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European Fulfilment Network For Amazon Sellers

Leave a Comment / Amazon, Amazon Marketing, Amazon Tools, Amazon VA, seller central /

If you’ve heard about the European fulfilment network for Amazon sellers, then you’re probably aware of Amazon’s global program and FBA services. Becoming a global seller on Amazon is not an easy task and this undertaking comes with its own set of problems. Selling your product in an international market can be intimidating, however, with the help of Amazon FBA and Amazon Global services, this process has become a tad bit simpler. If you’re planning on selling your products offshore, there are three basic types you can consider. European Fulfillment Network (EFN) With European Fulfillment Network (EFN), you ship your products to Amazon’s fulfilment centre, which will then be held in one country. Once an order is placed by a customer, the items will be picked, packed, and shipped by Amazon. You pay only local fulfilment fees on domestic orders. With Amazon’s EFN Network, you can sell on Amazon’s other European marketplaces with cross-border fees. Pan-European FBA With Pan-European FBA, you ship your products to Amazon’s fulfilment centre in your home marketplace. The order fulfilment process is done by Amazon. Amazon distributes your products throughout Europe based on anticipated demand without any cross-border fees. You can also save up to 52% in fulfilment fees. Multi-Country Inventory (MCI) With Multi-Country Inventory (MCI), you can choose which countries you want to ship and store your products. You have to pay local fulfilment fees for sale in the marketplaces you store products. With Multi-Country Inventory (MCI), you can sell on other marketplaces too with cross-border fees. European Fulfillment Network Typically, sellers can choose between FBA & FBM while deciding on the kind of carrier they want to choose for boarding their products offshore. EFN is part of the Amazon FBA program that dictates Amazon cares for the transport and delivery of your packages using one of its local warehouses. If you have a European marketplace seller account that’s registered under FBA, you can store your inventory in Amazon’s warehouses (also known as fulfilment centres), across Europe, and manage orders coming in from your European marketplace using the same local inventory pool. The reason why EFN is beneficial is that it keeps your stock stored in a single space, also known as the local pool, in a single fulfilment centre so that you gain maximum control and flexibility for marketing your goods. Now if you’re planning on selling your goods in a certain country in Europe, EFN allows storage of inventory in multiple fulfilment centres in one country to complete your local and trans-border orders. There are precisely only seven countries that allow the storage of goods within their fulfilment centres. United Kingdom Germany Spain France Italy Poland Czech Republic Pay Cross Border EFN fees When you sell your products to customers of other marketplaces via the European Fulfillment Network (EFN), you have to pay a cross-border fee for each order shipped. Let’s say for example you want a 600g Standard Parcel (non-media item) product across all five European marketplaces and ship your inventory to UK fulfilment centres. The cross-border EFN fee would be €4.39 for orders placed on amazon.de, amazon.fr, and amazon. it, and amazon.es. Standard Parcel 600g Fulfilment Fees Sale on amazon.de Sale on amazon.fr Sale on amazon. it Sale on amazon.es Fulfilment fee for EFN (fulfilling amazon.de, amazon.fr, amazon. it, amazon.es orders from UK inventory pool) €4.39 €4.39 €4.39 €4.39 There is no need to separately register for Amazon EFN because you automatically get this service under the FBA program but it’s important to choose your marketplace. Whichever European marketplace you select enables you to use EFN for all marketplaces as your listings are uploaded with the same SKU. What’s the benefit you ask? Single VAT number that eliminates financial stress for a chunk of your inventory. EFN gives you the flexibility of enlisting your products on all European marketplaces under a single VAT number and you also become applicable for Prime status. The storage fees are higher and it’s apt for a small business, however, if you’re thinking large scale, there are better options under FBA for selling your goods in the international market. But just like the EFN has its benefits, it comes with a set of disadvantages. EU) 2019/1020 Regulation needs most non-EU businesses to have an authorized representative located in the EU. You can read more about this here, a full guide on having an Authorized Representative by  Instrktiv. FBA European fulfilment network functions under Amazon, which means you don’t need to worry about setting up your inventory at the warehouse or supervising third-party logistics. However, the downfall is that you will need to pay cross-border fees applicable from the home country to other shipping countries, which can weigh down on your expenditure. Conclusion While EFN provides fast shipping in Europe, it might take three more days for the shipment to get delivered if your product is to be delivered outside the home country. You must also have a VAT registered number in your home marketplace to be applicable for EFN. Though this option offers Prime delivery, fast shipment works when you’re delivering your product within your home. However, EFN is an excellent option to consider since FBA fees are much lower as compared to using third-party logistics services. There is a lot of work and there isn’t a whole lot of time. At BIE, we have experienced and highly skilled Amazon Human Resources who can enhance your brand presence, improve Q1 sales in 2020, and give you analytical feedback of your conversions. Want to know more about our services? Just contact us for immediate assistance! Request a free consult this instant to avail of our consultation or subscribe to our mailing list to get instant updates for Amazon seller/ vendor central-based tasks. If you need professional help with your Amazon store management, contact us. BIE is a Vancouver, British Columbia-based agency providing human resources to manage all things Amazon. BOOK A FREE CONSULTING CALL

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5 Strategies for Snagging the Amazon Buy Box

Leave a Comment / Amazon, Amazon Marketing, Amazon Tools, Amazon VA, Digital Marketing Social Media, seller central /

Getting your share of the Amazon Buy Box is not an exact science, but these strategies can help. By focusing your attention on keeping your products Buy Box-eligible and expertly managing your inventory, you’ll have a better shot at getting your product in the Buy Box rotation. With the holiday season in full swing, you’ll want to do everything you can to maintain an edge over the competition. Q4 is a great opportunity to increase sales and build your brand. Don’t miss out by being unprepared! In this blog post, we’ll highlight five effective strategies for snagging the coveted Buy Box. What is the Buy Box? Sometimes referred to as the “Featured Offer,” the Buy Box is technically the “Add to Cart” and “Buy Now” buttons that allow buyers to skip the traditional shopping cart checkout process and go straight to one-click ordering. This is offered on each product detail page on Amazon. It can be incredibly beneficial to your sales, especially during the busy holiday season, when customers are trying to score a deal as quickly as possible! From a seller’s perspective, having your product in the Buy Box is a great way to beat the competition. Once you have it, though, you’re not guaranteed to keep it. The Amazon Buy Box rotates between sellers. Based on a variety of criteria, Amazon picks which accounts will have the Buy Box, so you want to do everything in your power to earn it. Let’s talk about some of the best strategies. Offer Fast Shipping Gone are the days when consumers were willing to wait weeks for a purchase to arrive. Today’s customers want their items as fast as possible. Amazon shoppers are expecting to receive shipments within 24 hours or less. There’s a lot of competition in the marketplace and you don’t want to be that one seller who can’t meet that expectation. One strategy is to offer your products through Amazon’s FBA program. You’re not required to do this, but being an FBA seller allows you to fulfil orders quickly, which can help you earn your piece of the Buy Box pie. Whatever route you choose, make fast shipping a priority. Stay in Stock You can’t sell anything if you run out of stock. Not only will this result in a loss of revenue, but it could hurt your reputation as well. Even repeat customers will be forced to look elsewhere if you’re not carrying the product that they need and when they need it. As mentioned, modern shoppers aren’t willing to wait for shipments and you shouldn’t expect them to. If winning the Amazon Buy Box is a goal (as it should be), you need a clear inventory management strategy. Build relationships and keep a close eye on your supply chain. This is important for many reasons, but it can also save you in a pinch. For example, if your order volume spikes, you might be able to fast-track your orders if you’re on friendly terms with your suppliers. Keep Your Pricing Competitive Even if your products are priced fairly, prospective buyers will always be looking for a better deal. That’s the thing about Amazon — people can compare prices in seconds. It’s essential that you’re aware of what’s happening in the marketplace so that you can remain competitive. With that being said, don’t undervalue your goods. Offering the lowest price isn’t a guarantee that you’ll win the Buy Box anyway. Instead, focus on developing a smart Amazon pricing strategy so that your prices are similar to other sellers. It’s a major undertaking and you might find it helpful and time-saving to use an Amazon repricer to stay in the game. Get Reviews If your products and prices are similar to those of your competitors, how can you stand out from the pack? By having a great reputation. How do you accomplish that? By getting product reviews. When two Amazon listings are virtually identical, buyers will be more likely to purchase from the one that has positive feedback from customers. Figuring out how to solicit feedback can be overwhelming, which is why many sellers rely on tools to help them create effective campaigns. In the end, building and maintaining a healthy Amazon seller reputation is worth it for three main reasons. It shows Amazon that you’re committed to providing excellent customer service, it gives buyers confidence in your products, and it can give your ASINs a boost. All of those things can help you win and keep the Amazon Buy Box. Maintain a Healthy Seller Account Are you paying close attention to your seller account health? It doesn’t matter if you’ve been too busy to keep track of how you’re doing, because Amazon is always watching. The company is obsessed with making customers happy and they closely monitor sellers to make sure they’re getting the job done. To ensure that you’re meeting buyer expectations, Amazon looks at metrics such as Order Defect Rate, Cancellation Rate, and Late Shipment Rate. Your performance will impact your ability to win the Buy Box and why shouldn’t it? The sellers who go the extra mile are the ones who deserve it. Give yourself the best chance at getting a share of the Buy Box by keeping your account healthy. Get Ahead of the Competition By keeping your seller account healthy and committing to impeccable inventory management, fast shipping, and competitive pricing, you put yourself in the best position to reap rewards during Q4 and year-round. Running an Amazon business takes a lot of effort. Come up with a plan of action for snagging the Amazon buy box and follow through. BIE’s Amazon Human Resource services can provide you with the help you need for running your store on the Amazon marketplace. You can find all the services required to grow and enhance your digital brand worldwide on a single platform. Our Amazon Human Resources are multi-skilled and can efficiently handle different aspects of your store, right from providing analytical reports of

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Amazon Seller Central vs Amazon Vendor Central – Basics

Leave a Comment / Amazon, Amazon VA, seller central, vendor central /

While studying Amazon seller central vs Amazon vendor central analytics, you’ll realize that the basic difference between the two is that on seller central, you sell your products directly to Amazon’s customers. On vendor central, you sell your products directly to Amazon and then they sell the products to their customers for you. As a seller central owner, you price, market, and sell your products directly to Amazon’s customers. Many Amazon sellers start their journey from seller central to list their products quickly and start selling immediately. Before boarding onto vendor central, make sure your products are well established. You can always go with both options because both seller central and vendor central have their unique benefits which will be discussed in detail. With Amazon Seller Central, sellers or brands use a web interface or panel to market and sell their products directly to Amazon’s customers. Those who have a seller account are also known as third-party sellers or marketplace sellers on Amazon. The major role of a marketplace seller is to handle orders they get from Amazon’s customers making it a more direct approach. There are two options you get as a market seller to fulfil the orders of the customers. Either you can handle the shipping, customer service, and returns for each individual order yourself, or Amazon gives you an option of fulfilling orders which is the “Fulfilled by Amazon” or “FBA” program. By enrolling your products into the FBA program, you allow Amazon to handle orders on your behalf. What is Amazon Vendor Central? The web interface used by manufacturers and distributors is Amazon Vendor Central. The term used for sellers selling via vendor central is first-party seller. As a first-party seller, you sell products in bulk to Amazon. You are a supplier here and Amazon will sell your products to their customers. What’s the key element to running a successful vendor-central supply chain? You never let the supplier or Amazon come in direct contact with each other. Pros of Amazon Seller Central Pricing Decision As a seller, you can decide the price at which you want to sell your products and also change them anytime as you have full control over pricing. You also get the advantage of staying in the competitive market by automatically matching your competitor’s pricing. Activity Analytics With Seller Central, you get access to a large number of consumer data without any cost. If you have a seller account, you can access the customer’s data and use it for other purposes. But make sure that you won’t use that data to outreach Amazon’s customers. You can, of course, use analytics to understand consumer behaviour. Private Label Branding This is one of the big advantages of seller central. As a retail partner or an unknown third-party seller of a manufacturer, you can’t list or sell a bundle of older versions of any product. Another parameter of this type of listing is less content and images. With Amazon’s brand registry program, this type of unauthorized listing can be controlled. Cons of Amazon Seller Central Higher Costs If you are a seller and you are selling low-priced items, \ shipping or fulfilment costs are a barrier in your Amazon selling business. If you have a professional seller account, you have to pay $39.99 per month as Amazon FBA fees, and for individual sellers, it ranges from 45 cents to $1.35 per unit. Lower Conversion As a third-party seller, the most crucial part of your Amazon selling business is to compete with “Ship from and Sold by Amazon.com” products. As a 3P seller, you have to offer your products via FBA or “Ship from and Sold by 3P sellers” and with this, you can’t outsell the products sold by Amazon. One more disadvantage is that if you are attempting to use Amazon’s Sponsored Products Ad Tool, your ads won’t appear because this is only for the seller in the buy box. Pros of Amazon Vendor Central Ease of Doing Business Through Vendor Central, you can focus on your Amazon selling business. If you see the business model from the Vendor Central perspective, the process is much easier than seller central. The role of a vendor is to fill purchase orders, bill those orders, and make sure that there is no penalty charge. But as a seller, you have to take care of the full process from sales to lost inventory and also taxation liabilities. Marketing Tools There are many tools that Amazon offers to its vendors like creating enhanced brand content via Amazon A+ Detail Pages. Another program you can take part in, Subscribe & Save (Amazon’s subscription service), is a promotional program offered by Amazon that boosts sales. You can also opt for Amazon Vine, which invites some of its most trusted reviewers on Amazon to post reviews about new and prior products to help their customers purchase products. Cons of Amazon Vendor Central Difficult to Launch New Products There are many guidelines you have to follow to complete your purchase orders through Vendor Central. You may get penalties if you break the rigid guidelines given by Amazon for vendor central. There are many penalties vendors are charged while selling products through vendor central. If you are a vendor and selling through vendor central, it will be difficult for you to launch new products as Amazon does not prefer products with no sales history. Amazon doesn’t get any commission when they buy products from you so it is hard to sell or launch new products through Vendor Central. Amazon is unsure about the sales performance of the product and if the product is right for the target market or not.

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Amazon FBA Product Research Guide 2021

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Millions of active users use Amazon as a portal to find and sell products to customers worldwide. However, it can be very challenging for new Amazon sellers to select suitable products to sell on Amazon. Every well-established Amazon seller has gone through the problem of choosing a bankable product. To make a huge profit as an Amazon seller, you need to carry out a proper market evaluation. It becomes crucial for Amazon sellers to perform Amazon FBA product research before diving into it. Things to Consider before doing Amazon Product Research: Niche selection Brand restriction Competition Selling fees Profit margin calculation Why Amazon Product Research is Important for Amazon Sellers? If you are an Amazon seller, Amazon Product Research will help you select the best product to sell on Amazon and help identify the pain points of your customers. It will also help track customers and improve product descriptions. Now, what do we mean by “best product”? Well, the best product should be something that generates high sales with a huge profit margin. The product should also get positive reviews from customers consistently. You can conduct your research either manually or by using a range of automated tools. Start Your Amazon Product Research with Amazon Best-Sellers Page Amazon portal is an excellent source for product research. You can carry out product research manually by checking Amazon’s Best–Sellers Page. The Amazon Best-Sellers page displays items that generate the highest sale in each category and subcategory.  Don’t Forget To Scout for Potential Customers Amazon’s Best Sellers page helps to spy on potential competitors by giving access to their product listings externally. If you understand how ASIN optimization works, have a look at their website if they have one. Look at their ratings, reviews, and product descriptions, to get an insight into their best-selling product. This process might require manual intervention but it does allow sellers to be more involved in the current rankings on the Amazon marketplace especially if you’re aiming for a place on the bestseller page. Automation is the quickest way to conduct product research You can conduct your Amazon Product Research automatically using automated tools. Some of the best-automated tools for Amazon Product research are Jungle Scout, Unicorn Smasher, AMA One or AMZ Tracker, Keyword Inspector, and Amachete. These tools don’t need manual effort and are the quickest, if you’re at a loss of time, and don’t have virtual assistance. Don’t forget the “Customer’s Also Bought” Section The “Customer’s Also Bought” section appears on the Amazon page whenever a customer checks out their items from the cart. This section displays the lists of products that other buyers consider while purchasing the previous item. You can also focus on the Sponsored Products and Frequently Bought section for better insight. Checklist For Product Research: Identify your customers Determine your customer’s needs Select the right product category Identify your customers Keep the right pricing for your products Some exceptional ways to generate a product idea: Amazon’s Best-Sellers list Amazon Basics Amazon Storefront Amazon’s Movers and Shakers Amazon’s Customers Also Bought section Amazon’s Sponsored Products Amazon’s Frequently Bought Together section Search for products on Pinterest Explore Shopify Stores Ebay’s Trending List Don’t Commit These Mistakes in your Product Research At Any Cost! Selecting a very small niche It’s important to select a niche that generates high sales and has a good profit margin. So, choose an active market wisely to sell your products. Don’t select products where profits are uncertain. Low pricing of products Don’t set up your products for an extremely low price by seeing your competitor’s prices. Doing so will deliberately destroy your income. Your pricing decision should be different from your customers. Selling Private Label products Don’t select an undifferentiated product to sell on Amazon. You can’t sell private label products like BBQ globes, Yoga mats, and Silicon Wedding rings.  Not calculating the profit margins New Amazon sellers commit this mistake. Newbies underestimate the impression of Amazon’s fee on the products they want to sell. It is vital to use a proper FBA calculator to calculate profit margins. Not improving the product If you find that your competitors have a lot of negative reviews and bad ratings for the products of your niche and you still can’t improve on that, you are committing a huge mistake.

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How To Prepare Your Products For FBA Shipment

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Fulfilment by Amazon (FBA) is a great way of outsourcing all your backend operations to Amazon. Amazon does all the warehousing, fulfilling, shipping and customer service, leaving you with enough time to spend on marketing and promotional activities. FBA simplifies business operations in many ways, however, it is not easy to prepare your products for an FBA shipment. Let us take a detailed look at how to prepare for the Amazon warehouse. 1. Convert to FBA If you are already on Fulfillment by Merchant (FBM), you need to change it to Fulfillment by Amazon in Seller Central. For this, go to “Inventory” and “Manage Inventory”. In the “Actions,” drop-down menu, select “Change to Fulfillment by Amazon”. Note – You need not necessarily include all the SKUs in FBA. You can choose to have some in FBA and others in FBM as per your convenience and logistics requirements. 2. Choosing Your Preferences Right Once the products are set to FBA in “Manage Inventory”, you need to set your preferences – either FBA Prep Service or the Stickerless Commingled Inventory. FBA Prep Service – This will be the best choice if you don’t have the manpower to prep and label your products on your own. Of course, Amazon will take a small fee per unit prepared. But it will free up a lot of time on manual work which you can alternatively spend on ranking your products better. Stickerless Commingled Inventory – Opt for this if you are fine with inventory mixing with the goods of other sellers who sell the same product. This is not an option for Private Label sellers. The only advantage of this option is to spread out inventory across different warehouses to enable faster picking and shipping of your products from the closest fulfilment centre to the customer. 3. Creating a Shipping Plan The next step is to create a shipping plan for items that you are planning to send to Amazon’s warehouse for this particular shipment. The shipping plan asks for the “Ship from” address – the address from where you will be sending your goods to the warehouse. It also asks for the packing type. There are two options for the packing type: individual products and case-packed products. Case packed is to be chosen if you are selling a bulk number of units packed as a whole in a single case rather than selling individual units. 4. Labeling Products After creating your shipment plan, the next step is to print the labels to be applied to the product. Every label contains the barcode and the SKU title that is being prepared for shipment. Once you select “Prep by merchant”, you may click on the “Print labels for this page” which will automatically generate a PDF with all the barcodes for the number of labels that are printed. These barcodes are unique and specific to your shipment. These are used to track your products and shipment by Amazon. Print these labels on stick-on paper in order to easily affix them on the product boxes or bags. 5. Preparing Your Products Here comes the most important and tedious manual job. Getting products to be FBA-ready is the most important task because if you have not packed them as per Amazon FBA standards, they will be turned away and you need to bear the cost involved in shipping them back and repackaging them. Here are guidelines for getting it right the first time. • It is mandatory to have a visible and scannable barcode/ label pasted on the exterior of every unit. • Labels/ printed barcodes are to be covered by the Amazon printed label. • A unique SKU number on every label is needed. • If the product has multiple parts, everything has to be put together inside a single package with a single unique label and not in different packages. There are also different guidelines to pack different types of products. Loose products: Loose products can be bagged in a poly bag and secured with non-adhesive tape. Sets: If your product contains bundles or sets, it is best to put them in a case together or marked assets with a label reading “Sold as set. Do not separate”. Boxes: If your product comes in a box, it doesn’t need any additional packaging. Just ensure the box is secured well on all 6 sides to pass the 3-foot drop test and doesn’t collapse. If it does, then it has to be put in a poly bag to be extra secure. Poly Bag: Poly bags are mostly used for loose products. Make sure your poly bag is: • Transparent • Sealed • At least 1.5 mils thick • Has a scannable barcode sticker on the exterior • Not more than 3” past the dimensions of the product Case-Packed: This is when you are selling a large quantity of the same type of product together as a single unit as opposed to selling individual units. Here are guidelines for case-packed products: • Matching SKUs and labels are mandatory for all products in the box. • There should not be more than 150 units per case. • Every case-packed box in a shipment must contain the same number of units inside. Now that you have prepared your FBA shipment, drop off the package at your nearby UPS store and keep your fingers crossed while you wait for Amazon to receive it. It will take anywhere between 1-2 weeks for Amazon to receive your package and acknowledge you with an email confirmation. Once it is in Amazon’s warehouse, your products will go live and are eligible for Prime. Write to us in the comment section if you need any more information on this. Good luck and Happy selling!

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