With Prime Day hitting Oct. 13-14, the unofficial kickoff of a very different holiday season, sellers are geared up to take advantage of the massive shopping event, but the proximity to other mega events from Thanksgiving on may lead shoppers and sellers to choose one or the other vs. both. Still Prime Day 2020 is expected to break records.
Amazon is warning ecommerce shippers using Fulfillment By Amazon (FBA) that late shipments to an FBA facility on the part of their carrier could result in suspension of their FBA shipping privileges, even if the shippers themselves aren’t responsible for the delays. The new policy went into effect on Aug. 25, 2020.
Third-party sellers sold on average more than 6,500 products per minute on Amazon Marketplace in the past year, with over 450,000 sellers utilizing Fulfilled By Amazon (FBA). In recent months, however, FBA has been placing restrictions due to pandemic volumes. One option is using Merchant Fulfilled Network (MFN); here’s how it works.
Moving forward, one thing is certain: Marketplace facilitator laws will continue to evolve. We’re already seeing some changes in the U.S., with Louisiana going after high-volume 3P sellers during COVID-19. But states are also going to great lengths to pursue lodging and communications platforms and even food delivery services.
Brands are challenged with finding a way forward even when traditional DTC models threaten to crack—and thinking outside the box to find the post-coronavirus formula for success. Fortunately, DTC doesn’t just mean selling on your own site. Here are some of the strong benefits of adding marketplaces to your DTC channel mix.
While everyone might be caught between a rock and a hard place, the COVID-19 outbreak has proven there is definitely a wrong way to act during times of crisis. Here are several instances in which ecommerce sellers paid a hefty price for the decisions they made. Avoid resorting to these methods when your business is in crisis mode.
With a legislator raising the alarm that consumers’ “lives are at risk” due to dangerous counterfeit ecommerce products, a bipartisan group proposed the SHOP SAFE Act to crack down on ecommerce fakes. The GAO found that 20 of 47 items purchased from third-party sellers on popular consumer websites were counterfeit.
While Amazon is the go-to marketplace for an increasing number of consumers today, it is reportedly delivering unsafe food products past their expiration date, according to CNBC. This is on top of continuing allegations about the sale of counterfeit goods on the leading marketplace.
Amazon has reportedly adjusted the search algorithm on its marketplace in such a way as to favor results more profitable to itself, including its own house brands competing with third-party sellers, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal, a charge which the company denies.
Fulfillment By Amazon (FBA) remains very popular among Amazon sellers, with over 650,000 using it in the U.S., but it’s not the right solution for everyone. So how do you make that decision? Executives from Complemar, Motor City Distributing and Tech Armor discussed the pros and cons at this year’s Ecommerce Operations Summit.