great False Hope: Here is every reason Amazon’s repricer is not the Holy Grail

It’s not the Holy Grail. Not even close. Here’s why:

1. You can only price in relation to the lowest FBA offer – not the 2nd or 3rd

For books ranked better than 1 million(ish), I’m probably matching the lowest FBA offer less than half the time.

More often, I’m ignoring the lowest (often outrageously lowball) FBA offer, and pricing above it. That offer will sell out, and mine will be next in line.

This is just smart FBA pricing. It yields an extra $1, $3, $10, or even $30 (and beyond) per book. Multiply by thousands of books, and pricing any other way is leaving a ton of money on the table.

The inability to price against higher-priced FBA offers is the single biggest reason I will never use Amazon’s repricer.

This blindspot alone is enough to make Amazon’s repricer totally worthless to FBA sellers. Yet there’s more…

2. Sales rank is not included as a pricing parameter

This is Pricing 101: You are pricing an FBA book offer ranked 2 million totally differently than a book ranked 10,000. These books aren’t even in the same category.

So any FBA repricer that doesn’t offer sales rank as a factor is functionally worthless for smart repricing.

And not only is sales rank not a pricing parameter, sales rank is strangely absent from being displayed on the “Add listings to your rule” page. So you can’t even make and sales rank based decisions one-by-one when adding SKUs to a pricing group.

Makes no sense.

3. You cannot enter a partial SKU and add to a pricing group

Example: I price my textbooks differently than all other books, and want a pricing group that reflects that pricing formula.

So for the purpose of manual repricing, I put the word “text” at the front of every textbook SKU.

It seems pretty basic that I’d want to enter the word “text” in Amazon’s repricer when adding SKUs to my pricing group, have it bring up every book with this word in the SKU, then add all of them to a pricing group in one swoop.

With Amazon’s repricer – this is not an option.

4. The “Percentage” and ” price above” option is worthless because it doesn’t factor in higher FBA prices

Some would say: “True, Amazon won’t let you price against 2nd or 3rd lowest FBA offers, but it does let you price above the lowest FBA offer, which is good enough.”

Saying this is “good enough” is like saying your archery methodology is “good enough” if you shoot your arrow with a blindfold on and just pay someone to yell at you when you’re aiming in the target’s general direction.

No.

Yes, Amazon gives you the option to set a dollar amount or percentage amount above the lowest FBA price. And you can set the options a couple other ways to avoid chasing lowball FBA sellers, and avoid a pricing race to the bottom.

None of this matters if you can’t see the 2nd or 3rd lowest FBA price. You will always want to price in relation to other FBA offers. So in the absence of this information, you’re essentially taking a shot in the dark and pricing blind.

Example:

Item: Book

Rank: 10,000

Amazon’s price: $50

Lowest MF: $3

Lowest FBA: $12

2nd lowest FBA: $14

3rd lowest FBA: $35

How am I pricing this? Probably $35. Maybe higher. But it will always be in relation to another FBA offer – and not the lowest one.

Amazon’s “automated pricing” gives us options such as pricing $10 above the lowest MF offer, or pricing 70% higher.

But why is that helpful if I can’t even see what the 2nd or 3rd lowest (or 4th or 5th) FBA offer is? Pricing a dollar or percentage amount above is 100% useless If I don’t know what other competing FBA offers are. You’re just pricing blind.

It’s a blindspot that means you’re losing money a majority of the time.

What would a dream Amazon repricer look like?

Really, really simple: The ability to price against lowest, 2nd lowest, 3rd lowest, or 4th lowest FBA offer (and possibly beyond); and set these pricing rules based on sales rank.

There would be other things I would add, but I would be more than happy with this. Very simple.

Bottom line

The only thing third party repricing software is good for is pricing your lowest demand items, in that sales rank strata where you’re not competing against FBA sellers – you’re competing against all offers.

If Amazon let us set pricing parameters based on sales rank, it would offer at least one advantage over 3rd party software (Ability to match lowest FBA offer + Buy Box offer + do both based on sales rank). But it doesn’t.

As it stands, for all the reasons I mention, Amazon’s new repricer is actuallyworse than third party software.

Its the same repricer-story: Too many blindspots, not enough options.

In conclusion: I know flamethrowers are expensive, but taking one to a pile of money will go a lot faster than letting Amazon’s “automated pricing” do it for you. So if you must destroy money, just go for the flamethrower.

-Peter Valley

PS: Want to defend Amazon’s repricer? Jump in the comments below. (But if you work for Amazon, I swear I’ll find out.)

PPS: There are two ways I would advise use Amazon’s repricer to increase your profits, which I’ll cover in my next article.

PPPS: Are you a UK seller? Last chance to get in on the ground floor of something big being announced next week. Go here and all will be revealed.

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- Great information on Amazon's repricer. Share your experience with it on the comments below!

Amazon Seller App Basic Tips For Use - Amazon FBA Fulfillment By Amazon ...

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Amazon Seller App that can help a new seller, or someone 

new to the Seller App.