Flashback Friday

Amazon Pet Day 2024 is coming!

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

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

🚨Prime Day details are starting to leak -

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

Send in your FBA inventory

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

Create a deal

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

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

‍🔥Track fees with the new SKU Economics report -

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

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

The report allows you to view the economics.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Compliance will be required by July 9th.

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

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

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🔥Buy with Prime Pricing Update -

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

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

🔥New Brand Registry Application Guide Available -

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

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

Short and sweet this week. Until next time! 🚀

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

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

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

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

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

How it will work:

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

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

🚨Changes to dietary supplements policy -

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

📝Amazon’s Annual Brand Protection Report Released -

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

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

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

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

See you back next week! 🚀

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

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

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

To get started, go to A+ Content Manager.

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

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

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

Go to the Re-marketing Overview Guide.

Learn More ›

🤔 Want to understand the impact of your videos?

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

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

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

Get Started ›

🚨Custom image requirements for Sponsored Brand Ads -

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

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

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

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

This update includes the following benefits:

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

For more information, go to Chargebacks – Smart aggregation.

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

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🔥PRIME DAY DEAL SUBMISSIONS ARE OPEN -

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

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

🚨April Fee Reminder -

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

Why have a low-inventory-level fee?

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

How is the low-inventory-level fee calculated?

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

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

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

That’s all for now! 🚀

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🚨New Remote Fulfillment Deadline -

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Two-step verification frequently asked questions

Two-Step Verification

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

🚨New coupon pricing requirements

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

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

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

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

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

😥 An update we’re really sad to report

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

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

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

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

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

🔥 Improve customer satisfaction with new Voice of the Customer features

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

📝 eBay Spring Seller Check-in

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

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

Expanded in-app seller features

New generative AI background removal and enhancement features

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

🔥 Improved benefits for your new FBA products

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

🔥 Rebate on sales

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

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

🔥 Benefits for more units and extended days

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

🔥 Reduced IPI score for eligibility

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

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

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

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🚨 Upcoming Amazon Webinar

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

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

🔥 New features coming to the Coupon Dashboard

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

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

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

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

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

See the video update here.

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

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

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

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

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

🔥 A couple of new Buy with Prime updates

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

If you’re a BwP user, you can learn more on the Knowledge Base page for this tool

Fulfillment report, Gain insights into Multi-Channel Fulfillment performance metrics for Buy with Prime orders:
View fulfillment and delivery speed daily metrics in the new Fulfillment report. This report includes metrics like total number and percentage of units delivered, on-time delivery, on-time one day, on-time two days, and on-time two-plus days.

You can also export the report data as a CSV file to incorporate into your own dashboards and business reports. Buy with Prime orders are fulfilled using Multi-Channel Fulfillment (MCF). Visit the knowledge center article to learn more about the new report.

Until next time! 🚀

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

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

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

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

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

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

Branded Search Ratio
Star Rating
Brand Conversion Rate
Repeat Customer Ratio

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

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

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

🔥Instant replacements are available for seller-fulfilled returns

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

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

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

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

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🔥The SIPP enrollment portal is now live!

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

SIPP allows the following features for FBA sellers:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

🔥Amazon launches AI tool to answer shopper's questions

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

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

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

The revised timeframes are as follows:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

🚨Update your listings with supported document types by February 26

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

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

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

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

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

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

🔥New Minimum Inventory Level metric

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Until next time! 🚀

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

See you next week! 🚀

🔥A sneak peek at Alexa enable Smart Glasses functionality -

everyone seems to be having a great time with them!

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

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

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

🔥Reduce apparel and shoe returns with Fit Insights tool -

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

The tool offers the following benefits:

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

🔥Secondary Language videos on Product Detail Pages -

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

See you next week! 🚀

Holiday greetings, sellers!☃️🎁

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

🔥Amazon-Partnered shipping is now integrated with AWD.

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

Happy selling! 🚀

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

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

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

Keep an eye on your Account Health.

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

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

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

Make sure your delivery promises are accurate.

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

DO NOT USE shipping setting automations!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

🔥2024 Fee updates are here -

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

New fee buckets will be introduced, including:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

🚨Changes to listing requirements to improve the shopping experience -

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

🔥Buy with Prime fee changes -

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

Effective January 8th:

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

Effective February 5th:

Fulfillment fees will decrease by 0.5% on average.

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

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

Until next time! 🚀

🚨Transparency Interoperability -

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

🔥Updates to the B2B Product Opportunities Dashboard -

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

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

For more information, go to B2B product opportunities.

🔥Enroll products in programs on the Sustainability Solutions Hub -

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

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

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

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

To explore more resources, go to Sustainability Solutions Hub.

See you next week! 🚀

🔥Amazon Ads Image Generation AI Beta is now available to all U.S. advertisers -

It leverages Artificial Intelligence to create lifestyle images within seconds. All you need to get started is a product image from your Amazon detail page. Click here for a short video on how Image Generation works.

Images can be added directly to a campaign or saved to your creative asset library and used anywhere across Amazon.
You can use Image Generation to tailor messaging for product benefits, seasonal events, and audiences.
Campaigns using lifestyle images experience a 40% higher click-through rate (CTR) on average over ads with product-only images.

To experience the benefits of Image Generation in time for the holiday, simply log into your Amazon Ad Console and begin the Sponsored Brands product collection campaign building process.

🔥Amazon Posts Now Supports Video -

A few brands are starting to see the option to add video to their posts. If you don’t see it, don’t worry; the rollout of this feature will pick up steam after the holiday weekend. Advertisers can now share vertical videos as Posts on Amazon and drive brand discovery with engaging video content.

Video Posts help advertisers drive traffic to their Brand Store, grow followers, and encourage shopper visits to tagged product pages

The vertical size of Video Posts allows shoppers to enjoy the video content in a full-screen immersive viewing experience

Advertisers can re-use their existing vertical videos to create Video Posts and share their brand story with Amazon shoppers.

See the full announcement, with video, from Jeff Cohen on LinkedIn.

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

🔥Meta has debuted a new partnership with Amazon -

Meta has debuted a feature that lets users connect their Facebook and Instagram accounts to Amazon to buy goods promoted on their feeds more easily.
As reported by CNBC: "For the first time, customers will be able to shop Amazon's Facebook and Instagram ads and check out with Amazon without leaving the social media apps".

*Though this is being touted as a partnership, Amazon has yet to release an official statement and functionality seems to be specific to the Meta platforms. For now, it appears Sellers will serve ads as normal, with the difference being the check out process will occur in Facebook or Instagram instead of via redirect to the product detail page on Amazon.

A similar experience was launched between Pinterest and Amazon earlier this year.

🔥Ask Alexa is rolling out to more Sellers -

Customers Ask Alexa, a program announced during Amazon Accelerate 2022, is appearing in more Seller Central accounts recently, though it does still appear to be in a closed, invite-only, beta.

It works like this: When customers pose questions to Alexa, including queries related to a product’s features or compatibilities, Alexa responds with helpful answers provided by brands from those product categories. For example, a customer shopping for cleaning products on Amazon.com could ask, “How can I remove pet hair from my carpet?” A brand can now provide answers to such questions, along with links to its Amazon storefront.

A few key points:

This feature will be available only to brand registered through Amazon’s Brand Registry
All answers will go through Alexa’s content moderation and quality checks before Alexa selects the most relevant answer to share with customers, so providing an answer doesn’t guarantee brand placement.
At this time, there is no cost associated with the program.

🔥New standard display reduces the time to build a creative by 70% -

Amazon Ads just announced Standard Display, a new API-first ad experience that allows Amazon DSP customers to upload multiple image assets across 3 creative types all in one single workflow.
This ad experience consolidates and will eventually replace three creative types (image, mobile O&O and mobile AAP).
It can be time-consuming to build creatives on Amazon DSP. As a consequence, even though Amazon DSP supports 62 sizes of placements, by average a campaign only uses 3.6 sizes; including too few sizes in their campaign in turn limits their campaigns from fully delivering.

The new standard display creative has simplified all of this. With this launch, customers can upload up to 10 image assets all at once and see immediately which images are supported by which line item types.

See the full release notes here!

🔥Brands can access Brand Registry services at our new hub -

A new resource in Seller Central recently launched where Sellers can access Brand Registry details!
Amazon Brand Registry gives brand owners the ability to protect their intellectual property, manage the accuracy of their listings, and grow their businesses.
Brands enrolled in Brand Registry get access to an exclusive set of brand benefit tools and programs that help improve their brand’s discoverability and sales on Amazon.

For new to Amazon brands and sellers, the Brand Registry Educational Hub has a wealth of knowledge to help you understand the process for enrolling into and the benefits available through Brand Registry. For Sellers already enrolled, note that Brand Registry benefits are still accessed via the existing Brand Registry portal.

🔥Segment and re-engage customers with new Customer Loyalty Analytics dashboard -

The new Customer Loyalty Analytics dashboard helps brands segment and re-engage customers based on their past purchase behavior and engagement with your brand page.

The dashboard provides recommendations and links to tools, such as Brand Tailored Audiences, to help you send promotions, coupons, and email campaigns to select customer segments to increase overall customer lifetime value. Customer Loyalty Analytics helps Sellers do the following:

Identify high-value customers who have bought your products before and are most likely to respond to promotions.
Build your strategy for the right customer. Customize the value and frequency of purchase incentives, discounts, and marketing content, to different customer segments.
Engage customers at the right time by marketing more efficiently to customers who have made at least one purchase from your brand in the last 12 months.
Optimize marketing and ad spend. See your customers’ lifetime value in sales to better understand the value of each loyal customer segment and engagement costs.
Reduce customer acquisition cost. Launch tailored promotions for customers who have shown interest in your brand or added your products to their cart in the last 90 days but haven’t purchased from your brand in the last year.

For more information, go to the Customer Loyalty Analytics Dashboard guide or check out our Accelerate Recap video on this topic. .

To start using the dashboard, go to Customer Loyalty Analytics.

That’s all for now! Happy selling! 🚀

🚨November Capacity Limits Reminder -

As previously announced, FBA capacity limits will be temporarily reduced in November to accommodate our increased focus on delivery operations.
On average, capacity limits for November for most Sellers will provide enough storage for five months of inventory.
In November and December, the FCs will focus on processing customer orders.
This temporary shift may cause receiving delays, but will ensure faster delivery speed and maximize your sales potential during the holiday season.

View your capacity limits and capacity usage in the Capacity Monitor at the bottom of the FBA dashboard, and you can request a limit increase with Capacity Manager if you need additional capacity.

For a refresher on Capacity Limits, visit the FBA capacity limits help page in Seller Central.

🔥 Attribute Updates-

Great news for everyone: the required attribute changes announced last week have been paused with a new implementation date TBD.
Per the alert below, there was considerable feedback from Sellers about implementing these changes in Q4, and Amazon was receptive to slowing the rollout.

There are plenty of other reasons to worry about products being flagged and potentially removed from sale during the holiday season, but required listing updates will officially not be one of them.

🔥Update to Premium A+ content eligibility requirements - This update changes the cadence that Amazon reviews eligibility into the program, as well as updating the eligibility

criteria.

Previously, the criteria were:

Eligibility was reviewed every month
15+ Approved EBC projects in the Approved Status
Brand Story across ALL Brand-owned ASINs.

They've cut down the requirements to:

Eligibility is reviewed EVERY Friday
Only 5+ approved EBC projects in the last 12 months.

Previously, the criteria were:

Eligibility was reviewed every month
15+ Approved EBC projects in the Approved Status
Brand Story across ALL Brand-owned ASINs.

They've cut down the requirements to:

Eligibility is reviewed EVERY Friday
Only 5+ approved EBC projects in the last 12 months.

🔥Update on default handling time for seller-fulfilled orders-

Starting October 31, 2023, the default handling time for seller-fulfilled orders will be updated from two days to one day for SKUs that are already handled in one day or less.

🌟 Exciting News: Our "Recapping Unboxed" Webinar is Now on YouTube! 🌟

Did you miss our recent webinar, "Recapping Unboxed: What's inside the box"? Don’t worry, because the recap is now available on YouTube for your viewing pleasure! On November 1st, our host, Jessica Wright, along with industry experts Alexi Bell and Edward Ruffin, delved into the captivating world of Amazon Ads, summarizing the highlights from the unBoxed event in NYC from October 24-26.

This engaging discussion explores various topics, including the future of Ads on Prime Video, the game-changing impact of AI-powered image generation, the ins and outs of Cross Channel Planning, and insights on the DSP event manager beta.

📺 Watch the "Recapping Unboxed" webinar now on our YouTube channel and stay at the forefront of the advertising industry.

Until next time!🚀

🔥Returns window to be extended for 2023 holidays -

Similar to previous years, the standard returns window for ALL Amazon orders (FBA and FBM) will be temporarily extended in anticipation of customers shopping early for the holidays.
The 2023 Extended Holiday Returns policy requires that items purchased between November 1, 2023, and December 31, 2023, are returnable through January 31, 2024.
Although the returns window for most orders will be extended, returns eligibility for all orders remains the same.

🔥 New for 2023, this return policy will also apply to Buy with Prime orders -

Even though BwP orders are made on the brand's own website, the use of Prime fulfilment gives them all the Prime benefits
For more information on customer returns policy by category, view the public policy page here.

🚨Changes to required attributes for product listings -

Also, similar to previous years, Amazon tends to make changes to item setup around this time. 2024 is no exception.

🔥 Amazon is updating both the Add Products and Add Products via Upload tools in Seller Central to ensure that listings contain relevant product attributes -

Over the coming weeks, Sellers will notice the following changes when creating or editing a product listing:
Some optional attributes will become required.
Some required attributes will become optional.
Some attributes will be removed.

Here’s the key thing we should expect: new listings, and existing listings that you edit, won't be added to the catalog until you provide all required attributes in the 'Add Products' or 'Add Products via Upload' tools.

This is why we recommend brands make all your holiday edits before mid-Oct. Because of these updates, if you try to update a listing today, you will be blocked from saving those changes until you complete or update required attributes that you may not be prepared to answer. Or, edits may save, but then the PDP will be removed until other edits are made.

Existing listings won't be impacted by required attribute changes until you choose to edit them, so from mid-Oct through the end of the year, this is really a seller's best bet!🚀

🔥Amazon shared this FBA Holiday Prep guide with Sellers, some key takeaways are:

Plan for key dates
Ship within delivery windows
Avoid receiving delays
Manage inventory in stock and maintain account health
Prepare for the holiday season
How to prepare for the holiday season (For Seller Fulfilled Prime members)
Holiday season best practices

🔥Get new insights on customer returns with the FBA returns dashboard -

We already provided some insights on this one in our Accelerate recap Webinar and blog, but if you missed those, check out this link to explore the dashboard, which will help sellers with insights including:

most-returned products and key return reasons
returns insights by product
customizable reports on return trends

🔥New certifications added to Climate Pledge Friendly -

At Seller Request, Amazon has introduced 3 new certifications that can qualify products for the Climate Friendly badge on the PDP and search results! If a Seller's products already have these certifications, the badge should now be applied. Sellers who believe their products should qualify as Climate Pledge Friendly can explore the new certifications below, the program intro page, and the enrollment page. The newly available certifications include:

International Sustainability & Carbon Certification Plus (ISCC Plus)
Recycled Content Standard for Electrical and Electronic Equipment
Plant-Based Fiber Blended

🚨Amazon's Official Press Release on the Success of Prime Big Deal Days -

Check out this link to read Amazon’s official press release boasting the Company’s largest two-day October holiday kick-off event ever. Prime members saved more than $1 billion across hundreds of millions of items sold and can expect more great deals throughout the holiday shopping season.

Interested in a 3rd party view? Here's a news article boasting an 8.1 billion expected revenue number, but also suggesting data points are indicating Prime events are "losing their luster with shoppers

🔥Brand Posts are now available through the Amazon Ads API -

One of the best-kept secrets to FREE traffic on Amazon just got better. More good news:

First, you can now create and publish Posts via the API
Second, store dependency has been removed. You must still be a brand, but no longer have to have a storefront to participate
Finally, you can reuse existing images in your creative asset library to create posts

🔥Plans for 2% Merchant Seller Fulfilled Prime Fee are Scrapped

Amazon is scrapping a plan to charge merchants who do not use its shipping services an additional fee.
Effective Oct. 1, Amazon was planning to impose a new 2% fee on every sale by third-party sellers that ship their products themselves, according to media reports in August. The company said the fee was intended to shield itself from higher costs.
The reversal in Amazon's plans comes when the company is facing a potential lawsuit from the U.S. Federal Trade Commission. Bloomberg first reported the news on Wednesday.

🔥Reorder coupons

Reorder coupons allow you to offer discounts to customers who previously bought your products but have not reordered within an expected time.
We recommend using reorder coupons to increase customer loyalty and reorders of your products.
How to access reorder coupons:

To see existing reorder coupon campaigns and their status, select Advertising from the drop-down menu in Seller Central. Select Coupons, and click the Reorder coupons tab. You can now see existing reorder coupon campaigns and their status.
Click View to see details on any of the reorder coupon campaigns.
To re-run an expired coupon campaign, select Run again from the drop-down menu next to View.

To create a new campaign, follow these steps:

Click Create a reorder coupon.
Enter an ASIN or product name to get started.
Select the products and click Continue.
Enter the coupon details and click Continue.
Review the details, and click Submit to finalize the coupon.

Benefits of reorder coupons:

Reorder coupons are a powerful promotion that can help you increase customer engagement in the following ways:
Better visibility: The coupon badge can help drive traffic, sales, and buyer reviews. Reorder coupons are also promoted on the coupons home page, Buy Again pages, category pages, and special events pages.
Targeted audience: Coupons are targeted only to buyers who haven’t reordered an item within the expected time frame.
Discount options: Coupons can be created for either dollars off or percentage off.
Flexible start time and duration: You can schedule a start time, and the campaign can be active for up to one year.
Reorder coupons have standard costs and fees, including the coupon’s face value, clip fees ($0.17 per clip), and redemption fees ($0.08 per redemption).

We hope you've found these updates both enlightening and actionable. Until our next recap, See you soon! 🚀

Reach out to our team and we can get you set up for success!

Flashback Friday

Amazon Pet Day 2024 is coming!

🔥Buy with Prime Pricing Update -

🔥New Brand Registry Application Guide Available -

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