Ever wondered what Sellers search for online to improve their Amazon presence within the scope of Selling Partner Services? We did the keyword research and came up with questions that cover some of the most searched topics. (Part1)
The answers to these questions are provided by Ignacio Abarca – our Senior Selling Partner Account Manager. With a decade of experience helping clients navigate Amazon’s Selling Partner Services and achieve their goals in the US market – Ignacio brings a wealth of knowledge to the Amerge team.
We’ve divided the interview questions to different areas: inventory management, Amazon listing optimization, and chargebacks. Let’s dive straight into it.
Inventory management
Q: Ignacio, what are the key things to keep in mind, when choosing the optimal way of inventory management for your product?
I: “Supply Chain costs: this will vary depending on your product size, weight and nature (i.e lithium batteries, flammable products, etc).
Sourcing speed: ensuring that products will be transported in the fastest possible way will help saving in operational fees and maintaining your product readiness. Actively checking Inventory level metrics.
For FBA, Seller Central has the Inventory Performance Index score. It contains four influencing factors: Sell-Through, In-Stock, Stranded Inventory and Excess Inventory Scores. These scores will help your business to keep the necessary inventory for your customer demand, but will also help you to understand if your products are moving equivalently to your inbound shipments. They’ll also let you know if your products are having availability issues.
For MFN (Merchant Fulfilled Network) we get Valid Tracking, Order Defect Rate, Late Shipment Rate and Pre-fulfillment Cancel Rate.
Make sure to keep in consideration seasonality for inbounding operations.”
Q: Considering the product characteristics and sales volume, what are the pros and cons of using Fulfilment by Amazon (FBA) versus Fulfilment by Merchant (FBM) for managing inventory?
I: “Mainly the assurance that conversion rate would improve in a drastic way. There are 171.8 million Prime customers that will be preferring to purchase through FBA than MFN. This will help with customer service (returns, claims, etc), saving time and efforts with order management.
If the seller product is light and small the fees will be feasible. On the contrary if the selling partner sells heavy and bulky products, FBA might not be the best choice.
If the selling partner is the brand owner and product BuyBox winner, FBA will always be a good option since the products will be easily moved in and out of fulfilment centres. If the selling partner is a reseller, loses the BuyBox with the brand owner and competes with other several resellers, then the inventory movement will be very slow and inconsistent. In this scenario MFN would be the best option.”
Q: Could you share any inventory replenishment strategies to ensure timely restocking and minimise stock outs on Amazon?
I: “Set inventory rotation periods, i.e quarterly periods. Analyse previous periods stock quantities movements so you can forecast in-stock inventory operations. Setting low stock level alerts will also help knowing when it’s time to restock and avoid losing potential sales.”
Amazon listing optimization
Q: How about Amazon listing optimization? Where to start with Amazon listing optimization? What research should the sellers do before diving into the creation of the content ?
I: “Selling partners are encouraged to analyse the market they want to sell in. The amount of competitors, best sellers, average price point, average rating score and also tentpole events participation (i.e Prime Day, Black Friday Weekend).
There are tools offered by Amerge that can help with this analysis pre-listing creation, we offer Amerge View for a holistic analysis of your product’s catalogue score.”
Q: Ignacio, can you tell us what strategies can sellers use to optimise product titles for both search engine visibility and grabbing customer attention on Amazon?
I: “SEO implementation would help in a fast and effective way. This will basically recommend keywords with high search volume and conversation rate.
A/B experiments can also deliver results that would be compared and provide data on which keywords are working better for customer exposure and discoverability.”
Q: Why should a brand/seller consider using A+ Content ?
I: “It’s demonstrated that A+ Content helps with conversion rate. It also ensures to the customer that the brand is well positioned and offers optimal customer experience.
Most Amazon customers will look for product features in the detail page content. You can engage and create a loyal customer base through A+ Content by creating a lifestyle narrative that would attract new and returning customers.”
Q: What tactics can the sellers use to encourage positive customer reviews and ratings?
I: “Firstly consider investing in the Vine program. This way professional reviewers partnered with Amazon will leave an honest review for your products. Monitoring and responding to reviews can positively impact potential customers. Build brand loyalty so your customers can check new products and new offers that can lead to a loyal customer base.”
Chargebacks
Q: Drawing on your expertise with Amazon’s policies, what specific documentation or evidence is usually necessary for sellers to effectively dispute chargeback claims?
I: “The backup documentation needed greatly depend on the chargeback type, however in general, the shipment related chargebacks would require shipment related documents such as Proof of Deliver, Bill of Lading, Packing Slip or Advanced shipment notification, while product compliance chargebacks would require documents such as Material Safety Data Sheet or manufacturing list.”
Q: Is there any other reasoning or approach that you advise when dealing with chargebacks?
I: “If you incur a chargeback it is important to dispute it within 30 days as afterwards you won’t be able to do that. Please also keep in mind that you can dispute the same chargeback only twice. After 2 rejections, you won’t be able to raise further disputes. Additionally, keep track of all the support cases you opened as they might prove valuable when disputing certain chargeback types which you incurred before.”
Q: What are the preventative measures that brands can take in order to minimise the risk of chargebacks on their Amazon seller accounts?
I: “It is essential to read through all the chargeback type explanations and review the Vendor Manual to effectively minimise a risk of incurring a chargeback, however, if you’re charged, dispute the chargeback immediately and provide all the supporting documentation you have prepared to maximise the chance of getting the charge reversed – of course, this applies only to wrongfully raised infractions, if Amazon is in the right, you will probably need to live with that.”
Q: Could you sum up the added value of working with seasoned Amazon Supply side experts?
I: “Working with seasoned Amazon Experts can help save time, budget and stress. Amazon is a company that is constantly changing in order to keep up with customer demand, this causes high expectations from selling partners in the service and operations they conduct with Amazon.
Amerge offers different services and areas that are crucial for selling partner success. Amerge Creative Services is a clear example of tenureship and seasoned experts that will analyse the client product and business in order to apply required actions in detail pages. This will ensure high standards and elevated competition level for the selling partner.”
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