Incorrectly labeled products
Inaccurate or poorly worded product listings on Amazon can adversely impact your business as an Amazon seller. Incorrect product descriptions can disrupt order fulfillment and damage your reputation with customers.
Part of your inventory management is applying UPC or Amazon ID stickers correctly, ensuring that Amazon delivers the correct products to the right customers.
Improper packaging
While FBA shipping allows you to bypass the responsibility of packing your products for delivery, you still need to ensure that your inventory items are shipped to Amazon’s warehouses in good condition. Ensuring that your supplier uses the right packing materials is crucial to protect your goods route to the Amazon fulfillment center. Custom boxes and materials like air pillows and packing peanuts can protect your goods in transit to the Amazon fulfillment center.
When Amazon sends you or your supplier an FBA sticker to apply to the box, ensure that you apply it to the correct place on the box, next to the carrier label on a flat surface of the box and not across any seals. Amazon workers use box cutters to open boxes by cutting through the tape in the center seam. If the worker cuts through the label, it can cause the sticker to become ineligible or interfere with scanning.
Not adhering to Amazon guidelines
Amazon has a list of restrictions regarding the products that you are allowed to sell. There are also requirements regarding inventory, including packaging and labeling. If you fail to adhere to these requirements, Amazon may cancel your listing, terminate your selling privileges, and end your FBA relationship at its discretion. Always ensure that whatever goods you ship and whichever supplier you sell through, Amazon complies with the company’s guidelines and all applicable laws.
Not managing inventory properly
Warehouse space is a valuable resource. Inventory management includes knowing your market and what quantities to supply to Amazon to maximize your returns and minimize costs. Amazon warehouses charge storage fees to FBA sellers, incentivizing you to sell products and ship what you know will sell promptly. The longer your inventory sits unsold in an Amazon warehouse, the more fees you incur.
You should also consider taking advantage of Amazon Prime. To use Amazon Prime for order fulfillment, you need to meet and maintain sufficiently good seller-performance metrics to demonstrate that both you and your products are trustworthy. This includes, for example, having inventory with a low defect rate and complying with the company’s listing and product requirements.
Sending inventory to the wrong warehouse
An essential component of well-organized inventory management is ensuring that the inventory items you sell are sent to the correct warehouses. Amazon has numerous fulfillment centers across the globe. So, whether you’re in charge of shipping to Amazon’s fulfillment centers or you task a supplier with sending inventory items, it is critical to keep track of when and where your inventory is located to ensure that it reaches the correct fulfillment center.
Other Considerations
As an Amazon seller, inspecting your inventory before shipment is important to meeting and exceeding customer expectations and providing excellent customer service. It’s also essential to acquiring and keeping a Prime badge. If you fail to inspect your products and your defect rate increases, your metrics suffer.
Furthermore, if you contract a manufacturer to produce goods for sale via Amazon, ensure the products are not patented. You don’t want to risk receiving a cease and desist order from the patent holder’s attorney after investing in inventory.
Comments