Fulfillment by Amazon Seller Newsletter

 

in this issue... FBA News Refresh Your Inventory for the New Year Compare Your Fulfillment Costs New "Manage FBA Inventory" report replacing CSV download Seller Success Young entrepreneur sells on Amazon between college classes Tools & Tips Managing customer feedback Packing your shipments for best results Track LTL Shipments in your shipping queue   reminders Provide Tax ID info by December 26, 2011 Beginning with the 2011 tax year, new IRS regulations require Amazon to file a Form 1099-K for sellers who exceed $20,000 in unadjusted gross sales and 200 transactions in a calendar year. To assist in complying with these regulations, we are requiring sellers who exceed 50 transactions in a calendar year, regardless of monetary threshold, to provide their tax identity information. Please provide your tax identity to Amazon as soon as possible to prevent disruption to your seller account. Note that if the required information is not provided to Amazon by December 26, 2011, your Amazon selling privileges will be suspended until you provide the information. Please log into your seller account and use the short interview process that can be accessed from the Settings > Account Info > Legal entity section. Note: This interview is only accessible to the primary user of the seller account. Frequently Asked Questions IRS Form 1099-K regulations Tracking Multi-Channel Fulfillment orders When available, tracking information from carriers for Multi-Channel Fulfillment orders will now be imported directly to the Manage Your Orders detail page. We will also list undeliverable Multi-Channel Fulfillment orders that have been returned to our fulfillment centers on this page, as well as in the FBA Returns report. Learn more about Service for Multi-Channel Fulfillment Orders. Vacation settings—FBA listings can remain active Remember that you can continue to sell through FBA while you’re on vacation. When you change your listing status from active to inactive (or "On Vacation"), any listings you fulfill yourself will be removed from Aamazon.com. However, your FBA-fulfilled listings will remain available on Amazon.com and through Multi-Channel Fulfillment. Learn more about Listings Status (Vacation).   useful links Calculate your FBA Inventory Storage Fees Take the mystery out of Inventory Storage Fees with this interactive calculator. Just enter the length, width, and height in inches, and it will tell you how many cubic feet and the estimated cost of storage at standard pricing and during peak holiday months. Go to the FBA Inventory Storage Fee Calculator. FBA Updates You can read recent issues of FBA Updates in Seller Central Help. There's also a link to provide feedback. Check them out.	From the editor Greetings from Fulfillment by Amazon, Our sellers are having an amazing holiday season! Inventory flew out the door on Black Friday and throughout Cyber Week, and the festive momentum continues. As we wrap up the holidays, we encourage you to clean up your inventory and avoid Long-Term Storage Fees scheduled for assessment on February 15, 2012, and we offer an upgrade to the FBA Revenue Calculator to help you prepare for the February 1, 2012, FBA fee changes. We also have a new report to make inventory management easier. Happy New Year!   FBA News Refresh your inventory for the New Year It’s time to clean out the old and make room for the new! The next FBA Inventory Cleanup will be conducted on February 15, 2012. Inventory that has been in our fulfillment centers for 365 days or more as of February 15, 2012, and that was not assessed a long-term storage fee in August 2011, will be assessed a long-term storage fee. For fees and more information go to FBA Long-Term Storage. Compare your fulfillment costs Find out how your fulfillment costs will change when the new FBA fees take effect on February 1, 2012. The updated FBA Revenue Calculator (Beta) allows you to compare your fulfillment costs to the current fees or those taking effect in February. You can also compare the current and new FBA fees side by side. This is intended as a supplemental tool; please be sure to review the full description of the Fulfillment by Amazon Pricing Changes. To see any of your inventory that may be affected or begin the process of taking action on this inventory, you can go to the Inventory Health Report. The data shown in this report is the authoritative source for Units that should be removed to avoid long-term storage fee charges on February 15, 2012. New "Manage FBA Inventory" report replacing CSV download FBA recently launched the "Manage FBA Inventory" and "Manage FBA Inventory-Archived" reports. These new reports replace the "Download Comma-Delimited File" option on the "Inventory Amazon Fulfills" page and address several shortcomings of that report: Large reports are now supported. These are processed in the background, so you can do other things while you wait. Recent report history is saved. Visit the Downloads tab to access previously requested reports. Column header naming is now consistent with other fulfillment reports to clarify relationships to other reports. The report format has changed from CSV to our standard tab-delimited format. The report content is unchanged except that two columns have been removed: AFN Inbound Problem Qty Qty AFN Fulfilled Last 7 Days Please note that the downloadable CSV report will be going away soon. You should plan to transition any systems relying on this report to the new "Manage FBA Inventory" or "Manage FBA Inventory-Archived" report no later than January 31, 2012.    Seller Success Young entrepreneur sells on Amazon between college classes Amar Khubani began selling online in high school through multiple eCommerce channels. He founded Before the Stores in 2008 to sell As Seen on TV items that aren’t yet available in brick and mortar retail stores to Amazon.com customers. "The high exposure these products receive on TV drives customers to search for the product online, often on Amazon.com, meaning the products become extremely hot sellers," says Khubani. With help from FBA, Before the Stores has been able to respond effectively to high demand. "There was a point when we were selling over 1,000 Iron Gyms per week. FBA helped us increase our sales on Amazon to this level." —Amar Khubani Founder, Before the Stores Read the Before the Stores success story.   Tools & Tips Managing customer feedback Negative feedback from Amazon.com buyers can negatively affect your sales. That’s why we developed FBA's Feedback Strikethrough Policy to address negative feedback related to customer service provided by Amazon. If a buyer rates an order fulfilled by Amazon based only on the service they received from Amazon, we can remove the rating and strikethrough the buyer comment. However, negative feedback cannot be removed if the customer says the order was not received on time or the condition was not as described. In these cases, we recommend communicating directly with the buyer using the Contact Customer tool on the Manage Orders page in your Seller Account. Here are some tips to keep in mind: Keep your conversation private. Never post responses on the public feedback page that might embarrass or anger the buyer. Get more information. Find out exactly what led to the negative feedback. Offer a solution. Make sure the solution you suggest addresses the buyer’s concerns. Ask them to remove their feedback. After you have confirmed that a solution has been reached, politely ask the buyer to consider removing their negative feedback. Here are some more tips for Getting Good Feedback with Customer Service. Packing your shipments for best results Items are generally shipped to customers in the same product packaging in which you send them to our fulfillment centers. Make sure your items are packed securely to prevent damage. Components: Amazon does not accept products requiring assembly of multiple separate pieces at our dock (for example, a wheelbarrow with handles and legs in separate boxes). All individual units must be contained within a single package, including multiple volume set book publications. FNSKUs: Any FNSKU must correspond to one unique product, including assortments that should have a unique FNSKU per assortment type. All products must be labeled with one scannable FNSKU on the outside of each shippable unit of the product. Human-readable UPC, ISBN, EAN, and GTIN-14 numbers should be visible as well. Labels should be on the exterior of the product in an easily accessible and scannable location. Marketing materials: Marketing materials (including but not limited to pamphlets, price tags, or other non-Amazon stickers) are prohibited. Amazon will not accept pre-priced labels or products. Safety: You are required to use safety knives with covered blades when packing and shipping products to Amazon fulfillment centers to prevent injury to Amazon Associates or customers from sharp objects, such as blades, accidentally left in cartons and products. Adult products: All adult products must be bagged for protection in black, opaque bags. The outside of the bag must have a scannable ASIN and a suffocation warning. Sharp, hazardous, and damage prone items: Amazon reserves the right to specify products needing additional protective packaging in order to preserve the integrity of the product throughout the fulfillment process. Products sensitive to dust, dirt, or humidity must be protected by poly bags. Any product delivered to an Amazon fulfillment center with inadequate or non-compliant packaging may be refused or repackaged by Amazon at the seller's expense and may also be subject to additional fees. Shipments: Limit each box to contain only units from one Shipment ID. Weight limits: Boxes must not exceed the standard weight limit of 50 lbs, unless one single shippable unit exceeds 50 lbs itself. Boxes weighing more than 50 lbs must be clearly labeled "Heavy Weight" on the top and sides. Boxes: All boxes must be standard shippable containers that will sufficiently protect the contents during transit and processing at Amazon's fulfillment centers. If you need an example of appropriate containers, we use an RSC (regular slotted carton), B flute, ECT-32 (edge crush test), 200 lb./sq. inch (burst strength). Pallets: Neither point-of-sale containers nor "gaylords" may be used for shipping. Packing: Accepted forms of dunnage or void fill include foam, air pillows, and full sheets of paper. Packing peanuts of any kind, crinkle wrap, and shredded paper are not allowed. Boxes must be packaged so that the contents can withstand the rigors of transportation and processing at Amazon fulfillment centers. Learn more about Packaging and Prep Requirements. Track LTL shipments in your shipping queue Less than truckload (LTL) and full truckload (FTL) shipments, which require delivery appointments at the fulfillment centers, can now be tracked with date stamps beneath the "Work on Shipment" and "View and Track" buttons in the right column of the shipping queue. You'll be able to see when a dock appointment is requested and scheduled, when a shipment has been checked in at the fulfillment center, and when the shipment has been unloaded. Additional information will also be available in the Event Summary tab for the shipment. Learn more about Dock Appointment Tracking. Regards, The Fulfillment by Amazon Team
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