Weekly Amazon Seller News – December 1, 2020

“Supporting small, saving big, and shopping early: Amazon customers make the 2020 holiday season our biggest yet” (Source: Amazon)

Amazon reported that independent businesses selling on Amazon surpassed $4.8 billion in worldwide sales from Black Friday through Cyber Monday, an increase of over 60% from last year.
More than 71,000 small- and medium-sized businesses worldwide have surpassed $100,000 in sales this holiday season to date.
American small- and medium-sized businesses have sold an average of 9,500 products per minute this holiday season to date.
Independent businesses selling on Amazon worldwide have created an estimated 2.2 million jobs.
Shopping for self-care, nesting at home, and cozy comfort are top trends in the U.S., with Beauty, Home, and Fashion among top categories shopped so far. In addition, customers also shopped Sports and Pets categories this holiday season.
Quick reminder for you: Don’t forget about Amazon’s extended returns window. Items shipped from October 1 through December 31, 2020 can be returned for free until January 31, 2021.
Read the full article here

Amazon merchants around the U.S. say some products that normally reach customers in one or two days are now taking a week or longer they headed into a record-busting holiday shopping season.
Seven merchants and consultants from California, Texas, Wisconsin and Florida said they had to ship products ordinarily handled by Amazon’s logistics service (which is typically faster and cheaper).
To the sellers, that suggests the company’s warehouses and delivery stations are at full capacity.
One seller said Amazon seems to be prioritizing best-selling products for its own delivery system and letting merchants handle less popular items, echoing what happened earlier this year when Amazon was overwhelmed by panicked shoppers stuck at home when Covid-19 hit.
Delivery concerns are just the latest challenge retailers have faced amid COVID-19, which analysts expect will push huge amounts of holiday shopping from brick-and-mortar retail to online.
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Just one day before Black Friday, Amazon merchants were hit with a raft of Seller Central and Marketplace Web Services glitches.
As sellers prepared for Black Friday they reported that they couldn’t list new inventory, or get seller central to remember stock adjustments.
Sellers also reported overselling, as out of date feeds were starting to be processed with greater inventory quantities than their latest feed.
Others hadn’t been able to do a stock update since Wednesday afternoon. All of the Amazon Seller Central and Marketplace Web Services Glitches were fixed just before Black Friday.
Amazon have said that they will ‘mitigate’ any impacts on your account health directly caused by the Amazon Seller Central and Marketplace Web Services glitches.
We don’t yet know if this will be automatic or if you’ll have to contact support to request leniency.
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Brand-registered sellers can leverage Amazon’s Transparency Program to protect their brand’s reputation and ensure that customers receive real products—not counterfeits.
Transparency is a product serialization service that enables Amazon to authenticate each item before it is shipped to the customer. Amazon introduced the Transparency Program in 2017 as a way to combat the growing threat of counterfeit products.
Protected products must pass the Transparency authentication check in order to reach the delivery stage of Amazon fulfillment. This is true no matter if they’re sold by the brand owner or a third-party seller.
Amazon has been slowly enrolling new brands, and Transparency is now available in the following marketplaces: United States, Canada, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, the United Kingdom, Japan, Australia, and India.
Before enrollment, sellers will have to meet certain requirements set forth by Amazon.
If you meet all of the requirements, you can click on the “Get Started” button on Amazon’s Transparency page.
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