Amazon Seller Support Blog (Amazon.co.uk)

Important Update about the Long Term Storage Programme – Report enhancements to help you effectively manage your inventory

In May we announced the semi-annual Inventory Cleanup coming in August. This has generated a lot of discussion about how this change will affect sellers. To address those concerns we would like to focus specifically on two new features that will help you manage your inventory. First, we have enhanced the Inventory Health Report to help you better identify what inventory to take action on.  Second, we have launched a Recommended Removals Report, to make it easier for you to create a Removal order for your inventory.

Estimate Long-Term Storage Fee with the Inventory Health Report

After launching the Inventory Health Report in May, many sellers commented on how valuable this report is and provided suggestions for ways to improve it. Our recent update of the report incorporates two primary changes that sellers requested to improve its usefulness.

First, we have added new columns to provide more insight into how much ageing inventory will be assessed the Long-Term Storage Fee and what the cost will be for the Inventory Cleanup in August (assuming no  further sales of your inventory). This version of the report now shows you specifically how many Units of each product will be assessed the Long-Term Storage Fee (i.e., the number of Units that will have been in the fulfilment centres for 365 days  or longer on August 15, 2011) and the projected fee applied to each product if a  removal request has not been placed prior to the next Inventory Cleanup event.

Another requested addition was a field that would enable sellers to compare their prices to other sellers' matching listings. The fields "your-price" and  "sales-price" are now available, so you can see how your prices measure up to other FBA listings and non-FBA listing for both new and used products.

We also have added an online version of the report. By trimming down the 41 comprehensive fields available in the downloadable report to 18 fields, we have focused the online version on the information that is most frequently requested by sellers. We will be retiring the Inventory Age Report shortly; the Inventory Health Report is now the preferred source of inventory health data including age information. If you have been using the Inventory Age Report, you should move to the Inventory Health Report by August 15, 2011.

Learn more about the Inventory Health Report.   

Launch of Amazon’s European Fulfilment Network

 

Amazon is constantly looking for new ways to help you sell more. We would like to share some good news with you which can help you extend your market reach throughout the European Union and grow your business even further.

We have launched Amazon Europe Marketplaces Account where Sellers can opt to list their FBA offers on multiple Amazon Europe Marketplaces from a single Seller Account.  With Amazon’s European Fulfilment Network (EFN) FBA sellers can then ship their products to an Amazon Fulfilment Centre in their home marketplace where, they are subsequently made available and delivered directly to customers purchasing on amazon.co.uk, amazon.de, amazon.fr and the latest EU seller platform amazon.it (Italy). There is a small additional fee for items delivered to customers outside the home marketplace.

Things are made really easy, as everything can be managed from one Unified Seller Central Account.  Functionality will be rolled out over the coming couple of weeks and you will see the changes in your Seller Account.  Should you choose to use this option, we have lots of information below to help you.

Growing your business internationally has never been easier, so cost effective and with minimal risk and outlay.  Learn More.

If after reading our help pages, FAQs and viewing our video tutorials about how to get started you still have questions, please do not hesitate to get in touch with our Seller Support team via your Seller Account.  They will be more than happy to help.

German FBA seller Tropica, also extended his activity from his home marketplace in Germany to amazon.co.uk and amazon.fr. "Once you start to understand the FBA philosophy, it's clear that FBA is a wonderful multiplier"

Tropica has been selling exotic plants seeds and seed growing equipment on amazon.de since 2009.  MD Frank Laue justified this decision  ‘Amazon has evolved into one of the Internet's biggest marketplaces, making it a huge source of potential custom for us'.

Mr Laue's motivation for participating in Fulfilment by Amazon was likewise linked to personal expectations: 'When I search for a product on Amazon, I always look out for the green line in the product description that tells me the deadline for express orders. I'm no different from any other customer—I want to receive my goods as quickly as possible. The free delivery option is another powerful incentive. We can offer all of this now since we registered for the FBA programme. The underlying idea is that customers will order a batch of Tropica articles at the same time to benefit from the advantages generated by FBA products—such as their relevance for Amazon Prime. The more we succeed in accommodating several items in one order, the more attractive that order becomes for us.'

Once you start to understand the FBA philosophy, it's clear that FBA is a wonderful multiplier' adds Frank Laue, alluding to his company's entry into the UK and French markets. 'We had already translated almost our entire portfolio into English and French, so that we had relatively little hesitation when the issue of international expansion first arose. Aside from the transport costs, it makes no difference to the bottom line whether we dispatch our pallets to a fulfilment centre in this country or abroad.

Click here to read the full story.

Learn more about FBA Export to the EU available for items sold on Amazon platforms in UK, Germany and France. 

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Prepaid EU Returns solution now available for international customers

As of April, Amazon customers including those buying from a seller whose orders are fulfilled by Amazon can take advantage of a prepaid return solution if they are located in Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg, Ireland, Poland and Portugal. 

When shopping on Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.de and Amazon.fr, customers will now be able to make use of the prepaid return label via the Online Return Centre rather than paying for international shipping charges when returning an order and then waiting to be reimbursed .Customers can set this up on the retail site under Returns Support Centre, Delivery Method ticking the Prepaid label option .  The package can then be simply dropped off at the local post office with the prepaid label attached.  This is another reason why customers might be tempted to choose an FBA product versus a merchant fulfilled one.  

FBA's Long-Term Storage programme will take effect on August 15, 2011

A Long-Term Storage programme will take effect on August 15, 2011. On that date, and every six months thereafter, FBA will assess an upfront annual Long-Term Storage Fee of £ 1765 per cubic metre (£ 50 per cubic foot) on any inventory that has been in Amazon fulfilment centres for 365 days or more. Find out more