ASIN

Editorial Recommendations

October 7, 2020 Leave a 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 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.

Amazon’s dirtiest FBA secret: Used, nasty and broken returns

June 11, 2020 Leave a Comment

Third-party Amazon sellers should monitor returns carefully or risk buyer complaints

By: Lesley Hensell

Curling irons with someone else’s hair in them. Mouthwash with broken seals. Coffee makers with smelly old moldy coffee inside.

These are only a few of the disgusting surprises that FBA sellers have experienced. Why? Because Amazon’s FBA returns handling processes are – to put it kindly – lacking.

What happens when customers return items to FBA?

One reason buyers love Amazon is the friendly returns policy for FBA purchases. Amazon makes it easy for customers, who can take a look at their mail-order item and decide to send it on back.

Unfortunately, buyers don’t always return items in new condition. This might mean torn packaging, broken seals, or even used items.

When an order is sent back to the FBA warehouse, Amazon personnel are supposed to inspect it carefully. They are charged with determining if the item is still in “new” condition. If so, it is placed into the seller’s fulfillable inventory. If not, it is placed in unfulfillable. A third possible scenario involves Amazon repackaging the item. This happens when the product is in new condition, but the packaging is not. Amazon reserves the right to repackage it and place it back into fulfillable inventory. (The setting that once allowed sellers to turn off repackaging has been taken away. Sorry, folks, you’re stuck with it.)

Amazon’s warehouse employees are graded on the number of transactions they conduct per hour. Human nature dictates that this leads to inaccuracy as employees try to meet or beat the required work level. Of course, quality naturally suffers, and items that should never be placed into fulfillable inventory are re-sold.

Another problem occurs when Amazon puts returns in fulfillable from categories that are supposed to be disposed of or not required to be mailed back to the warehouse. Supplements are a good example. These items should never be put back into fulfillable, but often are anyway.

What can 3P sellers do to protect themselves?

The most worrisome scenarios with bad returns involve products that a 3P seller stocks over the long term. Therefore, the higher volume you sell over time, the more potentially bad returns are sent back to the Amazon warehouse.

There are a few strategies that 3P sellers can employ to combat the problem:

For private-label products, add a printed seal. Include language such as “if seal is broken, item is not new.” This seal is not for buyers. It’s for personnel on Amazon’s FBA returns processing teams. This way, they will be more likely to place an opened item into unfulfillable inventory.
Sell down or sell through. For products you replenish, allow your stock to sell through. Alternatively, sell it down and then place a removal order for the remaining units. In the meantime, restock with a different SKU. This way, bad stock being resold multiple times will be removed from the FBA warehouse.

In conclusion, if you need help with your FBA strategies, don’t hesitate to contact Riverbend Consulting. Let’s talk 877-289-1017 or visit our website.

Amazon suspends sellers for inauthentic, sells their “fake” goods to the public

May 22, 2020 Leave a Comment

Does Amazon really believe 3P sellers offered bad products, or is it trying to make a quick buck?

By: Lesley Hensell

Is Amazon liquidation safe? Unsuspecting members of the public are buying goods Amazon labeled as “inauthentic” or in violation of a brand’s intellectual property (IP). In similar fashion, third-party sellers who purchase liquidation lots from Amazon’s warehouses are buying stock fraught with authenticity and IP problems.

This shocking strategy reasonably upsets veteran Amazon 3P sellers. In essence, Amazon either suspends their products (ASINs) or even their selling accounts. Then, the company refuses to return inventory if it has been characterized as counterfeit, an intellectual property violation, or inauthentic.

But what happens to the goods then?

To dispose or not dispose

In cases of counterfeit (or accused counterfeit) goods, Amazon destroys the goods. This is a legal requirement that is likely followed to the letter.

But then there are the rest of the goods. Imagine a third-party seller is listing perfume for sale. A buyer says that the perfume doesn’t “smell like she remembered this brand smelling” and complains that the item must be inauthentic. Amazon suspends the seller’s ASIN and asks for proof that the products are authentic – in the form of invoices.

The seller submits the invoices – real ones – to Amazon. For whatever reason, Amazon will no accept the invoices. They tell the seller no dice, you cannot sell that ASIN again, and we are going to dispose of it.

But then, Amazon does not dispose of the item. Rather, they put it up for sale on their Amazon Warehouse Deals account.

Shocking? Absolutely. After all, Amazon’s own in-house risk management team decided the goods could not be confirmed as authentic. Yet Amazon seizes them and sells them on its own 3P account. At what point does this become both theft from the seller and/or fraudulent behavior on the part of Amazon? It certainly shows cognitive dissonance and corporate schizophrenia.

Here’s a great example from one of our own clients. He was accused of an IP violation on his own trademarked, private-label item. The seller came to us for help, and we helped win the appeal. Unfortunately, by the time he hired Riverbend, Amazon had already seized $180,000 worth of his ASIN. What happened after the client won his appeal? Amazon claimed it had destroyed the inventory. And then, it popped up as an Amazon Warehouse Deal.

Liquidation spreads the problem far and wide

If Amazon Warehouse Deals doesn’t want the “fake” inventory, it most often goes into liquidation lots sold out of the Amazon warehouses. Amazon allows several companies – including its wholly owned subsidiary Woot! – to piece together lots of inventory. These goods have been “disposed of” by third-party sellers, or by Amazon at the direction of Seller Performance and Vendor Performance.

This allegedly law-breaking inventory that is inauthentic or an IP violation goes from the liquidation companies to all manner of purchasers. They then sell it on secondary and tertiary markets.

And guess who makes up a significant percentage of purchasers of liquidation lots? You guessed it. Amazon third-party sellers. These unsuspecting sellers believe (or are told) that if the inventory was liquidated out of an Amazon warehouse, it must be safe for sale on Amazon again.

Unfortunately, nothing could be further from the truth, and the cycle continues. Through it all, the only one getting rich is Amazon.

Have questions about your Amazon seller account, the Riverbend Consulting team is ready to help you. Let’s talk 877-289-1017 or visit our website.

Spring clean your Amazon seller account

May 8, 2020 Leave a Comment

Don’t let a messy Amazon account cause problems or hamper sales. Clean it up!

By: Jay Morane

Spring has sprung. Don’t only spend time cleaning your house. Invest some time spiffing up your Amazon seller account. That’s right, spring clean your Amazon seller account.

I want to give you a few tasks you can tackle today that will help reduce the risk of future problems. In addition, I’ll offer suggestions that may increase sales.

You can’t spell Spring without IP

Anyone who has dealt with an intellectual property (IP) issue will tell you that they are not fun. IP issues can be related to trademark, copyright, counterfeit, or patent. Unfortunately, they can be pretty complicated.

There are steps you can take today to reduce the possibility of an IP issue in the future and better prepare you to address one if it should happen:

Clean up your inventory. Just because a listing is inactive, out of stock or you have never sold it, that does not mean it cannot cause you headaches. IP issues can arise from any listing that appears in your inventory, even if you never had any units of that item for sale. If you have a bunch of listings in Manage Inventory that you are not going to sell, delete them! Why take a chance on having to address an issue that you can prevent just by deleting the listing?
Can I see your license and registration? If you are selling licensed, copyrighted or trademarked products, you are at risk for an IP issue. That is the harsh reality of selling on Amazon. Even if you are authorized to sell a product, at some point, you could be asked to prove it is authentic. If Amazon were to request documents such as a Letter of Authorization or Licensing Agreement, do you have that paperwork? Now is the perfect time to get yourself prepared for just such a situation. If you do not have these documents, contact your supplier or the Rights Owner to get them now. Keep them on file. That way if something does happen, you can respond quickly and minimize the downtime for your account.

April showers bring May … Product Detail Pages:

When was the last time you looked at your Product Detail Pages? Let me clarify that. When was the last time you looked at them on your phone?

A very wise colleague pointed out to me that most of the shopping done on Amazon is through the use of mobile devices such as our phones. However, most sellers create their listings on PCs and laptops, which have fairly large screens. The pages are created with images to be seen on these larger screens, and the titles may get a bit lengthy to maximize the search exposure.

Then there are the bullet points and descriptions, which can also get a bit wordy at times. In the end it looks great on a 24-inch monitor screen, but how does it look on a 4-inch cell phone screen?

Now is a good time to go back and look at some of your Product Detail Pages from a different perspective – a smaller one. Break out you cell phone and take a look at some of your PDPs. Do they convey the necessary information in the smaller format? Are they easy to read and understand? Do the images appear clear and easy to see? Are your bullet points ordered with the most important one first?

You want your Product Detail Pages to be clear and concise at any size.

Have questions? Now is the time to get answers

Don’t wait until crazy Q4 to have your critical questions answered. Just spring clean your Amazon seller account! If you need advice or have questions about your Amazon account, ask them now! Check out the help files on Seller Central. Go through Seller University. Start some discussions in your favorite Amazon seller groups.

Or, if you need help, don’t hesitate to contact us at Riverbend Consulting. We are happy to get your account shipshape. Let’s talk 877-289-1017 or visit our website.

Jay Moran is a Consultant at Riverbend Consulting. He is a strong advocate for the sellers and goes above and beyond to use his skills to help in every way he can. Jay has experience in Amazon Seller Support/FBA as well as the Amazon Account Health Team. He worked with sellers to assist them in understanding the metrics and policies related to their Account Health as well as assisting them with reinstatement.

Should I hire a lawyer for Amazon suspensions?

May 8, 2020 Leave a Comment

Working the appeals system with a skilled Amazon consultant creates better results

By: Lesley Hensell

When my Amazon seller account is suspended, should I hire a lawyer? No. An attorney should not be your first call.

It’s an understandable knee-jerk reaction to start searching for a legal eagle. After all, Amazon has all the resources in the world. In other kinds of disputes, attack-dog lawyers are a great option for companies that need a fighter on their side.

But an Amazon suspension – whether for an account or an ASIN – is a very different animal from a lawsuit. Plus, there are several reasons that hiring an attorney early in the process can actually make it less likely you will be successful in your dealings with Amazon.

Legal eagles don’t fly in reinstatement appeals

There are a few simple reasons that attorneys do not make good Amazon appeal writers:

A key element to any account appeal or ASIN appeal is an admission of guilt. Amazon wants to know what you did wrong. Lawyers are opposed to admitting guilt – even if you were wrong. They are concerned that an admission of wrongdoing would hurt their client in future litigation. But without the admission, reinstatement will almost never happen.
Lawyers make threats and demands. Instead of going through the appeals process, some attorneys encourage sellers to send demand letters to Amazon’s legal department. This is a tremendous mistake. If you approach Amazon Legal instead of going through standard appeals channels, Amazon is very likely to stop communicating with you. Any future appeals you submit would be completely ignored.
Attorneys are not e-commerce consultants. For many appeal types, it’s critical that you correct failed business processes. The best appeal writers have experience with business processes and e-commerce. They know how to help your company identify gaps, update your SOPs and explain the results to Amazon.
Lawyers haven’t worked inside the Amazon machine. Ideally, your appeal should be written by somebody with an in-depth understanding of Amazon’s thinking, SOPs and structure. Teams that include ex-Amazon employees from Seller Performance and Seller Support can provide insight and guidance that a law firm cannot. Plus, Amazon consultants know how to work multiple channels inside of Amazon to solve your problems.
You cannot sue Amazon. With very limited exceptions, third-party sellers cannot file lawsuits against Amazon. This is part of the Business Solutions Agreement (BSA), which governs the relationship between the two parties.

When should I hire a lawyer?

There are some limited circumstances where third-party sellers should hire an attorney to protect their interests on the platform:

Intellectual property complaints can be difficult. Oftentimes, an Amazon consulting company like Riverbend can help you appeal these successfully. But in limited circumstances, you may need an attorney to defeat a complaint made against your company. Keep in mind, in these cases the attorney isn’t fighting Amazon on your behalf. Rather, the lawyer communicates with the alleged rights owner to try and convince them to remove their complaint. Or, in some cases, a lawsuit against the alleged rights owner may be necessary. This is particularly true for patent claims.
Sometimes, mediation is the end game. If the appeals process fails – both internally at Amazon and externally with government and quasi-government agencies – it’s time for mediation. This is allowed under the BSA. Some sellers choose to attack the mediation process themselves or with the help of a consultant. Others with a lot of money at stake may choose to hire an attorney to help with the process.

Our Riverbend Consulting team is full of ex-amazonians ready to help you. Let’s talk 877-289-1017 or visit our website.

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

By: Lesley Hensell

Why should sellers care?

There are other benefits as well.

Third-party Amazon sellers should monitor returns carefully or risk buyer complaints

By: Lesley Hensell

What happens when customers return items to FBA?

What can 3P sellers do to protect themselves?

There are a few strategies that 3P sellers can employ to combat the problem:

Does Amazon really believe 3P sellers offered bad products, or is it trying to make a quick buck?

By: Lesley Hensell

To dispose or not dispose

Liquidation spreads the problem far and wide

Don’t let a messy Amazon account cause problems or hamper sales. Clean it up!

By: Jay Morane

You can’t spell Spring without IP

April showers bring May … Product Detail Pages:

Have questions? Now is the time to get answers

Working the appeals system with a skilled Amazon consultant creates better results

By: Lesley Hensell

Legal eagles don’t fly in reinstatement appeals

When should I hire a lawyer?

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