MGR Amazon Weekly Update | October 7, 2019
Top News This Week
Amazon Wants Sellers to Pay $5,000/mo for Access to a Dedicated Account Service Rep
This option has existed for a while, but has been limited to only very select sellers. Now, Amazon is trying to push more sellers towards this. Most Amazon sellers have experienced how painful it can be at times to deal with Amazon seller support and how slow getting their issues solved can be.
Amazon has a great solution to this problem, just pay them an extra $5k/month. What do you get for $5k/month? A person you can contact directly at Amazon for any problems you might have instead of going through seller support. If you’re a large seller doing over six figures a month in sales, this may be a viable option. However, considering that sellers already pay Amazon thousands of dollars per year in fees, they should already be able to afford to provide high quality support to sellers without gouging them for even more money.
The Share of Top Chinese Sellers on Amazon Raises from 24% to 38% in Just 2 Years
Of sellers who do $1 million or more in annual sales on Amazon.com, 38% of them are now Chinese. The share is even larger in Europe. Most Chinese sellers are no different than North American or European sellers, they follow the rules and want to build a legitimate business. However, Chinese sellers still have unfair advantages vs the rest of the world, and there are many bad apples who try to cheat the system.
Chinese sellers are able to get better deals on manufacturing costs and lower prices on shipping simply because of where they are based. Many of them use this advantage to undercut prices and hurt non-Chinese sellers. The question is, as the US-China trade war continues to heat up, will Chinese Amazon sellers be a target?
The Power of Doing Content Right: From $0 to $100M Acquisition in 6 Years
As ad costs rise, content may be the best investment your business ever makes if you do it right. In this episode we discuss the recent Food52 acquisition, which valued the company at $100M, and how they used content to drive tens of millions in revenue. Then, we discuss how to create a content strategy for your own business.
Other Notable Links:
1. A coalition of over 1,000 brands, including Gucci and Adidas, are fighting back against Amazon’s rampant counterfeit problems – FAST COMPANY
2. Amazon unveils plans to launch 3,000 satellites into Earth’s orbit – GEEKWIRE
3. Strategies for increasing eCommerce customer retention – MGR
4. Amazon is expanding its cashier-less tech, used in select grocery stores, to airports and movie theaters – CNBC
5. Instagram is rolling out an ‘AR changing room’ which will allow users to try on clothes or shoes, and test different shades of make up on their face all using their phone’s camera – ENGADGET
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