Q4 Success Group For Amazon Sellers

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Weekend Amazon FBA Sourcing Tips - Business As Usual

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Things I Wish Someone Would Have Told Me In Regards To FBA

By Chris Wilkey

So I hopped on to the FBA Master Facebook group the other day and saw this post from one of our good friends Chris Anderson (If you click on it, you can see the whole thread and conversation):

After seeing this, I thought to myself

There are a few things like this that I wish someone would have told me when I started selling on Amazon.

And when you look at the majority of the blogs, books, and courses out there, you find that most people dance around these topics because they don’t want to give people bad advice (or something that is against the terms of service of Amazon).

So. Like Chris said above, this is most likely going to a controversial post.

All of the things you are going to read below are tactics I (or people close to me) have used in regards to Amazon FBA. Please use your own judgement when deciding to use any of these tactics for your own FBA business. I am in no way, shape, or form a tax, legal, sumo, or soccer professional.

1. Follow Chris Anderson’s advice and always overprice your items by 30% or more when sending them to an Amazon warehouse.

If you read through his post, you can see his logic. It’s better to be higher and move the prices down instead of being low and not having the chance to raise the price. If you use a repricer like Bqool, it’s a no brainer.

But there is another angle that needs to be taken into consideration and it is actually the reason I overprice my items all of the time. If you have your prices higher during the shipping process, you are hedging a bet that Amazon might actually lose your items. If that happens, sometimes they reimburse based upon a random policy they have. Other times they base it upon the current selling price. Other they base it upon your list price. Either way, it’s an easy and safe way to make a few extra bucks from Amazon if they happen to lose your item (and chose to reimburse on the list price). Take that with Chris Anderson’s reasoning and you should ALWAYS price 30% higher during the shipping process.

2. High sales numbers mean nothing.

Yeah. It’s cool to say you sold over $100k in products last month, but what does that actually mean?!?!

It means you sold a lot of stuff.

The real question will always be: What was your profit margin? 

If it’s 10%, well $100k in sales only made you $10,000. If you sold $20k at a 50% margin you would have made $10,000. See the difference?

Don’t be fooled by “experts” that post high sales numbers to prove they know what they are talking about. Some might actually have a clue, others might not. Use some common sense before you fall into a trap of “I need to sell X amount this month to be something.”

You don’t.

Now please don’t take the statement the wrong way. High sales numbers are great (and exciting especially as a seller). I just don’t want you to be bamboozled by numbers without context.

3. You don’t need all the fancy tools/training to be a great seller.

Sure you see us write about awesome software like OAXRay or Tactical Arbitrage. You see new books, courses, etc being released every day. Even though these are freaking sweet tools, you don’t actually need them to be a great seller.

You really only need two things:

1. Common Sense
2. Effort

That’s really it. But do realize the following:

You can start a fire with two sticks and a little muscle, but if you watch Naked and Afraid you realize that it is freaking hard. Technology (in the form of a lighter) saves time and makes your life easier.

You can be a great seller without all the cool tools, but you can be an even better seller if you use the tools you actually need (not just what everyone tells you that you need) and leverage the technology.

4. Sometimes it’s ok to play the system.

Yeah. This is going to be the one that people give me shit about. I’m literally sitting here saying it’s ok to game the system….sometimes.

Here me out before you jump to any radical conclusions.

How many times have you seen something like this?

Now some of you would respond to the customer and try to fix the issue even if you know that you would never send something like that into the Amazon warehouse.

If you are like me, I would look up the order number and notice that it has already been returned and the issue has been fixed. I would send the item back to me to examine it and then I would do this:

And I put down that the feedback was “about the product” and that was the reason for the review. And literally within seconds it was removed from my seller account.

So you can say that I worked the system a bit. The feedback could have been seen as feedback on the seller or the product. I decided to say the one that had the better chance of being removed.

Another example:

If you take a look at this post (about getting ungated in shoes, clothing, and luggage), you will notice that I have selected specific answers to get through the process. These answers may or may not be actually valid for your business, but it works the system to get the desired result.

So.

I have to say it like this: Never abuse the system, but in certain situations it is advantageous using it to your advantage. 

I could literally spend all day writing down little tips, tricks, and hacks that I wish I would have known, but it’s time to get back to work.

Peace,

CW

(SOURCE)

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Do You Qualify To Sell Toys & Games On Amazon During Q4? Read This To Find Out

By Selling Family

Have you received an email from Amazon alerting you to the fact that you MAY or MAY NOT meet the criteria to sell toys on Amazon this Q4? Amazon starts sending this email out to all registered sellers starting in August, and they continue to sell it through the year.

It is a pretty scary read for many sellers, and we often get inundated with panicked sellers in our Facebook Community that are wondering if they will qualify to sell toys or not in the fourth quarter (q4) on Amazon.  I mean, imagine selling in Q4 and NOT being able to sell TOYS.  

The email is intended for sellers who are considering Merchant Fulfilling in Q4 (a strategy that we DO implement in Q4), whether they’ll do so for everything or whether they’ll do it alongside FBA. So if this is something you’re considering, listen up!

Amazon points out that eligibility for selling Toys & Games is determined separately for each country and that if you sell in multiple marketplaces, your accounts will be evaluated for each country.

We do both FBA and Merchant Fulfilling, using Merchant Fulfill mainly to sell items as late in the season as possible (in December, particularly, when it’s too late to ship items into an Amazon warehouse but while sales are still high).

Things get over-the-top crazy and hectic in Q4, particularly from about mid-November on. And Amazon wants to make sure that those who want to Merchant Fulfill Toys - by far the most popular category - have a track record of being a great amazon seller.

This makes sense. Amazon doesn’t want to entrust order fulfillment at the busiest time of year to a flood of sellers who have never successfully sold on its platform.

Imagine the damage to Amazon’s reputation if there were a significant number of products being delivered that were of questionable quality or with damaged packaging - or worse yet, not arriving in time - to stressed-out customers who are trying to find that perfect gift with only days left to do so.

Customers wouldn’t remember the third-party seller who shipped the item. They would only remember that it came from Amazon.

What You Need To Know In Order To Sell Toys On Amazon In Q4

Understandably, Amazon wants to perform its best when the stakes are highest. So they created some requirements for those who want to play the Q4 game.

However, the email usually results in some confusion among new FBA sellers (actually all FBA sellers) who are not sure whether they’ll be able to sell toys.

Here’s a key takeaway: If you sell FBA and only FBA, you can ignore the email entirely. You’ll be able to sell Toys without a problem, whether you’ve sold your first item yet or not.  Because these guidelines are set in place for Merchant Fulfilling Sellers.

Because Amazon handles fulfillment, it knows the items will have been inspected when they arrived at the warehouse, will be prepped and packaged to its specifications, and will be delivered on time.

If you do want to Merchant Fulfill at all during the Fourth Quarter, then the email is for you.  But don’t worry, it still isn’t as complicated as it may seem.

If you haven’t sold anything on Amazon yet, you still have time to qualify to merchant fulfill toys, though you will need to act soon. If you’re still wondering how to get that first sale, read our Beginners Guide For Starting An Amazon Business.

And while you are at it, sign up for our Amazon Boot Camp and get the basics figured out prior to Q4.  Time is running out, so don’t waste it trying to piece together all you need to know in order to be a successful Amazon seller!

Alright, so here are the two most important bullet points from the email:

• Your first sale on Amazon.com must occur prior to September 19, 2016. The sale does not need to be specific to the Toys & Games store.
• You must process and ship at least 25 orders from September 1, 2016  through 31st October, 2016. The orders do not need to be specific to the Toys & Games store.

This is good news. This criteria is very reachable: You need to have made your first sale by Sept. 19, and then sold 25 items in total by Oct. 31.

Don’t get thrown off by the phrase, “You must process and ship.”You do NOT need to Merchant Fulfill 25 orders during that time frame. Your sales can be 100% FBA or a combination of FBA and Merchant Fulfilled.  

This is the MOST confusing thing about the email!  Many sellers panic thinking they will not be able to sell toys unless they start merchant fulfilling right now.  Not the case!

The point is that you’ve made a minimum number of sales and have proven yourself a trustworthy seller. Again, those sales can be ALL FBA and still grant you entry into Merchant Fulfilling during Q4.

Hint:  If you have already started selling on Amazon FBA, you should have NO PROBLEM qualifying to sell merchant fulfilled toys in Q4.  If you don’t end up meeting the criteria, you can STILL use the FBA program to sell toys in Q4.  So you are good to go my friend!

3 More Qualifiers To Selling Toys & Games On Amazon In Q4

Amazon has three other requirements, and points out that these do NOT refer to orders that use FBA:

• Your pre-fulfillment cancel rate for the period from 1st October through 31st October, 2016 must be no greater than 1.75%.
• Your late shipment rate for the period from 1st October through 31st October, 2016 must be no greater than 4%. 
• Your order defect rate must be no greater than 1% short term as of 1st November, 2016.

In other words, Amazon wants to make sure that if you Merchant Fulfill, you have done so successfully. They want to make sure that sellers ship on time, don’t have a bunch of returns, and that they don’t cancel orders on buyers.  If you have never merchant fulfilled, then you meet these criteria pretty much by default.

If you’re unsure of your status, you can check cancel rate, late shipment rate and order defect rate in the Performance section of your seller account.

Amazon says it will provide final notification about eligibility by Nov. 11 and will start monitoring the performance and listings of sellers approved to sell on Toys & Games starting Nov. 12. Of course, Amazon already monitors seller accounts, so this is nothing to be alarmed about.  This just means you will get an “official” congratulatory email stating that you can in fact sell in the Toys & Games category for fourth quarter on Amazon.

So that’s it! The Fourth Quarter will be here before you know it. If you are ready to knock this Q4 out of the park, make sure to check out our Q4 Profits Training Materials so you are ready to rock and roll when those toys start flying off the shelves!

(SOURCE)

- We love articles like this that give out such helpful information, don't you agree?

The Truth Behind Shipping Costs When Selling Books On Amazon FBA

- Just some helpful tips for book sellers out there!

Amazon expands warehouses in UK

Amazon is set to open its 13th fulfillment center in the UK at Tilbury, Essex (England), according to Internet Retailer.

The new fulfillment center will utilize Amazon Robotics technology, which has been shown to decrease the amount of time it takes to process orders. In addition, the technology will reduce the amount of space needed to warehouse goods. The fulfillment center is scheduled to open in 2017 and will employ roughly 1,500 people, bringing the total number of Amazon UK employees to 15,500.

The new fulfillment center will allow Amazon to expand its product selection through its Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) service. Third-party sellers on Amazon can elect to fulfill their orders through FBA, which means that Amazon will store their products in one of several Amazon fulfillment centers and will then pick, pack, ship, and provide customer service for the respective products once an order is placed. Through the implementation of Amazon Robotics, the new fulfillment center will be able to store 50% more items per square foot.

Opening a new fulfillment center could pave the way for more third-party sellers to participate on its online marketplace. With its latest fulfillment center, Amazon has the potential to store additional products for not only existing third-party merchants, but also for new entrants.

However, the recent rise of Amazon third-party sellers has led to a price war among sellers, forcing them to lower prices in order to maintain sales. Amazon’s third-party merchants may look to smaller online marketplaces, such as Etsy, to stay competitive. This could have negative repercussions, though, given the immense number of online shoppers who currently use Amazon.

The parcel delivery industry — a segment of the shipping sector that deals with the transportation of packages to consumers — is booming thanks to e-commerce growth, and players outside the industry want a piece of the pie. 

Evan Bakker, research analyst for BI Intelligence, Business Insider's premium research service, has compiled a detailed report on the future of shipping that looks at efforts by Amazon, Alibaba, and Walmart to handle more of their own shipping and concludes that big retailers are well positioned to disrupt the parcel industry.

Here are some of the key points from the report: 

• Transportation and logistics could be the next billion dollar opportunity for e-commerce companies. The global shipping market, including ocean, air, and truck freight, is a $2.1 trillion market, according to World Bank, Boeing, and Golden Valley Co.
• There is much at stake for legacy shipping companies, which have seen a boom in parcel delivery as e-commerce spending has risen. Twenty different partners currently share the duties of shipping Amazon's 600 million packages a year, with FedEx, USPS, and UPS moving the most.
• Amazon, Alibaba, and Walmart have so far focused on building out their last-mile delivery and logistics services but are increasingly going after the middle- and first-mile of the shipping chain. 
• Amazon has already made major moves across each stage of the shipping journey. It launched same-day delivery service, which it handles through its own fleet of carriers, cutting out any third-party shippers. The company also recently began establishing shipping routes between China and North America.
• Walmart's interest in expanding its transportation and logistics operations is almost purely related to cost-savings. It's begun leasing shipping containers to transport manufactured goods from China and is making greater use of lockers and in-store pickup options to cut down on delivery costs.
• Alibaba has begun leasing containers on ships, similar to Amazon's Dragon Boat initiative. This means that Alibaba Logistics can now facilitate first-mile shipping for third-party merchants on its marketplace.

In full, the report:

• Sizes the market for the shipping industry.
• Explains how the industry operates in broad terms.
• Suggests why major e-commerce retailers should disrupt the space.
• Outlines the shipping initiatives of Amazon, Walmart, and Alibaba.
• Concludes how these moves might impact traditional carriers.

Interested in getting the full report? Here are two ways to access it:

1. Subscribe to an All-Access pass to BI Intelligence and gain immediate access to this report and over 100 other expertly researched reports. As an added bonus, you'll also gain access to all future reports and daily newsletters to ensure you stay ahead of the curve and benefit personally and professionally.
2. Purchase & download the full report from our research store. 

The choice is yours. But however you decide to acquire this report, you’ve given yourself a powerful advantage in your understanding of the future of shipping.

(SOURCE)

Step By Step Training Using Jungle Scout Web Application To Find Amazon ...

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