Amazon has released figures stating that third-party sellers sold more products than ever before over the Christmas period - with small businesses at the forefront. Amazon says that small businesses sold nearly half a billion items in America alone, and that the company's third-party selling partners now account for nearly 60 percent of total sales. According to Amazon: “Amazon's selling partners bring products from Black, military family, and woman-owned businesses, as well as handcrafted goods made by artisans, to customers. “This holiday season, Amazon customers purchased nearly half a bil ..read more

After Amazon announced that third-party Sellers sold more than ever before over Christmas in 2022, interest in starting businesses on the platform is expected to be stronger than ever in the new year. In the United States alone in 2021 there was $314 billion in net sales, and a report on JungleScout estimates that an average Amazon Seller makes at least $1,000 a month. It is a hugely attractive marketplace for entrepreneurs to join. But with opportunity comes competition. So how can Sellers - new and old - beat their competitors in 2023? Thompson and Holt managing partner Stuart White - who h ..read more

A report in America has uncovered a new scam using the ‘#1 Best Seller’ badge. The black hat tactic has been uncovered by Bloomberg, and sees Sellers putting popular items in slow-selling product categories to trick Amazon algorithms into thinking it is selling much better than it really is. Bloomberg says that the scam focuses mainly on smartphone mounts for car dashboards, phone cases and USB drives, but that it could target other products. The report states: “Affected merchants say they’re losing hundreds of thousands of dollars in some cases and that Amazon needs to crack down before the ..read more

Amazon has announced that it will increase fees for third-party Sellers storing their items in US Amazon Fulfilment Centres from January. In FBA, all Sellers pay a percentage of their total sales, shipping costs and gift-wrapping charges, and those won’t change under the new guidelines. But FBA outbound fee rates will increase by $0.22 on average, monthly storage fees will rise by around 20 centre per cubic foot, and a new storage surcharge will apply to Sellers who store a high cube of inventory relative to the cube of their recent weekly sales, effective April 1, 2023. Learn more about Amaz ..read more

Amazon has opened its first development centre in Swansea, Wales, that will host the recently acquired tech company Veeqo and other teams. Amazon bought Veeqo in 2021, and its services are now available for free to the 85,000 small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) selling on Amazon in the UK, as well as the nearly 500,000 Amazon sellers based in the US. According to Amazon UK Country Manager John Boumphrey: “The company makes ecommerce more efficient, effortless, and scalable for startups and small businesses by helping them fulfil their customers’ orders across multiple websites and stores ..read more

A study in America has discovered that some Amazon Sellers are gaming prices - claiming discounts while charging extra for goods. The University of Florida outlined their findings in a post last month in October, after researchers observed and studied the prices of consumer goods. They found that over a quarter of vacuum cleaners sold on Amazon during the study had at some point pretended to offer a discount when they had actually just increased the price. The University of Florida post read: “By pairing a price increase with the introduction of a previously unadvertised ‘list price’ for a pr ..read more

Black Friday remains one of the biggest sales opportunities for Amazon Sellers across the world, but once it’s finished every year, what should you do next? Thompson and Holt senior case handler Laura Monk has significant experience selling on Amazon and believes there are steps that you can take which can have long-term benefits for your business. Monk explained: “In many cases months and months of planning can go into maximising the opportunities that Black Friday presents for Amazon Sellers. Many businesses carefully plot out how they can make the most of the increased online traffic world ..read more

Is Amazon Artificial Intelligence (AI) getting in the way of good customer service? That is the question being asked in some circles as we see a rise in product safety warnings and inauthentic complaints at the moment. Amazon’s AI allows it to keep control of several troubleshooting issues on the site, but what it can also do is create “false positives”, which results in blanket, automated warnings, especially on certain products. In many cases these don’t actually apply to a specific product or situation, making it more difficult for the Seller to appeal and get an account or listing reinsta ..read more

Amazon Sellers have been reporting that Amazon has significantly reduced FBA storage space available to them in its fulfilment centres. It’s not the first time that Amazon has made a move like this, but that hasn’t stopped Sellers voicing their concern and annoyance on forums. One post seen by Thompson and Holt sad: “Deja vu. This is exactly what happened last year. Nobody is happy about it, but nothing we can do. Really sucks that Amazon doesn’t treat its sellers with enough respect to hold limits stable this time of year.” Another added: “My limits dropped on Monday AND again this morning ..read more

Amazon is facing significant criticism for a move that will see displaying business names on their new Seller forums. The proposal has been met with widespread dismay on current forums, with some suggesting that it will lead to huge numbers refusing to post and others saying that they want all past posts that they have made deleted. Many have said that they expected participation on the seller discussion boards to plummet. Amazon has tried to defend the move in a statement by saying that Sellers they spoke to backed the change. Amazon said: “Seller feedback played a direct role in helping our ..read more