Click here to download a pdf of the slides,Amazon Updates June 16 2020 Navazon Inc
E-commerce and e-retail is an ever-changing storm that businesses have had to learn to navigate over the years. Amazon is the most prominent figure in this environment, and it continues to adapt to the times in which we live. Navazon is here to help you get through that storm find your success and profits on Amazon.com.
Amazon and E-commerce Environment
Within the United States, economies are beginning to reopen to one degree or another in all 50 states following COVID-19 related closures. In some places, such as Seattle, many retailers had to close their recently opened doors due to the protests occurring across the country.
Many physical retail stores are still closed as what had been their appeal, allowing their shoppers to touch and feel the product, has now become a detriment to their operations. They are having to find other forms of revenue. For example, a Macy’s building in Seattle now rents its top floors to Amazon.
While some retail locations are permanently closing or going bankrupt, online retail is growing more than ever. One study found that as they acclimate to online shopping, half of consumers have shifted to online purchases for things they used to always buy in person. Amazon product orders remain elevated for most accounts, following this increased online shopping trend. Apart from Amazon, Walmart looks to add Shopify sellers to its marketplace, expanding their share of the online market. Though Amazon still leads the way in e-commerce.
Amazon’s investment into the COVID-19 pandemic continues to grow as it plans to test employees every 2 weeks and announced that 125k of their 175k temporary workers will be offered permanent positions while the rest will have contract options for up to 11 more months of work.
Amazon continues to expand its audience by accepting SNAP EBT card customers so lower income families can shop for groceries even if they don’t have an Amazon Prime account.
The non-core businesses of Amazon are starting to reopen, including select Amazon Books, Amazon 4-star, Amazon Pop Up, and Amazon Go. Many of these locations are utilizing social distancing policies that help the customers feel safer. This shows visible examples of how Amazon adapts to challenges to satisfy customers.
Vendor Impacts
Scrutiny over some operations in Amazon has led the EPA to issue orders to Amazon to stop selling unproven or unsafe disinfectants. Counterfeits have also been a recent riddle Amazon has been trying to solve, along with the price gouging of opportunists during the recent pandemic. All these new regulations strengthen the position of 1P vendors, since they are the manufacturers of the products selling directly to Amazon, making them more credible as businesses.
Cost decreases have also come an update to tariffs after changes to the trade deals between the United States and China. 1P vendor operations may also become more appealing in Europe as antitrust regulators plan to file a complaint over how Amazon treats 3P sellers in the region.
Vendor Actions and Operations
Within Vendor Central, all businesses now have access to Born-to-Run again as of June 9th. Though they are still waiving retention fees of shipping and handling charges on returns for offers with sellthrough dates between March 1 and April 16, 2020. For those products with dates between April 17 and June 15, 2020, the sellthrough period is extending 70 days.
Prime Day Deals may be available for some businesses, even though the submission date for Lightning Deals was on June 14th and Best Deals on the 17th. Some vendor managers may still be able to allow deal submissions.
Bulk Buy Offers is a new Beta program that is available for select vendors. This specifically indicates a more normalizing of operations for vendors on Amazon.
Drop Ship orders are decreasing, which shows that Amazon is returning inventory to the demand levels, though it is still above average for most accounts.
The chargeback policies for “Not on Time” and “Down-confirmed” types of On Time Accuracy are still temporarily altered as of June 1. In June, Not-on-Time chargebacks are relaxed up to 5 days after the window ends, and that window will be shortened to 3 days in July. Down-confirmed chargebacks are relaxed to 10 days after the window start date in June. In addition, be aware that the trailing 4 weeks of on-time performance will take these policies into account in the future.
Shipping some products into Canada and Mexico from US fulfilment centers now requires specific documentation. This does not affect direct POs from Amazon.ca or Amazon.com.mx, and you may reject Amazon’s request for the documentation if necessary.
Amazon is constantly changing and altering the entire e-commerce landscape. Keeping up with all these changes while maintaining regular business operations can be disorienting for many businesses. Navazon does this for you to make sure your Amazon account stays profitable. Contact us today to find out how we can help your business grow.