[Analysis] The No. 1 threat to your Amazon business

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How to Protect Your Profit Margin

Ecommerce sellers need to keep an eye on their numbers because it’s easy to get lost in the (sometimes misleading) allure of revenue.

There are many threats to your Amazon business these days.

But one of them trumps the rest.

Brand Referral Bonus

We’ve always been advocates of driving external traffic to Amazon—they’re long-term and less expensive. We even have a course focused on this topic because we know sellers are always looking for ways to avoid burning cash on PPC ads.

Amazon recently launched a program that further incentivizes brand owners for driving external traffic to the platform. The brand Referral Bonus Program encourages sellers to link more often to their Amazon listings instead of their Shopify stores, for example.

Here’s a quick summary of the program:

• It’s available only for Brand Registry members.
• The bonus rate depends on the product’s category.
• It will take at least two months before the bonus can be used to account for things such as customer returns.

For sellers who are not members of Brand Registry, they can always enroll in the Amazon Associates Program to monetize their external traffic marketing efforts.

Fake Review Spotter Removed

Fakespot, an app that claims to detect fake product reviews, has been removed from the App Store after Amazon asked Apple to do so.

The app aims to put an end to ecommerce fraud. Fakespot gives letter grades to listings, and consumers who trust in its algorithm will be influenced by its analysis, i.e., they’re gonna buy what the app tells them is a good product.

So what got Amazon’s panties up in a bunch? It says Fakespot was wrapping its website and can potentially compromise customer data.

They sound pretty upset for a company that’s been accused of using seller data to develop its own products.

Amazon May Have Found Your Lost Inventory

We don’t know if Amazon had KonMari’d their warehouses lately, but they sure found some extra items there. They even started returning them to their owners, most of whom aren’t expecting it.

Many sellers have been informed that they will be assigned unallocated inventory.  

“We are contacting you because we've identified you as the owner of inventory that had not been previously allocated to your account due to an error in one or more of your shipments to an Amazon fulfillment center.”

It’s still unclear to some of the sellers whether the products are really theirs and whether they would still be good enough to sell.

If you’re one of those who received a similar message, we want to know this: did it spark joy or just confusion?

Prime Day Isn’t Over Yet

When is Prime Day 2021?

The answer is not so straightforward. You’ll have to ask which country is referred to.

Because if you remember, Canada and India haven’t had theirs yet. COVID hit these countries hard enough that Amazon had to cancel the annual sales event.

Canada reportedly won’t have its Prime Day this year, but India's will be on July 26 to 27.

You Paid For This

Some statements are true, some are insensitive. Uncle Jeff’s latest remark, unfortunately, was both.

After flying to space for a couple of minutes, Jeff expressed his gratitude to “every Amazon employee and every Amazon customer” because they “paid for all of this.”

While this is true, it got a lot of flak, opening up questions about the billionaire’s tax payments and the hourly wages of Amazon workers.

But it seems like Jeff forgot to specially mention third-party sellers in that brief moment of gratitude, especially since PPC ads are one of Amazon’s biggest income drivers.

Speaking of PPC, we’ve done an overhaul series of our PPC numbers. You can read about it here or if you’re in need of something to listen to while on your way to the gym, there’s also a podcast version.