Selling Lego on Amazon.com

[Kenxxx]

So I'm not hearing anyone say they have great metrics, self-fulfilled 25 orders, AND got a rejection notice for holiday selling.  My guess is they finally closed that loophole (that allowed fba orders to count towards your 25).  It never made sense anyway.  I'm surprised it took them this long to figure it out.

[cobrakai]

40 minutes ago, Kenxxx said:

So I'm not hearing anyone say they have great metrics, self-fulfilled 25 orders, AND got a rejection notice for holiday selling.  My guess is they finally closed that loophole (that allowed fba orders to count towards your 25).  It never made sense anyway.  I'm surprised it took them this long to figure it out.

I think they may have fixed the loophole also, but I will definitely test it after the cutoff date to make sure.  I also got an email about being pre qualified for seller fulfilled prime (skip the trial) yesterday and I wonder if SFP will override the MF toy restriction.....

[ichiroll]

10 hours ago, asharerin said:

I love it for items that can go first class mail. Change cutoff time to 11am and you are good to go SFP wed-sat using first class mail. SFP is not coded as prime so repricers that are set to match fba won’t react to it. SFP is treated as prime to win the buy box tho so you can really dominate most sellers who just set their repricer and walk away. Be aware first class mail is changing to zone pricing next year so this strategy will not be quite as profitable then.

I thought First Class Mail no longer qualified as a valid ship method for Amazon Buy Shipping (for reliability reasons).

Did this change?

[ichiroll]

On 10/9/2018 at 8:07 PM, DadsAFOL said:

 

apparently you can buy insurance for getting kicked off Amazon.

good point, please let me know if anybody is able to get ahold of some carriers that can handle this.

[zskid00]

50 minutes ago, ichiroll said:

I thought First Class Mail no longer qualified as a valid ship method for Amazon Buy Shipping (for reliability reasons).

Did this change?

I'm curious about this as well, because I thought I saw a note about this on Seller Central at some point.  In my experience First Class packages are getting delivered just as quickly as Priority, but I know it's not guaranteed for 2-3 days.

[Bold-Arrow]

53 minutes ago, ichiroll said:

I thought First Class Mail no longer qualified as a valid ship method for Amazon Buy Shipping (for reliability reasons).

Did this change?

 

1 minute ago, zskid00 said:

I'm curious about this as well, because I thought I saw a note about this on Seller Central at some point.  In my experience First Class packages are getting delivered just as quickly as Priority, but I know it's not guaranteed for 2-3 days.

no issues here using first class for FBM including SFP

[ichiroll]

1 minute ago, Bold-Arrow said:

no issues here using first class for FBM including SFP

interesting, just checked on our account, and First Class Mail showing up.

gonna try to dig up the communication I received.

[ichiroll]

ok, so here is the notice:

Starting May 1, 2018, USPS First Class Package Service® ship method will no longer be available in Buy Shipping Services for Seller Fulfilled Prime (SFP) Premium orders (One-day and Two-day orders). You can still use USPS First Class Package Service® to ship your standard SFP orders. 

We are taking this action to maintain the Prime delivery promise to our customers. We will continue to work with USPS to ensure that First Class Package Service® can meet the Prime delivery promise, and we will notify you when it is available again for SFP premium orders. 

Edited October 11, 2018 by ichiroll

[Bold-Arrow]

Just now, ichiroll said:

ok, so here is the notice:

Starting May 1, 2018, USPS First Class Package Service® ship method will no longer be available in Buy Shipping Services for Seller Fulfilled Prime (SFP) Premium orders (One-day and Two-day orders). You can still use USPS First Class Package Service® to ship your standard SFP orders. 

We are taking this action to maintain the Prime delivery promise to our customers. We will continue to work with USPS to ensure that First Class Package Service® can meet the Prime delivery promise, and we will notify you when it is available again for SFP premium orders. 

Thank you for selling on Amazon,

The Seller Fulfilled Prime Team

key here is : One-day and Two-day order

Ash's post breaks it down nicely as to why that doesn't alway apply towards the end of the week.

[ichiroll]

8 minutes ago, Bold-Arrow said:

key here is : One-day and Two-day order

Ash's post breaks it down nicely as to why that doesn't alway apply towards the end of the week.

Yea, I noticed that as I was pasting the communication in.

Is SFP Standard the "Free No-Rush Shipping" option that you get at checkout?

Literally 95% of our orders are One-Day and Two-Day shipping...

[redcell]

1 hour ago, ichiroll said:

good point, please let me know if anybody is able to get ahold of some carriers that can handle this.

I don't know which carriers offer this type of coverage, but I would pay very close attention to the specifics of the benefits of this type of policy.  They may provide some business interruption coverage, as well as coverage for professional handling of an appeal to Amazon, but I would be surprised if they provided coverage for the real risk, which is the money that would be lost from no longer having access to the Amazon platform.

[Bold-Arrow]

3 minutes ago, redcell said:

I don't know which carriers offer this type of coverage, but I would pay very close attention to the specifics of the benefits of this type of policy.  They may provide some business interruption coverage, as well as coverage for professional handling of an appeal to Amazon, but I would be surprised if they provided coverage for the real risk, which is the money that would be lost from no longer having access to the Amazon platform.

to your point, i have heard horror stories on these types of coverage 

[swada33]

4 hours ago, Kenxxx said:

So I'm not hearing anyone say they have great metrics, self-fulfilled 25 orders, AND got a rejection notice for holiday selling.  My guess is they finally closed that loophole (that allowed fba orders to count towards your 25).  It never made sense anyway.  I'm surprised it took them this long to figure it out.

I got one. I'm still waiting to hear back from them. I had 27 FBM orders (one was returned as non-deliverable) and all of my metrics are perfect. I opened a case to ask why last night and they responded with something like "I understand you are asking about Holiday selling. Here is how you qualify..." Oi. So I reopened the case to see if I can get someone to actually read the message/question and respond appropriately.

[asharerin]

5 hours ago, zskid00 said:

I'm curious about this as well, because I thought I saw a note about this on Seller Central at some point.  In my experience First Class packages are getting delivered just as quickly as Priority, but I know it's not guaranteed for 2-3 days.

If you set your cutoff time at 11am and roughly 1 hour before the time your post office closes then FCM will be an option Wed thru Sat. You will turn SFP on Wed am and off each day 1 hour before post office closing. We also keep FBA instock of those items so when we turn off SFP you swap to FBA for the rest of the time. The key is make sure you ship pretty much as soon as the orders come in. Amazon also has many glitches when purchasing shipping so when that happens turn SFP off ASAP or you will get hosed.

There is also SFP Small and Light but those new zone rates will certainly eat into those profits next year.

[LegoEdison]

I have some question about FBA  INVENTORY PERFORMANCE INDEX

how to improve In-stock inventory ? I have nothing to sell at those item. how can i make it in-stock? should i delete the listing? what if i delete the listing and customer return? 

 

 

 

[Bold-Arrow]

2 minutes ago, LegoEdison said:

I have some question about FBA  INVENTORY PERFORMANCE INDEX

how to improve In-stock inventory ? I have nothing to sell at those item. how can i make it in-stock? should i delete the listing? what if i delete the listing and customer return? 

 

 

 

delete the item. some people would rather wait 30 days ( return window ) , others delete after last item ships. If you delete and get a return, item will go to stranded. relist under same sku and you good. 

[ISO8T0]

 

50 minutes ago, LegoEdison said:

I have some question about FBA  INVENTORY PERFORMANCE INDEX

how to improve In-stock inventory ? I have nothing to sell at those item. how can i make it in-stock? should i delete the listing? what if i delete the listing and customer return? 

 

 

 

Just double check you didn't set up the auto return option on your account.

[cobrakai]

56 minutes ago, Bold-Arrow said:

delete the item. some people would rather wait 30 days ( return window ) , others delete after last item ships. If you delete and get a return, item will go to stranded. relist under same sku and you good. 

Just go to the restock inventory page, checkbox all items and then click hide recommendations.  Hiding them stops them from affecting your score. 

[Bold-Arrow]

1 minute ago, cobrakai said:

Just go to the restock inventory page, checkbox all items and then click hide recommendations.  Hiding them stops them from affecting your score. 

it is a good practice to delete items what you wont restock , specifically RO/RA items. 

[LegoEdison]

is the 10 cubic feet limit for the whole quarter you can send in or if you sold something, you can send in more but not over 10 at any point?

[ISO8T0]

7 minutes ago, LegoEdison said:

is the 10 cubic feet limit for the whole quarter you can send in or if you sold something, you can send in more but not over 10 at any point?

you can replenish your stock when your storage goes below 10 cuft.

If you go over I believe the current rate is $10/cuft. in storage fees.

[Brickbuilder.g]

I’ve got a bunch of listings I haven’t used for over a year...good idea to delete those?

[asharerin]

3 hours ago, LegoEdison said:

I have some question about FBA  INVENTORY PERFORMANCE INDEX

how to improve In-stock inventory ? I have nothing to sell at those item. how can i make it in-stock? should i delete the listing? what if i delete the listing and customer return? 

 

 

 

FBA in-stock rate has no affect on the Inventory Performance Index. This was straight from Amazon when booksellers went beserk about their thousands of one offs not being replenishable. The big items are sell through rate and excess inventory. Aim to turn every 30 days if you can and aim for all of your skus to be less than 90 days old. Do that and there is no way to have a score less than 600.

If you do delete a listing and a customer returns then it will go into stranded inventory. From there you can relist it if it is deemed to be in sellable condition or recall/have it destroyed.

Edited October 15, 2018 by asharerin

[Bold-Arrow]

7 minutes ago, asharerin said:

FBA in-stock rate has no affect on the Inventory Performance Index. This was straight from Amazon when booksellers went beserk about their thousands of one offs not being replenishable. The big items are sell through rate and excess inventory. Aim to turn every 30 days if you can and aim for all of your skus to be less than 90 days old. Do that and there is no way to have a score less than 600.

If you do delete a listing and a customer returns then it will go into stranded inventory. From there you can relist it if it is deemed to be in sellable condition or recall/have it destroyed.

From personal experience , every time I delete listings in batches my score goes up . 

[chrisynd]

Anybody else get a lovely Amazon email: "Important information about Toys" just now?

 

Text:

Quote

Hello,

We are contacting you because we show that you may be selling items in the Toys category.

As part of our ongoing efforts to provide the best possible customer experience, we are confirming that your product meets the current mandatory safety standards. As a result, you must provide us with required safety documentation no later than October 23, 2018.

ASINs: <removed>

To ensure there is no impact to your business, refer to the following Help page for information on safety document requirements for Toys and how to submit them to Amazon: https://sellercentral.amazon.com/gp/help/external/GV9VZ5A7PJZQYRFF

By applying to sell these products, you certify that all materials you submit are true, authentic, and accurate.

Thank you for doing business with Amazon.

Sincerely,
Amazon Services

Note for FBA sellers: If you have Toys inventory in our fulfillment centers that hasn’t been approved by October 23, 2018, please request removal within 30 days. Instructions for creating a removal order can be found at: https://sellercentral.amazon.com/gp/help/external/G200280650. Standard FBA Return Fees or FBA Disposal Fees will apply.

 

It's about 30 ASINs, all LEGO, only a small portion of the ASINs I'm stocking (FBA). I haven't chased down a "A document confirming that your product was tested according to the standard listed in the following table by a laboratory that is certified to the ILAC ISO 17025 standard" before, but... Looks like I'll need to.

Anyone else?