[Crew Review] Amazon extends holiday returns window (again)

Amazon announced it would temporarily extend its returns window for the holidays (again). This time, it covers purchases made between October 7 and December 31. Of course, this has sellers worried about the possible increase of returns fraud customers can commit within this longer period.

Is there anything sellers can do?

Amazon Top Terms

Here are the top 10 terms from September 18th to October 1st that have increased dramatically in search volume over the past two weeks.

With holidays and other seasonal events just around the corner, sellers are getting ready for one of the biggest quarters of the year. 

Taking slot #6 in this week's top movers is “fun costumes.” The sales for this product have gone from 8 units per day to 25 units per day in the past two weeks, but as Halloween gets closer, sales will definitely increase.

The Christmas season is fast approaching, which is why “mens christmas gifts” is taking this week’s #9 spot. Related products to this keyword have gone from selling 8 units per day to 60 units per day in the last few days.

No Antitrust Fine for Amazon and Apple

Big Tech’s legal problems are not limited to the United States. While the FTC is a force to reckon with, so are other government agencies from other countries.

Last year, Italian antitrust authority AGCM slapped Amazon and Apple with a $230 million fine for alleged anti-competitive behavior. The authority said the agreement between the two companies that restricted legitimate resellers from distributing Apple and Beats products violated EU rules and effectively made them control the prices.

Amazon and Apple appealed the decision, stating that the decision to limit the resellers on Amazon.it was done to ensure that customers are able to purchase only genuine products. 

Earlier this week, the fines were overturned by an Italian administrative court for procedural reasons. The court agreed that AGCM did not give ample time for the companies to defend themselves and that it failed to conduct its investigations efficiently. 

Is Shopify Guilty of Piracy?

Late last year, Shopify was taken to court by a group of publishers who accused the company of profiting from pirated materials including textbooks and manuals. The five publishers are big names in the industry: McGraw Hill, Macmillan, Cengage, Elsevier, and Pearson. 

They alleged that Shopify allowed sellers to use its software to infringe on their copyright and trademark by allowing them to illegally reproduce and distribute the materials. They asked the court for damages, including $2 million per counterfeited trademark and $150,000 per infringed copyright.

Shopify, on the other hand, argued that it’s doing its best to prevent piracy on its platform, highlighting its efforts in doing so. It claimed that it had reviewed more than 50,000 URLs submitted by the complainants between 2018 and 2022.

Both sides have since reached an amicable agreement, the details of which are left undisclosed to the public. Now, both parties are asking the court to dismiss the case.

Piracy and counterfeiting are not unique to Shopify nor are they new problems. Authors who publish their books and sell them through Amazon face similar issues. Luckily, there’s an emerging legal arena for fighting piracy more efficiently, just like there are ways to protect your brand on Amazon.

The Walmart Alternative to Amazon’s Second Prime Day

For the first time ever, Amazon is hosting two Prime-exclusive major sales events—the usual Prime Day back in July, and a second one, dubbed Prime Day 2.0.

The event now has an official name: Prime Early Access Sale. And it’s going to run from October 11 to 12.

But of course, Amazon’s rivals wouldn’t just sit down and watch the ecommerce giant rake in more sales without trying to get a bite of the pie. Walmart, for example, is holding an anti-Prime Day event called Rollbacks and More.

The sales event will start a day earlier and end a day later compared to the Prime Early Access Sale. This way, customers have an option to enjoy massive discounts earlier, and those who missed Prime Day 2.0 can still head over to Walmart.

Anti-Prime Day events like this are not uncommon. Target has its Deal Days, and Best Buy has The Bigger Deal. And if Amazon comes up with more sales events in the future, we can expect other retailers to offer their own versions.

Etc.

Not hiring. Shortly after Meta announced its hiring freeze, Amazon followed suit.

Discounted excess inventory. A new Amazon feature allows you to discount up to 250 items in one go.

More Amazon sellers in the UK. The number of SMBs that sell on Amazon increased by 25% in 2021.

A or B?

Your designer gave you two new versions of your main product image. You like them both. The problem is you can choose only one.

You can go for the classic “eeny, meeny, miny, moe” approach or you can employ a more scientific and data-driven method.

There are at least two ways to go about the second option. One, implement the changes and see how it affects your sales. Two, ask potential buyers directly.

Our friends at PickFu can help you with the second method. They remove the guesswork and the trial-and-error phase by connecting you with your target market and delivering data within a short period. And by short, we don’t mean the next day. We mean a couple of hours.

Discover what you can do with PickFu.