Thomas Plaster spoke on Amazon’s Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) program at the recent Internet Sellers Conference in Seattle. I found his talk enlightening not only as an FBA user; he also gave attendees a taste of the direction Amazon is going as an online retailer.

The surprise/awakening statement:

Tom started by telling us a little about the history and direction and ‘why’ of FBA. As you may know, founder Jeff Bezos started the company with the vision of being the biggest book seller in the world. He wanted every book ever written to be available. As the company has matured the vision has changed. Now Amazon aspires ”to have available for sale everything ever created or intended to be sold.” Think about it – that’s an astonishing goal. And, how in the world would any corporation ever have enough capital funding to achieve such a goal?

Well, that’s the interesting thing. Amazon has no real intention in purchasing all those products to resell. To accomplish the goal they are moving away from being a direct retailer and moving toward being a platform or ‘marketplace.’

Slowly, but surely, Amazon is moving away from purchasing and reselling products. To accomplish this Amazon has two hurdles to overcome.
One is that 50% of their buyers have still not purchased from a third party seller. That could be because third party sellers charge shipping and it may be the trust and safety feature.

Two small, third party merchants often have storage and fulfillment problems that stand in the way of expanding.

Amazon FBA was designed to bridge those gaps.

When a seller sends the inventory to a fulfillment center Amazon includes it in their free shipping program and takes care of all the shipping, handling and customer service issues.

The program is a whopping success! The Amazon marketplace is being changed rapidly by FBA. And, this year alone Amazon intends to add between 3 and 5 new centers to the 28 fulfillment centers.

If you haven’t looked into Amazon FBA as a part of your seller toolkit this program may help you gain the lift you need in the Amazon marketplace. Look at your inventory – is there a product that might sell better if it shipped for free? Can your retail price be shifted or tweaked a little to roll the pick, pack and storage fees and offer you a reasonable margin? If so, consider try using the Amazon FBA program before your competitor does.

For more information about Amazon FBA and how to use it to grow your business join us at the Web Sellers’ Circle.

Inventory Management Tools: New ‘Inventory Age Report’
The new ‘Inventory Age Report’ will launch soon to give you visibility into the age of your inventory in our fulfillment centers.  The report will show a snapshot of inventory by age in incremental 30-day groups to enable you to identify how quickly your products are selling.  With this visibility, you will now be able determine appropriate actions such as offering a sales price, creating a promotion or even removing the items from storage.
 
You will be able to access the report from the Fulfillment section of the Reports tab in your seller account, and it will be available both as an online view and as a downloadable file.

I love it! Now I don’t have to wonder how fast or slow my FBA inventory is selling.

That’s according to a Javelin survey.

You can better your odds of getting those shopping cart customers to convert by 14% if you offer three or more payment types (other than just three different credit card types).

These alternative payment types include: PayPal, Google Check-out, Bill Me Later and now Amazon Payments.

Recently Jockey.com added Amazon Payments and now see about 30% of their customers are the Amazon service.

Amazon has three payment structures to choose from:

1. Amazon Simple Pay – good for digital products with no physical delivery and non-profits who are collecting donations
2. Amazon Payments – for merchants who have physical products to ship
3. Flexible Payment Services – merchants who need customized shopping cart integration via API

Amazon payments offer existing customers their ‘one-click’ payment service – which we all love!

And, they offer merchants no start-up charges. Payment processing is 2.9% of the total plus .30 per transaction. They also offer a lower value payment processing option for items under $10.00 – 5% of the total plus .05 cents per transaction.

Unlike selling directly through amazon’s catalog online, payment processing services have no category restrictions (except of course government restriction like tobacco and alcohol).

And to get sellers on board the Amazon Payment service – they’re offering a great free trial!

For more information go to: https://payments.amazon.com/offer

https://s3.amazonaws.com/amazonservices/merchant/DetailPage/detail_page_sc.html

(you may need to log into your Amazon Account to view the video)

The highlights of the video include information about:

Specifications about the title. Whenever possible use exactly what the manufacture calls the item to prevent confusion and make it easy to find.

Use the unique identifiers that the manufacture provides. Use either the UPC, EAN or ISBN number to make sure you are listing in the correct detail page. Even if your item is slightly different (ie: box color or item color) if you use manufacture provided numbers you’ll match it to the correct listing.

An ASIN number is the Amazon assigned number to identify the product in the Amazon Catalog. The acronym stands for Amazon Standard Identification Number. This number is also part of the item’s URL.

When uploading a picture, use only white backgrounds and make sure they are at least 500 pixels on the largest end.

When creating the bulleted list include information such as size, material and any accessories that may come with the product.

If you see an error on the page notify Amazon by using the feedback form on the lower part of the listing page. An Amazon employee will review the page and update it if required. If there is a URL that backs up your correction be sure to include it when you contact them. Product pages can NOT be deleted by users. If you see a page that should be removed, contact Amazon through the feedback area on the page.

Finally more tips on how to win the Amazon Buy Box

While this may change, here is the latest information about winning the buy box. Amazon bases the results on the seller criteria below:

• Price (lowest price including shipping)
• Item Availability (how many of the SKU you have in stock AND how fast you ship)
• Customer Feedback (number of refunds and A to Z claims)
• Sales Volume

You may not meet the criteria, even if you are the only seller of the item. In that case no items show in the buy box, but they are still listed on the “all seller listings” page.

For my business it’s a perfect fit. I didn’t want to hire help or rent a storage space. I like working from home, and want  to keep it that way! The extra fees I pay amazon to warehouse and ship products is a fraction of what I’d pay an employee.

If you’d like to learn more about Amazon FBA I did a class on it – you’ll find it inside the Web Sellers Circle membership area. It’s free – just sign up (over there on the left) and I’ll send you the login information.

See you in the circle.

The independent conference for entrepreneurs who utilize Amazon.com as a sales platform.

Dates = July 10-13 2009
Place – Seattle Airport Marriott and Amazon HQ

This conference is presented to allow sellers to network, learn and grow their online businesses. Executives from Amazon.com will be on hand to lead sessions, answer questions and receive feedback. 
 
Website: http://www.scoe.biz
Location: Kirkland, WA

A few of the things Dennis covered:

1. The Neatoscan tool
2. Not just for books (you can scan anything in the Amazon catalog with a bar code)
3. Listen up – he gives valuable numbers on sell through rates
4. A FREE resource for finding book sales in your area – no more spending hours looking through the newspaper!
5. A new desktop solution for product sourcing on the Internet

The interview is a little under an hour, so grab a cup of coffee and be prepared to take notes. Also be a little patient with the file - it’ll take a few minutes to start once you click onto the link – until then you’ll see a blank, dark gray screen.

You’ll find the Neatoscan interview in the video tutorials section in the members area. To join enter your email address in the box on the right side of this page.

Don’t forget: You’ll have complete and free access to the member area until sometime in May – then we are turning it over to a subscription site.

There’s still time to get in on the Lifetime Membership deal!

I want to thank those who have the foresight to have already purchased their lifetime membership. You know the quality content we will provide to you as members. I know our offer doesn’t appeal to everyone, but I can assure those who do – will have a lifetime of benefit in the ever-changing word or Internet eCommerce and product development.

If you’d like more information about becoming a lifetime member you can find more information at:
www.websellerssecret.com

See you in the circle
Cindy & Dany

PS: Don’t miss out on your chance to become one of the first 25 charter members of the Web Sellers Circle!

www.websellerssecret.com

This week I have the honor to interview the Vendio team about their new store feature. They’re going to show us how their products help sellers take the leap from selling specifically on eBay out into the wide web.

If you are a member of the Web Sellers’ Circle you’ll have access to the video early next week. To sign up for a free membership look for the sign up box on the upper right hand corner of this page. (Membership is free until June – enjoy).

Meanwhile – if you have any questions you’d like me to ask about Vendio Free Stores, their research tools or how to integrate Vendio in your multi-platform selling please leave it in the comments section and I’ll be sure to ask.

“RE: FBA Stickerless Commingled Inventory Approved

Just wanted you to have this update. I just signed up with them yesterday and they do not make you cover up UPC codes anymore!
Thanks for your teaching on this, it really helped me decide.

Kat

Visit Kat’s Kloset at EveryPlaceISell.com“

Kat, thanks for the update that is good news. I’m on my way to change over as soon as I finish this post.

Other recent announcements about FBA are:
New Order Creation Work Flow for Multi-Channel Fulfillment Orders
In the next couple of weeks Amazon will be introducing a new order creation work flow for Multi-Channel Fulfillment orders (i.e. orders for sales channels other than Amazon.com). The newly designed work flow is simple, intuitive and introduces several new features that you will find useful. Some of these features are the ability to preview fees and shipping estimates before you submit a multi-channel fulfillment order. 
Coming soon: “Merchant Inbound Coaching” 
Merchant Inbound Coaching is a new feature that will provide automated feedback and notifications about your inbound shipments when problems are found with the shipments or with the items within. The system will also deliver coaching information that you can use to adopt best practices and send future shipments that are free of defects. If you would like to be considered for the beta test of this functionality, please e-mail fba-feedback@amazon.com with the subject line “Merchant Inbound Coaching Beta.”

Your request for more information is answered!

In early March I have the pleasure of Interviewing Dennis Royzenfeld from Neatoscan.com. Dennis will fill us in on the Neatoscan tool, how, what and why it’s the product you want to use for your amazon.com inventory scouting.

Plus, Dennis has a surprise announcement… (well, I’m going to spill the beans a little here, but act surprised when you hear the interview – LOL). Neatoscan is launching a new desktop tool to evaluate inventory values and sales ranks on amazon.com Dennis gave me access to take it for a test drive – and I have to tell you this is a powerful tool!

So, all you have to do to listen to the interview is sign up for a free WebSellersCircle membership. That’s the box up there on the upper right hand corner of this page.

And, if you have any questions you’d like me to ask Dennis, please leave them in the comments below.