🍭 Treacle Thursdays from Seller Candy (14/10/21 issue) 🍬

Dear Buddy,

We're back again after a notable two-week absence (mixture of sickness and technological ineptitude) to bring you all the Amazon updates you need. 

The authors' nose problems have passed. All is good, the air is clear and Halloween is nearly here.

Let's do some news!

“If a cluttered desk is a sign of a cluttered mind, of what, then, is an empty desk a sign?”

- Albert Einstein

Push back on the inventory - get in early before everyone else does!

Amazon previously announced that you need to be getting your inventory in their warehouses by December 11th to make sure you don't go out of stock. In a shocking U-turn, they feel that with all the shipping delays and such at the moment, December 2nd is now the target to aim for.

The best advice floating around the space is to totally ignore this recommendation and get your best sellers in decent stock as early as you possibly can.

Amazon also suggests some other dates you should do things by which you can read about in their FBA holiday calendar below.

Thinking of selling up? The Candies have your back

There's been a lot of Amazon brands changing hands this year, and news in the aggregator space is there's funding available for plenty more before the year is out.

With Christmas coming up, some of you out there may be planning an early gift for yourselves by biting the proverbial bullet and selling up. While the thought of sitting on a beach in silken slacks, browsing yacht catalogs without a care in the world may be appealing, there are some potential stumbling blocks on the road.

The lovely Catherine crashed in to one such block in the middle of her acquisition. Take a look at what she has to say about avoiding those pesky problems. (Spoiler alert, she loves Seller Candy.)

Amazon's Fashion Faux Pas

With the news of the big extension to return windows across the holiday season a couple of weeks ago, Amazon have decided to double down on the misery this is going to bring to any of you fashion sellers out there. Here's what they have to say:

"Effective October 26, 2021, all seller-fulfilled offers on Fashion items will feature a free return message, and Selling Partners will no longer be able to deduct the return shipping fee for Fashion items listed under Apparel, Shoes, Jewellery, and Watches in the US.

We believe in listening to our customers’ feedback and responding with actions that focus on improving their buying experience every time they shop or return an item in our stores. Amazon Fashion customers are not fully satisfied with the current return experience of seller-fulfilled orders. For Amazon-fulfilled orders of Fashion items, we already offer free returns 20 and customers expect the same return experience for seller-fulfilled orders."

The full story is linked below but it seems that it's open season for the try-before-you-buyers, people who want free rent on their outfits for parties, and the ever-present fraudsters.

Getting the most out of Q4 with internal and external ads that will tickle any pickle

Did you catch this one last week? The AMZ triple threat of ZonGuru, Evolve Media, and Seller Candy teamed up to give some stellar tips on smashing your year-end targets.

Not all traffic is made equal. With more competition than ever and more of that competition being savvy with 'traditional' methods, doing anything you can to get that competitive edge is vital.

Ian delivers some awesome tips for off-Amazon marketing strategies you can use to give a huge boost to on-Amazon sales, and the steps his client took that allowed them to sell their business for $610 MILLION.

Jon from the legendary Amazon partner, ZonGuru, gives us some interesting insights in to Amazon ads and SEO so you can jump to page 1 and get your products noticed.

And, of course, John with an H (our one) will show you how to fix things when they go down the pan.

It's well worth a watch if you missed it.

As I know many of you are all eager for the next installment and by way of recompense for two weeks without a fix, look out for next weeks' Tuesday feature. The imaginatively named 'Treacle Tuesday' brings more news and other nice bits. I didn't pick Tuesday just because it fits the alliteration, honest...

Have a great end to the week and may you be blessed with many sales and few complaints!

Rich

Partnership Manager and absentee newsletter writer at Seller Candy