Round Up Wednesday (What’s Happening This Week On Amazon)

Jodea Pearl Abalos
April 29, 2020

Liran Hirschkorn, Tim Jordan and Norm Farrar all return for another round up of what is happening this week across all Amazon marketplaces.Tune in and get all your questions answered.

April 15th episode.

A bit of a background

Time Jordan, Norm Farrar and Liran Hirschkorn join us on this episode.

What is new in the world of Amazon?

Amazon announced that they were doing new safety precautions and building their own lab to test employees.
They are adding 75,000 people.
Prime Day is tentatively set for August.
- June and July are critical dates.
- Sellers are coming back.
Biggest shake-up: They stopped allowing products to ship in. They have slowed down because they needed to prepare for the influx of demand.
Amazon affiliates incentives were being tanked. Amazon could not handle the demand at this time.

Preparing for Prime Day

Inventory. Prepare this and talk to a forwarded about split shipping products via water or air.
Find ways to bring your shipping costs down.
- Calculate that into your margins.
- Take a look at your pricing.
- Can you bring your pricing up during that time?
- Look at perceived pricing: packaging etc.
Customs is really slow right now.
- Also worry about customs and import times.
Positive thing: Everyone is ready for work in China.
- You can get better deals as suppliers are prepared to adjust.
- You can ask for faster production times.
- They are willing to give more.
- Reach out to your suppliers.
Make a list of the suppliers or products you were interested in and get in touch now.
- They might be willing to lower the MOQs.
- Plus, the prices or costs have gone significantly lower.
- Note: Toy category is doing well right now.
The virus situation is providing a lot of opportunities.
- Ask your supplier if they will “work with you” to get your business to the next level.
Not advisable to send all the money upfront to your suppliers right now.
- Use trade-assurance or escrow.

Stretching supplier terms

30/70 is a reasonable term.
You can get other reasonable terms or flexible terms.
Start the conversation with your supplier.
Leverage current events.
- Here are some statistics showing that e-commerce is going up.
Suppliers are aware of the situation right now.
AliPay and PayLater option is no longer available.
- You can ask for better terms.
Suppliers and sellers need each other.
Do not beat up your suppliers too much right now because you will lose your relationship with them.
You can also ask your suppliers to store products for you ready for shipment.

Variation versus different listings

It depends on the listing and the type of product.
- If you have one thing that ranks really well, you can aggregate the reviews.
One listing had different designs and separated out because the listings had different items in it: designs and titles.
- Take advantage of the titles and SEOs.
What happens if the products are all under one listing?
- The buyers will not see all the items underneath the listing.
- Ex: Crafts: owl, horse etc under one listing, people will not see the other products if they do not click on your listing.
Sizing does not need to be under different listings.
- Think of your listing from the human behaviour or psychology standpoint.
if the keywords are related or not. if the keywords are the same then it should be under one listing.
- If the keywords change then separate them.
- Size, bundle and color should be under one listing.
One deciding factor is price.
- You can drive them in at $10.99 and sell them the $24.00.
- Who wants one when you can get a pack?

FBA or FBM?

If a category is closed right now, before you switch to FBM do go back and check if the category has opened up FIRST before deciding whether to switch from FBA to FBM.
- Amazon is opening up categories daily. Keep checking.
If you have a 3PL or you have a warehouse, turn on FBM.

Takeaways

Be careful dealing with super small operations.
When dealing with factories that are hurting — there is a possibility to lose money.
Changed strategies is a sign. When suppliers ask you 80% upfront, be very careful.
Use your best judgment.
Depends on where you are, the shipping time will vary.
Essentials sales will increase.
- Certain categories will go up.
People are buying from Amazon.
Boredom stuff sales will go up.
Have a diversified set of products within a single brand, puts you in a better position.
Focus on brown-bag products.
Focus on your inventory strategy.
- How will you manage inventory with unpredictable shipping and production?
- Keep FBM option open.
Take advantage of Amazon Posts BETA. It’s free.
- Social media type posts get more visibility.
Norman Farrar: There is a free press release service for anyone doing anything during the pandemic. Connect with them at PR Reach.

To get help, or if you have any question then get in touch with us: danny@sellersessions.com

If you are looking for help or more information check out: https://sellersessions.com/case-studies/

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SellerSessions LIVE — Tickets SOLD OUT!

Send Danny an email to get on the wait list: Danny@SellerSessions.com

About SellerSessions 2020

Our venue this year: The David Game Keynote Theatre, with tiered seating.
This year we are supporting a charity and a portion of the proceeds will be given to Tomy’s pioneering studies for prevention of babies born asleep: https://www.tommys.org/
We will give away 5 FREE tickets for single-parent Amazon sellers. If you know anyone please get in touch to get the details.
Confirmed speakers and more to come:
- Brandon Young
- Dr Yev Marusenko
- Destaney Wishon
- Zack Franklin
- Nadine Schöpper
- Liran Hirschkorn
- Ivelin Demirov
- Dr Ellis Whitehead
- Paul Harvey
- And yours truly, Danny McMillan. I will be hosting the show and speaking on a topic.