E-BusinessOnline E-Commerce Podcast - Discussing ECommerce, Amazon, FBA, MultiChannel, Selling Online Fred McKinnon

Introduction



Welcome to the E Business Online blog! In this post, we will be discussing the new Amazon FBA low inventory level fees and how they could potentially impact your business. As an agency specializing in helping businesses sell their products online, we understand the challenges and frustrations that can arise when dealing with fees and policies set by e-commerce giants like Amazon. In this article, we will break down the details of the low inventory level fees, explain how they are calculated, and provide some tips on how to navigate this new policy. So, let’s dive in!



Understanding the Low Inventory Level Fees



The low inventory level fee is a charge implemented by Amazon for sellers who do not have enough inventory of their products in the Amazon FBA warehouse. FBA stands for “fulfillment by Amazon,” which means that Amazon handles the storage, packaging, and shipping of the products for sellers. If a seller’s inventory falls below a certain threshold, Amazon will apply a fee on each unit sold until the inventory is replenished to an acceptable level.



Many sellers have expressed their frustration with this fee, as Amazon already charges fees for storing excess inventory. Now, they are adding an additional charge for low inventory levels. Additionally, Amazon has increased the cost of sending inventory to their warehouses by requiring sellers to send products to multiple locations.



However, there is some good news for sellers. Amazon has decided to listen to the feedback and outrage from sellers and has made a rare move to backtrack on this fee. For the month of April, Amazon will charge the low inventory level fees as planned, but they will rebate these fees back to sellers in May. This gives sellers a 30-day test period to understand how the fee works and adjust their inventory management accordingly.



How the Low Inventory Level Fees are Calculated



To determine if a seller will be charged the low inventory level fee, Amazon calculates the sales velocity of a product and estimates the necessary inventory based on two time segments: a running 30-day period and a running 90-day period. Amazon wants the inventory to cover 28 days, or four weeks, for both time frames.



If a seller’s inventory can cover more than 28 days based on the 30-day and 90-day averages, no low inventory level fees will be charged. However, if the inventory falls below the 28-day coverage threshold on both time frames, the low inventory level fee will be applied.



It’s important to note that the fee is calculated at the parent level, not the individual child level. This means that if a product has variations, such as different colors, Amazon will aggregate the sales and inventory data for all variations under the parent product. This can sometimes lead to inaccurate calculations and fees being charged even when there is enough inventory of certain variations.



Checking Your Inventory Status



To check if your inventory is at risk of incurring the low inventory level fee, you can navigate to your FBA inventory page on Amazon. There, you will find a filter for low inventory level fee, which allows you to see which products are exempted or will have the fee applied. By reviewing this information, you can identify which products may require additional inventory to avoid the fee.



Understanding the details of the low inventory level fee is crucial for sellers to effectively manage their inventory and avoid unnecessary fees. By regularly monitoring your inventory status and taking action to replenish low stock, you can minimize the impact of these fees on your business.



Ways to Mitigate the Impact



While the low inventory level fees may seem burdensome, there are some strategies you can employ to mitigate their impact on ...

Hello EBO’ers:

Welcome back to the E-BusinessOnline Podcast – this is Episode 27 where we’re talking about Amazon Seller Fulfilled Prime and some of the pitfalls in purchasing liquidation lots for resale.

DON’T FORGET THE CONTEST TO WIN ONE HOUR OF FREE E-Commerce COACHING!

***CONGRATS TO JODI KLINE, our January 2018 WINNER of one hour of free consulting/coaching.***

I want to kickstart our EBO Community so I’m hosting a fun little contest to offer a ONE HOUR FREE CONSULT with me for your e-Business.   This can be by phone, Skype, or if you are within travel distance of Southeast Georgia or Northeast Florida and want to come to St. Simons Island, GA and hookup, I’ll buy you lunch and we’ll talk shop for over an hour.    This is worth hundreds of dollars so you wanna win!   You can earn as many as three entries into the contest by doing any of the following:



* Send me an email letting me know you’re listening to the show.  (Put “Podcast” in the subject line!)  I’d like to hear your thoughts, what you’d like to see in the show, questions, constructive criticism, etc.   This gives you an entry.

* Leave a written review on the iTunes Podcast.   (you will need to email or tag me with your review username when published)

* Share this podcast on Facebook.   (You can share this post, or better yet, go to the page on iTunes and share it from there – see screenshot below).  When sharing you will need to TAG the E-BusinessOnline Facebook Page so that I know you shared it.   When you share the podcast to Facebook I won’t know (and give you another entry) unless you tag the Facebook Page, so don’t forget!





Today’s Show Topics:





* Amazon announces new “Social Media Coupon Codes” and gives sellers their own landing page to promote discounts.   This can be a great way to easily get a landing page with your promotions to share on social media.   One of the biggest advantages is that Amazon gives you settings to control the # of units a customer can buy and how often.  It’s also an Amazon-built landing page so the customer is one click away from ordering your product.   The biggest disadvantages is your loss of control on design and the ability to collect email addresses to build your list, as well as the inability to add your retargeting pixels (Facebook, Google, etc).

* How much wasted ad spend do you have?   This is a question I was forced to address when my friend, Jon Kragh, owner of MySellerPal.Com, messaged me on Facebook to take a look at his new tool that shows this at-a-glance.  I was shocked to find nearly $3,000 in wasted ad spend in the past 60 days.   “Wasted Ad Spend” is those keywords that have clicks, costing you money, with no conversions (orders).   Whether you use a tool like MySellerPal, Ignite, or just download the search term report in Excel – this is something everyone should check on.   The surprising thing was that the wasted ad spend wasn’t a few expensive keywords, but was hundreds of cheap keywords that added up to thousands of dollars.

* February 15th is the date Amazon will charge ...

Hello EBO’ers:

Welcome back to the E-BusinessOnline Podcast – this is Episode 27 where we’re talking about Amazon Seller Fulfilled Prime and some of the pitfalls in purchasing liquidation lots for resale.

DON’T FORGET THE CONTEST TO WIN ONE HOUR OF FREE E-Commerce COACHING!

I want to kickstart our EBO Community so I’m hosting a fun little contest to offer a ONE HOUR FREE CONSULT with me for your e-Business.   This can be by phone, Skype, or if you are within travel distance of Southeast Georgia or Northeast Florida and want to come to St. Simons Island, GA and hookup, I’ll buy you lunch and we’ll talk shop for over an hour.    This is worth hundreds of dollars so you wanna win!   You can earn as many as three entries into the contest by doing any of the following:



* Send me an email letting me know you’re listening to the show.  (Put “Podcast” in the subject line!)  I’d like to hear your thoughts, what you’d like to see in the show, questions, constructive criticism, etc.   This gives you an entry.

* Leave a written review on the iTunes Podcast.   (you will need to email or tag me with your review username when published)

* Share this podcast on Facebook.   (You can share this post, or better yet, go to the page on iTunes and share it from there – see screenshot below).  When sharing you will need to TAG the E-BusinessOnline Facebook Page so that I know you shared it.   When you share the podcast to Facebook I won’t know (and give you another entry) unless you tag the Facebook Page, so don’t forget!





 

AMAZON SELLER-FULFILLED PRIME:

Archie Clement from our EBO Facebook Community asks a great question about Amazon’s Seller-Fulfilled Prime program:



Would like to hear your thoughts on Amazon Seller Fulfilled Prime. We receive requests from Amazon from time to time to apply, but we don’t currently have the infrastructure in place to ship orders the same day they are received, and in addition we only have a single warehouse in Texas, so it would require air shipping to many locations to achieve 2 day delivery. Seems to me it could only work with product inventoried in regional fulfillment centers or something.





* Seller-Fulfilled Prime is a program that allows Sellers to ship their own items from their own warehouses and still get the “PRIME” badge on their listings, capturing those Amazon Prime shoppers.

* The biggest disadvantage to the program is that you have to purchase your shipping from Amazon and the rates are not very discounted.

* The advantage is that you don’t have to commit to Prime Shipping for the entire country, but can define it by region, and only offer to those customers that you can reach in 2 business days via cheaper, ground shipping.



PITFALLS WHEN BUYING LIQUIDATION LOTS:

One of the hot trends that people are jumping on these days is purchasing inventory through liquidation sites.   The hype is that you can get amazing deals for pennies on the dollar and sell them in new, open-box, or used condition for huge profits.   Sometimes this is true and it can definitely be a great opportunity but as with anything, there are some downsides and pitfalls.   Fred discusses a few pitfalls he’s experienced through is own mistakes and share them...

Hello EBO’ers:

Welcome back to the E-BusinessOnline Podcast – the first episode in many months and our first for 2018.   In this episode:

CONTEST:

I want to kickstart our EBO Community so I’m hosting a fun little contest to offer a ONE HOUR FREE CONSULT with me for your e-Business.   This can be by phone, Skype, or if you are within travel distance of Southeast Georgia or Northeast Florida and want to come to St. Simons Island, GA and hookup, I’ll buy you lunch and we’ll talk shop for over an hour.    This is worth hundreds of dollars so you wanna win!   You can earn as many as three entries into the contest by doing any of the following:



* Send me an email letting me know you’re listening to the show.  (Put “Podcast” in the subject line!)  I’d like to hear your thoughts, what you’d like to see in the show, questions, constructive criticism, etc.   This gives you an entry.

* Leave a written review on the iTunes Podcast.   (you will need to email or tag me with your review username when published)

* Share this podcast on Facebook.   (You can share this post, or better yet, go to the page on iTunes and share it from there – see screenshot below).  When sharing you will need to TAG the E-BusinessOnline Facebook Page so that I know you shared it.   When you share the podcast to Facebook I won’t know (and give you another entry) unless you tag the Facebook Page, so don’t forget!





 

HYPE, HYSTERIA, and HONESTY:

So in this show, it’s more of a heart-to-heart to kickoff the New Year.   I want you to be able to push through all the hype and hysteria about e-commerce, selling online, and how much money is being made, and just hear some HONEST conversation.

NEW PROCEDURES FOR AMAZON SUSPENSIONS:

In this episode I discuss a new procedure that gives Sellers a warning prior to their account being suspended.   This is great news and is the result of some intense conversations I had with a new team at Amazon.  Listen to hear more.

Welcome to Episode 25 of the E-BusinessOnline Podcast

Host & Speaker:  Fred McKinnon

Topic:   Fred discusses the upcoming Long Term Storage Fees, changes in Amazon’s Multi-Channel Fulfillment fees, and the new liquidation options.

2 Things We Are Asking Every Listener to Consider:



* JOIN OUR MAILING LIST:   SEND A TEXT MESSAGE TO 44222 with message:  EBOPODCAST

* Visit the Podcast on iTunes and leave a rating and written review (speak my love language, please!)



Episode 25:

Hey EBOers:

In this episode we’re talking about the upcoming Amazon Long Term Storage Fees.   They are going to hit you on August 15, 2017 for any inventory that you’ve had in Amazon’s warehouses for 6+ months.

As of July 1, 2017, your aged units of inventory in our fulfillment centers will subject to the following fees, unless you submit a Removal Order request (or they sell) before August 15, 2017:



* $11.25 USD/cubic foot (six to 12 months)

* $22.50 USD/cubic foot (more than 12 months)



We recommend going to Amazon Seller Central > Inventory > Inventory Planning and reviewing your aged inventory.  You can also see “Recommended Removal” reports in the Reports > Fulfillment area.

One new option for getting rid of excess inventory is Amazon’s new “LBA” or “Liquidation by Amazon”.   Amazon will liquidate your inventory for you and pay you 90% of the proceeds.   However, be advised that the typical liquidation price is around 10% of the “average selling price”.

FREE COACHING:

As you have heard, I am offering professional e-commerce coaching.   As a fun contest I’d like to offer one free 30-minute coaching session.   To enter the contest, send a text message to “44-222” with the word:  EBOCOACH.

Lastly, send Fred an email and let him know where you’re listening from.   fred @ e-businessonline.com.

Download the show notes.

If you’re listening on our website, please consider clicking the subscribe links underneath the player to subscribe in iTunes or in Android apps.  We’d be honored to hear your comments about this podcast below and your reviews on iTunes.

Consulting:

Interested in having 1-on-1 consulting calls with Fred?   See the appointment calendar below:

[bookly-form category_id=”1″ service_id=”1″ staff_member_id=”1″ hide=”staff_members”]

Welcome to Episode 24 of the E-BusinessOnline Podcast

Host & Speaker:  Fred McKinnon

Topic:   Fred returns after a few weeks of some really rough e-business events, including two account suspensions, staff layoffs, and a significant battle with sickness.

2 Things We Are Asking Every Listener to Consider:



* JOIN OUR MAILING LIST:   SEND A TEXT MESSAGE TO 44222 with message:  EBOPODCAST

* Visit the Podcast on iTunes and leave a rating and written review (speak my love language, please!)



Episode 24:

Hey EBOers:

In this episode Fred does something that few people are willing to do.  He takes you straight into the details of when things go bad.  Yes, even as a veteran seller with over a decade of experience, things go wrong.  Our primary seller account was suspended two times in 48 hours and the second suspension lasted over a week.   It was an awful experience.    Fred talks about how those things can happen and how to weather the storm.

In the intro, Fred also discusses the various hats he wears, one of which is as a musician.  If interested in some of Fred’s music, you can listen at:

Web:  fredmckinnon.com

Worship Interludes Instrumental Podcast:   bit.ly/worshipinterludes

Lastly, send Fred an email and let him know where you’re listening from.   fred @ e-businessonline.com.

 

Download the show notes.

If you’re listening on our website, please consider clicking the subscribe links underneath the player to subscribe in iTunes or in Android apps.  We’d be honored to hear your comments about this podcast below and your reviews on iTunes.

Consulting:

Interested in having 1-on-1 consulting calls with Fred?   See the appointment calendar below:

[bookly-form category_id=”1″ service_id=”1″ staff_member_id=”1″ hide=”staff_members”]