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How Retailers Can Build a Strong Amazon Store Brand

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Amazon store brand

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If you’re a budding eCommerce brand and you’re not yet on Amazon, you’re missing out. You’re missing out on potential revenue that an Amazon store brand can generate for you.

Take a look at these numbers from Amazon:

  • Amazon has more than 300 million active customer accounts and more than 1.9 million-selling partners
  • Independent third-party sellers in Amazon stores increased sales by more than 55% from April 2020 to January 2021
  • In Europe alone in 2020, small and medium-sized businesses were able to sell more than 1.8 billion products in Amazon stores

Amazon Stores is a free DIY solution that allows sellers to set up their own brand stores right inside Amazon.

Amazon store brand Source: Amazon

 

As long as you are registered on Amazon’s Brand Registry, you’re welcome to try out Stores. Sellers can even create custom layouts or choose from the available templates.

Right now, there are more than 300,000 sellers currently using Stores. After all, it’s convenient and you get access to Amazon’s customer base.

But how can your brand stand out among the 300,000 other brands?

The answer—a strong Amazon branding strategy.

[Read more…]

Guide to Amazon FBA Refund Reports

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Fulfillment by Amazon, also known as Amazon FBA is the program sellers use to ship goods to Amazon warehouses, where Amazon’s employees will then take care of order fulfillment. Because Amazon takes care of order fulfillment, returns, and exchanges, issues can happen that you might not be aware of. You need to track your inventory for abnormalities and submit refund claims to Amazon for any issues.

In this guide, we show you how to find Amazon FBA refund reports and how to easily manage the reimbursement process.

What are Amazon FBA refund reports?

Amazon FBA refund reports show you your customer refunds from a given time period. Within Amazon Seller Central, there are several useful reports across the following categories:

  • Payments
  • Brand Analytics
  • Business Reports
  • Fulfillment
  • Advertising Reports
  • Return Reports
  • Tax Document Library

The refund report is part of the Payments category. 

[Read more…]

4 Email Templates for Requesting Feedback on Amazon (and When to Use Them)

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requesting-feedback-on-amazon-templates (1)

7 out of 10 customers will leave a review if you ask and 80% of reviews originate from follow-up emails asking shoppers to provide feedback on their purchases. Reviews are the lifeblood of a successful eCommerce platform. An Amazon feedback request template is a great way for Amazon FBA sellers to request reviews and feedback from customers.

More positive reviews results in a high seller rating, Buy Box percentage and consequently, sales. If you’re struggling to get more product reviews, we’ve created several feedback request templates to help Amazon FBA sellers request more reviews without violating Amazon’s strict policies. [Read more…]

Guide to Amazon FBA Profit Margins

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Ever heard of ROI? If you haven’t, it’s the difference between the selling price and the cost of making or sourcing the product. That means profit.

In 2019, over 225,000 Amazon sellers were making over $100,000 in sales. One in five made $25,000 to $250,000 every month, and over one-third reached profit margins above 20%.

Those sellers reached such astounding numbers because they knew how to price their items to maximize ROI. But what’s a “good ROI” for a small business? Is 20% a realistic profit margin? How do you accurately calculate that?

Pricing is one of the most ambiguous and confusing aspects of selling on Amazon. Sometimes it feels like a guessing game—but it doesn’t have to be that way. If 20% of Amazon sellers can find success, you can do the same, just by learning about profit margins.

In this guide, you’ll discover how to calculate Amazon FBA profit margins so you can price your products intelligently.

Let’s begin.

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The Top Amazon Aggregators in 2022

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Amazon aggregators are one of the biggest trends in ecommerce today. These companies acquire consumer product brands with a strong presence on Amazon. Aggregators prefer to acquire brands that are not only profitable, but that also demonstrate category leadership through a high volume of positive reviews and Amazon SEO rankings. 

Check out our list of the top aggregators to follow in 2022. 

Why are Amazon aggregators on the rise?

The prevalence of Amazon aggregators can be directly tied to growing consumer preference for microbrands over household names. Today’s consumers want to support smaller businesses with great founder stories and a real passion for the unique products they create, instead of purchasing from corporations that churn out thousands of products without much passion behind them. 

Amazon aggregators see the potential in owning and growing brands that consumers truly love. The founders and partners who work at Amazon aggregators purchase small Amazon FBA brands from entrepreneurs who are ready to sell and who don’t have the expertise to scale their businesses themselves. 

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What are the top Amazon aggregators?

Below, we list some of the biggest and most successful Amazon acquisition companies. 

Berlin Brands Group

Berlin Brands Group sells in 28 countries, and is one of the largest Amazon acquirers. Many of their brands are already doing 2 to 5 million in annual sales before getting acquired. 

Merx

Merx likes to buy brands that have a chance to be the top in their niche product category. They also want to buy brands with existing Amazon search rankings. 

Perch

Perch works with brands that are primarily sold on Amazon FBA versus other channels, and the aggregator already has 70 brands in their portfolio. 

Accel Club

Accel Club buys Amazon FBA brands across multiple home and hobby categories, including gardening, arts and crafts, and pets. 

Yaba

Yaba helps Amazon brands from Southern Europe expand globally. They are looking for brands with an ethical approach to business. 

Razor Group

The Razor Group is supported by some big names in venture capital include BlackRock and 468 Capital. The company is looking for ecommerce brands to take global. 

Merama

Merama partners with brands across Latin America and takes them into new markets. 

Boosted

Boosted is looking for both Amazon and Shopify-based brands to take to the next level. Acquisitions can happen in as little as 45 days. 

[Read more…]

The 5 Best Conferences for Amazon Sellers in 2022

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Struggling to find accurate information on the best Amazon conferences in 2022? We’ve done our due dilligence to provide accurate information. All of these conferences are on for 2022!

We’re continuing our “Best” series with a roundup of top conferences for Amazon FBA sellers at any level: from newbie through advanced.

The Amazon Seller Forum is certainly one of the best places for sellers to learn new techniques and stay-up-to date with changes to the platform. And there are plenty of free podcasts to choose from.

So why should sellers get out of their comfort zone and leave the kids with their spouse and fly to another state?

Steve Chou, host and creator of The Sellers Summit, was at one point very “anti-conference.” But then his business doubled in the year following his first conference experience, because he formed a mastermind group with people that he met there. Here’s how he describes the shift in his attitude towards conferences in an interview with Scott Voelker:

Way back in the day I was anti-conference. I’m like, “Why would I need to go to a conference when I can just figure out everything on my own or read whatever I need to read online.” It’s the collaboration factor. It’s the networking factor. I didn’t learn this until like a long time but you can’t really grow your business by yourself.

The need for external support is something every entrepreneur must learn. Here are five events with tons of content, resources, and networking opportunities for FBA sellers.

The Prosper Show

Las Vegas, Nevada
March 2022
[Read more…]

FBA Inventory Reimbursements: 7 Things You Need to Know

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fba refunds inventory

According to Statista, Amazon’s ecommerce market share will grow to 50% before the end of 2021. In June 2021 alone, the ecommerce giant received over 2.7 billion web visits.

These numbers indicate that Amazon is one of the best platforms for sellers to reach loads of potential customers. However, being a Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) seller isn’t always smooth sailing.

Sometimes, Amazon owes you FBA fee reimbursements and pays you the wrong amount or not at all. When this happens several times in a year, it can put a significant dent in your annual profit. To help you avoid such issues when selling on Amazon, here are seven things you must know about FBA inventory reimbursements:

1. Amazon destroys unsellable inventory

Amazon currently ships around 1.6 million packages a day, but that doesn’t mean the company successfully sells every item in its warehouse. According to a 2020 Washington Post article, Amazon warehouse employees in France and Scotland reported destroying hundreds of thousands of unsold inventory.

Amazon didn’t destroy these items because they were all defective or expired. FBA sellers store their wares in Amazon fulfillment centers to facilitate quick shipping. Some sellers stop paying storage fees for their items after they fail to make sales. Since Amazon needs to make room for new inventory, the company may destroy or donate unsold items abandoned by FBA sellers.

Other items that Amazon destroys include products rendered unsellable due to damage during shipping or storage. That means if you pay your FBA seller fees and Amazon accidentally destroys your items, you can claim FBA inventory reimbursement.

The same thing applies if a buyer returns your product with damages that render the item unsellable.

2. Amazon allows some customers to keep low-cost returns

Many shoppers have reported buying items from Amazon, initiating returns, and getting refunds without returning their initial purchase. While this can happen to any buyer, it’s most common among regular Amazon shoppers who have purchased items under $25.

Such a buyer will get two items for the price of one, and Amazon’s reputation as a trustworthy platform will remain untarnished. However, unless the seller can get an FBA inventory reimbursement, they will lose revenue from the unreturned product.

3. Inventory can get lost in an Amazon warehouse

There are currently around 2 million active sellers on Amazon. 73% of US Amazon sellers use FBA, and each FBA seller can store hundreds of items at Amazon warehouses. Amazon can have over 350 million items in storage at any given time.

With that many items going in and out of Amazon warehouses, inventory can easily get lost due to human error, unscrupulous employees, and other factors. If you are an FBA seller and your items go missing in an Amazon warehouse, you shouldn’t have to bear the cost of the loss.

After noticing the missing items in your FBA dashboard, report the loss to Amazon. If Amazon verifies your claim, they will replace the lost items or pay you the value of the lost product. However, Amazon will not refund your FBA and Selling Fees.

4. Amazon employees processing returns might not place the products in your inventory

Apparently, working in an Amazon warehouse is highly stressful. Stressed employees are more likely to make mistakes, which is why cases of Amazon employees sending returned items to the wrong seller are not uncommon.

If a buyer returns your product and Amazon doesn’t place the item in your inventory, you can’t resell it, and that will affect your earnings. Should Amazon add the item to the inventory of one of your competitors, the mistake could give your competitor an advantage.

Track your returned packages to verify that Amazon added them to your inventory. If Amazon correctly adds a returned item to your inventory, you should receive an FBA reimbursement that includes the 20% restocking fee paid by the buyer.

5. FBA inventory reimbursements are supposed to be processed by Amazon automatically

FBA sellers have to pay fees to sell items on Amazon. The fees cover Amazon’s handling of inventory, shipping, customer service, returns, and other tasks on behalf of the seller. If Amazon collects an FBA fee without fulfilling its duties, the seller should receive an FBA fee reimbursement.

For returned products, FBA sellers can receive reimbursements that cover:

  • Restocking fees
  • Inaccurate order refunds
  • Cost of an unreturned item after a customer receives a replacement
  • Missing order credits

The most common errors that lead to an FBA inventory reimbursement are products damaged or lost by Amazon warehouse employees, shippers, or customers. FBA reimbursements for such issues should be automatic, but this is not always the case.

If an FBA reimbursement isn’t automatic, you may not know that Amazon owes you money. Sellers with a high volume of sales on Amazon can lose hundreds to thousands of dollars yearly to such oversights. Protect your income by looking out for FBA fee discrepancies and claiming reimbursements manually.

6. Not all destroyed or lost inventory gets automatically reimbursed

Amazon isn’t omnipotent, and it has many users, so it’s understandable if it occasionally fails to reimburse an FBA seller automatically for lost or damaged inventory. If you have a lot of inventory and do not keep a close eye on your FBA dashboard, you may not know that Amazon owes you money.

Discover if Amazon owes you an FBA inventory reimbursement by searching these reports for discrepancies:

  • Manage orders
  • Inventory adjustments
  • Inventory event detail
  • Removal order detail
  • Received inventory
  • Daily inventory reports

The inventory adjustments report will contain your damaged inventory that Amazon has not reimbursed. Damaged unreimbursed items will go under Damaged at Amazon Fulfillment Center. If you find a damaged item in the report, and it is not under Transferred to Holding Account, Amazon owes you reimbursement for that item.

You can find inventory adjustments and other reports in your FBA seller dashboard. After identifying an issue, you must wait 30 days after the issue occurred to file a claim. The 30 days is sufficient time for Amazon to notice and rectify the issue on their end. If Amazon doesn’t initiate the reimbursement after 30 days, submit your claim to Amazon’s Seller Central support.

7. You can get inventory reimbursements without having to file claims yourself

You have to follow certain rules when applying for an FBA inventory reimbursement. Otherwise, Amazon will ignore your claim. Some of these rules include:

  • One Issue Per Claim: Do not state multiple issue types in a claim. If you must list multiple items in a claim, all the items must have the same issue.
  • State Your Actions: Your claim must specify the actions you have taken to have the issue resolved. For example, you can state that you’ve identified the items missing from your inventory and removed the ones already reimbursed by Amazon. If possible, include a CSV file that contains the contested items.
  • State Duration: Your claim must mention how long you have waited for Amazon to resolve the issue automatically.

As you can see, filing a claim for FBA reimbursement yourself is possible but tedious. Also, there are no guarantees that you will get your desired results. Increase the chances of getting your refund from Amazon by hiring an FBA reimbursement service provider.

At Refunds Manager, we have nine years of experience helping FBA sellers protect their profits. We have successfully helped over 9,000 US Amazon sellers, and we look forward to helping you with your FBA inventory reimbursement.

Our experience provides us with everything we need to vet and submit claims that get the most favorable responses from Amazon. Even better, we don’t charge any upfront or monthly fees. You only have to pay us after your reimbursement claim is successful.

Sign up with us today so that we can get to work reconciling your account and getting you every penny that Amazon owes you.

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The 14 Best Blogs Created by (and for) Amazon FBA Sellers

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5 Best FBA Seller Blogs

When we have a problem, a burning desire, or an idea we need validated, we turn to Google. And if we’re lucky, Google sends us to amazing blogs, the kind that answer our query and keep us coming back for more.

FBA seller blogs should do more than make you feel like you’re not alone. They should set you up for success, help you track your goals, and give you clear operational tips that you can employ. Here are our favorite FBA seller blogs made by and for Amazon FBA Sellers.

1. The Selling Family

Great for new sellers

Jessica Larew is a top FBA seller blogger. Her blogs, courses, and closed Facebook group are heavily credited by other sellers for their success with FBA. On The Selling Family Blog, she and her husband Cliff deliver honest advice.

In addition to tips, tutorials, and how-tos, this blog covers new updates to the FBA program just as soon as they’re announced. If you ever get an email from Amazon that sends you into a panic (like the addition of more restricted brands or the temporary closure of the Small and Light Program), then chances are that The Selling Family can help you understand the news and what to do about it.

2. Refunds Manager

Great for learning about recovering FBA fees

Over here on the Refunds Manager blog, we primarily focus on the various Amazon FBA fee reimbursements you can get due to order discrepancies and unprocessed refunds. However, we take care of all of that for our clients, so marketing team creates plenty of marketing-related content to help you grow your brand and get sales with SEO and PPC.

3. Full Time FBA

Great for retail arbitrage sellers

In need of incredibly detailed step-by-step tutorials for all the nitty gritty tasks that come along with FBA? Stephen Smotherman has you covered. Over at Full Time FBA, he’s recently presented tips for providing box level details, prepping shoe inventory, and how to improve your skills at fee calculations—all with an incredible amount of precision.

Plus, Stephen often films YouTube videos and embeds them in his posts, which appeals to all the visual learners out there.

4. Side Hustle Nation

Great for new sellers

Side Hustle Nation isn’t just for FBA sellers, which isn’t a bad thing. Put some FBA-only blogs on your regular reading list to make sure you’re keeping up with news and updates, but also incorporate more widely focused entrepreneurial blogs like this one, which can help you develop long term strategies (especially if you’re a multi-channel seller).

To get the content you’re looking for, simply select “Amazon FBA” from the sidebar, which asks “What’s Your Side Hustle?”, and you’ll see all the posts in that category.

You’ll get updates on the progress of real sellers, interviews with top sellers, and growth hacks that can apply to FBA and beyond. There’s tons of content on every online entrepreneurial side hustle imaginable.

5. Online Selling Experiment

Great for new sellers

Ryan Grant from Online Selling Experiment is a godsend for so many FBA sellers. Why? With extreme transparency, he covers topics in so many different product categories using a variety of FBA strategies. His blog (with tons of graphs and number crunching) showcases the fact that he was once an accountant.

Ryan not only posts his own financial results but guest posts others’ as well. In addition to basic tips and advanced tutorials, he enjoys making predictions on the future of selling with Amazon, instead of just trailing behind the changes.

If we missed out on any of the top blogs for FBA sellers, please let us know in the comments below!

This post is the first in a series. Stay tuned for our top pick of podcasts, books, and other resources for sellers.

6. AdBadger

Great for learning Amazon PPC

Are you using Amazon PPC to move products? Then you should probably be reading AdBadger’s blog.

This Amazon FBA blog doesn’t just cover any topic related to selling on Amazon. In their blog and podcast episodes, they only cover Amazon PPC best practices, tips, updates, and optimization tutorials.

Some of their recent content includes updates to how you can target different products, ways to go deeper into the search terms your ads are showing for, and optimizing your PPC account structure.

7. Seller’s Choice

Great for FBA marketing advice

Seller’s Choice is a marketing agency that works exclusively with Amazon sellers and ecommerce brands. On their blog, they post a ton of highly actionable content like how to do split-testing, how to syndicate your products, and how to grow and protect your brand on Amazon. While much of their content focuses on ecommerce branding and marketing, they have tons of articles on the business and financial side of things as well.

8. Startup Bros

Great for new sellers

The Startup Bros are Amazon FBA masters who sell 8 figures worth of product on Amazon each year. Their Amazon and ecommerce blog contains very up-to-date information about what currently works on Amazon. While plenty of blogs still preach outdated methods for product research, they show sellers how to innovate new products that have a real need in the market.

9. Feedvisor

Great for experienced sellers looking for analytics and business intelligence

The Feedvisor blog offers lots of data and insights to help you optimize your pricing and your advertising. Because their SaaS platform uses AI to generate business intelligence, their blog tends to focus on analytics, which is great for experienced sellers looking to scale.

10. Privy

Great for Amazon sellers who want to build a brand off Amazon

Privy is an email marketing tool for ecommerce sellers. This blog is a great resource for learning about email marketing and brand building. So, it’s a fit for Amazon Sellers who want to also grow sales on their own Shopify or BigCommerce store.

11. Channel Advisor

Great for established, large brands

ChannelAdvisor is a fully featured SaaS platform offering fulfillment management, inventory management, brand analytics, and digital marketing management. As such, their blog is perfect for large brands and enterprises that sell on multiple channels, and are looking for content to help them succeed not only on Amazon, but everywhere.

12. Seller Engine

Great for FBA marketing advice

The Seller Engine blog is great for dealing with the nitty gritty details of selling on Amazon. Their products and services include account monitoring, account rescue, business coaching, and listing reinstatement, so naturally their blog covers all sorts of unfortunate issues that can happen when sellong on Amazon (and how to fix them).

13. Foundr

Great for new sellers and those looking to build a brand off Amazon

Foundr has tons of super high quality content for online business owners. Experts, consultants, freelancers, and ecommerce store owners can all find something here. But don’t let the broadness fool you. All of the ecommerce- and Amazon-related content is created only by people who have physical product based businesses themselves.

14. Sellics

Great for FBA marketing advice

Sellics is a great blog to turn to for learning how to optmize your Amazon PPC ads and for getting other marketing tips. Plus, they occasionally cover other topics relevant to Amazon sellers like FBA trends and how to optimize your expenses.

Which Amazon FBA blog is your favorite?

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Amazon PPC Strategy 2021: Updated Tips

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With every new year, it’s time to rethink our strategies, forget our bad decisions, and prepare for a new year in business. In this post, we explore the best Amazon PPC strategies to use in 2021.

Amazon PPC lets you pay to play. If your products aren’t getting the organic traffic you’d hoped for, you can pay for exposure. When you do it right, and you can turn one dollar into three. Do it wrong and you’re out even more money than what you spent on inventory.

To stay sharp on your Amazon PPC skills, you need to keep up with changes to the platform and try the best, most current strategies.

Are you running Amazon PPC ads in 2021? Check out our list of tips and strategies for the coming year.
[Read more…]

Guide to FBA Fee Reimbursements

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FBA reimbursements aren’t exactly as exciting as Christmas presents, because they’re your money anyways, and, unless you’re using a smart service, you have to work hard to get them.

As an Amazon seller, you’re at least partly beholden to the Amazon platform. Maybe you sell on other ecommerce channels, but there’s a good chance that Amazon sales account for the bulk of your revenue. FBA fee reimbursements can help you ensure that you’re paying Amazon no more than you should, and that you’re protecting your profit margins in every way possible.

In our guide to FBA reimbursements, we’re teaching you everything you need to know to monitor your account and get more money back.

Protect your profits from common errors. Sign up for Refunds Manager.

What are FBA reimbursements?

FBA fee reimbursements are when you’re given a refund for a Fulfillment by Amazon fee which you should not have to pay for according to their terms of service.

Unfortunately, you don’t get refunded unless you shouldn’t have to pay the fee. Amazon doesn’t charitably refund fees at random, but wouldn’t that be nice…

Tracking and requesting refunds for FBA fee errors are just one of many of the pitfalls of selling on Amazon, such as lack of branding and control over your customer base.

Amazon has four main types of fees: plan fees,

Amazon's four categories of FBA fees

Common issues for FBA reimbursements

There are several types of FBA fee issues that could lead to a reimbursement:

  • Items lost or damaged in Amazon warehouse or by inbound shipper
  • Items destroyed by Amazon without permission
  • Customer receiving multiple units, but only charged for one
  • Customer receiving a refund, without returning the item
  • Customer receives a replacement item, without returning the original
  • Stock deducted after shipment was closed
  • Inbound inventory not added to your account
  • Orders with the weight or dimension mischarged
  • Mischarged commission fees
  • Issued reimbursement not showing up
  • Removal order not received

Of all of these FBA errors the most commonly experienced by Amazon FBA sellers are damaged inventory by warehouse or shipper and issues with customer returns (the customer return is not placed back in their inventory, or the customer never returns it).
[Read more…]

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