Amazon throws angry sellers a bone with new grace period for fees [MDSR #18]

73% of MDSR readers are pretty concerned about Amazon’s inventory placement fee right now.

On that front, we have some good news — and as always, some million dollar advice.

Let’s get into it. 

Hot Off The Presses 📰

Just last week, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy touted Amazon’s great relationship with sellers — the same ones who have been vocally outraged about all the new seller fees, going so far as to describe the Amazon x seller “relationship” as the worst it’s ever been. 

Despite the (respectfully) tone deaf optics of those remarks, it appears that sellers’ concerns have been heard loud and clear — at least about the controversial low inventory fees — given Amazon VP Dharmesh Mehta’s recent LinkedIn post announcing a quasi-grace period. 

Hey, we’ll take it — especially with new expensive problems plaguing sellers everyday. 

At least they’re finding the time to throw us a bone with their Quantity Discounts by Amazon pilot amid all the headlines about how busy Amazon is with new pursuits — like attempting to steal Trader Joe’s trade secrets from a poached employee… 

Looks like regulator concerns are no match for Amazon’s desire to get even bigger, but the rest of Big Tech has a big cash problem right now. 

Apparently consumers don’t. March retail sales left us with a better-than-expected quarter for consumer spending. Even with spending up, you can count on consumers to be motivated by discounts. Especially on TikTok Shop, which has been making quite the comeback as a shopping platform — with 86% of TikTok Shop sales coming from returning customers in recent months. 

And it’s safe to say that YouTube is taking notice with their release of new YouTube Shopping features, designed to attract creators who have been successful on TikTok Shop. Competition between TikTok and YouTube aside, new data shows that both video platforms are beating out Google as Gen Z’s go-to source for authentic answers — and the trust they place in individuals (and their social media comments) is unmatched. 

As far as the trust today’s shoppers have in ads on social media and third-party marketplaces? It’s basically nonexistent. 

Million Dollar Advice 💸 

For fast-growing Amazon sellers, there’s no feeling of dread quite like realizing you need to contact Amazon Seller Support to resolve a mysterious issue with your account. 

But if you’re tempted to stick your head in the sand when these things come up, you should know that procrastinating — for even as little as 72 hours — can actually get your account suspended. 

Fortunately, Nick and Ro are here to help with first-hand experiences and effective strategies for resolving issues and optimizing your seller account. 

Spoiler: you should probably hire a dedicated employee…

Listen to Million Dollar Sellers Show #2: Tips For Contacting Amazon Support

How to scale your DTC brand on Shopify 💸

We can all agree that most sellers would love to scale their businesses on Shopify.

But most sellers underestimate the challenges that come with scaling up their end-to-end operations — and only realize in hindsight how much the right tech stack can help. 

If that resonates, you’ll appreciate this blueprint — it has all the answers you need to create a roadmap for your meteoric rise on Shopify, including the game-changing tools that will help you get there.

It’s worth the full read, but here are the major areas to focus on scaling up, with some help from the best tools in the industry: 

🪧 Making LTV the leading indicator for DTC success —> because it has an impact on literally everything else. To scale successfully, you should have an analytics tool that analyzes all of your customer data to identify which factors have the biggest impact on LTV.

💎 Delivering white glove customer support —> because happy customers are the best fuel you can have for your online store — they buy more, come back again and again, and even tell their friends. To keep customers happy, you should have a tool for offering efficient, personalized, and on-brand support.

🧾 Real-time accounting with automated insights —> because as transactions and expenses multiply with scale, you need to take the guesswork out of your cash flow. To avoid a financial stumble from growing too fast, you should have a tool that surfaces practical insights like your most lucrative products — and unnecessary cost-draining activities.

🚫 Preventing chargebacks as transaction volume increases —> because fraudulent chargebacks get more and more common as sales volume grows — and unless you want to spend hours gathering evidence for each dispute, you should have a tool that manages the whole process at scale for you.

🫂 Keeping customers close with email and SMS marketing —> because that’s how you get even more LTV out of the customers you worked so hard to acquire. The right tool will offer tons of customizable templates and marketing flows that need only a few cosmetic tweaks to push live.

For the full scoop (and discounted links) on the recommended tools, read the full blueprint here.

And if you think these are helpful?

Agency Spotlight 🔦

Per our recent polls, the majority of MDSR readers are looking to finesse their ad strategy for better ROI ASAP. 

That’s why we’re excited to introduce AMZ Pathfinder, a leading Amazon-focused agency specializing in Advertising and Conversion rate optimization.

With Amazon’s recent fee changes and ads taking up nearly 60% of search results, understanding where you can reduce ad spend without hurting organic rank is the critical question all businesses ask themselves. Add to that China-based businesses continue to slowly eat up more market share. These are both key issues that AMZ Pathfinder supports clients in overcoming through strategic advertising. 

AMZ Pathfinder has won awards for its Amazon-focused advertising, most recently winning the Clutch Award for Top PPC Company 2024. They help businesses selling on Amazon intelligently scale their advertising, with services encompassing Amazon Sponsored Ads, ADSP, Google Ads for Amazon, product listing optimization, and Amazon Storefront creation and optimization.

To find out more about AMZ Pathfinder, and how they can support you in taking your Amazon strategy to the next level, contact AMZ Pathfinder today.

More exclusive content from MDS Inspire 2024 🎬

We’re not quite ready to stop reliving the fun and inspiration we took away from MDS Inspire 2024. 

In case you missed it, here’s your chance to watch another exclusive presentation from the event — this time from Oliver Brocato — about taking his business from $0 to $10M in 12 months with zero ad spend.  

If you’re feeling the FOMO, just know that it’s never too soon to secure your early bird ticket for MDS Inspire 2025…

eCom Stock Watch 📊

AMAZON → Last earnings report on February 1, 2024, next earnings report on April 25, 2024

Amazon stock started 2024 at $151.94. Today Amazon traded at $183.62, up +5% this month and +21% from the start of the year. Their forecasted price for the end of 2024 is now $249 (+36% from today and +64% YoY). Prices are expected to hit $276 by summer 2025 and $277 at year end (+51% from the current price).

SHOPIFY → Last earnings report on February 13, 2024, next earnings report on May 2, 2024

Shopify stock was $77.90 at the top of 2024. Today they traded at $68.57, down -11% this month and down -12% from the start of the year. By the end of 2024, their price is expected to hit $72.82 (+6% from today, and -7% YoY) — and $107.39 by the end of 2025 (+57% from the current price).

ALIBABA → Last earnings report on February 7, 2024, next earnings report on May 16, 2024

Alibaba stock started 2024 at $77.51. Today they traded at $70.62, down -5% this month and down -9% from the start of the year. By the end of 2024, their price is expected to hit $72.85 (+3% from today and -6% YoY) — and $79.99 by the end of 2025 (+13% from the current price).

WALMART → Last earnings report on February 20, 2024, next earnings report date TBC

Walmart stock came into 2024 at $157.65. Today they traded at $59.93, down -2% this month and -62% from the start of the year. By the end of 2024, their price is expected to hit $104.08 (+74% from today and -34% YoY) — and $108.53 by the end of 2025 (+81% from the current price).

Did you see that post 📲

Amazon is the new Ticketmaster???

Until Next Time ✌️

As always, thanks for sticking with us until the end. 

If you’d care to share your thoughts on this newsletter, we’re all ears. Just hit reply to sound off. 

See you next time with more of the latest and greatest content you need to succeed this year 🔥

Sincerely, 

Looking for a mastermind community?

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If you are looking for a business professional community made for ecom entrepreneurs, then consider applying today. 

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