Navigating Amazon’s New Digital Services Fee: What Sellers Need to Know
- The Canadian government has introduced a digital services tax (DST), leading Amazon to implement a digital services fee effective October 1, 2024. The fee applies to sellers based on their business location and store of sale, impacting those in the UK, France, Italy, Spain, and Canada. Sellers in these countries will see a fee added to their Selling on Amazon and FBA fees when selling in the US store.
- Actionable Steps:
- Preview Fees: Use the Amazon Revenue Calculator from September 1 to anticipate fee impacts.
- Monitor Reports: Track fees in your Payments reports starting October 1.
- Adjust Pricing: Utilize Amazon’s Automate Pricing tool to account for new fees.
- Evaluate Strategy: Consider the profitability of selling in regions with DST and adjust strategies accordingly.
Boost Your Sales: Submit Deals for Amazon’s Labor Day Sale
- Amazon’s Labor Day sale is set to run from August 26 to September 3, 2024. Sellers can enhance product visibility and increase sales by submitting time-bound promotional deals for this event.
- How to Submit Your Deals:
- Navigate to Advertising and select Deals.
- Click Create a new deal.
- Choose a qualified ASIN and click Select.
- Select the week of August 26 and proceed to the next step.
- Configure your deal details and click Submit deal.
- Resources:
- Eligibility & Submission: Check Amazon deals for detailed information.
- Video Tutorial: View the step-by-step guide on creating deals.
- Take advantage of this opportunity to boost your sales during the Labor Day promotional period.
Optimize Your Amazon Listings: New Bullet Point Guidelines Effective August 15, 2024
- Starting August 15, 2024, Amazon will implement updated product bullet point requirements to enhance the clarity and effectiveness of product detail pages. The key updates include:
- Restrictions on special characters, emojis, and certain phrases (e.g., refund guarantees).
- Guidance on crafting clear and concise bullet points to improve product comparison.
- These changes aim to help customers quickly assess product features and benefits, leading to more informed purchasing decisions. Additionally, Amazon will leverage AI to remove non-compliant content and generate high-quality bullet points, which will be shared for review before publication.
- Actionable Steps for Sellers:
- Review the New Requirements: Familiarize yourself with the updated bullet point guidelines to ensure compliance.
- Optimize Listings: Adjust current listings to meet the new standards and improve customer engagement.
- Monitor AI Suggestions: Review AI-generated improvements to ensure they align with your brand messaging.
- For more details, visit the Product bullet point requirements.
Amazon Updates Image Selection for Product Detail Pages: What Sellers Need to Know
- Amazon is expanding its policy of displaying images from multiple sellers on product detail pages to include softlines and consumables, aiming to provide more comprehensive product information. To address seller feedback, Amazon will now prioritize brand owner images and only use images from Amazon or brand-registered sellers when necessary to replace missing or low-quality content.
- Key Requirements:
- Each product detail page must include at least three images:
- Product on a white background
- Product in an environment.
- Product information (e.g., dimensions or nutritional facts).
- Images will be automatically selected and displayed in a customer-friendly order.
- Each product detail page must include at least three images:
- Actionable Steps for Sellers:
- Ensure Quality Images: Upload high-quality images to meet Amazon’s requirements and avoid having images replaced by Amazon or other sellers.
- Prioritize Brand Registration: Ensure your brand is registered to maintain control over product images and content.
- Address Image Issues Promptly: Contact Selling Partner Support to remove incorrect images.
- Resources:
- For more details, visit the Product Image Requirements.
- Learn how to add images: Add Product Images and Video.
- Resolve image issues: Image Issues.
- Discussion Opinion:
- The expanded image policy presents challenges for brand owners. It’s crucial to utilize all image slots, as third-party sellers might provide low-quality or off-brand images. Despite brand registration, sellers often struggle to update images due to Amazon’s contribution system, especially when third-party sellers have strong seller history. This issue is exacerbated when working with agencies like Pattern, where transitioning brand rights can be difficult even with the correct documentation. Overall, this change is not beneficial for sellers or customers on the Amazon platform, as it can lead to inconsistent branding and potential customer confusion.
Maximize Holiday Sales: FBA Capacity Limits and Peak Readiness Strategy
- As the holiday season approaches, Amazon sellers should prepare their inventory for peak demand. To ensure products are Prime badge-ready by Black Friday, send FBA inventory to fulfillment centers by October 19, 2024. The focus in September and October will be on receiving inventory, with limited capacity for new shipments in November and December when processing customer orders takes priority.
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Key Recommendations for Sellers:
- Ship Early: Send inventory in August and September to ensure timely arrival and placement at fulfillment centers.
- Monitor Capacity: Use the Capacity Monitor tool to track estimated capacity limits, available now for October and starting August 20 for November.
- Take Advantage of Fee Changes: With the elimination of overage fees for storage effective July 1, 2024, sellers can exceed capacity limits without incurring additional charges.
- Utilize Resources: Access the peak readiness playbook for more best practices and recommendations to succeed during the holiday season.
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Additional Details:
- Capacity Limits: Lower estimated capacity limits for October and November provide enough storage for six months of inventory.
- Operational Focus: November and December will prioritize processing orders to ensure faster delivery speeds and maximize sales potential.
- Prepare now to ensure your inventory is ready for the busiest shopping season of the year.
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