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Hello Amazon Seller,
It is in the darkness that we find the light.
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This email may contain affiliate links which means we may earn referral fees if you make a purchase through our links, but without any additional cost to you.
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Amazon Is Using 3P Sellers to Fund Its Monopoly Empire, Report Finds
A nonprofit organization’s report reveals how Amazon maintains its power by putting the burden on third-party sellers on the platform to offset its losses in other areas. It calls out the eCommerce giant on its alleged report manipulation to hide the fact that sellers are funding the company’s journey towards monopoly.
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So how does Amazon do it?
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Amazon Collects Over a Third of Sellers’ Revenues
The 23-page report by the Institute for Local Self-Reliance (ILSR) has three key findings:
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- Amazon’s fees have grown sharply and are harming independent businesses.
- Amazon relies on profits from seller fees to fund its monopolization and expansion strategies.
- To end Amazon’s exploitation of small businesses, policymakers must focus on structural solutions.
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Amazon Web Services outage hits sites and apps such as IMDb and Tinder
Several Amazon services – including its website, Prime Video and applications that use Amazon Web Services (AWS) – went down for thousands of users on Tuesday, December 7.
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Amazon said the outage was probably due to problems related to the application programming interface (API), which is a set of protocols for building and integrating application software, Reuters reported.
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“We are experiencing API and console issues in the US-East-1 Region,” Amazon said in a report on its service health dashboard, adding that it had identified the cause. By late afternoon the outage appeared to be partially resolved, with the company saying that it was “working towards full recovery”.
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Customers drove record-breaking Black Friday through Cyber Monday sales on Amazon
It was a record-breaking Black Friday and Cyber Monday for Amazon, and some of this year’s top-selling categories included Home, Toys, and Apparel and the best-selling items were:
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- Apple AirPods,
- REVLON One-Step Hair Dryer
- Fire TV Stick with Alexa Voice Remote
- Echo Dot (3rd Gen)
- All-new Echo Show 5 (2nd Gen)
- Sengled Smart Light Bulbs
- Beats Studio Buds
- Colorfulkoala Yoga Pants
Plus, more than half of sales from Black Friday through Cyber Monday were from independent selling partners, most of which are small and medium-sized businesses.
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How Amazon battles the supply chain issues
I have written about this before but came across this great video about how Amazon overcomes supply chain issues. It is from CNBC and is well done.
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Brands are betting that shopping in virtual reality is on the horizon
Brands are slowly adopting virtual reality in the hopes that the burgeoning trend may succeed Livestream and social commerce as the hot new retail technology.
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Companies that have already experimented with new forms of online shopping are becoming early adopters of the nascent tech, which is mainly associated with gaming but has also found room for fitness and workplace productivity software. Dyson in late November released a virtual reality app for the Oculus Quest 2 headset from Meta (formerly Facebook) as part of a push to expand its direct-to-consumer business onto more platforms.
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Currently, Dyson’s VR app enables users to interact with virtual products. Customers can use its hairdryers on hair that changes color as it heats up and hoover debris with its V15 cordless vacuum as part of the new experience. The company intends to add a video chat option with customer service staff in the future as part of a laundry list of planned updates. Like its AR and live shopping initiatives, the VR experience is also part of Dyson’s attempt to boost its direct-to-consumer business using tech.
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Amazon Sponsored Products (Ads) Made Easy: Strategy & Optimization
If you're fairly new to the world of Amazon Advertising, this excellent guide from Sellics contains all you need to know about Sponsored Products Ads and shows you how to set up your first campaigns.
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8 Amazon Product Advertising Tips to Transition from Q4 to Q1
The end of 2021 is almost here and so comes the end of the shopping season. Having your plan in place now is crucial to maintain your profit as sales start to slow in the new year. Are you ready to ring in 2022 with your advertising strategy?
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Ecommerce Trends For 2022
Ready for expert forecasts of eCommerce trends for 2022?
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Ecommerce changed significantly in 2021. As the pandemic continued, new challenges emerged with supply chain and fulfillment.
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Social media and Amazon Live became more important channels for selling. Amazon, Walmart, and eBay all created new advertising opportunities. And a whole lot more happened.
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Which of these challenges will continue into 2022? What new opportunities will emerge? What new ideas will you want to implement in 2022? What are the trends to watch in the new year?
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Teikametrics has rounded up expert answers to these questions in this blog post, which is also available in video.
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What's happening right now that's causing brands to hear angry words from unhappy customers? Plenty!
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Eric Wohlstadter, President at CommerceRev, will join me for some real talk on what many brands are experiencing, and how he and his team are helping soothe the savage customer.
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- How to get fewer returns on Amazon
- Customer returns and their impact on your brand
- How shipping delays impact your account health, and what to do about it
- Tips and tricks for dealing with unhappy customers, and dodging those painful negative feedback and reviews
Tuesday, December 14th from 1-2 pm ET
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Free BSR Chart
The Amazon Category Best Sales Rank Chart might not be as pertinent as it was in years past, but it still provides value and is worth a look.
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Every product is assigned a BSR by Amazon that changes by minute, hour, or day. This rank is indicative of how well an item is selling in its category. A rank of 1 would be the best product in that category. The higher the BSR, the fewer the sales of that product. As with most things with Amazon, it is complicated.
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The BSR Chart lists the rankings per category. so let's say you are sourcing books and you find one with a BSR of 3 million. You might think you should pass, but in Books, a rank of 3.5 million is in the top 5%. Home and Kitchen is another category where a rank of 4 million is in the top 5%.
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Consider this chart yet another tool in helping you to find products to sell on Amazon. The chart can be downloaded from Chris Grant's website at the link below. Sign up and he will send you a new one as he updates them.
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Join BQool for a live webinar where BQool Repricer experts will walk you through the important software features and answer all your questions to help you make the most of your Q4!
Date: Wed, Dec 15, 2021 · 7:00 PM · Pacific Time (US & Canada)
Duration: 1 hour 20 minutes
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Free ASIN Index Checker
Make sure your customers on Amazon can find you with this FREE tool by ZonGuru. Index check your ASINs for any keyword on Amazon and never get left in the dark again.
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Amazon Individual vs. Professional Account: A Comprehensive Roundup
Selecting the wrong type of seller account at the beginning can have negative consequences on your selling journey. If you are considering opening an Amazon seller account and sitting on the fence, Zonguru wrote a blog to ensure you make the right choice.
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Great Cyber Deals From Jungle Scout
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Each of Jungle Scout's plans comes with exclusive bonuses, including:
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• How To Sell on Amazon 2022 PDF ($99 value) • Getting Started Checklist ($59 value) • Month by Month Seller Guide ($39 value) • Entry to win one of five $100 Amazon Gift Cards
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Tidbits:
- Online marketplaces including eBay and Amazon are offering smaller online brands local pickup options as a way for them to tap into the click-and-collect boom.
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Starting on the 1st of December, Amazon will automatically verify customer claims and offer refunds on your behalf for specific scenarios where Amazon can verify package delivery using the tracking information provided during order confirmation.
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- Amazon seller valuations have doubled since the start of 2020. There were only a few buyers then, and the concept of selling an Amazon seller business seemed far-fetched. Sellers were heavily undervalued, and the market is now catching up. According to Marketplace Pulse research, Amazon private label sellers are getting acquired for multiples of 4x - 8x, plus an earn-out that could bring the total valuation north of 10x.
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SmartScout is a tool for Amazon Sellers that can quickly find brands and products that match specific criteria. It was built by Scott Needham, a massive Amazon seller who owns BuyBoxer. This is the software he used to build his impressive Amazon business, which sells over 300,000 products. The data comes from deep within Amazon.
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There are tools in this software that you will not see anywhere else. Their FBA Calculator tells you what exactly needs to change with a product as far as size and weight in order to be put in a cheaper tier. This is invaluable for private label sellers.
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Their traffic graph will show you how many people saw your products and where that traffic came from. This tells you which products to focus on with advertising and what is most important to stock.
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The traffic flow map will show what products are usually suggested by Amazon as an “also bought with” product. This can help tremendously with possible bundles and also which other products to target so your ad shows up on their page.
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With the subcategories tool, you can quickly scan all the subcategories within any category on Amazon using SmartScout's intuitive file directory system. Perform in-depth analyses of products and brands on Amazon within similar or related subcategories so you can expand your product offerings
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If you are an agency then this software is excellent for finding Amazon sellers who need your help or whose business you might want to purchase.
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The software also gives you access to key filters such as Amazon in-stock rate, the average number of sellers, average selling price, and even sales revenue. The software gives the sales breakdown of each brand to find which sellers are doing most of the volume. It also lets you see which brands are private-labeled.
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One of the best features of SmartScout is seeing which products are out of stock across Amazon categories. No other software seems to do this. And if you can find those products elsewhere and send them to Amazon, you can usually name your price if it is a hot product.
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- Searches are fast, easy, and fun.
- Use numerous data fields, such as the number of sellers, revenue, etc. to zero in on the best products.
- Know if there is a dominant seller who gets 60% of the sales
- See the Amazon in-stock rate
- Products are rated on a score of 1 to 10 with their in-house rating system
- View your information by category, brand, product, or seller. You can even view products and sellers of multiple brands in different tabs.
- Use extensive product filters to narrow down the best private label products for your business to sell
- Quickly see the average rating and buy box price on any item
They also offer courses for Amazon sellers.
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Pay as you grow with Teikametrics Flywheel 2.0
Teikametrics Flywheel is the AI-powered advertising platform to connect, optimize, and grow your business on Amazon, Walmart.com, and beyond.
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AI-Powered Flywheel 2.0 is free for businesses under $10K in monthly marketplace sales. Affordable, scaled pricing for everyone else.
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Thank you for reading. I wish you unbelievable success. Selling on Amazon can be challenging sometimes, however, goals can be achieved by working hard and not giving up.
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Any suggestions about our site or this newsletter are welcome. Just hit reply and let us know your thoughts.
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Keep sourcing, keep selling, keep learning, keep growing.
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You can do this!
Visit our website for all sorts of Amazon resources:
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And more.....
Happy Selling on Amazon. Let's go Brandon!
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Making Sense Of Selling On Amazon
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