Ecommerce News Roundup: December Recap

We’ve provided an overview of some of the past month’s breaking Amazon news. Catch up on the most important news and updates from Amazon below. 

 

Amazon has adjusted the Seller response policy for the A-to-Z Guarantee 

Two changes are made to the A-to-Z Guarantee Seller response policy to help in providing customers with a positive and timely post-order experience.

Reminder: Sellers have a responsibility to respond to customer messages and return requests within 48 hours.

What is changing?

1. In the event that a customer files a claim and you have not provided a response to the customer’s contact, we will grant the claim and debit your account.
2. We no longer require that you ‘Respond to Amazon,’ when a claim is filed. Amazon team will review it using the information provided by both you and the customer leading up to that point to make a decision.

To help you avoid any potential or unnecessary A-to-Z Guarantee claims, Amazon will continue to ensure that customers either contact you or submit a return request 48 hours prior to being eligible for an A-to-Z Guarantee resolution.

If you wish to dispute a claim then we still provide you with 30 calendar days to file an appeal and provide new information for the investigation.

All customer return requests can be found on the Manage Returns page and all customer contacts in the Buyer-Seller Messaging Service. Learn more about how you can prevent A-to-Z Guarantee claims here. 

 

Amazon Brand Name Policy Update 

Customers rely on detail page information, like brand name, to make informed purchasing decisions. Accurate brand name information helps new customers find and evaluate your products before purchasing.

The brand attribute on a listing should match the name of the brand that produced the product (that is., an AmazonBasics product should always show “by AmazonBasics” on the detail page). If a listing does not belong to any brand, the brand attribute should be “N/A”.

If you attempt to create new listings that are not compliant with this policy, you will be asked to fix the brand attribute before you can list.

You can review Brand Name Policy on Seller Central. 

 

Amazon sellers can’t use FedEx Ground for Prime shipments 

Amazon no longer allowing third-party sellers to use FedEx’s ground-delivery shipping, marking the latest escalation in the companies’ ongoing rivalry.

FedEx confirmed the decision after a report in The Wall Street Journal on Dec 16th, 2019. The news sent FedEx shares down as much as 1.1%.

Due to FedEx’s decline in on-time performance, Amazon blocked sellers from using FedEx for deliveries to Amazon Prime customers. 

 

US FBA and referral fee changes coming February 18, 2020 

Amazon plans to raise the fees it charges merchants for warehousing and shipping their goods in the United States by an average of 3%, and this will take effect February 18 as it faces higher costs from infrastructure and programs such as one-day delivery.

Last year Amazon invested more than $15 billion in infrastructure, programs, people,  and 150 new tools and services to help sellers grow their brands and businesses. Amazon also invested billions of dollars to expand FREE One-Day Delivery to more than 10 million Prime-eligible items.

You can review the fee change pages below:

• 2020 US referral fee changes
• 2020 US fulfillment fee changes
• 2020 FBA fee changes for monthly storage, Label Service and removal orders
• 2020 FBA Small and Light fee changes
• FBA New Selection program

 

Free Shipping Promotion Deprecation 

Amazon has announced that Free Shipping Promotions will no longer be supported under its Advertising section. On January 13th, 2020, all Pending and Active Free Shipping Promotions will be terminated by having their status automatically updated to Expired and the Free Shipping promotion type will be removed from the Create a Promotion page in Seller Central. Sellers should make any necessary edits their Free Shipping Promotions in Advertising > Promotions prior to this date.

If you would like to provide free shipping for customers, you can set this up by going to the Shipping Settings within the Settings tab.

 

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Christina Chen

January 3, 2020

Pauline's passions lie in eCommerce and supporting individuals in their online selling endeavors. Currently, as a frequent contributor to the BQool Blog, she channels her passions into creating informative contents that break down the complex challenges Amazon sellers face on a daily basis.