It’s that time of year. New Year’s resolutions are set. Family travels back home. The days start to get incrementally longer. And Amazon FBA fees change. Say what?

Yes, Amazon FBA is changing their fees. They claim that approximately 40% of FBA units won’t be affected by these changes. Read on for the full scoop.

Quick overview of the FBA fee changes for 2019

Are you an experienced seller who just wants a quick rundown into what’s new? Great! We’ve got you covered. Here’s an overview of the need to know information:

• Changes go into effect on February 19, 2019
• There are no changes to fulfillment fees for units in the small standard and large standard size categories (hence Amazon’s estimation that 40% of units are unaffected by this year’s updates)
• Oversize items now have a minimum additional cost, based on a minimum width and height of 2 inches
• Long term storage fees don’t start until 365 days (woo hoo!)
• There are separate additional fees for “dangerous goods” like flammable or pressurized aerosol
• Many applicable referral fees are lowering from $1.00 to $0.30 per item, which will allow better profits for low-priced items across many categories

In keeping up with all things Amazon, we wanted our readers to know about an interesting new opportunity. Let’s explore how the opportunity to launch a shipping business might affect the Amazon marketplace.

Ready? First, an overview…

What happened

On June 28, 2018, Amazon announced a new program inviting entrepreneurs from around the nation to apply to start their own shipping business for the “last mile” of deliveries, or the final small stretch that is typically handled by USPS, UPS, and FedEx after Amazon’s own carriers have done the long haul.

How to start an Amazon shipping business

Entrepreneurs must have an initial $10,000 to invest in the business, which requires leasing at least 5 vans and the commitment to scale to 20 vans, with the potential to go to 40 vans. It is estimated that running 40 vans would require 100 employees.
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Have you heard of Amazon’s newest fulfillment opportunity, FBA Onsite?

This program launched January of 2018 to a small pilot of Amazon sellers. The exact number is unknown, but it’s been said that the first trial round was only made available to just 50 sellers.

Amazon is financially incentivized to make this program work, so it’s very likely that it will grow larger and larger each year. So what is it?

To learn all about FBA Onsite, keep reading.

What is FBA Onsite?

FBA Onsite allows sellers to fulfill Amazon Prime orders themselves without the high shipping costs of Seller Fulfilled Prime or the high storage fees of traditional FBA.
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Have you had Amazon declare inventory as distributor damaged? Unlike when items are marked as damaged in Amazon’s warehouses, this issue can be a little trickier to get reimbursed.

In this post, we’re answering questions that sellers commonly have.

What is “Distributor Damaged” and how does it differ from other issues?

Anything denoted as “distributor damaged” or “damaged by inbound carrier” means that the shipment was received by Amazon already damaged to the extent that this inventory is unfit to sell. Such as issue would show up in your Inventory Adjustments report.

Because the inventory was not damaged by Amazon, they don’t necessarily take responsibility for it and automate a reimbursement, as they would in the case of something damaged in their warehouses.
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Have you heard of Amazon’s Early Review Program? The beta version was launched in the fall of 2016 to a few select sellers, and then in spring of 2017 it was rolled out to all sellers in the US.

If you aren’t familiar with this program and want to know about this opportunity for getting real reviews, then read on!

What is the Amazon Early Reviewer Program?

Just like it sounds, the Early Reviewer Program is a way for sellers to get those desireable initial reviews on a new product.

Since Amazon banned incentivized reviews in the fall of 2016, sellers have struggled to get reviews on their newly launched products. The ERP is the answer to that problem.

Here’s how it works

1. A seller signs up for the program with their desired SKUs
2. After purchase, a buyer is contacted by Amazon to leave a review for a $1 – $3 Amazon gift card
3. Upon completing the review, the buyer is awarded the gift card

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Amazon Prime Day is a one-day global event that promises amazing deals to Amazon Prime members across every product category. So who is it that’s giving these deals? Amazon and Amazon’s third party sellers, particularly those using FBA.

In this post, we’ll go into commonly asked questions about participating in Prime Day and ways that participating sellers can prepare.

Note: Amazon Prime Day 2017 is July 11th. Participating sellers must typically submit deal offerings by mid May.
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Amazon has unveiled a grocery store without lines or checkout counters that they’re calling “Just walk out technology.” The new brick-and-mortar store, called Amazon Go, is an 1800-square-foot retail space located in Seattle that holds perishable grocery items like bread and milk, as well as pre-made snacks and fresh meals. Currently only open to Amazon employees, all you need is the Amazon Go app to enter the store and start shopping. Sensors, machine learning, and artificial intelligence track each customer through the store, adding items to their virtual shopping cart connected through their Amazon account. The technology senses when you put something down, taking it out of your cart as you do so, and once you’re finished you can just walk right out of the store. No cashiers, no cash or credit cards, “just walk out.”

These AI controlled stores open up a whole new possibility for product suggestion. Since Amazon is in control of your virtual shopping cart, they can see what items you are and are not interested in and combine them with your browsing activity, thus making more accurate suggestions when you shop online at home.

“Just Walk Out Technology” avoids Human “Loss Aversion”

The concept of “just walk out technology” brought forth by Amazon is not only making shopping easier for people that are in a rush, it’s also making the company more money as well. People don’t like to spend money, so when you’re sitting at a register watching the cashier ring up your order, you are more likely to ask them to put something back on the shelf for you once you see your total. The experience of feeling pain when we pay a bill is due to the behavioral economics theory loss aversion. The pain of spending is thought to be reduced in credit card purchases, because plastic is less tangible than cash, and we avoid feeling the loss of physical money.

However, even though you are not spending actual money, you are still going through the physical process of seeing your final total and swiping your card. With Amazon’s new “just walk out technology,” you can walk right out of the store without ever seeing your final balance. Your bill is settled through the credit card linked to your Amazon account with no swiping or physical receipts necessary. Because we do not feel the loss, people are more willing to spend for the items that they want. Amazon uses loss aversion to their advantage in other ways as well. By offering you a free trial of their monthly subscription for Amazon Prime, they’re giving you ownership of something that they know you will not want to give up once you have it.

Although the store is currently only open to Amazon employees, Amazon hopes to have the Seattle store open to the public in early 2017. According to a report from The Wall Street Journal, Amazon hopes to open more than 2,000 grocery and convenience stores across the US. Their goal is to control all aspects of product flow from their warehouse, directly to their customers without the need for a middle-man. As more customers turn to Amazon for everyday supplies, Amazon can lower their prices by ordering their inventory in bulk. Ultimately, the more people that see these amazing advancements in Amazon, the more people will sign up for Amazon Prime. It will be exciting to see how Amazon handles the inevitable problems of shop lifting, and how other companies will try to replicate these ideas in their businesses.

Authored by Alex Maglione, AmazonSellersLawyer.com

Amazon Sellers Lawyer is a legal team that is dedicated to defending sellers’ rights by applying legal strategies to protect their accounts and handle account suspensions, complaints and policy violations.

Last month, Amazon announced a new update to customer review policy in their community guidelines that effectively bans sellers and vendors from incentivizing reviews. Sure, it had already been against Amazon’s rules to actually pay a reviewer for their review, but sellers were still allowed to give free or discounted products in exchange for some (hopefully positive) feedback.

Now though, Amazon has pulled the plug on that common practice. Here’s a look at why Amazon felt compelled to do away with incentivized reviews, why they are pushing the Vine program as the only option, and how this affects FBA sellers.

The heyday of incentivized reviews

The vast majority of Amazon’s customers rely on reviews to some degree. They either read them obsessively before making a purchase, or they at least review the star rating (and sheer number of reviews) to get a quick glimpse of the product’s popularity and success.

Mob mentality drives sales.

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