Sorry Shopify, BigCommerce, Woocommerce, and Magento store owners, Amazon still wants to eat your lunch. Shoppers won’t buy from your website – unless you give them the same fast, date-certain delivery experience they get on marketplaces like Amazon.
Today, 63% of consumers start their shopping experience on Amazon, 25% on other marketplaces, and only 21% on brand websites. And 45% of shoppers abandon their carts due to unsatisfactory shipping options. So, now is the time to level the playing field with Amazon and get a leg up on your competitors with an Amazon-like delivery experience on your website and any other channels where you sell.
The latest consumer research shows why EDDs + fast & free shipping options work:
75% wish more brands offered the same level of service as Amazon
64% look for delivery options – before putting items in the cart
83% said free delivery was the most important factor when ordering online
87% are more likely to shop your site again following a positive delivery experience
Here’s what you’ll learn:
Why E-commerce sales on marketplaces are growing faster than brand website sales
Rising consumer expectations of date-certain, fast and free delivery
The impact of shipping offers on conversion rates, cart abandonment, and sales
Implementing date-certain & fast and free delivery – it’s easier than you think
E-commerce Revolution with Strategic Packaging Solutions Like anyone in the e-commerce world, small business owners are always looking for ways to streamline their operations and
Hazardous Materials What is a Hazardous Material? What Items Are HAZMAT? Classes of HAZMAT Items What Classes Can Ship on Various USPS Services? What Changes
Here we go again with yet another tightening of Amazon FBA quantity limits. For many, this latest change means a reduction of overall account-level inventory limits. Most sellers will be affected by this change. But, considering that Amazon made this change just a few weeks before Prime Day ‘21, what will FBA do when space is really strained in Q4? For actionable advice on improving IPI scores and developing alternative fulfillment strategies that can mitigate risk and maximize Amazon sales in Q4 and beyond, check our article and on-demand webinar on How To Improve Your IPI Score & Maximize Amazon Sales
Sellers that are overly dependent on FBA for eCommerce order fulfillment may find themselves poorly positioned to take advantage of Amazon’s Q4 ‘21 sales opportunities that are expected to be the largest on record. Before it is too late, sellers should consider alternative or backup fulfillment strategies that will free them from this latest Amazon restriction or other changes likely to follow as we get closer to the holiday season. And, do not expect much advance notice from Amazon.
What Is Amazon’s New Inventory Restriction?
Amazon announced that effective April 22, 2021, FBA inventory limits are now set at the account-level and based on storage type rather than at the ASIN-level. In other words, there are no longer limits on the number of units that can be stored; however, there are new limits on the total volume of storage space available to hold those ASINs. Because this change impacts total storage limits, it also impacts restock limits. This change responds to seller feedback from a July 2020 ASIN-level quantity limit restriction driven by Covid-19 supply-chain challenges.
Amazon quantity limits, including this new account-level inventory restriction, are impacted by several factors. The two primary factors are the sellers’ Inventory Performance Index (IPI) score and Amazon FBA’s overall storage capacity. Amazon’s IPI score is essentially a measurement of inventory turnover; how efficiently sellers manage their FBA sell-through rates and inventory levels. The faster inventory moves through FBA, the higher the sellers’ IPI score. IPI scores take a hit when ASINs run out of stock or if inventory sits stagnant in FBA fulfillment centers, which leads to a reduction in sellers’ inventory limits. To make matters worse, Amazon has increased the IPI threshold multiple times throughout 2020 and 2021.
Why Has Amazon Restricted Inventory Limits?
62% of consumers start their search on Amazon, and Amazon saw a 40%+ growth in GMV. Consequently, Amazon fulfillment centers are bursting at the seams, and there’s no end in sight. Amazon currently has over 110 fulfillment centers in the US, but there is simply more inventory being sent to Amazon than they can handle.
What Does The New Inventory Restriction Mean for Sellers?
The intention was to give sellers more flexibility with inventory shipments. However, the response on seller forums is mixed. Sellers whose catalogs comprise primarily small and light items that are fast-moving all year round will be relatively unaffected by this change. On the other hand, sellers whose catalog is a mix of various weights and volumes and sellers whose sell-through rates ebb and flow throughout the year may need to make drastic changes. In addition, merchants that plan to launch new products may suffer, especially the newer sellers who do not have a proven track record on the Amazon marketplace.
Sellers who reach their inventory limit will no longer be able to stock up or send full container loads to Amazon at the beginning of the Q4 holiday shopping season or before a sales event like Amazon Prime Day. This is because additional shipments would be a policy violation. Instead, sellers will need to route shipments to 3PL warehouses and then send multiple just-in-time shipments to Amazon. As a result, these sellers will suffer significantly increased costs and greater complexities with their supply chain logistics.
Sellers that based their supply chain logistics around the earlier ASIN level limits are frustrated with yet another unilateral decision with little to no advance notice. Others are equally discontented by not being able to send more inventory for fast-moving ASINs. Here are a few comments from a seller forum that sum up the overall sentiment around this change.
What Can Sellers Do About The New FBA Inventory Restrictions?
Amazon’s repeated and unilateral changes to inventory restrictions have clearly frustrated many sellers. And as the saying goes, “Fool me once …”. So, whether it’s this latest restriction or others likely to follow in Q4, two things are clear;
63% of consumers start their search on Amazon, so regardless of this or any other new restrictions, your products must continue to be offered on Amazon.
Merchants can’t sit idle. They must seek to understand their options now and be ready to quickly pivot to alternative fulfillment services if necessary to save Q4 sales.
As an Amazon seller, you can always switch to offering FBM. However, in addition to the logistics hassles of fulfilling all of your own orders, it is impossible to win the buy box with slow standard shipping, so the outcome would likely be a significant drop in sales. If sellers need to contract with new 3PLs, they could consider using a 3PL Request for Proposal Template to compare apples to apples.
Ship Prime Offers Via Seller Fulfilled Prime (SFP)
If you are one of a handful of SFP merchants that have maintained Prime eligibility after the new amazon SFP requirements, you’re in good shape. If you have trouble scaling up, you can contract with multiple 3PLs or seek out an Amazon SFP Fulfillment Partner who is savvy with meeting Amazon SFP delivery speed metrics.
Join a Peer-to-Peer Fulfillment Network
An innovative and affordable alternative to working with 3PLs is outsourcing fulfillment to a peer-to-peer (P2P) e-commerce order fulfillment network. Like FBA, this model enables members to offer nationwide 1-day or 2-day delivery, in addition to the standard economy delivery. A P2P network comprises highly experienced and proven sellers who offer up existing space and resources to provide order fulfillment to other merchants. As a result, costs are generally lower than what you get with a 3PL fulfillment center, and multi-channel sales are the norm. A P2P network can be a good option whether or not the merchant has warehouses of their own. In addition, merchants with excess warehouse space and fulfillment capacity can tap a new revenue stream by fulfilling orders for others.
Offer 1-day and 2-day shipping at ground rates or less.
E-commerce Revolution with Strategic Packaging Solutions Like anyone in the e-commerce world, small business owners are always looking for ways to streamline their operations and
Hazardous Materials What is a Hazardous Material? What Items Are HAZMAT? Classes of HAZMAT Items What Classes Can Ship on Various USPS Services? What Changes
Amazon Prime customers ordered billions of items with free one-day shipping in 2019. With 6.5 billion packages delivered in 2019, one-day delivery already makes up for 15% of Amazon’s total volume. This is impressive given that this program launched just ten months ago.
Amazon has been a pioneer in setting new customer expectations. Online shoppers weren’t really asking for free two-day delivery until Amazon made it available as part of its Prime membership in February 2005‑—that changed the online world forever. Today customers expect free two-day shipping on all their online purchases anywhere.
Amazon is at it again and now getting customers addicted to free one-day shipping. If you are a third-party seller, you too now must adapt to offering free one-day delivery if you wish to maintain high visibility, especially on marketplaces. It won’t be long before Amazon will prioritize two-day shipping offers organically over the others when it comes to buy box occupancy. Without one-day shipping offers, you might also have to spend more on ads in order to drive traffic to your listings. So getting your ducks in a row now will pay dividends soon besides contributing to more sales now.
It’s, however, no surprise that offering one-day shipping is both very expensive and stressful, given the high performance standards demanded by Amazon. Where there are challenges, there are opportunities. This is one such opportunity that growth-minded Sellers can capitalize on today before the others catch on the bandwagon.
Operational Excellence
Offering a successful one-day shipping program requires operational excellence. Without a reliable order fulfillment team and the right technology, it will be difficult to achieve the metrics required for the program: 99% on-time shipment rate, 95% on-time delivery rate, and <1.5% cancellation rate.
Below are some best practices we’ve learned at Cahoot that will help you prepare to offer one-day shipping:
Get ecommerce orders out on time
One-day shipping means all orders received before 2 PM on a business day must ship out the same day. Pay close attention to the following:
Thoughtful storage strategy. Keep in mind that picking staff would spend most of their time walking through the warehouse, and a well-thought-out storage strategy would go a long way in improving operational efficiency. It is good practice to segment products and store them separately based on popularity and affinity. Don’t forget to regularly audit this because demands may shift due to product life cycle and seasonality.
Efficient Picking Methods. Picking is a crucial step in the order fulfillment operation, and errors in picking would result in a lot of wasted time. Clearly marked bins for different SKUs and automated picking can improve the accuracy tremendously.
Automated Label Printing. With little time to process orders especially towards the cutoff times, it becomes paramount to generate the best shipping labels automatically from your shipping software. Manually comparing services and carriers is prone to human errors and takes away precious time that can be spent elsewhere.
Properly trained staff. It is imperative to make sure workers (especially seasonal staff) can navigate your warehouse quickly, safely and pick-and-pack accurately. You can start the new workers with standard orders as they improve their speed and performance before fulfilling one-day orders.
Deliver orders on time
Below are some pitfalls to avoid in the order fulfillment process that delay package arrivals:
Address verification and label quality. Having correct address down to the zip code +4 including “floor” or “suite” where applicable, makes a difference. Make sure your printed labels are clear, bold, and easy to read and not faded or dull (may happen to laser printers).
No distinct sounds and smells. Packages with odd smells and sounds will get pulled aside during sorting at the carrier facilities for further inspections. While packing make sure to seal scented products properly and to turn off items or toys that make noises.
Pick the right carrier and service. Lastly, make sure the carrier you’ve selected for 1-day orders has an excellent record of on-time delivery. A cheap but questionable service is not suitable for one-day shipping because you’ll be penalized heavily for late deliveries.
Maintain a low order cancellation rate
Having orders with no items to fulfill them due to inventory issues can force you to cancel an order, which will hurt your performance metrics. To improve inventory accuracy and visibility, implement a Warehouse Management System (WMS) and/or an Order Management System (OMS) and do not rely on human-managed spreadsheets.
Make one-day delivery profitable nationwide
There are limitations to having a single order fulfillment center for one-day shipping. A guaranteed next-day express shipping service is four times as expensive than the economical ground shipping. Unless you skyrocket your retail price accordingly, you won’t be able to make money off the transaction.
The simplest way to expand your order fulfillment nationwide is through outsourcing. There are marketplace-owned services like Amazon FBA and Shopify Fulfillment Network, which offer good rates nationwide, but charge extra for one-day orders. There are also third-party logistics (3PL) providers that offer nationwide reach but typically require minimum-commitment contracts and upfront fees. Many 3PLs do not have the ability to support all the Amazon Seller Fulfilled Prime requirements. Outsourcing order fulfillment could also make it difficult to maintain your hard-earned negotiated carrier rates because most providers like to use their own accounts for shipping for the mark-up.
A new option for offering one-day shipping nationwide is to use a peer-to-peer order fulfillment network like Cahoot, where top-rated sellers collaborate by pooling their resources to offer one-day and two-day shipping at the price of ground shipping or less. Cahoot offers the most economical way for brands and retailers to offer super fast shipping to its customers on all sales channels without sacrificing their profit margins.
Offer 1-day and 2-day shipping at ground rates or less.
E-commerce Revolution with Strategic Packaging Solutions Like anyone in the e-commerce world, small business owners are always looking for ways to streamline their operations and
Hazardous Materials What is a Hazardous Material? What Items Are HAZMAT? Classes of HAZMAT Items What Classes Can Ship on Various USPS Services? What Changes
What Ecommerce Companies and Marketplace Sellers Can Do Now to Prepare for the Upcoming Slowdown in 2020
The US economy has been in an expansion period for 11 years, the longest time in the history of the nation. Recessions are cyclical and come back every number of years. Around half of the nation’s business economists predict a recession in the US economy by the end of 2020. And for the first time since 2008, on July 31 this year, the Federal Reserve slashed interest rates as a precautionary measure to reduce 2020 recession risks.
Another early warning signal of a possible 2020 recession is fewer freight shipments across the country. The Cass Freight Index is showing a decline in goods shipped via truck, rail, and air from growing at 7.2% in June 2018 to a drop of 6% in June this year after consistently slowing down since last year. This downturn is different from that in 2015 and 2016 because it’s not caused by oil-related freight but an overall decline across methods. The economy is also showing a slowdown of GDP growth to 1.8% in Q1 2019 versus 3.1% the previous year. Such contraction is consumption also an early indicator of a possible recession. Economic output in Germany, the world’s fourth-largest economy, contracted in the second quarter, according to a report on Aug 14, while a report on factory output in China, the second-largest economy, came in lower than expected.
To add to the deepening global economic slowdown, the U.S. will impose a 10% tariff on the remaining $300 billion worth of imports from China on “certain articles”, originally slated to take effect Sept. 1, now delayed to Dec. 15. These include cell phones, laptops, some toys and some footwear and clothing. Retail executives on earnings calls have warned about the effects of these tariffs on their businesses, noting the potential for eroding margins and higher costs being passed on to consumers.
Last two recessions started the downfall of departmental stores while e-commerce was still in a growth stage. Online sellers have enjoyed unprecedented growth during the economic expansion while the departmental stores continued to struggle. The next recession will test the now widespread online businesses for the first time as the marketplaces are becoming saturated.
Offer 1-day and 2-day shipping at ground rates or less.
E-commerce Revolution with Strategic Packaging Solutions Like anyone in the e-commerce world, small business owners are always looking for ways to streamline their operations and
Hazardous Materials What is a Hazardous Material? What Items Are HAZMAT? Classes of HAZMAT Items What Classes Can Ship on Various USPS Services? What Changes
In years past, most parcel packages were shipped to warehouses and facilities in bulk, allowing sellers and parcel companies to achieve economies of scale. The greater volume delivered to the same or fewer destinations, the more cost savings could be achieved per package.
But today, growth in e-commerce continues to accelerate direct-to-household purchase volumes. Shipping to more individual locations has reduced distribution scale for sellers, increasing per-unit ecommerce order fulfillment costs.
Reducing these costs can go a long way towards sustaining the new status quo of faster shipping across more widely distributed destinations. Achieving this without passing on cost increases to customers through price hikes will likely require a sharper focus on leveraging data to optimize delivery networks. As use of algorithms and forecast accuracy increase, it will become easier to plan for weekly and seasonal volatility, choose optimal routes, appropriately utilize facilities and assets, and shift personnel around as needed to bring down the cost of last-mile delivery.
E-commerce Revolution with Strategic Packaging Solutions Like anyone in the e-commerce world, small business owners are always looking for ways to streamline their operations and
Hazardous Materials What is a Hazardous Material? What Items Are HAZMAT? Classes of HAZMAT Items What Classes Can Ship on Various USPS Services? What Changes
With the economic liberalization under Deng Xiaoping, China unleashed its manufacturing prowess over the world. For years the sourcing for goods sold in the US has been dominated by suppliers and manufacturers from China. The supply chain generally involves a distributor from China, US based wholesaler and finally a retailer in the US.
However, with the advent of Amazon and other ecommerce sites, especially Wish.com, there has been a surge in sellers based in China who sell directly to the American consumer, taking out the middlemen. This makes the prices they can offer much more competitive. It’s been a bloodbath ever since with their ability to offer prices that no American seller can offer profitably.
There are other advantages they have, some underhanded even. A lot of Black Hat tactics originate in China including but not limited to:
Making knock offs of top selling items
Fake reviews to boost their ratings and defame their competitors
Creating multiple accounts to avoid getting caught and banned
Discounted shipping thanks to a service called ePacket which makes shipping from China cheaper than across the coasts within the US
Statistically speaking, a recent Marketplace Pulse study conducted across the 5 European marketplaces (Spain, France, Italy, UK, and Germany) shows 41% of Amazon sellers are based in China. Though there has been no such conclusive study for Amazon US, the consensus is that the proportion is similar.
Additionally, more than 77% of the Chinese sellers, use Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) compared to 60% overall which means that from the customer’s point of view it’s all the same experience. But for the other sellers this is a threatening figure because it will be hard to compete with them. Amazon has continually made it easier for brands and sellers around the world to participate in the US market.
All is not lost though. The American consumer values more than just low prices. It is just one of the many factors that define the buying experience in a matured market, albeit an important one. Let’s talk about some ways to take this threat head on:
Supply chain optimization: Ecommerce is still a growing and nascent industry compared to years and years of brick & mortar retail. There are many inefficiencies which have not yet been exploited as the exponential growth has kept online sellers from exploring long term optimizations. Short term solutions have propped up which do provide some relief when it comes to cutting sourcing and shipping costs, but sellers can still work on better demand forecasting, using data to guide business decisions and exploring better ecommerce order fulfillment practices.
Branding: Customers choose the lowest prices and the top sellers when there is no brand. The brand gets standalone customer attention that no other factor does. With good quality control and inexpensive online marketing in place, any seller can establish a good brand with its own story without making major changes in their sourcing and supply chain.
Smart marketing: There are different ways to advertise your product without splurging. To start with, get a website. This not only helps establish a story behind your products but also lets you collect customer data on the interested demographic to modify your other marketing efforts and product selection. Some examples could be targeted emails, targeted content and targeted ads on social media. Also reach out to influencers who cater to your target demographic and explore opportunities for product placement.
Diversify into other categories: Chinese sellers dominate in only a few categories and it is easy to figure out these categories with quick research online or on Amazon itself. If you diversify into other categories with perhaps less business value but consistent sales, it can mitigate the risk of suddenly losing market share in top categories.
Diversify into other marketplaces: Chinese sellers dominate categories on Amazon only. As earlier mentioned, FBA makes things easier for international sellers. Of late, Walmart and other platforms have shown promise and steady growth in sales. Having a multi-channel business can again mitigate the risk of putting all your eggs in one basket.
Offer 1-day and 2-day shipping at ground rates or less.
E-commerce Revolution with Strategic Packaging Solutions Like anyone in the e-commerce world, small business owners are always looking for ways to streamline their operations and
Hazardous Materials What is a Hazardous Material? What Items Are HAZMAT? Classes of HAZMAT Items What Classes Can Ship on Various USPS Services? What Changes
Two months ago, Amazon.com Inc. halted orders from thousands of suppliers with no explanation. Panic ensued — until the orders quietly resumed weeks later, with Amazon suggesting the pause was part of a campaign to weed out counterfeit products. Suppliers breathed a sigh of relief.
Now a larger, more permanent purge is coming that will upend the relationship between the world’s largest online retailer and many of its long-time vendors. Generally speaking, vendors selling less than $10 million in products each year on the site will no longer get wholesale orders from Amazon in the next few months, although that will vary by category, said the people, who requested anonymity to speak about an internal matter. Amazon’s aim is to cut costs and focus wholesale purchasing on major brands like Procter & Gamble, Sony and Lego, the people said. That will ensure the company has adequate supplies of must-have merchandise and help it compete with the likes of Walmart, Target and Best Buy.
The mom-and-pops that have long relied on Amazon for a steady stream of orders will have to learn a new way of doing business on the web store as a 3P seller. Rather than selling in bulk directly to Amazon as a 1P seller, they’ll need to win sales one shopper at a time. It’s one of the biggest shifts in Amazon’s e-commerce strategy since it opened the site to independent sellers almost 20 years ago. While the plan could be changed or cancelled, it’s currently moving forward, the people said.
E-commerce Revolution with Strategic Packaging Solutions Like anyone in the e-commerce world, small business owners are always looking for ways to streamline their operations and
Hazardous Materials What is a Hazardous Material? What Items Are HAZMAT? Classes of HAZMAT Items What Classes Can Ship on Various USPS Services? What Changes
Gone are the days when you could actually make money on shipping. Merchants are all too willing to move to a free shipping model without being aware of the entire cost of shipping a package. If you’re offering free shipping, it’s probably costing you 30 percent MORE than you think. If you talk to many companies that offer free shipping and ask, “How can you afford this?” Their answer: “I work the cost of shipping into the product.”
There are many other costs involved in shipping a product in addition to postage. Are you monitoring your delivery area surcharge (DAS) or extended delivery area surcharge (EDAS)? Most carriers have these charges.
A good exercise for companies doing ecommerce order fulfillment is to look at your average monthly packaging, warehouse labor and credit card fees, then divide that total by the number of packages you shipped
E-commerce Revolution with Strategic Packaging Solutions Like anyone in the e-commerce world, small business owners are always looking for ways to streamline their operations and
Hazardous Materials What is a Hazardous Material? What Items Are HAZMAT? Classes of HAZMAT Items What Classes Can Ship on Various USPS Services? What Changes
Google is positioning itself as a direct Amazon Marketplace competitor with a revamped e-commerce offering. Shoppers will have a personalized homepage on the existing Google Shopping tab, where they can filter results based on features and brands, read reviews, and watch videos about products.
For example, if a shopper is looking for headphones, they can filter for wireless and a preferred brand.
The blue shopping cart on the item shows shoppers they can seamlessly purchase what they want with returns and customer support, backed by a Google guarantee. This new shopping experience will merge select features of the Google Express e-commerce service with the Google Shopping online product search and price comparison platform.
E-commerce Revolution with Strategic Packaging Solutions Like anyone in the e-commerce world, small business owners are always looking for ways to streamline their operations and
Hazardous Materials What is a Hazardous Material? What Items Are HAZMAT? Classes of HAZMAT Items What Classes Can Ship on Various USPS Services? What Changes
Marc Lore, president and CEO of Walmart eCommerce, announced that Walmart will begin rolling out next-day delivery for more than 220,000 items on its website, including pet food, diapers, paper towels and laundry detergent, this week.
The nation’s largest retailer said Tuesday it’s been building a network of more efficient e-commerce distribution centers to make that happen.
Customers must spend at least $35 to be eligible for next-day delivery. “NextDay” delivery will be available first to Walmart.com customers in Phoenix and Las Vegas, Lore said, and will expand to Southern California later this month.
NextDay delivery is a being positioned as a complement to Walmart’s same-day Grocery Pickup and Delivery options, and free two-day shipping on millions of items. The program figures to boost Walmart’s e-commerce sales.
E-commerce Revolution with Strategic Packaging Solutions Like anyone in the e-commerce world, small business owners are always looking for ways to streamline their operations and
Hazardous Materials What is a Hazardous Material? What Items Are HAZMAT? Classes of HAZMAT Items What Classes Can Ship on Various USPS Services? What Changes
