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Month: November 2020

Coming shortages could make price gouging tempting again

November 24, 2020 Leave a Comment

3P sellers should avoid the urge to raise prices on necessities

By: Lesley Hensell

Don’t be that seller.

The warning signs are everywhere. Manufacturers and retailers who sell grocery, medical and personal care items expect new runs on necessities in the coming weeks. Already, plans are being made to institute new buying limits on customers at retail stores.

This could easily kick off a new cycle for Amazon sellers eager to profit off of shortages in brick-and-mortar stores. We saw it last spring. Retail arbitrage sellers – and even those with wholesale relationships – increased prices for items in short supply. Once again, shortages could make price gouging tempting.

Amazon sees this as price gouging. And Amazon shuts down accounts for price gouging.

Price gouging

What is price gouging?

It’s difficult to find a dictionary definition of price gouging that includes practical terms, like percentages. Legally speaking, different states have different standards. Like a Supreme Court justice once said about a different hard-to-define topic, “I know it when I see it.”

Most folks can agree that doubling a price during a time of scarcity looks and feels like price gouging, especially for essential items. But on Amazon, the standard it much stricter.

Prior to Covid, when natural disasters hit, Amazon would sometimes punish sellers who raised prices more than 10 percent. During the Covid shutdowns last spring, even a nominal price increase on necessities could land a seller in hot water and result in their ASIN being shut down, their account receiving a warning, or worst of all their account being suspended. In April, we discussed enforcement issues such as gouging and warned sellers about linked accounts here. Once again, both seem to be on the rise.

What should sellers expect?

In coming days, weeks – and heaven forbid, months – there will be shortages. Of course, these shortages could make price gouging tempting for third-party Amazon sellers to buy in quantity when they can and sell for a huge profit.

Just don’t do it. Your account depends on it. Don’t be that seller.

Above all, if you have questions about keeping your account in good standing or getting reinstated? Give us a call at Riverbend 877-289-1017


Lesley Hensell

Lesley is co-founder and co-owner of Riverbend Consulting, where she oversees the firm’s client services team. She has personally helped hundreds of third-party sellers get their accounts and ASINs back up and running. Lesley leverages two decades as a small business consultant to advise clients on profitability and operational performance. She has been an Amazon seller for almost a decade, thanks to her boys (18 and 13) who do most of the heavy lifting.

Filed Under: 3P, Account Health, Amazon, Amazon Appeal, Amazon seller, Amazon Seller Central, General, Inventory Sourcing, Toys and Games Tagged With: 3P, Amazon, Amazon account, Amazon appeal, Amazon seller, Amazon Seller Central, Covid, Necessities, Price gouging, Price increase, Seller Support, Shortage

When to know you are being hooked by a phisher and how you can get free.

November 16, 2020 Leave a Comment

Not-so-Fresh Phish: How to Avoid Seller Scams

By: Adam Hoagland

 

In this digital age, account hacking and information phishing are regular concerns and annoyances like robot calls.

But this doesn’t mean they are always obvious to spot.

Here’s some tips on what to look for and what actions to take with Amazon related phishing.

 

The Phishing For Account Info Scams

Phishing is a term used when a scammer sends fake email ID posing as Amazon and tries to acquire the personal details from you.

First, they send an email containing links to the seller and when clicked the links will redirect to a whole new space which will ask for your account credentials and credit card information.

Recently Amazon has introduced a two-step verification code to circumvent the increase of phishing scams.

Phishing ExampleAmazon will never send you an unsolicited message that asks you to provide sensitive personal information like your social security number, tax ID, bank account number, credit card information, ID questions like your mother’s maiden name or your password.

Amazon will never ask you to make a payment outside of the website and will never ask you for remote access to your device.

 

How to Keep Your Account Safe

Keep Your Selling Account Credentials Safe:

It may seem obvious, but NEVER share your bank or seller account information with anyone.

Even if someone allegedly calls you telling that they are an Amazon representative and asks you to log in with the code they provide, NEVER do it.

While Amazon may reach out via phone for some issues, they will never request this kind of information.

Turn On 2-Step Verification:

This is the best way to protect your account and the process is simple too.

A seller can sign into their account only via a two-step verification code which will be a random six-digit number. This code is usually sent from Google Authenticator to your smartphones, Amazon’s registered phone number and Amazon’s registered mail ID.

If you have not enabled it yet, do it now.

Always check the URLs and email IDs:

It is very essential that you understand the difference between a genuine and fake email ID.

Emails you receive from Amazon will always end with @amazon.com. Don’t believe any other email IDs.

Some of the fake email IDs used as follows:

  • amazon-security@hotmail.com
  • sellers-performance@payment-amazon.com
  • amazon-seller-payments@msn.com

Stay Sharp to Save Time and Money:

If you stay proactive and take proper steps to protect your banking information, account details and your products, then you might not even face such situations. But still, if you are targeted, you know what to do (and what not to).

Consider changing the e-mail address associated with your seller account so that phishers can’t use this e-mail address to contact you.

For example, if your seller account uses myinfo@myisp.com, consider using a new or different e-mail, such as changedinfo@myisp.com, for your contact information.

Do not use the same e-mail address as your sign in as you do for your customer contacts.

For example, if you use myname@myisp.com as your sign in account, consider using an e-mail address such as info@myisp.com for your notification or contact e-mail address.

Identifying false (spoofed) e-mails:

You might receive emails from Amazon, such as Sold, Ship Now emails or Technical Notification emails. However, sometimes you might receive emails that are not really from Amazon, even if at first glance they may appear to be. Instead, such emails are falsified and attempt to convince you to reveal sensitive account information.

  • Review the email for grammatical or typographical errors: Watch for poor grammar or typographical errors. Many phishing emails are translated from other languages or are sent without being proof-read.
  • Check the return address: Genuine emails from Amazon always will come from an address ending in “@amazon.com.” Check the email’s header information. If the “received from,” “reply to,” or “return path” for the email does not come from “@amazon.com,” it is not from Amazon. Most email programs let you examine the source of the email. The method you use to check the header information varies depending upon the email program you use.  The following are some examples of fraudulent return addresses:
      • seller-performance@payments-amazon.com
      • amazon-security@hotmail.com
      • amazon-payments@msn.com
  • Check the website address: Some phishers set up spoofed websites that contain the word “amazon” somewhere in the URL. Genuine Amazon websites always end with “.amazon.com”, “amazonsellerservices.com” or “sellercentral.amazon.com.” We will never use a combination such as “security-amazon.com” or “amazon.com.biz.”

Phishing scamsIf you are unsure, go directly to Amazon or the Seller Central website:

Some phishing emails include a link that looks as though it will take you to your Amazon account, but it is really a shortened link to a completely different website. If you hover over the link with your mouse when viewing the message in your email client, you often can see the underlying false website address, either as a pop-up or as information in the browser status bar.

Note: The hover technique can be fooled. If you do click on a link, always look at the URL in your browser when the page opens.

The best way to ensure that you do not respond to a phishing email is to always go directly to your seller account to review or make any changes to the account.

When in doubt, do not click on a link in an email.

Do not unsubscribe:

Never follow instructions contained in a forged email that claim to provide a method for unsubscribing.

Many spammers use these unsubscribe processes to create a list of valid, working email addresses.

Help stop phishers and spoofers:

You can make a difference.

Amazon has filed several lawsuits against phishers and spoofers. These lawsuits began with sellers alerting Amazon to suspicious emails. As part of their ongoing commitment to stop spoofing, you can help them investigate spoofed emails. Send them the original spoofed email, with the complete header information, using their report phishing form.

To locate the header information, configure your email program to show All Headers. (This varies, depending on the email program you use.)

The headers we need are well labeled and will look similar to this example:

  • X-Sender: someone@domain.com
  • X-Sender-IP: [10.1.2.3]
  • X-Date: Tue, 08 Apr 2003 21:02:08 +0000 (UTC)
  • X-Recipient: you@domain.com
  • X-OUID: 1

To report a phishing or spoofed email or webpage:

Open a new email and attach the email you suspect is fake. For suspicious webpages, copy & paste the link into the email body.

If you can’t send the email as an attachment, forward it. Send the email to stop-spoofing@amazon.com

Note: Sending the suspicious email as an attachment is the best way for Amazon to track it.

Note: Amazon can’t respond personally when you report a suspicious correspondence to stop-spoofing@amazon.com, but you may receive an automatic confirmation. If you have security concerns about your account, please contact Amazon.

 

Suspicious Phone Calls or Text Messages

Report any suspicious phone call or text message to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). To report a phone call or text message visit ftc.gov/complaint and follow the onscreen assistant.

If you have any questions about these suspicious emails or anything else regarding your Amazon account give Riverbend a call! (877) 289-1017


Adam provides analytical support for both our Riverbend clients and team to best asses and assist with plans of action, reports and overall best practices on Amazon. Adam has three years of Seller Support experience as an associate, lead and trainer. He has specialized in day-to-day operations, catalog inquiries, state and federal tax reviews, feeds, escalations, gating, and assisted with brand registry items. His down time is spent with his two cats and spouse enjoying streaming, gaming, pub crawls and house parties with friends.

Filed Under: Account Health, Amazon, Amazon Appeal, Amazon seller, Amazon Seller Central, Appeal, Customer Serivce, General, Linked Account, Seller Central, Seller Fulfilled, Seller Performance, Seller Support Tagged With: Amazon, Amazon account, Amazon seller, Amazon Seller Central, Phishing scams, Scammers, Spoofed websites

Why Amazon “deal sites” put 3P accounts at risk

November 6, 2020 Leave a Comment

Sellers should avoid flipping heavily discounted items

By: Lesley Hensell

Internet deal sites let users buy heavily discounted products on Amazon. That’s why new third-party sellers embrace these sites. It’s cheap inventory to get started. What could go wrong?

Unfortunately, this is a very high-risk strategy it’s best to avoid.

Why these deal sites exist

Deal sites and rebate sites are not for the convenience or happiness of the Amazon customer. These sites exist to help private-label sellers launch their products on Amazon. They are also used to increase Best Seller Rank (BSR) or gain product reviews.

There is an unspoken agreement between these sellers and the deal site customers. Most of the customers on deal sites understand that a product review is expected in return for the steep discount. When sales are made and reviews posted, a product’s Best Seller Rank rises. This, in turn, helps the product pop up higher in organic search results.

In most cases, the sellers using these deal sites are offering significant discounts – so much that they are violating Amazon policies against Platform Manipulation. As a result of these discounts, the sellers are losing money on sales made via the discount sites. In return, they hope to drive more buyers to their products.

Deal sitesWhat makes deal-buying dangerous

Third-party sellers purchase these deals and then flip them on their own Amazon accounts. But this is a risky strategy:

  1. Amazon does not always accept invoices from Amazon-to-Amazon flips that involve third-party sellers.
  2. Private-label sellers can easily file intellectual property complaints against other sellers who pop up on their listings – especially if their distribution is Amazon-only.

The private-label sellers are not going to remove their intellectual property complaints, once filed against you. This makes it particularly difficult to get the ASIN or account reinstated – whichever is the case.

What to do instead

There are lots of places to source products. Yes, they are more challenging than deal sites, retail arbitrage and online arbitrage. But they can help you develop a sustainable business:

  • Manufacturers
  • Distributors
  • Wholesalers

If you need assistance working through product lists, contact us at 877-289-1017 or visit  Riverbend Consulting. Our team can help you uncover potentially lucrative sourcing relationships!


Lesley HensellLesley is co-founder and co-owner of Riverbend Consulting, where she oversees the firm’s client services team. She has personally helped hundreds of third-party sellers get their accounts and ASINs back up and running. Lesley leverages two decades as a small business consultant to advise clients on profitability and operational performance. She has been an Amazon seller for almost a decade, thanks to her boys (18 and 12) who do most of the heavy lifting.

Filed Under: Account Health, Amazon, Amazon seller, Arbitrage, ASIN, General, Inventory Sourcing, Seller Central, Seller Performance, Supply Chain, Vendor Tagged With: 3P, Account Health, Amazon, Amazon seller, Arbitrage, Deactivation, Deal, Discount, Inauthentic, Inventory, Q4

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