If in doubt, check our Absolutely-No-Spam Policy. Unsubscribe anytime.

#128 - Amazon Launches Shopify App, Seller Statistics & Facts, and more

Envelop with Amazon logo
Today is the best day ever! We're super excited to announce the new #128 issue of FBA Monthly! Only essential, curated news from Amazon space. Here are our top picks for the past two weeks. Don't forget to follow us on Twitter to stay updated!

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. The service launched in April 2022, and Amazon and Shopify announced the partnership to allow Shopify merchants to add the Buy with Prime fulfillment and checkout service in August 2023.

marketplacepulse.com

Amazon next year will allow auto dealers to sell cars through its site, starting with Hyundai. The company has slowly muscled its way into the car buying business over the years by launching a digital showroom for shoppers to research and compare vehicles. With the move, shoppers will be able to buy cars on Amazon, but the dealer is the end seller.

cnbc.com

Online shopping has taken off recently, with Amazon leading the way. The e-commerce giant dominates the marketplace by focusing on seller success and customer experience. Amazon offers unparalleled shopping and selling. Full stop. As an individual seller, you can tap into their massive global reach to grow your business. In 2020 alone, Amazon powered $200 billion in sales for third-party sellers – record growth even for them. Now that’s impressive.

techreport.com


Good to Know

Many Amazon sellers wonder how they compare on such key metrics as conversion rate, product star rating and return on advertising spend. An investment bank that specializes in deals involving Amazon-focused brands and other ecommerce companies has released a report that provides a detailed look at 18 key metrics.

digitalcommerce360.com

Customer reviews have been a core part of why customers love shopping in Amazon’s stores ever since the company opened in 1995. Amazon makes sure that it’s easy for customers to leave honest reviews to help inform the purchase decisions of millions of other customers around the world. At the same time, the company makes it hard for bad actors to take advantage of Amazon’s trusted shopping experience.

aboutamazon.com

The FDA informed the online seller the eyedrops are classified as “new drugs” and have not been approved yet. The eye drops in question were marketed as treatments for conditions like pink eye, dry eyes, dust irritation and cataracts. Just last month, the FDA also had major retailers remove some over-the-counter eyedrops from their shelves. Those products were made in a facility where bacteria were found in the production areas.

wymt.com

The Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB) also found a majority of its members that don’t use Amazon’s services are having a harder time competing with the company and other large digital retailers — particularly as Canadian consumers continue to prioritize online shopping over brick-and-mortar stores.

globalnews.ca

Right now, internet businesses that ship products nationwide can be sued on that basis in the 2nd, 7th and 9th Circuits, home to four of the five biggest cities in the U.S. But plaintiffs in the 5th and 8th Circuits, by contrast, can’t establish jurisdiction solely by showing that an online retailer delivered a single product within the court’s geographical boundaries.

reuters.com

Amazon has integrated returns management platform ReturnGo with its Multi-Channel Fulfillment service, allowing third-party sellers to automate and streamline their reverse logistics, according to a Nov. 7 announcement. ReturnGo, which helps process more than 250,000 returns a month, provides customers with a return and exchange portal embedded into sellers’ stores. It can connect to any existing carrier or shipping aggregator used by shippers and features a growing network of warehouses and drop-off points, per its website.

supplychaindive.com

Lina Khan has gotten sloppy with her big antitrust case against Amazon, according to critics – and some fear her alleged screwups will enable Jeff Bezos’s e-commerce giant to wiggle out of the federal government’s monopoly allegations. Khan – the 34-year-old chair of the Federal Trade Commission under President Biden – has built her antitrust case filed against Amazon in September partly with an argument that it unfairly shut down a program known as “Seller Fulfilled Prime.”

nypost.com

In 2022, e-commerce spending in the U.S. was $1 trillion, based on the Department of Commerce data. This year, e-commerce grew 7% to hit $1.1 trillion. E-commerce spending remains bigger than the pre-pandemic forecasts would have suggested. Compared to that theoretical market, where the pandemic didn’t happen and e-commerce grew at the rate it had grown for years before, today’s e-commerce is 14% above the trendline.

marketplacepulse.com

The realm of e-commerce, specifically Amazon FBA (Fulfillment by Amazon), has become a fertile ground for entrepreneurial pursuits. However, the journey from novice to successful Amazon seller is often laden with pitfalls and steep learning curves. Recognizing the need for a robust educational platform, an accomplished Amazon entrepreneur, Luke Basha, conceived the AMZ Masterclass with a vision to create the “Harvard” of Amazon FBA education.

reviewjournal.com

Practically everyone has made a purchase -- or 100 -- on Amazon in their lifetimes. The retailer has an incredible variety of products, but even this corporate giant can't possibly stock everything a person could ever want. That's why it also serves as the middleman for a bunch of third-party sellers. Most of these sellers are just trying to make an honest living, but there are always scammers out there. Here are a few things you need to know to avoid them.

fool.com

eBay and Amazon turned to sellers to share advice with peers on holiday selling. eBay for Business posted a video with holiday-shipping tips from sellers, and Amazon ran a sweepstakes on its discussion boards. eBay runs a regular video series called “Sellers Talk Shipping!” where it has covered a range of topics (international shipping, the eBay Labels program, tips on packaging, and more).

ecommercebytes.com

Looking to expand on her success, Monroy turned to other shopping platforms to sell her wares. She first considered Amazon but found the process confusing. “Selling on Amazon is almost as complicated as selling to the government — they ask for many documents and the process to become a seller is very long,” she told Rest of World.

restofworld.org


Tips and Tricks

Amazon is the undisputed retail champion of the US, welcoming an average of 200 billion site visits each month, and raking in more profits last year than Microsoft and Google's parent company, Alphabet, combined. At least part of its success is down to it winning key shopping periods like Black Friday and the holidays.

tech.co

With the imminent launch of Amazon South Africa, many entrepreneurs are waiting for the opportunity to expand their global reach on this selling platform. On 17 October 2023, the e-commerce giant opened the registration phase for sellers in South Africa. From our discussions with businesses regarding Amazon at the 2023 E-commerce Live Event, business owners are keen to understand Amazon’s marketplace fees compared to local e-commerce giants such as Takealot, Makro, and Bobshop.

bizcommunity.com

Amazon has an “FBA revenue calculator” to help sellers make decisions about how they use Fulfillment by Amazon. On Friday, it published a post showing sellers how they could use it to “remove some of the guesswork” from calculating costs and comparing FBA options. Amazon explained, “The profit calculator generates side-by-side comparisons for various fulfillment options, whether you store, pack, and ship orders yourself, or use a service like FBA. Play around with different numbers for factors like sales price and costs for storage, shipping, and fulfillment. The calculator will then give you estimates depending on what stores you want to sell in.”

ecommercebytes.com


Podcasts

Imagine navigating the exciting landscape of launching an Amazon KDP business and entering the glitzy Miss Universe spectacle at the same time. That’s precisely what our incredible guest, Shivali, has managed to do. In this episode of SSP, Shivali takes us on a fascinating journey that begins with the debut of her original beauty and personal care product in the electronics section of Amazon and ends with her unforgettable time competing in beauty pageants.

helium10.com