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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

Amazon’s acronym language explained

October 22, 2020 Leave a Comment

New sellers can get lost in the abbreviations

By: Kayla Forrest

Amazon loves to use acronyms. They are apart of Amazon’s love language and are used daily. This is something that you may notice when interacting with Amazon or even reading through the Seller Forums. Numerous Amazon acronyms are commonly used and we’ve gathered a few that every seller should know. This list has been compiled for you and will hopefully help you navigate Amazon. Especially for you newer sellers out there.

Amazon acronyms from A-Z:

3P – Third-Party Seller
A third party seller uses inventory they have purchased to sell to consumers on Amazon

AMZ – Amazon
The acronym is a more simple way to say Amazon.

ACOS – Advertising Cost Of Sale
This represents the percentage of sales that was spent on advertising.

API – Application Program Interface
The code that allows software programs to communicate with each other.

ASIN – Amazon Standard Information Number
All products on Amazon will have an ASIN.

ASP – Average Selling Price 
The net sales divided by the number of products sold will get you the ASP.

AWS – Amazon Web Services 
A subsidiary of Amazon that provides cloud platform and API services.

B2B – Business to Business 
Unlike business to customers, the service is for business to business.

BB – Buy Box 
This is the box where buyers see the button to purchase products.

BOGO -Buy One, Get One (Free)
This is a great promotional deal that allows you to offer two products for the price of one.

BSM – Buyer-Seller Messages 
The messages between the customer and the seller.

BSR – Best Seller Rank
The rank of the item in a category.

DP – Detail Page
The page for the product.

DSP – Demand Slide Platform
This represents the display advertising service.

EAN – European Article Number
A 23 digit number for retail products in Europe.

EBC – Enhanced Brand Content 
The detail page description and show enhances content like images.

FBA – Fulfilled By Amazon 
The program where Amazon is responsible for storing products and shipping them to buyers.

FBM – Fulfilled By Merchant
The seller is responsible for the inventory storing and fulfilling orders.

FC – Fulfillment Center 
Amazon’s storage facility where orders are fulfilled.

FNSKU – Fulfillment Network Stock Keeping Unit
Amazon’s unique identifier used to label units in the fulfillment centers.

GTIN – Global Trade Item Number
A unique 14 digit number used globally to identify products and services.

IP – Intellectual property
Property that is protected such as trademarks, patents, copyrights.

ISBN – International Standard Book Number
A 13 digit number to identify individual books.

MAP – Minimum Advertised Price 
The price is determined by a manufacturer. Sellers will be instructed to not sell the product below that price.acronyms as explained by Riverbend Consulting.

MCF – Multi-Channel Fulfillment
Inventory that is stored and fulfilled by Amazon but the order is from another sales channel.

MSRP – Manufacturer’s Suggested Retail Price
This is to keep prices similar for different stores, sales channels, platforms, etc.

ODR – Order Defect Rate
A performance metric based on the percentage of orders with defects such as A-to-z claims and negative feedback.

OOS – Out Of Stock
Items are no longer in stock.

OTC – Over The Counter
Products that do not need a prescription to purchase.

POA – Plan Of Action
When seller accounts or ASINs are suspended, Amazon frequently requests a Plan of Action from the seller explaining what happened – and how they will stop it from happening again.

PL – Private label
Sellers may have a brand but have a manufacturer. These are the suppliers’ products but they do not make them.

Q1 – First Quarter
The portion of the year including January, February and March.

Q2 – Second Quarter
The months of April, May and June of each year.

Q3 – Third Quarter
This includes July, August and September of a calendar year.

Q4 – Fourth Quarter
Busy months for retail. Q4 includes the last three months (October, November and December) of the year.

QA – Quality Assurance
To ensure the desired quality of the service and/or product.

SC – Seller Central
The seller portal for the Amazon marketplace. Amazon Seller Central

SFP – Seller Fulfilled Prime
The program where sellers must meet Amazon’s Prime requirements.

SKU – Stock Keeping Number
The code to identify a product.

SLA – Service Level Agreement
The agreement details the expected level of service.

TOS – Terms Of Services
The rules and regulations that the seller must follow.

UPC – Universal Product Code
A 12-digit code is associated with the barcode of a product.

VAT – Value Added Tax
For products sold in the United Kingdom and Europe. This is a consumption tax levied on products at each and every point of sale in which value was added.

For more articles using these acronyms visit our website. Have questions about managing your Amazon account? Call us 877-289-1017


Kayla at Riverbend

Kayla focuses on appeals for Amazon account and ASIN reinstatements. Kayla has 4 years of Amazon experience where she worked in Seller Support and as an Investigation Specialist. In those roles, Kayla dealt with escalations and focused on FBA, intellectual property rights, as well as brand and product gating. When not helping clients save their Amazon accounts, Kayla can be found gardening or cooking with her two children and husband.

Filed Under: 3P, Account Health, Amazon, Amazon Appeal, Amazon seller, Amazon Seller Central, ASIN, FBA, General, SFP, USA, VA, VIP Tagged With: 3P, ACOS, Amazon, Amazon Acronym, Amazon seller, Amazon Seller Central, ASIN, DSP, FBA, ISBN, ODR

Buying 3P notes on your Amazon account? That is corporate espionage.

October 22, 2020 Leave a Comment

Amazon might not catch you, but blackmailers sure could

By: Lesley Hensell

For third-party sellers, dealing with Amazon can be frustrating and difficult. But that is no excuse to embrace corporate espionage. Unfortunately, a significant number of 3P sellers go down this road. This adds an unacceptable level of risk to their businesses. Buying 3P notes IS espionage. Before you completely dismiss this idea, think for a moment.

Have you been offered the notes on your Amazon account?

Have you paid a service or an Amazon employee for notations?

Or, have you heard about sellers paying for details on their competition?

All of these happen – daily. And all of them are subject to both criminal prosecution and civil litigation.

But is it really corporate espionage?

Yes, Virginia, these behaviors really are corporate espionage.

Here is why, Amazon’s data belongs to Amazon. In other words, this is critical business information regarding third-party seller accounts. This includes products, sales, risk management, payments, reviews, feedback and more. All of this data falls under the classification of trade secrets. Especially since Amazon promises to protect its third-party sellers from data breaches and prying eyes.

For example, here are some scenarios where 3P sellers have been known to acquire Amazon data – in direct contravention of the law:

  1. Purchasing Seller Performance notes on their own account. There are companies that openly advertise they will obtain these notes for you. The service providers have insiders they pay off at Amazon for this information.
  2. Buying competitor information. Sellers sometimes ask Amazon employees to give them data on their competitors, including sales volumes on specific ASINs.
  3. Buying Amazon 1P data. In the boldest scenarios, 3P sellers pay Amazon 1P personnel to find out about Amazon’s vendors and pricing on competitive items.

In all three of these cases, the data being purchased is clearly Amazon property. Therefore, buying it on the down-low is clearly illegal. Buying 3P notes is corporate espionage.Corporate Espionage

What can realistically happen to you if you buy Amazon data?

Technically speaking, a third-party seller buying and/or stealing Amazon data could be criminally prosecuted. Will they? Doubtful.

In fact, it’s also unlikely they would be civilly sued by Amazon. Instead, Amazon would probably block their selling account and permanently hold their funds.

Can this happen? Yes. Amazon has busted employees on three continents for selling data. When they did so, they worked hard to discover which sellers were buying the information and blocked those accounts. They also held very large dollar amounts that were never disbursed.

Scenarios that have played out for many Amazon sellers.

Nobody talks about these scenarios as it falls under the heading of blackmail.

A Seller Support employee, for example, may be on the phone with a seller. They dangle the idea of providing competitive information, notations and the like. (Keep in mind that they likely don’t have access to much – if any – of this information.)

For instance, they will ask for payment and provide some information. Then later, the Seller Support rep demands more money, allegedly for “hot” information. If the seller refuses, the rouge Seller Support rep threatens to turn them in to Amazon and get them suspended, or to otherwise harm their account.

In conclusion, if the fear of breaking the law isn’t enough reason to avoid these tactics, perhaps the fear of blackmail will be. Stay safe. Keep it legal.

Above all, if you have questions about how to keep your account safe? 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, Blackmail, FBA, General, Seller Central, Seller Fulfilled, Seller Performance, Seller Support Tagged With: 3P, Amazon, Amazon account, Amazon appeal, Amazon seller, Amazon Seller Central, Blackmail, Corporate espionage, Risk Management, Seller Support

Is dropshipping hurting your Amazon business?

October 15, 2020 Leave a Comment

Dropshipping is not your friend

By: Sam Newlands

As the fantastic Amazon seller that you are who has found the best suppliers, it’s time to figure out how you’re going to handle your inventory. Will products be sent to you for inspection before sending them to fulfillment centers or shipping to customers (Hint: yes, always)? Have you decided if you will fulfill orders on your own, or send your inventory over to Amazon Fulfillment Centers and let them handle it for you? How are you going to get your merchandise from Point A (the supplier) to Point B (you) to Point C (the customer)?

If your answer is dropshipping, try again.


What is dropshipping?

Glad you asked! Dropshipping is allowing a third-party to fulfill orders to customers on your behalf. But is dropshipping hurting your Amazon business? Let me explain. You, the seller, never see the product. You have no idea what it looks like, if it’s in good condition, if it’s used, or broken. Overall, you have no idea what you just sent to your customer, and Amazon is not a fan of this method. They even have a policy on it, which you can read ​here​​​. You will see within the Amazon policy that dropshipping is acceptable in specific circumstances.

The easiest way to explain how dropshipping is acceptable: Think of a large warehouse store that might have an Amazon account; a customer orders something from that store through Amazon, and the order is fulfilled through a warehouse location that might be geographically closer to the customer. They are the seller of record, and there wouldn’t be 3rd party information attached to the package.

Amazon Dropshipping

 

How dropshipping is not acceptable

You, the seller, do not have inventory, but you have items listed within your inventory, making both Amazon and your potential customers believe you actually have product. When a customer orders something, you log into the website where you saw this item, order it for the customer, and add their address as the delivery address. The purchase is not sent to you, which causes a break in good faith your customers have with you to send them quality items. Amazon is 100% all about the buyer experience. They expect sellers to be responsible and accountable for all merchandise from the moment it is added to inventory, ordered by the customer, all the way to the customer receiving it (and often beyond the receipt date).

It is essential to keep in mind that adding inventory to your seller account when you don’t have it can lead to an onslaught of other risks that you may not have thought about: Does that item have intellectual property protections? Is it branded or trademarked? Do you have permission from the rights owner to sell it? Always do your research into the products you want to list. Ensure you have the proper authorization to sell those items (just because you can list it on Amazon doesn’t mean you have the permission to sell it!). Amazon also regularly performs authenticity checks on ASINs within your inventory, which means they’ll request invoices, even if you haven’t sold anything. If you don’t have an invoice, how can you prove the item is authentic?

 

Let’s review

Is dropshipping hurting your Amazon business? Yes. Dropshipping is 99% of the time frowned upon and can give you many more headaches than ease of mind.  It is always better to have your items sent to you to inspect your products’ quality and condition. This also gives you extra assurances that your supplier is legit, and if you want to continue working with them.

Do you have any questions or concerns about dropshipping or anything Amazon related? Give Riverbend a call at 877-289-1017.


Sam Newland

Sam applies her impressive tenacity to get Amazon seller accounts and ASINs reinstated. She enjoys research and looking beyond the surface layer to help sellers solve their issues. While working at Amazon, Sam was involved with the AWS and SES teams looking for fraudulent account activity and unauthorized account take over.

Filed Under: 3P, Account Health, Amazon, Amazon Appeal, Amazon seller, Amazon Seller Central, Dropshipping, Inventory Sourcing, Restricted Product, Seller Central, Seller Performance, Seller Support, Supply Chain, Warehouse Tagged With: 3P, Amazon, Amazon appeal, Amazon seller, Amazon Seller Central, Amazon Seller Performance, Dropshipping, Inventory, Restricted products, Seller Support

Editorial Recommendations

October 7, 2020 1 Comment

3 ways Editorial Recommendations boost the bottom line for Amazon brand owners

By: Lesley Hensell
You need an edge on Amazon. What if you could increase sales, clicks and impressions for your products, without breaking the bank?
If you’re a brand owner or private-label seller, you can! The solution is a relatively new section of the Amazon search results page, Editorial Recommendations. These are short articles written by a network of trusted publishers that have been pre-approved by Amazon.

Why should sellers care?

We can help place your products into one of these articles. And Editorial Recommendations drive a lot of sales at a bargain rate. The process is fast and easy for sellers:
  • Choose a product with 100 or more reviews and an average of 3.8 stars or better
  • Work with our team to choose three excellent search terms/phrases
Our team does the rest. We ensure you receive an Editorial Recommendation from a reputable publisher, such as Men’s Health or Good Housekeeping. The article will label your product as one of the “best” products for your search term.
Most exciting is that Editorial Recommendations appear on page 1 of search. Even if your organic ranking lands you on page 3 or 4, your product will pop to the head of the class with an Editorial Recommendation.

There are other benefits as well.

Editorial Recommendations improve an ASIN’s overall performance, with better:
  • Organic rankings and conversion rates
  • SEO on Google and other search engines
  • Bottom-line results for PPC campaigns
You pay nothing until the Editorial Recommendation appears on Amazon.com.
Don’t delay. The process takes 4-6 weeks, and early adopters are reaping the rewards of moving quickly. Let Riverbend help transform your most important ASINs today.

Let’s talk 732-832-7528 or contact us here.

 


Lesley HensellLesley is co-founder and co-owner of Riverbend Consulting, where she oversees the firm’s client services team. She leverages two decades as a small business consultant to advise clients on profitability and operational performance. Lesley has been an Amazon seller for almost a decade.

Filed Under: 3P, Amazon, Amazon seller, Amazon Seller Central, ASIN, BSR, Editorial Recommendation, General, Private Label, Ranking, Seller Central, Seller Performance Tagged With: Amazon, Amazon seller, Amazon Seller Central, ASIN, Brand, BSR, Editorial Recommendations, Feedback, Page 1, Private Label, Ranking

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