Author: Rob
Getting Quality Amazon Verified Reviews
Getting Reviews and Sales Post Amazon TOS Change
Amazon once again changed their Terms of Service, this time about giving discounted or free products in exchange for reviews. Notice of this change caused quite a panic when it was first released on October 3 last year. Many sellers depended on the system of incentivized reviews, and could not see a way around it or a way to make up for the loss. Below we outline what this change means and what you can do to get reviews and boost sales without soliciting reviews.
Amazon TOS Change on Incentivized Reviews
Soliciting reviews is now prohibited by Amazon, with the exception of books and reviews that are run through Amazon Vine. Amazon has allowed the release of advance copies of books for review since the beginning, and this practice will continue. The limitation on the Amazon Vine program is that it applies to new and pre-release products only. Moreover, Amazon controls this program, so vendors and sellers cannot do more than wait for Amazon to invite people to review.
The language in the revised Amazon TOS clearly states that sellers and vendors are now prohibited from soliciting incentivized reviews of any kind. This includes providing incentives indirectly through a third party review service or other similar service. Vendors and sellers are also prohibited from making any kind of connection between discounted products and reviews. In connection, certain advertising and promotions regarding products is also prohibited, such as URLs with affiliate links. Amazon explained in their update announcement that the change is part of the company’s continuing efforts to improve reviews. Amazon has been working on stricter review policies and has penalized thousands of accounts for trying to manipulate reviews.
Per the Amazon Community Guidelines, the updated policy on reviews went into effect the same day that it was announced. Violators may get their accounts suspended or get all their Amazon privileges revoked. Amazon will also be removing solicited reviews that came in before the policy change if they are deemed excessive. Amazon did not give any details on this.
Moving Forward
Without the ability to offer discounts and free products to get more reviews, vendors and sellers will need to try different avenues for encouraging reviews, or other means altogether for increasing conversions. Vendors may try Amazon Vine, but the program is expensive and has limitations on the type and number of products that can be entered. Below are a few adjustments that you can adopt to make up for the loss of incentivized reviews.
1. Re-assess Review Volume
Even if you have not done incentivized reviews before, you should have a pretty good idea of how many reviews you need to make your sales targets. To make sure that you are still getting enough reviews to maintain and increase conversions for your products, take another look at the numbers and plan for how much you will need to work on your organic reviews to compensate.
2. Discounts and Promotions
Continue running your discounts and promotions, but make sure to remove any reference to leaving a review in exchange for the deal. Update these campaigns as well to allow access to these deals without requiring a review. Properly organized and managed campaigns of this type will still make customers happy, which will lead to organic reviews, even if not as many as if they were required.
3. Respond to Existing Reviews
You may have decided in the past not to spend your valuable time responding to reviews. It may be wise to rethink this at this time, especially with regard to negative reviews. Shoppers will tend to look at star ratings and read reviews before buying your product but they may not care about leaving their own, positive review unless they are super impressed. When they see that you are actively engaging with their fellow shoppers, however, they will be more inclined to contribute. Improving your listings and service in other areas will help a lot as well.
Note here that the updated terms also prohibit vendors and sellers from posting and answering questions or other content about their own or their competitors’ products.
4. Follow-Up Emails
Put some energy into creating or optimizing an existing feedback system. Reviews are a vital component of the Amazon sales process, and organic reviews are the only safe way to go moving forward. The simple fact is that if you sell on Amazon, you are highly dependent on reviews. Having a system of following up with your customers and building a relationship with them is going to be crucial to your success in getting reviews.
Invest a little more in crafting nicely worded and laid out emails to impress your customers. Remember, however, that these emails should never be all about getting reviews. Amazon may consider such abuse of the Buyer-Seller messaging system as a manipulation of reviews, which is punishable under the new terms. A/B test your new email formats to get an accurate idea of which emails are working to get customers to review your products.
5. Amazon Advertising
If you are launching new products and the Vine program is not an option for you, you can turn to Product Ads or Sponsored Products. These ads can do a lot to help get the word out by making your new products more visible. Ads can also help you to test out new keywords to see how they convert for you. Running ads has also proven effective in increasing organic rankings, so if you are able to run them for longer you can reap that added benefit as well.
The road ahead is going to be a little tougher, but these changes in no way mean that Amazon is not going to continue to be an awesome platform to sell on. More work will need to go into getting reviews to help products rank better, but this is a good thing over the long haul. The change was made to encourage honest, organic reviews. Vendors and sellers are not going to have to worry so much about unscrupulous competitors who manipulate reviews at every turn to try to keep good businesses down.
If you are looking for hands on help with your listings, account management, PPC set up and management, or building a strategy for more sales and reviews, please contact us for setting a meeting.
Smooth Stock Management
Managing inventory can be a real pain when a business is just getting off the ground. Sometimes, tracking and sourcing can continue to plague even seasoned sellers. From underestimating sales to forgetting to check inventory to dried out supplies, there are several things that can go wrong, leaving you out of stock and out of luck. Your business may be based on a stellar concept and have all the support it needs to thrive, but if you do not have an effective ordering system in place, you are going to find your profit gears all mucked up before you can get up high. Fortunately, we have all the technology today to help get that system in place and keep it running smoothly without too much fuss.
From start to finish, here are the basic areas that need to be kept under control for effective inventory management that facilitates the smooth flow of lucrative orders and happy customers.
Open Supply Options
It is always good to have a trusted supplier who has been able to provide you with the product you need when you need it. A good relationship with a supplier is gold. It is always better, though, to not get stuck with a single supplier who may at some point fail to come through for you. Cherish your best supplier, but maintain at least one or two others to whom you can run just in case things with your main man go south.
Balance Your Stock
Two main stock issues are overstocking and running out of stock. Balancing stocks very early on is essential to maximizing your potential for profit and business growth. After a business has experienced running short on stock, there is a tendency to go overboard and order too much the next time around. This can result in huge losses if the items are perishable, easily degrade over time, or might quickly become unpopular or outdated. Even if they can be kept long-term, however, you can still lose out because of increased warehousing costs and a lack of capital needed to purchase other stock items or new product to add to your inventory.
If you find yourself out of stock on certain items, it is important to take the time to immediately reevaluate. Do a quick investigation and note the reasons why this happened. The aim here is always to look for ways to improve, and not to beat yourself – or anyone else – up over the issue. It does not have to be a huge drama if you can act on it right away.
If the problem rests in not having enough financial resources to reorder, consider working out a deal with your long-term supplier, or even a new one. Either way, they will probably be willing to cut you some slack. Once the pressing issue is resolved, don’t forget to trace your steps so it doesn’t happen again. Rethink and rework your sales so you can avoid overstocking slow-moving items and be able to better fund your best sellers.
If the issue is the result of an increase in demand, figure out whether you were unaware because of a failure in your tracking system or because it happened suddenly. If the former, rectify the supply issue then sit down with your team to make adjustments to better keep an eye on things. Communication is essential to the smooth flow from supplier to warehouse to sales to shipping.
If your problem stems from inaccurate estimates for peak seasons or a lack of research into buying habits, you will find your backup suppliers very handy. Peak season will often mean that supplies are running low because your competition has stocked up. If you are not able to make late orders for additional stock, you may have to accept the lost opportunity. You can take this time, however, to do a thorough analysis of your individual products, how they have moved in the past – not only from your experience but as you can observe from other sellers – and which ones are likely to be in high demand during different times of the year. This way, you can also plan to distribute your capital accordingly so that you don’t miss out on holiday fever again.
Leverage Technology
Many problems with managing inventory stem from an inadequate system. Tracking is really the bulk of the work when it comes to maintaining proper stock levels. Once you get the supply, warehousing and logistics worked out, you will need to track at a high level to make sure that none of these links break down. Remember that a break anywhere along the line will often mean that business is going to stall.
Several professional software and online systems exist that can help you keep accurate records and automate many of the processes involved in managing stock. Using specially designed software instead of manual counts and spreadsheets can greatly reduce errors in receipts, fulfillment, and stock damage that can throw a big monkey wrench into everything. It is a great help for bookkeeping as well, since you can easily export and send monthly reports to your accountant. Backups are very important, and you can easily schedule them for security or download them manually anytime you need them.
This kind of system is also designed for multiple users so that you can reduce the number of problems caused by people getting out of sync. The system will furthermore keep you and everybody else concerned properly informed. For instance, even if someone still has the guts to steal from you with so many eyes on and such pristine records, you will notice it right away. It can take a while to move everything over to a new system, so prioritize you’re a item – usually 20% of the total – and your problem items, slowly adding a manageable volume at a time so things don’t get out of hand.
If you need help sorting out warehousing, shipping, logistics, labeling, or any other aspect of working the kinks out of your business, contact us today. Add to Cart Consultants can work with you to get your business running like a well-oiled machine so you can jet to the next level.
Benefits of Shipping by Air
Fairly young, at under a hundred years as a shipping method, air cargo has advanced rapidly to become a vital link in the global logistics chain. Flying your stocks in and out has definite advantages over other forms of shipment. There are a few disadvantages such as cost, but overall air cargo can be a boon for businesses. We are breaking down these benefits below so that you can get a better idea of what you can expect when using air freight. Some trial and error is to be expected when organizing shipping for the first time, but these tips should help ease the process quite a bit. Add to Cart helps arrange, ship, inspect, and get our clients affordable rates for air shipping samples or your entire order. Ask for a quote for your next air shipment needs.
Speed
Flying is undoubtedly the fastest method of transport available. If you need to get your items shipped out pronto, air cargo is your best option. With the speed of delivery, your opportunity for fulfilling a greater number of orders also increases. You will need to factor in all the airport checks and other requirements for air cargo and not just the flight time, but once you get the hang of it you will find that air freight is super fast, if you are willing to pay a premium for it, of course.
Safety
Flying is still the safest way to travel, and this applies to your precious cargo as well. First of all, the threat of shipment hijacking is greatly reduced for goods that are transported by air as compared to on the ground. Second, there are also no issues like detours and traffic which can increase your risk. Generally speaking, the more direct the route, the less you have to worry about something going wrong.
Air travel is highly regulated and points of entry and departure tightly secured. Your cargo benefits from this as theft and damage risks are reduced. Moreover, since the cargo goes straight from one point to the next without much turning to the left and right, there is less handling involved during transit, further reducing the risk of theft and damage. You can even comfortably accompany your cargo if you so desire when you ship it by air since some services are equipped to take on passengers.
Finally, air travel is less susceptible to bad weather. Airports will shut down under severe weather conditions, but you can be sure that conditions are worse on roadways and sea routes.
Convenience
Air travel is so highly regulated and dependent on accurate schedules that it can offer the most reliable arrival and departure times. Plus, as more and more people prefer air travel over land or sea travel, there are numerous flights available, sometimes one every hour. Such delays are not as common as you can expect on land or sea, so even if you do experience a cancelled flight, you can still be sure that your cargo will arrive faster than if you had opted for another shipping method.
The ability to track your cargo is an important factor in making sure that your inventory moves efficiently. Air cargo has the most efficient and convenient tracking system, sometimes even allowing you to log in to a website to see where your shipment is in real time. There is no more need to call companies and wait for them to call their drivers – if there is cell service and if they answer – and call you back with updates. And you will never have to endure the inefficiencies of the radio communications that seafarers rely on, or in some cases simply have no choice but to wait patiently for the ship to actually dock.
Borderless
Shipping by land is strictly limited to the extent and condition of roadway systems. Shipping by sea is less limited, but always ends where deep water meets land. Not every destination can support large cargo ships, further narrowing your options. There is also always a need to transfer cargo to a land vehicle to complete the journey. In some cases, this can mean a long trip inland, which equates to greater risks to your cargo.
Shipping by air is only limited to the number and location of open airports. Airports can be built almost anywhere on land, and as flying continues to grow in popularity, there are so many flight times and destinations to choose from. Even if a transfer to a land vehicle for the final leg of the journey is often required, the trip will be a short one. You can even do some sorting as you make this final transfer. When using land shipping to get your cargo from a ship to your city, for instance, you would normally either have a single drop off point or run the risk of damage to your items as they are driven around to different delivery stops along the way. Sorting your stocks bound for different warehouse locations at the airport either eliminates this sorting and redistribution step or reduces your risk.
Cost Balance
Air freight is the most costly of all shipment methods, but there are a few ways that you can save more when flying goods by air. First, since shipment times are much shorter by air, insurance premiums are also lower. Second, since you can time your shipments perfectly instead of allowing for week-long margins on sea cargo most especially, your warehousing costs will go down considerably when using air as your preferred method. Third, customs, inspection and handling processes for air cargo are much more efficient since it is a highly time-dependent industry. Fourth, since air freight poses the least amount of damage risk, you won’t need to waste time and spend extra money on heavy packaging to keep your items safe during transport.
As a final note, air freight is best for shipping a low volume of items that are of a high value, when you consider the costs involved. The safety of these types of items is a top priority, and paying more to ensure they arrive in good condition is a wise investment. If your shipments are either bulky or heavy, the higher costs of air freight might be insupportable. Air cargo charges go up both by space and weight, and you may also not be able to use air freight at all if regulations do not allow for the particular dimensions or weight of your cargo.
If you are looking for more information on how you can improve the way you ship and store your inventory, Add to Cart Consultants is available to assist you.
eCommerce Selling Platforms
Since online shopping has become so popular, many platforms have sprung up where just about anyone with something to sell can advertise to get it off their hands. There are a multitude of opportunities to explore, ranging from the big names in eCommerce to newer and more specialized marketplaces. Some offer a wider customer base and a range of categories, while others present a targeted audience and affordable fees. Below we have outlined the basic criteria for online selling and which of these widely known platforms fill or fail them.
Global Platforms
- Amazon – undoubtedly one of the eCommerce giants and a household name, this is a great place to start selling if you have a variety of products or are planning to branch out in the near future.
| Sellers Choice | Competition | Fees | Optimized Listings |
| **** | **** | *** | ***** |
| Consumer Base | Product Variety | Shipping | Customer Service |
| ***** | ***** | ***** | ***** |
Amazon ranks high in the Ecommerce Bytes Sellers Choice Ratings most notably for Profitability and Ease of Use. Customer’s trust is also high, which has contributed much to expanding this site’s customer base and volume of returning customers. Since this platform offers a significantly larger customer base than most other online stores, competition is also fierce. With a variety of categories to target and an opportunity to optimize listings for search with the advanced Amazon algorithm, however, sellers can control the audience that they want to focus on to maximize their profits. Amazon is only relatively easy to use because it has so much to offer in terms of optimization and paid advertising. Sellers can list for free in exchange for a fee on top of Amazon’s percentage cut, which can reduce costs. They can also opt to sign on for vendor status if they can move enough product to cover the regular fees.
Almost anyone with anything to sell can turn a profit on Amazon as long as prices are competitive with enough of a margin to compensate for any fees. Choosing the right product or the right volume is key.
Add to Cart Consultants offers many levels of consulting for an Amazon business. Contact Add to Cart for more information.
2. Shopify – more than just a page on Amazon, you can build your own store here to sell a variety of items. With freedom to design your storefront with over 100 templates, you can get a quality website for much less than building your own.
| Sellers Choice | Competition | Fees | Optimized Listings |
| n/a | *** | ** | *** |
| Consumer Base | Product Variety | Shipping | Customer Service |
| **** | **** | *** | *** |
Shopify is smaller than Amazon, making for easier competition with a fair range of categories. The fees can get quite steep – up to $ 179 per month compared to Amazon’s $ 39.99 for a Professional account – but sellers can leverage additional outlets such as Facebook and MailChimp to boost sales. Shopify also has its own analytics suite where sellers can check sales performance, but sellers are responsible for managing their own listings, shipping and customer service.
Add to Cart Consultants have the knowledge and experience to help you setup your very own shopify store. Be sure to ask us how we can help you start selling on your very own website.
- Bigcommerce – this platform also offers customized sites plus extensive marketing support and secure eCommerce tools.
| Sellers Choice | Competition | Fees | Optimized Listings |
| n/a | *** | * | *** |
| Consumer Base | Product Variety | Shipping | Customer Service |
| *** | *** | *** | *** |
Bigcommerce now offers free themes, and has recently updated their selection to compete with Shopify, but still has less variety and remains the pricier option. The advantage with this platform is the support offered, which includes coupon codes, an abandoned cart saver, social media integration, and secure hosted e-commerce tools to boost customer trust.
Honorable mention:
While not a global site since sellers are limited to the local market, Craigslist deserves a mention for its expansion to all seven continents. Craigslist is the original sell anything site, this is more of an online classified ad space than a selling platform, but its massive size and variety of categories makes up for the parts that may not benefit a seller.
| Sellers Choice | Competition | Fees | Optimized Listings |
| *** | *** | * | *** |
| Consumer Base | Product Variety | Shipping | Customer Service |
| ***** | ***** | *** | *** |
Craigslist does not rank high overall in the Ecommerce Bytes Sellers Choice Ratings, but has a good rank for Ease of Use. Competition is high, but the location selector narrows this down for sellers who want to target local markets. Craigslist is especially great for selling used items or things that are difficult to ship.
It is completely free to post and sell products on Craigslist, but this means that there is little protection for both sides. This pulls customer’s trust down, but many sellers have succeeded in making a good living off this site by applying a few careful policies and practices. Because it is a free classifieds site, the seller is responsible for all aspects from the listing to after-service.
Auction Style Platforms
- eBay – the oldest and most well-known online selling platform in the world. eBay is over 20 years old and has an awesome shipping system, but has become less popular in recent years because of certain changes to their policies. Still, it has expanded to include fixed-price items as well as the traditional auction-style listings.
| Sellers Choice | Competition | Fees | Optimized Listings |
| ***** | **** | ** | *** |
| Consumer Base | Product Variety | Shipping | Customer Service |
| ***** | ***** | *** | *** |
eBay ranks the highest overall in the EcommerceBytes Sellers Choice Ratings, with particularly high ratings for Profitability, Customer Service, Communication and Ease of Use. Competition is tight on the site because of its wide global reach and huge range of available products. There are free accounts available, but sellers have to pay per listing no matter how it performs and eBay’s share is 10% of every sale. Monthly fees reduce the listing fees, but these range from $19.95 to $299.95.
Sellers are free to list almost any kind of item on eBay, but rare, vintage and branded items sell best. The refined logistics of this platform make it ideal for sellers who cater to people all over the world. Selling many types of products here, however, can get costly. It is important to also note that seller protection on the site has declined.
- eBid – this is a less-known marketplace and therefore lower-cost, a good testing area for getting a feel for the market.
| Sellers Choice | Competition | Fees | Optimized Listings |
| ** | ** | ** | ** |
| Consumer Base | Product Variety | Shipping | Customer Service |
| ** | *** | *** | *** |
eBid does not rank high in the Ecommerce Bytes Sellers Choice Ratings, but it is a platform to watch as it is still quite young. The low competition and low fees – free listings and 3% cut – make it a good place to test run new products to see how customers respond. Profits are not likely to be high on eBid, but it is a trusted marketplace and there is less risk involved because of the lower costs. Sellers are responsible for managing their own listings, promoting products off-site, generating traffic to boost sales, and taking care of shipping and customer service.
Customers selling precious metals will sell via single purchase or via silver subscription services.
Be Location Independent with FBA
Running a profitable business and having freedom of movement are usually mutually exclusive. Any experienced business owner knows that there is always a choice to be made between being present and being successful. Thankfully, the connected world that we live in today affords us a way to avoid being tied down to a desk 24/7 or working a 9-5 job while retaining the ability to increase revenues.
The Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) business model allows anyone to trade in the 9-5 hamster wheel for a business that can be managed from home, the beach, another country, or really anywhere you choose that has a decent internet connection, and flourish.
Take the Load Off
Running a business based on the sale of physical products takes a lot of time and effort. There are several stages involved – sourcing product, generating sales, fulfilling orders, providing customer support, and executing expansion plans – and each of these stages comprises a multitude of small and big tasks that will pull you in six different directions along with losing track of time.
Amazon has created a system that can take care of much of this for you, leaving you free to focus on what you want to sell so you can grow your business – and live virtually permanently on vacation. The Amazon fulfillment network has been continually developed for over two decades and is now recognized as the most advanced in the world. Amazon has the experience to expertly handle the logistics and provide the needed customer service.
With your products stored in Amazon’s fulfillment centers or Add to Cart’s warehouse, there is no need for you to build or maintain a vast warehouse system, which already saves you a lot in terms of time, money, and energy. From these centers, Amazon takes care of carefully packing and shipping your orders to Amazon Prime members. Add to Cart allows businesses to also offer fulfillment by merchant (FBM) to non-prime members for Amazon shoppers and open the door to other e-commerce platforms like eBay, Etsy, Jet, Walmart, etc. If any issues arise on the customer end, Amazon is there again to step up and help resolve any complaints. With the FBM orders Add to Cart handles, they can either help you with the customer service side or assist you with a dedicated virtual assistant to manage all of your customer service needs.
With FBA, you are not limited to the products that you sell on Amazon. You can use Amazon’s superior network to keep all your stock in one place and fulfill all the orders that you get from your website or other sales channels. In addition, you can leverage a user-friendly online interface to manage all your inventory and communicate to Amazon how you want it handled.
If you are not sure that you want to go this way, Add to Cart Consultants also provides an excellent alternative backed by a wealth of experience. If you want to have more control over your warehousing, logistics, labeling, and shipping, we can provide you with a customized solution that understands the concerns that are unique to your business and your customers. We also provide consulting services to help you more effectively manage and build your business.
By cutting out all the middle parts to your business responsibilities, you are left with ample resources to refocus on managing products and sales exclusively, which means that you can start to scale your business and broaden your target market.
FBA Perks
Once you get started with FBA, you are qualified for a number of additional benefits that can further reduce your business costs. For instance, Amazon Prime members can take advantage of Amazon Prime FREE Two-Day Shipping. The longer you use FBA, the greater your chances are of winning additional benefits, such as the Buy Box. This prime location for your Add to Cart button dramatically increases your visibility to customers. As you learn more about Amazon’s policies and show consistently high performance as a seller on criteria like pricing and feedback, you increase your chances of being awarded.
Registering for an Amazon.com seller account earns you the privilege of selling not only locally but also on Amazon.ca (Canada) and Amazon.com.mx (Mexico). By using FBA on these marketplaces as well, you can instantly increase your customer reach by as much as 200%.
Where to Get Legit Barcodes
There are a ton of websites out there claiming to provide legal UPCs and EAN barcodes for cheap. It is no wise, however, to just pick up any number of codes from these sellers without verifying first if they are legit. The absolute best place to purchase your codes is from GS1, but there are several other sites that have been authenticated via the GS1 database. We outline a few of these sellers below who have the most competitive pricing and the advantages of purchasing from them.
The GS1
GS1 is a nonprofit group that sets standards for business processes internationally. You can register your company with them on their website to get your own legal identification number that will become the first part of the UPCs you are issued. This registration can be costly, however – several hundred dollars for the application and a smaller annual fee that is based on your revenue projections and the number of products you predict you will need UPCs for in the next year. Registering with GS1 is therefore only advisable if you plan to purchase thousands of UPCs.
Amazon recommends purchasing from GS1 for security reasons, such as bogus sellers passing off recycled barcodes or codes with nonexistent (unregistered) prefixes. GS1 is the safest option, but if you don’t need too many codes, a reseller is the more cost-efficient option.
Resellers
The first thing to do when searching for a UPC or EAN reseller is to check if they are duly registered with GS1, and verify their company identification number. Next, check that you will actually be buying barcodes and not renting them, i.e. paying the reseller to use their codes with their identification number prefix.
These barcode provided by Cheap UPC Barcode are guaranteed to be genuine and unique and never used before. They don’t get refreshed codes that have been used before. The codes are for your exclusive use worldwide and include a certificate of authenticity. A bonus they offer, they will generate the barcode image files for you in multiple formats. This is great when designing boxes for your product and your supplier or graphic artist needs certain file formats.
Special Promotion they are running and the best deal with have seen. $1.99 per barcode that is registered with the GS1. At this price, they still include the JPG, PNG, and vector files to you.
Legal Barcodes
This reseller is a Maryland-based company that has been in business for eleven years. They are BBB accredited with an A+ rating. Legal Barcodes is a verified seller of GS1-compliant codes and guarantees that their UPCs and EANs will be accepted by retail stores and Amazon marketplaces worldwide. They do not resell old barcodes and offer services to register your new codes under your name. They further guarantee a one-time purchase and no expiry on your barcodes.
Legal Barcodes is currently offering a promo where you can purchase a single barcode via Paypal for USD 7.50 and get two more free. The promo runs to up to USD 170 for which you will receive 1500 barcodes. Plus, if you can find a legitimate reseller that offers better prices than these, Legal barcodes will match it and take an additional 10% off the cost of your order.
In business since 1993, this reseller also offers UPCs and EANs accepted by Amazon, eBay, iTunes, Home Depot, and top online stores and retailers. They likewise guarantee no renewal fees, plus offer same-day turnaround, and high quality professional printing for orders of 100 and above.
The price for a single barcode is USD 5, 10 for USD 15, 25 for USD 25, and goes down to as little as USD 0.045 for a purchase of 100,000 codes. They also have a lowest price guarantee, but are not competitive at the moment with the above promo running.
There are a lot of other resellers out there that you can check out, starting with the list found on the Authenticated UPC Registration Directory. This is also a decent place to check on registered prefixes if for some reason you are unable to get the information from GS1.
If you need more information or advice on barcodes or labeling, don’t hesitate to contact us. Add to Cart Consultants also provides a variety of other consultation services including warehousing, shipping and logistics.
Starting Amazon FBA? Make sure you know about your Sales Tax obligation
The 20th of every month, every 3rd month, every 6th month, on annually; this sales tax due date will loom over you and penalize you if you are late! Selling online and sales tax can be very difficult for anyone to understand. Some old school accountants might even wonder and have to search for the answer on this messy and complicated but required business practice you have to perform. Basically, if you sell on Amazon and have Fulfilled by Amazon (FBA), you probably (if not 100%) have to pay sales tax in that State, County, and City.
Since FBA allows you and Amazon to ship products to customers within 2 days, Amazon places your products across the country closer to all your (Amazon’s) customers. If you are new to FBA or been selling for a while, you might have already been required to collect sales tax and be paying that state. Yes, we know your business is not located in a state that has no sales tax for Amazon purchases, but your business and product is national and you have product all over the US via FBA.
What happens when Amazon gets your shipment in? You might ask, I shipped everything to North Carolina and they don’t require a sales tax. Amazon FBA opens your box of goodies and leverages their mass network of warehouses across North America. They break up your units shipped to them and send them all over. They want to be able to ship an item to a California resident from a warehouse in California. This saves Amazon on shipping rates to. Ever seen one of those Amazon trucks? It could be carrying your products from one of their warehouses to the next waiting for a happy customer to place their order. Amazon FBA feature also allows Amazon to fulfill your 3rd party sales channel orders. Know how to do this? We talk about it here.
Love Amazon FBA? Of course you do but quickly you will see the con of FBA called, Sales Tax Nexus. Have to say, all the benefits of having these services outweighs the burden of sales tax.
We’ve mentioned sales tax nexus a few times, so what is it?
Nexus: Sufficient physical presence.
Basically it’s a legal term that describes having physical products an out of state company has and is doing business (selling) in that state which would require to collect and PAY tax in that state.
If you want to read more about nexus and your possible obligations; we suggest checking out the pages of articles on taxjar.com
Without getting too deep into politics, states, counties, and cities survive off taxes to pay for this or that program in their respected geopolitical location. So, charging sales tax is the perfect way to generate income for that government office. Nexus as always been around to describe in state sellers, but now the definition has expanded and includes the online seller or out of state business.
Raise your right hand and say sadly, I have nexus and will agree to collect and pay sales tax. Now the fun part begins. You must go onto the various states that require you to collect and pay sales tax and register for a sales tax ID. Once registered you must submit your sales tax ID to Amazon. On your Amazon Seller Central page, Settings -> Tax Settings -> “View/Edit your Tax Calculations” -> enter in your sales tax ID for that state -> Review Changes -> and just follow the continue and accepting pages.
Now, why are we telling you this? With Add to Cart Consultants, we offer warehousing within the state of Florida and provide international shipping from China to the US that might come to our warehouse before getting sent to Amazon or another 3rd party. When you fill out your sales tax information, you are going to be asked when you had Nexus in that state. Since Amazon won’t charge sales tax until you have a Sales Tax ID, you will be paying for this uncollected tax out of the profit you make on your goods. What if you don’t apply nor tell the state that you sell as an out of state business to one of their residents? They will eventually catch on and ponce on you like a puma. I personally don’t want a puma pouncing on me. They will latch on and keep on you until you pay with interest and penalties, which might be worse than a puma.
With our fulfilled by merchant services, you will also be required to charge sales tax for shipments we provide for you. The good news is, when selling on Amazon, either FBA or FBM, Amazon will charge for you sales tax. You don’t have to make any changes here to offer FBM to potential customers. Being able to offer FBM to our clients expands their ability to sell on other platforms like Amazon.ca, .uk, .com.mk, sears.com, jet.com, ebay.com, etc and etc. Since you are set up with sales tax ID and you have the products here in the US, we are here to help you expand your business into other arenas to showcase your brand and products. We do all the tracking, shipping, and reporting to the platforms so that both the software and customer knows their order has shipped.
Haven’t had enough sales tax information and still have questions? Here are a few links to some tax software sites that can provide more info or answer some questions for you. Also, please feel free to send us any questions you might have at Add to Cart Consultants Contact us.
Next Step:
- Locate where your inventory is and when you established Nexus
- Determine if your product is a taxable product
- When are you required to pay sales tax (you might owe for back months)
- Are you monthly, quarterly, semiannual, or annual?
- Should you file your sales tax or have someone like Taxjar auto file for you or your accountant.
We are here to help point you in the right direction and get you the resources needed to succeed in your business. We are more than just someone people moving boxes, we can help with your shipping logistics, inspections, labeling, and even a little knowledge on tax law. We look forward to hearing from you and helping your business grow.
We are, by no means, state sales tax CPA’s and all info should be checked with your accountant.
Amazon Storage Fees; Get Ready to Pay More in 2017
Did you survive the 4th quarter Monthly Inventory Storage Fee increase? The monthly storage fee goes up almost 400% during the Months of November and December. These are most company’s crucial months for selling and want the most inventory sitting and waiting to be bought. We, Add to Cart Consultants, know what this pain is and what it feels like to pay high storage fees. That is what got us to help the small business that doesn’t want to worry about having these fees.
How Our Services Can Help the FBA Seller:
First, Add to Cart Consultants provides free pick & pack services to clients that warehouse their products in our warehouse when items are being sent to FBA. The client is still responsible for the freight. This is great; a FREE service. We want our clients to have a ZERO storage fees every month with Amazon. So, to help our clients do this is by offering free pick and pack for their FBA shipments. We warehouse the product, you let us know how many items to send, we go in as an admin to your Amazon Seller Central Account, input the data, package up the units, label the boxes, and off it goes to Amazon FBA. We recommend a bi-weekly shipment to Amazon and we can help you with your inventory control with a simple formula.
Second, we have a lower yearly storage fee than Amazon. Our current rate is $30 per pallet size. We define a pallet size as 48”x48”x48” which breaks down the $30 to $0.47/cuft. Amazon was charging $0.54/cuft and is increasing that to $0.64/cuft. Now for October, November, December 2017, our per pallet price will go up to $2.35/cuft. For 2016, Amazon only increased the storage fee for November and December. This year (2017), they are adding in October with the increase in storage fees. What’s the big picture price difference? That’s almost $150.40/pallet per month compared to our $30/month. So, why pay more?
Third, You don’t have to send all your inventory to Amazon every time. Buy more units from your supplier to get a better rate and have them shipped to a non Amazon warehouse to inspect, label, and warehouse until the units are needed at an FBA center. Many suppliers will offer you a better per unit price if you order more. Worrying about your storage fee might have held you back from placing a large order.
Forth, Add to Cart Consultants will ship your product for you to customers that are Fulfilled by Merchant. Ever thought about getting onto another e-commerce platform but didn’t know what to do about sending your customers the order? Well, since we are warehousing the product for you, we have the ability to pick & pack the item and ship it off. We aren’t greedy when it comes to getting your orders out. The client gets charged the same amount of shipping that we do; no bump up in shipping rates for FBM.
How does Amazon calculate the Storage Fee?
First, get the dimensions of your product in inches. You will get three measurements; length, width, and height.
Second, to get a cubic foot into inches; 12”x12”x12”= 1,728”
Third, Multiple your three measurements from step 1 (LxHxW) and divide by step 2 (1,728). This gives you you’re cubic feet. An example a gizmo is 3” by 9” by 17” divided by 1,728 = .27 cu. Ft.
1st through 3rd Qtr: $0.64 x .27cu. ft x 500 units = $86.40/month
4th Qtr: $2.35 x .27 cu ft x 500 units = $317.25
Our Client’s storage fee
All Year: $0.47 x .27 cu. Ft. x 500 units = $63.45
Year Cost Difference
Amazon: ($86.40 x 9 month) + ($63.45 x 3 months) = $967.95
Add to Cart: $63.45 x 12 months = $761.40
Difference: $206.55 in SAVINGS
Now times this for how many different SKU’s you might have and the savings start to add up.