Amazon

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.

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 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.

The Amazon buy box game

October 22, 2020 Leave a Comment

Amazon buy box wins are game changers: But how do you win?

But there are some key steps in making sure you are eligible for it:

By: Adam Hoagland

The Amazon Buy Box is one of the most coveted digital treasures on the internet and there are real reasons why. As a seller on Amazon, the goal is getting your products to your customers as easily and quickly as possible and the Buy Box is key for this. Over 80% of Amazon sales are derived from Buy Box usage and even higher for mobile purchases. It takes good prices and solid metrics to win and maintain. And that is a gift that requires constant attention.

What is the buy box?

The Buy Box refers to the box on the right side of the Amazon product detail page, where buyers can add items with One Click or Add to Cart. This usually contains one of the best prices with great shipping and trustworthy sellers.

Not all sellers or specific inventory are eligible to win the Buy Box.

How do I win the buy box?

Now this is where it can get tricky. Amazon has kept the algorithm of the Buy Box so secret, only a very small handful of people inside Amazon know how it works. Most likely, Jeff doesn’t even know how it works!

But there are some key steps in making sure you are eligible for it:

You must have a Professional Seller Account.
You must be on the platform for some time. Best estimations show at least 3 months selling to build up metrics and propagate your information through the system.
You must be selling the item in the ‘New’ condition. Used items are always found in the “See More Buying Options” page.
Keep your price competitive. No one wants to buy an item with a huge mark-up.
Keep your stock available. Sounds like a no brainer, but you can lose the Buy Box, albeit temporarily, if you available for purchase drops too low. You can lose it before hitting 0 quantity.
Keep your Seller metrics as perfect as possible.
- Your Order Defect Rate and Shipping Metrics are some of the most influential to your account as a whole and to your eligibility.
- Feedback rating is also very important. No one wants to quickly purchase from a 3-star seller.
- Cancellation and Refund rate as well. Amazon needs to trust that you will treat the buyer as well as they do.
- Customer response time. You need to make sure buyer-seller messages are addressed quickly and professionally.
Sell FBA. Since Amazon can control the shipping timeline and have more quality control, the listing is considered more favorable.
If not FBA, keep your pre-shipping handling times low and provide fast and inexpensive shipping. Seller Fulfilled Prime is very useful here.
If a product or category is saturated, try to find products with less sellers, or, even better, list a new product! If you have your own private brand, Amazon’s Brand Registry program can provide more control and assistance with these items.

How to check buy box eligibility

Click on the Inventory tab in Amazon Seller Central and select Manage Inventory.
Click on the Preferences tab.
In the Column Display section, click the box for Buy Box Eligible.
(Optional) Click the box for Buy Box Price to see the current winning price.
Select Show When Available from the drop-down menu.
Look at the Buy Box Eligible column for a particular SKU. If the seller is eligible, it will say yes.

Note: You may see some listings as eligible to win the Buy Box for some products but not for others. And the yes is no guarantee that you will win.

Conclusion

While the Buy Box is not a requirement to sell on the platform, it can be the make it or break it for some sellers. Amazon has become the main online shopping platform in the US with 4 out of every 10 dollars spent online is on Amazon. (Forbes)

So make sure you have your inventory planning, pricing, and customer service system in place and ready to go as soon as you join Amazon world.

If you need any assistance with your inventory planning, or anything else 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.

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:

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.
Buying competitor information. Sellers sometimes ask Amazon employees to give them data on their competitors, including sales volumes on specific ASINs.
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.

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 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.

Amazon alert says “restricted product”, now what?

October 22, 2020 Leave a Comment

Restricted Products – Should You Appeal?

In one word – Yes!

By: Cathy Ceely

Does this mean you should appeal all Restricted Products warnings and product eliminations?

No, of course not.

The majority of Restricted Products enforcements will correctly remove items that are not allowed to be sold at Amazon.

Although sometimes these enforcements can be wrong.

Therefore giving you the chance to have an appeal.

What Restricted Products enforcement may be successfully appealed?

Here are some examples:

Commonly sold over-the-counter products are wrongfully suspended as a ‘prescription required.’
Item supposed to contain restricted ingredients, but do not.
Amazon says item is professional use only medical devices-but items are not

How do I appeal Restricted Products enforcement?

Don’t delete your listing. Even though the notification from Amazon says that sellers should delete listings and recall FBA inventory. That should only be done if an appeal is unsuccessful.
Take a hard look at the detail page and product itself before you appeal. Just because a similar product is still live at Amazon doesn’t mean your item should be returned.
You know that your item is allowed to be sold at Amazon? Then you will need to create a case with Seller Support to provide the information and proper documents.

How do I prevent Restricted Products enforcement?

Amazon expects sellers to know and follow its rules and policies for selling on the site.
Check and double-check Amazon’s policies on Restricted Products in Seller Central before listing a new item.
If you’re unsure if your item should be listed at Amazon –don’t list it.

Do you need help with a Restricted Product issue? Contact Riverbend Consulting by email or by phone (877)289-1017.

Cathy utilizes 20 years of Amazon experience to advocate for sellers. She has extraordinary knowledge regarding Amazon selling policies and seller enforcement. Cathy was a founding member of the Amazon Executive Seller Relations and Product Quality teams, and Operations Manager for Seller Performance in Seattle. She was a Senior Program Manager with the Marketplace Growth team (now Strategic Account Services). Cathy has raised, trained and shown champion Doberman pinschers for 40 years.

This simple hack can save your business

October 20, 2020 Leave a Comment

Prepping inventory for FBA means thinking the process through

By: Lesley Hensell

The Amazon seller was baffled. His account had been shut down for inauthentic goods. But he sourced all inventory direct from the manufacturer. How could this be?

He sold thousands of pairs of shoes every month. We discussed his business processes at length. How was he prepping inventory for FBA?

“Tell me about your boxes. Are they the original branded shoeboxes?” I asked.

“Yes, of course,” he said.

“And how are you keeping the boxes closed?” I asked.

Silence.

Turns out, the seller was not securing the shoeboxes.

How did I know? Complaint after complaint said that pairs of shoes did not match. They were two different sizes, brands or colors. It’s a perfect example of not thinking through how the FBA fulfillment center handles sellers’ inventory. Unsecured boxes may be spilled out of cartons or open in the warehouse. It’s unreasonable to expect that Amazon employees will carefully re-pair shoes that have become mixed up.

The solution? For this seller, I suggested plastic bands that could be used to secure the boxes without damaging the cardboard. Rubber bands will work for fast-moving items, but they should not be used if inventory will remain in the FC for long. Cold or heat could cause them to become brittle and break.

Selling items as sets

Many sellers send ASINs to the fulfillment center bundled together as a set. Unfortunately, workers at the Amazon warehouse can make tremendous mistakes by separating items that are meant to be sold together.

For example:

One client sold a two-pack of a medicine that was shrink-wrapped together. Amazon workers broke the two-packs into singles, causing many complaints when buyers did not receive two items.
Another client sold a bundle with multiple components in a polybag. Amazon workers broke the bundles up, which caused havoc.

How can sellers prevent these problems? Add a prominent sticker that says: “Sold as a set. Do not separate.” This should stop the fulfillment center from making such egregious mistakes.

When in doubt, box, polybag or shrink-wrap

Amazon fulfillment centers are not sterile environments. Products are moved around multiple times. They become dusty and dirty. They are dropped on the floor. The best solution for most products? Keep them clean, safe and in brand-new condition by placing them into protective packaging. This could mean placing them in a box, a polybag, or shrink wrap. This is an extra step that takes time and costs a few pennies. But it will more than pay off with fewer buyer complaints.

Questions about how to keep your account safe? Ask us at Riverbend Consulting.

New sellers can get lost in the abbreviations

By: Kayla Forrest

Amazon acronyms from A-Z:

Amazon buy box wins are game changers: But how do you win?

But there are some key steps in making sure you are eligible for it:

By: Adam Hoagland

What is the buy box?

How do I win the buy box?

But there are some key steps in making sure you are eligible for it:

How to check buy box eligibility

Conclusion

Amazon might not catch you, but blackmailers sure could

By: Lesley Hensell

But is it really corporate espionage?

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

Scenarios that have played out for many Amazon sellers.

Restricted Products – Should You Appeal?

In one word – Yes!

By: Cathy Ceely

What Restricted Products enforcement may be successfully appealed?

How do I appeal Restricted Products enforcement?

How do I prevent Restricted Products enforcement?

Prepping inventory for FBA means thinking the process through

By: Lesley Hensell

Selling items as sets

When in doubt, box, polybag or shrink-wrap

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