Archives for March 2017

From day one, we decided that we were going to do EVERYTHING in our power to be completely above board. It certainly was not lost on us there were opportunities that were against Amazon’s rules (which would be highly profitable) but we chose to go the other direction. We realized that our longevity was important if we wanted to create a business. It’s much easier to sleep at night when you try to do the right thing.!

In this article, I want to discuss five quick ways you can protect your Amazon account. If you are anything like us, Amazon is your livelihood! Even if you aren’t a full-time Amazon seller(yet) you probably still have a great interest in protecting the investment you have, as well as the business you are building.

In effect, Amazon wants many of the same things we want:

• Happy Customers
• Ethical Business Practices
• Professional Service
• Adherence to Standards

If you keep those simple principles in mind you can quickly understand what to do, as well as what not to do on the Amazon platform.

Here are some of the quick and easy ways to protect your Amazon Account:

1) Read the rules

One would think this could go without saying, but if you are going to be selling on the Amazon platform you should take a few minutes to read the rules, terms of service, their prep policies, and inbound policies.

I realize this is not the most exciting set of materials. However, these are the actual RULES that protect your business.

Terms of Service: https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=1161302

Policies and Agreements: https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=1161272

Those two documents encompass many of the rules for selling on Amazon. You will not be able to memorize them entirely, or maybe you will, but for most of you – it is important to read them to understand the spirit of the agreement, as well as give you a place to re-review if you are looking at a questionable situation.

2) Review Notifications

We make it a dedicated practice to constantly review notifications that we receive from Amazon. These notifications come in a variety of forms, and all should have a HIGH priority for your attention and review.

The scariest of these notifications is the “red flag” notification in your Amazon account. These can range from changes to your account, Performance Notifications, or all the way to Policy Warnings. These are essential to address with Seller Performance immediately, or at least follow along with what the notification says.

In most instances, we do suggest a follow-up email with Seller Performance at:

seller-performance@amazon.com

seller-performance-policy@amazon.com

We do this if a listing is closed due to high return rates, or if there are more serious concerns. Our goal is to be honest and open with the Seller Performance team to help them resolve any issues quickly.

Beyond that, you should similarly review and address notifications like “Change Notification” emails or “ASIN Merge” emails. Our VA team reviews all of these emails by doing the following:

Look at the changes made in the email.
Go to the listing on Amazon, review the current listing.
Verify that the changes made DO NOT change the overall product qualities.
Does your product still match the detail page? Look at all aspects, including weight and measurements… All details need to match.
If not, deactivate your listing immediately – file with Amazon via Case Creation to have the details changed back – per the manufacturer website. If the manufacturer’s website/description does not match your product, create a removal order.

Our goal is ALWAYS to sell products that match the Amazon Detail Page perfectly, so we are meticulous and react quickly to these types of emails. To make sure you are selling the correct products, and the listing has not been altered to make your product incorrect, we suggest instituting a similar review process into your own business.

3) Professionally Deal with Customers

This goes without saying, but I will say it anyway. Amazon is VERY MUCH a customer-centric company. Your goal should be to exceed well beyond the minimum expectations they set, and provide the BEST possible customer service to those people who buy your products.

You should focus on:

1. Answering customer inquiries quickly. Our goal is less than three hours despite Amazon allowing up to 24 hours.
2. Answering customer emails courteously and efficiently. We focus on giving very detailed answers to customers. In fact, we have saved templates that cover the most common questions we receive.
3. Your emails should prevent issues with Amazon. If the problem is your fault, take responsibility: give a refund and don’t require return shipping. Then address the problem in your inventory if it is systemic and not isolated.

4) If it is borderline “against the rules”, err on the side of caution

This is the “common sense” rule. If you think that something could be against the rules, it is MUCH safer to assume that it is. Don’t operate in the space of “not knowing.” Be conservative, then research to see if something is or is not against the rules.

You have to understand that Amazon holds a high standard, and ignorance of the rules DOES NOT excuse you from breaking them.

Just remember this quote, as it will really help you with Amazon:

“An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure”.

5) Good Invoices

I would estimate the number one reason for suspension is counterfeit products/products not as described. The general reason for this is people have poor invoices. You should source from places where the invoice will stand scrutiny. Trust me, I realize that there are HUNDREDS of questionable invoice opportunities.

For example, locally we have a pallet distribution store; they break down return pallets and retail out those products for VERY low prices. In many instances, you could walk in, spend $500, and profit $1000 or more as they always have great name brand products available at awesome prices.

However, we DO NOT source from this place. We understand that if we receive a “counterfeit claim” or “item not as described” claim that our invoices will not withstand that scrutiny.

Here are the types of invoices you can get, and their relevance to Amazon in descending order:

• Manufacturer Direct Invoice (Brand Owner)
• Authorized Distributor Invoice
• Online Purchase Order + Picture of Item on Website + Packing Slip
• Retail Receipt from Big Box store with UPC
• Liquidation with Lineage Trace
• Retail Receipt without UPC

The issue you can have with retail, online receipts, and liquidation invoices is Amazon understands the liberal returns policy offered by retailers. Such policies can result in non-new or even counterfeit products being available in retail locations.

If you look at only the profit of a transaction and don’t calculate the risk that it brings, you aren’t building a business – only taking advantage of a profitable opportunity. Businesses are built with longevity in mind, and part of longevity is account protection and assurance you are minimizing your chances and opportunities of being suspended or having other issues.

Focus on doing things right, operating above board, and most of all exceeding the minimum standards. Part of being successful is being great. If you strive for perfection in your business and process, your growth potential is unlimited.

The truth is: selling on Amazon has NEVER been easier. Amazon makes it easy because they want to introduce more sellers to serve the needs of their gigantic customer base, and create a more competitive marketplace.

This may seem daunting, but it really is not, and I wanted to help dispel some of the myths that might prevent you from taking action and getting started.

Here are some common questions we receive about selling on Amazon using the wholesale business model.

1) What information do American-based suppliers, brand owners, and wholesale companies need to do business with me?

If you are a resident of the US or have a US corporation, they will need a resale certificate. The purpose of the resale certificate is to demonstrate that you are a business making a business to business purchase. This allows for the purchase to be made free of sales tax (because the final customer is the one who is to pay the sales tax).

If you are NOT a resident of the US or do NOT have a corporation, this may NOT apply. Instead, you can often use your country’s documentation that you are a real business. Of course, this means you must be incorporated as a business in some capacity in your home country.

2) What do I need to create an Amazon account in the US if I am not a US citizen?

To sign up for an Amazon account, you will need the following:

A) A credit card that can be charged internationally (typically Visa or Mastercard are perfect).

B) A local bank in your country that supports ACH (Automated Clearing House). This means your bank accepts electronic transfers.

If you choose to go this route, check out the Amazon Currency Converter for Sellers (ACCS):

https://sellercentral.amazon.com/gp/seller/registration/participationAgreement.html?itemID=200497780&language=en_US

Similarly, you can set up a US-based bank account and potentially save money on currency transfers. Two companies that make it very easy for foreigners to create US bank accounts are

Payoneer.com
Worldfirst.com

C) Your local address.

D) A phone number (with your international prefix). As an alternative, we suggest setting up a US-based phone number through a service like Skype or Google Voice.

E) A US Employer Identification Number(EIN).

An employer identification number (EIN) is a unique number assigned to businesses in the U.S. in order to identify them. You don’t have to be a US corporation or of any legal status in relation to the US to get this number.

To obtain an EIN as a non-US resident, follow these steps

Step 1 – Call the IRS (Internal Revenue Service) at 267-941-1099 (not a toll-free number), 6:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m. (Eastern US time), Monday through Friday, to obtain an EIN.

Step 2 – On the call, be prepared to provide the information to the best of your ability that is found on this form
https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/fss4.pdf

3) What do I need to do to be in compliance with US taxes/laws?

Disclaimer: We are not a tax professional, and this is not professional tax advice

An American tax professional instructed us that you should not worry about getting compliant with US tax laws as an international seller until you doing at least $300,000 in sales per year. But you should do your own research on the subject.

When that time comes OR you would like more info on officially forming your business and establishing it officially in the US as to become compliant with US tax laws, then you must work with a US-based tax professional.

Here are a couple online based tax professional agencies
https://www.apriocloud.com/

https://www.salestaxandmore.com/

4) How will I store and ship my inventory?

Now that you are set up, the next challenge is actually storing and shipping your inventory.

We handle all of our shipping to customers through Amazon FBA, and HIGHLY suggest the same to everyone regardless of whether they are US-based or based internationally. At that point, your only challenge is getting your product from the supplier to the Amazon Fulfillment center.

Many suppliers will ship direct to Amazon, and this can be considered as an option. If the item has “prep required”, we generally suggest having this shipped to a US-based prep center to handle that, as Amazon’s prep fees are quite high.

Prep centers are also an option if your suppliers will not ship to Amazon directly. Prep centers receive your product, inspect it for damage, perform necessary prep to ensure its safety for Amazon, and then the journey to the customer.

Some recommendations are PrimeZeroPrep.com and PrepitPackitShipit.com

These companies have very detailed onboarding processes, and can get you set up with ease in minutes!

5) What happens if I get returns?

Now…

We are selling, and are hopefully doing really well. That being said, there is one last complication we have to tackle: returns.

Returns are certainly a part of business. In fact, they are generally between 1-2% of your sales. Many of those products can be resold, and Amazon can make that determination if you choose to let them do that (this is an account setting in your Amazon account).

Whether or not you choose to let Amazon sell your applicable return items, you will have some amount of returns that cannot be resold. There are a few options for what you can do with these.

You can:

A) Contact US-based charities to see if they may be interested in receiving your returns (we donate a good portion of our returns because it is easier and we can write off some amount of that on taxes). That may be more difficult for you, as you will be operating internationally, but some charitable organizations will receive shipments. I would talk to a CPA in your country to see how that can be handled with your personal taxes.

B) You can have Amazon destroy these. I believe Amazon charges $.10/per item to destroy these. However, this prevents you from paying storage fees, and would simply come as a loss against money you had made.

C) You can have the items shipped to a returns center and processed/sold. Here is one of those services (we have not personally used this service, but have heard good things from other people – please check it out and see if it is right for you):

– gogambit.com

6) Have you had international students be successful?

Absolutely! All kinds and from every corner of the world! Check out this podcast by one of them. His name is Chris Thomas and his podcast is called “The Australian Seller.”

Selling on Amazon from outside the United States has literally never been easier. There can be HUGE advantages to selling outside the country as well! The processes may appear daunting but most of the things in this article can be done in minutes. The rest, are just part of owning your own business and being an entrepreneur.

Please bear in mind that we are neither attorneys nor CPAs, and this should not be construed in any way as professional advice. We ALWAYS suggest that you verify and discuss any information with your own legal or tax professional.

Hopefully this helped put in perspective what you need to do to get started!