#82 - Advertising is Amazon’s Dark Secret, and much more

Hi everyone! We hope you are doing fine this Monday. FBA Monthly is sending you Amazon-related news updates for the last two weeks. #82 issue is full of exciting news and handy tips. But before we get to the latest news, we want to ask you to follow us on Twitter to stay updated!

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Hot News

Advertising Is Masking Amazon’s Unprofitability

Without the high-margin advertising revenue, Amazon’s retail business is increasingly unprofitable. It was at break-even as recently as 2015. Since then, as advertising revenue grew, so did Amazon’s use of that growth to fund the rest of the retail operations.

marketplacepulse.com

Amazon Adds Feature to Email Marketing Tool for Brand Sellers

Amazon added themed email templates for brand sellers. The pilot program is for those who use the Amazon Customer Engagement tool, launched last spring.

ecommercebytes.com

Amazon’s New Distributor Status Means Safety ‘Headache’ Ahead

The distributor label “could be a pretty big headache” for Amazon, said attorney Jeremy Robinson, who has litigated against the company on behalf of injured product users.

news.bloomberglaw.com

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Good to Know

Shopify Is Now 50% As Large as Amazon Marketplace

Shopify is now nearly 50% as large as Amazon Marketplace after surpassing $54 billion in GMV in the fourth quarter of 2021. Said differently, Amazon marketplace is only two times larger than Shopify.

marketplacepulse.com

Amazon Reaches Deal to Continue Accepting Visa Payments Worldwide

"We've recently reached a global agreement with Visa that allows all customers to continue using their Visa credit cards in our stores," a spokesperson told Reuters.

news.yahoo.com

Big Business Games the Supply Chain

Amazon was well prepared for the supply chain logjams, not just because of its experience in ocean freight, but because of the billions it has invested into expanding its logistics footprint.

prospect.org

60,000 Amazon Sellers Exceeded $1M in Sales

Sixty thousand sellers eclipsed $1 million in sales on the Amazon marketplace in 2021. The number has doubled over the past three years.

marketplacepulse.com

Troubles Continue as US$314 Million Sale of Online Merchant Patozon Drags On

The former owner of Patozon, one of the biggest "made in China, sold on Amazon" merchants, has slapped online fast fashion retailer Shein and another firm with a lawsuit for non-payment of the stakes in that business they had agreed to buy.

finance.yahoo.com

Amazon University Adds Courses on Selling Restricted Products

The four new modules are designed to help sellers who want to apply to sell Amazon restricted products that require approval.

ecommercebytes.com

Rollups: The Gators Defining the Merchant Makeover

Are investors valuing consolidation over innovation? Thrasio and its look-alikes make that a hard question to answer.

prospect.org

The New Pandemic and Its Effects on Amazon Aggregators

Inflation is just over 5%, posing the biggest annual jump since 2008, and economists agree that it’s largely driven by specific sectors such as importing and manufacturing. The cost run-up is largely in part due to logistical challenges.

entrepreneur.com

Amazon Changes Background Colors, Mystifying Sellers

Sellers on industry discussion boards are mystified after noticing Amazon has changed the background colors of certain product detail pages.

ecommercebytes.com

Death Match: The Desperate Moves Walmart is Making vs. Amazon

Amazon's exponential growth in the new millennium has similarities to Walmart's growth in the 90's before the internet changed everything.

thestreet.com

E-Commerce Lost Market Share in 2021

According to the Department of Commerce, e-commerce represented 13.2% of total retail spending in 2021. Down from 13.6% in 2020.

marketplacepulse.com

Amazon Provides Sellers With Tools To Find Their Niche

Amazon’s Product Opportunity Explorer is a next-generation feature for ecommerce sellers that helps them better understand and respond in real-time to customer demand for new product ideas.

psfk.com

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Tips and Tricks

Why Marketplaces Need to be Part of any Ecommerce Strategy

Whether a store owner is preparing to launch a new ecommerce website or has been selling online for years and has an established brand, online marketplaces should always be part of the strategy.

retailtouchpoints.com

Amazon Seller Lending Program

Continue reading to learn more about Amazon Lending — including eligibility, loan terms, and making payments — and find out if the program is for you.

junglescout.com

How To Do Business With Amazon Uk?

Some sellers are definitely motivated to use Amazon FBA in 2022, believing it will pay dividends. It’s always a good idea to calculate the cost before deciding if a solution will be profitable for you.

ictsd.org

How to Add Products on Amazon Seller Central

In this article, we’ll go over adding products to an existing listing and creating a brand new product listing in Amazon Seller Central.

junglescout.com

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Podcasts

Amazon FBA Podcast Lunch With Norm Discusses Ways to Reduce Amazon FBA Fees in New Blog

Amazon FBA and e-commerce podcast Lunch with Norm has recently published a new blog post sharing 6 ways to reduce Amazon FBA fees.

prnewswire.com