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5 ways to avoid variation abuse

April 8, 2020 Leave a Comment

Amazon is super-strict on variations; follow these rules to stay safe from variation abuse

By: Lesley Hensell

A couple of times a year, Amazon goes on a quest to clean up the catalog. For many sellers, this can result in warnings for variation abuse. Too often, brand owners and sellers are violating Amazon’s variation rules and don’t even realize it. Other times, sellers are using variations to circumvent Amazon’s rules. 

What is a variation? In short, it’s a family of ASINs that are for the same product. An “anchor” ASIN is called the parent, and similar ASINs are called “children.” These child listings are connected with one another, instead of being distinct and separate. For example, a parent ASIN might be for a men’s t-shirt with a pocket. A child ASIN would be that exact t-shirt, in green sized large.

Amazon Variation Abuse

Why do sellers violate variation rules? There are a few motivating factors:

  1. Boosting Best Seller Rank (BSR) across all variations. If one child listing is particularly popular, sellers will try to tack other children onto the listing in hopes of getting great sales for that product as well.
  2. Launching a new product. Being pegged to a popular existing product makes product launches easier.
  3. Circumventing brand gating rules. If they can’t get approval to list against a specific brand, some sellers play games with variations as a workaround of Amazon’s regulations.

Follow these five strategies to ensure you aren’t busted for variation abuse.

  1. Understand what makes a variation. For almost all product categories on Amazon, the only acceptable variations are for color, size and quantity. In the t-shirt example above, you could offer the shirt in a range of colors, a range of sizes, and a variety of multi-packs. In some categories, there are additional specific acceptable variations, such as flavor. You can find these in the style guide for each category.
  2. Do not group products by your preference. Imagine that you are selling puzzles. You have five puzzles that feature animals and 5 puzzles that feature cars. You decide to set up variation families based on animals and cars. While this makes sense to you, it is not acceptable to Amazon.
  3. Do not abuse the variant. Many sellers change the meaning of the approved variation. For example, they will create “red” and “yellow” variations for a lotion, when the true difference is scent. Sellers abuse this variation because they believe the two scents should be on the same listing. Remember, your opinion doesn’t override Amazon’s rules.
  4. Ensure everything on the child listings matches, except the variant. If you have created a valid variation family, the child listings must be identical except for the acceptable variants. The listing title, bullets, description and photos should be the same – except where you point out the color, size or quantity. When you mouse-over the variant attributes and click through the child listings, the content should remain essentially identical.
  5. Don’t use a variation to create a bundle.  Sellers fall into this temptation in the effort to differentiate themselves from listings with a lot of competition. Or, they create unauthorized variation bundles to try and “launch” or bring attention to a bundle. Keep in mind, all elements of the product must be the same across a variation family. For example, you cannot offer a product with a case and without a case on the same variation.

Have questions or a suspension for variation abuse? Contact Riverbend Consulting. We are happy to help.

Filed Under: Account Health, Amazon, ASIN, Bundles, General, Variations Tagged With: 3P, 3P seller, Amazon, Amazon FBA, Amazon listings, Amazon seller, Bundles, Coronavirus, Deactivation, Essential, FBA, Fulfillment center, Inbound, Inventory, Merchant fulfilled, MFN, New York, Order Cancellation, Shipment, Supplements, Vacation, Variation abuse, Warehouse

MFN orders piling up? Go on vacay!

April 7, 2020 Leave a Comment

Whether you’re a new MFN seller or seeing high order volumes, be ready to pause

By: Lesley Hensell

As Amazon struggles to ship out FBA orders quickly enough, Amazon 3P sellers are jumping into merchant fulfillment. It’s important to understand the metrics Amazon expects from MFN sellers – and how to keep out of trouble. This does not just apply to the current situation driven by Covid-19. These concepts can be relevant during any kind of natural disaster or business disruption.

Amazon requires:

  • A late shipment rate of less than 4 percent
  • An order cancellation rate of less than 2.5 percent

Follow these tips to ensure you don’t run afoul of Amazon’s rules:

  1. Check your stats every day. Watch them like a hawk.
  2. Get out every order by the promised ship date. Don’t rely on third-party software. Actually look in Seller Central to see which items are not shipped out, and get them out ASAP.
  3. Ensure that you get an origin scan by your carrier. Amazon doesn’t consider the order shipped unless it is scanned.
  4. If you even start to feel behind, go on vacation. You can do this in settings in your account. Temporarily pause accepting new MFN orders until you are caught up.

What happen when you run out of inventory or simply mess up and need to cancel an order? You want to ensure that you don’t get negative feedback.

Try these strategies:

  • Buyers don’t like when you leave them hanging past the estimated ship date. If you figure out you won’t be able to ship, cancel sooner rather than later. Be timely and apologetic in cancellations. Don’t wait. Explain that you are cancelling the order immediately so that the buyer has time to place a new order with someone else.
  • When cancelling an order, buyers understand the truth and a valid reason why the order must be cancelled. For example, a tornado shut down our operations. Send a message stating that a weather event happened today in your location. Safety of your employees is paramount, so you are not requiring staff to come in today to prioritize their families. 
  • Buyers don’t like it when sellers confirm orders, only to cancel them and issue a refund. This is technically mail fraud. In addition, buyers become very angry when an order is cancelled, yet they can see that it is still available for sale on Amazon.

What should MFN sellers do long-term? Ensure you have staff redundancy to fill orders even if your regular MFN staff are not available. And be sure that someone can put your store on vacation via mobile if your infrastructure is not functional.

Amazon MFN sellers, we are here for you and your business! Let’s talk 877-289-1017 or visit our website.

Filed Under: 3P, Account Health, Amazon, FBA, Fulfillment, General, Seller Fulfilled, SFP Tagged With: 3P, 3P seller, Amazon, Amazon FBA, Amazon seller, Copyright, Coronavirus, Covid-19, Deactivation, Essential, FBA, Fulfillment center, Inbound, Inventory, Merchant fulfilled, MFN, New York, Order Cancellation, Shipment, Supplements, Vacation, Warehouse

10 positive actions Amazon sellers can take during quarantine

March 25, 2020 Leave a Comment

Whether your 3P account is large or small, take action today

By: Lesley Hensell

It’s a tough time for Amazon sellers – or any small business. With the situation changing every day, it’s easy to become paralyzed. Instead, how about choosing one of these 10 small ways to move your account forward – either by driving cash flow or improving listings for the future.
  1. Sling your own boxes. Amazon’s FBA operations will remain unreliable for at least a couple of months, as supply chain issues are smoothed out. This is your chance to gain a competitive advantage by merchant-fulfilling your products (MFN). The process is simpler than most FBA sellers assume it will be. Also, if you’ve got a spouse or kids home from work and school, it’s their time to contribute to the family income!
  2. Find a fulfillment house. If it’s not possible – or attractive – for you to pack and ship boxes, hire a fulfillment house. This is a great long- term strategy as well, since there are times during holidays and crises when MFN listings can out-perform FBA. If you need a referral to a high-quality fulfillment house, contact Riverbend Consulting. We can give you options.
  3. File for reimbursements. If you’re an FBA seller, Amazon likely owes you money. Inventory gets lost, damaged, not received and not returned. When these things happen, Amazon sometimes automatically reimburses your account. But more often, you must file a case to ask for the funds or inventory back. Reimbursement cases can go back 18 months, so starting now can provide a much-needed cash boost for your account. Want help? Call Riverbend Consulting. We will file your cases and only take a fee if we get you money.
  4. Source products for the future. Quarantine creates its own possible revenue streams for the future. For example, is it reasonable to expect a baby boom in 9 months? If you think it may, now is the time to find sources for baby clothing and gifts.
  5. List your death pile. There’s an old eBay reference called the “death pile.” It’s the stuff lurking in closets and spare bedrooms that was sourced – but then never listed. eBay sellers aren’t the only ones with death piles. Amazon sellers have items lurking in warehouses and closets, too. If it’s not listed, it won’t sell! Get those items listed and merchant-fulfill them.
  6.  Clean up your catalog. Most sellers have dozens to thousands of inactive listings in their inventory. If you won’t sell these items again – delete them! If not, they become an enforcement magnet for Amazon, which sees any listing as an item you intend to sell again. This makes you susceptible to listing suspensions for restricted products, price gouging and more.
  7. Work your PPC ads. When sales are slow, the strong advertise. Refine your pay-per-click Amazon ad campaigns. Improve your targeting and keywords. If you need help, contact Riverbend Consulting! We can refer you to affordable, high-quality resources for PPC.
  8. Built out A+ content. If you own a brand, now is the ideal time to improve your listings quality. Add video and compelling text to your listings. Explain why your product is superior to the competition. Get creative and build pages that draw in customers.
  9. Re-shoot lousy listing photos. It’s a good time to revisit the images on your listing detail pages. If the primary image doesn’t follow Amazon’s standards (product only, no text, pure white background), shoot a new one. If you don’t have secondary images and “lifestyle” photos, add some. These help pop your listing higher in search results – and improve conversions.
  10. Learn to love another platform. Times are tough on all online platforms right now. But this crisis proves – yet again – that diversification is key. Some sellers are seeing impressive success on eBay. Others are pushing on Poshmark, Mercari, and other “secondary” platforms. Do the research and find another place to roll out your products.

Amazon sellers, we are here for you and your business! Let’s talk 877-289-1017 or visit our website.

Filed Under: 3P, Account Health, Amazon, FBA, Fulfillment, General, Seller Fulfilled, SFP Tagged With: 3P, 3P seller, Amazon, Amazon FBA, Amazon seller, Copyright, Coronavirus, Deactivation, Essential, FBA, Fulfillment center, Inbound, Inventory, Merchant fulfilled, MFN, New York, Shipment, Supplements, Warehouse

Get your Seller Fulfilled Prime up and running – now!

March 24, 2020 Leave a Comment

Amazon has loosened its metrics for Seller Fulfilled Prime (SFP) shippers

By: Lesley Hensell

With Amazon’s FBA shipments falling further behind each day, Seller Fulfilled Prime has become more valuable than ever. Unfortunately, many sellers who once had SFP privileges lost them for a performance misstep. Today, likely in reaction to the Covid-19 panic, Amazon has loosened up the metrics for SFP sellers. 

Unlike before, the new metric doesn’t punish sellers for carrier missteps. Now is the time to create a differentiator and win the Buy Box by getting your listings a Prime badge. Start listing your products for SFP shipping, or get your SFP privileges back with a great appeal!

Seller Fulfilled Prime
Amazon’s new SFP metrics

Amazon’s basic standards for maintaining SFP eligibility are:

  • On-time shipment rate of at least 99%
  • Use of Buy Shipping for at least 99% of orders
  • A cancellation rate of no more than 0.5%

But recently – probably in reaction to Covid-19 fulfillment issues – their fourth metric was updated to read:

  • An on-time delivery rate of at least 97% on Prime orders when shipping is purchased outside of Buy Shipping services

In the past, sellers had to maintain a 97% on-time delivery rate no matter what. If their carrier made a mistake and delivered late, Amazon held the seller responsible. It appears that this is no longer the case – at least for now.

Appeal your SFP privileges

If you lost your SFP privileges in the past, now is a great time to appeal. Amazon wants to see a three-part plan of action:

  1. Explain the root cause of your SFP suspension. Put simply, which metrics did you violate and why? Amazon wants to know that you understand the mistakes you made.
  2. Explain what you did to remediate the problem. How did you deal with customers whose deliveries fell outside of their delivery window, for example. This section is focused on immediate actions to address past problems.
  3. Detail your plan for maintaining acceptable metrics in the future. Provide a specific plan that directly addresses the mistakes listed in your “root cause” section. This section of the plan should be proactive – not reactive (like part 2 was).

Be sincere and apologetic, but don’t grovel. Be detailed enough to show you’ve solved the problem, but keep it as brief as possible.

If you need help with your SFP appeal, please don’t hesitate to contact us! Call 877-289-1017 or visit our website.

Filed Under: 3P, Account Health, Amazon, FBA, Fulfillment, General, Seller Fulfilled, SFP Tagged With: 3P, 3P seller, Amazon, Amazon FBA, Amazon seller, ASIN, Copyright, Coronavirus, Deactivation, Essential, FBA, Fulfillment center, Inbound, Inventory, Merchant fulfilled, MFN, New York, Product recall, Refunds, Repackage, Shipment, Supplements, Warehouse

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

February 7, 2020 Leave a Comment

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

By: Lesley Hensell

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

The problems go even deeper.

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

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

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