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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

Huge ABH Pharma recall snafu leads Amazon to take down wrong supplement ASINs

February 7, 2020 Leave a Comment

PL sellers who once used ABH Pharma to manufacture their items see whole catalog deactivated

By: Lesley Hensell

A massive pharma recall in the supplements category has essentially put many Amazon third-party sellers out of business – even though their products should never have been subject to the recall.
ABH Pharma is a contract manufacturer that has worked with hundreds of private-label supplements brands in the past several years. Unfortunately, the company violated good manufacturing practices regulations, resulting in the recall of dietary supplements they created over the last six years.
The consent decree information released by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) was sparse. Instead of the typical level of detail such as lot numbers, dates and specific products affected by the recall, only a list of brands was provided.
That’s where the trouble started. Last week, Amazon began suspending some or all ASINs belonging to the brands listed by the FDA. But in some cases, these products were completely unrelated to the recall. In fact, for our clients, the vast majority – or entirety – of ASINs suspended for the recall were never manufactured by ABH Pharma.
The situation is much more dire for these sellers than simply having suspended ASINs. Amazon has sent out emails to customers who ever purchased any of these sellers’ brands, telling them the products were recalled (even if they were not) and offering refunds. Some sellers have already seen automatic refunds topping a half-million dollars.
pharma recall

The problems go even deeper.

Inventory has been thrown into stranded status. And Amazon is sometimes insisting inventory be recalled for inspection – though it seems impossible to actually place the removal order in some cases.
The path to solving this issue is crooked and different for each seller. Multiple Amazon departments are involved, from Recalls and Legal to Seller Support and Credit Ops. There is no simple appeal letter to Seller Performance. There is no common sense being applied internally at Amazon.
If you need help with recalls related to ABH, please contact us here. Or call us 877-289-1017. Don’t wait. It could take some time to solve all of the issues related to this gargantuan Amazon error, including bad reviews, damaged brand reputation and more.

Filed Under: 3P, Account Health, Amazon, General, Private Label Tagged With: ABH Pharma, Amazon, Amazon FBA, Amazon seller, ASIN, Box, Deactivation, FBA, FDA, Fulfillment center, IP, PL, Private Label, Product recall, Refunds, Reimburse, Shipment, Supplements, Warehouse

Vendors are getting ripped off by Amazon at the warehouse level

October 1, 2019 Leave a Comment

How many millions does Amazon owe to its 1P vendors, and why won’t they pay out?

By: Lesley Hensell

For years, I’ve heard horror stories from Amazon third-party sellers about inventory lost, damaged or destroyed by Amazon fulfillment centers (FCs). But just when I thought these tales couldn’t get any worse, we started getting calls that 1P vendors are getting ripped off by Amazon at the warehouse level. Amazon owes them hundreds of thousands of dollars, and the e-commerce giant won’t pay up.
damaged box
How common is this? Probably more common than most people would imagine, since the cases just keep coming in to Riverbend, where we specialize in helping sellers and vendors deal with Amazon problems.
Check out these recent scenarios:
  • A snack food vendor shipped product to an Amazon FC. Amazon then put about $40,000 worth of the product on a truck to send to another warehouse. The truck was involved in an accident, and the product was destroyed. The carrier (hired by Amazon) filed a claim with its insurance company, and the vendor was told to expect a resolution and reimbursement in three to five business days. Six months later, no money had come. The vendor hired Riverbend, and after an executive escalation, the vendor finally got their payment from Amazon.
  • A long-time Amazon vendor of beauty products had many, many shipments that were not received in a timely manner at the Amazon FC. They filed claim after claim, and Amazon eventually “found” the inventory and paid the vendor for the items. But, even for payments made after two, three or more months, Amazon automatically deducted a quick-pay discount of 2 percent. This discount should not have been taken unless the invoice was paid in less than 30 days. The fraudulent discounts added up to over $300,000. The vendor hired Riverbend and asked us to go after the most recent two years of fraudulent discounts. After multiple executive escalations, we helped them shake $76,000 out of Amazon. Now, we are going after the balance.

We are currently working on more of these appeals, for companies whose inventory was delivered at the FCs but never received. Amazon refuses to pay up, saying they don’t have the items. Yet approved carriers show a signature at the Amazon dock.

These stories bring up many questions:
  1. Why is there no easy way for vendors to get paid when out-of-process exceptions happen? It seems like there should be some simple methods for vendors to follow, such as reaching out to the Vendor Support team or Accounts Payable. But these emails get no results. Instead, the vendor is told their items is being “researched” by the “appropriate team” – sometimes for months or even years!
  2. Why does it take Accounts Payable so long to research, respond to and reimburse these issues – which are often quite simple? When a truck crashes and food items are destroyed, clearly the vendor should be paid. There’s no two ways about it.
  3. What kind of (bad) incentives are in place to encourage this kind of terrible behavior by Amazon team members on behalf of their employers? Amazon’s vendors are – in many times – small businesses. They cannot afford to be ripped off, or even to have payments delayed for months at a time. Yet Amazon FCs feel justified in delaying receipt of goods to positively impact their numbers and slow payments. Amazon Accounts Payable has no problem holding funds – indefinitely – that do not belong to them. In fact, they have no problem wrongly taking millions in discounts – and refusing to reimburse them.
  4. When Amazon is being watched by the Federal Trade Commission, why would they allow such blatant fraud, abuse, and breach of contract to occur on a regular basis?
If your Vendor account has been stiffed by Amazon, or you have missing 3P inventory that Amazon won’t reimburse, please reach out to our team. We can help.

Riverbend Consulting navigates online retail. Get your Amazon account reinstated, sell with confidence, and increase your bottom line. Contact us.

Lesley Hensell is Partner at Riverbend Consulting, she offers practical know-how to improve retail performance. Lesley’s experience with Amazon compliance gets accounts back up fast.

Filed Under: Account Health, Amazon, Fulfillment, General, Private Label, Seller Performance, Vendor Tagged With: 1P, Amazon, Amazon FBA, Amazon seller, Amazon vendor, Damaged, Inventory, Lost, QPD, Shipment, Suspension, Warehouse

Amazon FBA mistakenly flagging incoming boxes as “overweight”

September 19, 2019 Leave a Comment

Amazon sellers should take precautions to protect themselves from the penalties of overweight boxes

By: Lesley Hensell

Amazon FBA must have its scales out of balance. Over the last few weeks, a growing number of Amazon sellers are receiving warnings for sending allegedly overweight boxes to the FBA fulfillment center.

The rules are clear. Amazon has several requirements for boxes sent via small parcel delivery:

  • Units must be prepped according to Amazon’s packaging and prep requirements
  • Boxes must have both an FBA shipment label and carrier label
  • FBA boxes must not weigh more than 50 pounds each, unless they contain a single oversize item that weighs more than 50 pounds
  • Boxes must not exceed 25 inches on any side
  • Boxes must be packed properly, so they arrive at the fulfillment center intact

anvil imageThe sticking point lately revolves around the 50-pound weight limit. In some cases, Amazon is marking inbound shipments for breaking the overweight boxes rule – even if the weight is as low as 44 pounds.

Therefore, this begs the question – how can sellers protect themselves?

There are a few steps that you can take, to avoid penalties for overweight boxes:

  1. Take pictures. After you print and apply the stickers to the outside of the box, snap a photo. The picture should include both the number on the scale and the weight on the carrier’s sticker, as well as the tracking number.
  2. Get a receipt. If you drop off your boxes at a UPS location, they most likely weigh each carton. Get the shipping receipt and keep it on file. It includes the weight of the box, and it can be tied directly to the box via tracking information.

Certainly these precautions may be overkill for the average seller, or for any shipping boxes that weigh less than 40 pounds. However, they become more important if an account already has a warning. In conclusion, cover your behind. Nobody wants inbound shipping privileges suspended as we head into Q4.

For other Q4 warnings look at back at this popular blog, Q4 Headaches: the wrong way to drop ship.

Riverbend Consulting navigates online retail. Get your Amazon account reinstated, sell with confidence, and increase your bottom line. Contact us.

Lesley Hensell is Partner at Riverbend Consulting, she offers practical know-how to improve retail performance. Lesley’s experience with Amazon compliance gets accounts back up fast.

Filed Under: 3P, Amazon, General, Private Label, Seller Performance Tagged With: 3P seller, Amazon, Amazon FBA, Amazon seller, Fulfillment center, Inbound, Inventory, Seller central, Shipment, Suspension

Should new Amazon Sellers be flipping products from deal sites?

August 5, 2019 1 Comment

Flipping products such as cheap or free inventory is tempting, but carries significant risk

By Lesley Hensell

 

It seemed like the ideal way to get started selling on Amazon – flipping deeply discounted or free products purchased right on Amazon itself! But this tempting method of sourcing can lead to disaster.

buying or flipping product graphic text

 

“I went to those deal sites online,” my client said during our intake call about his account suspension. “They have huge discounts for products listed on Amazon. So, I would buy the items and then flip them. The margins were amazing. Some stuff I bought had a discount of 90 percent or was even free.”

My client visited sites like Vipon, JumpSend and SnagShout, where Amazon private-label (PL) sellers post deals to drive sales and improve their Best Seller Rank. After buying the goods (or getting them for free), he listed them on Amazon.

As one might imagine, this had the immediate effect of angering the affected PL sellers. These PL sellers had brand registry, and they had also filed IP complaints. Lots of them. My seller ended up suspended.

In other cases, I’ve seen PL sellers perform test buys and claim the products are counterfeit, inauthentic, or used sold as new. They have left terrible, sticky feedback and complained to Amazon endlessly.

Try to understand the situation from the PL sellers’ perspectives.
They sell at huge discounts to launch their products – not to create competition on their very own listings! (We are talking about how such massive discounts violate Amazon policy, but that’s a topic for another day.)

As a result, the old phrase “too good to be true” comes to mind. These “deals” are too good to be true, if you’re planning to resell them on Amazon.

What should a new Amazon seller do instead? Every sourcing method carries expense and risk, but there are many alternatives that are safer – if not as profitable. Buy from wholesalers, distributors or local manufacturers. Even retail arbitrage and online arbitrage – which carry quite a bit of risk and are not a great long-term strategy – are less risky than buying from deal sites and incurring the wrath of PL sellers.

Have questions about the health of your account? Call Riverbend Consulting 877-289-1017.

Lesley is Partner at Riverbend Consulting, she offers practical know-how to improve retail performance. Lesley’s  experience with Amazon compliance gets accounts back up fast.

Filed Under: Account Health, Amazon, General, Inventory Sourcing, Private Label, Quality Control, Seller Performance, Vendor Tagged With: Amazon, Amazon Account Reinstatement, Amazon Account Suspension, Inventory, Inventory Flips

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