Amazon Ends Price Parity Policy for 3rd Party Sellers
Last week, Amazon quietly ended it’s price parity policy, and while this is good news for sellers, there are some important things you need to know about this policy change!
Price parity required more you to price any item you sell on Amazon, at or below the price you listed that same product for in another marketplace (Ebay, Walmart) or your own website.
Basically Amazon controlled your pricing no matter where you sold.
The policy has now been deleted from the pricing page Help File, but here’s an excerpt of the original policy…
“By our General Pricing rule, you must always ensure that the item price and total price of an item you list on Amazon.com are at or below the item price and total price at which you offer and/or sell the item via any other online sales channel.”
Sellers who violated the price parity policy were subject to account suspension and/or loss of the Buy Box for products priced lower off-Amazon.
Amazon’s software scanned the web daily looking for price parity violations, and took automated action on seller accounts and products found to be in violation.
What You Need to Know Now
✅ You can now price your products lower than your Amazon price on any marketplace or on your own website
✅ The end of this policy gives website owners a new advantage, as you now have the freedom to price your products lower on your website to attract sales
✅ Be prepared that if Amazon’s price comparison software is not correctly or completely updated your account/products could get caught in the net
Because Amazon has not addressed the price parity policy change or communicated that its software algorithms have been updated, we do not know for sure if all the back-end changes have been made.
✅ Recommended: Proceed cautiously with pricing changes off-Amazon.
⚠️ This new policy does NOT impact pricing on the Amazon Marketplace.
This is THE most important point you need to know.
✅ Amazon still controls its right to show your products or assign the Buy Box based on price in THEIR marketplace.
✅ This means that if your product price is significantly higher than similar products on Amazon.com you:
❌ Will NOT get the Buy Box as frequently as other sellers on a multi-offer product page
❌ Can LOSE the Buy Box for your private label product, even though you are the only seller on the page
❌ May be forced to lower your price to regain the Buy Box
*Note: this happened frequently a few years ago, it has not been as prevalent in the past year
❌ Will not be assigned the Amazon’s Choice badge
❌ Your Page Rank may be negatively impacted if your product is priced excessively high compared to other similar products on the Amazon marketplace.
✅ The bottom line is that while Amazon can no longer control your pricing off Amazon, it can still use price as a factor to determine how your product is displayed on Amazon.
So with the end of price parity, within the Amazon marketplace your price point is still a significant consideration for successfully selling on Amazon.
Massive Amazon Product Review REMOVALS Happening Now
Amazon has been doing a massive removal of product reviews this weekend.
Sellers are losing up to hundreds or thousands of product reviews on a single product.
This review sweep is targeted at removing fake, purchased, and incentivized reviews.
However, legitimate customer product reviews are also getting caught in the net and removed in this sweep.
Additionally, if you’ve had product reviews removed, Amazon has likely made your product ineligible to receive future product reviews.
So whether you have or have not participated in obtaining fraudulent product reviews, keep reading to find out what to do next… read more…
5 Tips to Creating Valentine’s Day Bundles That Sell!
Valentine’s Day bundles are a GREAT seasonal bundling opportunity.
In fact, “love” themed bundles sell on Amazon all year around.
Here are 5 tips to help you create a top selling Valentine’s Day or Love themed bundle:
1. Theme your bundle to a specific recipient. Is this a bundle for men, women, boys, girls, pets, a boss, friend, parent, or grandparent?
Buyers are looking for the perfect Valentines gift, they aren’t looking for something generic.
So get that specific gift recipient in mind, and start bundling!
2. Packaging is everything! You don’t need to spend a lot of money on fancy packaging, you can find inexpensive red, pink, white, black boxes, tissue paper or cellophane wrap at the dollar store. The key is to read more…
How to Set Up Two-Step Verification
UPDATE: 10/20/17. As of November 1, 2017, Amazon will require all seller accounts to set up two-step verification. This includes any VA accounts associated with your seller ID as well.
If you do not set up two-step verification, you will lose access to your seller-account, effective November 1, 2017
Set up two-step verification on all devices used to login to Amazon.
- Two-Step verification must be set up on ALL devices that you use to login to your seller-account
- After you have successfully accessed your account through the two-step verification process, you can simplify future logins on computers and devices that you routinely use. That way, you won’t need to enter a code each time you sign in.
- After setting up two-step verification on your device, the next time you enter a security code on your computer or device, check the box next to Don’t ask for codes on this device.
How to Sell Profitable Easter Bundles on Amazon This Year
This year, Easter is projected to be an $18+ billion dollar selling season (last year sales of Easter products raked in $17.3 billion dollars).
And while you may think Easter is all about selling candy (2.4 billion in 2016) – there are many other non-food categories that saw a huge boost in sales:
– – $2.7 billion spent on Easter gifts
– – $3 billion spent on clothing
– – $1 billion on decorations and party supplies
– – $2.5 billion on home goods
This year, consumers are projected to spend 26.9% more online on Easter purchases.
So how can YOU capitalize on this lucrative selling season?
30 Hot Spring & Summer Selling Seasons to Capitalize on from March-June
With Valentine’s Day behind us, although we’re not quite done with winter, consumers shopping thoughts are turning to spring purchases!
That means it’s time to start getting your spring inventory into Amazon FBA and creating your spring marketing calendar.
Did you know there are more than 30 selling seasons between March and the end of June?
No matter what you sell, take a look at the calendar below and you’ll find a season that you can capitalize on!
And if you miss these, you’ll leave money on the table… read more…