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Amazon reinstatement

Riverbend welcomes Cathy Ceely

August 26, 2019 1 Comment

The ultimate Amazon Seller Performance expert and insider, Cathy Ceely worked at Amazon for two decades

By Lesley Hensell

Amazon sellers now have the ultimate insider, Cathy Ceely, to help with account suspensions and other pressing account problems. After almost 20 years with Amazon Seller Performance and Strategic Account Management, Cathy is bringing her expertise to the 3P market as an account supervisor with Riverbend Consulting.
Cathy Ceely
Cathy Ceely joined Amazon in 1999.

Her career highlights include:

  • Founding member of the Executive Seller Relations team in 2001, answering seller escalations to Jeff Bezos
  • The first Seller Performance investigator in 2005
  • Operations manager of Seller Performance
  • Founding member of the Product Quality Team, establishing many of the internal processes used by investigation teams worldwide
  • A member of the Strategic Account Management team, working with many of Amazon’s largest sellers to troubleshoot enforcement issues
Cathy brought the voice of the seller to the enforcement teams and drove enforcement improvements on behalf of Amazon sellers. Cathy’s new role as a consultant with Riverbend will allow her to bring her knowledge of Amazon selling policies directly to Sellers as they work to grow their businesses at Amazon.

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

Filed Under: 3P, Amazon, General, Seller Performance Tagged With: Account Changes, Amazon, Amazon FBA, Amazon reinstatement, Amazon seller, Change, FBA, FNSKU, Inventory, Seller central, Suspension, UPC, Update

Amazon FBA: Just say NO to commingling inventory

August 23, 2019 Leave a Comment

Commingling inventory is risky strategy may save some change, but it threatens your account and increases returns

By: Lesley Hensell

Amazon FBA sellers should not be commingling inventory.

It’s rare that I make a definitive, blanket statement about how to sell on Amazon. I’m a firm believer that there are many ways to skin the Amazon selling cat. Plus, different sellers have varying levels of risk tolerance.

But commingling allows me to break my “what’s best for you” rule and declare that commingling is a bad choice for any and all FBA sellers.

What is commingling?

Amazon sellers may choose to have Amazon fulfill their inventory. They ship items to Amazon’s  Fulfillment Centers via the FBA (Fulfilled by Amazon) program.

When inbound FBA shipments are created, some ASINs offer two options: use the product’s existing UPC or attach an FNSKU sticker:

  1. The product’s existing UPC is the barcode that already exists on most manufactured products. If a seller chooses this option, their inventory is commingled. https://sellercentral.amazon.com/gp/help/G200141480  (log in required)
  2. FNSKU stands for Fulfillment Network Stock Keeping Unit. It consists of an alphanumeric code and matching, unique barcode. This is how Amazon links a specific unit of inventory to the exact seller who sent it to the warehouse. When a seller is prepping FBA inventory, they print an FNSKU sticker for each item.

When FBA inventory arrives at the Amazon Fulfillment Center (FC), it can be handled in one of two ways:

  1. Commingled inventory is all put together in a bin, no matter who the seller of record might be. When an order for Seller A’s unit of inventory arrives, it may be fulfilled by any of the commingled units Amazon has on hand – from any seller.
  2. Stickered inventory is segregated by seller. When an order for Seller A’s unit of inventory arrives, it is supposed to be fulfilled specifically from Seller A’s available stock. (More on the exceptions later.)

Why avoid commingling?

You’re a good seller. You work hard to ensure your inventory is authentic and in great shape. So why risk your orders being fulfilled with a bad seller’s inventory?

Here are real-world examples I’ve personally seen as the result of commingling:

  1. Counterfeit games were sent to the FC, and my client’s units purchased from the manufacturer were fulfilled with fakes.
  2. Off-brand fakes were sold in place of name-brand items. These off-brand fakes were a products that plug in, but did not have UL certification. At least two units caught on fire, resulting in a safety suspension for my client.
  3. Tubes of lotion that do not include safety seals were fulfilled from another seller’s inventory. These lotions were not shrink-wrapped, polybagged or otherwise prepped. They leaked everywhere, resulting in complaints for my client.
  4. Shoes that were likely counterfeit (poor stitching) and sometimes had signs of wear were fulfilled in place of my client’s legitimate inventory.
  5. Chinese sellers flooded a clothing listing with fakes, where decals peeled off easily. This resulted in ASIN suspensions for my client.

And that’s just off the top of my head. There are hundreds of ways to get in deep, deep trouble – with customers and with Amazon – when you commingle inventory. In addition, sellers risk high return rates for poor-quality items.

But what about de facto commingling?

Alas, even for sellers who sticker every item, there is “de facto commingling” at the Amazon warehouse. For example, let’s imagine that Seller A has a unit of Kleenex in a California warehouse. Seller B has the same unit of Kleenex in a Texas warehouse.

A customer who lives in Florida purchases the Kleenex from Seller A. Amazon may choose to ship the Texas Kleenex to the customer, and then put the California inventory on a truck to Texas to replace it.

This is just one of many reasons de facto commingling occurs. But make no mistake – your account is still much better off if you prevent as much commingling as possible by stickering your items.

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

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

Filed Under: Account Health, Amazon, FBA, Fulfillment, General Tagged With: Account Changes, Amazon, Amazon FBA, Amazon reinstatement, Amazon seller, Change, FBA, FNSKU, Inventory, Seller central, Suspension, UPC, Update

Amazon sellers: Do this ONE simple thing before you update the credit card in your seller account

August 19, 2019 Leave a Comment

Don’t update credit card and banking details in Amazon unless you contact AMZ first

By: Lesley Hensell

The change seemed so harmless and simple. Patti recently switched banks for her business account to get a better deal. But when she went to update the credit card and banking details in her Amazon seller account, it was suspended almost instantly.

“I was stunned,” she said on our recent phone call. “There was no fraud. This account has a long history, and our company name is on the new bank account. Why would Amazon suspend our seller account instead of sending us an email or calling us?”

Examples:

Unfortunately, this scenario plays out in the Amazon seller community almost every day:

  1. A seller changes the company details in their account – bank account, credit card, address, corporate entity name, etc.
  2. The account is suspended.
  3. The seller spends days, weeks or even months convincing Amazon that they are who they say they are, and they were not doing anything wrong. In reality, they simply updated the credit card and banking details in Amazon.

Why does this happen?

While we can’t read Amazon’s mind, we can make some highly educated guesses:

  • The change could kick off a fraud review at Amazon. They must continually watch for theft, money-laundering and a host of other financial sins.
  • Amazon is beholden to federal rules around the Office of Foreign Assets Control. For that reason they require extra scrutiny.
  • Amazon cares about risk management. And this is a risk. Period.

What’s a seller to do?

It’s pretty simple:

  1. Before you make any changes, send an email to seller-performance@amazon.com
  2. Make them aware of what changes you are making to your account information – and, of course, why.
  3. Wait for a reply email. It should either ask for more details,  or more likely it will say something like, “Thank you for complying with our policies.”
  4. Then you are safe to make the changes in your account.

Finally, if you are suspended for making these changes in your account, it can be challenging to be re-opened. We have used many successful strategies that include sending supporting corporate documents and escalating to key executives. If you have questions or need help, contact Riverbend Consulting today. Contact us.

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

Filed Under: Account Health, Amazon, Gating, General Tagged With: Account Changes, Amazon, Amazon reinstatement, Amazon seller, Bank, Change, Credit card, Suspension, Update

Fake ungating invoices are the new fast track to losing an Amazon account

July 29, 2019 Leave a Comment

“You are an Amazon counterfeiter.”

By Lesley Hensell

Do you assume your Amazon seller account would never be labeled as fencing counterfeit goods? Think again. You could be labeled an Amazon counterfeiter.

Seems like Amazon is on a mission: detect and shut down counterfeiters. Unfortunately, many sellers are engaging in a behavior that can get them branded an Amazon counterfeiter. This can get them permanently banned from the platform. Even if they never purchased, listed or sold a questionable product.

Several of our recent clients submitted forged invoices to Amazon’s category department in an effort to be ungated at the category, brand or ASIN level:

  • Many don’t want to invest in expensive inventory that they cannot sell if their ungating effort fails.
  • Some submit real invoices; however, Amazon doesn’t accept them. There are many reasons this can happen.
  • In too many cases, we’ve been told that “someone on the forums” or “a web site” said submitting a fake invoice was the ticket to being ungated.

Our clients had no intention of selling fake goods. Some of them already had true, verifiable inventory sitting in their warehouses.

So what harm could a fake invoice possibly do?

As my colleague Kelly observed today, “Clearly, Category is reviewing these invoices and then connecting to Seller Performance to bring down the hammer of rage and justice.”

In other words, what is submitted to Category for ungating does not stay in Category for ungating. Amazon expects sellers to submit true, verifiable, real invoices. Every single time. Think about it. If they cannot trust your invoices for ungating purposes, why would they be able to trust your invoices for verifying item authenticity or condition if a buyer complains?

What happens when a seller submits an invoice?

  • It is reviewed by a machine and by a human.
  • The machine compares it to other invoices in Amazon’s massive databases. The human will compare it to common sense and other variables.
  • If fraud, editing or other shenanigans are detected, the invoices will be referred to Seller Performance.
  • Seller Performance deactivates the account immediately.
  • The seller is consequently given an opportunity to appeal.
  • Seller Performance can appeal and notify the seller that their funds will be held by Amazon. PERMANENTLY. For counterfeit/fraud.

It’s swift, ugly, and difficult to reverse.

How can you prevent this happening to your company? Riverbend offers these suggestions:

  1. Establish, explain and pound into your team that you have a no-tolerance policy for manipulating, editing or modifying documents.
  2. Create layers of review for any and all invoices submitted to Amazon. Require the purchasing department to sign-off on all invoices as true before they are submitted. In addition, require a management-level sign-off.
  3. Certainly assign your most trusted team member to this task. Have them manage submissions of invoices to Amazon.
  4. Do your research on what barriers to entry exist for being ungated in various categories and brands. Knowledge is power.
  5. Don’t try to do too much too soon. Many new sellers think there’s a “holy grail” category or brand that they MUST sell. Therefore, they will do questionable things to achieve that goal.
  6. Seek advice from reputable sources. If you are having difficulty with Amazon, or they are rejecting your invoices, reach out to someone who knows how to work with Amazon. The legitimate, right way. For example, a recent client who submitted fake invoices tried submitting real invoices first. He was rejected. At one glance, our team knew why they were not accepted.
  7. Finally, avoid advice from people who think they can fool Amazon and its amazing fraud-detecting technologies. For instance, anonymous people on forums, IG influencers with no profile picture, random sellers and Twitterers.

So just one fake invoice can end you on Amazon – permanently.

Above all, it’s not worth any new product to sell or category to compete. If your valid and true invoices are not being accepted by Amazon, give us a call. Or, if you need help ensuring your submissions to Amazon are always safe  Riverbend Consulting can help. Contact us.


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

Filed Under: Account Health, Amazon, Gating, General Tagged With: Amazon, Amazon reinstatement, Amazon seller, Counterfeit, Fake invoice, Fencing, Goods, Ungating

UPS, USPS and the making of an Amazon shipping nightmare

April 15, 2019 Leave a Comment

Sellers are no stranger to Amazon shipping challenges.

By Lesley Hensell

But lately, some new hassles are rearing their ugly heads. One of these seems to be a technical error, while the other may signal long-term policy changes for Amazon shipping.

UPS covering FBA inbound shipment stickers
Two prep centers have reached out to me about this bizarre issue. It appears that a limited number of UPS hubs – one in Michigan and one in California – are having a technical issue. Any non-UPS barcode on the outside of a package is causing issues with scanning and routing.

Their solution is wreaking havoc for 3P sellers sending shipments to FBA fulfillment centers. UPS is covering all non-UPS barcodes – including the critical sticker scanned by Amazon upon a box’s arrival.  

But wait – isn’t UPS a partnered carrier? Shouldn’t they avoid angering Amazon and its sellers?

There have long been whispers that some UPS higher-ups aren’t thrilled with their Amazon relationship. Plus, the staff at the hubs are just trying to route and deliver packages. Non-UPS barcodes, in their minds, aren’t their problems.

What’s a seller to do? If your packages are routed through Michigan or California, consider jumping to FedEx. In many geographical locations, they offer the same or better pricing for inbound FBA shipments.

Amazon messing with SFP delivery times
Amazon doesn’t trust the U.S. Postal Service for on-time delivery.

That’s become all too obvious with recent changes to the “buy shipping” feature for Seller Fulfilled Prime. Amazon’s algorithm appears to no longer include Saturday as a transit day. In addition, it is taking the most conservative-possible estimate on delivery estimates. And finally, First-Class mail is no longer an option for SFP orders – even if they would arrive before the promise date.

For example, in my own seller account, Amazon insisted I buy UPS Ground to ship a package literally 20 miles away. I’m confident that USPS First Class Mail would have delivered the next day, or at worst, the day after that. But I wasn’t given that option to purchase either that or Priority Mail. Craziness.

Many SFP sellers are finding themselves priced out of the two-day shipping market.

There are two options for dealing with this difficulty:

  1. Ask Seller Support to generate a transit time map based on your location. They can provide a list of regions that matches those in shipping settings. It will give the likelihood of two-day delivery using Priority Mail, based on distance and other factors. Then, you can dramatically limit your SFP settings, so that you will most likely only offer products to those who will receive packages on-time with Priority Mail.
  2. I hate to sound like an ad for FedEx. But if you ship enough volume, it’s worth investigating their One Rate program for Seller Fulfilled Prime. In many cases, the rates are comparable to Priority Mail. Keep in mind, however, that shipping out the same day the order is received will always help hold down your shipping expenses.

Amazon woes?  Contact us.

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

Filed Under: 3P, Account Health, Amazon, FBA, Fulfillment, Gating, General Tagged With: Amazon, Amazon FBA, Amazon reinstatement, Amazon seller, FBA, Inventory, Mail, SFP sellers, Shipment, Shipping, UPS, USPS

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