Amazon Repricers: 5 Reasons Price Automation is Vital for Seller Success

If there is one commonality that I find Amazon shoppers have in common, it is a penchant for finding great products at a good price. We have become conditioned to expect that when we purchase an item on Amazon, it is competitively priced. Part of the reason that we are seeing these competitive prices is due to Amazon repricers.

Repricers are a very helpful tool for Amazon sellers. To learn more about Price Automation and its application to successful selling, we have asked Erik Mathes of AppEagle to share 5 Reasons Why Price Automation is vital for Seller Success. Here’s Erik:

Being an Amazon seller can be an incredibly rewarding career, but it requires a great deal of effort and strategy. Between sourcing great products, managing your inventory and listings, and dealing with a multitude of other responsibilities, it’s challenging work. That’s where Amazon repricers and their ability to strategically manage price automation come into play.

The Benefits of Amazon Repricers

When sellers automate certain parts of their businesses, they unleash brand new possibilities of what can be achieved.

Amazon repricers have become an absolutely vital automation tool for successful sellers in today’s world. Between their powerful capabilities and ease-of-use, these price automation platforms free up countless hours and help sellers streamline profitable sales.

While old-fashioned sellers complain about having to adapt and learn new skills, the smartest sellers are embracing this newfound power.

That’s because they can now use software to manage a variety of tasks that formerly could only be done by continuously performing tedious research, calculations, and manual data entry.

Why You Should Embrace The Power of Automation

If you’re an Amazon seller and have yet to try Amazon repricers, here are a handful of reasons you may want to experience the power of price automation to fuel your business’ growth.

1. Amazon repricers spare Amazon sellers from constantly performing tedious tasks manually

The basic function of an Amazon repricer is to automate the price changes of your listings. If you didn’t use a repricer, you’d have to manually change your prices in Seller Central each time you wanted to do this. You’d also have to constantly monitor the prices of your competitors’ listings to know how to optimally reprice your listings.

Clearly, with so much competition on Amazon, this gets tedious and consumes a massive amount of time. In fact, manual repricing is impossible to keep up with when you consider how much competition is growing on Amazon each day.

The beauty of high-quality Amazon repricers is that they take over these labor-intensive tasks for you. That means you’re no longer required to spend hours glued to your computer analyzing competitors’ prices and then changing yours. One. At. A. Time.

The beauty of high-quality Amazon repricers is that they take over labor-intensive tasks for you.

Using a repricer to keep on top of this means that you can relax safe in the knowledge that your products have a competitive edge. Most importantly, you can watch the results as more people hit the all important add to cart button and buy your products.

2. Price automation is more efficient, effective, and economical than human labor

Because manual repricing is so tedious, it can quickly and easily lead to burnout for even the best price strategists.

Not to mention you can’t expect someone (especially yourself) to stay up all night making price changes. And, the cost of paying someone (or a team) of experts to manage your prices would be enormous. And that’s just for a typical 40-hour work week.

On the other hand, with quality Amazon repricers, the price changes never stop:

• An automated repricer constantly monitors your competitors’ prices, so you never have to slog through their listings one by one.
• It also updates your prices as fast as Amazon allows, which is multiple times an hour.

Try finding humans who can work this efficiently and effectively, and your quest will be as never-ending as manual repricing.

3. Amazon repricers reduce the probability of human error

Having to constantly crunch numbers and enter data is just part of the game when you use manual repricing. It’s a process that leaves us error-prone humans vulnerable to mistakes. And when it comes to selling on Amazon, mistakes can be very costly.

One missed decimal place or extra numeral can take you from profitability to losses in no time.

On the flip side, an automated Amazon repricer handles much of the number-crunching for you once you set it up. All you need to do is determine the minimum prices at which you’d like to list each SKU (based on your costs) to earn you a healthy profit for your efforts. After that, complex calculations can be left to the software, and your prices will fluctuate according to rules that you control.

Reducing the chance of human error that comes with manual repricing is good enough rationale to shift to automated repricing. With all of the other added benefits, it’s an obvious choice!

All you need to do is determine the minimum prices at which you’d like to list each SKU (based on your costs) to earn you a healthy profit for your efforts.

4. Automation helps you achieve optimal work-life balance

What’s the reason you work? Chances are, it’s not because your job is the most pleasurable part of your life.

If that’s the case with most people, then why do so many Amazon sellers let work take over their lives?

The reason has a lot to do with these sellers not knowing there are better ways to handle their workloads. So, they end up missing out on large chunks of time they could otherwise spend having a fun, joyful life.

BEING AN AMAZON SELLER IS ALSO ABOUT LEADING A JOYFUL LIFE, WITH A HAPPY BALANCE

Sellers who continue to avoid repricers routinely lose out on sales to their savvier competitors who’ve embraced price automation technology. Worse yet, the sellers who don’t use Amazon repricers work exponentially harder to keep up with the sellers who do. And they get no consolation prize for their struggle.

On the other side, you find sellers like Rob Anderson who enjoy the luxuries that automated Amazon repricing affords them. Anderson doubled his sales in a matter of months with Amazon repricing. He’s also freed up countless hours that he used to spend monitoring competitors and manually adjusting prices.

With that newfound free time, Anderson’s had time to create his ideal balance between work and life. He’s had time to take numerous business trips to source unique, profitable products. He’s also had time to take vacations, something every Amazon seller should do, at least occasionally.

For Rob, there’s nothing more satisfying than discovering he’s made a boatload of sales while out surfing in Costa Rica. And he has his automated Amazon repricer to thank for that freedom.

5. Amazon repricers shift opportunity cost in the favor of Amazon sellers

“Opportunity cost” is defined as “the loss of potential gain from other alternatives when one alternative is chosen.”

That means if you choose to work on Task #1, you won’t be able to spend the time used on Task #1 to work on Task #2, which has the chance of being more rewarding. The cost of working on Task #1 is that you’ll lose out on being able to work on something else with a potentially (or certainly) higher ROI.

People neglect to consider opportunity cost all the time.

Just think about the Amazon sellers who continue to manually reprice when they know automated repricing is a better option. An automated repricer could do the same work better and in much less time than it takes to perform it manually.

And when sellers don’t have to spend hours on manual repricing, they can instead spend those hours on other high-ROI tasks that can’t be automated and require human labor, such as:

● Product research
● Smart sourcing
● Creating strategic Amazon product bundles, and
● Adding a human element to their Amazon business (handwritten thank you notes, etc.)

All of the above cannot be outsourced to automation software (yet), and each one adds an element to your Amazon business that will help it grow.

Conclusion

It’s clear that Amazon repricers can open up a world of new possibilities and opportunities for sellers with automation.

Now that you know how price automation can help you grow your Amazon business, the only thing left to do is experience the power of automated Amazon repricing yourself.

My company, Appeagle, currently offers a free 14-day trial of our automated repricer. So, if you’re curious about what Amazon repricing can do for your business, take our software for a test spin.

Whatever Amazon repricing platform you wind up choosing, you’ll become a better seller for embracing technology and avoiding tedious manual work.

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Sourcing Books to resell on Amazon FBA and Ebay paid $1 for 54 books gro...

- Get inspired to sell books with this great video!

Essentials of Sales Tax for Amazon FBA Sellers

Nobody every started selling on Amazon because they were looking forward to dealing with sales tax. But the fact is sales tax is a part of life for nearly every product seller. 

I get it. Getting your sales tax in order can be time-consuming and sometimes even intimidating. So I’ve summarized the five essentials of sales tax to demystify the process.

Let’s dig in:

Detect where you have sales tax nexus

Forty-five states and D.C. all have a sales tax. Since sales tax is governed at the state, not federal, level, that means there are forty-six different sets of varying sales tax laws. But the one thing they all states have in common is that they require sellers who have “sales tax nexus” in their state to collect sales tax from buyers located in that state.

Nexus is just a fancy way of saying a “significant connection” to a state. Each state’s law talks about nexus a little differently, but these common factors usually create nexus:

• A location – a store, office, warehouse or other physical space
• Personnel – an employee, contractor, salesperson, installer or other person working on behalf of your business
• An affiliate – someone who sends sales to your website in exchange for a small cut of the profits from that sale
• A drop shipping relationship – in some cases, having a 3rd party distributor ship products to your clients creates sales tax nexus
• Attendance at a tradeshow or craft fair – depending on the state, selling products temporarily in a state can create sales tax nexus
• Inventory – storing inventory in a state generally creates sales tax nexus in a state

That final nexus-creating activity is what trips up many Amazon FBA sellers. Because storing inventory in a state creates sales tax nexus in a state, FBAers may find themselves with sales tax nexus in many of the states where Amazon has fulfillment centers. To determine if your inventory is stored in a state you can do one of two things:

1. Pull your “Inventory Event Detail” report from Amazon Seller Central
2. Check your Amazon badges on the TaxJar dashboard. If you don’t have a TaxJar account, you can try a 30-day free trial

Once you’ve determined where you have nexus, your next step is to…

Register for a sales tax permit

Before you begin collecting sales tax from customers, register your business with the state.

Don’t skip this! Most states consider it unlawful to collect sales tax from buyers without a valid permit, even unknowingly. (They’re afraid you’re going to keep the money in your pocket if you’re not registered!)

When it comes to sales tax, we recommend starting with your home state and branching out from there to your other nexus states. You can find out more in our free guide on “When to Register for a Sales Tax Permit.”

You can find step-by-step guides to registering for a sales tax permit in ever state here.

Collect sales tax from your buyers

Once you’re registered, your next step is to make sure you’re collecting sales tax from buyers in your nexus states on all of your shopping carts and platforms.

Example: You live in Iowa but have nexus in South Carolina and Tennessee because you have items stored in the Amazon fulfillment centers there. You’d need to make sure to collect sales tax from buyers in Iowa, Tennessee and South Carolina on all of the platforms on which you sell, not just Amazon.

You can find guides here on setting up sales tax on the most common eCommerce platforms.

Report how much sales tax you collected

When you registered for your sales tax permit, the state told you how often they wanted you to file a sales tax return. (This is usually either monthly, quarterly or annually.)

So when it comes time to file, you need to determine how much sales tax you collected from buyers in every state.

I wish your obligation stopped there, but the majority of the states also want you to break down how much sales tax you collected by county, city and other special taxing district. This becomes complex when you sell on multiple channels or have nexus in multiple states.

When my team and I were creating TaxJar, we observed different sellers attempting to report how much sales tax they’d collected. Some sellers used spreadsheets and complex pivot tables, others even wrote it out longhand. We had one customer tell us that they locked the whole team in the office over a weekend every month to handle sales tax!

There’s a better way now. Sales tax automation will compile all the sales tax you’ve collected and create return-ready reports for you to file.

Speaking of filing…

File sales tax

When the due date rolls around, it’s time to file your sales tax returns. You can use the reports I just mentioned to login to the state’s website and file online, or you can let TaxJar AutoFile for you.

However you choose to file, remember these two things:

• File “zero” returns – Be sure to file sales tax on your due date even if you didn’t collect a penny from buyers over the taxable period. Some states will penalize you for failing to check in even if you don’t have anything to report. This penalty can include a monetary fine (Florida’s is $50!) or even revocation of your sales tax license.
• Don’t discount discounts – About half the states will allow you to keep a very small portion of the sales tax you collected if you file on time. Here’s a list of states that offer sales tax filing discounts. Don’t leave money on the table!

And that’s it – you’ve put a lid on sales tax!

Do you have questions or comments? For a much more in-depth guide to sales tax, check out our Sales Tax for Amazon FBA Sellers guide. To discuss sales tax with us, join our Facebook group Sales Tax for eCommerce Sellers. 

TaxJar is a service built to make sales tax compliance simple for eCommerce sellers. Try a 30-day-free trial of TaxJar today and eliminate sales tax compliance headaches from your life!

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Pricing Strategies For Marketing Your Product Or Service

I would like to share with you some pricing strategies for marketing your product or service.

People often ask me how much they should charge for a service that they are offering.

My answer to that question is always, “What are people willing to pay? What is the demand for your product or service”?

The demand is based on a lot of different factors, but primarily it is determined by the perceived value of your product or service.

If people aren’t willing to receive your product or service for free, than you need to reconsider how you are marketing and communicating that value.

Watch the video below:

The Importance of Not Overbuying Inventory

by robyn johnson

Usually when a client comes to us and wants to grow their business the first thing on their mind is “How can I source faster?” or “How can I source at a larger scale?” However, we have found that often times when business are growing a good first place to start to allow money to flow better in the business is to make sure that the inventory turn rate is healthy and that there is not a lot of stale inventory tying up capital.

Now, this isn’t nearly as fun to talk about as the newest trends in Private Label or “Hot Niches” but we have found it very valuable information not only for our clients. But for ourselves as well.

Stale Inventory Costs You More Than You Think!

If you are an Amazon seller than you probably know that any inventory you hold longer than six months gets charged a whopping $11-$22 a square foot in August and February. So there is a set cost to hold your inventory- even if it isn’t in your home.

If you store inventory where you live or in your warehouse- there is a cost to the space it takes up. Plus, there is the mental drain you get from seeing that inventory day after day. Knowing it will likely be there for months to come.

However, stale inventory costs you the most in lost opportunity…

When you have a backlog of stale inventory you tend to have capital- that could be used to buy items that you could turn several times. This compounds the amount that stale inventory costs you each month.

For example:

You have 100 small widgets that cost you $10 that you expect to profit an incredible $30 each for a total of $3000 profit. It takes you 6 months to sell through the widgets so no long term storage fees are accrued.

Your profit about $3000 off of your $1000 investment. You now have $4000 (original investment+$1000)

Instead you buy only twenty of those small widgets. You sell those in just over a month for a profit of $600.

You take the remanding $800 ($1000 investment- $200 in small widgets) and purchase in several other widgets that only give you a profit of 50%. You only buy a month or less of inventory. At the end of the first month you have an additional $400 in profit.

You now have doubled your money (profits + your original investment) ($600+$400+ $1000). You only find items with a 50% return for the reaming 5 months.

Month 2- (2000+1000)= $3000

Month 3 – (3000+1500)=$4500

Month 4 – (4500+2250)=$6750

Month 5 – (6750+3375)=$10125

Month 6 (10,125+5062=$15,187

At the end of the 6 months you now have $15,187. That is more than $11,000 more than if you had bought all of the higher profit widgets.

Now this doesn’t take into account that there are some additional expenses with turn inventory more times (time to source, prep, etc.). However, the point is to demonstrate that there is a cost for lost opportunity in over buying. Even if it is at a higher margin.

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Why Pricing Strategy Is As Important As Sourcing For FBA Sellers

- A different look at the subject of Amazon/FBA pricing strategy: Why there is a "conspiracy of silence" among Amazon sellers on the subject of pricing, and why FBA pricing strategy is as important as sourcing. 

Facebook for Amazon Sellers

by robyn johnson

So if you are anything like us, you rely on the many Facebook groups dedicated to Amazon resellers to make sure that you are up to date with the latest news and trends in Retail Arbitrage and Online Arbitrage.  However, with this especially painful political season Facebook and the busyness of Q4 Facebook can quickly turn into a massive time suck.

One little hack we have (thanks Adrian for reminding us) is to use the Facebook Groups apps instead of the main Facebook app.  It allows us to quickly check in our groups and get back to work without getting sucked into the vortex that is the Facebook news feed.  Here is a quick video on how to use Facebook Groups.  It also might help allow you to stay friends with people on the other side of the political aisle.

We also try to limit our “check ins” into those groups that we find give us the most up to date news and interaction with our clients.   Now I know the next question is which groups are those…

The first -excuse the shameless plug-  is our paid Facebook group for the Unstoppable Amazon Academy (Only for paid academy members find out more here).  The other two groups we check regularly are FBA Masters and 3P Community.  This is just our personal preference, and depending on your product mix and sourcing style you might find other groups that fit your needs better.

We also find that going into Amazon Seller Central and reading the Seller Support documents and headlines can often give us great information.   And if you are a total nerd, like Robyn, you can not only spend your Friday nights reading Amazon seller support- but add on watching their Youtube channel (Amazon Seller Education).
If you are looking for more information to help you maximize your Q4 Amazon sales or just selling on Amazon in general check out my podcast, the Unstoppable Entrepreneur Show.

It is also not too late to join our Q4 Boot Camp where we focus on proven amazon techniques and strategies.  There is also a chance to win prizes in our Q4 games.  Find out more here.

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