Are you looking to take your eCommerce business to the next level? Whether you are already selling on Amazon or planning to, you have to look at FBA and what it can do for your business. This article will show you what FBA is, how the fees work, and how you can reduce your overall cost of using the service. Read on to get started.

What FBA is and why you should use it

Let’s start with the basics. To begin, FBA is an acronym for Fulfillment by Amazon and represents a service that Amazon offers to let you quickly and efficiently fulfill online orders.

As anyone with an eCommerce business knows, picking and packing customer orders takes significant time, effort, and money. FBA allows you to outsource this work to Amazon. Instead of sending out every single package, you send your inventory in bulk to Amazon warehouses. Then, when a customer makes an order, Amazon picks, packs, and ships the items.

Using FBA gives you, as the seller, several significant benefits:

Access to Prime and Amazon’s logistics network

The first thing FBA allows you to do is offload your fulfillment capabilities to Amazon, a dedicated solution to your business that knows how to do fulfillment right. In addition, FBA lets you take advantage of Amazon’s vast warehouse and delivery network.

Amazon’s fulfillment capabilities are remarkable since the company is as much a master of logistics as it is of eCommerce. By tapping into FBA, you tap into Amazon’s entire logistics infrastructure — a network of hundreds of warehouses located strategically throughout the United States and interconnected by a whole fleet of trailers, rail cars, and planes.

Easy flat-fee structure

Traditional carriers like FedEx or UPS often rely on zone-based pricing. This pricing model means the cost of sending a package can vary widely, depending on the destination. Unfortunately, this structure also makes it challenging for sellers to forecast their fulfillment costs accurately.

FBA takes much guesswork out of the equation by charging a flat fee, regardless of where the item is now and its final delivery point. Whether the product is going from New Jersey to Oklahoma or Florida to Montana, you, as the seller, will pay the same fulfillment cost. This pricing structure makes it much easier to understand and estimate your costs.

Better visibility on Amazon’s website

Using FBA also boosts your ability to sell on Amazon. Sellers who use FBA will rank better in Amazon’s search results than sellers who fulfill the items themselves.

Why does Amazon give sellers who use FBA an advantage? Many customers who shop on Amazon like to take advantage of Amazon Prime’s two-day (or sooner) shipping service. Thus, to cater to those customers, items delivered through Amazon are shown first — while items from sellers who ship from other warehouses are pushed farther down on the results page. If you’re using FBA, the products you sell are more likely to be seen first and, as a result, bought first.

Now that you know the benefits of FBA let’s get into the practical details of how to use it for your business.

Getting your products into Amazon warehouses

To start using FBA, you have to get your inventory to Amazon. Whether your products are currently at your manufacturer, co-packer, 3PL, prep partner, or logistics partner, you need to send them to Amazon’s network of warehouses.

That generally means choosing a delivery service to move your items. Here are the main options you have to pick from:

Small parcel versus LTL/FTL

When deciding how to send your products to Amazon, you need to consider three key factors:

• How much space do your products take up?
• How long are you willing to wait before your items start selling?
• How much do you need to send in?

If your products are light and don’t take up much room, shipping them via small parcel carriers like UPS might be the best option. This method will get your items over to Amazon quickly — and checked in quickly on Amazon’s end too.

However, if your products are heavier or more voluminous, you’ll save on delivery costs by selecting the LTL (less than truckload) or FTL (full truckload) option. With this method, your products must be palletized and loaded onto a trailer that eventually makes its way to an Amazon warehouse. If you have a significant quantity of items, this option will be more cost-efficient than sending them in small parcels. It will, however, also be the slower option, sometimes taking a week or two for delivery and check-in at the destination.

The best scenario is for you to calculate the higher costs of sending by small parcel against the longer timeline required for an LTL or FTL shipment. If you are already selling at scale and are consistently replenishing inventory at Amazon, LTL or FTL is your best long-term option. However, if your inventory levels are getting dangerously low at Amazon, it may be worth paying more to send in a limited quantity via the small parcel service for replenishment and send larger LTL or FTL shipments simultaneously.

Independent carrier vs. Amazon partnered carrier

Whether you opt for small parcel delivery or LTL/FTL, you’ll need to decide if you want to go with an Amazon-partnered carrier or a carrier unaffiliated with Amazon.

Choosing an Amazon-partnered carrier can streamline the process of getting your products to Amazon and often lower the costs. This is because Amazon’s partnered carrier network has existing relationships with the company and offers you negotiated rates that help reduce your costs.

In the case of small parcels, Amazon’s partnered carrier is UPS, which offers competitive, pre-negotiated rates to ship to Amazon warehouses. On the FTL or LTL side, Amazon works with many freight carriers that offer competitive rates. An additional benefit of working with an Amazon-partnered carrier is that you don’t have to worry about setting up delivery appointments because partners have pre-set appointments with Amazon. I recommend sticking with Amazon’s partnered carriers when going the FTL or LTL route because this makes the process much smoother for all involved.

Once your products are in Amazon’s warehouses, it’s time to start selling. So next, we’ll discuss clever tips for keeping your FBA fees as low as possible.

How Amazon determines an item’s FBA fees

Amazon determines the FBA cost of an item based on size and weight. This means the length, height, and width of your product — as well as its weight and dimensional weight. Knowing how to minimize these can keep fees low.

Be strategic about package design

Standardizing your packaging across all channels is the norm if you run a retail business in addition to an eCommerce one. However, optimizing your packaging for eCommerce could save you quite a lot on fulfillment costs. The same product with a different packaging that’s smaller or weighs less could end up putting your item in a less expensive size tier in terms of FBA fees, making a significant difference on your bottom line.

Thus, it pays to check your product’s dimensions and weights against the size tiers listed on Amazon’s website. If Amazon is a significant channel for you, consider these size tiers in every part of your business process, from product design and development to packaging materials.

Consider multipacks and bundles

A strategy is essential when building multipacks and bundles for your products too. Using Amazon’s FBA size guidelines, ensure you put your items together in the most size-efficient way, taking up as little room as possible. Resist the urge to throw your products in a larger box, but instead pack them in a perfectly-sized box or poly bag that takes up less space, reducing your FBA fees.

Auditing your FBA fees

You must conduct a regular audit to keep your FBA fees in check. Luckily, Amazon Seller Central makes this process relatively simple. Here’s how to get started.

Check the Amazon reports

The first step to auditing your FBA fees is downloading your report from Amazon. In Amazon Seller Central, head to the “Reports” section, then select “Fulfillment.” Once you get there, look under the “Payments” section on the left-hand side and click on the “Fee Preview” report.

The Fee Preview report is one that Amazon typically automatically runs for you every day. I recommend downloading the latest one as a CSV file, so you can easily pull it up using Excel or Google Sheets. Once you open the file, you’ll be able to see all the products you sell through Amazon. You’ll also be able to see what Amazon has on record as the weight and measurements of each item.

Now it’s time to audit your products. Verify that Amazon’s record of each product reflects your actual product weight and dimensions. While the measurements don’t have to be exact, they should be close to your records. Once in a while, Amazon mismeasures the length of a product or miscalculates the weight. If this has happened to any of your products, take note of it and go on to the next step.

Ask Amazon to remeasure and reweigh the item

If you determine from the “Fee Preview” report that Amazon’s record of your product’s weight and dimensions is incorrect, take the necessary steps to correct it.

First, navigate to the “Help” tab on Amazon, scroll to the bottom, click “Get Support,” and then “Selling on Amazon.” Once you get to that page, you’ll be able to describe the issue you’re having. Typing in a phrase like “FBA fee” will prompt Amazon to ask if you’re having a problem with FBA product weights and dimensions. Confirm this is indeed your issue.

At this point, type in the ASIN or FNSKU of your item into the search box and hit “Next.” Amazon will then restate the package dimensions and weight and your current fulfillment fees. You’ll then be able to request product remeasurement and reimbursement for incorrect order fees.

Amazon limits the number of times you can request remeasurements due to sellers abusing this service in the past, so ensure your product has been weighed or mismeasured before asking Amazon to remeasure. Once you submit the request, Amazon will have a worker remeasure and reweigh your item on a Cubiscan machine.

If Amazon determines that the previous measurements were incorrect, they will change your FBA fee to reflect the correct weight and dimensions. Sometimes, Amazon will automatically reimburse you for overcharged fees; other times, you’ll need to take an extra step to ask for a reimbursement. The timeline for how quickly such issues get resolved can vary, but I recommend auditing your fees monthly to ensure they are correct.

How to reduce your FBA fees

After you’ve audited your FBA fees, you still have two opportunities to continue reducing them:

Optimize inbound deliveries

Lower your cost of selling by optimizing the products you send to Amazon’s warehouses. Determine how to make your shipments to Amazon as dense as possible while still staying within Amazon’s requirements: 50 pounds max per box on small parcel shipments through UPS ground and 1,500 pounds for an LTL/FTL pallet that’s no more than 72 inches high.

You can also save money by changing your seller settings to let Amazon decide where to send your inventory instead of the location closest to the source. In Seller Central, under “Settings,” go to “Fulfillment” settings, then “Fulfillment by Amazon.” Once there, go under inbound settings and ensure the “Inventory Placement Option” is “Distributed Inventory Placement.” Choosing this option will prevent you from paying added fees per item.

Ensure prep is done perfectly

A second way to reduce FBA fees is by prepping your items correctly before they arrive at Amazon. While Amazon can do prep work, that extra work comes at an additional cost. Have your manufacturer or a dedicated prep center take care of this to save money and time.

Because Amazon has a vast logistics network, they have a standardized prep process for different types of items. Make sure you follow these to a tee. If you prep your items incorrectly, they will not pass the break test or may need to be sent back for adjustments — in which case your inventory will become unfulfillable, requiring you to remove, re-prep, then return the items at Amazon, all at your cost.

Increased fees in 2022

Amazon isn’t immune to inflation and rising fuel costs, which means FBA fees have gone up this year. Here’s the latest on what you can expect:

Fuel surcharge

On April 28, 2022, Amazon implemented a new fuel inflation surcharge of 5% on top of the current FBA fulfillment fee per unit rates. Up to this point, there has not been any news about whether and when Amazon will remove this surcharge.

Holiday surcharge

In August 2022, Amazon announced an additional fee called a “Holiday Surcharge” that will apply to items sold between October 15, 2022, to January 14, 2023. The surcharge varies depending on the size and weight of the product, but on average, it is an increase of about 35 cents on each item sold.

A retailer passing off additional costs to sellers is nothing new, but remember that you, as the seller, absorb these increased costs, so make sure you take them into account when using FBA. Use the revenue calculator on Amazon Seller Central for a complete breakdown of your fees and subsequent margins. If your margins are diminishing, you may need to adjust the cost of your products accordingly.

Ready for FBA

If you’ve been considering FBA for your business, there is much to understand. The sooner you take advantage of FBA’s many benefits, the faster you can remove some of the burden and headaches caused by fulfilling products yourself. With some prep and planning, you can optimize your selling experience on Amazon for better efficiency and profit.

About the Author

Ryan Flynn is the founder and CEO of Charmac, a digital marketing agency that helps retail-focused brands reach more customers on Amazon. Charmac provides content creation and done-for-you account management solutions to help you succeed in the Amazon marketplace. Whether you need a new or refreshed product page or are ready to outsource the day-to-day of Amazon, the experts at Charmac can help. They specialize in creating high-converting content that matches your brand and can strategically manage advertising, reviews, inventory forecasting, and more. To learn more, visit Charmac.com.

This is a guest post from Lena Einschütz. Lena is the Marketing Manager at BidX, which supports Amazon merchants with software solutions that automate and optimize advertising on and off Amazon.

If you’re an online seller looking to boost your visibility on Amazon, then conducting Amazon keyword research is essential.

By finding profitable keywords, you can improve your rankings on Amazon’s search engine results pages (SERPs), drive more traffic to your products, and boost sales.

Let’s get started!

Why Is the Right Set of Keywords So Important for Amazon Sellers?

Three out of four online shoppers never scroll past the first page of search results. So if your products are ranking low on Amazon’s SERPs, you could be missing out on potential sales.

This is why inputting the right set of keywords is crucial to your success on Amazon. The right keywords can improve your rankings on Amazon’s SERPs, increasing your product’s chances of being seen and purchased by potential customers.

Additionally, Amazon is constantly changing its algorithm, which can impact your rankings over time. By doing Amazon keyword research periodically, as well as making adjustments to your listings and PPC campaigns accordingly, you can keep your products visible and drive long-term sales.

How to Find the Right Keywords for Your Amazon Listing

There are several ways you can conduct keyword research to boost your product’s visibility:

1. Get to Know Your Customers’ Shopping Behaviors

Online marketers use the term “buyer persona” to describe a customer’s needs, wants, and shopping habits. When you know your buyer persona well, you can better understand the types of keywords they’re likely to use when searching for products on Amazon.

To get to know your buyer persona, consider these factors:

• Need: What problem are your customers trying to solve?
• Want: Why would they want to purchase your product?
• Location: Where are they searching from?
• Language: What type of language do they use when searching for products?
• Budget: How much are they willing to spend?

Once you have a good understanding of your target audience, you can then brainstorm the types of keywords they might use when searching for your product on Amazon.

2. Find Keyword Combinations Using the Cluster Method

The “cluster method” is a keyword research technique in which you brainstorm relevant keyword stems and then “branch off” of those stems with a list of related keywords.

Here’s how it works:

First, identify a few keyword stems (or “seeds”) that best describe your product in a straightforward way. For this brainstorming exercise, we recommend that you hold off on using an online keyword tool like Google Keyword Planner to generate ideas. Keyword tools may be useful, but they can also limit your creativity.

Instead, think back to your buyer persona and the questions you have answered about your customer’s needs and wants. What words or phrases come to mind when you think about what your product offers? How does it help your customers solve their pain points?

For example, let’s say your product is a coaster that prevents glasses, cups, and mugs from sticking to it whenever your customer takes a drink (as some plastic-coated coasters are guilty of).

In this case, you might come up with a “non-stick coaster” or “non-slip coaster”.

Note: Amazon’s algorithm typically covers related keyword combinations and individual words, so the non-hyphenated “nonstick” and “nonslip” may also be included in the SERPs.

Once you have identified a few potential keyword stems, it’s time to branch off. Some keyword combinations for Amazon sellers might include the product’s material. For example:

• non-stick coaster ceramic
• non-slip coaster silicone

And some may target a particular use case:

• non-stick coaster for wine glass
• non-stick coaster for cold beverages
• non-slip coaster for cold drinks

As you can see, the cluster method can help you generate a long list of relevant keywords. Once you’ve found them, add them to a spreadsheet so you can track your progress as you optimize your Amazon listings later.

3. Use Online Tools to Find Additional Keyword Combinations

Once you have a list of seed keywords, it’s time to dig deeper and find even more keyword combinations that customers might use when searching for your product.

There are a few different ways you can do this:

Amazon’s Auto-Complete Feature:

Typing a word or phrase into Amazon’s search box will trigger a drop-down menu of suggested keywords based on the platform’s search data.

For example, if you’re selling hiking boots, Amazon’s auto-complete feature might suggest the following keywords and phrases when you start typing “hiking boots” into the search box:

– hiking boots men

– hiking boots women

– hiking boots size 10

– hiking boots waterproof

– hiking boots men waterproof lightweight

Do any of the suggested keywords align with your buyer persona and your product itself? If so, consider incorporating them into your product listings or PPC campaigns.

Research Your Competitors

Do a simple Amazon search for your main keyword stem and take note of the products that appear on the first page of the results. These are your direct competitors.

Next, click on each product listing and take a close look at the keyword section. Notice the product’s title, description, and bullet points (if any). What keywords do your competitors include in their product listings? Are there any combinations that you haven’t thought of yet? If so, add them to your spreadsheet for further consideration.

Use Keyword Research Tools

Keyword research tools provide valuable insights about which keywords are being searched for the most on Amazon (and other websites).

Some keyword research tools that Amazon sellers use include:

• Google Keyword Planner
• SEM Rush
• KW Finder

These tools are especially useful in determining which keywords have “high-volume, low-competition” scores. That is, a lot of people are searching for these keywords, but not many sellers are targeting them in their product listings or PPC campaigns. Therefore, using them on your product page may help you rank higher in the SERPs.

What Are the Different Keyword Types That Amazon Sellers Should Be Aware Of?

When conducting Amazon keyword research, it’s important to understand the main keyword types you’ll encounter. This is especially useful if you plan on running paid campaigns, as the keywords you choose to bid on will determine your ad’s success. Paid ads are especially important because they drive traffic to your product and increase the chances of sales.

Example: If you sell sunglasses and advertise a product with the keyword “sunglasses men”, your ad will appear at the top of the SERP (if you have a certain relevance and make an appropriate bid) if “sunglasses men” has been entered into the Amazon search field.

Keywords for paid ads are separated into different match types. Here’s a quick overview of each match type and how they work:

Exact Match: This search query must match your keyword exactly for your product to appear in the SERPs. For example, if you’re targeting the keyword “non-stick coaster,” your ad will only appear when someone types in that exact phrase or its plural form.

Phrase Match: These keywords must be included in the customer’s search query, but they can appear in any order. For example, the phrase match keyword “non-stick coaster” could trigger your ad to appear for a customer search query like “best non-stick coaster” or “non-stick coaster for cold drinks.” It won’t, however, trigger your ad to appear for a customer search query like “no-stick coaster” (misspelling) or “coasters non-stick” (keywords in the wrong order).

Broad Match: These keywords will trigger your ad to appear for customer search queries that contain all keyword terms or close variations, so words can be in any order and additional words can be included. For example, the broad match keyword “non-stick coaster” could trigger your ad to appear for customer search queries like “ceramic non-stick coasters” or “coasters that don’t stick.”

Manual management of keywords is very complicated and time-consuming, as you need to regularly adjust the bids and move the keywords to the respective match type. For this reason, we recommend a PPC management tool like Bidx, which adjusts the bids for your keywords and match types fully automated based on machine learning algorithms.

How Does Amazon SEO Differ From Google SEO?

If you’re familiar with SEO for Google, you might be wondering how Amazon’s search engine differs. After all, both platforms are essentially search engines, so the basics should be the same, right?

Not quite.

For starters, Amazon ranks products based on:

– The relevancy of a product’s title, bullets, and description to the customer’s search query

– Seller authority (historical sales data, reviews, etc.)

– Click-through rate (the number of clicks the product receives from the SERPs)

– Conversion rate (the number of sales the product generates)

By contrast, Google’s search engine ranks websites based on factors like:

– The quality and quantity of a website’s backlinks

– The relevancy of a website’s content to the customer’s search query

– The website’s domain authority (the higher the score, the higher the ranking)

As you can see, there are some key differences between Amazon and Google SEO. However, the same best practice of optimizing your product page for relevant keywords still applies.

How To Optimize Keywords for Product Listings

To optimize your product listings for Amazon SEO:

Use keyword-rich titles:

Make sure your product’s title includes the main keyword you’re targeting.

Use keyword-rich descriptions:

In the “Product Description” section of your listing, you can include a longer description of your product. As with the title, be sure to use keyword-rich phrases and bullet points to further optimize your listing.

Use “backend” keywords:

Backend keywords can help Amazon’s search engine better understand what your product is about. Because they aren’t visible to customers, they’re also called “hidden” keywords or meta tags. These are typically synonyms, abbreviations, and other related terms that you can add to your listing from your Amazon Seller Central dashboard.

In Conclusion

Amazon keyword research is an essential part of Amazon SEO. By targeting profitable keywords, you can improve your listing’s visibility in search results and increase your chances of making a sale.

Remember to use keyword-rich titles and descriptions, and don’t forget about backend keywords. With some effort, you can optimize your listing for Amazon’s search engine and especially your PPC Ads to drive more traffic (and sales!) to your product page.

If you want to be successful on Amazon, you should optimize your Amazon PPC Ads for maximum visibility. Since this is really time-consuming and you need a lot of expertise, we recommend a PPC Management tool like BidX. BidX continuously analyzes your keywords and bids and adjusts them accordingly, so you can make the most of your money.

Click here to try BidX for free.

This is a guest post from Empire Flippers, removing the friction from buying and selling online businesses and have helped people buy and sell over $400 million worth of online businesses.

When Amazon and DTC sellers come to the end of a year of selling, they tend to ask themselves: “Can I repeat the same level of success next year?”. This question becomes bigger every year as the markets and economy change.

With the huge task of running your business successfully for another entire year, you might also ask yourself: “Do I want to do the same again next year?”

There will eventually come a point in your life when it’s time to move on from your business:

• A personal life change might need your full attention
• You might get tired of slugging away for years and want to take a nice long vacation
• You might not want to reinvest most of your profits and a ton of resources into continued growth

When you get to this point, it’s time to start thinking about selling your business.

Should I Sell My Amazon/eCommerce Business?

With careful planning and a solid exit strategy, you can free yourself from your business, hand it over to a new owner who has the capital and resources needed to take it to the next level and enjoy your capital reward for everything you’ve put into it.

Plus, you’re freeing your business so it can reach its fullest potential!

Your financial goals will probably be the biggest factors that dictate how and when you sell. We’ll cover how your business is valued in this article.

But to give you an idea of the current state of the Amazon and eCommerce mergers and acquisitions market, the average sale multiple—a figure that reflects the value of your business as an investment asset—for Amazon FBA and eCommerce businesses is 40.84X. This figure is multiplied by your monthly net profit to arrive at your business’ valuation, so if your business is earning $25,000 in monthly net profit, it could be worth over $1,000,000.

In this article, we’re going to walk you through the stages of preparing and selling your Amazon or eCommerce business to give you a clear exit plan. You’ll learn how to increase your business’ salability, profitability, operability, and overall strength.

So let’s get into it!

Who Buys Amazon and eCommerce Businesses?

Buyers of $1,000,000+ businesses tend to be acquisition firms called aggregators. They’re funded by venture capital and family offices to acquire, run, and scale online businesses on behalf of investors.

These aggregators are typically looking for established brands with a few niche-dominating SKUs, a simple supply chain structure, good supplier relationships/exclusivity contracts, and a unique brand.

Other buyers of Amazon and eCommerce businesses are operators funded by high-net-worth individuals and institutional investors looking for a passive way to invest in online businesses.

You may have received offers from these types of buyers already, especially aggregators who are highly active in seeking acquisitions.

We’re going to talk about why you should be careful with these private offers in a moment. However, first let’s get into how you can prepare your business for a smooth, timely, and highly-profitable exit.

Getting the Most Amount of Money For Your Business

The process of preparing your business for sale requires you to go under the hood and see how healthy the engine is. You’ll look at operations, logistical efficiencies, profitability, the strength of its brand, and its longevity.

Doing this health check allows you to identify ways to make your business more efficient, profitable, and overall stronger. So even if you don’t want to sell your business any time soon, you should go through this process to optimize your business.

The first step is to prepare your business analytics data.

Step 1: Prepare Analytics Data

If your business is solely built on Amazon, then all of your analytics data will be in your Seller Central account.

If you’re selling on Shopify, Walmart, eBay, or any other eCommerce platform, then your sales data will be viewable on your business accounts. However, it’s beneficial to also install Google Analytics or Clicky onto your website for highly-accurate data.

Potential buyers of your business will want to see its sales data to assess its performance—make sure you have them sign a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) before giving them even just read-only access to your business platforms.

Step 2: Organize Your Finances

Amazon’s dashboard and software like Sellerboard may not tell you how profitable your business actually is as they’re not the most accurate financial tools. The best way to track your business finances is to log them yourself in a profit and loss statement (P&L) or have an accountant track your finances for you.

That said, be careful not to do what most entrepreneurs do and only hand over your figures to a certified public accountant (CPA) once a year; this keeps you blind to the money their business is leaking through the holes of irregular and poor financial management.

Many also don’t realize that a CPA does finances for taxes, not to increase a business’s profitability, so they never see where their business is losing money unnecessarily and where it can earn more.

The best way to manage your business’ finances is through accrual accounting carried out monthly by a bookkeeping firm that specializes in eCommerce.

The key metrics buyers focus on when analyzing your business’ finances are:

• Inventory turnover levels
• PPC spend (ACoS / TACoS)
• COGS margins

With accurate financials, you can calculate the true value of your business; avoiding overvaluing (which will get your business ignored) or undervaluing (which will lead to your business selling for too low).

Step 3: Focus on Your Winning SKUs

Once you’ve got a clear picture of your business’s finances, you’ll see which SKUs are moving the needle and which aren’t. You should consider shelving the ones that aren’t to simplify the income streams for your business—when we vet businesses, we clear out the dead SKUs from your P&L that would reduce your valuation if you sold privately.

Step 4: Remove Supply Chain Redundancies

With a mostly hands-off supply chain, you’re free to focus on business growth.

If you’re self-fulfilling orders, imagine how much time outsourcing that process to a 3PL would save you.

Removing redundancies will make your supply chain easier to oversee. For example, if you’re sending inventory to a 3PL for quality control, but you’re finding that your supplier is consistently delivering high-quality goods, you might want to remove that step in the fulfillment process.

Having backup suppliers for your best-selling products secures your business’ income and makes buyers feel more comfortable about investing. To have the strongest-possible supply chain, you should source at least two different manufacturers for your products, ideally from two different countries.

Delivery time is also a key part of the supply chain, as consumers become increasingly used to fast delivery—three to five business days delivery has become the norm, so you should make sure your chosen fulfillment solutions are able to meet this demand.

A hands-off supply-chain foundation makes your business straightforward to transfer to a new owner.

Step 5: Increase Your Business’ Earning Power to Fuel a Higher Valuation

The fastest and most straightforward way to get your cost of goods sold (COGS) down is to renegotiate rates with your suppliers. If you’re consistently purchasing their products, they’re highly likely to be open to negotiating.

Changing from air shipping to sea freight is another great way to reduce costs.

Margins make a big difference in value. For example, if your business is earning $1,000,000 in revenue per year with 25% profit margins, its sale multiple will be based on the $250,000 annual profit. But if the same business is earning the same revenue with 28% margins, the multiple will be based on the $280,000 annual profit. When you consider multiples are often over 4X annual profits, this is likely to make a $120K+ difference in valuation.

When evaluating your business, COGS is one of the most important valuation metrics buyers consider.

In a private sale situation, a buyer will typically calculate your COGS over the entire lifetime of your business. When we value businesses, we believe it’s more accurate to use your current COGS to calculate your profits as that figure is a more accurate reflection of where your business is at now. This can lead to a higher or lower valuation depending on what your COGS are now compared to the past.

Step 6: Protect Your Business Against Competition. Protect the Buyers’ Investment

A moat around your business makes buyers feel comfortable about investing.

The best way to build that moat is to apply for a trademark and register for the Amazon Brand registry to prevent competitors from copying your product and eating away at your sales.

Step 7: Don’t Disrupt Your Business’ Stability

Buyers want a stable asset. Making any moves leading up to the sale that could upset the steady track record of your business will hurt your selling position.

You can carry out some small quick-wins like listing page tweaks or PPC optimizations, but try to avoid any drastic marketing campaigns or launching products too close to listing for sale just in case your sales don’t increase.

Instead, focus on keeping your products in stock—the last thing you want is to miss out on potential sales. Even if you have to over-order a little bit, that’s ok as long as the buyer purchases your inventory at product landed cost outside of the sale price.

Step 8: Optimize Your Operations to Make it Easy to Acquire Your Business

Buyers want an asset that’s easy to run. When your business operations are so well organized that anybody can easily learn the processes to run it, acquiring your business becomes easy.

The best way to organize your operations is to create standard operating procedures (SOPs) for all of your business operations. Document your supply chain process, too.

It’s best to also do this for the operations that are carried out by employees so the new owner can hand those SOPs over to new employees if needed.

The added benefit of doing this is that it will highlight operational inefficiencies in your business and allow you to improve its efficiency, in turn increasing its profitability.

Step 9: Secure Your Business’ Operations With Contracts

A good relationship with your supplier is a valuable asset, but only if it’s continued on with a new owner of your business.

Let your supplier know you’re selling your business and try and ensure that the current relationship you have will stay in place. The last thing you want is for the buyer to take over and the supplier suddenly shoots up their rates. Also, get an exclusivity agreement if you can—this will increase the value of your business.

Good relationships with your employees are also important.

You don’t have to let employees know you’re selling, but if you can it’ll be good for the buyer to know whether they’ll be continuing with the business after the sale. Contracts are a good asset to keep employees on—the same goes for contractors.

If your employees aren’t continuing with the business—maybe they’re staying with you on another business—be sure to have high-quality SOPs the buyer can hand over to new employees. In addition, train the buyer on your business as much as you can for a smooth transition.

Once you’ve gone through this process of getting your business prepped for a smooth exit, it’s time to initiate the selling process.

The Selling Process

There are two routes you can take to sell your business. Which one you choose depends on your situation.

Sell Privately Or Through a Broker?

If you haven’t yet been reached out to by a business buyer and you’d like to sell privately, you’ll need to market your business to potential buyers.

You can do this on marketplaces like Flippa or online groups, or you can reach out to business buyers and aggregators yourself.

You should reach out to multiple buyers to get an idea of what the market is willing to pay for your business, but beware when sharing business data. Don’t reveal too much without protecting yourself legally.

If you’ve received an offer from a buyer already, before you dive in and sell your property to the first buyer who knocks at your door, plan your exit and see what you can get on the market.

When you prepare and time your sale, you not only set yourself up for a smooth selling process without any unexpected costs, you give yourself the chance to sell when your business is on a growth curve and get the highest possible valuation.

While selling privately can go well if you receive the right offer, there are many issues that can be avoided if you sell through a broker.

Selling Through a Broker

The biggest benefit of selling through a broker is you get access to their expertise, trusted buyer contacts, and selling processes they’ve developed over years of transacting businesses.

If they have experience with eCommerce businesses, they’ll facilitate a smooth sale for you from carrying out a professional valuation to connecting you with the right buyer suited to your business with a proven track record who’s not going to run your business into the ground, and helping to mediate the deal.

Taking advantage of this concierge service is the easiest and most effective way to sell in the majority of cases.

While you’ll pay for the service with most brokers, don’t let this lead you to believe that you’ll make more money selling privately where you won’t pay a broker’s fee.

Beware of the “Off-Market” Fallacy

The off-market fallacy is the belief that you’ll earn more on the sale of your business privately than through a broker since you don’t pay brokerage fees. While this sounds logical, it’s not always true.

Your broker should be upfront with you on how much they think they can get for your business based on their buyer network and the value of your business and whether it’s suited to their buyers—we’ve turned away sellers who’ve received an offer we didn’t think we could beat.

When you sell through a broker, you get access to their buyer network. You can have buyers competing to acquire your business, as opposed to one buyer making an offer with their best interest of getting the lowest price possible for your business in mind.

Brokers work on your behalf to get you a bigger sale since they earn a commission on the sale price. Unless the broker works on buyer commission, in which case you should be careful as they will have opposite intentions.

Not only do you get to put your business to the market and see what you should be getting when you sell through a broker, but you also get their support and experience as they steward you through the sale.

If it’s your first time selling, you should sell through a broker because online business M&A is a subject that requires a lot of knowledge and expertise. Plus, things can get very messy if templated contracts are being thrown around and you’ll end up paying a fortune in lawyer’s fees to rectify the mistakes.

If you’ve received an offer, seek professional advice to make sure you’re being offered the right price.

Calculating Your Business’ True Value

There is a simple formula we use to calculate a business’ value:

Some brokers and mergers and acquisitions (M&A) professionals use your business’ annual profits to calculate its value.

When we value businesses, we take your monthly net profit as an average over the past 12 months to account for any seasonality or increases or declines over the year.

There are exceptions to this rule, for example, if your business has experienced considerable growth over the past 6 months, we may consider using a 6-month multiple as that timeframe is a more accurate reflection of the current state of your business compared to its past 12-month performance.

There are two main methods for calculating net profit:

1. Seller discretionary earnings (SDE)
2. Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA)

The SDE method is commonly used for businesses earning up to $5,000,000 in annual revenue. The method assumes the business is owner-operated, so it takes into account the business owner taking home a salary.

The EBITDA method is more granular and is used for larger businesses. It uses a lot of the same methodology as the SDE method, but it assumes that the business is not owner-operated since large businesses tend to be run by teams of employees. Therefore, owner salaries are usually classified as expenses, because they’re considered as costs necessary to run the business.

This method of profit calculation shows how the business performs on a pure cash flow basis, taking the current owner out of the equation.

An important element of a P&L is add-backs. These are regular or one-off expenses of products, services, or activities not required to run the business. For example, if you ran a one-off marketing campaign a year ago for one month, then that expense can be classified as an add-back and thus won’t be taken from that month’s profits.

Some other examples of add-backs include:

• Trademarks
• Personal travel expenses
• Co-working spaces

By accurately categorizing add-backs, you end up with a P&L that shows the true profitability of your business.

The next element of the valuation formula is the sales multiple.

What Goes Into a Sales Multiple?

A sales multiple is a figure that represents the value of your business and is calculated from a number of trackable and intangible factors.

Growth trends

How your business is growing or declining shows how healthy it is as an investment asset.

Buyers will assess why growth or decline is happening in your business by looking at:

• The number of SKUs you’re selling per month
• The best-seller rank of SKUs
• Organic vs. advertising sales
• Profit margins

Stability and diversity of earnings

A stable earnings history is the gold standard in business as buyers want to see that their new asset is going to earn consistent returns for them.

A good way for your business to earn consistently is to have multiple sources of income and traffic, as your Amazon and PPC accounts are just a ban away from choking your income and traffic sources.

By selling on multiple platforms and driving traffic from multiple sources you support your business since it can still earn and drive traffic even if one source gets taken down.

Diversity of SKUs

Having a range of shoulder products to support your best-selling SKUs is a good way to solidify your earnings in case one of your main products is taken down or you have supply chain issues.

Just remember that having too many SKUs will make your supply chain too complex, which is an off-put for a buyer.

Trademarks and Amazon Brand Registry

An important valuation factor is defensibility.

Trademarks and Amazon Brand Registry defend your brand against the competition. If you’re selling hard-to-qualify products with a high barrier to entry, this will work in your favor when your business is being valued.

Supply Chain Strength

Stockouts are the number one biggest threat to an eCommerce business, so multiple suppliers and exclusivity contracts are key elements of a highly valuable business.

If you have special, exclusive rates with your suppliers that will also boost your business valuation.

Owner Involvement

The best way to scale your business is to make yourself redundant.

The fewer hours you spend working on your business, the more valuable it becomes as long as it has a strong operational structure with employees, contractors, and software tools helping run the business.

Age

This is an indication of your business’s proven track record and longevity. The older your business is, the more established it is in its niche and the harder it is to be taken down by competitors.

Product reviews

Another defensibility factor—this is the number one indication of your business’ reputation. You know how hard it is to get those thousands of positive reviews and the odds of competition taking your reigns become smaller the more reviews you get.

Strong reviews are also an indication of how loyal your customer base could be. A large audience of repeat customers is worth a lot of value to a business.

Amazon Seller Central Account Health

When assessing the health of your Amazon Seller Central account, a buyer will be considering:

• Account age
• Old account permissions that may affect your account
• Inventory performance
• Customer feedback scores
• Penalties

Well-aged accounts with a good performance history, strong scores, and features that have been grandfathered into the account are the gold standard.

Audience Assets

Businesses heavily reliant on organic Amazon or Google ranking or PPC campaigns for traffic are at risk.

When Amazon or Google penalizes your account or updates its policies, you lose sales.

Brands with multiple audiences on various platforms get a higher valuation because if one traffic source gets shut off, it has another one to keep people coming.

Email is the best audience asset you can own because it’s free from algorithms and you have direct access to your audience’s data.

Email lists and social accounts with large followings are some examples of assets that increase your business valuation. Another physical asset that you’re likely wondering about is your inventory.

What About Inventory?

When we sell a business, we leave it open to the buyer whether they want to acquire the inventory or not, so we don’t consider the inventory in its valuation. This is because if the inventory doesn’t sell, then it’ll cost the buyer to keep it—inventory is only valuable once it’s sold.

At Empire Flippers, we don’t take any commission on the cost of inventory. However, it’s important to note that some business brokers do. What happens to inventory should always be a consideration when you’re deciding on which broker to sell with.

Common Deal Structures

Once you have a clear understanding of your business’s profitability, you can command the value that your business is worth, as opposed to going blind into negotiations and being bartered down.

Buyers have good intentions and most won’t lowball you, however, knowing what your business is truly worth based on accurate financials will allow you to set the price you deserve. And while a broker’s goal is to facilitate a fair deal, it’s in their best interest to get you the most amount of money possible for your business (but that’s not the goal for buyers, naturally).

Your business will likely sell with one of the two following deal structures:

1. Earnout
2. Full-cash buyout

A full-cash buyout is what it says on the tin: a buyer offers you all of the cash for your business in one payment.

An earnout is a deal where the buyer pays a percentage of the sale price upfront and the rest over a period of months or years.

We regularly hear of sellers receiving offers of 50% upfront from buyers off-market, but we get sellers of $1M+ FBAs an average of 83.7% upfront.

Earnouts can offer an opportunity for you to earn over the sale price. We’ll usually negotiate a performance-based element to the deal for sellers. Meaning if their business grows, they earn a bonus percentage of the profits over a set threshold.

There’ll also be a minimum threshold to eliminate the risk of you not earning the sale price in the event that the new owner accidentally (or intentionally) runs the business poorly.

This shouldn’t be a concern with one of our buyers as the majority have a track record of deals with us. But if you’re selling on your own, conduct due diligence on buyers to ensure visions are aligned and check the buyer’s history of achieving performance targets.

Protecting Yourself Legally

Unsurprisingly, you’ll receive and have to produce some contracts when selling your business.

The first one is a letter of intent (LOI). If you’ve already received an offer from a buyer, you’ll know what this looks like.

An LOI is a document indicating a mutual intention from a buyer and a seller of a business for it to be sold.

Usually, the buyer produces the LOI as their intent to buy the business, and the seller reviews and agrees to the terms to indicate their intent to sell the business according to the terms outlined in the LOI.

The purpose of an LOI is to set the expectations of how the buyer will conduct their due diligence—a detailed review of the business’ sensitive data to assess the legitimacy of the business. The terms should protect the seller’s business’ data, but a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) should also be signed to add another layer of protection.

The due diligence process usually takes about 30 days. During this time the buyer will need view-only access to your business’s financial information, analytics, sales data, and business operating accounts to carry out their assessment.

Once they’ve conducted their due diligence, it’s time to meet at the negotiating table.

Talking About Your Business’ Potential Can Kill Negotiations

It’s natural for you to see the potential of your brand. After all, you built it from the ground up.

However, many sellers get deluded by this vision of potential.

The reality is that buyers are looking predominantly at your business numbers and past performance—this is where there can be sticking points in negotiations. The seller is trying to sell the buyer on the future of the business with growth ideas that although well-thought-through, are not a promise of future success.

The buyer is taking on a lot of risks when they acquire your business. They don’t have you to run it, market changes are out of their control, and there are hinge points like your business’s reliance on Amazon that can negatively impact your business at a moment’s notice.

When talking about your business to a buyer, it’s best to share what’s worked and what hasn’t in the past and focus on how it’s performing now. Knowing the history of your business will help the buyer plan its future—let them see its potential on its own.

After the final handshake is made, it’s time to transfer your business to the new owner.

Transferring of Ownership

Migrations of eCommerce accounts on platforms like Shopify, Walmart, BigCommerce, WooCommerce, WordPress, and eBay are fairly straightforward.

Amazon is trickier as there’s more risk of your account being suspended in the process.

When transferring an account, you’ll need to make a number of changes to it. Make sure you understand Amazon’s policies well before making any of these changes. If you’re selling your business privately, check the buyer understands how the Amazon account migration works.

When we transfer accounts on behalf of sellers, we have a process we’ve created over the many years we’ve worked with Amazon that includes simply sending them an email and letting them know the business is being sold.

How Long Will It Take to Sell My Business?

How quickly you’re able to sell your business depends on how prepared it is for sale. If your analytics and financials are unorganized then it’ll take a long time to organize them before listing for sale and presenting your business to buyers.

However, if you follow the steps above, you’ll be able to sell quickly.

The average time it takes to sell an eCommerce business on our marketplace is 21.7 days from the first listing to the final offer accepted. The migration process can then take another few months after that.

The benefit of selling through a broker is once you’ve listed for sale is that you can run your business as usual while they find buyers for you. If you sell privately, you have to actively search for buyers and manage them yourself.

How Do I Get Paid?

If you sell privately, you should have the support of lawyers and work with a 3rd party escrow company that will act as a reliable middleman to facilitate the transfer of funds.

If you sell through a brokerage that offers an escrow service, they’ll collect the funds on your behalf.

As for an earnout deal, it’ll typically start from the moment the business is fully transferred to the buyer unless otherwise stated on the sales agreement.

Next Steps

And that’s it! Now you know how selling your business works and can use this guide to steward you toward a successful sale.

When you take the advice above, you’ll be able to sell your business for more money, faster, and safer than if you jump in without any preparation.

Regardless of whether you want to sell soon, in a year or so, or you’re not planning to sell at all, go through this process as you’ll increase your business’s profitability, and performance, and make it more defensible, securing, and increasing your cash flow.

Now you know how to prepare and sell your Amazon or eCommerce business for over one million dollars, it’s time to take action!

You can start going through the stages outlined above yourself, or if you’d like some expert guidance, you can talk to us on a free, no-obligation exit planning call. After outlining your exit plan, we’ll follow up with you regularly to see how you’re getting on and there’s no obligation to sell with us.

Amazon selling is often touted as one of the biggest opportunities of the century, pulling in 98 million monthly mobile users and $1.29 billion in sales daily.

But not even Amazon is perfect. In 2020 alone, Amazon “seized and destroyed” over 2 million counterfeit items sent to its FBA warehouses.

Despite Amazon’s best efforts, counterfeiting still threatens Amazon sellers and the platform. In a bid to eradicate fake goods on the platform, Amazon launched the Transparency Program. One of its most notable features is the Transparency Barcode.

Like many, you may be wondering what it is and how the barcodes work. And, more importantly, where can you get your hands on some?

These are just a few of the questions we’ll answer in this post. If you want the full scoop on Transparency barcodes, stick around.

What is the Amazon Transparency Program?

The Transparency Program is a product sterilization service launched by Amazon.

What started out as a bid to curb fake goods infiltrating their ecosystem in 2017, has now transformed into a full-scale security initiative.

The Transparency Program now also has platform procedures to stop harmful actions by criminals, like blocking and removing hijackers, and solutions to drive customer engagement and supply chain optimization while keeping goods safe.

Transparency is currently available in India, the UK, the US, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Japan, and Australia, but Amazon aims to expand this list in the future.

Have counterfeit goods infiltrated your inventory? Learn how my MyFBAPrpe can wipe your slate clean.

What are Transparency Barcodes?

In the Amazon Brand Protection Report, Amazon shared more details on one of its most recent security measures on the platform; Transparency Barcodes.

Transparency Barcodes are 2D QR codes designed to help authenticate a product before shipping to customers.

How do Transparency Barcodes work?

Once enrolled in the Amazon Transparency program, the product protection measures begin. Here are some typical steps you’ll encounter:

• Amazon provides you with T-shaped 2D QR code stickers which go on Transparency enabled products.
• FBA and FBM sellers can take advantage of Transparency barcodes, the difference being that the latter will need to provide a unique Transparency code for each of their Transparency-enabled listings.
• This code will be provided to you by Amazon beforehand, acting as an additional verification to ensure the goods are real.
• Whether you’re an FBM or FBA seller, each barcode you get is unique to the SKU.
• You (or your fulfillment provider or Amazon’s prep service) will attach the barcode to your product packaging.
• For FBA orders, Amazon’s operatives use a purpose-built app to scan an item to check its authenticity before shipping it.
• Amazon scans the barcode to verify the product’s authenticity before fulfillment.
• If the goods register as authentic, Amazon preps them for shipping. If they don’t register as authentic or don’t have a barcode, they are earmarked for further investigation and set aside as a potential counterfeit item.
• Amazon has also empowered shoppers with a mobile app that shoppers can use to scan items to check if the product is the real deal. The app will show a green tick for authentic goods and a red cross for fakes.

How much do Transparency Barcodes cost, and what’s the catch?

Amazon hasn’t given any hard figures on the cost of Transparency barcodes. However, word on Amazon selling streets suggests you could pay $0.01-$0.05 per label.

While there’s no “catch” with Transparency Barcodes, there are some strict rules to follow. For example:

You can:   

• Use the Transparency barcodes on all the SKUs with active listings on Amazon.
• Print the barcodes at home, with a supplier or manufacturer, in-house, via Amazon prep services, or via your 3PL.

You can’t:

• Sell or give your Transparency barcodes to another brand.
• Get Transparency barcodes from anywhere other than Amazon.

Qualify for Transparency Barcodes: The enrolment requirements

It’s a simple to process to get on to the Transparency Program and gain access to the Transparency Barcodes. Here’s what you need to get the green light:

• Possess a registered trademark.
• Have a valid Global Trade Item Number (GTIN), e.g., EAN, UPC, or ISBN.
• Have the capacity to attach Transparency Barcodes to every product you manufacture, whether it’s sold or not.

You can apply via Amazon online application portal.

3 Solid reasons why using Transparency Barcodes is a must

Like most growing brands, you’ve probably got a lengthy list of projects you’d like to invest in. But there aren’t enough resources to go around, so you must choose wisely. With this, you may question whether investing in Transparency Barcodes is worth it. In short, yes, it is! Here are a few reasons why:

1. Protect your brand reputation

A lot of time, money, and effort goes into establishing a brand and building rankings on Amazon’s SERPs. So, it’s essential you’re proactive in safeguarding your assets which includes your goods, sales, and reputation. Transparency Barcodes are a great starting point and can kickstart your journey to more sophisticated security for your Amazon business.

2. Deter counterfeiters to boost revenue

As the saying goes, “prevention is better than cure.” While there’s no way for you to stop criminals, the rationale behind Transparency Barcodes is if you make it hard for counterfeiters to ambush your goods, they will move on. This approach prevents losing sales to bad actors, increasing your revenue by default.

3. Instill confidence in customers

The sinking feeling you get upon opening a package and realizing you’ve bought knock-off items is unforgettable. It creates a poor customer experience and can make shoppers reluctant to buy from your brand again. By adding an extra layer of protection through Transparency Barcodes, you can reassure buyers that their money and time are safe with you. This is especially important if you sell high-ticket items or goods known for being targets for fake goods.

It’s time to make your goods’ safety a priority. Learn how MyFBAPrep can shield your products from counterfeiting.

How to stay safe when selling on Amazon

One thing is for sure, Amazon’s security initiatives work. So much so that just 0.01% of goods sold on Amazon are flagged by customers as fakes. But while the protections Amazon Transparency barcodes offer are game-changing, keeping your goods safe from counterfeiting takes a concerted effort. With this said, Transparency Barcodes should form part of your security measures on Amazon, not all. Let’s break down some steps you can take:

Set up alerts for problematic actions on the platform

To keep your brand, listings, and products safe, you’ll need to battle counterfeiting 24/7. As a growing brand, it can be unrealistic to monitor your eCommerce ecosystem around the clock. So lean tech tools from brands like Helium 10 or Sellersapp to spot cloned listings, hijacking, and intellectual property infringements.

Also, make it a habit to report suspicious activity via Amazon’s “Report A Violation” tool you get access to with Brand Registry. This approach will help you eliminate issues sooner to limit the damage.

Get trustworthy prep, pack, and fulfillment

Believe it or not, your fulfillment process can make your goods vulnerable to counterfeiting. All it takes is a shady fulfillment company to swap out your authentic goods for cheaper items and send them to your customers. Then rub salt into the wound by selling your proper goods on the black market. But with some due diligence, it doesn’t have to be this way.

To point you in the right direction, here are some traits to look for in your 3PL:

• Be strategic when labeling goods, especially if you have a large product portfolio. For example, they start with products that have been targeted in the past or are in a category that is regularly targeted by criminals.
• Have internal security measures in place to shield the goods they store for you from tampering and theft.
• Have experience in adding security seals to a range of product types.

Top tip: Remember to price the cost of Transparency Barcodes and the labeling service into your products to keep the operation profitable.

Burned by your last fulfillment service? Get trustworthy fulfillment from MyFBAPrep.

Stay updated on the latest security measures and anti-counterfeiting news

There are always innovative security moves being made in the Amazon and in the anti-counterfeiting worlds, and it’s vital to stay updated on them to inform your strategy.

Read blogs about online selling security, watch webinars, and attend seminars to sharpen your knowledge and refine processes to catch and block current counterfeiting tricks.

Also, if you sell goods that are commonly targeted, invest in expert help to create solutions to protect your goods even further.

The secret to safe selling on Amazon

Amazon’s Transparency program offers a great starting point to uplevel your product authentication and brand security.

When used in tandem with other security-boosting measures, Transparency Barcodes can help you stay steps ahead of the criminals to keep your brand, sales, and customers safe.

But your work doesn’t stop at implementing Transparency Barcodes. As your sales and product portfolio grows, you’ll need to implement the initiative on and off the Amazon platform.

So use tech tools solutions to monitor product, listing, and IP infractions on your behalf. Study security measures for eCommerce businesses and continuously improve your approach.

There will always be more you can do in the fight against counterfeits, so develop an enduring spirit, get started on your security optimizations today, and so you can rest easy as your eCommerce business scales unhindered.

Are fake goods messing up your reputation on Amazon? Turn over a new leaf with MyFBAPrep.

Just when we thought selling on Amazon couldn’t get more expensive, it has.

Amazon delivered the blow that service fees will be increasing once again. This price hike now joins the inventory limits and rising ad costs sellers must contend with in the most critical selling season and beyond.

To give you an idea, third-party sellers in the US and Canada will have an extra $0.35 tacked on to their bill from the 15th of October 2022. This figure may not seem like much at a glance but can add up fast when selling large volumes and impact your store’s ROI.

So how can you build a profitable Amazon business while navigating the rising costs, reduced space in Amazon’s warehouses, and shaky global supply chain? In this post, we’ll show you how.

Need a way to reduce costs in your Amazon business? Build an efficient fulfillment process with MyFBAPrep. 

What’s happening to inventory limits and selling fees?

These days, everywhere you turn, there’s talk of change, and the same goes for selling on Amazon. Knowing what lies ahead for your business will be critical in keeping its growth on course. So let’s break down the two of the latest and most significant shifts on Amazon:

Selling fee rises

Not only are referral fee decreases missing from this year’s Amazon shakeup, but Amazon has also implemented price increases across the board for sellers. Stores on Amazon now have higher costs for services such as FBA, storage (off-peak and peak), labeling, FBA Prep, long-term storage, and removal and disposal solutions.

Some of the most notable changes include:

• Nearly 10.5% price increase for standard and oversized products during the off-peak season (January – September). Prices will remain as is for peak season.
• Small standard-size products have the most significant price hike at an average of 7.5%.
• Small oversize items will pay 2.8% more.
• Medium-sized products now have a 12.1% additional charge.
• Large oversize items have a 7.8% uptick in price.
• Standard-size goods have experienced a 4.8% uptick in selling fees.

Storage space restrictions

Inventory limits

Inventory limits have yoyoed in the last couple of years, with Amazon imposing a much-loathed 200-unit blanket restriction at the height of the pandemic. At present, you’ll receive a warehouse space allowed in cubic meters.

Your inventory limit allocation is Inventory Performance Index (IPI) score-influenced and also depends on the account type you have. Individual seller accounts have a 10 cubic meter cap, and professional sellers have a minimum 25 cubic meter allocation for standard-size, oversize products, clothing, and footwear items. No inventory limits exist for extra-large products, no matter the inventory age or your IPI.

You need an excellent IPI (currently above 400), or you could face restrictions and cuts to your space allowance. However, as mentioned above, there are no inventory limits for extra large products no matter the inventory age or your IPI.

Restock limits

In February 2022, Amazon also changed restock limits from the ASIN level to the storage level. This change means you can now share your restock allowance across ASINs. Your restock limit determines how many replenishment items you can send into Amazon FBA based on your past and predicted sales.

Inventory limits are IPI score-influenced, measured by cubic meters and not by unit. Your warehouse space allowance also depends on your account type (e.g., individual seller accounts have a 10 cubic meter cap, and professional sellers have a minimum 25 cubic meter allocation).

Want to make your Amazon store more profitable? Let MyFBAPrep show you how.

What Amazon’s selling fee hikes and storage restrictions mean for sellers

With the Amazon selling cost hikes and storage adjustments in full swing, it’s normal to feel apprehensive about how they will impact your business. To give you the knowledge needed to come back swinging, let’s explore how the changes will alter your Amazon selling journey:

Product selection will take center stage

While it’s been a long time since sellers could launch average products into the market and make a killing, product selection will now play an even more prominent role.

You’ll need to assess your products based on their ability to deliver high profits and ROI with low competition, reasonable cost per click in ads, and customer satisfaction.

Robust logistics and restocking processes will be your secret weapon

Since you’ll have fewer products in Amazon’s warehouse, the odds of going out of stock will rise. You’ll need a solid system to monitor inventory levels and quickly send replenishments to Amazon’s warehouses.

Also, with the price increases for Amazon’s already costly prep services, you’ll need to rethink high volumes and how you prepare goods for sale.

Killer negotiation skills will be critical to keeping your budget in line

When you combine the Amazon cost increase with the looming recession and global supply chain chaos, every penny will count in the days ahead. Finding suppliers, manufacturers, vendors, and carriers that offer great deals and excellent service will help you keep costs low.

Boosting your revenue and liquidity will be vital to maintain options

Amazon is notorious for changing its requirements, rules, and privileges it gives to sellers. And if Amazon’s track record is anything to go by, these price and storage adjustments are just the beginning.

Therefore you will need to make your business as agile as possible. A great way to do this is by building more liquidity in your store’s finances to increase your speed in responding to Amazon’s changes.

Worried about the pending Amazon price hikes? Make your supply chain more efficient with MyFBAPrep.

How to overcome Amazon’s changing landscape

Now we’ve set the record straight on the latest changes sweeping the Amazon world; the next question is “how do we tackle these shifts to build a thriving store?”. You’ll need to make a series of strategic moves in tandem. Let’s break them down.

Move your goods into Amazon, stat.

If you take one thing away from this blog post, it should be this; get your inventory into Amazon’s warehouse NOW. This hack will allow you to take advantage of your storage capacity before the changes come into effect. At MyFBAPrep, we’ve had some merchants send all the inventory they were storing with us into FBA to reserve that space.

Revaluate your product portfolio

To maintain healthy profits in the changing Amazon world, it’s essential to upgrade your product portfolio. Eliminate items with lackluster performance. For best results, decide which products you can keep in your portfolio based on factors like:

• Amazon FBA cost
• Product demand
• Item size and weight

From here, implement offers to increase average order value and focus your product sourcing high-margin products. Also, be strategic about where you sell particular products to reduce costs. For example, you could fulfill heavy items from retail locations via customer pickup or ship goods in-house.

Top tip: Shift popular yet low-margin products to be Fulfilled by Merchant or sell on your own website with external fulfillment.

Go multichannel and unify your shipping

If Amazon FBA is proving too expensive,  don’t despair as you have options. Many selling sales channels come with their own fulfillment channels. Some viable alternatives to Amazon include:

• Wish
• Walmart
• eBay

However, an even better way to approach fulfillment is to pool stock into a fulfillment house and have them prep and ship goods across channels, according to each one’s requirements. This approach will help you circumvent Amazon’s inventory limits and high selling fees.

Get help from an Amazon fulfillment service

One of the simplest and fastest ways to overcome the rising Amazon selling fees is to take control of your shipping and partner with an experienced Amazon prep and pack service.

Your fulfillment provider should help you:

• Organize and send goods to Amazon quickly
• Distribute stock in key locations goods close to demand
• Fulfill orders affordably
• Store replenishment stock

To put this into perspective, MyFBAPrep has an extensive warehouse network with 50+ locations globally, and strategic partnerships with premium freight services.

Top tip: Have FBM and FBA stock for your most popular listings to avoid disruption if your Amazon stock runs out.

Maintain a healthy IPI score

To maintain your selling privileges and the perks that come with them, like warehouse space and restock limits, it’s vital to keep your IPI score in tip-top condition. Some ways you can improve your figure include to:

• Pull excess stock from the Amazon warehouse
• Address stranded inventory issues
• Keep your popular ASINs in stock
• Run polls on social media on which products you should launch next
• Get rid of excess inventory in the Amazon warehouse
• Address customer questions and complaints fast
• Implement product upgrades based on reviews to encourage more sales and up your FBA-sell-through rate
• Negotiate product prices so you can pass the saving on to customers

Make income generation a priority

“Money makes the world go around”, especially on Amazon. So look for ways to up cash flow, reduce expenses, and increase your access to liquid capital. There are many ways to make your store more financially stable, here are just a few:

• Run promotions and offers to increase sales velocity
• Save a portion of your profits into a rainy fund
• Liquidate slow-moving and deadstock
• Pay down business debts
• Negotiate your contracts,
• Put it into your agreements to renegotiate fees quarterly or after you hit a specific order volume
• Use a digital wallet to save money on currency conversions
• Get eCommerce funding such as a credit limit or cash advance for peak periods

Rise above challenges to scale your Amazon store

As we face rising Amazon selling costs and an uncertain global market, diligence will be paramount to building a profitable eCommerce business.

The bottom line is to take advantage of the privileges, be it more storage space or lower fees, for buying your store some more time.

Look for ways to increase your spending efficiency for backend tasks like stock buying and fulfillment. Additionally, use slow burner marketing tactics and assess products from a customer value perspective and ROI viewpoint.

Keep your foot on the selling gas pedal and as you start to see results from your optimizations, save, save, save!

Before you know it, you would have built an eCommerce business that succeeds regardless of the challenges that come its way.

 Don’t let clunky processes and fulfillment erase your margins. Optimize your Amazon store with MyFBAPrep.

This is a guest post from Omar, the eCommerce-obsessed Co-founder and CEO of OJ Digital Solutions, an agency that helps Amazon sellers 2X their conversion rate by optimizing their Amazon listings.

Are you looking to launch a new product on Amazon? If so, you need to make sure that your listing is ready for prime time.

A successful launch can help jumpstart your product’s success on the platform and set the tone for your entire product lifecycle.

It’s, therefore, crucial to take the time to plan and prepare properly.

This article will show you exactly how to set up your Amazon listing for a sold-out launch.

By following these tips, you can increase your chances of success and generate more sales in the process.

Let’s get started!

Preparing Your Amazon Listing For A Launch On Amazon

Before you launch your product on Amazon, it is essential to take the time to prepare your listing.

This will ensure that potential customers can find your product and make a purchase.

Here are some tips for preparing your Amazon listing for a successful launch:

Ensure all details on your listing are accurate

Inaccurate information can lead to customer confusion and may result in them not making a purchase.

This includes things like your product title, description, pricing, and availability.

Make sure you double-check all of the product information on your listing before you launch.

This will help you avoid any potential problems down the road.

Optimize your product title for high CTR

Your title is one of the first things potential customers will see when they find your listing.

As such, it is crucial to ensure that your title is catchy and attention-grabbing.

A catchy title will help improve your listing’s visibility and increase your chances of making a sale.

Here are more tips for creating an attractive title that also follows Amazon title guidelines:

• Include your primary keyword at the start of your title: This will help potential customers find your listing while searching for your product on Amazon.
• Make it attention-grabbing: Use strong adjectives to describe your product. This will help make your listing stand out from the competition.
• Keep it short and sweet: A long, rambling title will likely turn potential customers away. Keep your title concise and to the point.

Here is an example of a great title:

Add Instagram-worthy product photos

Low-quality amateur images can make or break your success on Amazon.

Images affect literally everything, from your click-through rate to your conversion rate, your sales, and even your customer reviews.

They are often the first thing potential customers will see when they find your product.

As such, it is vital to ensure that your photos are high-quality and compelling.

Your photos should show your product in the best light possible and help convince potential customers to make a purchase.

Be sure to take the time to select the right photos for your listing before you launch.

PS: High-quality photos can justify a higher price, meaning you can price your product higher if your images are on point.

Here are some standard Amazon guidelines for product images:

• The image must be the product’s cover art or a qualified photograph. It is not permitted to create illustrations or drawings of the product.
• The image must not include extraneous or unclear objects.
• The image must have realistic color, smooth edges, and be in focus. It also needs to be professionally lit, scanned, or photographed.
• The front cover art for music, books, and video/DVD releases should completely fill the image frame. Cellophane, jewelry cases, and advertising stickers are not permitted.
• All other items should occupy at least 85% of the image space.
• The entire product needs to be visible.
• White background is required for the main image(RGB 255,255,255).
• No additional graphics, text, or inset images may be present in the picture.

Choose the right keywords

Keywords are another critical element of your Amazon listing.

They help potential customers find your product when searching for something on the platform, making them essential for amazon content optimization.

Consider the terms potential customers might use when searching for a product like yours.

Then, include these keywords in your listing title, description, and bullet points.

This will help improve your visibility on Amazon and increase your chances of making a sale.

You can also look at what your competitors are ranking for to get an idea of what keywords you should be targeting or get the help of amazon listing tools to speed up your search.

Set a competitive price

Pricing is an important consideration when preparing your Amazon listing for launch.

You want to ensure that you are setting a competitive price with other similar products on the market.

At the same time, you also need to ensure that your price is profitable. Be sure to research and set a price to help you reach your goals.

Find a balance between being competitive and making a profit.

Use bullet points

Bullet points are a great way to highlight the key features of your product.

They help potential customers quickly and easily see what your product has to offer and why they should buy it.

As such, it is vital to include bullet points in your listing.

Be sure to make your bullet points concise and easy to read.

Use them to highlight the most important features of your product.

This will help convince potential customers to make a purchase.

Also, use keywords in your bullet points to improve your listing’s visibility.

Here is an example of how to follow amazon bullet points guidelines in your listing:

Take advantage of A+ content

If you are enrolled in the Amazon Brand Registry program, you may be eligible to add A+ content to your listing.

This is one of the most powerful ways to turbo-boost your listing conversion rate and make your listing stand out from the competition.

A+ content includes things like additional photos, videos, and detailed descriptions.

If you are eligible, be sure to take advantage of this feature and add A+ content to your listing before you launch. Follow all A+ content guidelines to get the most out of it.

Amazon also just introduced the Amazon brand story feature, allowing brands to create a human connection with their customers by telling their stories and sharing their brand’s values with customers.

Use-easy to understand language for your product description

Your product description is where you can really sell your product to potential customers.

As such, it is important to use language that is easy to understand and persuasive.

Be sure to avoid using technical jargon or terms that might be confusing to potential customers. Instead, use language that anyone would be able to understand.

This will help convince potential customers to buy your product.

Include a call to action

A call to action (CTA) is the final push potential customers need to make a purchase decision.

It is a statement or phrase that urges the reader to take some kind of action.

Your CTA should be included in the last sentence of your product description, your bullet points (ideally the 3rd bullet point), and in the last image of your gallery images.

It should be short, concise, and easy to understand.

For example, you might use a CTA like “Buy now”, “Order today.”, “Buy 1 get 1 for Free”.

This will help encourage potential customers to make a purchase.

How To Make Your Product Launch On Amazon A Success

Here are measures you can take to make sure your product launch on Amazon is a success:

Have a marketing strategy in place

A successful product launch on Amazon requires more than just a great product.

You also need to have a solid marketing strategy in place to generate interest and drive sales.

Be sure to plan ahead and allocate the necessary resources to ensure a successful launch.

Generate buzz around your product before and during the launch

This can be done through social media, online ads, PR campaigns, or other marketing initiatives.

Getting people talking about your product before they even see it on Amazon will help create a sense of excitement and increase the likelihood of a successful launch.

Social media is a great way to generate interest in your product and drive traffic to your Amazon listing.

Be sure to create eye-catching posts and include links to your listing.

You can also run ads on social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram.

Ensure that your product is high quality and well-packaged

This will help reduce the number of returns and negative reviews, which can hurt your chances of success on Amazon.

Make sure that your product is something customers will be happy with when they receive it.

Generate positive reviews and social proof

You can do this by sending your product to influencers, bloggers, and media outlets.

If they write positive reviews or mention your product on social media, it will help create a buzz and convince potential customers to buy it.

Take advantage of ads and promotions

Amazon PPC ads and promotions are the best ways to increase visibility for your product and generate sales.

Amazon offers a variety of advertising options that can be customized to fit your budget and goals.

Be sure to take advantage of these tools to help ensure a successful launch and boost your Amazon conversion rate.

Create a sense of urgency and scarcity around your product

This can be done by offering limited-time discounts or promotions or setting a finite number of units available for purchase.

Customers are more likely to buy a product that they feel is in high demand and may not be available for long, so this is a great way to increase sales.

The Bottom Line

If you were wondering how to prep your Amazon listing for a sold-out launch, I hope this article was helpful.

Make sure to start planning well in advance and to keep track of your inventory levels so that you don’t run out of stock during this crucial time.

With some preparation and careful management, you can ensure that your Amazon listing optimization is primed for success!

As Amazon continues to experience record growth, it’s attracted small and medium-sized businesses in droves. However, it hasn’t been smooth sailing. Dubious sellers have slipped through the net using black hat tricks to improve their rankings and sales while sabotaging their competition, with schemes like hijacking and review manipulation. This problem has wreaked havoc on Amazon’s prized customer experience, not to mention the progress of good sellers.

Spotting this damaging development, Amazon has been on a quest to wipe out malpractice. In 2021, Amazon banned more than 3000 seller accounts for terms of service violations sparking a mass exodus of 600 brands overnight.

But even Amazon knows account closures aren’t enough to keep the opportunists and scammers at bay. That’s why Amazon has gone to great lengths to offer its sellers more security through its program, Amazon Brand Registry.

Amazon has now launched its 2022 report on Brand Protection, detailing its development and execution of tools and programs to combat criminal activity and abuse on its platform.

To help you optimize your Amazon selling strategy, we’ll explore what brand protection is and why it’s worth the investment to enroll. We’ll also highlight the must-know details from the 2022 progress report and how to take advantage of it as a participating brand.

Unsure how to protect your brand on Amazon? MyFBAPrep can get you up to scratch.

What is Amazon Brand Registry?

In 2017, Amazon decided to tackle the issues brand and shoppers were experiencing at the hands of criminals with the launch of the renowned Brand Registry program.

Amazon Brand Registry is a free protection service designed to shield brands from harmful actions such as counterfeiting, intellectual property (IP) infringement, and listing tampering. Whether you sell on Amazon or not you can enroll if you have a registered trademarked brand.

Solutions under Amazon’s Brand Registry umbrella have already racked up some impressive wins. These include more than 4 billion bad listings blocked before going live in stores. Also, more than 3 million counterfeits were detected, seized, and disposed of.

Pros and cons of Amazon Brand Registry

Interest may wane over time for some marketplace programs, but that’s not true for Brand Registry. In 2021, 700,000 businesses enrolled, a 40% jump on 2020. Brand Registry’s expansive protection measures and knowledge make it necessary for any eCommerce serious about scaling on Amazon.

But that’s not to say the Brand Registry program is faultless. To get a clearer understanding of Brand Registry’s value, let’s explore some pros and cons:

Benefits of Brand Registry

• Build a trustworthy image on Amazon: Being on the Brand Registry program doesn’t just protect your business. You can build a solid brand with access to A+ content, access to Vine, Sponsored Brand Ads, and brand analytics, and create multipage stores to mimic a typical eCommerce store experience.

• On-hand support for your brand: When things turn sour, dedicated teams and tech solutions will be on the case. For example, you can track suspected trademark infringements through tools like Amazon Patent Evaluation Express (APEX) and counterfeit identification through its Transparency solution and initiatives like Project Zero and Counterfeit Crimes Unit (more on these later). These protective measures allow you to avoid high reoccurrences of issues that affect your inventory turnover and customer experience.

Drawbacks of Brand Registry

• Slow approval process: Amazon requires a registered trademark as part of the approval process; for some brands, it can take 6 months or more. As a result, it can take a long time to enroll your brand, leaving it vulnerable. (However, if you use the IP Accelerator program, you can sign up with a pending trademark).

• Brand Registry isn’t a set and forget security solution: While Amazon’s tools and projects can catch and prevent harmful actions, it’s not a failproof solution for compliance or protecting your brand. You’ll need to stay vigilant and continually upgrade your security strategy and tools.

Have your current measures made your brand vulnerable to scammers? Discover how MyFBAPrep can secure your goods.

Amazon Brand Protection Report 2022: Top updates

Over the last few years, Amazon has invested heavily in expanding and improving its brand protection tools and initiatives, to uplevel the coverage it provides its enrollees and customers. Let’s breakdown the latest and most significant developments:

1. Amazon brand protection tools gather pace

Combining machine learning, automation, and data pooled from Brand Registry, Amazon has crafted innovative solutions such as the following Brand Registry tools:

Report a Violation tool

The Report a Violation tool helps sellers get support quickly when infringements arise. As a brand owner, you can not only look for and spot offending actions, but also submit a ticket and track its progress in a specially crafted dashboard. This tool continues to make positive contributions to the fight against infringements. In fact, Amazon saw a 25% drop in breaches since 2020.

Amazon Patent Evaluation Express (APEX) service

Tackling the complex world of utility patents, APEX focuses on helping brands protect themselves by submitting requests to Amazon to review potential violations. Amazon enlists the help of using an objective, third-party patent lawyer to assess the dispute. This approach allows for accurate case deliberation, protects brands, and preserves market competition.

Transparency solution

Fortifying Amazon’s position in the war on counterfeits, Transparency enables brands to play an active role in blocking fake goods from infiltrating their supply chain. The tool equips Amazon to verify each product sent to its warehouses’ authenticity by scanning the Transparency-enabled code.

It also empowers brands to amplify their goods authentication strategy and gain customers’ trust credentials through their customers, to access this innovative solution on the go via a dedicated mobile app. Equipping customers to validate products increases your protection, without multiplying your team’s workload.

Project Zero

Project Zero has unlocked new levels of security coverage for Brand Registry participants. The initiative combines Amazon’s high-tech brand protection tools, self-service counterfeit listing removal capabilities, automated protections, and expansive knowledge of IP and counterfeit detection for a well-rounded defense.

For example, under Project Zero, the brand can remove harmful listings and can set automated protections that guard their interests around the clock. The multipronged approach to brand protection has been ground-breaking, with Amazon stating for every 1 listing removed by a brand in Project Zero, automated protections booted more than 1000 suspected violations.

IP Accelerator

Noticing that the lengthy approval process for obtaining trademarks prevented brands from adequately protecting themselves, Amazon launched the Amazon IP Accelerator. This program speeds up the timeline for brands to gain IP rights and brand protection on and off the Amazon marketplace.

Amazon’s IP Accelerator gives enrollees access to an extensive network of reputable IP companies at fair rates. The program continues to gain ground and is now available in places such as the US, EU, Canada, Brazil, Mexico, Singapore, and Australia.

2. Collaborative Brand protection projects take center stage

In the past, Amazon focused its security-boosting measures on removing improper listings and deterring sellers from breaking the rules with stiff penalties. But the 2022 Brand Protection report revealed Amazon’s ambition to take a more holistic approach to security on their platform. Some notable changes include:

Enhanced seller verification for quality control

Verification on Amazon used to consist of an online application document submission, which Amazon Support would later approve or reject. However, the lack of in-person vetting made the process susceptible to manipulation.

As a result, Amazon has scaled up in-person verifications. Prospective sellers speak with an Amazon team member in a one-to-one online setting and confirm details such as their proof of identity, physical location, and payment method.

The enhanced security checks support Amazon’s machine learning vehicles. These analyze large data sets at scale, highlight threats, and help prevent people from securing seller accounts illegitimately. The new technology is so sophisticated that it can even identify connections to past bad actors.

Accountability as a security strategy

Gone are the days when an Amazon selling ban was the biggest retribution for shady sellers. Amazon has started to use the strong arm of the law to hold fraudulent sellers accountable. This has included setting up the Amazon Counterfeit Crimes Unit (CCU) in 2020 and suing 600 scammers and counterfeiters in 2021.

Cross-industry partnerships strengthen counterfeit prevention

To combat fake goods, Amazon has joined forces with industry associations around the globe. These include associations such as the Michigan State University’s Center for Anti-Counterfeiting and Product Protection (A-CAPP), Imaging Supplies Coalition (ISC), and International Anticounterfeiting Coalition (IACC).

Together they’ve created a memorandum of understanding to form best practices, trial new counterfeit prevention measures, and spot trends. Also, Amazon’s CCU leans on knowledge from those with backgrounds as data analysts, federal prosecutors, FBI agents, and law enforcement.

The Amazon CCU understands the importance of keeping up with industry trends to create innovative ways to find and stop bad actors. Consequently, they’ve brought suppliers, logistics companies’ sellers, fake invoice issuers, and even social media influencers to justice through counterfeit goods seizures and civil lawsuits.

Customer guarantees and support help Amazon preserve the customer experience after the counterfeit breach

As the battle continues against counterfeits, some customers will inevitably encounter bogus products in the marketplace. So Amazon is now using its generous customer refunds policy to stop the spread of counterfeit products and keep customers returning if they encounter fake products on the platform.

For example, if Amazon notices a product is not the real deal, they will contact the customer. Then alert them of the issue and offer a full refund without the customer needing to act. This approach protects the customer experience and sellers’ brand reputation.

Amazon elevates customer awareness to combat the spread of fakes

Putting into action the famous saying “knowledge is power,” Amazon is spending resources to boost customer understanding and awareness of counterfeiting. Some key activities include:

• Supporting the US government’s STOPfakes project.
• Launched a blueprint on how public and private sector partnerships can help stop counterfeits.
• Discussions about the blueprint between Amazon and policymakers on data sharing on criminal counterfeiting networks, government assistance, and attempted imports of counterfeit goods.
• A partnership with the International Trademark Association’s (INTA) Unreal Campaign and the Girl Scouts of Greater Los Angeles to educate Gen Z shoppers about trademarks, intellectual property, and brand protection.

Quick tips to reinforce your Amazon brand protection measures

• Use tools like Helium 10, SellerSprite, and AMZAlert to track IP violations, hijacking attempts, and poor reviews.
• Monitor correct spellings and misspellings of your brand name with an IP monitoring tool to lead you to potential IP violators.
• Track and keep updated records on authorized sellers of your products.
• Update listings regularly to avoid missing issues and mistakenly flagging other sellers.
• Get proactive with your brand protection. Share your protective measures in your marketing and encourage shoppers to get involved.
• Phase-out products without the Transparency code. Work with manufacturers or fulfillment prep service to print or attach them to packaging.
• Take note of items in your portfolio that are continually flagged for counterfeits and find ways to deter counterfeits from selecting them.

 Wrapping Up – Secure your eCommerce brand on Amazon and beyond

While Amazon continues to make huge strides towards building a safe, fair marketplace. This is only the beginning of the journey. Security on the Amazon marketplace is everyone’s responsibility. So, be proactive. Invest in trademarks and patents to shield your brand on every selling platform you use.

Also, implement robust preventative measures and monitor their effectiveness, tweaking them as you gain more intel. Encourage shoppers to be part of your protective measure by selling the value they gain and lean on technology to find potential violations and suspicious activity.

Get your brand protection strategy and your selling experience on Amazon right, and it will be a smoother, more enjoyable, and profitable ride.

Need a hand protecting your Amazon products? Learn how MyFBAPrep can help.

“Protecting brands against infringement requires constant vigilance and continuous innovation. The valuable information provided by brands via Brand Registry allows us to proactively prevent infringing products from surfacing in our stores worldwide. We take great pride in our mission to protect brands and customers.” — Raj Kizhakkekalathil, Director, Brand Registry, Amazon

Picture this. It’s early Monday morning. You open your laptop to check yesterday’s sales, but Amazon’s password firewall stops you. Your login details are no longer valid. Confused, you hover over to your email, and there it is – the dreaded message from Amazon support.

Amazon’s email states your selling privileges are revoked effective immediately. If this scenario sounds familiar, you’re not alone. In 2021, Amazon went on an infamous suspension spree which saw sellers with $1 billion in total revenue locked out of their accounts.

As you navigate a seller account suspension, the initial questions are what caused Amazon to suspend your account, and how can you get your prized account back? We’ve got you covered. In this post, we’ll reveal 8 common reasons for Amazon seller account suspensions and how to overcome them.

What is an Amazon seller account suspension?

An Amazon seller account suspension is when Amazon blocks you from selling on their platform for breaking one of their rules or failing to meet one of their many standards. This punishment damages your business and your listings as you’ll lose sales, rankings and decrease your IPI score.

In addition, your stock will take on an “unfulfillable,” and you’ll still incur storage fees for any inventory stored in Amazon’s warehouses. Amazon can also destroy your inventory once it’s had the unfulfillable status for 60 days.

An account suspension differs from an account termination, which signifies the end of the road for an Amazon seller. So, there’s still hope for getting your account back if you follow specific steps.

Did a fulfillment error cause Amazon to suspend your account? Discover how MyFBAPrep can prevent future recurrences.

8 common reasons for Amazon account suspensions

An Amazon account suspension not only puts a roadblock in your eCommerce business’ growth but can also negatively affect your customer experience and reputation. Thankfully, this stressful situation can be resolved and avoided. To help you dodge the Amazon account suspension bullet, let’s look at some scenarios that can cause Amazon to take away your selling privileges:

1) Updating your banking details

A simple bank account update can leave you without an Amazon account. If Amazon feels your banking credentials don’t add up and you can’t provide the additional information, they can suspend your account.

2) Breaching Terms of Service

Maybe you manipulated Amazon’s algorithms, sent unauthorized Hazmat to FBA, used underhand tactics to get reviews, or launched an aggressive launch strategy that toyed with Amazon’s rankings. Breaking any terms of service will have you headed straight for suspension.

3) Providing a bad customer experience

Poor product ratings, high returns, and going out of stock dampen Amazon’s prized customer experience. If this occurs too often, you’ll have your account taken away.

4) Getting an additional account without permission

Amazon is super strict with its one-account policy. Therefore, if you don’t get written permission before you sign up for another account, you could walk away empty-handed.

5) You upgraded from sole proprietorship to a limited company

It’s hard to believe a simple change in company structure can result in an account suspension, but it’s true. Before you know it, you’re swept up into a storm of back-and-forth support tickets, requesting additional verification documents and information. If you can’t provide the requested details within the set time frame, your account is in jeopardy.

6) Glitches in the Amazon Matrix

Sometimes Amazon gets its chastisements wrong, and you pay a heavy price. For example, Amazon’s security checks and measures (algorithms) glitched suddenly, causing it to shut people’s prized accounts. Amazon has also closed accounts due to mistaken identity, believing the account holder violated the one account policy when in fact, another person with an Amazon account used their WIFI or laptop.

7) Inaccurate product description(s)

Whether you twisted the truth or made a genuine mistake, inaccurate descriptions are a huge no-no in Amazon’s books. Why? They can lead to higher return rates and an unsatisfactory customer experience, which Amazon would rather avoid. Amazon seeks to protect its interests with an account suspension.

8) Not providing complete invoices

Amazon expects every seller to upload accurate VAT invoices for their business customers swiftly after their goods ship. If you fail to meet this expectation, you’ll get a warning. But if you fail to meet this requirement again and your invoice defect rate exceeds 5%, you could be waving goodbye to your Amazon account.

Stay ahead of the game and build a competitive fulfillment strategy that plays by Amazon’s rules.

How to handle an Amazon account suspension

Lost your Amazon account? While getting your selling privileges back isn’t easy, it’s still possible. Here are the steps to increase the chances of getting your account back:

Keep calm and find the problem

First things first, don’t panic. Dig into the details to find out what went wrong. Analyze the email you got from Amazon. This information will help you craft a solid recovery strategy and avoid having your selling account revoked in the future for the same reason(s).

Be proactive. Unfortunately, Amazon customer support won’t be coming to your rescue any time soon. So, double-check any information they give you and look through Amazon’s seller central content.

Nail your Plan of Action (POA)

Amazon requires you to create a POA that states what went wrong and how you aim to resolve the issue(s) and prevent it from reoccurring. Here are some questions to answer in your POA to up your odds of getting your account reinstated:

• What did we do wrong?
• What actions will we take to rectify the problem(s)?
• How will we strategize to prevent the issues from happening again?

Also, before writing your POA, understand what you need to do by reading Amazon’s POA guidance for the territory you sell in. From here, implement the following tips to sharpen your POA’s delivery:

• Set the scene with a short introduction.
• Keep your POA short, simple, and easy to read.
• Acknowledge where you went wrong and avoid the blame game.
• Focus on the facts and only include relevant information.
• Provide evidence of your store’s positive performance.
• Add a conclusion summarizing the actions you have taken to make things right.

• Make a direct request for Amazon to restore your account.

For example, if Amazon closed your account because you’ve sold one too many faulty products. You would devise a strategy detailing what you’ll do to increase product quality, including more quality assurance checks throughout the manufacturing process, sourcing better materials, and creating a robust design.

Be strategic in your communications with Amazon Support

Amazon Support doesn’t have the best reputation for being forthcoming with their help towards sellers. So it’s important not to waste your best opportunity to reason with Amazon about your account suspension — your POA.

Here are some things to remember when dealing with Amazon support to dodge communication errors.

• Avoid generic or rambling responses.
• Maintain an upbeat and polite tone in all your communications, whether in your POA or speaking with Amazon Support.
• Don’t bug support for updates, as this could delay your application.
• Don’t blame customers or Amazon support for issues, regardless of whether they did something wrong or not.

3 Best practices to avoid Amazon account suspensions

1) Stay updated on Amazon’s Terms of Service

Amazon’s terms of service are constantly changing so it’s critical you stay updated on the latest rules and policies, to avoid hiccups in your selling journey. To give you an idea of which areas to pay attention to, here are some common areas sellers go astray:

• Trying to rig the review system: asking for positive reviews, asking customers to contact you before they, asking people you know to buy your items and leave a positive review.

• Failing to keep negative feedback at 1% or less: Some sellers get caught out when their product has a low perceived value compared to what they sold in their listings.

• Not keeping canceled or delayed order shipments under 1% or less: Some sellers that fulfill orders internally or with a 3PL get caught out by lagging inventory data and inefficient fulfillment processes.

2) Keep your prep and fulfillment processes in check

It’s important to know your duties and responsibilities according to your chosen prep and fulfillment process. To do this, study the service level agreement (SLA) from your fulfillment service(s). Some typical SLAs you’ll encounter include:

Fulfilled by Amazon (FBA) SLA: Details responsibilities you’ll have as an Amazon seller like sourcing and sending goods to Amazon. The FBA SLA also Amazon’s commitments to you as a seller, like receiving inventory into their fulfillment centers and shipping goods to customers on time.

Fulfilled by Merchant (FBM) SLA: This covers what you’ll be accountable for as a seller taking on the fulfillment process, like safe delivery of orders to customers within the shipping options’ standard delivery times.

Seller Fulfilled Prime (SFP) SLA: Explains the obligations you’ll have when sending prime goods from your warehouses.

Whichever SLA you opt for, it’s vital you uphold your responsibilities within the agreement (like replenishing stock before you run out to avoid rushed receiving and restocking). This approach will help you:

• Maintain a great customer experience
• Avoid costly fulfillment errors (e.g., sending goods to FBA compliant that don’t meet Amazon’s packaging requirements)
• Boost repeat orders and returning customer rates

3) Maintain a healthy IPI score

The Inventory Performance Index is a metric Amazon uses to determine how well you manage your stock’s turnover. It’s essential you take consistent actions to improve your IPI score. Failure to do so can lead to Amazon reducing your inventory limits and even the dread account suspension. According to Amazon, the most critical moves you can make are to:

• Keep a happy medium between how much inventory you sell and how much you keep in FBA (between 30-60 days’ worth of stock)
• Avoid racking up excess and aged stock
• Solve listing issues
• Ensure your top-performing products have enough stock to service demand

Tip: Amazon changes their minimum IPI score, so stay informed on what the latest figure is.

Avoid seller suspensions and get your fulfillment right first time with MyFBAPrep. 

Following an Amazon account suspension

An Amazon account suspension is an uncomfortable situation for any seller to face. However, if you can stay calm, execute a solid win-back strategy, and learn from your mistakes, your Amazon business can make a full recovery. The best strategy is to prevent suspension in the first place so ensure you stay updated on your obligations as a seller.

Is your fulfillment process in compliance with Amazon’s terms? Course correct with MyFBAPrep.

Since April 2020, funds raised stand at a whopping $14.9 billion with 47% of deals fetching between $2-$5million each. The secret is out. The eCommerce aggregator business model is now one of the hottest opportunities for making vast amounts of money online.

However, running an aggregator isn’t all sunshine and rainbows. With multiple brands on your books, the stakes are high. A simple error can lead to eye-watering bills, unhappy customers, and lackluster returns.

But before you write off this stellar opportunity, know that despite the challenges that come with scaling a brand aggregator, you can still make your goals a reality. All you need is an awareness of the landscape and strategy to make it happen.

In this post, we’ll uncover the 5 costly eCommerce aggregator mistakes and how to avoid them and grow to become a powerhouse business.

Looking for a way to level up your aggregator’s result? Get your fulfillment processes right with MyFBAPrep.

Top 5 mistakes eCommerce aggregators make

Whether you’re just starting out or a veteran in the eCommerce aggregator space, the fast-paced nature of the business makes it easy to trip up. These mistakes range from the face palm bloopers you can recover from quickly to the scary, business-altering errors that keep you up at night. So, to know what to keep your eyes peeled for, let’s dive into some common mistakes eCommerce brand aggregators make:

1.  Buying the wrong brands

Some brand aggregators are distracted by shiny objects, like great publicity and high revenues, while others are lured by super-niche products. But behind the “cool” aesthetic, lie items with small markets that can be difficult to scale and weak branding that pulls down the eCommerce brand’s perceived value.

In both scenarios, the brand aggregator has picked the wrong brand based on surface-level qualities and will need to course-correct by improving the vital metrics like profits, ROI, and margin (more on this later).

2.  Taking on difficult-to-market products

From having access to relevant territories to reaching your target customer, many factors go into successfully marketing an eCommerce product. Although some brand aggregators find themselves in hot water when they choose brands with offers that are challenging to market. Some issues that crop up include:

• Legal, regulatory, and cost-related issues slowing down advertising launch
• Product(s) prohibited on specific advertising channels, decreasing the brand’s reach
• Selling seasonal or highly competitive items that make reducing brand visibility

3.  No fulfillment strategy in place

Perhaps the eCommerce brand you’ve chosen started small with haphazard fulfillment, like impromptu post office runs and pickups from carriers. This setup may have worked just fine in the early stages, but as the brand scales, managing orders without official processes becomes increasingly difficult. On the flip side, some aggregators pick brands that have been a little too proactive in their fulfillment setup, causing them to use many carriers daily and missing out on the structure and deals that come with 1-2 reliable shipping providers.

4. Lack of funding

Ecommerce brands are notorious for being cash-intensive for good reasons. Not only do you have to bare slow pay-outs from sales channels, but you’ll also need to cover large upfront investments in inventory to stay in stock.

Also, it takes significant cash injections to level up the brand to achieve your aggregator’s growth goals and exceed competitors’ offers. A lack of cash can result in you settling for less than top-tier strategies and processes, holding your brand aggregator back from the success it’s capable of. A great example of this capital shortage in action is aggregators putting their brand acquisition dreams on the back burner due to cashflow shortages.

5.  Unprepared to navigate global supply chain issues

Although not an issue reserved for eCommerce brand aggregators, shipping delays and supply chain issues continue to rock the globe. This problem has made it more difficult to obtain goods fast without destroying their margins. Since the global supply chain chaos is far from over, every business needs a strategy to get and stay in stock quickly and affordably. Yet some brand aggregators are yet to get their procedures down, with knock-on effects on customer experience, sales, and ultimately growth.

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How to build a successful eCommerce aggregator for online stores

If you’re stuck wondering how to make gainful returns from your brand aggregator in the uncertain market, you’re in the right place. Let’s breakdown some key steps you should take:

Make profitability a must

When deciding whether to take an online store under your wing, it’s vital you make profitability a requirement for both the business and its products. Also, look for traits like:

• Business age (at least one year)
• Solid sales volume year-round
• A handful of profitable SKUs
• Customer loyalty
• Growing brand presence
• Capital generating opportunities within the brand
• Sells on multiple sales channels

For example, an Amazon business could have high ROI items, loyal customers, and consistent subscription revenue, but its costly fulfillment strategy wipes all the profits. So, if you could make the fulfillment process cost-effective, you’d have a winner on your books.

Tip: If you’ve mistakenly bought an unprofitable brand, don’t panic. Look for places to slash costs, increase perceived product value, and build recurring monthly revenue through subscriptions to turn the brand’s trajectory around.

Secure eCommerce funding

A great hack to grow your brand aggregator is to leverage external capital to bridge cash flow shortages and increase your buying power. More alternative eCommerce funding options are available than ever before, waiting to help you achieve your biggest eCommerce goals.

So, don’t settle for traditional options like bank and government loans which can be inflexible and hard to obtain for eCommerce businesses. Instead, seek out a dedicated eCommerce funding solution. Some traits to look for include:

• ECommerce expertise
• Fair rates and fees
• Simple application process
• Provides resources and on-hand support
• Has flexible rules on funding usage

It’s time for your brand aggregator to shine. Learn how MyFBAPrep can put your business in the limelight.

Build memorable brands for each eCommerce store

A solid brand is a gift that keeps on giving. It can cause shoppers to single out your items in the online sea of offers and increase how much your brands charge for their products.

So, boost your brand above its competitors by investing in things like:

• Global trademarks
• Brand registry
• A+ content
• Sponsored brand and product ads
• Professional photos emulating the brand’s style
• Branded products and packaging

Expand your horizons when sourcing eCommerce businesses

Cross-border eCommerce is now a huge business, and as a brand aggregator, taking advantage of this trend can strengthen your portfolio and supercharge growth. In addition, looking further afield for potential brands to purchase reduces the risk of having all your eggs in one basket. So, if disaster strikes in one territory, your brand aggregator can stay operational.

For example, if your brand aggregator consists of US-based brands, look at upcoming brands in Asia, Canada, Australia, the UK, and the EU.

Streamline supply chain operations

Leveling up each supply chain within your brand aggregator is one of the best ways to save money, maximize sales opportunities, and boost profitability. To ensure your supply chain runs like clockwork, you’ll need to take a two-pronged approach. Let’s zoom in on these steps:

Step 1: Conduct a supply chain assessment

Look at the supply chains with your brand aggregator and ask:

• Which steps aren’t essential?
• What is costing us the most money?
• Where are we wasting the most time?

Once you’ve identified unprofitable tasks in your eCommerce brands’ supply chain, eliminate them or find ways to reduce them.

For example, after assessing the brands within your aggregator, you may discover you’re spending a lot of time on money labeling and packaging products with prep centers before shipping them to warehouses and Amazon. You could rectify this by asking your suppliers to complete these tasks during the manufacturing process.

Step 2: Optimize key contributors in your supply chain

Next, optimize critical areas in your supply chain to improve efficiency, productivity, and error rates. 3 areas to tackle are:

Technology: Use AI-backed solutions to optimize things like inventory forecasting, PO creation, and freight bundling. Also, take advantage of these tools dashboards to identify potential threats and opportunities for each eCommerce brand in your ecosystem.

Fulfillment: Create 1-3 fulfillment strategies for specific product categories, types, or sizes, then assign products within your brand aggregator to them accordingly. Unifying the supply chains within your brand aggregator will allow you to save time and take advantage of economies of scale.

To make this move without increasing your team’s workload, partner with a reliable fulfillment service provider house that can scale with your brand and has affordable rates. (Don’t forget to maintain a relationship with another fulfillment house as a backup).

Suppliers: Audit suppliers to identify your top performers and consolidate production among them. Also, work with these suppliers to increase product quality, reduce production time, and lower product costs.

The secret to huge brand aggregator wins

Scaling an eCommerce brand aggregator is an exciting opportunity with huge upside potential for ambitious entrepreneurs. But to build an aggregator that can stand the test of time and produces sustainable returns, you’ll need to be proactive.

Put profits first, create a standout brand, and ensure you have the finances for the journey to build each eCommerce brand within your aggregator’s reputation and sales.

Also, keep an eye out for rising star online stores in other territories and focus on acquiring brands in specific product categories. This way, streamlining suppliers and fulfillment processes will be easier, and you can take advantage of higher total order volumes to get better fulfillment prices.

From here, your brand aggregator will be on a solid trajectory towards consistent returns, higher margins, and massive growth.

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The Amazon brand aggregator market is expanding rapidly and becoming one of the top eCommerce opportunities for ambitious entrepreneurs. More than 90 businesses have signed up and they’ve raised nearly $15 billion to date.

However, the expansive nature of Amazon brands means managing operations can be challenging as their aggregator. Additionally, it’s easy to believe that managing countless dashboards, strategies, and suppliers is just the way things are in the market, but there’s a better way.

In this post, we’ll uncover the top problems Amazon aggregators face while scaling, managing Amazon aggregator fulfillment, and how MyFBAPrep can help you tackle these issues head-on for great returns.

Stressed out trying to manage multiple supply chains? Discover how MYFBAPrep simplifies operations for pain-free fulfillment.

Managing Amazon aggregator fulfillment: 4 Top challenges and how to fix them

From attempting to replicate past successes to trying to accurately project each Amazon brand’s growth, scaling a profitable brand aggregator comes with its challenges. One of the most common areas brand aggregators encounter is fulfillment. Let’s take a look at some of these problems and how to resolve them:

1) Too many 3PLs, too little time

Managing operations in the early stages of your Amazon brand aggregator journey is time-consuming, but manageable, as you typically have a handful of brands.

However, many teams become so preoccupied with managing the brands on their books, that they don’t have time to prepare for the fulfillment-fueled storm ahead. Here’s where you unknowingly sign up for the looming deluge of ops-related tasks as an Amazon brand aggregator.

Each brand you add to your umbrella tends to come with a legacy of 3PL relationships, each with its own rules, procedures, and pricing. Not to mention the fulfillment requirement methods needed depending on the product.

Quickly, you can end up with 30+ 3PL relationships to upkeep. That’s 30 dashboards, 30 invoices, and 50+ meetings on a good month, assuming there are no fulfillment hiccups. This approach isn’t scalable and will drown you in admin instead of scaling your business.

How to resolve time issues:

• Create 1-3 fulfillment strategies according to a product category, weight, or size.
• Outsource all fulfillment tasks to one reliable full spec fulfillment provider.

2) You pay more for fulfillment than necessary

When your Amazon brands’ fulfillment channels and strategies are fragmented, it’s tougher to profit from economies of scale.

This setup can cause your Amazon brand aggregator to lose out on negotiating power and the most favorable deals from carriers, warehouses, and 3PLs.

Plus, you’ll drag down your brand aggregator’s margins as you pay more for fulfillment services.

How to fix overpayment issues:

• Shop around for fulfillment services with the best quality and prices.
• Once you’ve allocated a fulfillment strategy per brand, use an estimated total order volume of all the brands under that specific strategy for bargaining power.

3) Developing contingency plans becomes tricky

Having a disaster recovery plan is essential for every eCommerce business. However, it becomes more difficult to create contingency plans for each brand in your aggregators when they each have different fulfillment strategies.

Soon, this setup could leave some brands without a good backup plan, making your brand aggregator vulnerable.

How to reduce business vulnerability

• Group brands within your business based on commonalities (e.g. products, categories, or territories) and create a backup plan for each group.
• Forge a relationship with another dependable 3PL as a fallback plan in the event that your primary fulfillment service becomes inoperable.

4) Complexity breeds frustration

The more fulfillment strategies and services your team has to grapple with, the more you open your business to costly mistakes and stressful work environments.

Team morale and productivity can dip significantly, with costly knock-on effects like absenteeism and staff churn.

How to eliminate the complexity of fulfillment

• Lean on tech tools wherever possible (e.g. managing stock, creating POs, ordering freight)
• Outsource manual fulfillment tasks like prep and packing to an experienced service provider.

Say “no” to wearing multiple hats in your Amazon aggregator’s fulfillment. Team up with MyFBAPrep to streamline logistics.

How MyFBAPrep removes the hassle of fulfillment for brand aggregators

Find yourself struggling to manage your Amazon brand aggregator’s fulfillment? There’s a simple solution. Team up with a reliable, experienced, and affordable prep and fulfillment provider. MyFBAPrep ticks all of these boxes above and more. Below, we’ll outline how we can help you get ahead in the Amazon brand aggregator niche.

Agile fulfillment no matter your business’ size

Big eCommerce companies using a fixed fulfillment strategy can quickly lose flexibility as they scale. Such rigidity makes it difficult to gain a competitive advantage from strategic positioning, like distributing stock across territories.

With MyFBAPrep, you can tap into multiple locations based on current market demand, to gain maximum agility and boost your fulfillment’s profitability. For example, our company has 6 million square feet across 50+ warehouses globally, allowing us to accept and prep your items as close to their final destination as possible.

In addition, MyFBAPrep provides VIP access to the world’s best 3PLs that can scale with your brands like SEKO, Ryder, and Maersk. Typically only brands clearing millions of orders per month have access to this setup.

With MyFBAPrep’s expansive client base and business network, it allows us to leverage economies of scale to secure these game-changing deals for our merchants.

Simplify fulfillment to reclaim time

Another benefit we provide merchants is warehouse consolidation into one easy-to-control network. We’ll streamline your process down to one invoice and one dashboard, making managing fulfillment swift and painless while saving time and energy.

For example, if you decide to keep multiple 3PL partnerships, we can absorb them and manage them within the MyFBAPrep ecosystem. You’ll also have the option to branch out to the big 3PL players to build a new, profitable supply chain system.

Use our Amazon knowledge to gain a competitive edge

Without extensive FBA expertise and experience, many 3PLs make costly mistakes. Soon you could find yourself with a hefty bill or worse, without an Amazon account.

MyFBAPrep stays updated on Amazon’s ever-changing rules and platform product requirements, from its specific pallet type specifications to shipping box size limits and IPI score requirements.

As a result, our actions will keep your brands within Amazon Terms of Service and avoid getting in Amazon’s bad books (which, trust us, is somewhere you don’t want to be). Also, our processes and knowledge allow us to get items into FBA quickly, maximizing selling time and avoiding stockouts.

High-quality fulfillment without breaking the bank

MyFBAPrep is on a mission to provide high-quality fulfillment services that don’t destroy margins. We believe in keeping our processes and pricing simple and transparent. Many aggregators are used to getting 3 pages of invoices per 3PL, not to mention those unexpected charges.

To give you an idea, we quote prep and fulfillment services based on just three things:

1. How many cartons do you intend to send in per month, for example, for inspection, counting, or dock-to-stock?
2. Quantity of product you want to store in our warehouses?
3. How many cartons you’d like us to send out per month, for example, outbound out to Amazon and omnichannel fulfillment?

Spot growth opportunities with tech-powered fulfillment

At MyFBAPrep, we understand your supply chain’s success relies heavily on your tools to operate it. That’s why we offer access to our trademarked solution, Preptopia.

Preptopia will take the pressure off your team to achieve growth targets for each brand within your aggregator. For instance, you’ll have access to this information for each on one easy-to-digest dashboard. Here are just a few ways Preptopia can help your Amazon brand aggregator get and stay ahead of the pack:

• Understand each brand’s inventory and order statuses
• Identify scaling opportunities
• Calculate profits with ease
• Make sending goods to Amazon a seamless process

Build a lucrative Amazon aggregator headache-free

Whether you’re in the beginning stages of scaling an Amazon brand aggregator or have many years under your belt, your fulfillment strategy is a defining factor in your success.

Build a simplified ops strategy to handle every stage from product manufacturing to fulfillment so your business can support brand acquisitions at scale. Ensure the method you choose has opportunity spotting built into it, so your business always has the finances lined up to help it thrive.

Soon managing multiple supply chains and strategies will be a walk in the park. Your team will have more time to focus on business scaling tasks, positioning you to take your Amazon brand aggregator market by storm.

Don’t settle for chaotic fulfillment strategies and services. Build your winning ops strategy with MyFBAPrep.