Opting for Amazon Vendor Central can be advantageous for sellers looking to sell their products directly to Amazon with ease. While you get routine orders and various perks of being part of Vendor Central, it is worth noting that the platform comes its own share of disadvantages.
In this article, we will delve into five critical problems commonly faced by vendors in Amazon Vendor Central and provide effective solutions to overcome them.
1. Control Over Pricing
When you sell products to Amazon, you often lose some control over retail pricing, limiting your ability to offer discounts or sales. Moreover, Amazon’s ever-changing pricing algorithm can lead to price swings that may hurt a vendor’s brand reputation and profitability.
Solution:
- To regain full control over pricing and profit margins, consider moving to Seller Central. This move allows vendors to manage pricing strategies better and establish consistent pricing rules.
- Minimum Advertised Price (MAP) Policy: Implementing a MAP policy can help enforce a minimum price that authorized sellers, including Amazon itself, must adhere to. This ensures consistent pricing across all sales channels.
2. Limited Access To Customer Data
Using Amazon Vendor Central limits access to valuable customer data such as email addresses and order histories. This limitation makes it harder to analyze customer trends and understand the target audience, requiring extra effort for marketing.
Solution:
- Make up for the lack of direct customer data by using third-party tools like Google Analytics and Social Media Analytics. These tools can offer valuable insights into customer behavior and preferences.
- Encourage Customer Feedback: Encourage customers to leave product reviews and feedback on Amazon. While vendors may not access individual customer data, reviews can offer valuable insights into product performance and customer preferences.
3. Shipping And Fulfillment Challenges
Meeting Amazon’s large demand while managing inventory can present big challenges for vendors on Vendor Central. Delays or errors in fulfillment can negatively impact Vendor’s performance metrics.
Solution:
- Optimize Inventory Management: Implement effective inventory management practices to prevent stockouts and overstock situations. Utilize sales data and historical trends to forecast demand accurately and maintain the right level of inventory in Amazon’s fulfillment centers.
4. Algorithm Changes
Amazon’s product ranking algorithm is subject to frequent changes. These changes can impact product visibility, sales and overall performance of the product.
Solution:
- Staying informed is the key to tackling algorithm changes. Regularly check Amazon’s official announcements and communications about algorithm updates. Join Amazon Vendor Central forums and blogs to understand the latest changes and how they affect your business.
5. Excessive Chargebacks/Deductions
- Chargebacks/Deductions occur when Amazon deducts funds from a vendor’s account due to customer complaints, order discrepancies, or policy violations. They can eat away a chunk of your profit margins if they are too many.
- Managing Amazon Deductions is another challenge every vendor goes through.
- Keep reading how Chargeback Automation is changing the way vendors manage their deductions/chargebacks
Solution:
- Proactive Shipment Tracking- By tracking each step of the shipment you as a vendor can make sure everything is happening in a timely manner and if at any point there are delays you can update it on Amazon Vendor Central to avoid any deduction.
- Stay Updated With Vendor’s Regulations: Amazon frequently changes Vendor Regulations, these changes are usually minor, but by not complying with them you can get a large number of deductions. So you should make sure that you stay updated with these changes and make sure your staff adheres to them.
How iNymbus Can Process Your Chargebacks or Deductions 30x Faster and that too automatically
- iNymbus uses Cloud Robotic Process Automation (RPA) to automate all the tasks perhaps processing a claim 30x faster.
- Our RPA is customized directly to your company’s SOPs ensuring we maximize efficiency around your current tools and procedures. We do all of the heavy lifting to configure the bots and deliver a full, live product in as fast as two weeks.
- With time it gets better and helps you find where the chargebacks/deductions are coming from in the first place.
- Since iNymbus automates all the tasks, it can bring down Cost Per Claim by almost 80%
So does saving time, manpower, and most importantly money interests you?
