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Hello Amazon Seller,
Thank you for being a subscriber, and thank you for opening this email.
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Jeff Bezos once had another name for his company. Instead of Amazon, he wanted to name it Relentless.com.
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Go ahead, click it and you will see. He registered it in 1994.
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Creation Date: 1994-09-25T04:00:00+0000
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Jeff has certainly been relentless.
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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, without any additional cost to you.
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Amazon introduces Astra the Robot
Every year about this time, Amazon has a secret, invitation-only meeting to announce their new inventions and hardware. The Astra Robot was the biggest announcement. It is an invitation-only to buy one though and they aren't available yet. Astra will sell for $999.
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Here’s everything Amazon announced:
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- Amazon Astro home robot
- Its first smart thermostat.
- The Echo Show 15, a big Amazon Echo Show that you can hang on the wall
- A ‘Hey Disney’ Amazon Echo partnership with Disney
- Amazon Glow, a video calling device that projects games that kids can play with other people
- A new Halo View fitness tracker and Halo Fitness and Halo Nutrition services
- Amazon will now let customers sign up to buy the Ring home security drone
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In Amazon’s Flagship Fulfillment Center, the Machines Run the Show
At BFI4 outside Seattle, the retailer uses algorithms and robots to ship more than a million packages a day—vastly changing the jobs of humans in the process.
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This is a long article from Bloomberg that is eye-opening at all the mechanisms that Amazon is trying in order to be the best at fulfillment. And many times to the detriment of those who work there.
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Reading it, I have nothing but empathy, concern and respect for the human beings who ship our products.
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Amazon Sellers Q4 Survival Guide 2021
This guide will cover all the best strategies that many 7 and 8 figure Amazon seller clients have used to dominate Q4 sales in past years.
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Brands make upwards of 70-90% of their annual revenue in the fourth quarter alone. Each year seems to smash the previous year’s all-time sales record.
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In Q4 2021, E-commerce sales are expected to rise 11.3% to $206.88 billion, up from $185.88 billion in 2020. Not to mention, Amazon’s net income has more than doubled since the start of the pandemic.
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But it’s not all sunshine and roses… Amazon Sellers caught by the many dangers of Q4 madness are perhaps more common, just less likely to shout their failure on social media.
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Read this guide from Kenji ROI and you’ll learn how to not only win big but even more importantly, how not to lose big.
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How You Can Help Report Fake Amazon Reviews
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What can you do about fake Amazon reviews? Former Amazonian and founder of ecommerceChris, Chris McCabe, explains in this article.
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There’s never been a better time for Amazon sellers to report fake Amazon reviews or sales rank manipulation to Amazon Product Review Abuse prevention teams.
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Whether it’s inserts that another seller added inside their product packaging, illicit “manychat” bots pushing buyers to leave good reviews after receiving a free product, or 100% rebates AFTER a positive review has been left, Amazon hungers for information that will help it track down and punish this type of fraud. The longer it takes Amazon to identify and delete fake reviews, while simultaneously punishing the sellers and services behind them, the worse the abuse gets.
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Amazon Chargebacks: Handle Customer Claims Like a Pro
For many sellers, there is nothing more tedious than dealing with an Amazon chargeback. These types of incidents occur when shoppers contact their bank directly to dispute a charge on their card related to a purchase they were not satisfied with.
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Having little or zero experience with this scenario might seem daunting, but rest assured that this is not the end of the world. By reading this quick guide, you will be able to navigate chargebacks like a pro.
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Pick a winning product to sell on Amazon
Here is a fun FREE page from Sellzone. No signup or anything. Just pick your category, keyword, and selling price range and see a page full of products and all kinds of info on that product, including how well it might sell.
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I really enjoyed playing with this page and hope you do too!
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From 40K a day to losing over $1 Million! – Kevin King shares a cautionary tale
You can do everything right with your online business, but volatile market conditions and the almighty Amazon algorithm will always have other plans. The man who needs no introduction, Kevin King, is back to discuss everything from forecasting and inventory management to product opportunities in the unlikeliest of places.
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The link below will take you to a podcast that I thought was just so interesting. Kevin King is one of the biggest sellers on Amazon and is a well-known and respected Amazon Expert. In this podcast he discusses one of his biggest failures.
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In episode 281 of the Serious Sellers Podcast, Bradley and Kevin discuss:
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- 03:00 – Kevin’s BIGGEST E-commerce Failure
- 19:30 – How the Average Amazon Seller Can Avoid Disaster
- 23:00 – Kevin’s Newest Amazon Endeavor
- 26:20 – Kevin’s Prediction for the Future of Selling on Amazon
- 30:40 – Why You Should Never Immediately Give Up on a “Weak” Product Opportunity
- 32:30 – The Art of Putting a Twist on an Otherwise Boring Product
- 33:50 – Now What’s Kevin King Up to With Helium 10?!
- 35:00 – Freedom Ticket is Getting a Big Upgrade
- 40:00 – Are There Any New Selling Strategies Sellers Should be Aware of?
- 45:20 – A New Service to Get “Product Opportunity on a Platter”
- 50:40 – The Best Way to Talk to Kevin King (Directly!)
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Why Ecommerce Brands Need Video
Rick Cesari has 25 years of experience using video to promote retail products. Think of a classic informational and he probably made it — George Foreman Grill, Sonicare toothbrush, Juice Man Juicer, and GoPro.
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In the mid-eighties, he was creating infomercials for real estate. Rick went on in the nineties to use direct response TV – TV ads that prompt viewers to respond immediately - often by calling a phone number – to market the Juice Man Juicer and Bread Man Bread Machine Deluxe.
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The 30-minute infomercial he made for the Sonicare toothbrush landed the brand in first place on the Inc list of fastest-growing companies and the business was sold to Phillips Electronics.
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This article is about Rick and there is a video where he talks about creating unique videos for products.
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10 New Metrics From Amazon for Sponsored Brands Video Campaigns
Coming soon, every Amazon seller will be able to see new metrics tied to Sponsored Brand Video (SBV) campaigns that will help them to better understand just how well their video ad campaigns are performing.
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Sponsored Brands video campaign metrics will now show:
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- viewable impressions
- view-through rate (VTR)
- viewable click-through rate (VCTR)
- 5-second views
- 5-second view rate
- video first quartile
- video midpoint
- video third quartile
- video completes
- unmutes.
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In this article, PPCEntourage breaks down what these metrics mean.
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Sponsored brand videos are for "brands" on Amazon.
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Benchmark Your Amazon Advertising Performance For Free
Sellics has a new FREE feature on their site. It is a benchmarking tool that measures your advertising strategies against those of your competitors. We tried it and it was eye-opening, to say the least, and a reason for us to reevaluate all of our advertising strategies.
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- Sponsored Ad Formats: Analyze Sponsored Products, Sponsored Brands & Sponsored Display
- Detailed Score: Understand if you belong to the top 20% – or the bottom
- Compare ACoS: Are you too conservative? Understand profitability dynamics in your category
- Benchmark CPC: How much are others paying for the same click? Learn how to find the perfect bid
- Grow CTR: Do your ad formats outperform the market? If not, learn how to increase the chances of getting a click
- Improve CVR: Are your products more bought than others? Learn how to beat the market & convince consumers
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I realize you are all Amazon Sellers already, but I thought this guide was so good, I decided to share it. I learned a couple of things reading it.
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This guide is from EcommerceCEO.com and the writer worked with 22 top Amazon experts to offer real advice – not just the same generic thing you get from many other guides like this.
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These experts are a mix of successful Amazon sellers, digital marketing consultants whose job focuses on helping Amazon entrepreneurs grow and scale their businesses, and more.
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Amazon Accelerate
Amazon Accelerate is an annual conference hosted by Amazon for the seller community. The event features keynote announcements, educational sessions, and networking opportunities.
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Attendees will learn about the newest products and services Amazon is launching to support seller success. This year's free virtual event is open to all sellers interested in taking their business to the next level, together with Amazon.
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October 20-21, 2021
Virtual Event
Sidenote: This was outstanding last year and I highly recommend it.
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As Amazon sellers, we know it can be challenging trying to work out the best steps to take for your biggest quarter on Amazon. You need to choose the most relevant keywords, price point, and design your campaign so that your product appears more often than competitors. and in the right places!
Zonguru is joining forces with Profit Whales and Black Label Advisor to share the ultimate Q4 strategies for Amazon sellers.
🇺🇸 October 6th 2021 @ 8.00 am (PST) / 10:00am (CST)
🇦🇺 October 7th 2021 @ 1.00 am (AEST)
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Amazon says it’s permanently banned 600 Chinese brands for review fraud
Remember when gadget vendors Aukey, Mpow, RavPower, Vava, TaoTronics, and Choetech started mysteriously disappearing from Amazon’s online storefront, and it turned out Amazon had intentionally yanked them while vaguely gesturing to the sanctity of its user reviews? Turns out they were just the tip of the iceberg. Amazon has now permanently banned over 600 Chinese brands across 3,000 different seller accounts, the company confirms to The Verge.
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Amazon says that’s the grand tally after five months of its global crackdown, and it’s no longer being shy about why: a spokesperson tells us these 600 brands were banned for knowingly, repeatedly, and significantly violating Amazon’s policies, especially the ones around review abuse.
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But did they really get rid of them? Not according to this article from The Verge that says some of them are back selling their wares using other accounts.
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New Seller Central feature
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There’s a new feature in Seller Central called Shipping Settings Automation.
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SSA helps merchant fulfilled sellers offer more accurate delivery promises. Items with active SSA settings can only be shipped with the stated service or something at least as fast. Missing the delivery deadline affects seller metrics.
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SSA calculates transit times for domestic non-Prime orders. The result will be based on ship-from location and carrier service. It can also set a default shipping region for SFP orders with 1/2-day shipping.
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Translation: When the customer is looking to see how long it would take to get the product, the calculation will be more accurate.
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And another new Seller Central feature
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On Oct. 21 there will be a new dashboard in Seller Central:
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It features definitions, formula explanations, and policies related to three key metrics. It also shares insight into current results and target thresholds.
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Here are the three return metrics it will track:
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- Return requests approved (in < 24h).
- Return requests declined (total).
- Rate of buyer contact about returns.
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Amazon introduced new Appeal Forms.
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There have been several accounts that received Intellectual Property Infringement Warnings and the appeal consisted of ticking a series of boxes regarding policy understanding. No documents or retraction needed. This might be a signal that Amazon is slowly toning down its harsh tone in these types of disputes.
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Restricted product appeals have also consisted of similar forms and recently Used Sold as New appeals have also taken this tick-a-box form.
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Extended Holiday Returns Policy
The Amazon Extended Holiday Returns Policy for 2021 requires that most of the items purchased between October 1, 2021, and December 31, 2021, be eligible for return through January 31, 2022. We will automatically authorize returns on your behalf to reflect the Extended Holiday Returns Policy.
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This link takes you to a page with the return rules for various kinds of products.
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Amazon and Lendistry launch Amazon Community Lending Pilot Program to fuel growth for small and medium-sized businesses
Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) and Lendistry announced a joint pilot program, Amazon Community Lending, aimed at driving growth opportunities for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) selling in Amazon’s store. The program is a new business financing option through Amazon Lending. Amazon Community Lending will provide U.S.-based Amazon sellers—nearly all of which are SMBs—access to short-term loans of up to $100,000 at competitive and affordable rates to sustain and grow their businesses.
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Amazon Success Story
Schrone Hardaway had served in the military since shortly after his 18th birthday. 22 years later, he wasn’t exactly sure what life after the military was going to look like. Now, he’s grown a Facebook audience to 17,000 followers and sells over 200K on Amazon.
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When asked by a friend in the military, “What are you going to do when you get out?” Schrone says that “In all honesty, I was going to be a greeter at Walmart or a GameStop manager.” Schrone says that “after being in stressful situations for twenty-two years, I just wanted to take it really easy.”
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That was the plan until the same friend said, “Why don’t you become an Amazon seller?” Schrone was skeptical. His friend then said, “I make 40,000 a month.”
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He says that from January 2019 to December 2019, he grossed $225k. Now, the revenue for Amazon is supplementing his pension and is paying all of his utilities right now and for the occasional luxury item.
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When asked “How many products are you selling?”
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Tidbits:
- Stockholm – September 21, 2021 – Starting today, customers in Sweden can join Amazon Prime, Amazon’s membership program, enjoyed by more than 200 million paid members in 22 countries.
- There is now a Deferred Transactions page in Seller Central. It will list individual deferred payments with their corresponding orders. Sellers will also be able to see when each amount is due for disbursement. Only disbursed transactions will be shown in Settlement reports from now on.
- A lot of phishing attempts have been noticed lately. Make sure that you always carefully read the email and it is best if you don’t click on any links sent, even if the address is very similar to the ones Amazon uses. A quick search online usually reveals other sellers validating or invalidating addresses or can warn you of scams. Also, if you get a notification about anything in your account, always make sure to check it in the account directly or contact seller support if you’re unsure.
- In January, Marketplace Pulse reported that 75% of all new sellers on Amazon were based in China.
- From Amazon to some sellers: "To verify the information related to your account, you need to complete virtual identity verification over a video call. To reserve a time slot for the interview, please fill out the form here." Wow!
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ASellerTool consists of two tools for Amazon sellers: Scoutly for scouting and TurboLister for listing and they are both included in the monthly fee.
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Scoutly was previously called FBAScan. You can download the Amazon pricing database to your phone, so you will get instant pricing information anywhere, anytime without an Internet connection. The app also supports live look-up so you can search all Amazon items using your phone's internet connection. The local database is preferable to using an internet connection because it is much faster, along with a much better battery life. You can scan with your phone's camera, but it will be faster if you have a Bluetooth scanner like a Scanfob for example, to scan the UPC codes. You can also purchase a separate PDA device with a scanner and download the Amazon database to it so that you can quickly scan items where there is no connection.
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You will need to download and refresh before scouting. You cannot download the whole Amazon database, as there is only data for books, music CDs, audio CDs, DVDs, Blu-rays, software, games, board games, and toys. It lists all the typical data such as sales rank, merchant prices, Amazon price, the number of sellers, etc. You have the capability to set a pricing trigger. A pricing trigger is just a sound or signal to tell you to buy a book based on predefined criteria. For example, maybe you want to set a trigger to sound above a certain price point, below a certain sales rank, etc.
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TurboLister speeds up the process of listing your inventory on Amazon because it has several different presets that allow you to grade your items quickly and efficiently. For example, you just press a button to add info about a book’s condition (worn-out cover, torn cover, etc.). They have default presets already set up for you, but you can also build your custom presets. The software allows you to list items on Amazon as Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) or Merchant Fulfillment (MF). You can list 100 items in an hour or less. For FBA sellers, it will let you combine items to the same Fulfillment center into one FBA shipment, print out the FNSKU label, and 2D box content. You can use batch mode to further speed up the listing process, so you can list 100 items in minutes.
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Unlimited Internet Search + Amazon Listing Software (TurboLister): $9.95/mo
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Local Database + Unlimited Live + Amazon Listing Software (TurboLister): $35/mo
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Deals we know about....
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NOTE: Above offers are subject to change.
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Thank you for reading. I wish you unbelievable success. Selling on Amazon can be challenging sometimes, 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!
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Visit our website for all sorts of Amazon resources:
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And more.....
Happy Selling on Amazon.
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Making Sense Of Selling On Amazon
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