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#122 - Amazon Charging Non-FBA Sellers, Shopify Unblocks Amazon, and more

employee in t shirt with Amazon logo scanning packages
Welcome, esteemed Amazon Sellers, to Issue #122 of FBA Monthly! As always, we're your trusted source for the latest insights, news, and tips to navigate the dynamic world of e-commerce and Amazon FBA. In this edition, we've scoured the digital marketplace landscape to bring you essential updates, expert advice, and actionable strategies that can make a real difference in your business. Join us as we dive into the ever-evolving world of online selling and arm you with the knowledge you need to thrive.

Hot News

Buy with Prime allows shoppers with a Prime membership to shop on e-commerce websites other than Amazon and check out using their Amazon account. Crucially, Amazon also handles fulfillment, which means Buy with Prime is not a replacement for PayPal, Shop Pay, or Apple Pay but rather a complete e-commerce experience inside a checkout button.

marketplacepulse.com

Amazon will start charging a 2% per-item fee to merchants using Seller Fulfilled Prime (SFP) starting in October, Bloomberg reports, while the company is offering influencers the equivalent of $25 a video to populate content promoting its listings as it seeks a bulwark against Chinese social giant TikTok.

multichannelmerchant.com

The government issued a press release on Wednesday after the final sentencing in the case, writing, “According to court documents, the defendants agreed with co-conspirators to raise and maintain the prices of DVDs and Blu-Rays sold through Amazon marketplace storefronts, resulting in those products being sold at collusive and noncompetitive prices.”

ecommercebytes.com


Good to Know

We all know Amazon as the biggest online marketplace in the world for buyers and sellers. But there’s another ecommerce store that has quietly risen in popularity lately thanks to its extremely low prices and a large catalog of products – that marketplace is called Temu.

junglescout.com

Neil Aneja is a hustler and entrepreneur. The 32-year-old Roanoker’s first hustle, in 2013, came shortly after he earned a college degree in biology. He was renting a $600 per month downtown Roanoke apartment back then. After a friend told Aneja about Airbnb, he began renting out nights in his leased apartment.

roanoke.com

Amazon remains in the driving seat in the US e-commerce market. Having unveiled a deferred service on the heels of moves to double same-day delivery capabilities, the company was the first out of the gate in announcing surcharges for this year’s peak shopping season.

theloadstar.com

In an unusual move, Amazon and Shopify have formed a partnership that lets Shopify merchants integrate Buy With Prime at checkout through an Amazon app in Shopify’s store, with the latter quick to note that merchants still control their brand and customer data within its administrative dashboard.

multichannelmerchant.com

The battle for loyalty — from merchants and consumers — may be won along the last mile. The news Monday (Aug. 21) that Amazon would re-instate its shipping service to handle deliveries deepens the battle between the eCommerce giant, the traditional carriers like UPS and FedEx and even some of the online platforms branching more fully into delivery.

pymnts.com

Two Amazon investors have filed a shareholder derivative lawsuit against Jeff Bezos and other senior company leaders, alleging they exposed the company to a “massive financial hit” through antitrust violations and unnecessarily rapid expansion that had to be scaled back.

moginrubin.com

SOME Amazon users may be at risk of paying extra if they decide to take on special plan on the popular online marketplace. While most know Amazon as the place to buy all sorts of products and ship them directly to your house, you can actually sell your own items on the website as a verified Amazon seller.

the-sun.com

Amazon’s march to the Indian market is taking to the rails and the mail. The e-commerce giant today announced new deals with India Post and Indian Railways to boost delivery for small businesses. At its SMB event Amazon Smbhav in New Delhi on Thursday, Amazon also unveiled new efforts to target D2C brands and showcased a new generative AI “assistant” — designed to help SMBs use Amazon.

techcrunch.com

Amazon, eBay, Walmart, and Alibaba are holding virtual and in-person events this month, giving sellers a full slate of options from which to choose. Amazon will host sellers at its annual in-person Amazon Accelerate conference in Seattle, Washington on September 13 – 14, while eBay will hold its annual eBay Open seller conference virtually September 27 – 29.

ecommercebytes.com

Inflation, shrinkflation, rising real estate rental costs, and even the collapse of marketing channels like Twitter: Ecommerce store owners have it tough in 2023. Now, a few recent developments are making it even harder. First — if a leak is to be believed — Shopify has plans to cut access to its merchant “success managers” from its Plus tier, blocking thousands of Shopify store owners from a big benefit to that particular subscription plan.

tech.co

If you don’t use one of Amazon’s shipping-carrier partners to get your inventory from China to the US, you may now be able to allow Amazon to track those shipments anyway. Amazon introduced “ShipTrack” carriers, “which automatically provide end-to-end tracking information in Seller Central.”

ecommercebytes.com

The parents of two teens who died by suicide after consuming a chemical purchased on Amazon.com Inc.‘s online market place won’t get a another shot at their now-dismissed federal lawsuit seeking to hold the tech giant liable for the deaths.

bloomberglaw.com

Fencing via online platforms like Amazon is a growing societal problem that will eventually become an issue for Amazon itself. Shrinkage, or retail theft, is a massive problem that is impacting the profit margins of companies and hurting everyday consumers. The public is increasingly pushing for government action to address organized theft, and online platforms like Amazon are being targeted as the main culprits.

seekingalpha.com

You may or may not have been expecting a package, but still got text message, email or call with a tracking number, or were told that a package was either delayed or undeliverable. These unexpected communications are all part of a larger scam, the Federal Communications Commission warns, and have only grown as more people have shifted to shopping online since the COVID-19 pandemic.

usatoday.com

Amazon updated its policy for sellers in certain categories. On Monday, the marketplace announced it was updating its image policy for adult DVDs, books, magazines, and calendars.

ecommercebytes.com


Tips and Tricks

Most of us are all too familiar with shopping on Amazon. In fact, the average American spends $91.75 on Amazon purchases each month. But did you know that there are just as many opportunities to make money with Amazon from home? Well, maybe not quite as many — but we found six great ways to earn extra cash with these Amazon work from home jobs.

yahoo.com

Amazon is currently the go-to search engine for products. About 50% of consumers are using the platform as a place to first look at products, from multiple different suppliers, of all different costs. It is important to note that even when doing a traditional Google search, Amazon is most of the time likely to show in the SERP.

neilpatel.com

Amazon is helping small businesses owners streamline the procurement of their office supplies, helping them focus on the tasks that matter most to them. As part of our ongoing commitment to helping small businesses succeed, we announced that Business Prime Duo, previously £40 per year, is now free to existing Prime members who also purchase for businesses.

aboutamazon.co.uk

Amazon Marketing Cloud is a suite of powerful advertising and marketing tools for marketers who spend a considerable amount of time on Amazon advertising. It is a holistic data measurement and analytics tool helping marketers to follow the journey of each customer from the first moment of brand awareness to his or her final purchase.

martechseries.com

Amazon makes returns easy and quick, often issuing refunds within hours. However, this convenience comes at a cost to the company and the environment. Returns are processed at Amazon's warehouses, but they can also end up being auctioned off or disposed of. Disposal is used to protect certain brands' image, and energy recovery is used as a last resort.

howtogeek.com

In the dynamic realm of e-commerce, Amazon holds its position as a global powerhouse, granting countless entrepreneurs and enterprises a platform to exhibit their offerings to a vast and diverse audience. Among those who have harnessed the full potential of Amazon's reach is Jason Amada, the visionary founder of Simpler Goods, LLC.

benzinga.com


Podcasts

In this episode, Bradley goes over 4 important data points that most Amazon sellers are not using and answers all of your recent live questions on the show.

helium10.com