Posts by Team Acadia

Amazon is currently piloting its Transparency program to solve counterfeit product and unauthorized seller issues; the program will gradually replace the current “brand gating” approach. In the near future, any item arriving in an Amazon fulfillment center without the necessary unique 26-digit Transparency program code will be considered counterfeit.

Since competition between merchants on Amazon just keeps growing, it’s vital for vendors to differentiate themselves from others who offer competing or similar products. That’s where Brand Pages comes into play. Accessible from within Amazon Marketing Services (AMS), this feature lets you create a unique brand destination within the protective infrastructure and customer-friendly marketplace of Amazon itself, freeing you up to focus on satisfying your customers.

For many, it’s a difficult, if not impossible, question to answer. According to Amazon, “Sellers on Amazon worldwide used capital from Amazon Lending loans to grow sales by an estimated $4 billion.” That’s an impressive number, and, for many brands, getting cash through Amazon is an appealing and unique alternative to traditional lending through a bank.

Have you ever noticed a seasonal element to your sales on Amazon? Maybe you’ve seen significant growth in your sales during the final quarter of the year or a really dramatic drop in certain months. Actually, seasonality has an effect in most product categories, which means we can study its rhythms and figure out how to take advantage of it.

Everyone who’s been selling on Amazon for at least a month knows the importance of effective inventory management. While we’ve spent a lot of time on the Bobsled blog discussing things like listing optimization, ads optimization, squatter management, and other aspects of optimizing your Amazon presence to boost sales, these things pale in comparison to the importance of managing your inventory. When you run out of stock…well, there’s nothing to optimize.

At first glance, it seems like joining the Exclusives Program is a sure bet toward growing your brand’s sales on Amazon, but like all major decisions, the step should only be taken if you’re fully aware of what both you and Amazon get out of the collaboration.

Managing and removing the other sellers that will list against product pages is a multi-step process, and while reducing unauthorized/counterfeit sellers is the goal; it’s important to note that completely eliminating them from listings is usually not possible.

Amazon’s Vendor Program comes with perks and downsides. For some brands, selling wholesale directly to Amazon can help to grow revenue and reach new customers with potentially less fuss than on Seller Central. Once you start using Vendor Central you also get access to AMS (Amazon Marketing Services), an advertising platform which offers more advanced paid search placements than Seller Central.

There’s a lot that goes into the successful maintenance of an Amazon account, even for brands on Vendor Central (VC). In fact, keeping your VC account in good health and performing at its best is a continual process. Although you’ve got Amazon handling a lot of aspects for you, like sales, shipping, pricing, customer services and even returns, this doesn’t mean there’s nothing left for you to do.

In our last post on Lightning Deals, we discussed what they are, how to create one, and the pros and cons of doing so. Today we’ll look more closely at what you should consider before taking the leap, and why Lightning Deals are worth a test run for your products.