Amazon is launching a new FBA plan, and sellers are applauding

Amazon may launch a new FBA plan and is currently soliciting opinions, which has been welcomed by sellers. In addition, Amazon's fee reduction for Europe will also take effect on March 1.

Amazon Considers New FBA Returns Program

Recently, a seller said that he received an email from the Amazon team and was very happy that Amazon's new plan could be realized.

Amazon mentioned in the email: We would like to determine if you are interested in two potential programs that will improve the return process for FBA customers. We will conduct a questionnaire survey before February 3, 2021.

Amazon's two plans are:

1. Unsaleable returns: Sellers will only receive returns that cannot be sold individually. Returns that can still be sold will be returned to your sellable inventory;

2. All Returns: Sellers will receive all individual products returned by customers. Amazon will not rate the products that sellers have added. Instead, they will be classified as defective. Damaged products are not eligible for a refund, regardless of who damaged them.

In both scenarios, sellers will receive returns 30 days or less after the customer initiates the return , and customers will be refunded as usual.

Sellers who received the email said that both options are a win for FBA sellers! God, please do this!

Some sellers said that they think this plan is good and hope that most of my returns will be unopened. Previously, it took several months for the returned "defective" products to be sent back, and sometimes they could not be delivered to me. I hope that all the returned products can be sent back so that I can check and repack them as needed.

It seems that Amazon has finally listened to sellers regarding their return policy, as it is now calling on sellers to fill out a survey. This is a big step forward !

However, some sellers still question this. They believe that no matter who damaged the product, they will not be eligible for a refund, and this rule is easily abused. One seller said, "I always hope that all returns will be returned because I want to be responsible for the quality of my products." But "bad customers" know that they can return old products and keep new products when they return FBA products. They can still exploit loopholes in the policy and use the products as much as possible, and the seller has no right to pursue. If this is the case, are there conditions for return and refund? Unless the seller encounters a very honest buyer.

Some sellers said frankly: Amazon logistics is always confusing . Maybe Amazon wants to force sellers to use FBM? I haven't done FBA for a while.

In fact, no matter what kind of plan it is, it is impossible to meet the wishes of all sellers. So it will always be complained by some people. But compared with Amazon’s previous return policy, the new plan is relatively friendly.

The proportion of online shopping has increased significantly during the epidemic, and the number of returns has also increased. Statistics show that the return rate of online shopping in the United States is about 30%. In 2020, American consumers returned goods worth about 2.8 trillion yuan, accounting for about 10.6% of the total retail sales in the United States that year. Convenient return methods and the policy of some e-commerce platforms that refund but not return products have contributed to the growth of returns, and some sellers are paying for the returns.

In addition, Amazon has recently issued two other new policies, which will have some impact on some sellers.

Amazon Europe Fee Reduction, Effective March 1

Previously, Amazon had announced that the annual fee adjustment would be postponed to June 1, 2021. Yesterday, Amazon announced again that it would reduce customer return processing fees and extend the referral fee promotion for clothing, shoes and handbags. The return fee changes will take effect on March 1, 2021.

In the announcement, Amazon stated that it would expand the popular FBA New Selection programme. The new selection programme provides free monthly storage and removal services for new ASINs. It is applicable to Amazon stores in the UK, Germany, France, Italy and Spain. The new changes will take effect on April 1, 2021. Sellers in need can pay special attention.

In addition to the European site, the logistics policy of the US site has also been updated.

Important reminder from Amazon: These drop shipping methods are banned

This week, Amazon updated its drop shipping policy. In this "important reminder", Amazon emphasized that if sellers use a third party to fulfill orders (i.e., drop shipping), they must comply with all relevant policies. Any violation of its drop shipping policy will affect the account health and have a negative impact on the seller's future order fulfillment.

The following drop shipping methods are strictly prohibited on Amazon:

-- The seller may not purchase the product directly but provide delivery services from other retailers, such as if the shipment does not identify him as the seller of record, someone other than the seller appears on the packing slip, invoice or outer packaging, etc.;

- Sellers may not ship orders that display packing slips, invoices, outer packaging, or other information that indicates the seller's name and contact information in addition to their own information. This means that the names, logos, or any other identifying information from other retailers cannot appear on the content that customers receive.

If you want to use drop shipping, sellers must comply with these requirements: you must always be the seller of record for the product, that is, the seller identifies himself as the seller of the product in all information accompanying the product; before shipping, remove all information identifying the third-party drop shipper; be responsible for accepting and processing customer returns.

The sellers are not buying into Amazon’s “earnest words”.

One seller said: “There is nothing new in this ‘update’. It says the exact same thing as the current policy, just in a much clearer and direct way. In fact, I dream of the day when Amazon requires all shipping labels to use Amazon Buy Shipping, which would effectively curb online arbitrage drop shippers.” Multiple sellers agreed.

Some sellers have also made more down-to-earth translations of Amazon's requirements, namely: no packaging boxes from Walmart, Costco, Target, Lowes, Home Depot, Chewy, etc., no tapes from eBay, and no reused boxes that look like drop shipping. But it's not easy. One seller said that he had received goods from Walmart, Costco, etc., and gave feedback in the feedback, but the feedback was deleted, while those sellers were still able to continue selling.

Package theft is rampant in the United States, and sellers can't bear the losses

Amid the pandemic, online sales in the United States have seen a substantial increase. Digital Commence 360 ​​estimates that online shopping sales in the United States in 2020 may soar 40.3% year-on-year to $839 billion.

According to Sina Technology, as online shopping increases, package theft is becoming increasingly rampant in the United States. A survey by Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, a private university in New York State , estimated that 1.7 million packages were stolen, lost, or misdelivered every day in the United States in 2019, with direct financial losses and labor costs exceeding $25 million. In New York City alone, 90,000 packages were lost every day.

As more people lose their jobs during the pandemic, stealing packages may be a way to improve the economy. From a regional perspective, California has become a hard-hit area for package theft. In addition, incidents such as snatching packages during riots, breaking into homes to snatch packages, and robbing delivery trucks have taken place one after another.

When a package is stolen, most Americans don’t think of calling the police first, but contacting the platform or seller immediately. In most cases, the seller bears the loss. Amazon and large sellers usually refund or resend the customer directly.

An Amazon seller said that when they encounter consumers reporting that their packages are lost, they usually refund the money first and then communicate with the platform. Compared with product refunds, they are more worried that buyers will give bad reviews for the products because they cannot receive the goods. How humble!

FBA, returns, European site