AMAZON SELLER CENTRAL UPDATE

Amazon has combined restock limits and quarterly storage limits into a single monthly metric known as the FBA capacity limit. This new limit determines how much inventory you can store at the FBA centers.

Capacity limits are determined by the following:

• IPI score
• Sales forecasts for your ASINs
• Shipment lead time
• Amazon warehouse capacity
• Historical sales volume
• Seasonal and peak selling periods for your products
• Scheduled deals
• New products added to your catalog

Below we’ve listed all the improvements of this new capacity management system:

• A single, month-long FBA capacity limit: Navigating two sets of limits (storage and restock) has been confusing for sellers. Amazon has resolved these pain points by offering a single monthly limit to determine how much inventory you can send to and store at Amazon.
• Estimated capacity limits: Amazon has also introduced estimated limits for the following two months to help you plan well in advance. Estimates may vary up or down based on how efficiently you are using capacity.
• FBA capacity manager: With the new capacity manager, sellers can request additional capacity based on a reservation fee.
• FBA capacity limits in volume (vs. units): To better reflect your capacity usage, Amazon will set capacity limits and measure your inventory usage by volume

Overage fees will be applicable if your inventory (not including open shipments) exceeds your FBA capacity limits.

If you find inventory management and shipment creation overwhelming, hire Amazon consultants from eStore Factory.

Amazon has introduced the budget feature to help sellers control spend on their Percentage Off and Buy One Get One promotions. For every new promotion, sellers will now need to set a budget with either a total amount or order count before the promotion can start.

As soon as the promotion reaches 80% of its set budget value, it will be removed. The remaining 20% will be allocated to cover redemptions from customers who have already applied the promotion.

Do you want to get rid of leftover holiday stock? Create Percentage Off and Buy One Get One promotions with the help of our Amazon ads specialist.

Amazon sellers will soon have access to new Sponsored Brand Video (SBV) campaign analytics that will allow them to better assess the effectiveness of their video ad campaigns. Any seller may boost their ad's viewing, ad recall, and brand awareness by taking into account these ten new metrics for Sponsored Brands Video advertising.

Following are the key performance indicators for the Sponsored Brands video campaign:

• Viewable Impressions - Sellers can measure the proportion of advertising that is seen by real people using the statistic known as viewable impressions.
• View-through rate (VTR) - VTR is calculated by dividing the total views of a skippable video ad by the total initial impressions.
• Viewable click-through rate (vCTR) - The number of clicks expressed as a percentage of viewable impressions is known as the viewable click-through rate.
• 5 Second Views - The number of times a customer watched the video for at least 5 seconds or for the entire duration of an impression (whichever is shorter).
• 5-Second View Rate - The percentage of impressions where the customer watched the entire video or for 5 seconds is known as the "5-Second View Rate" (whichever is shorter).
• Video First Quartile - The number of impressions for which an advertisement aired through the first quarter of the entire video is known as the VFQ.
• Video Midpoint - This represents the number of impressions where an advertisement ran through to the halfway point of the video (50 percent of the overall length).
• Video Third Quartile - This is the number of impressions where the video was watched for at least 75% of its duration.
• Video Complete - The percentage of impressions where the video was completely viewed.
• Unmutes - This reflects the number of times a customer unmuted the video to enable the sound to play.

Consider contacting eStore Factory if your company needs an innovative advertising strategy that makes use of cutting-edge techniques and the most recent statistics.

Amazon just announced updates to their U.S. referral and Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA). Effective January 17, 2023, these fee changes will apply to all products shipped to Amazon FBA centers in the United States.

• Referral fees remain unchanged.
• FBA outbound fee rates will increase by $0.22, on average.
• A separate 5% fuel and inflation surcharge will apply (from January 17, 2023).
• New Selection Program fees are decreased.
• Small and Light Program Fees are decreased.
• FBA Outbound Fee Rates are increased by an average of $0.22.
• Peak monthly storage fees are increased by 20 cents per cubic foot for its non-sortable network. Off-peak storage will rise by between 3 – 4 cents per cubic fit.
• Removal Fees and Storage fees are increased by 10%. 6-month long-term storage fees are reintroduced.
• Returns Processing Fee Rates for apparel and shoe categories are reduced by an average of $0.20 per return.

To improve the visual appeal of your Sponsored Ads. Amazon Ads and Shutterstock are now providing advertisers with free and easy access to Shutterstock’s library of 390+ million high-quality images. Advertisers can access high-quality images from the creative assets tool and the images can be used across products such as Sponsored Display and Stores.

Where is the feature available?

• North America: United States, Canada, Mexico
• South America: Brazil
• Europe: Germany, Spain, France, Italy, Netherlands, United Kingdom, Sweden, Poland, Turkey
• Middle East: Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates
• Asia Pacific: Australia, India, Japan, Singapore

The success of your campaign greatly depends on your creatives. If you are looking to optimize your creatives for Stores or Sponsored Display, hire a professional Amazon creative agency like eStore Factory.

Amazon’s new feature makes creating and managing deals easier across United States, Canada, Mexico, and Brazil Amazon stores. 

With this new feature, sellers can:

• Manage deals without having to sign in and out of store-specific Seller Central accounts.
• View and manage deals across all the above-listed marketplaces in the same Deals Dashboard.
• Filter deal recommendations eligible to run in the United States, Canada, Mexico, and Brazil.

Visit the new Deals Dashboard here.

Blog: AMAZON LIGHTNING DEALS: WHAT ARE THEY & ARE THEY WORTH IT?

Need help creating deals for the BFCM weekend? Get in touch with our Amazon PPC optimization experts.

The new expanded product targeting feature allows advertisers to target their preferred products and reach related products at the same time with one click. For example, if your product is a tennis ball, you can expand your targeting abilities by targeting complementary products like rackets, tennis nets and other items that are frequently viewed and purchased along with the tennis ball.     

To use expanded product targeting, just make sure that the expanded box is selected while adding product targets, and click the add button for the targets with a type of expanded.

Please note that this feature is available to US sellers only.

Want to leverage this new targeting method in your Sponsored Products Ads Campaign? Schedule a meeting with our Amazon marketing consultant today.

Advertisers can now redirect Sponsored Brands video traffic to Amazon Brand Stores. Stores campaigns offer exclusive access to the premium top-of-search placement for video creative.

This new feature is introduced to maximize brand reach and increase visibility for your entire product line. Shoppers can interact and engage more deeply with your catalog and in a customized store environment without any distractions created by other brands.

According to Amazon, advertisers who linked their Sponsored Brands Ads campaign to a Store saw, on average, that shoppers spend 2x longer on their Store. Meanwhile, their product detail page views and sales increased by 55% and 15%, respectively*.

To start, choose the “Video” option while creating a Sponsored Brands campaign. Make sure you have an eye-catching video and a multi-page optimized storefront ready before you redirect any traffic to your brand store. 

Want to explore this new placement option? Get in touch with our Amazon PPC optimization consultants to know more.

Mark your calendar with these key dates and deadlines for submitting shipments and sending inventory.

Inbound shipping cutoff dates for vendors

• October 13: U.S.
• October 28: Canada
• November 11: France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, and the U.K.
• November 14: Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Mexico, and United Arab Emirates

FBA inventory cut-off date for sellers

• October 21: Canada
• November 2: U.S.
• November 4: France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Spain, and the U.K.
• November 10: Australia
• November 14: Mexico, Egypt, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates

Key Q4 holidays

• Prime Early Access Sale – October 11th and 12th
• Halloween – 31st October
• Thanksgiving – 24th November
• Black Friday – 25th November
• Cyber Monday – 28th November
• Hanukkah – 18-26th December
• Christmas – 25th December
• Boxing Day – 26th December
• Kwanzaa – 26th December to 1st January

After months of anticipation, Amazon has announced its first-ever Prime Early Access Sale, a “new holiday shopping event for members.” The two-day event kicks off on 11th October and will be open for Prime members in 15 countries: Austria, Canada, China, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Turkey, the U.K., and the U.S.

The sale gives brands an opportunity to maximize revenue ahead of BFCM weekend and holidays. Amazon sellers will have to work fast if they want to capitalize on the event. To participate in the Prime Early Access Sale, submit a Prime Exclusive Discount or Coupon before October 11, 2022.

For the longest time, Premium A+ Content, also known as A++ Content, has been an invite-only program available to a select group of elite sellers. Today, Amazon, in its news section, announced that Premium A+ Content will now be available to all sellers registered as a Brand Owner with Amazon Brand Registry.   Eligibility criteria for Premium A+ Content If you have published an A+ brand story across your ASIN catalog and have had at least 15 A+ content projects approved in the past 12 months for each Amazon store, you are eligible for Premium A+ content. Access for Premium A+ is granted at the end of each month. If you meet the criteria, you will see a banner in the A+ content manager for access. How is Premium A+ Content different from A+ Content? Premium A+ Content modules are very different from a current Amazon A+ Content modules. Some of the noteworthy modules of Premium A+ Content are video modules, full-width imagery modules, clickable Q and A modules, interactive comparison charts, carousel modules, interactive hotspots and so much more. According to Amazon, implementing Premium A+ content can increase your sales by 20%.   Examples of A++ Content • Pureboost • Bose • Panasonic   Ref: Amazon Premium A+ Content – Everything brands need to know If your brand is eligible to create A++ Content, get expert help from our Amazon consultants. We’ll help you design, develop and upload your A++ Content on Amazon.

Buy with Prime is Amazon’s most recent marketing solution, where direct-to-consumer e-commerce sellers can leverage Amazon’s fulfillment capabilities to increase sales on their online store. Buy with Prime displays the Prime logo and delivery promise on your existing site to convert more and more shoppers.

Brands can now manage and protect their identity and product catalog by accessing Amazon Brand Registry directly from Seller Central. 

Settings > Account Info > Business Information > Manage Your Brands, it will redirect to Amazon Brand Registry.

What is Amazon Brand Registry? 

Amazon brand registry helps you build and protect your brand on Amazon. Brand Registry lets you prevent, detect, and remove infringing content, stop counterfeit sellers from hijacking your listing and unlocks a suite of tools to protect and build your brand. 

If you want to know more about the Amazon brand registry and the benefits the program has to offer, drop us a line; one of our Amazon expert will get back to you.

Black Friday 2022 falls on November 25 and Amazon is already encouraging sellers to prep their stores for the uptick in traffic. One of the highlights of this sale-a-thon is deals and discounts. Shoppers are on the lookout for the best price, so it is vital for sellers to plan their deals in advance. Last week Amazon announced the Lightning Deals submission deadline. Sellers who wish to run Amazon Lightning Deals on Black Friday must submit their deals by September 2nd. Get in touch with your Amazon ads specialist to create and plan deals for BCFM week. Related posts: https://www.estorefactory.com/blog/amazon-lightning-deals-what-are-they-are-they-worth-it/

To honor Black Business Month, Amazon is currently testing a Black-Owned Business badge to help shoppers identify products sold by certified Black-owned businesses. The badge will appear on SERPs and detail pages. Shoppers can also visit the black-owned business storefront, a dedicated page highlighting all the certified Black-owned businesses. US-based sellers with a valid diversity certification granted by a government agency or third-party supplier may be granted the Black-Owned Business badge in the coming weeks. Please note that the badge will appear in Amazon’s US store only. If you are eligible, schedule a meeting with our Amazon Seller Central Consultant to know how you can add subtle details in your detail page to highlight your business as a Black-owned business.

In an effort to offset surging costs, Amazon announces an FBA fee hike during the holiday season. From October 15 to January 14, third-party sellers enrolled in and using FBA will have to pay 35 cents per item sold in the USA or Canada. These extra charges will top off sellers' existing fulfillment fees for using FBA services. Their official announcement read: "As we look ahead and prepare for the busy holiday shopping season, we expect greater utilization of our fulfillment network. Across the supply chain, this creates increased operating costs during this holiday peak period. As a result, similar to other major carriers, we will introduce a holiday peak fulfillment fee from October 15, 2022, to January 14, 2023. The fee will be an average of USD 0.35 per item sold using the US and Canada FBA." In its defense, Amazon said they have "previously absorbed these cost increases," but seasonal expenses are reaching new heights. Sellers have been using Amazon's fulfillment services to shield themselves from the peak season fee hike charged by other carriers such as FedEx and the U.S. Postal Service. But with this new announcement, it seems like Amazon is passing on the burden of increasing operating costs to sellers. The company has already announced a 5% fuel and inflation surcharge in April after hiking fees in January. Amazon has ensured sellers that despite the fee hikes, their fulfillment services remain 70% less expensive on average than comparable two-day shipping alternatives. Schedule a meeting with your amazon seller consultant to discuss the further steps.

A few months back, Amazon announced the reinstatement of the European Fulfilment Network between the UK and the EU. Last week, Amazon in its news page updated that the EFN is now fully reactivated. What is European Fulfilment Network (EFN)? EFN allows sellers with accounts in Amazon Europe and registered in Fulfilment by Amazon to store their inventory in their local fulfilment centre and fulfil orders from all over Europe. Post Brexit, it was difficult for UK sellers to sell in Europe because of logistics difficulties, custom costs and administrative burdens. With the re-launch of the European Fulfilment Network, UK sellers will again be able to enjoy the convenience of EFN. If you are selling in the UK or any of the EU countries, schedule a meeting with your amazon account managers to discuss the next steps.

For the longest time, Premium A+ Content, also known as A++ Content, has been an invite-only program available to a select group of elite sellers. Today, Amazon, in its news section, announced that Premium A+ Content will now be available to all sellers registered as a Brand Owner with Amazon Brand Registry. Eligibility criteria for Premium A+ Content If you have published an A+ brand story across your ASIN catalog and have had at least 15 A+ content projects approved in the past 12 months for each Amazon store, you are eligible for Premium A+ content. Access for Premium A+ is granted at the end of each month. If you meet the criteria, you will see a banner in the A+ content manager for access. How is Premium A+ Content different from A+ Content? Premium A+ Content modules are very different from a current Amazon A+ Content modules. Some of the noteworthy modules of Premium A+ Content are video modules, full-width imagery modules, clickable Q and A modules, interactive comparison charts, carousel modules, interactive hotspots and so much more. According to Amazon, implementing Premium A+ content can increase your sales by 20%.   Examples of A++ Content • Pureboost • Bose • Panasonic   Ref: Amazon Premium A+ Content – Everything brands need to know If your brand is eligible to create A++ Content, get expert help from our Amazon consultants. We’ll help you design, develop and upload your A++ Content on Amazon.

What are referral fees? For all products you sell, Amazon charges a percentage of the total sales price. The exact amount depends on the product category you are selling in. Most referral fees can be anywhere between 8% and 17%. Recently, the retail giant announced that sellers would get a discount of up to 25% on select ASINs. The main motive behind this is to drive sales of excess inventory and improve the seller’s cash flow and sell-through rate. To access the referral fee discount, go to FBA Inventory and create sales or Outlet deals for eligible ASINs. How does this work? Your Manage Inventory Health report shows the listings with excess inventory and recommendations to improve the sell-through rate. Sometimes, when sellers take suggested actions to get rid of excess inventory, Amazon will also benefit. In those cases, Amazon will pass the savings to sellers by offering a discount on referral fees for every unit sold when sellers adopt the recommended price and offer period. Discounts are at least 30 cents per unit, up to a maximum of 25% of the referral fee. For more help, consult with your account management agency.

Amazon Seller Wallet gives sellers an easy, hassle-free way to hold, view, and transfer their sales proceeds directly to their bank account on their schedule—all within Seller Central.

There's no cost or minimum amount required to enroll in Amazon Seller Wallet. Access and account maintenance is free. Sellers with international bank accounts can convert US dollars into one of 19 supported currencies, with volume-based international transaction fees to convert and transfer funds.

Amazon's digital wallet is currently available to a select number of Amazon.com sellers by invitation only. The retail giant will collect feedback and refine the tool over time.

Stay tuned with Latest Amazon Seller News

Amazon is planning to hold a second Prime Day like event in the fall, marking the first time the company holds two such events in the same year. According to CNBC, the retail giant is notifying a select group of third-party merchants to prep for the “Prime Fall” deal event. The notice doesn’t include the exact dates the event is going to be held, but it informs sellers to submit Lightning Deals by July 22. A report by Business Insider says that the event is expected to feature promotions for TVs, sneakers and other items.

The event can help offset the slow revenue growth and drum up additional sales prior to the holidays.

An Amazon spokesperson informed TechCrunch that the company doesn’t have anything to share, noting that it doesn’t comment on speculation.

Related post: A STEP BY STEP GUIDE TO PREPARE FOR AMAZON PRIME DAY 2022

Stay tuned with other important Amazon Seller Blogs

With the launch of Amazon Easy Ship in Australia, sellers selling on amazon.com.au with an eligible pick-up address can fulfill their domestic orders for products that are not registered in Fulfilment by Amazon (FBA).

Amazon Easy Ship includes pick-up and trackable delivery from the seller’s eligible Australian pick-up location to the customer’s eligible Australian delivery location – all with a competitive country-wide rate starting as low as AUD 5.55 depending on the size and weight of your orders.

Please note that Amazon Easy Ship is not available for all delivery locations in Australia. Certain product types, such as heavy/bulky or dangerous items, cannot be shipped.

Ask your Amazon management agency to set up Amazon Easy Ship on your account or go to Shipping Settings and opt-in at the bottom of the page.

For more information, read the original announcement.

Amazon has released a new Sponsored Display translation feature that lets brands create and manage multi-language content for their Sponsored Display ads.

On many Amazon sites, shoppers have the ability to select the default language for their shopping and browsing experience. For example, shoppers looking to buy products on amazon.de can select English as their preferred language and see Amazon content in English.

With this new feature, shoppers can understand and interact with Sponsored Display ads and enjoy a seamless shopping experience. Sponsored Display ads without creative customization will automatically be translated, so it is relevant to all shoppers.

Where is the feature available?
North America: United States, Canada, Mexico
South America: Brazil
Europe: Germany, Spain, France, Italy, Netherlands, United Kingdom
Middle East: United Arab Emirates
Asia Pacific: Australia, India, Japan

Sponsored Display helps advertisers engage and re-engage audiences to generate product awareness & increase conversion. Have you added Sponsored Display to your paid advertising strategy? Schedule a meeting with our Amazon PPC optimization to add SD ads to the mix.

Sponsored Display Ads are the only pay-per-click ads on Amazon that lets brands advertise their products off Amazon on third-party properties, such as websites and mobile apps.

Amazon recently launched deny list that provides advertisers manage where their ads appear off Amazon. They can upload a deny list to prevent their ads from appearing on third-party properties that don't align with your brand. For example, a brand selling menopause supplements might not want to advertise its products on men-centric websites.

Where is the feature available?
North America: United States, Canada, Mexico
South America: Brazil
Europe: Germany, Spain, France, Italy, Netherlands, United Kingdom
Middle East: United Arab Emirates

Are you using Sponsored Display ads to advertise your products outside of Amazon? Schedule a meeting with your Amazon ads specialist to optimize the performance and reach of your campaigns.

Amazon has rolled out the “home entry compliance enforcement policy” which states “Sellers are required to deliver items to the customer’s porch, driveway, or garage.” Sellers are not allowed to enter a customer’s home unless they meet one of the following requirements: • Enrolled in the Amazon ShopLocal program • Have Amazon help you deliver your items Amazon has clarified that entering a customer’s home without having met one of these requirements is a policy violation that may result in a restriction of your ability to sell using Amazon’s seller-fulfilled shipping. Schedule a meeting with your Amazon management agency to discuss further steps.

Since last year, manufacturers situated outside the EU that sell CE-marked products* in EU are required to appoint an EU “Responsible Person”. A Responsible Person representative located in the EU that will be handling all communication related to product conformity.

To make things easier for EU seller situated who are not located there can hire Amazon Responsible Person Service (ARP). Once you subscribe to this service, Amazon will act as the EU Responsible Person for applicable CE-marked products that you sell.

Who can subscribe to the service?
Non-EU manufacturers, brand owners, and resellers authorized by the brand to sell in the EU can subscribe, if they are using FBA.

To know more about this service, get in touch with one of our eCommerce SEO consultant.

Effective June 30, Amazon will now be charging remote fulfillment with FBA fulfillment fees.

Since 2018, USA sellers enrolled in FBA program have been able to fulfil their orders Canada and Mexico using their US inventory without any added costs. This offered customers a better selection of products and sellers the opportunity to sell in neighbouring countries and increase sales.

Over the course of pandemic, there have been significant investments made by Amazon to better serve its sellers and customers. Citing rising costs, Amazon has increased fees for sellers who use FBA program to send orders to the countries that border the US.

FBA fees for a 6-ounce-or-less package delivering to Canada will increase from $7.22 CAD to $7.58 CAD. For a package of the same size delivering to Mexico, the fee will increase from $102.39 MXN to $122.87 MXN.

The fees change with the weight of the package. For more information, go to 2022 Remote Fulfillment with FBA fee changes.

If you are a USA-based FBA seller selling in CA and MX, schedule a meeting with your account management agency to discuss the next steps.

Amazon has finally listened to sellers and rolled out a better way to notify sellers about buyer-initiated order cancellations.

Sellers have previously shared how difficult it was to keep track of order cancellation messages as they can be easily lost among multiple buyer-seller messages.

In order to streamline the order cancelation request process, Amazon has introduced the new experience for Buyer Requested Cancellations.

Cancellation requests will no longer appear on the Buyer-Seller messaging tool. Instead, they will appear in a banner on the Manage Orders page. Cancellation requests will also be seen in order reports once you enable the Buyer-Requested Cancel field.

The updates were initially supposed to go into effect in late April, but as there was a lot of confusion about how the new system would work, Amazon had to delay the effective date. The changes officially went live on May 23rd.

While this rollout occurs, you will receive buyer cancellations through the old experience on Buyer-Seller messages or through the new experience on the MYO page.

Sellers could receive buyer initiated cancellations in the following methods:
• Email: You will receive all buyer cancellation requests through email under the subject line of “Order cancellation request from Amazon customer.”
• Seller Central: You will receive some order cancellation requests through the Buyer-Seller messages or some through the MYO page.

If you find yourself too busy to manage the everyday tasks like replying to buyer seller messages and keeping a tab on order cancellation rate, hire an experienced account management agency who can take these day-to-day management tasks off your shoulders.

Follow us on Facebook for more updates: https://www.facebook.com/eStoreFactory/

Amazon recently announced the launch of "Buy with Prime", a service that lets online merchants leverage Amazon's vast fulfillment network to fulfill orders they receive on their eCommerce store.

Merchants using "Buy with Prime" will be able to put the coveted Prime badge on all eligible products listed in their online store. With Buy with Prime, online sellers can also offer fast, free delivery to their shoppers without relying on other shipping services like FedEx and UPS. Amazon will charge a fee depending on the card processor and fulfillment complications.

By introducing "Buy with Prime," Amazon is also directly competing with shipping services like FedEx and UPS.

Buy with Prime creates a win-win situation for both: online merchants and prime members. Prime members can get the broadest possible selection, low prices, and a convenient shopping experience even outside Amazon. Online merchants can use Amazon's fulfillment network to seamlessly deliver orders. Amazon will also manage free returns for eligible orders.

Buy with Prime is currently invite-only for merchants using Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA), but we anticipate it will be rolled out to all online sellers very soon. If you're interested, you can register here.

Schedule a meeting with your eCommerce consultant to know how you can add "Buy with Prime" functionality to your online store.

There is no official announcement made for Prime Day 2022 dates but Amazon has been dropping subtle hints.

Recently the retail giant in its Seller News page gave a cut-off date of June 20 for planning and sending inventory for Prime Day. Usually, the inventory cut-off dates are applied 25-30 days before the event, so tentatively, Prime Day can be on July 18-19 (Monday & Tuesday).

Upcoming deadlines for Prime Day 2022:

Lightning Deals deadline
• April 29 in Canada and the United States
• May 13 in France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Portugal, Spain, and the United Kingdom

Coupons deadline
• June 10 in Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Portugal, Spain, the United Kingdom, and the United States

FBA inventory cutoff date
• June 20 in Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Mexico, Portugal, the United Kingdom, and the United States
• June 29 in Japan

Inbound shipping cutoff date
• June 2 in Canada and the United States
• June 22 in Mexico and Portugal
• June 29 in France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, and the United Kingdom

Prime Member Promotions deadline
• April 29 in Canada and the United States
• May 13 in France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Mexico, Portugal, Australia, Japan, India, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the United Kingdom, and the United Arab Emirates

Prime Exclusive Discounts deadline
• July 8 in Canada and the United States, United Kingdom, France, Italy, Germany, Spain, Mexico, Portugal, Australia, and Japan
• July 19 in India, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates

Schedule a meeting with your best Amazon Consultants to plan and prepare and action plan for the two-day sale-a-thon.

Related post: A Step by Step Guide to Prepare for Amazon Prime Day 2022

Beginning April 28, Amazon will implement a fuel and inflation surcharge of 5% on top of their current Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) fulfillment fee per-unit rates. The increased fees will apply to all product types, including non-apparel, apparel, dangerous goods and Small and Light items.

Sellers who choose FBA as their fulfillment channel have to pay a variety of fees in addition to the fulfillment rate that's being increased at the end of April 2022. One of the sellers sharing their frustration with the fee surcharge said, "Also, an inflation surcharge is ridiculous. Prices aren't ever going to decline, so adding an inflation surcharge is silly time. It's a price hike, call it what it is. We're not stupid."

The surcharge is in lieu of increased fuel, logistics and labor costs.

"In 2022, we expected a return to normalcy as COVID-19 restrictions around the world eased, but fuel and inflation have presented further challenges," said the Amazon FBA team to CNET.

Ref: https://tinyurl.com/bdhdj6m9 (sign-in required)

On 3/31, Amazon has now begun serving your Sponsored Display ads off Amazon in Twitch and thousands of third-party websites and apps.

To market your product off Amazon using Sponsored Display ads, choose “Audience” in the targeting section and “Optimize for reach” in the bidding section while creating Sponsored Display ads. To be eligible, your campaigns need to have vCPM billing.

Optimize and maximize your product reach on Amazon and get discovered on off-Amazon platforms using Sponsored Display ads.

This dial-up affects Sponsored Display campaigns for advertisers based in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Spain, Italy, the United Arab Emirates, the Netherlands, and Mexico.

From 1 May 2022, all Sponsored Brands product collection ad campaigns with one or fewer products will require a custom image in the campaign creative.

Adding a custom image to your Sponsored Brands product collection ad campaign helps to deliver a richer experience that resonates with shoppers on Amazon. Custom images can include imagery representing your brand, or of your product in use or context, and can help drive engagement and tell your brand story.

Why adding a custom image is mandatory?
Amazon noticed campaigns that use a custom image in Sponsored Brands ads on mobile see a 2.2X higher click-through rate vs. campaigns that use only a brand logo and headline, with no products.

In fact, advertisers who used a combination of Sponsored Brands custom image and Store spotlight ad formats saw a 97.5% increase in return on ad spend (ROAS) compared to advertisers only using one Sponsored Brands ad format.

Consult your Amazon PPC Specialists to launch your Ads within Amazon guidelines.

The New Seller Incentive program includes a suite of benefits to entice new sellers to the marketplace. This program is designed to help sellers achieve the Amazon Perfect Launch Product.

New Professional sellers who list their first product on or after January 1, 2022, in the US, Japan, or Europe (the UK, Germany, France, Italy, and Spain only) are eligible for New Seller Incentives. Existing Professional sellers expanding to the US, Japan, or Europe (the UK, Germany, France, Italy, and Spain only) are also eligible.

The benefits of the program include the following:
• Brand registered sellers can get a 5% bonus on up to $1 million in eligible branded sales. They’ll also receive credits for Amazon Vine and Transparency.
• If sellers choose FBA as their fulfillment channel, they can get up to $200 in credits for shipping to fulfillment centers and automatic enrollment in FBA New Selection.
• Sellers can also receive up to $200 in credits for Sponsored Products.
• Sellers will also receive up to $50 in credits for Amazon Coupons.

For more details, visit here.
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Last week Amazon launched the Perfect Launch Playbook to encourage new sellers and brands to sell on the marketplace.

What is Perfect Launch
Amazon’s data scientists have determined five vital areas that help sellers maximize success on the marketplace. According to Amazon, the first 90 days are critical for establishing marketing, fulfillment, pricing and other practices to get momentum in sales after launch. Amazon recommends using the below five programs within those first 90 days:
1. Brand Registry
2. A+ Content
3. Fulfillment by Amazon
4. Automated Pricing
5. Amazon Advertising

If sellers want to be successful post-launch, they must:
• Enroll in brand registry
• Optimize their product detail page
• Set up Fulfillment by Amazon
• Automate their pricing
• Create Sponsored Products ad campaigns, Coupons, and/or Deals

Schedule a meeting with your Amazon Service Provider to work on all five areas of the Perfect Launch Playbook.

As Prime Day is fast approaching, Amazon has started to clear up FBA storage and made changes to automated inventory removal.

Starting April 15, 2022, the following inventory will be removed automatically, unless you opt-out:
• Units that have been in fulfillment centers for more than 365 days.
• Units of ASINs that haven’t sold in six or more consecutive months and that have been in fulfillment centers for more than 180 days.

Make sure you have valid settings done for Automated fulfillment inventory OR liquidate the inventory to increase sales.

If you don’t provide a return address, your inventory will be automatically donated, recycled, or disposed of.

You can always consider taking help of Amazon Service Provider to manage your FBA products and sales.

Amazon has recently launched advertising features in the Turkey marketplace. Yes, Sponsored Product Ads, Sponsored Brand Ads and Stores is now available in Amazon.com.tr.

1) Sponsored Product Ads let advertisers promote their products with Automated and Manual targeting campaigns. These keyword-based pay-per-click ads can get your products on top of the search result pages and relevant product pages for an instant visibility boost. Let an Amazon PPC specialist manage and optimize your campaigns to get the best results from your Sponsored Product Ads.

2) Sponsored Brand Ads are for brand registered sellers who want to drive discovery of their brand on Amazon. They appear on top of, alongside, or within shopping results. The ads feature your brand logo, a custom headline, and multiple products. Take help from our Amazon marketing consultants to set up and manage your Sponsored Brand Ad campaigns.

3) Amazon Storefront is a mini-me version of your website on Amazon. Every brand registered seller can build a brand store with no cost and use this dedicated space to tell their brand story, educate about their product selections, and give their shoppers a website-like shopping experience. Although Amazon advertises storefront as a self-service feature, it’s not. To create a professionally designed storefront, always hire a trusted Amazon storefront design agency.

Launched in April 2021, the Manage Your Customer Engagement tool allows sellers to send emails to the shoppers who opt to follow their brands. The follow+ button is featured in areas such as Amazon Storefront & Amazon Live.

Recently Amazon launched new themed templates that can be used to announce discount offers for Christmas, New Year and other occasions. Now brands can send new product launch emails, a product spotlight email, or a holiday-themed email.

Their official announcement read:
You can now create themed email campaigns within the Customer Engagement tool. Multiple holiday banners are available, with new templates being launched monthly. With these themed templates, you can suggest gifts for upcoming holidays, New Year resolutions, travel adventures, game day, and other occasions.

The success of your email campaigns depend on your creatives, so make sure to hire a professional Amazon photo editing service.

Post Brexit, it has been difficult for UK Amazon sellers to sell in Europe. Sellers have been facing logistics difficulties, custom costs and administrative burdens.

The good news is that Amazon is now reintroduced the European Fulfilment Network between the UK and the EU.

Their official announcement read:
We are reactivating Amazon’s European Fulfilment Network (EFN) between the UK and the EU starting March 2022. You will be able to fulfill cross-border orders of eligible products with FBA inventory stored in your home fulfillment center, subject to EFN fee changes 21. This will occur gradually in phases through May 2022.

With the re-launch of the European Fulfilment Network, sellers in the UK can again sell into European markets through UK fulfillment centers.

Read the complete post in Amazon Seller News.

If you are selling in the UK or any of the EU countries, schedule a meeting with your Amazon seller consultant to discuss the next steps.

The Amazon Brand Story feature has been updated with four new modules, including a scrollable carousel, brand focus modules, Q & A modules, and an ASIN & store showcase module that gives brands the ability to redirect customers to their brand store and other product detail pages. Brands can add up to 19 modules per brand story.

Prior to this update, brands were able to submit a single About the Brand module, which contained two images, and our story section with three predefined questions, including “How did we get our start?”, “What makes our product unique?” and Why do we love what we do?”.

A quick look at the new modules:

1) Brand Carousel
The Brand Carousel module contains a background image that will be displayed behind all the modules, so it should be visually appealing and not too busy. You can add a headline text field and a short body text field.



2) Brand ASIN & Store Showcase
This module can be linked directly to your product detail pages and storefront. You can be as creative as you want with the images.



3) Brand Focus Image
You can add an image that beautifully represents your brand and a tagline or brand mission that connects with your customers.



4) Brand Logo and Description
This is a great place to add your brand story or additional product information.



5) Brand Q&A
This module can help proactively address common questions customers have about your brand. It included three pre-formulated questions, but you also have an option to add a custom question.



Get your Amazon Brand Story and A+ Content created now!

The new keyword localization feature translates the keywords you add to best-matching keywords in the Amazon site’s default language. This feature makes launching ad campaigns in multiple marketplaces a whole lot easier. For example, an English speaking seller can run campaigns in French, Italy or German marketplaces using trusted English keywords. The localization feature is available to all advertisers who are adding keywords in a list or via an uploaded file, as long as they have selected a supported secondary language. Eligibility: Sponsored Products and Sponsored Brands campaigns Where is the feature available? North America: United States, Canada, Mexico South America: Brazil Europe: Germany, Spain, France, Italy, Netherlands, United Kingdom Middle East: Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates Asia Pacific: Australia, India, Japan, Singapore Although this feature makes it easier for the seller to promote their products to other marketplaces, it is advisable to conduct thorough keyword research and find relevant localized keywords for your ad campaigns and product copy. Hiring our Amazon listing translation service is one of the best ways to get your product listing and ad campaigns localized.

From 10th January 2022, Amazon will remove all the dietary supplement listings that do not meet their documentation requirements.

Compliance documentation is required to sell dietary supplements in the US.

Sellers can submit documents from their Fix your products page in Seller Central. Just look at the ASINS and SKUs with the status Approval Required, and select Request Approval. You can also submit documentation by searching for the product in Add a Product in the Inventory menu and selecting Apply to sell.

For more information, go to Dietary supplements.

Although Amazon did give a warning to sellers for submitting the documents, it is always better to have a dedicated Amazon consulting expert who can look after these things, so you don’t have to.

Keep watching our Amazon Seller News for more updates.

Your Seller Central Account Health page now features a Call Me now button, a new venture by Amazon that assists sellers with questions related to account health. This dedicated support channel connects sellers with specialists that’ll provide them with the right assistance. Account health is of vital importance for the sellers. If a seller has any violations or negative performance metrics, Amazon can straight away suspend their account. With this new feature, sellers can resolve account health-related issues faster and easily as they’ll directly speak to an account health specialist and not a general seller support executive. If you want to skip the frustration of dealing with seller support, let our Amazon consultants deal with them and take care of your account health.

Amazon Manage Your Experiment was launched in 2019 to help brand registered sellers A/B test their A+ Content. Sellers can create two different versions of content and Amazon will randomly show each of the pages to different customers visiting your detail page. At the end of the experiment, Amazon will provide results as to which A+ Page performed better. Now along with A+ Page, sellers can also test split test their title and main image. You can review which version performed the best at the end of an experiment, and then publish the winning content. Best practices for A/B testing • Experiment on high traffic ASINs • Make major changes; minor changes will not bring visible results • Make one big change at a time • Don’t stop the test in between, even if you feel the result is obvious If you want two sets of titles or main images for split testing, hire our product listing optimization services.

FBA Repackaging and Refurbishment services Repackaging and refurbishment services are eligible for items in which the packaging is damaged but the item is still sellable. Repackaging is automatic for eligible items, while refurbishment is an optional service. In Repackaging services, FBA repacks your eligible customer returns so they can be sold as new. It cannot be disabled in your settings. Repacking includes include repackaging of branded and unbranded boxes, and poly bags. In Refurbishment service, FBA can re-tape, re-glue, and re-staple boxes; remove excessive tape, non-product labels, and stickers; and re-box branded and unbranded corrugated boxes. Sellers can opt out of refurbishment services anytime. FBA Grade and Resell It’s an invite-only program that allows sellers to relist and sell unfulfillable inventory instead of paying to return or dispose of the inventory. Amazon evaluates and determines the condition of the item and creates a listing for you. Sellers can set the price and manage the listing just like you do for current items. Even if you are enrolled for FBA, there are a lot of tasks that you’ve to do yourself. If you find yourself too busy to manage and keep a track of your FBA inventor, take help from our Amazon consultants. Keep scrolling Latest Amazon Seller News!

Amazon has announced an increase in FBA fees starting from January 18 2022. In the announcement, Amazon did mention the reason for fee hike – “Throughout the pandemic we have worked to support you—postponing and keeping fee changes low, reducing or eliminating select fees like those for customer returns, and absorbing billions of dollars in increased costs on your behalf”. There are changes in numerous services, including the following:

• Launch of dim-weight pricing for large standard-size products excluding apparel
• Higher monthly off-peak storage fees
• Increase in removal and disposal fees (liquidation fees will remain unchanged)
• Increase in FBA Prep Service fees
• Introduction of a tiered rate structure for long-term storage fees

Read the full announcement on Amazon’s News page to know the exact changes in the fees.

Advertisers can now create Sponsored Product Ads with auto-targeting for multiple countries in a single process. Previously this had to be done manually but now they can create one campaign and it will automatically be duplicated in each target country that you select. The metrics like budgets, bids, and advertised products can be customized for each country. This function a lot of time and efforts, especially for advertisers selling in multiple marketplaces. Where is the feature available? North America: Canada, United States, Mexico Selling in multiple marketplaces requires more than just creating campaigns. The keywords, bids and budget still needs to be localized. If you find yourself too busy to manage multiple PPC campaigns at once, partner with eStore Factory. We are SPN certified, top Amazon PPC Agencies.

Amazon Brand Lift helps advertisers identify how their Amazon Ads campaigns are driving marketing objectives such as awareness, purchase intent, and ad recall. It is powered by the Amazon Shopper Panel, an invitation-only, opt-in program where participants can earn monthly rewards by choosing to share receipts from purchases made outside of Amazon.com. Amazon Brand Lift studies are available within the Amazon DSP console via self-service.

Where is the feature available?
North America: United States

Where do I access it?
Amazon DSP
Amazon Ads API

Advertisers can quickly and efficiently troubleshoot the issues in their ad campaigns with the Diagnostics tool. Just select the campaign from the drop down menu, and in less than one minute, ou will be able to see the issues affecting the campaign’s delivery. The “Details” column shows explanations of the issues and recommended steps to fix them. The Diagnostics tool eliminates the need to contact and deal with seller support. For example, a campaign may have reduced impression because it is out if budget. With the Diagnostics tool, you can see issues, get recommendations and relevant links to address problems. Where is the feature available? North America: United States, Canada, Mexico South America: Brazil Europe: Germany, Spain, France, Italy, Netherland, United Kingdom Middle East: United Arab Emirates Asia Pacific: Australia, India, Japan Along with using the Diagnostics tool, you can also ask amazon ppc management agency to identify and troubleshoot problems occurring within your PPC campaigns.

Sellers selling in Amazon Australia can sell to millions of sellers in New Zealand through the Exports to NZ program. Amazon recommends to set up a new International Shipping template in your Seller Central account, if you haven’t already, and assign all your export-eligible SKUs that you wish to make available for NZ customers. Just go to Settings > Shipping Settings > Create New Shipping Template. Under International Shipping you can create your new shipping template for the NZ region by selecting the transit time and shipping fee for both standard and expedited and clicking “Save”. You need to then assign the SKUs you want to export to NZ to the newly created shipping template.

According to Amazon, over the past three months, sellers that made at least one export sale to NZ customers experienced an average increase in sales of 10.7% since participating in NZ Exports.

Creating shipping templates and shipments for inventory is a complex process. It is best to hire Amazon consultants that can get the job done the right way and in half the time.

Responsive eCommerce Creative (REC) will now support custom images and product titles. Advertisers can edit the product title in the ad copy and add custom images to their ads. The feature is available to advertisers worldwide. Up until now, REC used to provide default auto-generated images and ad product titles pulled directly from the product detail page. But with these updates, advertisers can make changes to their message and ad looks as per their branding and campaign goal.

Where is the feature available?
North America: United States, Canada, Mexico
South America: Brazil
Europe: Germany, Spain, France, Italy, Netherland, United Kingdom
Middle East: Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates
Asia Pacific: Australia, India, Japan

Where do I access it?
Amazon DSP

Amazon Demand Side Platform (DSP), is becoming increasingly popular with major advertisers and agencies around the world. Although Amazon advertises it to be a self-service solution, it is not. With eStore Factory, you can take the stress out of DSP advertising by allowing best Amazon marketing consultants to get the most out of your DSP service.

Advertisers can now add or edit their headlines, logos or custom product images for existing Sponsored Display ad campaigns. Adding images, headlines and logo builds brand awareness and helps you better tell your brand story. What’s great about this update is that instead of rolling out this feature for new campaigns, Amazon has allowed advertisers to make edits to their existing campaigns. Where is the feature available? North America: United States, Canada, Mexico South America: Brazil Europe: Germany, Spain, France, Italy, Netherland, United Kingdom Middle East: United Arab Emirates Asia Pacific: Australia, India, Japan Adding custom creatives can truly make a difference in your campaign performance. However, most advertisers choose to DIY or completely neglect adding creative elements to their ad. Let one of the Top Amazon PPC consultants and creative team make sure that the headline, images and other creatives in your campaign are in-line with your brand and speak to your customers.

Amazon has expanded Sponsored Display’s custom-built audiences with “purchases remarketing” with an aim to drive repeat purchases and cultivate brand loyalty. The purchase remarketing strategy is designed to help reach audiences on historical purchase behaviors. Advertisers can now remarket to customers who have previously purchased their products, related products, as well as products from specific retail categories. The campaigns can be tailored based on the product insights, such as price and star rating.

Along with this, customizable “lookback windows” has been added for views and purchases remarketing audiences. Advertisers can specify a time period- up to 30 days, to include those who visited a detail page or made a purchase.

With these updates, advertisers and Amazon PPC experts can drive brand and product loyalty using Sponsored Display. They can remarket to existing purchasers and encourage repeat purchases. This also helps drive product consideration by cross-sell to shoppers who recently bought similar and related products.

Where is the feature available?
North America: United States, Canada, Mexico
South America: Brazil
Europe: Germany, Spain, France, Italy, Netherlands, United Kingdom
Middle East: United Arab Emirates
Asia Pacific: Australia, India, Japan

New-to-brand metrics are now available for Sponsored Display ads. New-to-brand metrics helps identify the sales generated from first time customers. Keeping a track of new customers and first time shoppers is a key to establishing long term relationship. By launching new-to-brand metrics in Sponsored Display ads, advertisers and Amazon PPC optimization experts can better measure and optimize their campaign as well as plan strategies to improve brand loyalty of new customers. An order is considered new to your brand if the shopper hasn’t purchased from your brand in the past 12 months.

Where is the feature available?
North America: United States, Canada, Mexico
Europe: Germany, Spain, France, Italy, United Kingdom, Netherlands
Middle East: United Arab Emirates
Asia Pacific: Japan, India, Australia
Keep watching the latest Amazon Seller News with us!

The holiday shopping spree usually begins around Turkey 5 but Amazon reckons shoppers will be on the lookout for inspiration and deals well before then. According to a 2021 Amazon Advertising/Kantar survey, 39% of U.S. consumers and 42% of U.K. consumers will start holiday shopping as early as October. According to seoClarity, in 2020, searches for “Christmas gifts” in the U.S. more than doubled from 40.5K in September to 110K in October.

Even if it’s the season of jack-o-lanterns and trick-or-treating, your customers have already started making their holiday shopping list. If you think October is too early to start running Q4 advertising campaigns, think again.

Schedule a meeting with your Amazon seller consultant and start planning your Q4 strategies if you haven’t already!

Eliminate guesswork when selecting a bid. Amazon provides machine learning powered bid recommendations for your Sponsored Display ad campaigns. These recommendations are calculated by analyzing a group of winning bids for recent, similar ads within your category. The bid suggestions are updated daily, based on the increase or decrease in competing bids and ads in each auction. If you are unsure on what bid to apply to a keyword, use Amazon’s suggested bids because you’re more likely to deliver impression in the detail pages.

Where is the feature available?
North America: United States, Canada
Europe: Germany, Spain, France, Italy, United Kingdom
Middle East: United Arab Emirates
Asia Pacific: Japan

Adjusting bids is an everyday task. If you find yourself too busy to make these little yet essential tweaks in your PPC campaigns, take help from our Amazon PPC optimization experts.

Amazon has launched dynamic segments such as Similar to Advertised Products for Sponsored Display product targeting campaigns. These segments leverage machine learning to reach relevant audiences on popular detail pages of other similar and complimentary products. Advertisers can ensure their products reach relevant audiences who are most likely to click on their advertised products. Use these segments to improve product consideration.

Where is the feature available?
North America: United States, Canada
Europe: Germany, Spain, France, Italy, United Kingdom, Netherlands
Middle East: United Arab Emirates
Asia Pacific: Australia, Japan, India

Sponsored Display ads are the most neglected yet essential ad type in your PPC campaign. If you are not yet using SD ads, take help from our Amazon advertising experts.

The top-of-search impression share (top of search IS) metric helps you measure the effectiveness of your campaign at driving brand awareness. This metric is available for Sponsored Brands and Sponsored Products campaigns. Advertisers can adjust bids by placement to help improve the chance of serving impressions at the top-of-search.

Where is the feature available?
North America: United States, Canada, Mexico
South America: Brazil
Europe: Germany, Spain, France, Italy, United Kingdom
Middle East: Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates
Asia Pacific: Australia, India, Japan, Singapore

Know how you can leverage this new feature in your Sponsored Ad campaigns. Schedule a call with our Amazon PPC expert today.

Effective October 26, 2021, Amazon has introduced the following three mandatory attributes for listings created one at a time or in bulk. • Net Content: A new attribute set for eight Product Types • Item Form: A previously optional attribute that will become mandatory for 86 Product Types • Number of Items: A previously optional attribute that will become mandatory for 154 Product Types With these changes, all ASINs for select Product Types must have these attributes populated when you submit new ASINs or update existing ASINs. If sellers fail to populate these mandatory attributes, they won’t be able to create any new selection creation in the relevant Product Types after October 26, 2021.

Amazon, in its recent Amazon Seller Newsletter, announced the launch of the Returns Performance dashboard, which helps sellers monitor their returns performance and proactively address returns related issues.

The dashboard includes a section for each of the three returns performance metrics:
• Approved return requests in less than 24 hours
• Total return requests that are declined
• Return-related buyer contact rate

Within each section of the tool, there is information about the metric definition, current overall metric performance, overall target metric threshold, explanation of how the metric is calculated, and links to other Amazon pages.

The holiday season is upon us and the return ratio post-holiday season are sky-high. The Returns Performance dashboard will come in handy to effectively manage returns. Managing returns and refunds are a headache which is why many sellers choose to outsource it to Amazon seller account managers who can handle the nitty-gritty of your Amazon account on your behalf. If you find yourself too busy to look after tasks like inventory management, PPC or day-to-day management, contact our Amazon consultants.

Sponsored Brand ads are the only ad type that helps advertisers tell their brand story. It features a brand logo and a tagline. Now you can also add a custom image to showcase your brand or product in use. Custom images are displayed on desktop, tablet, mobile app and mobile browser at the top of customer search placements.

You will find the custom image option in the Creative section while you create a Sponsored Brand Ad campaign.

Amazon recommended custom image size: 1200 x 628 pixels, under 1 MB and in PNG, JPEG or GIF file format.

From 5th April 2021, if sellers are not able to maintain an Invoice Defect Rate below 5%, it may lead to suspension of your account. Invoice Defect Rate (IDR) measures the invoicing experience you provide to Amazon Business customers who require invoices or receipts for tax and accounting purposes. IDR is a percentage of orders for which you did not upload an invoice by midnight on the first working day following the day you confirmed dispatch of that order.

Here’s how you can monitor your IDR?
1. Go to Account Health.
2. Click Invoice Defect Rate.
3. Scroll down and click Download report.

The Amazon Attribution dashboard will be moved to the Advertising console alongside other self-service advertising products, including Amazon Sponsored Ads, Sponsored Products, Sponsored Brands, Sponsored Display, and Stores. Advertisers can also use the in-console reporting dashboard to better measure and optimize their campaigns. It is important to note that the new launch would only support click-based conversion measurement for campaigns that direct to on-Amazon landing pages.

Sellers will not be impacted by this change but the vendors would not be able to offer:
• View-based conversion measurement or Amazon audience insights reporting.
• Measurement for campaigns that do not link to an on-Amazon landing page.

Related post: What is Amazon Attribution & how to get started? (2021 updates)

In the next few weeks, Amazon Posts can now also appear on the product detail page. This gives sellers a new opportunity to showcase their brand right where shoppers are considering purchasing their product. This new additional placement is a great place to reach and engage with shoppers, in addition to the current placements in Amazon seller storefront, the related posts carousel on product detail pages, and relevant feeds.

To be eligible for this test placement, you just need 10 live Posts that follow Amazon content guidelines. Once your Posts pass moderation, they will automatically start appearing on your product pages.

To make sure your Posts follow Amazon’s guidelines, make sure to:
• Use lifestyle images showing your product in a visually attractive backdrop.
• Avoid using collages or crowded images. Instead, use a single image focused on your product.
• Remove any text, buttons, or icons from your image.

Related post: Amazon Posts: Make your marketing strategy more social

Get detailed insights and data to understand how your brand engages with shoppers over time. Brand Metrics provides category vise performance insights so advertisers can know the conversion rate, the percentage of total customers that are new-to-brand, and the total number of customers associated with your brand in each category.

A glance at this dashboard can help you identify the categories that need work and the categories that are performing well.

Do any of your categories need some extra TLC? Let our Amazon SEO experts look into it and see what can be done to improve their performance.

From September 1, 2021, your FBA storage limit will be adjusted based on your Inventory Performance Index (IPI) score, historical sales volume, and available fulfillment center capacity. Sellers who maintain their IPI score at or above the required threshold will not be subject to storage limits for standard-size or oversize items. Sellers who do not have a IPI score (such as new sellers who have been active for less than 90 days or sellers without inventory at a fulfillment center) will receive 3,000 standard units and 300 oversize units. Unquestionably, those who optimize and monitor their IPI score regularly have nothing to fear. To ensure that you are and always stay on the right side of the IPI score bar, take help from our Amazon consultants.

Now you can reach audiences on the Twitch browse and display pages with Sponsored Display audiences campaign. This is the first time we are seeing off Amazon placement a cost-per-click ad.

How to create Sponsored Display audiences campaign
1. When creating a Sponsored Display campaign, select “Audiences” as your targeting tactic
2. Choose your audiences by expanding the “Amazon audiences” option
3. When addressing your audiences, Twitch options will automatically populate under “Entertainment”

Advertisers can reach shoppers who have visited your product detail pages, the detail pages of similar products, or any relevant category on Amazon, but haven’t made a purchase.

Want to create new Sponsored Display ad campaigns for retargeting your customers but don’t exactly know how Amazon PPC works? Let our Amazon PPC Experts create profitable campaigns for your product while you just sit back and watch the profits roll in.

Easily view the performance of your targeted keyword or product with the targeting page. This new feature allows advertisers to easily identify what keywords and targeted products are working best for their campaign. The page also shows the suggested bid (which you can apply directly) and key metrics like impressions, clicks, sales, spend and ROAS. You can also measure the performance at a glance by looking at the graphical representation.

By introducing a dedicated page for Budget and Targeting Amazon is making it easier for advertisers to measure and optimize the performance of their campaigns. However, PPC is not a set it and forget it thing. Let our Amazon PPC Experts manage and scale your PPC campaigns while you can sit back and watch your sales skyrocket and ACOS drop.

After launching the Budget page, Amazon launched a new feature. Budget rules help advertisers efficiently plan and monitor their campaigns by setting budget specifications in advance. For example, you can set rules to increase the daily campaign budget on Prime Day, Black Friday, or even on weekends to ensure your campaigns don’t go out of budget and reduce manual effort spent on adjusting your campaign budgets. There are two types of budget rules you can select from: • Schedule-based rules will increase the campaign budget by the percentage you specify during the date range you set in the rule. • Performance-based rules allow you to set rules to increase your Sponsored Product campaign budgets only when your campaigns meet a certain performance threshold. How does it work? The rule will increase your campaign budget by the percentage you specify during the date range you set. How to get started with Budget rules? Head to campaign manager, select the campaign you want to apply Budget rules to and select Budget rules in the sidebar. Benefits of budget rule: • Prevents campaigns from going out of budget, so your shoppers are still able to see your ads • Get useful recommendations based on historical shopping activities, campaign similarity and marketplace seasonality • Plan and set campaign budget ahead in holidays, sales events, or anticipation of higher traffic • Save time & manual effort. Let Amazon automatically increase your campaign budget Leveraging this new feature can surely help you improve your PPC performance. Another way is to hire Amazon PPC Consultants from eStore Factory. With us, you won’t have to worry about getting out of budget or out of your target ACOS ever.

If you’ve submitted deals for Father’s Day 2021 Deal event, you might know that the event is canceled. Amazon, in its mail to sellers, said, “Thank you for your submission to participate in our Father’s Day 2021 deal event. We’re writing to let you know that we will no longer be proceeding with the event this year.” Your deals will still be featured on the Today’s Deals page between 23 August to 5 September 2021 if they meet the eligibility criteria. The Today’s Deals page is a great way to showcase your deals to customers in the lead-up to Father’s Day. If you need any help creating deals or advertising campaigns for holidays and sales events, take help from our expert Amazon consultants.

Budgets page shows the performance and potential of your advertising campaigns. The page features brand new estimated “missed” metrics about your launched campaigns which are estimates of the potential your campaign could have achieved, if stayed in budget for longer. These metrics include missed impressions, estimated missed clicks, estimated missed sales and recommended budgets. These budget recommendations help minimize the chance of your campaign running out of budget.

Why is it important to stay in budget? That’s because when your campaign goes out of budget, your advertised products won’t be visible in the search result pages.

Where can I access Budgets page?
You can find it in the Budgets tab under the All campaigns menu, in campaign manager.

Know how you can improve the performance of your campaigns. Schedule a meeting with our Amazon PPC consultants.

The Climate Pledge Friendly program makes it easier for shoppers to spot and shop for sustainable products. The products with this badge are easily identified in shopping results and featured on a dedicated storefront (Link) where shoppers can browse through various categories and shop for “green and clean” products. Today more than 75,000 products across the U.S. and Europe are seen flaunting this coveted badge. Now Amazon is adding four new certifications to this program. Adam Werbach, global lead for Sustainable Shopping at Amazon, said, “We are excited to add EWG Verified, EPA Safer Choice, Regenerative Organic Certification, and Animal Welfare Approved to the Climate Pledge Friendly program’s trusted third-party certifications.” Related post: Amazon’s Climate Pledge Friendly Program- Everything You Need To Know

Amazon has rolled out two new FBA programs that make it easier for sellers to get rid of returned products and inventory that’s been sitting in the FBA warehouses. Once fully rolled out, the retail giant expects these programs to give more than 300 million products a second life each year. Prior to the launch of this program, sellers would have to call the inventory back or have Amazon donate the product on their behalf. First is FBA Liquidations, where sellers can use Amazon’s existing wholesale liquidation partners and technology to prevent potential loss on returned and overstock items. The program is now live in the U.S., Germany, France, Italy and Spain, and soon the UK. Selling partners in the UK can take advantage of a second program FBA Grade and Resell, which gives the option to sell returned products on Amazon as “used” items. It will be available in the U.S. by the end of the year and in Germany, France, Italy and Spain by early 2022. Not managing FBA inventory efficiently can negatively affect your bottom line. You do not want to go out of stock but at the same time don’t want excess inventory sitting in FBA warehouses costing you money. Amazon sellers find it easier to outsource tasks like inventory forecasting, shipment creation etc. to a dedicated Amazon seller consultant.

Amazon is extending its A-to-z Guarantee in the unlikely event a defective product causes property damage or personal injury. The A-to-z Guarantee was launched more than 20 years ago to provide customers with a hassle-free post-purchase experience. Taking it up a notch, Amazon will directly pay shoppers for claims under $1,000 at no cost to sellers. The retail giant may also step in to pay claims for higher amounts if the seller is unresponsive or rejects a claim which Amazon believes is valid. By streamlining the process, Amazon aims to save time, money, and effort for both customers and sellers.

Related post: How To Protect Your Account Against Amazon A-To-Z Guarantee Claims?

From September 20, sellers will now have to rely on 3rd party plugins to integrate their Amazon account with Shopify. After this date, if sellers want to continue to integrate their store with Amazon, they must use new partner apps. Shopify has developed new partner apps that will continue to reliably import and fulfill Amazon orders in Shopify. With these new apps, sellers can:

• Sync all order information within Shopify in real-time
• Create listings in all available Amazon categories
• Edit listings individually and in bulk within Shopify

Amazon sellers were facing these problems since July 2021 and have tried to find a solution to this in the Seller Forum. Some of the Amazon accounts were even in the risk of suspension but with this update, they can take steps needed to make things right in their Amazon account. If you need help integrating your Amazon and Shopify account after these sudden changes, please schedule a meeting with our Amazon consultants.

With new Store Engagement Insights, brands can get easily understand how shoppers interact with their store. The Store Insights dashboard features a new “Engagement” page where you can view metrics at the product level, such as views, clicks, add to cart, conversions, and purchases. Brands can use Store Insights to: • Identify their top performing and most viewed products • Identify the products that are missing from your Store or that shoppers are not finding (these products will show as having 0 views). To access insights about these products, go to the “views” column within the Product Engagement table and add the ASINs to your Store so shoppers can find them when browsing. • View the products with highest engagement and sales • Utilize critical metrics like click-through-rate and conversion ratio to understand the customer trends To improve your Store Engagement KPIs, be sure to optimize your Amazon seller storefront. It is not enough to stash your products in a grid and call it a brand store. Just like a website, your storefronts need to be organized by categories and enhanced by graphics so the shopper would like to interact with it. Related post: Top 10 Amazon storefront designs (2021) & best practices   Subscribe for Latest Amazon Seller News

Amazon has launched the sales event date and deadlines for Amazon submissions. September 17th
Deadline to submit 7-Day Deals, Best Deals, and Lightning Deals in Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Mexico, the Netherlands, Singapore, Spain, the United Arab Emirates, and the United Kingdom.

October 21 to November 17
Inbound shipping cut-off for vendors: Deal inventory must be in transit.
• October 21: the United States
• November 5: Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Mexico, the Netherlands, Spain, the United Arab Emirates, and the United Kingdom
• November 14: Japan
• November 17: Singapore

October 24 to November 17
FBA Inventory cut off date for sellers: Make sure your shipments arrive at Amazon well in advance of key shopping dates. Inventory should arrive at our fulfillment centers by this date to ensure your products are available to the customers during the holiday.
• October 24: Canada and Mexico
• November 3: the United States
• November 5: France, Germany, Italy, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the Netherlands, Spain, the United Arab Emirates, and the United Kingdom
• November 12: Australia
• November 14: Japan
• November 17: Singapore

November 26
USA Thanksgiving
Black Friday begins on this day and promotions end on November 28.

November 29
Cyber Monday begins and coupon submission closes on this day.

By staying organized and taking proactive actions, you can get an edge over your competitors and make your Q4 less stressful more profitable. If you find yourself too busy to keep track of all the dates and deadlines yourself, take help from our Amazon Experts.

Related Post: Amazon FBA calendar 2021 – key dates for Amazon FBA sellers

Starting July 23, 2021, products sold under Beauty, Grocery, Health Personal Care, Food, Beverage, Cleaning Product, and Pet Supplies will require your feeds to include the unit count (for example, “5”) and unit_count_type attributes (for example, “ounce,” “count,” “gram”).

Which marketplaces are affected?
The US, Spain, UK, France, Germany, Italy, and India marketplaces are affected.

What should sellers do?
If you sell in any of the above-mentioned categories, ask your Amazon seller consultant to check your product’s backend and populate these fields if they aren’t already.

Expect to see a revamped version of the A+ content Brand Story experience very soon. Amazon has stated that the new Brand Story experience will help sellers educate customers about the brand's history. If you would like to replace your existing Brand Story content using the new module experience, simply navigate to the A+ Content Manager in Seller Central and select ‘Brand Story’ on the A+ content selection page. New features include: • Carousel display with full-screen background on desktop and mobile devices • Image and text cards • Links to other products and the brand store • Appears in the From the Brand section of the Amazon detail page If you are using a previous version of the Brand Story experience, any existing legacy brand story you may have published will remain published in the ‘From the brand’ section of your product’s detail pages; however, you will not be able to make updates to it. To make the most of this new update, hire our professional Amazon Enhanced Brand Content Design services.

Here’s an opportunity for brand registered sellers to make some extra money through Amazon. On July 15, Amazon announced the launch of a new Brand Referral Bonus Program. Available exclusively to brand registered sellers, this program incentivizes sellers who accelerate their sales by bringing in off-Amazon traffic. In short, you now have one more reason to up your external traffic.

As a member of the Brand Referral Bonus program, you can earn a bonus averaging 10% of product sales driven by your non-Amazon marketing efforts. The bonus amount depends on the category for each product. Before you begin your off Amazon marketing efforts, make sure to register for the program and then Amazon Attribution.

How do I get started?
1. Register for the Brand Referral Bonus program.
2. Enroll in Amazon Attribution if you are not already.
3. Create tags for your promoted products using Amazon Attribution. All traffic must have an Amazon Attribution tag to qualify for the bonus.
4. Launch your advertising effort.

Need help ramping up your external traffic efforts? Read our blog post or schedule a meeting with our Amazon consultants to know more.

Amazon has introduced a new feature in the advertising console: a ‘Creative Assets’ library. You can use this tool to store, organize, and reuse brand content such as logos and images. According to Amazon, Creative assets will help brands to provide a consistent shopping experience by easily applying brand content across Amazon.

Here are some of the primary uses of Creative Assets:

• Storage & organization: Brands can import assets in bulk from their existing storage system and store them in one place for easy access. The maximum size for each individual file is 10 GB.
• Request moderation: Brands can request moderation for images in the creative assets for use in Stores, Store Spotlight, Sponsored Brands, and Amazon Posts campaigns.
• Easily find your assets: Brands can quickly and easily find what they need by using search, sort and filter by name, tag, products, and other attributes. You can also find assets that were previously used in Sponsored Brands, Sponsored Brands video, and Stores.

At present, you can find only logos and images, but video assets will also be supported in the coming months.

Yes, the most curious thing was to contact buyers who left a negative review to your product and the result used to get almost unsuccessful. A negative product reviews can reduce customer trust, lower down the sales and ruin your Amazon business. But now you can, how?

Amazon is trying to be little bit easy for sellers and provided a feature to contact buyer who give you a negative review. The sellers who are brand registered have now facility to contact bad experienced client to convert into a good experience and positive review by fixing their issue. But you can contact the buyer only when you are the seller for that order.



Stay tune with Latest Amazon Seller News!

Here is a list of all the keywords that can trigger the bots to block or suspend your listing. Some of these words are very commonly used in our listings, for example, “weight loss” or “all-natural”. Make sure to remove them from your title, bullet points, description, images, Amazon A+ content and search terms.

Here the complete list.

To ensure that your listing is always in compliance with Amazon’s ever-changing rules and guidelines, it is recommended to hire professional Amazon Product Listing Services. Although creating content for your Amazon listing might look like a DIY thing, it’s not. Let the experts work on it because Amazon is an unpredictable marketplace.

Expect a big spike in traffic on your listings over these two days. Are you prepared for the big sale days? Are you ready to make sure most of the shoppers that land on your detail page clicks on the “Add To Cart” button? Do you have a plan in place to deal with the new inventory restrictions imposed by Amazon? Here are a few actionable tips to help you from our Amazon expert: 1. Keeping in mind the unexpected FBA inventory restrictions, it would be best if you prioritize your bestselling SKUs. 2. If you can’t send in stock now, consider FBA removal order and create room for your high selling products. 3. Drive external traffic to get an edge over your competitors. Use your email list and social media channels to create a buzz about your upcoming deals. 4. Keep your efforts going even after the event ends. These type of sale events have a halo effect and you can take advantage of additional sales. 5. Find out creative ways to stand out. Remember: creativity triumphs convention. Create bundles, leverage Amazon Posts, and create advertising banners that get you noticed. We can leverage below features to stand out on Prime Day.

• Amazon Sponsored Product Ads
• Sponsored Display Ads
• Sponsored Brand Store Spotlight
• Sponsored Brands Video
• Amazon Posts
• Amazon Storefront Design
• Prime Exclusive Discount
• Lightning Deals

Amazon Replaces ASIN Level Quantity Limits With Restock Limits By Storage Type Your inventory restock limit are at the account level now and there are new storage types: standard-size, oversize, apparel, and footwear. The restock limit will based on these categories as well as the past and forecasted sales. Amazon in its official news bulletin announced, "Effective April 22, 2021, FBA products will no longer be subject to ASIN-level quantity limits. Instead, restock limits will be set at the storage-type level, offering you more flexibility in managing your shipments." Here what you can do to manage your inventory efficiently

• Diversify your fulfilment methods and find an alternative to FBA
• Send in inventory for high selling ASINs
• Create removal orders or sell out your existing low selling ASINs from the FBA centres
• Increase your sales to increase your restock limits
• Make sure to check your storage volume limits along with your restock limits

Amazon Manage Your Customer Engagement Tool allows brand registered sellers to engage with shoppers who opt to “follow” them. The follow button is featured in areas such as Amazon storefront and Amazon Live, Amazon’s livestream shopping platform. This tool is currently in beta and is not available to all the sellers. Just to be clear, Amazon is not handing over any of their customer email data to sellers. All the campaigns will be created with the Manage Your Customer Engagement dashboard and sellers are just responsible for creating email content. In fact, Amazon’s moderation team reviews the campaigns to determine if it adheres to the guidelines or not. Here are the things we know at the moment: • Sellers must be enrolled in brand registry to be eligible • The beta version is free for all eligible sellers • This tool is available only to the US sellers • The tool supports new product announcements and special offers, but additional templates will be available in the future • You can find it under the “Brand” tab of Seller Central • Sellers are provided with Open Rate and Total Reach data for each campaign It is imperative that your brand has more followers and your content appeals to the audience. So, you’ll need a storefront that intrigues shoppers to know more about your brand and email content that catches their attention in the inbox. If you need any creative help, you can always contact us. Your anytime Amazon Consultants! Subscribe now for the latest Amazon Seller Central News.

Amazon is updating daily. Amazon has implemented a business address verification through a postcard in part of the new account registration. They are pretty successful and only getting registration of legal businesses. As part of providing a safe and trustworthy shopping experience for Amazon customers and selling partners, Amazon is also making this process mandatory for existing sellers of the Amazon USA. What happens now? Amazon will mail a unique code to your business address on file, which you will need to enter in Seller Central within 60 days. If you have recently completed this action, then please ignore it. Below steps to verifying the Business Address: 1. Login to your Amazon seller account. 2. In Seller Central, go to the Settings menu and select Account Info to view your Seller Account Information page. 3. In the Business Information section, select the Business Address page. Update your business address if it is not correct and then click Confirm Address once the information shown is correct. 4. After you click Confirm Address, Amazon will send a postcard containing a verification code to this address. Most postcards are delivered in 5-7 business days. 5. Once you receive the postcard, use this link to enter the verification code. What happens if you do not verify my address? If you do not verify your address within 60 days, future disbursements will be held in your seller account until your address has been verified. Get Amazon Experts help now!

Amazon has launched Sponsored Display Amazon Audiences, which is available for Sponsored Display audiences campaigns on the Amazon Advertising API and Amazon advertising console, for all vendors and sellers in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Spain, Italy, and the United Arab Emirates. Amazon Audiences offers thousands of pre-built audience segments to help your clients reach new prospective customers through awareness and consideration campaigns. Amazon Audiences is comprised of four targeting strategies, each informed by a variety of first-party shopping and streaming signals: 1. In-market: In-market audiences allow advertisers to engage audiences who are “in-the-aisle” and have been recently shopping for products in a given category. To capture share-of-mind, advertisers can reach audiences in the same category as their advertised products to drive consideration, as well as try out entirely new segments to help drive product awareness. 2. Lifestyle: Positioned for awareness campaigns, these audiences reflect a variety of aggregated shopping and viewing behaviors, including shopping on Amazon, browsing on IMDb, and streaming on Prime Video or Twitch. These behaviors reflect shared preferences and map to lifestyle segments such as “foodies”, “sports enthusiasts”, “tech enthusiasts”, and more. 3. Interests: Interest-based audiences allow advertisers to help raise awareness with prospective customers based on what they frequently browse and buy. Examples of these audiences include “interested in Canadian history” and “interested in interior design”. 4. Life events: Life events audiences give brands the opportunity to drive awareness and consideration for relevant products based around life moments, such as “traveling soon” for shoppers going on vacation. Take PPC Expert's help and take leverage of that.

Amazon continuously innovates to improve the shopping and selling experience. Over the past several years, they have made numerous improvements to encourage purchasers to review products on Amazon. One Tap Reviews and Global Review Sharing, have proven more effective in generating reviews for sellers than the Early Reviewer Program, so Amazon is no longer offering the program.

As of March 5, 2021, Amazon will no longer allow new enrollments in the Early Reviewer Program and will stop offering the service to sellers currently enrolled in the program on April 20, 2021. You will not be charged for any reviews for enrolled products that are published after this date, and you will not be charged for the service if the program has not generated any reviews for your business.

Amazon will return your program fee within three (3) months after the program closure date, for any active enrollments with more than 1 review and not completed by 20 April.

More Reviews is More Sales. And Amazon Sponsored Ads is the easiest way to get more sales. Hire Amazon PPC Management Agency now!

Looking at the constant technical updates and rivalling of their 3rd party tools, Amazon is developing features to dominate the market from the customers, sellers or even the 3rd party service providers. Amazon has availed the customer search terms feature to the Amazon Sellers which is more convenient and time saving. One of the Amazon Sponsored Ads Optimization technique is getting the customer search terms and optimizing those. Sellers used to download the report for customer search terms previously, but now they can take the appropriate action within the Amazon Advertising Dashboard, and add the search terms as a targeting keyword or negative keywords. High end PPC optimization and targeting the right search terms is the key to get more success. Hire Amazon PPC Management Agency now!

Looking at Amazon's success in different countries, Amazon is expanding in one more European country - Poland.

Amazon will launch the Polish store to delight local customers and give sellers the opportunity to expand their footprints in the European country even more.

If you have a Professional selling plan then Amazon Seller Central Poland will be available as a new country option in your EU Seller account. If you cannot see Amazon.pl in your Seller Central drop-down menu yet, fill in a survey form with Merchant Token and Amazon will make it available to you as soon as possible.

Sell more on Amazon with help of Amazon Experts

Amazon is working actively for Sellers to make everything easy and valuable. Recently, Amazon has launched a bulk image tool where sellers can upload multiple images together to the Amazon Product Listings. Previously, you could only upload images and view the upload status for one product at a time. You can now upload up to 5 GB worth of product images at once with the bulk image upload tool and view the status of all your uploads in the image upload status report in Seller Central. Every detail page in the Amazon store requires at least one product image, and we recommend you provide six images and one video. Good images make it easy for customers to evaluate the product. Images should be clear, informative, and attractive. The first image on the product detail page is the "MAIN" image and is shown to customers in search. The MAIN image must show only the product for sale on a white background, and the product should fill the image frame. Additional images should show the product in use or in an environment, different angles, and different features. Please note that video upload is a separate workflow. Search help pages to determine if it is enabled in your location. Ref: https://sellercentral.amazon.com/imaging/upload?ref=nslp_at_GSAA4WZPVT48GCPU_nslnk_cta Good images are must to make your listing stronger. Design Amazon Listing Images now!

Every seller must have a question: What is the ratio of my sales revenue in between organic and PPC. And this should be measure carefully to see how much money a seller is investing in PPC to get sales and in what proportion he/she is getting sales.

More Organic sales means more profit. It shows better organic result and keyword rankings of the products. Sellers used to gather multiple reports to know the organic sales vs PPC sales. Which was too much headache for the sellers and time consuming till now.

Now, Amazon has introduced a new feature on Seller Central Dashboard showing the organic sales vs PPC sales, with custom time period up to last 90 days and for each product also. Now, sellers can get data simply by applying filters and also can see in a visual graph.

To get more organic sales, you must have good keyword rankings of your product and Amazon Sponsored Ads is one of the key to get better rankings.

Hire Amazon PPC Expert now!

Customer Review works as an Oxygen for any sellers. Good customer reviews always help a seller to build their trust with the customers and increasing their purchases. While reviews and feedback are important to customers and sellers both, the comments feature on customer reviews was rarely used. As a result, Amazon is discontinuing this feature on December 16, 2020. Have proper keyword research of your product, optimize the listing, target sponsored ads, run promotions and increase your sales to gain more customer reviews. Hire Amazon Consultants now!

FBA Subscribe & Save’s new performance dashboard can help you better manage your Subscribe & Save business and help ensure a positive customer experience. You can use the dashboard to improve your Subscribe & Save seller performance metrics. On the dashboard, you can review the following information:

• The number of units and revenue for shipped subscription orders
• Projections of units and revenue for orders that are expected to ship
• The number of active subscriptions
• Average revenue per customer
• The percentage of units not delivered because the ASIN was out of stock
• You can see these metrics for your overall Subscribe & Save business or at the ASIN level (up to 20 at a time) for weekly, monthly, quarterly, and yearly time frames.

It's been announced that Transparency is now available in Australia and Japan Also! Transparency can help you proactively ensure that your customers are receiving genuine products. Its check item level authenticity of the brand products. By enrolling into Transparency, you will get a unique code for your brand product which you will need to apply on the products. So that the Transparency system can check those codes and ship only products with applied code ensuring the customer will receive authentic products. Previously it was available in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, and India. For more details, visit the Transparency page: https://brandservices.amazon.com/transparency Other than Transparency, you can protect your brand by enrolling into Amazon Brand Registry, which comes with other benefits such as Amazon A+ Content, Amazon Storefront Design, Sponsored Brands Ads, Sponsored Display Ads, Amazon Posts and many more.

Amazon has launched a new program called Climate Pledge Friendly which can be helpful to save the environment. It includes Amazon own certification, Compact by Design, to identify which of your products have a more efficient design.

To gain the Climate Pledge Friendly badge, the product should have one or more of the 19 different sustainability certifications to help preserve the natural world. That requires not having excessive air and packaging. This will be helpful for shipping and with small parcels, the carbon emission will reduce.

This will have a good impact on customers and they can find sustainable products to keep our environment safe.

See here How to Qualify?

Check Compact by design certificate here

Check the threshold for compact by design certificate here

Check Other certificates here

Don't have a UPC?

Listing the product without UPC was Big NO for Amazon sellers and availing a GTIN Exemption process was a headache.

To improve your experience, Amazon made an easy process of providing proofs for availing GTIN exemption.

Instead of any supporting letter from the Brand Owner, now seller can exempt for GTIN by simply providing Product Name, Images showing all sides (6 sides usually) of product packaging.

Reference: Amazon Product Listing using GTIN

Good News for the sellers who don't have the Brand Registry.

You can now upload videos for your listings if you have sold on Amazon for longer than a year and meet certain eligibility criteria. The uploaded videos will be eligible to appear in the images section of Product Detail pages.

If you are not a brand owner but are eligible to use this new feature, you will be able to upload a video for one ASIN at a time.

If you are a brand owner, you can continue to upload videos for up to 300 ASINs in your brand. Click Upload & Manage Videos under the Inventory tab to get started with this feature. Now, click on “Upload video” to see the video upload experience if you are currently eligible to upload.

Reference: Amazon Product Listing Video

October 13th to October 14th. Yes, Prime Day 2020, the most eagerly awaited festival is back with its final dates and with their epic deals for two days. Prime Day is an annual deal event exclusively for Prime members, delivering two days of special savings on products from small businesses & top brands. Check Out here: Prime Day in Amazon USA Prime Day in Amazon UK Prime Day in Amazon Australia

Amazon automatically cancels orders if they have not been shipped and confirmed within 30 days of the estimated ship date (ESD).   To protect and improve the customer experience, starting September 30, 2020, Amazon will automatically cancel any order which is not shipped and confirmed within 7 business days after the “ship by” date detailed in the “Sold, ship now” notification email. You can set this date by modifying your Handle Time, but please be aware this date is part of the delivery time calculation displayed on the offer listing and checkout page.   Reference: Modify handling time (Login Required)

Amazon has launched Sponsored Brands video (beta) in the UK and Germany. This new format displays auto-playing video in desktop and mobile shopping results and is available in the United States, UK, and Germany. Sponsored Brands video ads are keyword targeted, cost-per-click, and link customers directly to your product detail page, where they can learn more and purchase. Sponsored Brands video allows you to:

1. Differentiate your brand
2. Help Increase reach
3. Set up your campaign easily

Quarter 4 is a peak season for the sellers. The biggest event Black Friday is almost scheduled in the last week of November 2020. Please check with the deals and start preparation accordingly for the Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Black Friday 2020 is set to be another huge consumer event and the buyers has already started around the deals we can expect. Black Friday is on the 27th November this year with Cyber Monday following straight after on 30th November, just in time for the Christmas shopping season.

Amazon attribution is very useful while running non-amazon advertising to drive traffic to Amazon's details pages. If you are running any Ads through Facebook, Instagram, Google Ads, or any other platform and driving traffic to Amazon. Then, please set up an Amazon Attribution account to analyze the actual off-Amazon result. Refer to the below document for more detail: Amazon Attribution Guide

Spending more time on PPC over a number of campaigns? Here is the guide to optimize your PPC campaigns in a bulk to save your time. I'd highly recommend using this guide and implement on your accounts whoever has hundreds of campaigns and spending more time. Reference: Amazon PPC Advt Bulk Operation

Amazon launched negative product targeting controls for Auto Targeting (AT) campaigns and ad groups. This new feature gives advertisers using AT a frequently asked for optimization tool that allows them to negatively target a product detail page by ASIN, just as they would negatively target a search query by keyword.  The feature has launched for all SP advertisers in all marketplaces. The control is now available in UCB, UCM, and the Advertising API. Prior to this launch, negative product targeting was only available for Product Attribute Targeting (PAT) ad groups. Benefits:

• Advertisers use negative targeting to optimize performance by removing ads from targeting when an ad-context (i.e. search term or detail page) underperforms when measured against some metric of interests such as conversion rate.
• They also use negative targeting to protect their brand image by stopping their ads from showing on contexts that are not aligned with values associated with their brand. Advertisers have historically been able to see performance on product detail pages through the search term report for all targeting types and can see when detail pages are not meeting their performance expectations.
• With this launch, advertisers can indicate that they do not want their AT ads to appear on a specific set of detail pages by negatively targeting the associated ASINs.

Amazon has launched Listing Quality Dashboard, a tool in Seller Central that highlights important listing improvements for customers. By adding the recommended information for your products on the Listing Quality Dashboard, you can:

• Improve discovery
• Enable the Product Overview experience (beta)
• Potentially reduce customer returns
• Take time-sensitive actions

Inventory Performance Index threshold change to 500 now

Inventory Performance Index threshold change and increased to 500.

Amazon is working to manage inventory performance to ensure all products have space available during peak. To enable this, Amazon is changing the IPI minimum threshold requirement to 500. Sellers below 500 will be subject to limits effective August 16, 2020 through the end of the year.

The majority of sellers will not be impacted by this change. Most sellers with IPI scores below 500 will have more storage space than last year.

You can improve your IPI by following guidance on improving sell through or reducing your excess and stranded inventory in the Inventory Performance Dashboard.

Reference: Inventory Performance Dashboard(Login required)

Long-term storage fee inventory cleanup

August 15, 2020 is Fulfillment by Amazon’s (FBA's) next scheduled long-term storage fee inventory cleanup. On this date, inventory that has been in US fulfillment centers for more than 365 days incurs a long-term storage fee of $6.90 USD per cubic foot or a $0.15 USD per-unit long-term storage fee, whichever is greater.

The long-term storage fee is in addition to the monthly inventory storage fee.

FBA calculates inventory age on a first-in, first-out basis across the entire fulfillment network. Items sold or removed are deducted from the inventory that has been in the fulfillment network the longest, regardless of which unit was actually shipped or removed.

The Recommended Removals report automatically calculates, on an ASIN-by-ASIN basis, the number of items you would have to remove to avoid long-term storage fees—assuming no further sales. You may also use the Inventory Age and Inventory Health reports to identify the age of inventory by ASIN.

If you remove units of an ASIN that would be subject to long-term storage fees at the next inventory cleanup date, you won't be able to send us more units of that ASIN for three months after that date. The exception is your inventory of that ASIN falls below our projection of its sales for the next eight weeks.

For further details, see FBA long-term storage fees.

Note: All above references required login.

Amazon has launched a new program called "Program Recommendations". Keep checking it if you can get something useful to be implemented in your account.

The Recommended Programs page provides personalized recommendations, to help you prioritize the right tasks to build and grow your business on Amazon.

Reference: https://sellercentral.amazon.com/recommended-programs(Login required)

To maximize selection for customers during peak, Amazon is introducing ASIN-level quantity limits on products in FBA. Most products will have enough space available for over three months of sales.

You can view quantity limits for your products on the Restock Inventory page and the Restock report. Amazon will continually review this and, when possible, make adjustments to allow for more of your products.

For more details see Restock Inventory (Login required)

Now, we can create a Virtual Product Bundles which don't require to send a physical bundled product.

The virtual product bundles tool for FBA lets brand owners create ‘virtual’ bundles made up of two to five complementary ASINs which are purchased together from a single detail page.

Eligibility Criteria:

To be eligible to be added to a virtual bundle:

• ASINs need to belong to a brand that you own and that is registered in Brand Registry.
• ASINs need to have active FBA inventory in the 'New' condition.
• The following cannot be included in virual bundles: gift cards, electronically delivered products (like digital music, video, and books), and renewed/used ASINs.
• Product bundles can be created only in the US Amazon store.

How to calculate Multi-Channel Fulfillment Fees? Now it is easy to calculate Amazon Fees with Amazon Fee Calculator.

You can quickly preview per-unit Multi-Channel Fulfillment fees with Amazon's new fee calculator.

To download the calculator template, go to Multi-Channel Fulfillment and click the Fees tab.

Reference Link: Multi-Channel Fulfillment Fees Calculator(Login required)

And here, Amazon has gathered all useful information regarding MCF orders, such as How to create, who can do, benefits, plugins to integrate, multichannel integration tools, fees, fee calculator. etc.

Please go through the link for more details:
Multi-Channel Fulfillment(Login required)

Sponsored Brands redesigned desktop card

Availability: ads console, Seller Central, API
Launch date: 31-March
Reference: blog post

What launched?
A new taller desktop card creative template in the Sponsored Brands top of search placement. This new experience increases the height of the unit and makes both product images and brand logo more prominent.

What is the shopper experience?
Advertisers using a “true” brand logo will render this new creative experience. Advertisers using a lifestyle/custom image or the product image for their logo will render the existing regular height mobile carousel.

Note – make sure you use a “true” brand logo. Learn more about the definition of a “true” brand logo in our ad policies here.

Sponsored Display product targeting for sellers in the US
Launch date: 25-March
References:
Getting started guide(Login Required)
Optimization guide(Login Required)

What launched?
Product targeting in Sponsored Display is now available for sellers in the US. With product targeting, you can promote product discovery with ads that reach shoppers who are actively browsing similar or complementary products and categories on Amazon, and access more campaign controls and reporting metrics to make your performance advertising strategy work more efficiently. Product targeting ads may appear alongside product description pages, customer reviews, shopping results pages, or under the featured offer. A modified version of Sponsored Display product targeting is also available for vendors worldwide.

In the ads console, sellers will now be able to select from two options in the “Product targeting” field within the campaign builder.

Advertisers can then leverage the product targeting widget to select one or multiple product page(s) to show their ads, select one or multiple categories/browse node to show their ads, and refine the category selection based on price, brand, star rating, Prime status, and other filters.

Prior to launching their campaigns, advertisers can use the creative preview to see how ads will look like including a preview of any coupons or deals.

Ad Placement
Product targeting ads may appear adjacent to the featured offer and description sections within an Amazon product detail page on mobile and desktop. This gives advertisers an opportunity to be featured in a prime location and remain top of mind during the point of purchase.

Getting Started Guide_SD Display Beta_Purchases_SearchesGet Started with Sponsored Display – a new self-service advertising solution for Amazon Sellers. For a detailed guide about the Sponsored Brand Display Campaign refer to the below-attached documents! 1. Guide for SD Purchases/Search targeting Getting Started Guide_SD Display 2. Optimization Guide US-Sponsored Display-Optimization Guide

Amazon added two ways to help delight customers and grow your business, 1) The Customer Returns Tool and 2) Free Replacements For Customers.

Customer returns tool

Amazon has added a tool to the FBA customer returns report page to give you greater visibility into reimbursements and customer returns. To quickly see whether you’ve been reimbursed, if you qualify for reimbursement, or if Amazon is still waiting for a customer return to evaluate:

Go to the FBA customer returns report
In the Important Message section, click input the order ID here to access the tool
Enter a Customer order ID to check your reimbursement status

Important: Before requesting a reimbursement, review the FBA customer returns policy.(Login required)

Amazon free replacements

Sometimes customers want a replacement for an item rather than just return it. With Amazon free replacements, customers can opt for a free replacement instead of waiting for a refund and then buying the same item again. Amazon ships an identical item (if available) from your inventory when a free replacement is requested.

Note: When a customer chooses a free replacement, you will see the item deducted from your inventory and a sale for $0 on your Customer Shipment Sales and Payments reports.

The customer has 30 days to return the unit (if possible), or they could be charged. Once the original unit is returned to Amazon, Amazon will evaluate it. If eligible for reimbursement, you will be reimbursed within 45 days of the customer replacement request.

Reference: Reimbursements(Login required)

Now you can set the Schedule Time to generate the advertising reports & don't miss any report. The new update gives the "Recurring" option which allows you to set the time duration for the future.

Login to seller central and go through the below path to generate a recurring advertisement report
Reports > Advertising reports > Create Reports > Delivery > Select Recurring

Fix your suppressed listing via Bulk Operation

Now you can fix suppressed inventory in bulk via uploading a template file just like the way we do for variations. Below is the link which mentions the steps for fixing suppressed inventory.

Reference: How do I bulk activate suppressed listings?(Login required)

New to FBA for 2020 is the FBA New Selection program. This program allows sellers to enroll in new-to-Amazon ASINs for fee reductions and other benefits. Sellers must opt-in before they're qualified to take advantage of this new program.

For more detail - Click here(Login required)

Now you can optimize your A+ Contents using data-driven decisions.

Amazon has recently introduced a new feature called "Manage Your Experiments" where you can upload two versions of A+ Pages for one ASIN. Each of these versions will be randomly shown to the customers visiting your detail page. At the end of the experiment, Amazon will provide results as to which A+ Page has got you more sales.

Check your eligibility for A/B Test(Login Required)

What’s your product’s best side? All of them! In these photos, the product appears to spin so that the buyer can examine it from all angles. Eg. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0078ZTWP4 Categories currently enabled for sellers to use 360-degree product views include:

• Home
• Home Improvement
• Furniture
• Lawn & Garden
• Lighting
• Kitchen
• Sports & Outdoors
• Toys
• Cameras
• Automotive
• Pets

Instead of creating new ads, the seller can copy campaigns that are currently running, have already ended, or are archived. The seller can also copy campaigns that were not approved and can make necessary changes so that they can comply with Amazon's ad guidelines before resubmitting. To copy a campaign in the campaign manager: - Navigate to Campaigns. - Click All Campaigns. - Find the campaign you want to copy. - Click Copy under the Action column for your campaign. - Modify and create your copied campaign using the steps for your campaign type: Sponsored Brands, Sponsored Products, Sponsored Display, Lockscreen Ads, and Sponsored Products campaigns using custom text. Note: Performance metrics such as impressions, clicks, and sales are not copied to the new campaign. Sponsored Products campaigns are generally eligible to go live as soon as you submit them. Sponsored Display, Lockscreen Ads, Sponsored Brands ads, and Sponsored Product campaigns promoting Book ASINs are considered "pending" while Amazon is reviewing them. The review process is usually completed within 24 hours, but may take as long as three business days. We will email you once your ad has been reviewed.

Amazon will no longer support Free Shipping Promotion starting January 13th, 2020. Seller can make any necessary edits to our Free Shipping Promotions in Advertising > Promotions prior to this date. If any such kind off promotion is running in your account then make the necessary changes. On January 13th, 2020, all Pending and Active Free Shipping Promotions will be terminated by having their status automatically updated to Expired and the Free Shipping promotion type will be removed from the Create a Promotion page in Seller Central. If seller would still like to provide free shipping for customers, seller can set this up by updating the Shipping Settings within the Settings tab.

In the Year 2019 year Amazon has invested more than $15 billion in infrastructure, programs, people, and 150 new tools and services to help Amazon sellers grow their brands and businesses. Amazon also invested billions of dollars to expand FREE One-Day Delivery to more than 10 million Prime-eligible items.

Driven by FREE One-Day Delivery, this was the largest one-year investment Amazon has ever made in FBA. Nevertheless, in 2020, Amazon will make only moderate increases (about 3%) in fulfillment fees, below the industry average, because Amazon remains committed to the seller's continued success. Amazon will also decrease select referral fees and introduce an exciting new selection program.

Please review the fee change pages below. The changes will take effect on February 18, 2020, except where noted.

Reference:
2020 US referral fee changes(Login required)
2020 US fulfillment fee changes(Login required)
2020 FBA fee changes for monthly storage, Label Service and removal orders(Login required)
2020 FBA Small and Light fee changes(Login required)
FBA New Selection program(Login required)

Changes to program policies

Listed below are upcoming changes to Amazon’s program policies.

1) Reorganization of Customer product reviews policy - Effective December 27, 2019
2) Category, product, and listing restrictions- Effective December 27, 2019
3) Clarification to FBA Inventory Placement Program Terms and Conditions - Effective December 26, 2019
4) Clarification to Communication Guidelines

Reference: Amazon Changes to program policies(Login required)

Amazon Predictions 2020: 5 Big Changes to Look for in the New Year

1) Amazon will end its Buyer-Seller Messaging Service.
2) Amazon will bring Singles Day to the U.S.
3) Amazon will enter African markets.
4) Amazon will make sweeping changes in response to fake reviews.
5) Amazon will end FBM for certain categories.

Reference: Amazon Predictions 2020

Effective January 1, 2020, we are changing the IPI threshold for storage limits to 400 (previously 350). Storage limits will continue to be evaluated on a quarterly cycle. For example, if the seller's IPI score is less than 400 during the week of November 11, 2019, sellers will be notified in their potential storage limits for Quarter 1 2020. The sellers will then have six weeks to improve the IPI score. If the sellers IPI score is still below 400 during the week of December 23, 2019, storage limits will apply for Quarter 1 2020. Sellers who maintain an IPI score of 400 or greater will have unlimited storage for standard size and oversize items (monthly storage fees and long-term storage fees still apply). References: Inventory Performance Dashboard Manage Excess Inventory Inventory Age Fix Stranded Inventory

Green Monday is a booming retail sales opportunity for eCommerce businesses. eBay really started the whole idea. The major online marketing realized that the second Monday in December, on average, was one of the top shopping days in December.

When is it?

Green Monday is the second Monday in the month of December. This year, that’s December 9, 2019. This is the perfect time for online shoppers because it ensures that they’ll have enough time to have their online purchases delivered in time for the holidays.

Reference: What is Green Monday?

If you’re taking time off soon, adjust your Seller Central settings to avoid receiving orders while you're away. You can change your listing status to Inactive, just be sure to check for pending orders since they won’t be cancelled automatically. It's important, even if your listings are set to inactive, to process return requests and respond to messages from customers within 24 hours.

Listing status for vacations, holidays, and other absences If you can’t fulfill orders for any reason (family emergency, inclement weather, going on holiday or vacation, etc.), you can change your Listings Status to Inactive. This will remove your self-fulfilled listings from Amazon product detail pages and search results within one hour. When you are ready to sell again, you can change the status of your listings back to Active.

Before changing the status of your listings, check for any pending orders, since these will not automatically be canceled. You might want to set your listing status to Inactive prior to the date you will be away, since pending orders may take time to resolve.

1. In Seller Central, hover over Settings in the top-right corner of the screen, and then click Account Info from the drop-down menu.
2. On the Seller Account Information page, in the Listings Status section, click Going on vacation?
3. On the Vacation Settings page, you can change your settings for one or multiple marketplaces, as detailed in the following table: Do you sell in one marketplace or multiple marketplaces? Your available options you only sell in one marketplace.

Enhanced brand content is now upgraded to A+ content. Along with the new name, which is now the same across both Seller Central and Vendor Central, Amazon has made several improvements: Publish A+ to many ASINs at the same time, not 1x1 to SKUs - Before, sellers needed to submit A+ Content to one SKU at a time, including all the child SKUs in many categories. Also, sellers needed to deal with confusing differences about whether to submit A+ for a parent or child SKU. No more. The new A+ Content Manager experience enables you to create a piece of content and search for and apply the content to many different ASINs - not SKUs - from different ASIN families. We also show you the image, ASIN title, and other information on the ASINs, not just the SKU like before. Reference: A+ Content News(Login required)

Amazon shoppers all over the world are looking for products like yours. Help put yours right in front of them—advertise in your eligible marketplaces. Benefits:

1. Reach a new customer base to help grow your sales.
2. Launch campaigns in minutes, no language skills needed.
3. Pay only when your ad is clicked.

A 7-Day Deal is a time-bound, promotional offer where an item is featured for up to 7 days on the Amazon Deals page. 7-Day Deals will also receive a “Limited time deal” badge in search results, driving more visibility to your deal and brand. You can create both 7-Day Deals and Lightning Deals on eligible products in the deals Dashboard in Seller Central. These deals are created to help sellers get rid of excess Inventory & boost their product rank rapidly. Note: It may happen many of your products appear eligible for Lightning Deals, but none are showing for 7-day deals because this program is still rolling out. Reference: Eligible products(Login required) Deals Dashboard(Login required)

Amazon's New Feature - Outlet for FBA sellers

Now all Fulfillment by Amazon Professional sellers can take advantage of Outlet to help increase sell through, improve cash flow, optimize inventory levels, and reduce total storage fees on overstocked inventory.

Customers shop Outlet for markdowns and deals on overstock, clearance products. Amazon helps drive customers to Outlet through direct emails and ad placements, including on Amazon’s homepage.

Reference: About Amazon Outlet(Loing required)

Vendors and Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) authors will soon see a change in the advertising console: a redesigned navigation menu.

What's new?

• Flexible Design
• Quick access to your campaigns, Stores, reports, and bulk operations
• Billing and payment methods located at one link.
• Easy-to-find manage users feature
• Access to the support center

We periodically review FBA removal and disposal fees. As a result of our most recent review, we are adjusting certain FBA removal and disposal fees in Europe, effective September 3, 2019. We’re notifying you now so that you have time to plan for these changes. Removal and disposal fee changes (starting September 3): - Domestic removal fees: We will reduce removal fees for standard-size and oversize units in UK fulfillment centers. For fulfillment centers in Spain, the removal fees for oversize items will increase. - Cross-border removal fees: We will reduce cross-border removal fees for units stored in the UK, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Poland, and Czech Republic. - Disposal fees: We will increase disposal fees for units stored in the UK, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Poland, and the Czech Republic. The upcoming rates are based on unit weight and size. Reference: FBA removal and disposal fees(Login required)

Finding the right services and tools to market and sell products has always been a challenging task for new businesses. Amazon Launchpad can help you jump-start your business on Amazon by showcasing your new and emerging products to millions of Amazon customers.

The Amazon Launchpad program includes onboarding support including account setup, troubleshooting, and more. The seller can also receive marketing support including placements on Amazon Launchpad family of storefronts, email, and online events (for example, Holiday Gift Guide). In addition, Amazon Launchpad members enjoy access to webinars and training to support continued growth on Amazon.

Reference: Amazon Launchpad Program(Login required)

The Customer Reviews section of the Brand Dashboard enables you to sort, filter, read, and respond to incoming product reviews for your products. These reviews can help you understand common customer concerns, and you can also report reviews that do not conform to Amazon’s customer review policies. The dashboard enables you to keep track of which reviews have been examined and/or addressed.

The Brand Dashboard is available in the U.S. for selling partners who have registered their brand in Brand Registry and own a brand, or who serve as an agent, representative, or manufacturer of a brand. If you’re not eligible for the Brand Dashboard today, visit the page to see instructions on how you can apply for access to this new tool.

Reference: Customer Review on Brand Dashboard(Login required)

Tax collection for orders shipped to AR, IN, KY, NM, RI, VA, WV, WY States - Effective July 1, 2019

Based on the changes to Arkansas, Indiana, Kentucky, New Mexico, Rhode Island, Virginia, West Virginia, and Wyoming State tax laws, Amazon will begin calculating, collecting, and remitting sales and use tax for all orders shipped to customers in the eight states listed above on July 1, 2019.

Your existing tax calculation settings, order details, and payment reporting will update automatically to reflect this change. Changes to your tax settings or seller account are not required based on the state law changes. However, you may consider working with your tax advisor to determine if your business has any other ongoing tax remittance or reporting obligations.

Reference: Tax collection -Effective July 1, 2019(Login required)

Amazon has announced a new update on Stranded Inventory which may save time and make things easy.

Previously, each stranded listing that was unblocked or had met qualifications required sellers to click Edit and then Save and finish. Now when listings are approved by Amazon, they become automatically available for customers within 24 hours.

Sellers can also now set the time (up to 30 days) that inventory is stranded by clicking Edit automatic-action settings on Fix stranded inventory. The new automated settings are set for a default of 30 days.

Reference: Automated fixes for stranded inventory(Login required)

Now sellers can find A+ Content Manager instead of Enhanced Brand Content in the Seller Central. Reference: A+ Content manager

Avoid appointment cancellations and shipment rejections by providing complete PO information!

To ensure a problem-free delivery, make sure that both you and your carrier follow the requirements for shipping less than truckload (LTL), full truckload (FTL), and full container load (FCL) to Amazon fulfillment centers.

The requirements include the following:
- Provide accurate purchase order (PO) numbers.
- Provide complete shipment details on your appointment request in Carrier Central. Appointments may be deleted without notice if this information is incomplete.
- Submit only one appointment request per shipment, and manage any delivery time changes through Carrier Central. See the Carrier Central User Manual for additional help.

If a shipment arrives at a fulfillment center and the bill of lading does not match the PO numbers from the appointment request, your shipment may be rejected.

References:
Seller requirements for LTL, FTL, and FCL deliveries(Login required)
Carrier requirements for LTL and FTL deliveries(Login required)

From July 22, 2019, Amazon will suppress ASINs from Amazon Search whose titles do not comply with Amazon’s product title requirements.

This is because our research shows that the ASIN titles that violate our policies result in poor customer experience. Please review Amazon’s Product Title requirements prior to July 15, 2019, to verify that your current titles meet our guidelines.

Reference: FBA product title requirements(Login required)

Amazon has come up with a new update for video uploads which allows you to add different types of Videos, Auto-generated thumbnails.

It will be soon available under Inventory Tab:
Inventory > Upload & Manage Videos

For more details see, New Video Management Experience

Product updates will see errors after June 12, 2019, for ASINs that do not follow the new Price Per Unit requirements Price Per Unit (PPU) information is used by customers to compare and evaluate products during their shopping journey. Amazon will be implementing the following data requirements for U.S. sellers. 1) Starting June 12, 2019, products sold within the U.S. Consumables product types listed below will require all new listings to include the unit count attribute, which was previously optional. Unit count includes a value (unit_count, e.g. "5") and a unit type (unit_count_type, e.g. "ounce"). The unit type will be restricted to the following units: - fluid ounce - ounce - pound - gram - count 2) Data submissions without this information may fail. The scope of this change includes any product-level data submissions, whether through Excel templates, Seller Central, or XSD feeds. 3) Similarly, on June 12 products sold within the same U.S. Consumables product types will also require updates to existing impacted listings to include the unit count attribute. ASINs without unit count information or with invalid values in the unit count type attribute will still require this information when listings are updated. Any updates that do not include this information will be rejected. For more detail please check: How to determine Price Per Unit(Login required)

Starting June 1, 2019, a new policy will take effect for shipments created through Amazon Marketplace Web Service (Amazon MWS).

Seller will be required to approve all shipments in multi-destination shipping plans, and send inventory according to each shipping plan. When sellers use Amazon MWS, the inventory may require multiple shipment destinations to increase the availability of items across Amazon’s fulfillment network. Shipments that comply with FBA policy can be received at fulfillment centers more quickly, and the inventory can be made available for sale sooner. Amazon will notify Sellers by email when shipments don’t comply with FBA policy.

Reference: Shipments(Login required)

The Buyer-Seller Messaging Service enables you to communicate with buyers via Seller Central or your email account. You can contact buyers to complete orders or to respond to customer service questions. If you don’t receive a response or your message is blocked, please keep in mind that buyers can opt out of receiving unsolicited messages. If your message is critical to completing the buyer’s order, you can ensure it is sent by following the instructions mentioned as Buyer-Seller Messages. For more details see, Buyer-Seller Messages(Login required)

The descriptions for some of the inventory adjustment reasons in the online version of the Inventory Adjustments report have been updated to provide more clarity. The Inventory Adjustments Report shows the history of adjustments to your inventory in response to issues such as disposition changes, misplaced inventory, found inventory, and ownership corrections. For more details please read: Inventory adjustments

Starting June 10, 2019, in accordance with FBA policy, inventory that is stranded for an extended period will be classified as unsellable and must be removed from Amazon fulfillment centers. If your inventory is stranded, we will notify you by email. If you don’t activate your listing or create a removal order within 30 days of receiving this email, your inventory will be classified as unsellable. For more information, see the stranded reason table on Resolve stranded inventory issues. Inventory classified as unsellable cannot be converted back to sellable. It must be removed from fulfillment centers or it will be disposed of at your cost after 30 days. On Fix stranded inventory the Date of the stranded event column tells you when the inventory was stranded. The Date classified as unsellable column states when listings will change to unsellable. Inventory stranded for the following reasons does not require removal. Future listing sell date Listing closed Listing closed and inventory error Under hazmat review Merchant fulfilled Merchant fulfilled (including dangerous goods information required) For more information, including tips on avoiding stranded inventory, visit Stranded inventory and Required removals. Note: All the above reference required login

Amazon has introduces new feature for sponsored brand campaigns. Now, you can add negative keywords to your sponsored brand campaigns. The seller can add negative keywords and negative products while creating a campaign, or add them later in the campaign manager. Please check your campaigns it is available now! For more more details see, Add negative keywords(Login required)

Amazon is continuously improving the Account Health experience by making it easier for you to view and address all policy violations and defects affecting your account health in one place. In the year 2019, Amazon has added Suspected Intellectual Property Violations, Restricted Products Policy Violations, and Customer Product Reviews Policy Violations to the Account Health experience. In the past, Amazon has communicated these issues elsewhere in Seller Central, in your Performance Notifications inbox, or via email. Please take a moment to view your Account Health and address violations and defects in a timely manner. Reference: Account Health(Login required)

In May 2019, Amazon removing Amazon’s generic size charts from product detail pages on Amazon.com and replacing them with brand-specific size charts. If you are a Brand Registered Seller, Amazon recommend that you contact Seller Support to create a brand-specific size chart for each Product Type. Brand-specific size charts provide detailed measurement information for customers to ensure a product will fit. This will improve the customer experience and help reduce size-related returns.

Note: Brand-specific size charts are only available to Brand Registered Sellers at this time and are specific to a Department (Women, Men, Boys, Girls, Baby) and Product Type (Dress, Pants, etc.).

Reference: Brand-specific size charts(Login required)

In May, Amazon removing Amazon’s generic size charts from product detail pages on Amazon.com and replacing them with brand-specific size charts. If the seller has a Brand Registery, Amazon recommends the seller to contact Seller Support to create a brand-specific size chart for each Product Type. Brand-specific size charts provide detailed measurement information for customers to ensure a product will fit. This will improve the customer experience and help reduce size-related returns. Note: Brand-specific size charts are only available to Brand Registered Sellers at this time and are specific to a Department (Women, Men, Boys, Girls, Baby) and Product Type (Dress, Pants, etc.). For more details see,  Brand-specific size charts(Login required)

Standards for Brands Selling in the Amazon Store Amazon obsesses over providing our customers with the best possible shopping experience. Since the inception of our store, one way we have ensured a great customer experience is by sourcing products directly from Brands and selling them to customers in our store ourselves. In order to preserve that customer experience, we may choose to source products from some Brands for sale by Amazon only. Other Brands can operate as sellers in the Amazon store if they can consistently maintain our standards for customer experience. However, to prevent customer confusion, if any of the Brand’s products are sold by Amazon, the Brand may not also sell those products as a seller in the Amazon store. Amazon measures customer experience in a number of ways, including high in-stock rates, delivery experience, price competitiveness, and selection coverage. Amazon offers several tools and services to help you meet our standards and sell successfully in the Amazon store, including tools for inventory management and automated pricing, fulfillment services like Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA), and services to grow and protect your Brand like Brand Registry. If sellers cannot maintain our standards for customer experience, they might lose certain privileges associated with operating as a seller in the Amazon store (including having their offers featured on product detail pages), or the seller might lose the opportunity to operate as a seller in the Amazon store altogether. In that case, sellers can still offer to sell their products to Amazon so that we can sell them to the customers.

Price Per Unit (PPU) information is used by customers to compare and evaluate products during their shopping journey. Amazon will be implementing the following data requirements for U.S. sellers.

1) Starting June 12, 2019, products sold within the U.S. Consumables product types listed below will require all new listings to include the unit count attribute, which was previously optional. Unit count includes a value (unit_count, e.g. "5") and a unit type (unit_count_type, e.g. "ounce"). The unit type will be restricted to the following units:
- fluid ounce
- ounce
- pound
- gram
- count

2) Data submissions without this information may fail. The scope of this change includes any product-level data submissions, whether through Excel templates, Seller Central, or XSD feeds.

3) Similarly, on June 12 products sold within the same U.S. Consumables product types will also require updates to existing impacted listings to include the unit count attribute. ASINs without unit count information or with invalid values in the unit count type attribute will still require this information when listings are updated. Any updates that do not include this information will be rejected.

The change will apply to the following Consumables product types:

• BEAUTY
• BODY_CARE_PRODUCT
• FRAGRANCE, HAIR_CARE_PRODUCT
• HAIR_REMOVAL_AND_SHAVING_PRODUCT
• LUXURY_BEAUTY
• MAKE_UP, SKIN_CARE_PRODUCT
• HEALTH_MISC
• DAILY_LIVING_AIDS, DIETARY_SUPPLEMENTS
• HEALTH_FOOD, OTC_MEDICATION
• PERSONAL_CARE_APPLIANCE
• SEXUAL_WELLNESS
• BABY_FOOD
• GROCERY

If you supply products for sale on Amazon, you must comply with all federal, state, and local laws and Amazon policies applicable to those products and product listings.

In the United States, a broad range of products are subject to regulation as pesticides and/or pesticide devices, including products that you may not immediately think of as pesticides. Any product or device that is either: (1) intended for preventing, destroying, repelling, or mitigating any pest, or (2) makes any antimicrobial, antifungal, antibacterial, or pesticide claim (each, a “Pesticide”) must comply with the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (“FIFRA”), including (in most cases) registration with the United States Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”). Some common examples of pesticide devices include:

- Ultraviolet Light Units
- Sound Generators
- Insect Traps
- Ground Vibrators
- Water Treatment Units
- Air Treatment Units

EPN: https://www.epa.gov/pesticides

For More detail: https://sellercentral.amazon.com/gp/help/G202115120(Login required)

Sometimes we are just curious to know the inventory of Hijacker, so we can expect his exit from the listing. Well in this case, here you go.

So, how do you get the stock on hand of the product?

- First, open the product listing of the ASIN you want to get the inventory for.
- For example, let's take Ir Illuminator in USA.
- Open the HTML Source Code of this page. Simply click the [CTRL]+"U" key combination, or use right-mouse-click and select the "View Page Source" menu item.
- Activate the text search function on the HTML source page by clicking the [CTRL]+"F" key combination and search for the word "stockonhand" or "stock".
- If the browser finds the "stockOnHand"/"Stock" word - look for the number next to it. This will be the number of units this product has in stock!

Following our Ir Illuminator example - at the time of record, they were having 9 units in stock.

Amazon has launched "Amazon Live", a live-streaming platform for product demonstrations and one on one shopper seller interactions to further drive online sales.

Reference: Amazon Live

Amazon is getting into the live-streamed home shopping business with Amazon Live, where its sellers and brands can broadcast themselves hawking wares through a new app - Amazon Live Creator.

Amazon has launched "Amazon Live", a live-streaming platform for product demonstrations and one on one shopper seller interactions to further drive online sales.

For more information: Amazon Live

Amazon has introduced a new feature - Brand Dashboard This dashboard is exclusively available for brands to help manage Brand Health metrics that impact the customer experience. For more detail Click here.

Amazon launches 'Project Zero' initiative to let brands remove counterfeit listings of their products

Amazon has announced a few new steps to combat fake and counterfeit listings. The e-commerce giant on Thursday debuted 'Project Zero,' an initiative aimed at eliminating the spread of counterfeit items on Amazon.

As part of Project Zero, brands will be able to remove counterfeit listings from the site without Amazon's help.

- Select brands now have the ability to take down suspected counterfeit listings
- Amazon is also using AI to flag listings and serial numbers to authenticate items
- 'Project Zero' is free to join but the serialization service costs a small fee per unit

For more details please click on the link given below,
https://blog.aboutamazon.com/company-news/amazon-project-zero

Now customers can submit only 5 number of reviews per week on Amazon except the verified purchaser. The count is calculated from Sunday at 12:00 am UTC through Saturday 11: 59 pm UTC. Customer’s ability to submit Amazon Verified Purchase reviews will not be impacted. This policy also does not apply to Vine reviews or reviews on digital and physical books, music, and video.

Starting February 15, 2019, long-term storage fees will be eliminated for items that have been in a fulfillment center for 181 to 365 days. Long-term storage fees still apply for items that have been in a fulfillment center for more than 365 days. and they have also reduced its fees to $0.50 per unit to $0.15 per unit.

Amazon has announced the following changes for Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) Long term Storage Fees: Starting February 15, 2019, long-term storage fees will be eliminated for items that have been in a fulfillment center for 181 to 365 days. Long-term storage fees still apply for items that have been in a fulfillment center for more than 365 days. and they have also reduced its fees to $0.50 per unit to $0.15 per unit. Fulfillment fee changes, see US FBA fulfillment fee changes(Login required)

New Bidding strategies in Amazon.co.uk will apply in both Automatic & Manual Campaigns. You can choose from three bidding strategies. Pick the strategy that works best for your campaign's objective. This setting applies to all bids within your campaign. For more details, see the Bidding Strategies(Login required) Bid+ replaced by "Bids by Placement" Bid+ has been replaced with 'adjust bids by placement’. With Bid+, you could only set a 50% boost for the top of the search (first page) placement. With 'adjust bids by placement', you can set up to a 900% increase for the top of search (first page) as well as for product detail placements. Existing campaigns that used Bid+ are now automatically translated to new settings of bidding strategy = Dynamic bids - down only, and bid increase top of search (first page) = 50%. These campaigns will continue to perform in the same manner as before.