Here is your midweek jetpack of Amazon seller news, updates, and other useful clicks for your e-commerce business…
Online Returns Drop to 16.5% in 2022
High e-commerce return rates have been somewhat of a plague the past few years, but things are starting to look better for the merchants.
The National Retail Federation recently reported that online return rates dropped to 16.5% in 2022 compared to 20.8% in the previous year.
A number of experts are attributing this change to a mix of initiatives across the world of retail, including:
- Early, deep holiday discounts which drove sales well before the holiday period
- The use of sizing tech in the fashion sector which reduced shoppers’ “need to bracket”
- The release of new store features and sophisticated product data from various platforms which helped buyers make more accurate purchasing decisions
- Many retailers have implemented return policies that pass the cost of returns to customers
73% of the retailers who participated in the study consider product returns to be a “moderate to severe” issue for their business, and any downward trend is considered a welcome development.
Read the full story here.
Amazon is “World’s Most Valuable Brand” in 2023
Brand Finance, the world’s leading brand valuation agency, has declared Amazon to be the world’s most valuable brand in 2023. The retail giant was able to reclaim the top spot over Apple despite its brand value falling to $299.3 billion from $350.3 billion this year.
The World’s Top 10 Most Valuable Brands in 2023:
- Amazon ($299.3 B)
- Apple ($297.5 B)
- Google ($281.4 B)
- Microsoft ($191.6 B)
- Walmart ($113.8 B)
- Samsung ($99.7 B)
- ICBC ($69.5 B)
- Verizon ($67.4 B)
- Tesla ($66.2 B)
- TikTok ($65.7 B)
Image source from the Global 500 2023 Most Valuable Brands report
Read the full report here.
Amazon’s “Automate Pricing” Feature Can Now Increase Prices to Match External Retailers
Automate Pricing, Amazon’s built-in repricing tool can now be used to automatically increase prices when the price of a product for a particular brand is higher across external markets.
“When you configure price rules to compare against prices from retailers outside the Amazon store, we can increase your price when the external price increases. This applies when there are no other offers for the same item in Amazon’s store that meet your rule criteria.”
This new feature claims to enable users to maintain maximum profitability. Take note that this only applies when there are no other offers for the same item in Amazon’s store that meet the user’s rule criteria.
Follow these steps if you want to use this new feature:
- Head to Automated Pricing and enroll your SKU in a Competitive Featured Offer Rule or Competitive Lowest Price Rule.
- Configure your rule settings to compare with prices outside the Amazon store.
Probably not a great idea to ditch battle-tested 3rd party pricing repricing tools like Bqool and Informed.co just yet, as there have been many issues with using the Amazon repricer across seller forums.
Reminder: Inventory Ledger Report to Replace Six Old Inventory Reports on January 31
Heads up: by the time you are reading this, Amazon’s new Inventory Ledger Report will have already replaced the following six inventory reports:
- Daily Inventory History
- Monthly Inventory History
- Inventory Event Detail
- Inventory Adjustments
- Inventory Reconciliation
- Received Inventory
We hope that you were able to review and export reports that you think you might have needed before they were discontinued.
Don’t fret, though. In case you were worried about not being able to find data which was previously made available by the six phased-out reports, Amazon recently updated the Help section Inventory Ledger Report: How to Find the Information You Need.
Make sure to give that section a good read so that the adjustment will be easier for you.
Learning Opportunities This Week
Here are a few learning resources for your Amazon business this week:
Twitter:
- Ultimate List of OA Tips and Hacks by Chris Potter
Blog Posts:
- Ecommerce Demand Forecasting 101: Everything You Need to Grow Your Business by SellerApp
- Amazon Best Sellers and Trending Products in February 2023 by Jungle Scout
Podcasts:
- Changes to Compliance by Seller Performance Solutions
- Seven Beginner Pitfalls to Amazon FBA Success by Full-Time FBA
Enter the Giveaway for Free OA Leads
We are giving away two month-long subscriptions to our online arbitrage leads lists.
You can enter the giveaway here.
Each winner will receive:
- 10+ Daily Online Arbitrage Product Leads / 200+ leads per month! ($185 value)
- 50-80% ROI Average (40% Minimum)
- $6-15 Net Profit Average, Min $4 / Max $60+
- 10+ Sales Per Month Min / Top 1.5% Rank
All leads are manually sourced by our team. We have 20+ people on our team and we take sourcing very seriously.
Good luck! Enter here.
Other Quick Clicks
- Amazon’s bold $5 prescription drug program is the future of pharmacy
- Amazon enters Web3 jungle with NFT initiative launching this spring
- How Amazon turned small businesses into “day traders”
- New Amazon Air plan could cut delivery to just a few hours
Thank you for reading. If you have any questions, comments or violent reactions, let us know below!
Get Your Quick Biweekly Update on News and Resources for Amazon Sellers!
Delivered to your inbox every other week.
Need-to-know seller content only. No spam. Unsubscribe at any time.
About The Authors
