Ecommerce News Roundup: August Recap
⚠️ Sellers beware! We’ve covered some of the past month’s breaking Amazon news and updates in this article, don’t miss out!
Brands: New Premium A+ Content Promotion
Sellers who have registered as a Brand Owner with Amazon Brand Registry are now eligible for Premium A+ content at no cost for an extended promotional period.
Premium A+ content offers new and larger module types in the product description section on the product detail page such as video, image carousels, and interactive hotspots. Implementing Premium A+ content can increase your sales by 20%.
During the promotional period, you can publish Premium A+ content for all registered ASINs using A+ content manager. If you have published A+ brand story across your ASIN catalog and have had at least 15 A+ content projects approved in the past 12 months, for each Amazon store, you are eligible for Premium A+ content.
Access for Premium A+ is granted at the end of each month. If you meet the criteria, you will see a banner in the A+ content manager for access.
For more information on A+ content, Premium A+, and to find out if you are eligible, go to Get started with A+ content.
Brand Owners: Improved Brand Analytics Reporting
Amazon is updating our Brand Analytics tool to improve the accuracy and convenience of our reporting. Effective August 2022, our Consumer Behavior dashboard will move to an improved Brand Analytics experience alongside the Search Analytics dashboard.
After the update, the dashboards will be grouped under:
Search Analytics
Consumer Behavior
The new Brand Analytics page offers:
Updated user interface: You can easily navigate between Search and Consumer behavior analytics.
Column Picker: You can re-order or hide dashboard metrics.
Metric Glossary: You can access our new metric glossary in the dashboard columns to better understand your data.
Deep Linking: You can link to specific dashboard views within each dashboard.
Updated versions of our existing analytics dashboards will be released shortly, starting with the Repeat Purchase Behavior dashboard. Some dashboards may redirect you to the old experience until the updated versions are available.
To find out more, go to Brand Analytics.
Note: If you cannot access the Amazon Brand Analytics tool due to a permission error, we recommend that you contact your primary account administrator.
New Report Simplifies FBA Inventory Information
We’ve launched an all-in-one Inventory Ledger report to simplify how you review your FBA inventory.
The new report provides you with a consolidated, end-to-end view of your entire inventory. The report shows your starting inventory balance, inventory that was received in the fulfillment center, customer orders, customer returns, adjustments, reconciliation events, removals, and ending balance.
Inventory Ledger is updated daily and replaces these reports:
Daily Inventory History
Monthly Inventory History
Inventory Event Detail
Inventory Adjustments
Inventory Reconciliation
Received Inventory
⚠️ These reports will be discontinued starting September 30, 2022.
For more information, go to Inventory Ledger report.
Learn How to Report an Intellectual Property Violation
If you’re enrolled in Amazon Brand Registry, Report a Violation lets you report intellectual property violations. It’s easy to find and report suspected infringements.
To learn more, watch Report an Intellectual Property Violation and go to Intellectual property for rights owners.
Amazon Brand Registry provides advanced tools that can help you protect your brand.
Last Updates to Restricted Products (Magnet sets)
Please be informed that the following requirements for Magnet sets will be added to the Other products in the Restricted Products Help page effective on August 29, 2022.
Magnet sets:
When listing or selling magnet sets (for example, multiple magnetic balls or magnetic cubes that are small enough to be swallowed by a child being sold as a set), you must meet the following requirements:
There is no language indicating or suggesting that the magnet set is intended for use by children or for their educational purpose.
The product detail page must contain the following disclaimers:
Suitable age: 14 years and over
There are multiple reported serious cases of children requiring surgery to remove the magnets they swallowed from the intestines. Keep the magnets away from all children to prevent them from swallowing.
Multiple Help Pages (updates)
Amazon informed that the following help pages will be updated with the effective date of August 15, 2022.
– Quasi Drugs & Cosmetics
– Dietary Supplements
– Drugs
– Tobacco & Tobacco-Related Products
The details of the main revisions are as follows.
The following will be added to the examples of prohibited listings.
Products containing substances (for example, THC-O, HHC-O, BMPEA, etc.) that are considered to have similar effects to controlled substances.
In addition, Amazon will update the URLs that have broken links in each page.
Buy Shipping Service for Seller Fulfilled Prime Orders
Buy Shipping Service is a service that allows sellers to use Amazon negotiated shipping fee to ship customer orders from their own warehouses.
When Amazon initially launched Buy shipping Service, it was not available for Seller Fulfilled Prime (SFP) orders. ⚠️ Starting from July, 2022, Amazon has enabled Buy Shipping for SFP orders. Sellers who participate in SFP program can now use Buy Shipping to fulfill SFP orders. See Ship from Japan with Buy shipping for more detail on how to use this service.
To use this service, you need to contact Yamato Transport to arrange pickup and obtain ship label papers (free of charge). Obtain A5 size B2 Cloud ship label papers (No. 323 (laser printer) or No. 395 (inkjet printer)), and print Yamato ship label with the label papers. For more information on printing shipping labels, see the Seller University. (You do not need to contact Yamato Transport in advance if you already have the applicable labels.)
Use this service in compliance with Yamato Transport’s Terms and Conditions and the precautions described here. Do not ship hazardous materials. As stated in the Terms of Service, Amazon shall not be liable for any shipping services purchased by the seller.
The Service is currently not available for using through the Selling Partner API. In addition, bulk label purchase feature is not currently available.
Buy shipping service is not available for Cash on Delivery (COD) and scheduled delivery.
If use of Buy shipping service is less than 30 days in the first month, the same shipping fee as for the first month will be applied in the second month.
Changes to Return Authorization Program for Seller-Fulfilled Returns
Effective August 31, 2022, Amazon will automatically authorize US return requests and provide buyers with a prepaid return shipping label for items belonging to the following categories:
Sexual wellness
Business, industrial & scientific supplies > Professional medical supplies
Business, industrial & scientific supplies > Professional dental supplies
Returns for the following product categories will continue to be sent for manual authorization:
Handmade
Amazon custom
Certified preowned watches
Non-physical items (for example, warranties, digital software, or digital coupons)
Items that are non-returnable by law and dangerous goods
For more information, go to Manage seller-fulfilled returns.
Notes:
FBM Seller could appeal a return:
You can file an appeal if Amazon authorized a return or refund on your behalf that you believe should not have been authorized.
For details, see Appeal a return.
https://sellercentral.amazon.com/help/hub/reference/G202175000
Update on Commercial Liability Insurance Policies for Sellers
On June 13, 2022, Amazon updated their Commercial Liability Insurance policy to require zero-deductible policies from sellers.
Following this update, a number of sellers told Amazon about the challenges they face in procuring zero-deductible policies.
Amazon will continue to allow policies with deductibles for sellers on Amazon, and have reverted to our previous policy requirement:
The deductible for any policy(ies) must not be greater than $10,000 and any deductible amount must be listed on the certificate(s) of insurance.
For more information, go to Business Insurance and A-to-z Claims Process for Property Damage and Personal Injury.
2022 Holiday Peak Fulfillment Fee
For many years, Amazon has continued to evolve how we charge fulfillment fees to better reflect the underlying operational costs, while ensuring that we provide a great value for sellers. As we look ahead and prepare for the busy holiday shopping season, we expect greater utilization of our fulfillment network. Across the supply chain, this creates increased operating costs during this holiday peak period.
As a result, similar to other major carriers, we will introduce a holiday peak fulfillment fee from October 15, 2022, to January 14, 2023. The fee will be an average of USD 0.35 per item sold using US and Canada FBA. For specific fees by size and weight and for changes to other fulfillment methods, please visit the links below.
Our selling partners are incredibly important to us, and this is not a decision we made lightly. The entire industry sees increases in fulfillment and logistics costs during the holiday peak period due to the concentrated volume of shipments. We have previously absorbed these cost increases, but seasonal expenses are reaching new heights. As a result, we decided that similar to other carriers, we will implement a holiday peak fulfillment fee that applies during a timebound period each year.
FBA continues to provide a very high level of service to customers and a great value for sellers. With this change, Amazon’s fulfillment fees during this peak period will remain an average of 30% less expensive for slower standard shipping methods than other major third-party logistics providers, and an average of 70% less expensive than comparable two-day shipping alternatives.
To find a detailed rate chart applicable for your business, please visit the relevant Seller Central help pages for more information:
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