Flashback Friday

Navigating the dynamic world of Amazon selling can be a daunting challenge as it requires constant adapting to a continuously changing landscape. Fear not, eCommerce friends! Flashback Friday is your trusty guide to help you stay sharp and informed about the latest Amazon seller news and trends. Sure, your Account Health page offers great insights, but having a reliable source of up-to-date information is critical to steering your ship in the right direction.

Every week, we gather the most crucial updates from Amazon and the broader online marketplace to keep you, the savvy entrepreneur, ahead of the curve. We’ve got your back, be it updates on Amazon’s Terms of Service, the latest on Brand Registry, seasonal advertising strategies, or the next big Seller Conference. So, if you’re looking for a quick refresher on Amazon policies, valuable insights from our AO2 experts, or any noteworthy happenings for omni-channel sellers, pop by here on Flashback Friday to get in the know. Think of us as your friendly “In Case You Missed It” reminder. We have compiled a list of notable updates to round out the week. In case you missed it:

🚨Don’t Lose Access to Prime Exclusive Discounts!

Starting December 16, 2024, Amazon is streamlining its discount creation process. Prime Exclusive Discounts will move to the Price Discounts tool, allowing sellers to manage both types of discounts in one place.

Key dates to note:

• After December 16, 2024, you must use the Price Discounts tool for Prime Exclusive Discounts.
• On January 7, 2025, the standalone Prime Exclusive Discounts tool will be retired.

Why this matters:

Secondary users do not automatically have access to the Price Discounts tool in Seller Central. 

• To prepare, ensure your account’s secondary users have permissions to access the Price Discounts tool via Settings > User Permissions > Global User Permissions

⚠️ Amazon Haul Debuts: What Brands Need to Know This Holiday Season

Amazon has introduced Amazon Haul, a new discount-focused storefront, aiming to compete with platforms like Temu and Shein. This mobile-exclusive store features a wide range of items, including fashion, home goods, and tech accessories, all priced under $20. How does it compare to the traditional Amazon store, and Prime perks?

• Shipping is free for orders over $25
• Smaller orders have a $3.99 fee
• Delivery times range from 1 to 2 weeks, marking a shift from Amazon's usual fast shipping standards.

While Haul offers cost-conscious consumers a tempting alternative, brands should take note—this move could disrupt Q4 sales patterns. Amazon's ability to combine low prices with trusted quality and robust customer service makes this a potential major disrupter, particularly as shoppers prioritize affordability during the holiday season.

Keep yours eyes on our blog for a more in depth look at Amazon Haul, coming soon!
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Until next time! 🚀

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📰 Explore the new Seller News experience

Amazon Launches New Seller News Interface – Here’s Why It Matters for Third-Party Sellers

Amazon has redesigned the Seller News section on desktop, aiming to help sellers stay informed about critical updates and changes. With improved navigation, streamlined article categories, and personalized content, the new setup is designed to help sellers quickly locate information that impacts their business.

Key Features:

• Centralized Homepage: A new homepage now features a “Featured Stories” section, where Amazon highlights major updates, policy changes, and announcements in one convenient place. 
• Organized Categories: Articles are now organized by refined categories, so you can quickly find related information, whether it’s about policy updates, operational tips, or growth strategies.
• Suggested Articles: While reading, sellers will see recommendations for related articles.

Why This Matters for Sellers

Amazon's platform is constantly evolving, with frequent updates to policies, fees, and operational requirements. For third-party sellers, staying informed on these changes can directly impact compliance, competitiveness, and profitability. This new, user-friendly design aims to make it easier for sellers to access the information they need to manage and grow their businesses effectively.

To explore these updates and streamline your access to Amazon’s latest news, head to the redesigned Seller News homepage on desktop. Prefer to let us do it for you? We also invite you to bookmark our blog homepage for the low down on all Amazon updates!

🔔Amazon Launches “Dynamic Segments” for Display Ads – All the Details

Amazon has just introduced Dynamic Segments for display ads, a powerful new tool to help sellers reach audiences most likely to engage and purchase from their brand. This feature uses Amazon's machine learning to adjust audience targeting based on relevance and performance data, making ad campaigns more efficient and impactful.

What’s New?

With Dynamic Segments, sellers can now target audiences that are likely to be interested in their products based on multiple signals, including Amazon’s first-party shopping data, your website's visitor behavior, and your conversion data. The new “Audiences likely to be interested in your ad” segment continuously optimizes to display ads to the most relevant customers, improving the chance of conversion.

Why Does It Matter?

This update is a game-changer for sellers aiming to expand their reach and scale ad performance. By adding this dynamic segment to your campaigns, you can better engage potential customers, improve your campaign’s efficiency, and ultimately drive more sales. Amazon recommends combining this new dynamic segment with its other targeting types—such as Amazon Audiences, Views, and Purchases—to maximize campaign results.

This feature is a valuable tool for sellers, allowing them to stretch their ad budgets and reach more customers effectively.

Available now in the US for Self Serve and businesses not selling on Amazon via the advertising console and API

🔥Voice of the Customer is now available on Vendor Central

Amazon recently launched Voice of the Customer (VoC) in Vendor Central (VC) to help 1P brands optimize product performance on Amazon.

Just like in Seller Central, VOC provides the follow for Vendors:

• Customer experience (CX) health ratings for products with recent sales
• Identification of products with high return rate badges
• Insights to address product listing, inventory, or customer support issues
• Opportunities to enhance customer experience and reduce returns
• The CX health metric evaluates your products based on customer feedback and order data, benchmarking against competitors.

To access Voice of the Customer:

Go to Vendor Central

Select Reporting

Select Voice of the Customer

Important Reminder Regarding FBA reimbursements

Starting today, November 1, 2024, Amazon is introducing a streamlined FBA reimbursement system to automatically reimburse sellers for lost inventory items, making claims for lost products simpler and less time-consuming. However, with the timelines for filing claims changing last month, for example, you now have just 60 days (down from 18 months) to file claims for lost or damaged inventory items, sellers may actually need to be more proactive in their approach to inventory management.

While automatic reimbursements can save sellers time, situations like “empty box” incidents or returns still require manual claims. This change, at least initially, requires sellers to monitor inventory closely to avoid missing reimbursement opportunities and highlights the benefits of using a reimbursement service to ensure every potential claim is addressed​. If you’re interested in help tracking down reimbursements and ensuring you don’t leave anything on the table, why not get a free audit from our pals over at Seller Investigators? They’ll present you with their findings on available cash to reclaim, and you don’t pay anything until the money is recovered!

Percentage off coupons can now be applied on up to five items per order

You can now allow customers to apply your percentage off coupon on up to five items per order. Previously, customers could use only one coupon per order and often made multiple purchases to save on each item. This change lowers the number of orders that you need to process and can reduce your delivery costs. This is an optional change, but does impact the workflow, so you want to be sure you're making the right selection for what you intend to offer:

Select No for Limit redemption to one per customer, your percentage off coupon can be applied to a maximum of five items per order.

Select Yes for Limit redemption to one per customer,only one coupon will be allowed per order.

Here are examples of how it works:

• If a customer clips a 10% off coupon (offer price $50) and buys three of your items, they’ll be able to use the coupon on all three items for a $15 total discount on this purchase ($5 off each item with the 10% coupon).
• If a customer clips a 10% off coupon (offer price $50) and buys eight items in a single order, they’ll get 10% off the maximum of five items per order for a total discount of $25. They won’t get to use the coupon on the remaining three items in this order.

This change doesn’t apply to money off coupons, which are limited to one per order even when the option for Limit redemption to one per customer is set to No. Customers can use the money off coupon multiple times only if they make separate purchases.

Update to Valid Tracking Rate guidelines - Coming Jan 15th

Amazon’s new Valid Tracking Rate (VTR) guidelines, coming Jan 15th,  are designed to improve delivery tracking for seller-fulfilled orders. Sellers already must maintain a VTR above 95% for U.S. shipments, meaning over 95% of orders must have accurate tracking, a pretty steep standard in a metric that is primarily managed by the shipper.

The following updates will apply for the changes in January:

Sellers shipping to the U.S. from China, Canada, American Samoa, or the U.S. Minor Outlying Islands must provide tracking details, with packages under $5 requiring one scan and those $5 or more needing two scans.

If shipping from the U.K. or India, packages under $15 need one scan, while packages $15 or more require two.

Exemptions apply to certain low-value packages and digital products. To meet the new VTR standards, sellers should assess current shipping practices and implement robust tracking solutions.

The best way to avoid VTR defects is to utilize Amazon shipping where possible. Read more here

*New* Updated Brand Tailored Promotions experience

Brand-tailored promotions enable brand owners to create promotional codes (for discounts ranging from 10% to 50% off) to incentivize high-intent customers to purchase. Customers can find these promotions on the Search, Product Detail page, and Brand Stores, allowing you to build relationships with customers, improve customer retention, and build brand loyalty.

How has the experience changed? Amazon has enhanced Brand Tailored Promotions to enable more granular marketing campaigns. This update includes:

Goal-based audience creation: Creating a new promotion now prompts you to choose the business goal for the promotional campaign. You can select from goals such as New Customer Acquisition, Customer Retention, Re-engagement, and Cross-sell to engage with audiences tailored to your objectives.

ASIN-level promotions and audiences: You can now run promotions for specific products or product sets (in addition to offering discounts on your entire catalog) and the respective audiences will be curated at the ASIN level. This includes new audiences such as Views remarketing, Cart remarketing, One-time customers, and Lapsed customers.

Access to audiences outside your brand: The In-market Customer and Complementary Product Remarketing audiences help you reach potential customers who haven’t discovered your brand yet.

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See you next week! 🚀

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Webinar Recording Now Available

Did you catch all the latest updates from Amazon unBoxed? Our recent webinar includes everything you need to know - from exciting product launches to innovative advertising tools and strategies to help you stay ahead. Catch the full recording on YouTube and stay at the forefront of Amazon’s latest moves!

New Amazon Image Manager Update: Fix Image Issues Faster!
Amazon’s new Image Manager - Issue Alert feature is here to streamline image issue resolution, making it easier for sellers to spot and address problems fast.

Here’s how it helps:

• Quick Issue Alerts: Images with issues now show a red alert icon. Hover over it to see the exact problem.
• Centralized Visibility: No more searching—view all image issues directly in Image Manager instead of toggling between pages.
• Easy Fixes: Update images with one click by using the Upload button right next to each flagged image.

Check out the Product image requirements page to ensure your images meet Amazon’s technical and content requirements.

Discover how fast badges can help boost sales on your website

For Sellers using MultiChannel Fulfillment (MCF) for tha variety of webstores (including Shopify) or for their Google Ads the new MCF fast badges, which display dynamic delivery date estimates, are now available.

MCF fast badges show the estimated delivery date on your product detail pages and in Google Ads, which can help increase conversion and sales (up to 9% in a recent Amazon study)

For more information, go to How to enable MCF fast badges.

Updates to support US FBA peak inventory shipments

Amazon is experiencing longer receive times that are affecting inbound FBA shipments. High demand has led to longer receive times, especially at some West Coast inbound locations and for palletized freight. 

To support their operations, Amazon is making some changes to the inbound processing. These updates reflect changes that sellers must understand to avoid potential issues with inventory capacity and availability during high-demand periods.

Extended Automatic Closure Window (now 90 days for shipments created after August 7, through October 31, 2024): Amazon automatically closes inbound shipments that haven't been marked as shipped within 90 days. For sellers, this means unshipped or forgotten inventory can impact your capacity utilization if left open too long. Sellers should cancel any shipments they don’t plan to send, freeing up their inventory limits and avoiding any negative impact on storage capacity.

Extended Abandoned Shipments Window (from 30 to 45 days): For shipments created between August 7 and October 31, Amazon will now wait 45 days after the first receive date to consider an inbound shipment abandoned. This additional time offers some flexibility if there are delays, but sellers should monitor shipments closely to ensure products don’t become stagnant in the fulfillment centers.

Shift to East coast facilities Because Amazon has been clear that the backup are heavily impacting West coast facilities, shifting shipments to East coast locations is recommended. Palletized shipments are taking the most time to received, so LTL should be avoided when possible, in favor of FTL and small parcel.

‍Impact on Sellers: With peak season around the corner, these changes may negatively impact sellers' ability to replenish or get paid for goods that have stalled in receiving or have gone missing. Due to backups at FCs Amazon is giving themselves more time to resolve things internally before making any concessions for sellers. Review your inventory and make a plan!

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Until next time! 🚀

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Register for our Webinar!

Join us for The unBoxed 2024 Afterparty: Inside Amazon’s Latest Updates on October 23, 2024, at 1:00 PM Eastern Time! Our expert panel will break down the key insights and product releases from Amazon unBoxed 2024, helping you understand how the latest innovations can drive your brand’s growth.

Whether you’re looking to enhance your advertising efforts or optimize your brand's presence on Amazon, this webinar will give you the actionable tips you need to stay ahead. Don’t miss out on this opportunity to gain insider knowledge and strategies directly from industry experts. 

Register now and learn how to leverage the latest updates to grow your business on Amazon!

Get a reduced Vine enrollment fee with FBA New Selection
Effective September 15, 2024, Amazon introduced a new benefit for FBA New Selection participants—a 25% discount on the Vine enrollment fee for eligible ASINs. This applies when 3 to 10 units per parent ASIN are enrolled in Vine within 5 to 60 days of their first inbound shipment. Please note that previously enrolled ASINs are not eligible for the discount.

We encourage all sellers to regularly review FBA New Selection benefits each quarter. This program is open to any new-to-FBA ASIN, not just for new sellers, so be sure to take advantage of these perks! For more information and to enroll in the program, visit the FBA New Selection page.

Current benefits include:

• 10% rebate on average for sales of eligible ASINs: Enrolled sellers receive a monthly average rebate of 10% for sales of eligible parent ASINs that are new to FBA. We calculate the rebate based on the product category and account for the referral fees that are charged, to provide you with a rebate between 0% and 12%. The rebate is applied to your fulfillment fees the following month that it’s earned, and any unused amount expires one year after first applied to your account. For eligible branded and non-branded parent ASINs that are new-to-FBA, the rebate applies to up to 50 units for eligible non-standard size items and up to 100 units for eligible standard-size items for 120 days after the first inventory-received date.
• Reduced Vine enrollment fee: Enrolled sellers receive a 25% discount on the Vine enrollment fee for eligible selection. This discount applies when 3 to 10 units per parent ASIN are enrolled in Vine. ASINs must be enrolled in Vine 5 to 60 days of first inbound to be eligible. ASINs previously enrolled in Vine will not be eligible for the discount. This discount is applied once for each eligible parent ASIN.
• Free monthly storage and free liquidations for standard-size ASINs: No monthly storage fees will be charged for the first 100 units of each new parent ASIN for 120 days after the first unit is received at a fulfillment center. You can liquidate any of those first 100 units within 180 days after the first inventory-received date with no liquidation fees.
• Free monthly storage and free liquidations for non-standard size ASINs: No monthly storage fees will be charged for the first 50 units of each new parent ASIN for 120 days after the first unit is received at a fulfillment center. You can liquidate any of those first 50 units within 180 days after the first inventory-received date with no liquidation fees.
• Returns processing fee waiver: We'll waive return processing fees for up to 20 units of each standard-size parent ASIN. Returned items must be received at a fulfillment center within 180 days of the first inventory-received date.
• Global enrollment: You only need to enroll once and program benefits will be applied in each Amazon store automatically where you have an active account, determined based on your MCID and email, and have sent eligible new selection to fulfillment centers.
• Limited to new-to-FBA parent ASINs: After you enroll in the program, you can use the fee waiver program benefits for an unlimited number of new-to-FBA parent ASINs that you create.

Big updates to the Amazon Policy for Seller Bundles:

Amazon has recently updated its Product Bundling policy for the consumables categories, which include grocery, pet products, baby products, and health and beauty items. These changes, effective October 14, 2024, are designed to ensure that customers are offered only the highest quality bundles in Amazon’s U.S. store.

Key Updates to the Policy:

Manufacturer-Only Bundles: You can now only list bundles that are created and offered by the original manufacturer. The manufacturer must also be the brand owner for all items included in the bundle.

No Mixing of Different Brands or Generic Brands:

• Bundles cannot include products from different manufacturers.
• You cannot list a bundle under a "Generic" brand or your own brand.
• You can continue creating bundles as long as all products come from a single manufacturer.
• Existing bundles will not be immediately impacted, as enforcement will not begin until late Q4 2024. Amazon will provide 30 days’ notice via email and the Account Health dashboard before non-compliant bundles are suppressed.

We understand that parts of the policy may seem confusing, particularly the section on bundling different branded items. According to Amazon’s policy, bundles can include items with different brands; however, the bundle itself must be branded according to the highest-priced item in the bundle. This point has led to some uncertainty, but it is important to ensure that all items in the bundle meet the manufacturer requirement.

If you have any concerns or questions about how this policy may affect your product listings, feel free to reach out, and we can help you navigate these changes.

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See you next week! 🚀

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In Case You Missed It: Compliance Fast-Track Now Live

Amazon has introduced Compliance Fast-Track, a program to streamline your product compliance process. This program sources compliance information directly from participating certification organizations for specific product categories, eliminating the need for you to submit additional documentation.

Currently, the program covers categories like:

• Juvenile products
• Electronics
• Arts and crafts
• Window coverings

To check if your products qualify and to view the list of participating organizations, visit the Compliance Fast-track program page. This new feature aims to save you time and reduce the complexity of ensuring product compliance on Amazon. Let us know what you think!

Extended Returns Window for 2024 Holidays

Amazon has announced that the 2024 Extended Holiday Returns policy will allow customers to return items purchased between November 1, 2024, and December 31, 2024 until January 31, 2025.

This extended window applies to seller-fulfilled, FBA, and Amazon Retail orders. While the returns window will be longer, returns eligibility rules remain the same for all products.

This is standard operating procedure for holiday returns on Amazon, and as always, specific brands and product types may be excluded. Check out Amazon's About our returns policies page for more details.

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Until next time! 🚀

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🚚 Vendor Central PO receipt and product transfer updates - 

Amazon has regionalized its US receiving network to improve inventory placement and minimize long-distance transfers, resulting in faster delivery speeds and more consistent destinations for Vendor Central shipments. Most brands will now ship sortable inventory to regional cross docks to better serve regional demand.

National cross docks have also been introduced for slow-moving and long-lead inventory, ensuring optimal placement across the network. Brands may notice changes in PO destinations, but the total order volume will remain unchanged. Regional supply chain reporting will be available soon to help with planning and operations.

Best practices to ensure you see the benefits from these changes:

• Confirm POs weekly to improve placement and reduce out-of-stocks.
• Prioritize POs to new locations when possible.
• Regularly review forecasts to align inventory with expected orders.

🩷 Temporary Chargeback Waivers for Weather-Impacted Regions

Due to extreme weather, Amazon temporarily waives select Vendor Central chargebacks for US purchase orders.

From September 27 through October 3, 2024, all US POs are exempt from the Rejected PO Rate chargeback. Additionally, POs shipped to fulfillment centers or cross docks in Florida, Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama, North Carolina, or South Carolina are exempt from the following chargebacks:

• Purchase Order On-Time Accuracy: Not on time, Not filled, Down-confirmed
• Advance Shipment Notification Accuracy: All sub-types
• Pickup Accuracy: All sub-types

These exemptions apply to POs with ship or delivery windows ending during the waiver period or chargebacks incurred within the specified dates.

⏰ New Product Compliance Requirements for Listings

A new compliance requirement became effective for Amazon sellers on September 30, 2024! Amazon now requires sellers to submit and receive approval for product compliance documents before listing new items. This change ensures all products meet regulatory standards and Amazon’s policies, providing customers a safe and reliable selection. Previously, listings could be created and may later be audited, and compliance documents could be requested to continue selling.

Existing listings are not affected, and no changes have been made to current compliance requirements. However, Amazon may request additional information at any time to verify safety and compliance.

This sneaky update rolled out without advance notice in Seller Central. For more info and to submit compliance documents for a new listing, go to Inventory > Manage All Inventory, select Search Suppressed, and follow the prompts within Seller Central.

⚡ Highlight Fast Delivery with Google’s MCF Fast Badges

Using Multi-Channel Fulfillment (MCF), Sellers can now showcase fast delivery speeds and free shipping directly on Google by integrating with Google Merchant Center.

MCF Fast Badges display estimated delivery dates in Google Shopping ads and search results, helping attract more shoppers and increase engagement. Free shipping perks can also be featured alongside these badges, potentially boosting click-through rates by up to 7.6%*.

Key Benefits:

• Highlight fast, three-day delivery speeds in Google ads.
• Show upfront delivery estimates to boost engagement.
• Increase clicks and improve ad performance.

To opt in, complete the MCF Fast Badges form. For more details, visit the MCF Fast Badges for Google page.

*Based on a June 2024 Google A/B test report in the US.

🎉 Leverage FBA Inventory to Fulfill Orders on Social Commerce Channels

Amazon’s Multi-Channel Fulfillment (MCF) now allows sellers to automatically fulfill orders from social commerce platforms like TikTok, Instagram, and Pinterest using their existing FBA inventory. This update enables sellers to streamline order processing, track inventory in real-time, and expand their reach across popular social channels—all while leveraging the convenience and efficiency of Amazon’s fulfillment network.

This enhanced capability provides sellers with more opportunities to tap into new audiences and sales channels without managing separate inventory for each platform, making it a significant upgrade for those looking to expand their brand presence and drive sales on social commerce.

💲Coupon Update: Run Subscribe & Save and Reorder Coupons Simultaneously

Amazon now allows sellers to offer Subscribe & Save and Reorder coupons on the same ASIN simultaneously—responding directly to seller feedback! Previously, only one coupon could be active per ASIN, and overlapping promotions would cause the most recent coupon to be suppressed.

With this update, sellers can offer customers the flexibility to choose between discounts. For instance, eligible shoppers can now decide whether to use a 10% off Reorder coupon for a one-time purchase or opt for a 20% off Subscribe & Save discount for a subscription—giving buyers more options and boosting sales potential.

For more information, visit the Create a coupon page.

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Until next time, happy selling! 📦
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Reminder - Changes Coming to Amazon Reimbursements

1. Shortened Claim Windows:some text
   • Starting October 23, 2024, the window to file reimbursement claims for items lost or damaged in fulfillment centers will be reduced from 18 months to 60 days. This means sellers must monitor inventory more closely to avoid missing claim opportunities.
   • For customer returns, claims must be submitted between 60 to 120 days after the refund or replacement, allowing time for the customer to return the item.
   • Removal claims (for items lost in transit or otherwise) must be submitted within 15 to 75 days, depending on the situation. All other removal-related claims have a 60-day window after delivery.
2. Proactive Reimbursements:some text
   • As of November 1, 2024, Amazon will begin automatically processing reimbursements for most lost or damaged inventory in their fulfillment centers. However, sellers will still need to submit manual claims if a reimbursement isn't automatically issued.
3. New Reimbursement Caps:some text
   • For Multi-Channel Fulfillment (MCF) orders, there are now maximum limits on reimbursements, with country-specific caps, e.g., $450 AUD for Australia or €275 EUR for most European countries. Sellers with high-value products may need to consider supplemental insurance to cover potential losses beyond these caps.

In Case You Missed It: Fall Prime Big Deal Days Announced!

With the excitement of Amazon Accelerate behind us, it's time to shift gears for one of Amazon's biggest events of the season—Fall Prime Big Deal Days, officially happening on October 8-9, 2024!

This two-day event is expected to drive massive traffic and sales, making it a key opportunity for sellers to boost their Q4 performance. If you’ve been busy keeping up with all the news from Accelerate, here are a few actions we suggest you’ll want to take to prepare for Prime Big Deal Days:

Key Actions:

• Submit Deals ASAP: While it is too late for Lightning Deals, Prime-exclusive offers and other coupon/discount types are still available for the event.
• Inventory Check: Make sure your FBA inventory is stocked and optimized to meet increased demand. It may be too late to send more inventory, but you can still consider an FBM option.
• Update Your Listings: Ensure your product listings are fully optimized with high-quality images, keywords, and compelling descriptions. A well-optimized listing is crucial for conversion during high-traffic periods.

Access Amazon Accelerate Content & Watch Our Recap Webinar!

Did you miss a session or want to revisit key insights from Amazon Accelerate 2024? You’re in luck! Accelerate content is available for viewing until October 22. After that, the sessions will be moved to YouTube for continued access.

For a comprehensive recap, check out our Accelerate deep dive webinar recording, where we shared our top takeaways and actionable strategies from the event. Whether you attended or missed it this year, now is your chance to stay ahead with the latest Amazon trends!

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See you next week! 🚀
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🚨 MoCRA Compliance Update for Amazon Sellers: What You Need to Know - 

If you've been following us, you know that we announced the Modernization of Cosmetics Regulation Act (MoCRA) when it went into effect last year. Since then, we’ve closely monitored how the regulations would impact Amazon sellers.

As expected, the compliance updates for Amazon have started rolling out this year (with little fanfare from Amazon, we might add) and if you're selling cosmetics on the platform, there are important steps you need to take to stay compliant.

MoCRA introduces a new era of accountability and safety for cosmetic products in the U.S., and Amazon sellers are not exempt from these regulations. Whether you’re a small brand or an established seller, here’s what you need to be aware of:

• Required disclosure of Ingredients - Amazon says this can be in either text, image form, or both on the product detail page for impacted items.
• Reporting of  manufacturer information and drug facts (if applicable) - These details must be added as an image on the product detail page, in the form of the actual product's label with the drug facts and manufacturer information and specific purpose.
• Anyone seeking further information can visit the FDA help page on this topic.

🚨 Amazon's new "AI Generated Product Attribute Enrichment announcement - 

Sellers visiting the Explore Brand Selection dashboard in Seller Central this week may find a surprising message. If you’re one of those sellers, Don’t panic—this message may not apply to you!

Amazon's new "AI Generated Product Attribute Enrichment" is a feature designed to improve product listings by automatically generating missing or incomplete product attributes using AI. This tool leverages machine learning models to analyze product descriptions, customer reviews, and other data sources to fill in missing attribute fields, such as size, color, material, or other relevant details. It helps sellers enhance their listings by reducing the time spent manually adding these details, thus making products more discoverable by customers through more accurate and complete data.
Recently, the following message has started appearing in the dashboard:

This alert from Amazon's Seller Central about the "AI-Generated Product Attribute Enrichment" raises some seller concerns. The most important takeaway is that these suggestions apply only to sellers who have opted into Brand Selection. If that’s you, here are a few key points that sellers should be mindful of:

1. No Opt-In/Opt-Out Option: According to the alert, sellers cannot opt out of the suggestions feature entirely, but they can choose not to opt into Brand Selection to begin with or opt out of Brand Selection which will avoid the suggestions altogether. Accepting the terms of Brand Selection means accepting this update.
2. Automatic Updates if No Action Is Taken: The feature states that if sellers do not provide feedback by the specified Feedback Due Date, the AI-generated updates will be automatically published.
3. “You may contact Support to make any changes once the due date has passed.” This is the phrase that concerns us the most. While the alert states that brands will retain control of listing content, we don’t like the idea that you would have to contact support to reverse and changes!

Brand will need to make the final decision on Brand Selection and subsequently, the listing update tab on their own, but AO2’s suggestion at this time is to proceed with caution and, when in doubt, reach out to our team for help!

See you next week! 🚀

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🚨 Search Feature Experiment

Recently, we’ve seen a lot of news about review details being hidden in Amazon Search. This week, news broke that Amazon is currently testing a controversial update to its star rating system in select regions like India and Germany! (first reported by Android Police) 

Instead of hiding the star rating on search, the new design simplifies product ratings by showing a single yellow star next to the percentage of five-star reviews rather than displaying a breakdown of the average star ratings. This change has raised concerns, as it could make it harder for customers to gauge a product’s overall rating at a glance and might encourage sellers to manipulate their reviews by focusing on five-star ratings.

Despite the change in how ratings are displayed in search results, the full ratings breakdown remains accessible on the product's page. Amazon is still experimenting with the feature, and it's unclear if it will be rolled out globally or modified based on feedback from this test.

While the full impact, or broader rollout, is still TBD, this update could significantly affect how customers evaluate products, making it more important than ever for sellers to focus on compelling product descriptions and images to attract buyers.

🗓️ Holiday Shipping Deadline Reminder and support! - 

With the October 19th deadline looming for getting products into Amazon’s fulfillment centers in time for Black Friday and Cyber Monday, sellers must plan carefully to avoid missing out on the holiday season's high sales potential.

If you’re scrambling to ship goods to the U.S. and facing high freight costs, AO2 Management can help! Henry Chen, our Supply Chain Manager based in San Mateo, California, speaks Mandarin and has a decade of experience in the industry. Whether optimizing routes or strategizing logistics, Henry's expertise ensures seamless supply chain operations.

Don’t wait—grab a spot on Henry’s calendar today to secure your holiday sales! Meetings are available starting September 9th and will fill up quickly. Take action now to increase your likelihood of hitting the October deadline! 

📣 Update: Amazon Coupon Duration Changes Effective September 5th - 

On September 5th, Amazon announced a significant change to its coupons' maximum durations, effective September 5th. The maximum timeframes for three classes of coupons have been adjusted as follows:

• Standard Coupons: Reduced from 90 days to 30 days.
• Reorder Coupons: Increased to 180 days.
• Subscribe & Save Coupons: Extended to 365 days.

These changes are designed to enhance the impact of different promotional offers and incentivize customers to take advantage of deals within a set period.

Why This Matters:

• Planning Promotions: Sellers need to adjust their promotional strategies to fit these new timelines, ensuring that their deals stay aligned with the most impactful periods for customer engagement.
• Coupon Impact: With shorter durations for standard coupons, you can create a sense of urgency to drive conversions, while longer periods for Reorder and Subscribe & Save coupons will encourage repeat purchases and loyalty.

Take action now!

• Review Current Coupon Campaigns: If you have any coupons issued before September 5th, they can still run for up to 90 days. However, all new coupons created after this date must follow the new guidelines.
  

🔎 Upload 3D models to help drive conversions - 

Brand-registered sellers can now upload 3D models to product listings to showcase products from all angles and give customers more information that can help drive sales! This feature is finally coming out of a long Beta process and is available in the following categories: home, furniture, consumer electronics, shoes, and eyewear, as well as some others.

To view the full list of eligible product categories, go to 3D shopping experience and product types.

To upload 3D models, follow these instructions in Seller Central:

1. Navigate to Catalog and select Upload images.
2. Select the Image Manager tab at the top left of the screen and search for your product in the left pane.
3. Select the product for which you want to upload a 3D model, and check for the Registered brand owner icon in the right pane.
4. In the right page, go to 3D models and select Upload 3D model.
5. Follow the instructions on the page to upload and submit.

Submissions are evaluated against Amazon’s quality standards and may require retouches before publication. Go to the Submission status tab to determine if your submission was published successfully or requires additional action. Current SLAs for review are up to 2 weeks, so plan accordingly if you hope to add 3D content for Q4.

If you don’t have an existing 3D model and would like to add 3D content to your listing, Reach out to our team for support today!

🚚 Faster Amazon Multi-Channel Fulfillment orders delivery, just in time for Q4!

Faster delivery speeds for US Multi-Channel Fulfillment (MCF) orders are now available at no extra cost:

Standard delivery has improved to three business days, down from five.

Expedited delivery has improved to two business days, down from three.

Priority delivery is discontinued. Orders for priority delivery will be charged the expedited rate.

Until next time! 🚀

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🚨Updates to Amazon’s On-time Delivery Policy and Shipping Settings

Amazon's new On-Time Delivery Rate (OTDR) policy, set to take effect on September 25, 2024, imposes stricter requirements on sellers fulfilling their orders (FBM). Sellers must maintain an OTDR of 90% or higher, which now excludes any "promise extensions"—additional days Amazon might have previously added to account for potential delays. Instead, Amazon will measure OTDR based solely on the original promised delivery date.

This policy has a significant impact on sellers. Those who fail to meet the 90% OTDR threshold may lose the Featured Offer (aka Buy Box) on their product or even lose the ability to list seller-fulfilled products on Amazon.com, though they can still use Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA).

This policy could be especially challenging for sellers outside the U.S., particularly in regions with limited reliable tracking and shipping infrastructure. Since the OTDR applies to all sellers, regardless of location, international sellers without access to Amazon's "Buy Shipping" service may struggle to meet these new standards, potentially risking their selling privileges.

This policy has generated significant concern among sellers, who feel that Amazon's stringent delivery requirements may need to be revised, particularly during peak seasons or when using certain carriers that may only sometimes deliver on time.​ If you’re an FBM or MCF seller concerned about this new policy, Amazon’s Veeqo software could help!  Reach out today, and our team can talk you through options for assistance with this part of your business.

🛎Changes to Enhanced Brand Content Comparison Charts -

Amazon has recently announced that sellers will only be allowed to include one comparison chart per Enhanced Brand Content (AKA EBC or A+ Content) template. This change means you'll need to be strategic about which products to highlight in your comparison chart, ensuring it provide the most value to your customers.

It’s important to update your existing A+ Content to comply with this new guideline to avoid disruptions or rejections in your content submissions. The update was effective 8/19 for any new content created; however, sellers have until the end of September to adjust any existing content.

After this date, per Amazon’s announcement, “Any remaining projects with 3 or more Comparison Charts will automatically be reduced down to 1 Comparison Chart. This reduction will leave the first slotted Comparison Chart within the A+ content and remove any other Comparison Charts below it.”. 

🔥Use the carrier performance list to simplify your transportation plans - 

Now that sellers can choose from a list of preferred carriers during the Send to Amazon workflow, Amazon has launched a handy new Prepaid carrier list designed to help you do the following so that you can choose the best carrier for you business needs: 

• View weekly updates on carrier performance, such as on-time delivery rates and no-show percentages.
• Identify carriers that meet Amazon’s operational standards.
• Make more informed decisions about your logistics partners.

So far, sellers are giving mixed feedback on Amazon's new Prepaid Carrier List and the Carrier Performance updates. Some appreciate the transparency it provides on carrier performance, like on-time delivery rates, which helps them make informed decisions. However, others have concerns about the accuracy and reliability of the list, with reports of carriers being turned away at Amazon facilities or shipments still needing long delays despite using recommended carriers. These issues highlight the need for caution when relying solely on the Amaon’s feedback for logistics planning.

For more information, go to Carrier requirements for delivering shipments

Until next time! 🚀

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🚨Prime Exclusive Discount, Event Fee

We haven’t seen an official update from Amazon on this, but when attempting to set up Prime Exclusive Discounts for the Prime Big Deal Days event later this fall, we’re getting hit with a $50 Event Fee flag! 

It seems Amazon is planning to charge sellers $50 to participate in Prime-exclusive discounts during key sales events like Prime Day, Black Friday, and Cyber Monday. While these tentpole events have been crucial in driving significant sales, this new fee could be a burden for small and medium-sized sellers who rely on these events to boost their visibility and revenue.

Historically, sellers have leveraged Amazon’s sales events to achieve substantial growth, with some even seeing double-digit increases in sales and conversions. However, this additional cost may force sellers to reconsider their pricing strategies or decide whether participating in these discounts is still financially viable.

Sellers need to be aware of this change and consider the potential impact on their margins. The fee could reduce the overall profitability of participating in these events, especially for those already operating on thin margins.

This is your reminder to be an early adopter of new promotions and programs Amazon offers because it’s usually only a matter of time before these free things become monetized!

🚨FBA Refund Changes

Another under-the-radar update for Q4 that is impacting Amazon FBA sellers is a change to the claim period for FBA refunds. Beginning Oct 23rd, Amazon is updating the claim period from 18 months to just 2 months. For sellers, this means there is a critical need to clean up past claims now and to diligently follow up during the busy Q4 period to ensure potential refunds are not lost forever. 

This comes after Amazon’s recent announcement that FBA reimbursement will be automatically issued to sellers in many cases. However, seller trust in this process is low, and AO2 Management recommends sellers still continue to monitor and follow up where necessary to ensure they’re receiving their funds. 

Are you struggling to manage this task on top of all of your other business duties? Reach out today, and our team can talk you through options for assistance with this part of your business.

🔥Sellers can now select a preferred carrier when using Amazon Partnered shipping in the Ship to Amazon workflow

This week Amazon announced a huge update to allow sellers FBA to avoid carriers who have been problematic in their area. Now, sellers can choose from a list of Amazon-partnered carriers that will ship your inventory to Amazon. Note: all carriers may not be the same price, so sellers will need to balance their per-unit shipping cost with the ease of working with a particular carrier to find the best option for their business. In Q4, when deadlines are tight, this is going to be a massive upgrade to ensure you can work with carriers who you have regular daily pick-ups with, who don't miss deadlines, or straight up just have the drivers you prefer to work with!

Here’s how it works:

• As you go through the Send to Amazon workflow, step 4 is called Confirm carrier and pallet information.
• In this step, choose an Amazon-partnered carrier. Then, click the Change carrier button to make a selection for each of your shipments.
• Select a preferred carrier from the list of options, and click Confirm to proceed with the workflow.
• Once you make your selection, you will see the estimated capacity-backed pickup dates that are available for each carrier and the associated transportation cost. If you decide not to select a new carrier, your choice will default to the lowest-cost carrier provided by Amazon.

🌎 Expand your global catalog with Marketplace Product Guidance

With last week’s news of the 50% fee reductions for Amazon’s Poland marketplace, it’s a great time to revisit the Marketplace Product Guidance tool in Seller Central. To help sellers considering Poland or other market expansion, Amazon has revamped the tool to show items projected to do well in other markets,c with a newly added "rational" column to give more context to why they believe a product will do well in a specific market.

Updates to the Marketplace Product Guidance tool include the following:

• Machine learning models estimate the demand and potential sales uplift for cross-listed products.

• A notification that indicates whether a product is subject to cross-border compliance, destination restrictions, and localization and gating rules. A link to a solution provider is also displayed!

• The updated Rational column displays projected sales for potential product listings during the next 90 days.

• A new Competition column shows the number of offers for your product in a store and a View top competitors link takes you to products offered by other sellers.

You can access the Marketplace Product Guidance from the Growth drop-down menu in Seller Central or visit the Marketplace Product Guidance help page for more information.

See you next week! 🚀

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🚨Reminder - Peak fees are coming!

Just a quick heads up that holiday fees are coming to Amazon for FBA sellers, just as they do every year for QA4. 2024 holiday peak fulfillment fees for Fulfillment by Amazon will go into effect October 15, 2024, through January 14, 2025; note these fees are for FBA only as they pertain to fulfillment. 

The 2024 holiday peak fulfillment fee will apply to all products sold via US Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA), Canada FBA, North America Remote Fulfillment, US Multi-Channel Fulfillment, and Buy with Prime. The average holiday peak fulfillment fee is the same as last year, except for products priced under USD 10 in US FBA for which the peak fee is new in 2024. To determine how the holiday peak fulfillment fee may affect your business, you can review detailed rates by size and weight on the following help pages:

• US Fulfillment by Amazon fee rates
• Canada Fulfillment by Amazon fee rates
• Remote fulfillment with FBA fee rates- Mexico, Canada
• US Multi-Channel Fulfillment rates
• Buy with Prime rates

🚨New Amazon Product Detail Page (PDP) listing requirement - 

Effective August, 15, 2024, Amazon is enforcing some PDP guidelines that have been in place for years, despite many sellers continuing to fly under the radar using them. Guidelines for bullet points will be updated to officially reflect key changes to the following:

Restriction of special characters, emojis

Restriction of some phrases, such as refund-related guarantees

Emojis have been grey hat for years. If you’ve been riding that fine line and still use emojis, now is the time to update! Amazon advises they will be implementing generative artificial intelligence (AI) to help optimize listing quality. Meaning, they will locate and remove non-compliant content and use AI to generate compliant, high-quality bullet points. Don’t give the bots any reason to target your listings!

For more information about the updated requirements and content guidelines, visit the Product bullet point requirements in Seller Central.

🎉50% Fee Reduction for the Poland Marketplace -

Starting August 12, 2024, Amazon will be reducing Fulfilment by Amazon (FBA) fulfillment fees for the Amazon.pl marketplace by an average of 50%*, to help more businesses expand to sell in this market.

Reduced FBA fulfillment fees will apply automatically to domestic FBA, Pan-European FBA, and Multi-Channel Fulfilment orders in Poland (excluding European Fulfilment Network orders). Standard FBA fees apply if you use additional services or sell in other Amazon stores.

This fee change is not a promotion and has no expiry date. For more information, you can go to the FBA fulfillment fees help page on the Poland marketplace.

*Actual reduction may vary based on item quantity, dimensions, and weight.

That’s all for now. See you next week! 🚀

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🚨Q4 inventory deadline, Oct 19th

This week, Amazon announced the final date by which all inventory needs to arrive at fulfillment centers to be guaranteed for Prime delivery for Black Friday/Cyber Weekend in North America. That’s just about six weeks away, folks! The clock is ticking. Do you have your supply chain plans in place?

This also comes with the reminder that the overage fee for storage was eliminated, effective July 1, 2024. This means if your on-hand inventory exceeds your capacity limit, you will not incur the overage fee. Any overage fees that were incurred in June 2024 were charged to your account on July 2, 2024, but no further overage fees will be applied going forward. So go ahead and max out those capacity limits, there is no penalty for getting stocked up for the season!

🛎Submit your deals for the upcoming Labor Day sale

Big news! Amazon just announced a Labor Day sale beginning August 26, 2024, to run through September 3, 2024. Sellers can participate in this promotional event by offering deals, in addition to available coupons and promotional offers. Check your deals dashboard now for open opportunities.

🇨🇦Regulatory Advertising Fees added for ads served in Canada

Beginning August 15, 2024, Regulatory Advertising Fees will apply to your Amazon Ads account(s) for ads served in Canada.

• Which countries do the Regulatory Advertising Fees apply to?

Starting August 15, 2024, Regulatory Advertising Fees will apply to ads served in Canada. These fees already apply to ads served in France, Italy, Spain, United Kingdom, Austria, and Turkey. Amazon also applies these fees to advertisers based in some countries, such as Turkey and the United Kingdom, when they purchase certain ad types, regardless of where those ads serve. Application of these fees follows the introduction of Digital Services Taxes and/or other regulations in those jurisdictions.

• Which countries do the Regulatory Advertising Fees apply to?

Your Regulatory Advertising Fees are included in your invoice PDFs. You can also go to billing to view your invoice online. Learn more about these fees in the Amazon support center.

🇨🇦More Canada fee news!

On October 1, 2024, Amazon will introduce a digital services fee for digital services taxes (DST) that are implemented by the government of Canada, similar to those already charged in the UK, France, Italy, and Spain. Fees will apply to transactions in the Canada marketplace for all sellers. If you are a seller based in Canada, the fees wll apply to your sales in all marketplaces.

While the typical DST rate is 2% in the UK and 3% in Canada, France, Italy, and Spain, DST charges are unpredictable as they vary based on the location of your business, the location of the buyer, and other factors. Rather than base the digital services fee on these location variables, which would create an unpredictable business impact because you can’t know the location of customers who will buy your products, Amazon is introducing a fixed digital services fee based only on your location and the store in which you sell. For example:

• If your business is established in Canada and you sell a $15 item in the US store, you’ll be charged a 3% digital services fee ($0.07) on Selling on Amazon fees ($2.25) for sales starting October 1.
• If your business is established in the UK and you sell a $15 item in the US store, you’ll be charged a 2% digital services fee ($0.05) on Selling on Amazon fees ($2.25) and a 2% digital services fee ($0.07) on FBA fees ($3.30) for sales starting October 1.

For more information, visit the Digital services fee help page in Seller Central.

Until next time! 🚀

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🚨Reminder, Prime Big Deal Days deadline is approaching! 

Prime Big Deal Days is a Prime-Exclusive shopping event coming in Q4 (you may know it as “Fall Prime Day”, or “Prime Day 2”). This is your official reminder that the deal submission window is already open; we know, it’s crazy considering Prime Day just wrapped up, but the deadline for this fall event is quickly approaching. You have until August 9, 2024 (11:59 p.m. PDT) to submit recommended Deals to be considered for the event!

🔥Amazon is now accepting submissions for the Black Friday/Cyber Monday Event

Even crazier, you now have just over two months to submit your recommended Deals for BF/CM. Submit by September 6, 2024 (11:59 p.m. PDT) to be selected for the Black Friday/Cyber Monday Event on Amazon. Best Deals will run the entire duration of the event and may start as Prime Exclusive Deals.

🔥Amazon Ads South Africa launched!

For anyone who missed it, Amazon Ads launched in South Africa this month! To learn more, read the official press release here.

🚨PNG file types no longer accepted for images on Vendor or Seller Central

Although there has been no official announcement, AO2 Management has found that Amazon is no longer accepting PNG images for Product Detail Pages, even those images that were previously accepted and have been live on PDP more info on what is accepted. If you’re facing issues with listings reverting to old images or being search suppressed due to missing main images, try converting your existing png file to jpg, or reach out to AO2, and we’ll be happy to assist you! 

Until next week, happy selling! 🚀

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🔥Amazon Retail Analytics enhancements and new features - July 2024

We’re thrilled to share the latest updates and improvements to Amazon Retail Analytics (ARA) within Vendor Central.

ARA enhancements and new features

• Customizable columns - Personalize your experience by selecting or hiding columns.
• Enhanced search - Parent ASIN, UPC, ISBN, and EAN have been added to relevant reports for more comprehensive data.
• Real-time sales dashboard (manufacturers) - Track an ASIN's ordered units and sales in the last 24 hours. Multiple ASINs coming soon.
• View by time - Group data by day, week, or month to track trends. Visualize with line graphs. To access, select a custom time frame, choose a time-based view by, then click apply.

Update on Regional Vendor Views (RVV) data issue

• What was the issue? - Some vendors were missing data for products sold in a store that differed from their Vendor Central account store.
• What did we improve? - We’ve updated the experience to show full regional data. To see this cross-region data, select two or more Vendor Central accounts. The data for the entire region will be queried and displayed by locale.

New ARA homepage coming soon

Amazon is testing a new and improved ARA page, which is expected to launch in August. The new page will include metric summary cards, announcements, and help center links. We welcome your feedback and your homepage ideas.

ARA real-time sales API alternative

Enhancements such as multi-ASIN select and KPI expansion are still in development and won’t be available for Prime Day. As an alternative, with the Amazon Simple Queue Service (SQS) workflow, vendors can gain API access to real-time sales data by leveraging the following notification types.

• Inventory event change
• Sales event change
• Detail traffic page event

This solution offers a flexible and scalable approach to meet your analytics needs. For more information, go to the notification-type pages above.

Learn how to use ARA

Go to the Reports section for tutorials on ARA’s sales, catalog, and inventory reporting. Learn more about ARA on the Vendor Central help page.

Vendor Central is known to have less than ideal reporting options, especially as compared to the robust options available in Seller Central. We’re excited to see these enhancements for 1Psellers, and we believe they will empower you to make informed decisions and drive success on Amazon.

Until next time! 🚀

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🔥 New: Delight your customers by providing reliable shipping service for Permissible Dangerous Goods

Leverage Amazon’s trusted shipping service for your products, including certain electronics such as mobile phones containing lithium batteries as well as beauty products such as nail polish, perfume, essential oils, and more. FBM Sellers can now use Amazon Shipping to send Permissible Dangerous Goods sold on Amazon, your website, and other e-commerce channels! Considering eligibility to ship dangerous goods can often include a lengthy approval process (depending on carrier) the ability to ship dangerous goods for all of your channels utilizing Amazon’s shipping accounts is a major upgrade!

🔥 Update: Qualifying Launchpad Brands can access $2,000 in Sponsored Ads click credits

Sellers joining Amazon Launchpad on or after June 1, 2024, that have not created a Sponsored Ad in the past, are now eligible to receive a $2,000 click credit for Sponsored Product advertising as part of a limited-time promotion that runs through 12/31/2024. To take advantage of this benefit, Sellers must create a Sponsored Product Ad within 90 days of joining Amazon Launchpad and consume any available credit within 30 days of their Sponsored Ad creation, otherwise, any credit balance will expire. This benefit is automated and any available click credits will be on the next billing statement following the Sponsored Ad creation.

As a reminder, Amazon Launchpad benefits were recently extended to qualifying agency-referred sellers at no cost to the selling partner. To be considered, the seller must:

• Be referred through a partner agency
• Be a “new and emerging” (new seller), with an exciting or unique value proposition, and strong demand signals for their brand.

If you’re considering launching your brand on Amazon, reach out to us today to ensure you have access to available benefits that are exclusive to Amazon Stores Agency Program Partners (like AO2 Management)

🎥 New: Guide to Video Upload Optimization

Amazon reports that 82% of people have been convinced to buy a product after watching a video on the detail page, advertisement of the brand store. Learn how to optimize your listings with videos with Amazon’s new Video Overview Guide. ‍

Here's a sneak peek of what you'll discover inside:

• How videos can help improve sales and reduce returns.
• Where to find metrics like video views, conversion, and average view duration.
• How to determine what video content will drive the highest impact for your products.

Download the Guide ›‍

🔥 Update: Spot highly-returned products faster on Voice of Customer Dashboard‍

The new Frequently Returned Items badge in the Voice of the Customer (VOC) dashboard enables faster product issue identification. You Can:

• Identify products with higher return rates within the dashboard.
• Address potential product issues before they impact sales.

Also new to the dashboard, the new Fit Insights tab allows you to view brand-aggregated insights for apparel and shoe ASINs, to identify causes of returns, review customer feedback, and resolve size chart defects!

Visit the dashboard to start analyzing your returns and fitment details today!

Until next time, enjoy Prime Day and we’ll see you next week! 🚀

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📦Send it again feature replicates Amazon FBA shipments with one click - 

Sellers can now copy SKUs and quantities from previous Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) shipments in one click with the new send it again feature. This feature aims to simplify the FBA shipment process, by eliminating the need to select SKUs individually or via bulk upload when you're replenishing your FBA inventory with the common SKUs and quantities.

You can still manually add or remove SKUs and modify the number of units before finalizing your shipment.

To use this feature, follow the steps below:

1. Go to Inventory, and select FBA Inventory.
2. Go to the Shipments drop-down menu, and select Manage Shipments.
3. Under the Next steps column, select Send it again.

For more information, go to Create shipments with Send to Amazon.

🔥Exclude products from catalog-wide Amazon Brand Tailored Promotions

Brand Tailored promotions is a powerful promo tool that allows brand registered Amazon sellers the opportunity to target customer bases specific to their brand audience. 

Previously, there were options to add your entire catalog or just a few SKUs to a promotion, which could be tricky to sellers who had large catalogs and wanted to exclude just a few ASINS. The new ASIN Exclusion feature in Brand Tailored Promotions enables sellers to exclude up to 100 parent ASINs from a catalog-wide promotion for greater control over your sales strategies.

To exclude ASINs from a new promotion, do the following:

1. Select the brand you want to promote and the audience you want to engage.
2. At the product selection step, you can either choose Add all products to select your entire brand catalog or Exclude specific products to exclude up to 100 ASINs. Enter a parent ASIN to exclude all related child ASINs from the promotion. You can also exclude individual child ASINs.
3. Enter any other promotion details and submit the promotion.

This coupon option launched in Fall 2023 with 6 audiences, and has grown over the last 9 months to include over 10 audience segments to choose from including:

Top-tier, Repeat customers, Recent customers, Promising, Potential new customers, High Spend, Declining Top Tier, Declining Promising, Brand Followers, Cart abandoners (7 day and 90 day), and At Risk.

While the official ruling is you must have at least 10K customers as a segment to send a coupon, we’ve seen more campaigns running with at least 5K and have received feedback from brands with even less. If you’re unsure, give it a try!

For more information on how to use this new feature, go to Brand Tailored Promotions inside of Seller Central.

💰USPS is increasing shipping rates twice in July 

For our Amazon FBM friends, or all of you selling on other platforms using USPS for fulfillment, July is going to be a double whammy of rate hikes. 

The first round already went into effect earlier this week. Here's what changed on July 1st:

Ground Advantage is increasing by up to $2.11

• Weight-Based Ground Advantage for shipments that weigh more than 1 pound are increasing by up to $2.11, mostly in 1-5 pounds
• Weight-Based Ground Advantage for shipments less than 1 pound are increasing by up to 33 cents for zones 6-8
• Ground Advantage Cubic rates are increasing by up to $1.67

Priority Mail is increasing by up to $3.10

• Weight-Based Priority Mail rates are increasing by up to $3.10
• Priority Mail Cubic rates are increasing by up to $2.97
• Priority Mail Flat Rate prices are increasing by up to $1.18

In 2 weeks, the next round of changes will go into effect. Here's what's changing on July 14th:

• Media Mail rates will increase by up to 56 cents
• Signature Confirmation is going up by 20 cents to $3.70

Until next week, happy selling! 🚀

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 🎉 2024 Prime Day Dates Have Been Confirmed

In case you missed it, Amazon has officially confirmed 2024 Prime Day dates as July 16th and 17th via press release earlier this week. As the date is less than 3 weeks away, most of the inventory and deal deadlines for sellers have passed, but if you’re selling outside of the US you still have some time! Download our Prime Day Timeline PDF for all the details!

🔥Find lower FBA rates with updated FBA Enrollment Opportunities tool

Amazon has updated the FBA Enrollment Opportunities tool to help sellers decide which products are a fit for FBA, to better understand overall Amazon fulfillment costs.

You can now use the FBA Enrollment Opportunities tool to identify products priced below $10 that are eligible for Low-price FBA fees, and compare with standard FBA fulfillment fees with the Revenue Calculator, which is now integrated. This helps you to:

• Calculate net margin, net proceeds, and total costs.
• Compare your current fulfillment costs with FBA costs.
• Calculate costs for inbound placement options based on the region.
• Calculate additional FBA services such as labeling and packaging.
• Forecast holiday season and non-holiday season fulfillment costs for long-term planning.

To use these new features, go to FBA Enrollment Opportunities.

See you next week! 🚀

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🔥New Brand Store quality rating is available to all advertisers!

What launched? Advertisers can now learn how their Brand Store's engagement compares to peers and see personalized recommendations on optimizing it. The new Brand Store quality rating and recommendations can be accessed by visiting the advertising console and navigating to your Brand's Store Insights dashboard. The report lives under the “Brand Store quality” tab on the left-hand navigation panel.

Recommendations will also be provided for actions to improve store interactions and conversions. Recommendations will vary by account.

Before June 2024, this was a closed beta, invite-only program. As a result, please be advised that despite officially moving out of the beta phase on May 30th, the rollout to all users could take some time. The feature is available worldwide. 

🔥Wider Roll Out of Amazon Rufus

Amazon Rufus, a new generative AI-powered conversational shopping experience which was teased at the CES conference this January and made an official debut in February, is rolling out to more listings and to a wider range of shoppers summer. 

Rufus is an expert shopping assistant trained on Amazon’s product catalog and information from across the web to answer customer questions on shopping needs, products, and comparisons, make recommendations based on this context, and facilitate product discovery in the same Amazon shopping experience customers use regularly.

Why does this matter to Sellers? Although Rufus was created for shoppers, similar to using reviews for insights into their products and customer shopping patterns, chatting with Rufus can reveal a great deal about how products are perceived, highlighting invaluable feedback for marketing and product development.

Rufus goes beyond individual detail pages. Depending on the prompt, this tool can provide category-level feedback, which can also be very helpful for sellers in conducting competitor and category research. 

🤔What is Walmart Realm?

Seriously, what is it? This immersive commerce page, created by the virtual store platform Emperia, includes three virtual storefronts inspired by trendy Pinterest aesthetics. The “trippy” interface (as described by many media outlets) incorporates AI, gaming, and influencers into shoppable videos and images, an experience intended to target and engage younger shopping enthusiasts. 

Walmart Realm consists of virtual storefronts designed based on insights from Pinterest Predicts, a trend forecasting report that compiles data on the aesthetics that are most likely to go viral each year. Users can play games and earn rewards while clicking on videos and images to learn more about products and add to cart.

With under a month since its launch, there isn’t a whole lot of information available on how to engage or feedback on benefits for brands and sellers. We’re monitoring this site and will keep you informed about its performance, features, and potential for brands interested in tapping into this unique experience.

Until next week, happy selling! 🚀

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🔥 Subscribe & Save will launch for seller-fulfilled orders on June 27

Exciting news for FBM Sellers, the Subscribe & Save (S&S) program will expand to include eligible seller-fulfilled products beginning on June 27, 2024.

If you previously set a default discount for Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) Subscribe & Save, then that setting will automatically apply to your seller-fulfilled Subscribe & Save selection for the same ASINs starting June 27.

In addition to seller-funded discounts for S&S, Amazon offers a 5% discount for customers with five or more subscriptions scheduled to arrive on the same delivery day. So, even if you don't have a default discount set, Amazon will add your eligible products at a 0% seller-funded base rate.

Note that you might experience an increase in pending orders as Amazon aligns seller-fulfilled S&S deliveries with the subscriber’s weekly or monthly subscription delivery day.

If you’d like to enroll additional SKUs, set your default enrollment discount now to take effect June 27th; follow these steps:

•  Go to Growth, and select Explore programs
•  Click Increase conversion
•  Under Subscribe & Save, click Learn more
  

From there, you can also do the following:

•  Opt out from automatic enrollment
•  Update your discount funding for each product after the June 27 launch
•  Review your Performance dashboard
  

For more information about Subscribe & Save product eligibility, go to Subscribe & Save for sellers.

 📝 Registration is now open for Amazon Accelerate 2024

Amazon Accelerate 2024 registration is now open! We’ll be there, will you? Accelerate is one of AO2’s favorite conferences each year and is Amazon’s premier annual seller conference. It will be held from September 17 to September 19, 2024, in Seattle, Washington.

Amazon Accelerate offers opportunities to network with fellow sellers, receive personalized one-on-one support from Amazon subject matter experts, and be the first to discover cutting-edge resources and tools to accelerate your business growth.

Register by July 14, 2024, to get $100 off the in-person registration price at $499 (regularly $599). In-person seats are limited!

For more information and to register for Amazon Accelerate 2024, revisit our 2023 recap webinar and blogs part one and two, then check out the Amazon Accelerate page

‍📅 Fall Prime Big Deals event Deal Window is Open

Prime Day has yet to arrive, but Amazon is already accepting deals for the Prime Big Deals event. Prime Big Deals is a recurring event that last year took place in October (AKA Fall Prime Day).

We'll have more info on this event soon, but get those deals in for now! The window is open until August 9th, so check out your Deals dashboard for eligible items, and keep checking through that August 9th deadline as offers could change daily. 

If that isn’t crazy enough, plenty of sellers are also reporting seeing Deal opportunities for Black Friday and Cyber Monday already as well (the deadline for these deals has not been shared yet).

That’s all for now. See you next week! 🚀

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If you joined Brand Registry using a Trademark application that was pending but has now been officially registered with the Trademark office, Amazon has created a workflow to update status. Visit the 'Manage Intellectual Property' section to verify your Trademark status. If the update is not already reflected, you now have the option to refresh your Trademark's status within Brand Registry.

To request a Trademark status update, follow these steps:

1. Sign in to Brand Registry
2. Click Support and select Contact Brand Support
3. Select Update your Trademark status from the drop-down menu
4. Enter the required Trademark information and click Send

‍🔥 More Brand Registry News! -

The Manage Selling Accounts tool is a new self-service tool that gives users with the brand Administrator role the ability to unlock brand benefit eligibility for users with active Seller Central accounts.

Why is this important? Brand Administrators no longer need to contact Brand Registry Support to extend brand benefit access. Instead, they can use the Manage Selling Accounts tool to assign specific brand benefit programs based on the user’s relationship with the brand.

To use the tool, brand Administrators need to:

1. Visit the Brand Registry portal and select Manage Selling Accounts tool.
2. Select the relevant Selling Role, based on the user’s relationship with the brand.
3. Provide the seller’s merchant token or select an already connected selling account.
4. Select the relevant brand for that user.
5. Click Connect selling account.

The user will receive an email instructing them to accept it through Seller Central and after accepting, the Selling Role will appear as active in the Connected tab on the Manage Selling Accounts page (not applicable for Vendor Central accounts)

🔥 Canva x Amazon Ads - New Beta Product Launch - Canva Connect

Are you a Canva user? Do you use Canva to create content for your Amazon Ads and listings? If so, listen up! 

Amazon Ads recently announced a BETA partnership with Canva, called the Amazon Ads/Canva Connector. This beta product seamlessly connects Canva to your Amazon Ads creative library and allows you to import/export your brand content. Even better, while creating in Canva, you can run your creative through pre-moderation to ensure it meets Amazon standards. This new product saves time, simplifies the process, and helps creatives work more efficiently.

Check out this post from Amazon Ad’s own Jeff Cohen for a cool video highlight

This is a closed Beta, so not all users will see these options. If you’re interested in trying it out and do not currently have access, reach out to our team! 🚀

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🔥 New Seller Central Tools Announced! 

First up, a new way to improve customer service performance for Fulfilled by Merchant (FBM) orders with Feedback Manager insights. The Feedback Manager dashboard in Seller Central has been updated so Sellers can now see seller-fulfilled customer service performance across three critical insights: contacts, response time, and buyer sentiment.

These updates can help brands identify opportunities for customer service improvement through Buyer-Seller Messaging and trends for the prior four-week period on a rolling basis.

Visit the Feedback Manager dashboard to see these new features in a module at the top of the page featuring these three performance insights based on your seller-fulfilled orders:

• Preventable contacts
• Average contact response time
• Buyer dissatisfaction rate

To learn more, go to Customer service insights on Feedback Manager.

Next, make better inventory management decisions when you analyze aging and excess FBA inventory with the new analytics page, which contains one year of historical data for analysis.

The FBA Inventory Age & Excess Analytics page:

• Provides a summarized view of how your aging inventory levels are trending over time
• Shows you how other metrics like FBA sales and aged inventory surcharge match up with your aging inventory
• Summarizes excess inventory recommendations and aged inventory surcharges

For more information, go to FBA Inventory Age & Excess Analytics. Special permissions are available and may not have added to all users by default. If you’re not able to access the page, visit Add permissions for FBA dashboard and FBA Analytics to enable access. 

📅 One week to go for the Amazon Ads summit: Prep for Prime Day

The Amazon Ads Summit -  Prep for Prime Day is coming June 4 and 5. Don’t miss the opportunity to maximize your brand and performance marketing during key shopping periods with some tips from the Amazon Ads team.

Here’s a preview of the exclusive hands-on workshops and discussions that you’ll be able to join:

• June 4: Partner session: A master class in Sponsored Products keyword strategy, with Helium 10. Set a keyword strategy using the right keywords, bids, and optimization strategy.
• June 4: Convert views to sales: A guide to optimizing your product detail pages. Learn how to use insights to enhance your product detail pages through live demonstrations.
• June 5: Make your summer deals shine with Amazon Brand Stores. Get your Store ready for peak periods, with a demonstration on how to set up new pages and use compelling imagery.

Register now for June 4 and 5 at 9 a.m. Pacific Time.

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🚨June Fee Update Reminder -

The final “new” Amazon fee of 2024 will be rolled out in June. This fee will be in addition to existing returns processing costs and will apply to high-return-rate products across all categories, with the exception of apparel and shoes. For most small and large standard items fees will range from $1.65 and up to $5.00 per unit.

As per Amazon’s fee update announcement in December, this fee is intended to cover the operational costs of returns and minimize waste. It will apply exclusively to products with the highest return rates within their respective categories and will take effect next week, June 1, 2024. For more detailed information, please visit the Returns Processing Fee page. 

For a comprehensive and easy-to-digest rundown of every Amazon fee change in 2024, check out AO2’s blog on the topic, 2024 Amazon Fee Changes. 

🔥Amazon Launchpad extends support to qualifying agency-referred selling partners -

Amazon Launchpad, a program dedicated to supporting entrepreneurs by providing resources, expertise, and global support to help showcase and deliver unique products like yours to millions of Amazon customers, has traditionally been an invite-only program. Beginning this month, agencies like AO2 Management will have the unique opportunity to enroll brands into the program directly, no invite needed!

Launchpad hosts a suite of perks designed to jumpstart and accelerate your Amazon business, from discoverability to global expansion, they’ve got you covered. To qualify, brands must:

• Be registered as professional sellers
• Have listed their products in Amazon’s online store in the US for less than four years, or have enrolled in Amazon Brand Registry less than four years ago
• Have generated less than $10 million in gross merchandise sales in Amazon’s online store annually

Are you interested in enrolling your brand in Launchpad? Reach out to our AO2 team for assistance.

That’s all for this week. Until next time! 🚀

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🇮🇪 Amazon Launches in Ireland -

Amazon has launched its new dedicated store in Ireland, bringing a localized shopping experience to Irish customers! This move ensures faster delivery options, including one-day delivery for Prime members, and access to a vast selection of products across various categories. Amazon is also supporting local businesses through this platform, highlighting its commitment to the Irish market. This strategic expansion reflects Amazon's continuous efforts to enhance customer convenience and strengthen its global presence.

Takeaways:

• Localized Amazon.ie store
• Faster delivery options, including one-day for Prime members
• Extensive product selection
• Support for local businesses

📝 Amazon's 2023 Small Business Empowerment Report -

Amazon’s 2023 report underscores its commitment to small businesses, which accounted for over 60% of Amazon's sales, generating $230 billion in 2022. Key points include:

• Growth: Small businesses sold 4,000 products per minute and saw a 25% sales increase using Fulfillment by Amazon.
• Support: Investments in tools like Amazon Small Business Academy and the Amazon Accelerate program boosted SMB visibility and sales.
• Global Reach: SMBs exported $4.5 billion in products, aided by Amazon Global Selling.
• Education: Over 2 million hours of training provided to SMBs.
• Sustainability: Emphasis on eco-friendly practices and innovation.

For more details, read the full report on Amazon News.

Until next week! 🚀

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🔥New insights await in the Search Catalog Performance dashboard!

See how customers interact with products throughout their search shopping journey.

The Search Catalog Performance dashboard is designed to help you understand your sales funnel at the product level, to quickly resolve conversion issues or drop-off points where you lose customer attention.

Download the Amazon Brand Analytics quick start guide and empower your brand-building process with a suite of insightful dashboards that provide actionable data, including customer purchase behavior, competitive analysis, and search optimization.

🔥Grow your brand with Explore Brand Selection -

Launch a product faster and more easily with Explore Brand Selection, a new tool that facilitates adding products from your brand to the Amazon store. This tool references public attributes like your product name, description, and images displayed on other sites to automatically populate listing drafts, saving you a lot of time! You can also see and add an offer to products from your brand currently offered by other sellers.

This tool is free to use but requires enrollment:

• Once enrolled, you'll see a unified view of the new draft listings with over 50% of the attributes pre-filled.
• You can then review and provide feedback or quickly publish the ones you choose.
• There is no obligation to list any new products and you remain in control of what’s made available in the Amazon store at all times.
• Additional features include sorting by demand to improve prioritization and share feedback in bulk

To enroll, visit the Brand Selection program page. Note: this tool is only available for brand-registered Sellers.

See you next week! 🚀

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🔥 UPDATE- Extension for waiver of Low Inventory Fees -

On April 1, 2024, the FBA low-inventory-level fee went into effect, and Amazon announced any low-inventory-level fees charged in April would be credited back. On May 1st Amazon announced they are extending this transition period through May 14 🎉.

By May 31, Sellers will be credited back for any low-inventory-level fees incurred between April 1 and May 14.

During this transition period, the aim has been to acquaint users with fee structures and management tools, fostering greater familiarity. This extended timeframe has facilitated a larger number of sellers in reaching optimal inventory levels, thus circumventing certain fees altogether.

In response to user feedback, three additional adjustments are being implemented to refine the targeting of low-inventory-level fees, focusing on areas where users possess greater control to maintain healthy inventory:

• Beginning May 15, the low inventory-level fee will no longer apply to products that have sold fewer than 20 units within the past 7 days. This recognizes the challenges of managing inventory levels for seasonal, end-of-life, and low-volume products with fluctuating demand.
• Any low-inventory-level fees incurred due to excessive inbound and processing times attributed to Amazon or Amazon-managed services will be reimbursed by the 15th day of the following month. For instance, charges incurred in May due to inbound delays will be credited back by June 15.
• In anticipation of Prime Day 2024, an event crucial for business sales, a time-bound exception will be granted for low-inventory-level fees for products included in Prime-exclusive Lightning Deals and Best Deals. This exception will apply for the four weeks following Prime Day, acknowledging the potentially unpredictable inventory levels stemming from Prime Day sales.

🚨Reminder! Today is the last day to submit Prime Day Deals -

As a reminder, TODAY, MAY 3rd, is the final day to accept Deals for the Prime Day window to be eligible to run a Lightning, Best, or Deal of the Day for Prime Day 2024. Remember, you can continue to create Prime Exclusive Discounts now through the event!

To create a deal, select eligible products from the list in the Select Products tab of the Deals dashboard in Seller Central.

🚨Alert! May 31st is the final deadline for custom images in Sponsored Brand ad types -

Beginning January 31, 2024, new Sponsored Brands campaigns using the product collection ad format created using the API or Amazon advertising console started requiring a custom image that meets policy, ASIN image is no longer acceptable.

Although Amazon has allowed Sellers to continue using ASIN images during a transition period, they will begin enforcing this requirement for all product collection ads on May 31st, 2024. After that date, ads without custom images (ASIN only) will stop serving.

This is especially important to note if you are creating your ads via API as multiple endpoints will be deprecated later this year in favor of an updated custom image-specific endpoint.

• Amazon recommends migrating to the new /sb/v4/ads/productCollectionExtended endpoint which requires a custom image as part of ad creation. The previous /sb/v4/ads/productCollection and /sb/ads/creatives/productCollection will be deprecated, with a target shutoff date of November 30, 2024.
• The /sb/v4/ads/productCollectionExtended also allows advertisers and partners to create a slide show for product collection ads using a collection of custom images and edit their ad landing pages.
• In addition, existing product collection ads that don’t contain a custom image will stop serving after May 31, 2024. To remediate, we highly recommend that you either use the Amazon ad console to update your product collection campaigns with custom images or use the /sb/ads/creatives/productCollection or /sb/ads/creatives/productCollectionExtended endpoints to update your creatives.
• API doc.

That’s all for this week. Until next time! 🚀

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🚨 Account Deactivation Warnings in Seller Central -

Some Sellers have reported seeing alerts like the one below in their Seller Central accounts on the Account Health page. Rest assured, this is not the result of a major violation, as the menacing message may appear to indicate!

The alert is simply intended to advise the Seller that updated information is needed for the annual INFORM Act verification process.

The INFORM Consumers Act took effect on June 27, 2023, and places obligations on Amazon and high-volume third-party sellers who sell products on Amazon’s US store. Under this law, high-volume sellers are required to do the following:

• Provide, and Amazon must collect, verify, and disclose, certain specific information about their business.
• Keep this information current and notify Amazon when their information changes, at which point Amazon must verify the new information.
• Certify that their information is current on at least an annual basis.

Visit the INFORM Act page in Seller Central for all the details!

🔥 A new guide for Premium A+ Content has recently been released by Amazon -

Similar to last month's guide to the new and improved Brand Registry, this new guide is MASSIVE and has tons of great info, including:

• Technical Specs 
• Premium Q&A
• Brand Highlight
• Hot Spots and more!

You can download the full guide here: Premium A+ Module Guide

🚨 New ASAP compliance requirements, button cell/coin batteries -

Effective immediately, Amazon has introduced new compliance requirements for all listings of products containing button cell or coin batteries. To remain compliant and avoid suppression of listings, sellers must now provide additional proof of compliance, including:

• Certification from an ISO 17025-approved lab that demonstrates adherence to the Underwriters Laboratories 4200A (UL4200A) standard.
• General Certificate of Conformity: This certificate must explicitly list compliance with UL4200A.

Before this update, these requirements were mandatory only for the batteries themselves (see more info, Reese's Law). However, the scope has now expanded to include ANY consumer products sold and shipped with these types of batteries.

What action should you take if your listings are impacted?

• Ensure that all listings for products with these batteries include the necessary proof of compliance and a General Certificate of Conformity, uploaded to the Manager Your Compliance dashboard
• Receive the full policy on the Button cell and coin batteries help page for additional details

Note: Failure to meet these requirements could lead to listing suppression or further actions under the Amazon Services Business Solutions Agreement.

That’s all for now. See you next week! 🚀

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Amazon Pet Day 2024 is coming!

What does this mean for brands? Amazon will be heavily promoting pet-related products during this 48-hour event with dedicated space on the homepage, on desktop, and in-app as well as a dedicated shopping page for all deals and discounts running during the event. 

• Do you sell pet products? Check your deals dashboard to confirm if you can run a deal during the event time frame.
• No deal available? That’s OK Running coupons, Prime Exclusive Deals, and other promotions, including sponsored ads, will also increase your likelihood of enhanced placement during this sales event!

🚨Prime Day details are starting to leak -

If you’re like the rest of us in the Amazon space, as soon as Q4 ends, you’re already thinking about Prime Day. And while Amazon never releases the date of the annual event more than a few weeks ahead of time, we’re finally starting to see some details emerge that can help us plan for a successful event. This week, Amazon announced some deadlines and tips for Prime Day 2024:

Send in your FBA inventory

• Make sure your FBA inventory arrives at fulfillment centers by June 20, 2024. Shipping early is recommended to allow for potential logistics, customs, or carrier issues. Remember average receiving times at Amazon FCs can be as much as 5 weeks!
• As you prepare your shipments, check your recommended replenishment quantity. Even if restock limits are applied, you may still have capacity available in different storage types. Expand the restock limits monitor at the bottom of the page to check your restock limits by storage type from Restock Inventory or Shipping Queue.

Create a deal

• Create your deals by May 3, 2024, to participate in the Prime Day sale.
• To create a deal, make sure that your account has a rating of more than 4 stars and your product has a rating of more than 4.
• If your account and products qualify, create a deal from the list of eligible products in the Select Products tab of the Deals dashboard. The list is refreshed weekly.
• There are a few more criteria for creating deals, so be sure to check out the Amazon deals page for all the details, 
• Great news! You can create a Prime Exclusive Discount at any time before or during the sales event, provided it meets eligibility for Prime Day which does vary from the standard guidelines.

Stay tuned for more updates on Prime Day 2024 in the coming months, we’ll bring you all the news as it breaks!

‍🔥Track fees with the new SKU Economics report - 

Finally, Amazon has made the SKU Economics details available in report form to make the SKU Economics tool more accessible and to illustrate the breakdown of fees, including the recently launched low-inventory-level fee.

SKU Economics is a tool on Seller Central for all third-party sellers that collects fees, sales, ads, off-Amazon costs, and net proceeds in a single view to help you optimize costs and understand your product selection performance. The new SKU Economics report is a downloadable report that enables you to view all products in your catalog at once. It includes historical charge information for each fee type.

The report allows you to view the economics.

of your selection at the FNSKU, MSKU, ASIN, and parent-ASIN levels. This single source for historical economics data eliminates the need to merge sales, fees, and ads reports to understand your net proceeds.

To learn more about the data included or to download the report, go to SKU Economics report.

🔥Updates to Changes to dietary supplements policy for Amazon.com -

‍If you sell supplements and you’ve been following the recent news about supplements on Amazon, you no doubt have lingering questions about how to stay compliant and keep all of your listings active. On April 17th, Amazon hosted a webinar to cover some additional details, and we’ve got the highlights for you!

Although the original news announcement advised these changes will apply to all dietary supplements, Amazon clarified on the webinar that they will initially focus on supplements that Amazon considers to be Sexual Enhancement, Weight Management, and Sports Nutrition/Body Building products.

All listings for these product types will need to be certified with Amazon, even if already tested for these requirements:

• Products are manufactured in a facility compliant with Good Manufacturing Practices set forth by the FDA (cGMPs, 21 CFR 111/117 or equivalent)
• Products do not contain contaminants that may pose a human health or regulatory concern
• Products contain the ingredients claimed on the product label
• Products do not contain undeclared active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs)

If products are already tested and certified for NSF/ANSI 173 Certification or NSF 229 Certification, which is renewed annually, there will be a path to verify those certifications.

If products are not already certified via the above, there will be a path to pay for testing with an Amazon-approved facility. For this option, there will be a cost, and it will vary by testing partner chosen by the Seller.

Compliance will be required by July 9th.

We’re continuing to monitor news related to this updated policy. Stay tuned for a future full-length blog post with more details and step-by-step instructions for navigating the certification process. 

Phew! So many updates this week. Come back next week for more! 🚀

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🔥Buy with Prime Pricing Update -

A little bit of good news on the topic of Amazon fees - payment processing fee for Buy with Prime will not increase in May as previously reported! This rate was set to expire April 30, 2024 and increase to a rate of 2.9% of the order value plus $0.30 per transaction in May and beyond. However, Amazon announced this week via email to enrolled brands that the fee will continue at the current rate of 2.4% of the order value plus $0.30 per transaction.

For details about pricing, go to the Buy with Prime pricing article.

🔥New Brand Registry Application Guide Available -

For those sellers who are new to Amazon or still working to get brand protection, a new guide to enrolling in the brand registry program is now available. This extensive 10-page guide covers every question asked on the application as well as each individual step of the process taking a lot of the guesswork out of what's required.

For more information, go to the Brand Registry Application Guide.

Short and sweet this week. Until next time! 🚀

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🔥BIG Update: Credit for FBA low-inventory-level fees incurred during April 2024 -

As announced in December 2023, the new FBA low-inventory-level fee went into effect for Amazon FBA Sellers on April 1, 2024. This controversial fee applies to products with consistently low levels of inventory relative to their unit sales.

Amazon has justified the newly created fee with this statement: Maintaining sufficient inventory levels allows Amazon to effectively distribute products across our fulfillment network, which improves shipping speeds for customers and helps drive more sales for you.

However, in the past week, they have backtracked on the fee stating, “We have heard feedback from a number of sellers that they are still uncertain what the exact effect of this fee will be on their business. To help you better see how this affects your business in real-time, we will provide a transition period during the month of April.”

Amazon will still charge the FBA low-inventory-level fees incurred between April 1 and April 30, but after the end of the month, they will credit your account for all low-inventory-level fees charged during this period. The goal is for you to see the end-to-end experience, and understand how this may affect your business so you can further update your inventory management to maintain sufficient inventory levels, drive greater sales, and avoid fees in the future.

How it will work:

• Starting April 1, the transition period will begin. You will still be charged the fee on eligible products shipped with historical days of supply below 28 days. Then, Amazon will credit back any charged low-inventory-level fees for units shipped between April 1 and April 30. You can expect to see this credit in May.
• Starting May 1, the fee will be charged without a credit back. You can avoid the fee by ensuring that either the long-term historical days of supply (last 90 days) or short-term historical days of supply (last 30 days) are above 28 days (4 weeks). April will give you an opportunity to understand if your current inventory management actions will effectively avoid the fee or if there are adjustments you can make to avoid this fee so you're prepared going forward.

For more information on the low-inventory-level fee and what qualifies, go to the low-inventory-level fee.

🚨Changes to dietary supplements policy -

Amazon has updated its policy on dietary supplements and announced the changes on the effective date, April 2, 2024. Moving forward, all dietary supplement products for sale on Amazon will need to be verified through a third-party Testing, Inspection, and Certification (TIC) organization.

Details on the update a vague at this time. Per the announcement:

To ensure that your listings are compliant with the new policy, Sellers will need to use the Manage Your Compliance dashboard to initiate a test for each product with one of the third-party TIC organizations. Once testing is requested, you’ll work directly with the third-party TIC organization to complete the testing of your products. For testing instructions, go to the Manage Your Compliance dashboard and select Add or Appeal Compliance.

Once a test result confirms compliance with Amazon policy, your product will be eligible for sale on Amazon.

It is still unclear exactly what tests or compliance are required and as of this post, most Sellers we’ve spoken with have not reported seeing any newly restricted products or new compliance requests. Amazon will host a live webinar on April 17, 2024, at 11:00 a.m. Pacific Time to cover the policy on selling dietary supplements and to answer any of your questions.

Register here for the webinar | For more information, go to Dietary Supplements.

The Manage Your Compliance dashboard shows listings for dietary supplements that require your action along with the due dates under Compliance status. Listings may be subject to removal if they are not confirmed as being compliant with our policy by the specified due date.

📝Amazon’s Annual Brand Protection Report Released -

Amazon recently released its Brand Protection Report, which outlines its commitment to the authenticity of goods sold in the Amazon store and to hold bad actors accountable to protect your businesses and help you grow.

In 2023, the company invested more than $1.2 billion and employed more than 15,000 people—including machine learning scientists, software developers, and expert investigators—dedicated to protecting customers, brands, sellers from counterfeit, fraud, and other forms of abuse.

The report outlines the progress made, including the following highlights:

• Identified, seized, and appropriately disposed of more than 7 million counterfeit products worldwide, preventing them from harming customers or being resold elsewhere in the retail supply chain.
• Since its launch in 2020, Amazon’s Counterfeit Crimes Unit has pursued more than 21,000 bad actors through litigation and criminal referrals to law enforcement.
• Proactive controls blocked more than 99% of suspected infringing listings before a brand ever had to find and report them.
• Since 2020, while the number of products available for sale in our store has continued to grow, there has been a more than 30% decrease in the total valid notices of infringement submitted by brands.
  

See you back next week! 🚀

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🔥Shoppable Basic A+ Content modules now available for brands -

Shoppable content modules are now available for brands that use Basic A+ Content, so your customers can add an item to the cart directly from the Standard Comparison Chart module.

The module shows real-time item prices and customer rating summaries to supplement the existing comparison of product attributes. This can reduce the amount of time customers spend scrolling between different product pages and help them make informed purchase decisions.

To get started, go to A+ Content Manager.

🔥Amazon Attribution is adding a new customer audience segment called Re-marketing -

Use the new customer audience segment in Amazon Attribution to re-engage and re-market to your customers both on and off Amazon. Maximize conversions and earn a Brand Referral Bonus with the new custom Re-marketing segment, which enables you to continue customer engagement within Amazon to help improve conversion, and maximize the bonus earned.

Improve marketing effectiveness by combining Amazon Attribution campaigns with the Re-marketing audience through Amazon Ads.

Go to the Re-marketing Overview Guide.

Learn More ›

🤔 Want to understand the impact of your videos?

Learn how customers engage with your videos by tracking views, average view duration, conversion rates, and more.

Amazon knows measuring ROI is important to you, so they’ve made it easy for you to track the performance of your videos. You can find video metrics in Seller Central by navigating to:

• Upload and Manage Videos under Items.
• Select your desired date range by clicking the dropdown above your total catalog data.
• Scroll to the right in your video catalog table to view all available metrics.
• Export your catalog's performance by clicking ‘export recommendations’ in the top right corner or view data more granularly by filtering by video type, brand association, and language of video.
  

Get Started ›

🚨Custom image requirements for Sponsored Brand Ads -

Amazon is changing its requirements for Sponsored Brands campaigns that use the product collection ad format. As of January 31 2024, new Sponsored Brands campaigns using product collection require a custom image that meets Amazon’s ad policy. 

Existing product collections that do not contain a custom image will stop serving after May 31, 2024. For existing campaigns, we recommend all advertisers include a custom image from their computer, asset library, or partners using the GenAI image creation API beta.

🚨New: Aggregated chargebacks and 30-day notice period for VENDORS -

Starting on April 30, all vendor PO On-time accuracy chargebacks will be aggregated based on their common attributes. They’ll display only when the chargeback is complete, and Amazon will include a 30-day waiting period before taking any deductions.

This update includes the following benefits:

• Reduced number of chargeback IDs to manage: Because the chargebacks will now be aggregated to the common attribute, you’ll see chargebacks surface when they’re completed.
• Maximum limits: You won’t be charged more than the confirmed chargeback amount and any adjustments will automatically be waived or reversed. Amazon won’t raise any chargebacks after 30 days.
• 30-day notice period: All confirmed chargebacks will be automatically granted a 30-day notice period before any deductions are made. Any chargeback changes during that period will be automatically netted from the deductible amount.
  

For more information, go to Chargebacks – Smart aggregation.

That’s all for now, we’ll see you next week! 🚀

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🔥PRIME DAY DEAL SUBMISSIONS ARE OPEN -

We can't believe it's only March, and we're already talking about Prime Day! Sellers can now see recommended Deals for Prime Day week. Submissions are required by May 3, 2024, to have a chance to be selected for the big event, giving us our first clue at the timeline for Prime Day 2024. 

Brands can find eligible opportunities on the Deals page by navigating to Advertising --> Deals from the Seller Central menu. Note that options may change, so Sellers should check back frequently between now and May 3rd. Criteria for deal eligibility can be found here.

🚨April Fee Reminder -

If you have already seen our 2024 Fee Change blog, you know there are lots of changes to the fees associated with Amazon this year. We’ve already seen a few, and one of the big ones is coming next month - introducing the Low Inventory Level fee. New to Amazon but actually pretty common for major retailers, this surcharge will begin applying to standard-sized products with consistently low inventory levels starting April 1, 2024.
‍
Some details from Amazon:

Why have a low-inventory-level fee?

When sellers don’t carry enough inventory, Amazon is unable to distribute products as effectively and efficiently across our network, which slows customer delivery speeds and increases shipping costs.

How is the low-inventory-level fee calculated?

The low-inventory-level fee is based on historical days of supply, which is the product’s inventory levels relative to actual historical sales.

Amazon will only charge the low-inventory-level fee when the metric for historical days of supply is below 28 days. It will calculate the historical days of supply metric over the short term (last 30 days) and long term (last 90 days) and only assess the fee if both are below 28 days. This provides flexibility, as you can avoid the fee through short-term improvements in inventory positions or through long-term management of inventory levels.

The historical days of supply metric is calculated at the parent product level. For parent products with less than 28 days of historical supply, the low-level inventory fee will be added to the FBA fulfillment fees.

That’s all for now! 🚀

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🚨New Remote Fulfillment Deadline - 

Many sellers are seeing this new alert on their Seller Central home page: “! Attention, Automatic Enrollment in Remote Fulfillment!,” indicating that their products will automatically be enrolled into Remote Fulfillment for the Brazil Marketplace on April 12th and, by doing so, will automatically be subject to the business service agreement for that store.

• Sellers who do not wish to proceed with the automatic enrollment into NAF for the Brazilian marketplace must take action before April 11th by visiting this page in their Seller Central account, unchecking the opt-in box, and saving their selection. 

Sellers who wish to enroll sooner can do so now through the program page

Brazil is being included as part of North America for purposes of the North American Remote Fulfillment Program (a.k.a NARF). NARF allows you to sell to customers in eligible marketplaces using your FBA inventory in the US which can help with: 

• Extending your customer base can help increase sales
• Amazon handles fulfillment across the border
• Import duties and fees are paid by the buyer

Visit the Remote Fulfillment with FBA help page to learn more about the program; including enrollment options, product eligibility, managing your offers, and fees and surcharges (which are different from your US FBA fees)

 Note that your participation in the program is governed by the policies outlined in Remote Fulfillment with FBA. Please take a moment to read them!

🔥 Amazon provides new generative AI tools to create product listings from URLs  - 

In the coming weeks, Amazon will roll out generative artificial intelligence capabilities that will allow you to create high-quality product listings that are automatically tailored to Amazon’s store based on your direct-to-consumer website.

Since Amazon announced new generative AI tools at Accelerate and unBoxed last fall, more than 100,000 Sellers have used one or more of them! These tools enabled Sellers to create product titles, descriptions, and other product details from product images or just a few descriptive words. Now, Sellers will have access to new features that use listings from a brand’s own website to create a listing for Amazon’s store with the details that customers want.

For more information on how to list your products using generative AI, go to  List Your Product

For more information about Amazon’s generative AI developments, go to About Amazon
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🚨Two-factor authentication will be required for Seller Central sign-in -

Starting as early as March 28, 2024, you’ll be required to verify your identity using a mobile number or authenticator app when you sign in to Seller Central. This keeps your account safe from fraudulent access attempts.

• If you don’t already have a mobile number or authenticator app set up for two-step verification when you sign in, you’ll be prompted through a registration process to add a mobile device. 
• If you prefer not to receive a one-time password over SMS every time you sign in, you can go to "Login Settings" to register an authenticator app for two-step verification.
• An authenticator app is recommended for accounts with several users and can help when you’re without cell service.

Two-step verification frequently asked questions

Two-Step Verification

🚨Here’s your annual one-month heads-up for the meltable removal deadline - 

To meet product quality standards, Amazon does not accept or store meltable inventory at fulfillment centers between April 15 and October 15, 2024. By Amazon’s definition, meltable refers to all heat-sensitive products, such as chocolate, gummies, and select jelly- and wax-based products.

• Meltable products that are stored or arrive at fulfillment centers after April 14, 2024, will be disposed of for a fee. For more information, go to FBA removal order fees.

To avoid disposal, Sellers can either submit removal orders or aim to sell through meltable inventory over the next month. Mistakes happen on Amazon, so we suggest Sellers take extra caution and review their products to ensure nothing has been classified as meltable in error. Visit the Meltable FBA inventory page to check your product status or request an exemption from the meltables policy.

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A question we’ve been getting a lot since the new Inbound Placement Service fee was introduced a week ago on March 1st is: How can Sellers avoid, or at least decrease, the impact this fee has on their shipping costs?

There is no guaranteed method to avoid these fees entirely, however, there are some options to consider to save, which may vary from shipment to shipment. 

‍Amazon Warehousing and Distribution (AWD) is an option to avoid the fee completely. In addition, AWD offers discounted rates vs. FBA and can be a great solution to auto-replenishment, which will also help Sellers avoid the new Low Inventory fee! This is a win-win situation.

Amazon Freight can also be an option. Rather than using Amazon Partnered shipping in the Ship to Amazon workflow, Sellers can work directly with Amazon freight to be their own carrier. Comparable rates, but Amazon freight can manipulate PO locations on the Seller’s behalf, without the fee.

If those aren't options for a seller, these are some recommendations from the fee help page:

• If your shipping plan qualifies, you can use the Partial shipment splits option or the Amazon-optimized shipment splits option. With these options, you pay a reduced fee or no fee for sending your inventory to multiple inbound locations across our network.
• Inbound placement service fees may be generally lower for shipments sent to locations outside of the Western part of the country.
• See charts below for more detail

Visit our 2024 Fee Change summary blog to learn more and stay ahead of additional Amazon fee changes this year.

🚨New coupon pricing requirements

Starting March 12, 2024, Amazon is updating their coupon policy with new pricing requirements. A summary of the updates and new standards includes:

• Coupons are still required to have a discount percentage between the minimum (5% off) and maximum (50% off).
• Products will also need to have a sales history before they are eligible to run and a promotion price lower than either the "was price" or the recent lowest price.
• If a product's price or discount doesn't meet these requirements, it won't be eligible for a coupon until all requirements have been met.

If you receive a coupon error message, Amazon has provided the following guidance:

• Price history issue: To make this product eligible, create a sales history by selling more products to build the "was price. For more information on how the "was price" is calculated, go to Amazon's policy on reference prices.
• To increase the discount, Ensure your promotion price is lower than the "was price" or the recent lowest price to make this product eligible.
• Minimum/maximum discount issue: To make this product eligible, update your sale price discount percentage to be between the minimum (5% off) and maximum (50% off).

To learn more about coupon pricing requirements and error messages, go to Understanding coupon errors.

😥 An update we’re really sad to report

Is this the end for Manage Your Customer Engagement (aka Customer Engagement or MYCE)? AO2 has been a big promoter of the MYCE program since it was announced, and we’ve been saddened to see this banner atop the program page in Seller Central recently:

While this does seem pretty final, we’ve seen MYCE in BETA for nearly three years and paused/resumed in the past. We’re hoping it’s just time for another revamp, and we’ll soon see this incredibly valuable tool make a new appearance. We’ve got eyes on it and will update you as news is available! You can read the official announcement here.

‍🚨 New Dashboard Alert!
Some users report seeing a banner atop their Manage Inventory page announcing a new Manage All Inventory Dashboard, which is currently in BETA. Users who see the banner can click a link to “try the new experience.”

This new experience offers several updated features, including the ability to sort listings by various performance metrics, fix and improve listings without leaving the page, and customize views.

At this time, there is no deadline for depreciating the legacy interface, and no timeline has been announced for when this new view will roll out to all users. As always, if you do have access to the new features now, we suggest you check them out and submit your feedback to help share the experience.

🔥 Improve customer satisfaction with new Voice of the Customer features 

Amazon has launched two new features on the Voice of the Customer dashboard: Recommended Actions and Key Phrases.

The Voice of the Customer dashboard highlights products that require more attention by grouping them in “Poor” and “Very Poor” health ratings. The new features offer specific 

suggestions on how to improve your listings and how to receive additional customer feedback.

Recommended Actions have expanded from the existing options, including editing listings and removing inventory, to now include:

• Seller education content to help you understand and address product condition, expired, and general product quality issues.
• Information on Amazon’s preparation guidelines to recommend product preparation to lower mishandling of products.
• Size chart tool to update the size chart information and reduce customer issues pertaining to fit.
• Product lifecycle support which allows customers to learn more about your products through videos and live support to help reduce returns.

Key Phrases expands customer feedback from reviews to include feedback from customer service sessions, buyer-seller messaging, seller feedback, and A-to-Z claims.

To view the enhanced features, go to Voice of the Customer dashboard.

📝 eBay Spring Seller Check-in

This event was held on March 7th and detailed all of the recent Winter Updates and shared info on a ton of new features expected to roll out in Spring. Some highlights included:

• Details about where to find eBay seller events, both in person and online options
• The launch of the new US Preloved Partner Program, applications open now for sellers of preloved apparel and shoe items.

• Expanded in-app seller features

• New generative AI background removal and enhancement features

Stay tuned for our full blog on all of the spring seller updates from ebay, soon to be available on our blogs page.

🔥 Improved benefits for your new FBA products

Effective March 1, 2024, Amazon has expanded the benefits for FBA New Selection, aiming to facilitate the launch of new products on its platform.

🔥 Rebate on sales

Among the improvements are enhanced rebates on sales, where an average 10% rebate is provided on eligible new-to-FBA parent products, including newly introduced rebates for eligible non-branded selections.

This rebate is applicable for up to 50 units for eligible non-standard size items and up to 100 units for eligible standard-size items for a period of 120 days from the first inventory-received date.

🔥 Benefits for more units and extended days

Furthermore, changes have been implemented for all eligible non-standard-size products. Storage, liquidation, and rebate benefits now apply for up to 50 units per parent ASIN, compared to the previous 30 units per parent ASIN, excluding apparel and shoe products. Additionally, storage and rebate benefits now extend up to 120 days per parent ASIN from the first inventory-received date, compared to the previous 90 days, again excluding apparel and shoe products.

🔥 Reduced IPI score for eligibility

In a move to streamline eligibility, Amazon has reduced the Inventory Performance Index (IPI) score requirement for program participation to 300 or higher, down from the previous threshold of 400 or higher. Even if an IPI score has not yet been assigned, sellers can still enroll in the program and access its benefits.

FBA New Selection updates are typically announced quarterly; details are on the FBA New Selection program page.

That’s all for this week. Until next time! 🚀

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🚨 Upcoming Amazon Webinar

Amazon's free, live webinars allow you to get the most out of selling on the platform by helping you to leverage their tools, programs, third-party apps, and advertising to manage and grow your business. This March, they invite you to Learn to sell more and save on referral fees with Amazon Bulk Services in this all-level webinar.

Learn the benefits of Amazon Bulk Services, eligibility criteria, and step-by-step instructions on how to enroll. In this webinar, you’ll learn how to: link units, case packs, and pallets of a product to create a connected listing; improve search visibility; improve fulfillment; easily manage inventory and pricing of multiple configurations of a product; and receive a 15-25% discount on referral fees.

Register now for March 5 at noon Pacific Time OR March 6 at noon Pacific Time.

🔥 New features coming to the Coupon Dashboard

Have you seen the option to target specific audiences for your coupons in Seller Central? This new feature is rolling out to all brand-registered Sellers this winter, and we believe that most eligible Sellers should soon be seeing this addition to their coupons dashboard if they aren’t already. 

You’ll find Select Audience as a drop-down option on the Create Coupon page in Seller Central, The drop-down currently includes options such as All Customers, Program, and Brand, each of which will reveal additional options such as At Risk and Prime Members, once selected.

This new feature is an extension of the recently introduced Brand Tailored Audiences promotions (BTA). If you’d like to learn more about BTA or audience-targeted coupons, you can check out the help page here.

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🔥 New Feature: Amazon advertisers can convert high-performing Posts into Sponsored Brand Ads
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This new feature allows brands to begin the Sponsored Brands campaign-building process directly from the Posts manager in the Ad Console for any high-performing Posts.  Anyone who has been following our team for a while has probably heard us say “Start using posts now before Amazon monetizes them”. It looks like it’s finally happened! Sort of.
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Amazon Posts are not going away, and they are still free. Posts are still a place to engage with your shoppers and get great feedback on what resonates with your customers. But now, when you find the creative that works, you can easily convert them to ads. In short, the capability to boost a Post into a Sponsored Brand ad builds on the success of your organic Posts.
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This update is not in Beta and should be rolling out ASAP to all brands over the next couple of weeks!

🔥 Vertical Video for Amazon Ads is here! Discover new creative flexibility at Sponsored Brands video to engage audiences on Amazon 

See the video update here.

Video serves as a potent tool for brand storytelling, especially in today's digital landscape dominated by social media. Brands are strategically leveraging the flexibility of both vertical and horizontal video formats to connect with their audiences effectively.

Horizontal content enables the creation of cinematic narratives and compositions, catering to multi-platform compatibility. On the other hand, vertical video assets offer heightened authenticity and an organic feel, particularly on mobile devices.

Vertical video capabilities are accessible to all advertisers with an active Brand Store, aligning with objectives such as Drive Page Visits or Grow Brand Impression Share. Whether you're a vendor, registered seller, or utilizing managed-service, authors, and self-service options, vertical video is readily available through the advertising console and Amazon Ads API.

🚨 Amazon steers consumers to higher-priced items, lawsuit claims

Some interesting developments for FBM Sellers! Will likely be a long time before we see this lawsuit resolved, so something to keep an eye on for sure. The claim is that almost always featuring an FBA offer in the Buy Box, even when there are cheaper FBM offers, results in consumers "routinely" overpaying for items as they're misled into thinking that products in the "Buy Box" are the lowest-priced goods on the platform. We know that FBM offers typically get the short end of the stick even with lower prices, higher inventory, and a better-rated seller, will this lawsuit be the key to finally seeing changes in how the Featured Offer is awarded?

🔥 A couple of new Buy with Prime updates

• Product recommendations, Help boost sales with product recommendations on the Buy with Prime checkout page:
  You can add product recommendations to the Buy with Prime checkout page for up to three other Buy with Prime products that are available on your site. Product recommendations are automatically generated based on your best-selling products that offer Buy with Prime. Shoppers can click “Add” on the Buy with Prime checkout page to add the recommended products to their existing cart and then continue checking out! This update is a great tool to help with cart building, which has been one of the most significant pain points of BwP since day one.
  
  If you’re a BwP user, you can learn more on the Knowledge Base page for this tool
  

• Fulfillment report, Gain insights into Multi-Channel Fulfillment performance metrics for Buy with Prime orders:
  View fulfillment and delivery speed daily metrics in the new Fulfillment report. This report includes metrics like total number and percentage of units delivered, on-time delivery, on-time one day, on-time two days, and on-time two-plus days. 
  
  You can also export the report data as a CSV file to incorporate into your own dashboards and business reports. Buy with Prime orders are fulfilled using Multi-Channel Fulfillment (MCF). Visit the knowledge center article to learn more about the new report.

Until next time! 🚀

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🔥The 2023 Amazon Ultimate Brand Guide has now been updated with some 2024 additions

This is an extensive guide (41 pages!) but it can be an essential tool for learning and a quick reference for all brand-building tools on Amazon. 

To access the original file and check for updates, you can visit the landing page while logged into your Seller Central account here.

🔥Sellers can now increase sales with new metrics available on the Build Your Brand page

This is a reboot of the old Manage Your Brand page with some helpful additions.

Four key metrics to measure a brand’s performance are now available:

• Branded Search Ratio
• Star Rating
• Brand Conversion Rate
• Repeat Customer Ratio

On this updated page, Sellers will see these metrics in graph form to help them understand and measure progress on key brand-building objectives. Additionally, the page will contain links to pages to assist with these objectives including:

• Grow Your Brand Awareness
• Improve Your Consideration
• Increase Your Conversion Rate
• Build Your Brand Loyalty

To view your metrics, go to the Build Your Brand page. To enroll in Brand benefits and gain access to metrics, go to Brand Benefit Eligibility.

🔥Instant replacements are available for seller-fulfilled returns

Beginning February 12, 2024, buyers can request an instant replacement for items sent using the Prepaid return label program.

If buyers receive an item that is damaged, defective, or different from what they ordered, they may be able to select a free, instant replacement during the returns process. Buyers are required to return the original item within 30 days of receiving the replacement. If they don’t, the Seller will be eligible for an automatic reimbursement.

Sellers must be diligent with these changes to ensure the system is not abused. If an automatic reimbursement is not initiated for the Seller (where applicable) or if the buyer returns an original item that was used, damaged, or different from what was sent to the buyer, then you can go to Manage SAFE-T Claims to file a claim for reimbursement.

To learn more, go to Replacements for seller-fulfilled returns.

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🔥The SIPP enrollment portal is now live!

As I've updated you about fee changes for 2024, one exciting new update that has yet to have a lot of context is Ships in Product Packaging (SIPP), 2024's replacement for the Ships In Own Container (SIOC) program. SIPP helps sellers to reduce packaging material and shipping and fulfillment costs. Customers will enjoy easier-to-open packaging that reduces frustration and excess packaging, and Sellers will save on fees.

SIPP allows the following features for FBA sellers:

• Lower FBA fulfillment fees. Lower FBA fulfillment fees for SIPP-certified products. To learn more, go to 2024 US FBA fulfillment fee changes.
• Connect with customers. Customize your branding and packaging to display your brand to customers during delivery.
• Improve sustainability. With less packaging, you use less space on trucks, which lowers the number of trucks needed and carbon emissions.

Note: SIPP-certified products before February 5, 2024, automatically receive the discounted FBA fulfillment fees on February 5, 2024.

Go to the SIPP enrollment portal to learn more about SIPP and enroll your products.

For a step-by-step guide to navigating the enrollment portal, visit Ships in Product Packaging step-by-step enrollment guide.

🔥The Premium Navigation Carousel has been updated for a better customer experience

Brands can access the Premium Navigation Carousel module within the A+ Content Manager, and your listings are more precise and more appealing.

• The module has been updated to include clickable tabs highlighted in a translucent overlay on the image.
• In the mobile experience, customers can click the redesigned tabs or swipe horizontally on the image to navigate through elements in the carousel.
• In the desktop experience, customers can click the redesigned tabs or arrows to navigate the carousel.

Check out the Premium A+ Module Guide for specifications, and go to A+ Content Manager to get started!

For anyone who is interested, Amazon has released its Q4 financial statements

It can be interesting to look at benchmarking stats on how clients may perform compared to Amazon or how the Amazon platform performs versus their other sales outlets. Heads up - it's a lot of numbers! Summary and full report are available here.

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🚨Images from multiple selling partners to be displayed on product pages

Effective immediately, product detail pages for hardline product types may display images from multiple selling partners to help customers make informed purchase decisions.

Each product detail page should have at least three required images:

• The product on a white background
• A lifestyle image
• Size/fit information

If required images are missing from the product detail page, images from multiple selling partners or Amazon will be added when available. There is no stipulation that brand-registered products are exempt, so brand owners should do their due diligence, especially on products with resellers where another seller may be making contributions.

🔥Reviews from the Amazon app are now available for Shopify with Buy with Prime

Now, Shopify sellers using Buy with Prime (BwP) can gain shopper trust with Reviews from Amazon more easily than before. Previously, integrating Amazon reviews with your Shopify store using BwP required hardcoding and a session with a BwP developer. With this recent announcement, that barrier is removed, and Sellers can now self-serve the integration using via the new app.

Note: the integration is still only available for pages featuring the BwP button. Read more in the official announcement here.

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🔥Showcase your commitment to protecting your customers with the Transparency Badge

Available for Transparency-enrolled ASINs that qualify, the badge indicates to customers that the product is authenticated before being shipped.* The badge appears in the Additional Details section on the Product Detail page (see below for example).

For more details about what the Transparency badge can do for you, contact us here.

🔥Amazon launches AI tool to answer shopper's questions

This new feature allows shoppers to ask questions about the product they are looking at, saving them research time and reducing the amount of page scroll necessary to review all the content. This feature is available on the mobile app and is designed to provide answers, not have a conversation (which is what you do with Chat GPT), but it will respond creatively. This is another tool that Amazon has started testing, and we would expect to see more of it throughout the year.

🚨Automatic closure policy for FBA shipments will be updated on February 1

Starting February 1, 2024, there will be a revision to the automatic closure policy for Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) shipments within the Send to Amazon workflow. In accordance with the updated policy, FBA shipments that do not reach their destination within the specified timeframe will be automatically closed.

The revised timeframes are as follows:

• Domestic shipments from US addresses must arrive within 45 days after the shipment creation date.
• International shipments originating from outside the US should arrive within 75 days after the shipment creation date.
• Shipments within a multiple-destination shipping plan are required to arrive within 30 days after the first shipment in that plan has reached its destination.

Why does this matter? This adjustment aims to enhance the reliability of shipment arrivals, and exceptions will be made for shipments delayed due to unforeseen circumstances. What Sellers need to watch out for are shipments lost in transit or sitting in a receiving bay outside an Amazon FC not officially moved to “receiving status”. For these shipments, action should be taken prior to the deadlines to ensure entire shipments are not stuck in limbo. 

To learn more about FBA shipment policies, go to Deleted, misrouted, and incomplete shipments.

🚨Quarterly Notice: Review Your FBA New Selection Enrollment and Benefits

FBA New Selection, designed exclusively for FBA Sellers, presents an opportunity for rebates and discounts on products newly added to the FBA catalog. Sellers engaging in the program qualify for a range of benefits, updated on a quarterly basis. 

For selling accounts created before March 2023, opting into the program is essential (Important: click here to Enroll now if you haven’t already!), New Sellers, on the other hand, are automatically enrolled if an FBA shipment is created within 90 days of opening their account.

Monitoring enrolled ASINs and available benefits can be conveniently done through the FBA New Selection dashboard within Seller Central. Given that benefits evolve quarterly with additions, updates, and removals, Sellers are encouraged to check in regularly to maximize the perks available to them! Q1 2024 updates will be introduced on March 1, featuring a new 10% rebate on sales for non-brand items and an expanded scope of benefits to include Oversized items and additional Vine benefits. For more details on the 2024 FBA New Selection changes, visit the updates page.

• 10% rebate on average for sales for brand-registered sellers: Brand owners receive a monthly average rebate of 10% for sales of eligible parent ASINs that are new to FBA. The rebate, calculated based on product category and accounting for referral fees, ranges from 0% to 12% and covers up to 30 units for eligible oversized items over 90 days/up to 100 units for eligible standard-size items over 120 days.
• Limited to New-to-FBA Parent ASINs: After enrolling in the program, fee waiver benefits can be utilized for an unlimited number of new-to-FBA parent ASINs created.
• Free Monthly Storage and Liquidations for Standard-Size ASINs: No monthly storage fees are incurred for the first 100 units of each new parent ASIN for 120 days after the first unit is received. Liquidation of any of these initial 100 units within 180 days incurs no liquidation fees.
• Free Monthly Storage and Liquidations for Oversize ASINs: The first 30 units of each new parent ASIN face no monthly storage fees for 90 days after the first unit's reception. Liquidating any of these initial 30 units within 180 days is free of liquidation fees.
• Additional Benefits for Apparel and Shoes: Return processing fees for up to 20 units of each standard-size parent ASIN are waived. Returned items must reach a fulfillment center within 180 days of the first inventory-received date.‍
• Global enrollment: You only need to enroll once, and New Selection benefits will be applied in each Amazon store automatically!

🔥Enhance product listings with the new Reduce Customer Returns recommendation! 

• Sellers can now boost their product listings and reduce returns with the all-new "Reduce Customer Returns" recommendation! Dive in and explore valuable insights derived from return comments, customer queries, and reviews. Here's what this feature has in store for you:

 💰 Financial impact: View the estimated amount in dollars you could gain over 90 days if you take a recommended action to improve a product detail page.

 🎯 Detail page recommendations: Improve your product detail page with content recommendations based on what customers look for.

 📈 Customer issue trends: Tailor your detail page content based on the number of customer questions and answers on a topic in your product category.

 🔎 Listing comparisons: Compare your listings with top-selling brands with similar information in their detail pages.

📍 Ideal location: Find out whether placing content in the title, bullets, or product description of your detail pages will have the greatest impression on customers.

Ready to check out your personalized recommendations? Head over to  Reduce Customer Returns (available to sellers with access to the Growth Opportunities tool) now.It's your key to reducing returns and maximizing customer satisfaction! To view your recommendation, go to.

🚨Update your listings with supported document types by February 26

To standardize product listings and make it easier for customers to find information about your products, certain document types will no longer be supported on the product detail page.

Starting January 29, 2024, the following will no longer be supported:
2D CAD, 3D CAD, Application Guide, Brochure, Comparison Chart, Compatibility Guide, FAQ, Size Guide, Specification Sheet, and Product Documentation.
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Shoppers will still be able to view unsupported document types that are already on your product detail pages, and you’ll be able to access and transfer content from all of your documents in Seller Central.  However, on February 26, 2024, any unsupported document types will be removed from product detail pages and Seller Central!

To comply with these changes, sellers are advised to visit Manage Product Documents and take the following actions before February 26:

Move Information: Transfer information from unsupported document types to relevant sections of the product detail page, such as the product description.

Re-upload Content: Re-upload content from unsupported document types to one of the 14 supported document types. For instance, an 'Application Guide' could be transferred to a 'User Guide.'

For more information, including a full list of supported document types, go to About Product Documents.

🔥New Minimum Inventory Level metric

Amazon has recently introduced the Minimum Inventory Level metric, a strategic tool designed to help with inventory planning, enhance delivery speeds, and mitigate the impact of the newly introduced low-inventory-level fee (effective April 1, 202).

We leverage advanced machine learning models to analyze demand forecasts and replenishment settings and recommend the minimum number of units per product that you should have on hand in our fulfillment centers.

Incorporating advanced machine learning models, Amazon's latest addition analyzes demand forecasts and replenishment settings to provide sellers with recommendations on the minimum number of units per product to maintain in fulfillment centers.

The significance? Keeping inventory above the Minimum Inventory Level is the key to meeting customer demand efficiently and reducing delivery times. Sellers adhering to this practice have reported an impressive 15% increase in sales over a four-week period, although individual results may vary. And most importantly, keeping more accurate inventory levels can help you avoid the controversial new Low Inventory fee.

To view your Minimum Inventory Level metric, go to FBA Inventory.

The Minimum Inventory Level metric doesn't operate in isolation; it collaborates with other essential tools and metrics to elevate FBA strategies:

• Historical Days of Supply: Commencing April 1, 2024, the low-inventory-level fee will be triggered when both long-term and short-term historical days of supply fall below 28 days (4 weeks). Sellers can monitor this through the FBA Inventory section.
• Inventory Performance Index (IPI): The IPI score reflects the efficiency of inventory management. Maintaining the Minimum Inventory Level positively contributes to the IPI score, and Amazon is set to update dashboards in the near future, visible on FBA Inventory and the Inventory Performance dashboard.
• Capacity Limits: Influenced by factors like the IPI score, sales forecasts, fulfillment center capacity, and shipment lead time, capacity limits play a crucial role. Adhering to capacity limits, avoiding excess inventory, and steering clear of the low-inventory-level fee are discussed in detail in the FBA capacity limits section.
• Restock Recommendations: Soon to be integrated into the FBA Inventory page, restock recommendations will offer specific ship-by dates and replenishment quantities to assist sellers in maintaining the Minimum Inventory Level.

Until next time! 🚀

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Get ready to kick off 2024 with some game-changing updates for Amazon sellers!

🔥Starting January 1st, the first wave of 2024 selling fee changes went into effect, but here's the silver lining – it's all about giving sellers a boost! All 3 of the January updates are decreases to the fees charged during Q4.

Curious about the full scoop for the year? Find all the details in our fee change blog found here.

🔥Brace yourselves for the exciting expansion of Brand Tailored Promotions (BTP) across the globe! - 

Say hello to the UK, Germany, Spain, Italy, France, Mexico, and Canada, joining the US in the BTP club.

This program is the secret weapon for brand owners, letting them send custom promo codes to Brand Tailored Audiences of high-intent customers, repeat customers, recent customers, and cart abandoners. Offering discounts ranging from 10% to a whopping 50% on products in the brand catalog, it's the ultimate tool to supercharge sales. To get started, go to Brand Tailored Promotions or check out the Brand Tailored Promotions help page

🔥If that's not enough to get your seller senses tingling, Amazon has a new tool in town for checking Subscribe & Save (S&S) eligibility for FBA products. No more waiting around – sellers can now self-service their S&S catalog with ease, saving time and streamlining the process. You can access the new tool via this link

Heads up: the tool is currently in beta testing, so be a pioneer and give it a whirl. Encounter a glitch? No worries – support is just a click away via the normal Contact Us process in Seller Central. The previous Subscribe and Save email workflow was retired effective Dec 31st, 2023.

🔥Alexa becomes an additional default inventory supply for various line item types for Amazon DSP advertisers -

The extension to all line item types, including Amazon Mobile Display, Standard Display, and AAP - Mobile App, allows advertisers to seamlessly connect with incremental customers. The Alexa Home Screen display ad is now available on eligible Echo Show devices in the US market and can be accessed through Amazon DSP's self-service platform. This update simplifies campaign creation for advertisers, enabling them to effortlessly reach a broader audience within connected homes and achieve both brand awareness and performance objectives.

🔥Sponsored Brands video introduces video-only creatives on the advertising console and Amazon Ads API -

Accessible under "Goals" > "Grow brand impression share," this feature allows advertisers to narrate their brand story independently of specific products or collections. Advertisers can optimize video campaigns for their brand's share of voice on Amazon, with the ad appearing solely in top-of-search placements. Additionally, the option to edit existing live video campaigns under "Grow brand impression share" streamlines the process without needing recreation. This enhancement is available in numerous regions, including North America, South America, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia Pacific, for managed service, self-service, registered sellers, vendors, and authors.

See you next week! 🚀

🔥A sneak peek at Alexa enable Smart Glasses functionality -

 everyone seems to be having a great time with them!

🔥Brands can now run A/B tests on Brand Story content with Manage Your Experiments (MYE) -

Registered brands with eligible products can now A/N test Brand Story content in MYE. Brand Story, found on the detail page under ‘From the Brand’, is a 2023 feature that enables you to tell customers your unique brand story with carousel displays, image and text cards, and links to more of your products.

A+ Brand Story Start Guide. Check eligibility on the Manage Your Experiments page.

🔥Reduce apparel and shoe returns with Fit Insights tool -

The tool was launched at Accelerate with a focus on making it easy for shoppers to find the right size on apparel and giving apparel brands access to fit-specific insights about their products to better meet customer sizing expectations and reduce returns. These benefits are now rolling out to footwear!

The tool offers the following benefits:

• Products are assigned a return health score, from very poor to excellent, so brands can quickly identify listings that need to be updated
• A comparison of product return rate against an average benchmark of best-in-class products in a similar price and style with low returns
• A summary of customer insights based on positive and negative customer feedback
• Analysis of your size charts with recommendations on how to resolve size chart issues and meet customer sizing expectations
• *only available to Brand Registered apparel and shoe, with at least 100 units sold in the last 12 months

🔥Secondary Language videos on Product Detail Pages -

Sellers can now upload videos to your detail pages in multiple languages. Upload videos in secondary languages to enable more customers to buy, setup, or troubleshoot your product through video. To get started, navigate to Upload and manage your videos under Catalog in Seller Central.

Note: Until January 15, 2024 some videos uploaded in alternate languages may not appear on the detail pages as Amazon is still experimenting with this update, please do not raise support cases for this issue.

🔥Run A/B tests on Brand Story content with Manage Your Experiments - 

Registered brands with eligible products can now run A/B tests on Brand Story content with Manage Your Experiments. This lets you edit and optimize content that highlights your brand story and create cross-selling opportunities on your listings to help generate more sales and increase repeat purchases.

Brand Story is a feature that enables Sellers to tell customers the unique story behind the brand with carousel displays, image and text cards, and links to more of your products. This flexible type of A+ Content is a great tool during peak sale events and the holiday season to promote other products, drive traffic to brand stores, and showcase new product launches.

To learn more about A+ Content Brand Story, go to A+ Brand Story Start Guide.

For more information on eligibility, go to Manage Your Experiments.

To get started, go to the Manage Your Experiments dashboard, click Create a New Experiment and select A+ Brand Story.

See you next week! 🚀

Holiday greetings, sellers!☃️🎁 

2 new features are coming soon for Sellers using Amazon Warehousing and Distribution (AWD) or those on the fence looking for a reason to use it. Betas are taking names for participants and one exciting update is already here and open to all using the program!

🔥AWD is now part of a larger program, Supply Chain by Amazon -

As a true warehousing and 3PL solution, rates are significantly cheaper long term vs storing items in Amazon FCs where inventory is expected to turn quickly and is penalized heavily when it doesn't. Additional program details can be found here. 

🔥Multi-Channel Distribution (MCD) is an upcoming addition to the AWD offering -

• will allow sellers to send bulk inventory to wholesalers, business partners (B2B), and other locations outside of Amazon. 
• MCD allows you to use a single inventory pool to stay in stock across all your sales and fulfillment channels. This offering will bring AWD in line with traditional 3PL warehousing solutions while also offering brands advantages specific to their Amazon FBA business.

*Note, similar to MCF that was previously available to use with AWD (in addition to traditional FBA), MCD appears to be a more streamlined and scaleable option within the AWD workflow for Omni channel fulfillment. Interested? Email Amazon to be added to the beta.

🔥Sellers can also now reserve long-term AWD storage months in advance and at even deeper discounts! 

• Standard rates are listed below, but the deeper discounted rates are part of a closed beta and have not yet been shared with the public. Want to learn more? Email Amazon for more information about the beta.

🔥Amazon-Partnered shipping is now integrated with AWD. 

• This feature is now live for any Sellers already using the program. 
• This is great news for sellers, as some early tests with AWD last year had disastrous results as a result of the messy shipping/receiving processes. Integrating Amazon-partnered options should reduce issues and prices for Sellers previously shipping on their own accounts.

Happy selling! 🚀

🔥Amazon issues some FBM TIPS this week for optimizing seller-fulfilled sales during  Q4 -

• Customize your Notification Options to ensure you’re subscribed to the right notifications and that the right email address is on file.

• This can be done in Seller Central via Settings --> Notification Preferences; Here you can opts into text notifications for all FBM orders, as well as email notifications  for all FBM, FBA and MCF orders

• Keep an eye on your Account Health. 

• During high sales periods, it’s especially important to monitor your late shipment rate, pre-fulfillment cancellation rate, valid tracking rate, and on-time delivery rate and proactively resolve any issues.

• Set your Order Handling Capacity to the number of seller-fulfilled orders you can ship in one day.

• If you have a sudden spike in orders beyond your max capacity, having an accurate Handling Capacity entered will ensure Amazon automatically updates additional orders to reflect 1 additional handling day
• e.g. you set a capacity of 50 orders but receive 55 orders today - 50 orders will need to ship within your standard handling window, and the other 5 will have an additional day added and will count towards tomorrow's order capacity
• Orders with non-standard handling times (longer than 2 days) are not accounted for in order capacity

• Make sure your delivery promises are accurate. 

• Check your shipping templates to make sure you can meet the transit time set up, or enable Shipping settings automation to automatically calculate accurate delivery promises.

• DO NOT USE shipping setting automations! 

In our experience testing this when it rolled out it's more of a hindrance than an aid. It's unclear how Amazon calculates the delivery estimates, but in general, they were up to 2 weeks longer than the delivery times generated by simply providing warehouse location/shipping methods.

• The default handling time for seller-fulfilled orders has been updated from two days to one, but you can set a longer SKU-level handling time.

• Note: weekends and holidays normally don't count towards handling time - unless you've specifically opted into weekend operations

• Use vacation settings to set your listing status to “Inactive” and stop orders from coming in if you’re unavailable over the holidays.

• Or alternatively, utilize the SKU-level handling time mentioned above. This keeps your products in stock and shoppable during the season and allows shoppers to buy your product understanding there will be a later-than-typical delivery
• Note: You can only change your default handling time once in a 24-hour window, and it can take up to 24 hours for the change to take effect. But you can update on a SKU level beyond standard handling multiple times per day as needed. 
• SKU-level handling times can range from same day-30 days

• Use Amazon Buy Shipping labels to help protect your account performance metrics and benefit from Amazon’s pre-negotiated rates or your own connected carrier rates. Regardless of what you use year-round, the best piece of advice for FBM Sellers this time of year is to consider this option for Q4.

If you opt to ship on your own and update tracking, it is of utmost importance to check user permissions, especially if you have new users for the holiday season. Double-check that all users have the appropriate permissions, as it can be unclear in Seller Central sometimes, for example, whether there are “0” orders or you simply do not have access to the orders page. 

• This time of year is always a good time to revisit your Order Cut-Off times as well.

• By default, this is set to 2 pm local time. Depending on carrier pickup or package drop-off times, you may want to adjust this earlier or later to manage the flow of orders expected to ship on a given day

🔥2024 Fee updates are here -

You can read the full news release here and check out the Fees update page here. Here are some of the highlights:

New fee buckets will be introduced, including:

• the Inbound Placement Service fee will include fees per unit that will be shown during shipping creation, with the option for Premium Service  (sending to one location, paying for distribution) or Discount (sending to multiple locations at your own expense)
• introduce a low inventory-level fee, a fee that applies if you carry consistently low levels of inventory relative to unit sales, as this inhibits Amazon's ability to distribute products across the network, degrading delivery speeds and increasing shipping costs.

In addition, we’ll see some increased and reduced fees including:

• Reduced referral fees for apparel products priced below $20. Items under $15 will see fees reduce from 17% to 5%, and products in the $15-$20 range will decrease to 10%
• Quarterly updates coming to FBA New Selection will include a 10% rebate on sales for non-brand items and an expansion of benefits to Oversized items and additional Vine benefits. More details on the FBA New Selection page.
• Returns processing fee updates will also be coming for all items that are labeled as high return rate, excluding apparel and shoes. Go to the Returns processing fee page for more details

Of course, we will soon see the return to non-peak rates for storage and annual updates to Storage Utilization surcharges, Removals, Disposals, Aged Inventory, and Inbound/Prep fees.

• New US Multi-Channel Fulfillment fees starting February 5, 2024.

• Beginning February 5, 2024, US Multi-Channel Fulfillment (MCF) fees and size tiers will be updated as follows:

• On average, MCF fees will increase by 3.5% across all delivery speed options. This change is below the 5.9% average increase announced by other carriers
• For units with shipping weights less than 1 lb, MCF fees will remain unchanged or be slightly lower than current fees for standard speeds

• A new smaller size tier of 4 oz will be introduced
• A Large Bulky and Extra Large tier of sizes will also be introduced, to replace the current Oversize size tiers

You can view all of the MCF fees and details on how to calculate here.

🚨Changes to listing requirements to improve the shopping experience - 

• Starting December 11, 2023, the requirements to create listings will change for all products in Amazon’s worldwide stores (1750 types) except those from media, digital and handmade categories.
• A full list of updated attributes by category can be found here
• Existing listings will not be impacted unless you attempt to edit
• These updates are being implemented to address errors caused by required attributes that are not marked as required
• Starting December 11, all sellers who use "Add Products via Upload" can choose to upgrade to new listing templates with updated attribute requirements. Choosing this option will provide the best experience, but Amazon will continue to accept listing submissions using templates with the previous requirements.
• 30-day notice will be given before the updated template becomes the default option, execution date varies by category between December 11, 2023, and February 1, 2024.

🔥Buy with Prime fee changes - 

In addition to the detailed list of Amazon Seller Fees announced above, the BwP program is announcing their own fee updates for 2024.

Effective January 8th:

• Prime service fee minimum will be reduced from $1.50 to $1 per order, improving profitability on lower-priced orders

Effective February 5th:

• Fulfillment fees will decrease by 0.5% on average.

• For Small and Large Standard size bands less than 1 lb., fees will remain unchanged or decrease by an average of 3.3%
• For size bands greater than 1 lb., fees will increase by an average of 1.6%.
• These changes are below the 5.9% average increase announced by other carriers.
• Some size tiers will be modified to mirror industry standards

• A new smaller size tier of 4 oz. will be introduced
• A Large Bulky and Extra Large tier of sizes will also be introduced to replace the current Oversize size tiers
• Rate card below with a full overview of 2024 fees for the program or can be accessed on the BwP Pricing page.

Until next time! 🚀

🚨Transparency Interoperability -

this may be your last reminder that Sellers can get 20K FREE codes PER ASIN for all new ASINs enrolled into Transparency by EOY. So, for those brands that do not already serialize, this is a potential money-saving option.

🔥Updates to the B2B Product Opportunities Dashboard - 

Brands can now target B2B customers with enhanced product recommendations. Updates allow Sellers to view product listing recommendations from a variety of insights, including customer purchasing trends, requests for new products and quantity discounts, and your selling history. In addition, the following new features launched:

• Improved user interface: The "Download report" pop-up that blocked the view of recommendations has been removed, redesigned metrics display, added filter options, and the option to download reports of all recommendations at once.
• Upgraded recommendations: New machine learning models generate recommendations that are more relevant to your business.
• New metrics: A “Rank” metric has been added to help you prioritize personalized recommendations. The “B2B opportunity” metric compares the potential demand for the recommended selection with a similar selection. The “B2B featured offer price” metric is the average B2B featured offer price in the past month.

For more information, go to B2B product opportunities.

🔥Enroll products in programs on the Sustainability Solutions Hub - 

Announced at Accelerate and now available to all Sellers! Explore resources on the Sustainability Solutions Hub and enroll your products in programs such as:

• Climate Pledge Friendly, which partners with more than 50 credible and recognized sustainability certifiers to help customers discover more sustainable products.
• Ship in Product Packaging, to deliver products to customers without additional Amazon packaging.
• Amazon Renewed, to sell high-quality refurbished, pre-owned, and open-box products to millions of Amazon customers worldwide.

The hub can help you create more sustainable products and solutions for customers, including:

• Reporting dashboards that show business performance data for products enrolled or recommended for enrollment in our programs.
• A curated list of sustainability-related partners in the Amazon Service Provider Network, who can help you to design and certify more sustainable products and packaging.

To explore more resources, go to Sustainability Solutions Hub.

See you next week! 🚀