Riverbend Consulting
Get your Amazon account reinstated, sell with confidence, and increase your bottom line. Riverbend Consulting helps you navigate online retail.
Riverbend Consulting
Happy Hour, Oct. 23, 2024: GS1 Barcodes, Fourth-Quarter Hurdles, and Handling KDP & Amazon Play
We’re back with anotherspook-tacular Happy Hour Ask Us Anything live event featuring Lesley Hensell and Kelly Johnston! Tune in as they tackle your spookiest Amazon questions, reveal Zombie ASINs haunting your account this Halloween, and help you boost your Amazon Q4 profitability.
To navigate all the topics discussed during the event, click on the Chapters tab to jump to your preferred subject!
With Riverbend Consulting, we help you tackle hurdles and elevate your Amazon business!
#AmazonNetworking #sellerinsights #businessgrowth #ecommercetips #OnlineRetailSuccess #AmazonEvent #sellercommunity #amazonsellers #ecommerce #AmazonConsultant #RiverbendConsulting #AskUsAnything #AmazonSellerTips #ZombieASINs #Q4Profitability #amazonsolutions
Lesley Hensell [00:00:20] Hello, everybody and welcome to Amazon seller Happy Hour here with your friends at Riverbend Consulting. I'm Lesley Hensell. Hi. And this is Kelly Johnson with me. Best rock woman ever. Yeah. And we're here to answer your questions, your burning questions, your difficult questions, your spooky questions about selling on Amazon. Because here we are in fourth quarter and we know that is when things get really, really sticky. If you are selling online. So, Kelly
Kelly Johnston [00:00:59] Ma'am.
Lesley Hensell [00:01:01] I have to. Ma'am.
Kelly Johnston [00:01:04] Ma'am. Yes, ma'am. No, just messing.
Lesley Hensell [00:01:07] So
Kelly Johnston [00:01:08] I don't really address her like that during the workday, I promise.
Lesley Hensell [00:01:11] Yeah. Yeah. Those of you who are sellers and have virtual teams, you know that if you have, say, a VA from the Philippines, a lot of them, they call you boss or they call you ma'am or sir. And it can take a lot of getting used to. And we really try and break the habit because we we want to be egalitarian, you know, like in like, we don't really do that here. And culturally, it makes us feel weird. So when Kelly does that, I'm like, Wait, wait, that's like that boss lady thing. One of them literally calls me boss lady.
Kelly Johnston [00:01:47] I know I can't help it. Yeah.
Lesley Hensell [00:01:50] Yeah.
Kelly Johnston [00:01:51] Wednesday delirium has set in already.
Lesley Hensell [00:01:54] Yes, absolutely. Absolutely. I agree. So. Look, we have a viewer. Shecky, hey Shecky. He said Good seeing you again. Met at ASD in August. Yay. Glad to see our friends from the trade show world joining us. And before we get started, I just want to tell everyone, since so many of you are brand owners or you've managed brands or you're just in that world as fascinated by things, I have to tell you about this coolest thing ever that one of our clients does. And it is because today I decided for Happy Hour I was actually going to have an adult beverage. And so I. I was about to grab a glass to put it in, and I stopped myself. And instead I got this from Buddy. The Frost buddies are super cool because they know now it's going to come out. They yeah, well they have an insert. So you can put any size thing in here, you can put bottles, cans, tallboy, anything will go in a Frost buddy and this one is branded Cheers. So we have this wonderful client called Cheers Health and they sell supplements that you take before you drink. You can zap things for after you drink. They have rehydration powders, liver supplements, all that kind of stuff. And they are so smart.
Lesley Hensell [00:03:12] Every quarter they do a mail out to people they consider like they're influencers and people who have helped them and people have helped grow their brand. So I'm assuming like they're in Target or recently their products popped up in my H-e-b. So like maybe their buyer at H-e-b would be someone they would send this to or their accountant or whoever it is that's been an influencer for them. They send out these little boxes of recorder and they are full of cool stuff. So this frost buddy, that's all branded with their stuff because it says a billion better mornings by 2035. It's always drink related things like this. Clement had a little wine cork, you know, reusable wine corks that were branded and then they have some of their product. And if they have a new product, once they put it in there, they do a little newsletter. It is so cool. And you know what I think is cool about it is we don't get snail mail anymore. So it really stands out because it's snail mail and it's fun and it's got stuff that like every single one of them has had product to use. But then things that I've kept and used like this. So yeah.
Kelly Johnston [00:04:28] Good for you. What are you having? Cider?
Lesley Hensell [00:04:31] Yes it is an Austin Eastciders Original cider. So good. It's been one of those weeks, y'all, that I was like, It's Wednesday.
Kelly Johnston [00:04:42] We have some brand new whiskey downstairs that had I had more time, I probably would have requested a cocktail from the house bartender that is not me, but I did it last maybe next month.
Lesley Hensell [00:04:57] Okay. So down to business. One of the reasons that we do this show is because we ask you for your burning questions and then we answer them. And I want to start with one that we've had before, Kelly, but that I think has come up more because it's becoming more of an Amazon issue. And you're going to like it. It is about GS1.
Lesley Hensell [00:05:24] Yeah. So I did, which I'm sure most of you are initiated. Yes. GS1 are the standardized barcodes. Yes. GS1 is like an organization that everyone has decided that they are the management organization and referees for all of our codes. If you have a branch, you go to them to buy your standardized barcode that will then work everywhere. That's the theory. Mark asked. I would like to update all of my ASINs to New Jersey once. I've heard that doing so can sometimes cause issues with the ACS, which will lose years of ratings and reviews. Is there a way to update you to just one without major issues with the Ason? And so before you jump into your answer, Kelly, I just want to say, Mark, I'm so glad that you reached out to someone to talk about this because it's so important to just be aware it can be a problem instead of doing the thing.
Kelly Johnston [00:06:21] Yeah, yeah, I know what she said. But to answer your question quickly, if you go by the rules, no, there is no way to do that. But that is a lie because Amazon is nothing if not inconsistent. They are so inconsistent in their inconsistency that they are consistent. So all of the concerns you raised are things that you should absolutely be concerned about before you consider your next move. It used to be, I would say probably maybe seven, eight years ago that it was a lot less likely for you to get any kind of updates done on on any kind of UPC related issue like yours, this use case, especially that then now Amazon seems a bit more receptive and there are some arguments that you can make that are very, you know, logically sound. I think for anyone who sells online, we all want update correct information. We want to be able to trace things back and go, yeah, this was manufactured by this company and it's this brand and things like that.
Kelly Johnston [00:07:34] We want correct info. Amazon ostensibly also wants this. However, they get real crotchety about updating you pics and there's some reasons for that that are somewhat valid. But as a person who may want to update. Can it be done? Sometimes. Is it the right move for you? Maybe because there are a bunch of factors to consider. And one of the first things I would caution you to think about and then I want to let Lesley weigh in, because I know she has some thoughts if you are updating. A lot of raisins. You might want to start slowly and not try to do them all at once, but you need to be prepared for your hero essence to be impacted if you go this route, if you have any, you may not have any. Some people do, some people don't. But this is not always easy. But it's absolutely something we've seen way more success with in the last year. So I'm not really sure why Amazon doesn't seem to have changed its external policy, but internally they're behaving a little bit different. So that could be very good for you if you're looking to make this change. And I see there's Lesley, you disappeared for a moment.
Lesley Hensell [00:08:50] And that was weird.
Kelly Johnston [00:08:51] That the Eye of Sauron and I was like, Crap, now I have to improvise. This is bad, but now I don't have to. So you're back. Please, please feel free to weigh in. I know I've said enough.
Lesley Hensell [00:09:02] Know everything. I'm frozen, I think. Am my frozen?
Kelly Johnston [00:09:06] Nope. I hear you. And see you moving.
Lesley Hensell [00:09:08] Okay, cool. Everything you said is absolutely correct. So just to back it out a little bit on the policy weirdness here so that people understand why Mark is even asking this question is technically speaking, Amazon will tell you that if you have a a bar code and you change the bar code, that you have to create a new. Jason And that is ridiculous. And we all know it's ridiculous. But then you look at it from Amazon's viewpoint, which Amazon's viewpoint is people screw around all the time and do this really bad stuff where they create duplication and throw in a different barcode or UPC. They put a different UPC on the ASINs to justify having that ace, and then it's really just a duplicate. So they are trying really hard, really, really, really hard to get rid of duplicate ASINs, largely because of pressure from the brands. And I get all of that. But like everything else with Amazon, they've completely failed to build in any kind of an exception process to say, Hey, hey, I'm the brand owner. Look, I have brand registry. Look, look, I'm not creating a duplicate Easton and the product the exact same that you want. Just one. I want just one. We all want the same thing. So just let me change it to just one. So they will tell you it is not possible to change it and they will tell you you can't. That is a lie. It is. I don't know if it's because it's a pain. It's hard. It is for them.
Kelly Johnston [00:10:45] There's there's multiple reasons, but that is absolutely one of them, because it's the same reason that they don't have any ability to go, this ason here has all of this information but is now screwed up and got the wrong UPC. We'll port all of that stuff that you care about into this new system with your new UPC. So you effectively still keep your BSR. If they could do that easily, I think they would have probably done that. So I do think technical pain is in part of the issue for sure.
Lesley Hensell [00:11:16] And so I agree with Kelly. This is the thing you do. One at a time to start with. Yeah. Also, my here's the weird. My understanding is this is a weird thing, but depending on how long your brand has been on Amazon and these products have been on Amazon, the way that they're updated might be different. So there might be some that fly through and that others that you get stuck and get jammed up, which is why you don't want to do it all at the same time. I have had at least 2 or 3 clients tell me they actually achieved this through a flat file update, which you're not supposed to be able to do.
Kelly Johnston [00:11:55] Yeah. And it's unclear to me why that happens. I mean, as if you know anything about them. Okay. I know that sounded really naive.
Lesley Hensell [00:12:05] No, no, no, no. It's just ridiculous.
Kelly Johnston [00:12:07] It is. It shouldn't. I mean, if it's not supposed to happen, what's happened? And you're right. I always think, well, who's the dummy that left that backdoor in for people to go in and abuse other sellers? That's what bugs me about stuff like that. But on the same token, it. Did the whole premise for why they want control of the catalog is in and of itself not an impure or bad thing, but their application of it, the execution of it is so ham handed because their tools are so bad that you end up with bad buyer experience anyway. Bad seller experience. Anyway, that's why I honestly don't care if somebody is able to get around that because. Okay, good. You now have put your your skin in the game that because those guys want barcodes are not cheap you know and that's the other thing that bugs me about this If a seller comes to Amazon and says I have paid the many moneys to the Jesus won gods and goddesses and I have prostrated at their altar, they gave me all the barcodes. You would think that they would take that and go, cool, you're really into this to win it and you're not here to play this. Play the games. I understand that stuff can be faked. There is no foolproof way. But come on. This is one of the few things I think is easier to actually validate.
Lesley Hensell [00:13:24] And as the long and short of it, Mark and everyone else. Don't give up your ratings and reviews. Don't create any waste and don't do it. It is not worth it to do that. It is worth it to try and get it changed to the GS1 outside of creating a new waste. And don't do it. So try to push it through yourself through a flat file. Try to do it through the ones you choose, where you edit your product and try to do it by opening cases with seller support. Try doing it with brand registry. They have a tool that they are supposed to be able allegedly to do it. Try all try all of those options. Another great thing about this is that you will have shown that you've done the thing. So if they come hollering at you later, why aren't you? Yes, why do you have to? But you can say, look, I opened Piers case. I did a case by case. I did. And you all have done it.
Lesley Hensell [00:14:24] We have had limited circumstances where Amazon has said you must create new ASINs, period. And even then, we were always able to fight that. Yep. They don't want it either, man, because that's going to hurt sales and they don't want to hurt sales. That's how they make all their money.
Kelly Johnston [00:14:40] And I'm sure certain categories in comparison to others really, really hate these things and others probably really like it. So I imagine there are some internal power struggles about which way to go. So that's why we see such inconsistency. I can't imagine that there's any kind of, you know, normal guidance. But, you know, long and short of it, it may be very much worth it to you. You will need to make that decision. But please just know that you should be prepared for a marathon and not a sprint.
Lesley Hensell [00:15:09] I was laughing when Kelly said I imagine there might be some internal power struggles. The reason I laughed is because I think everything, everything at Amazon is an internal power struggle.
Kelly Johnston [00:15:20] It feels like it anymore. I know that that's not always been the case, but yeah, I think there's a lot more of that nowadays.
Lesley Hensell [00:15:28] Yeah, absolutely. So we have another just hello, which I love getting hellos. This one is from Cody. Hey, Cody. They were listening. He also saw ASD and August. Yay! Love having people come back and say hello and listen to the show. I really appreciate you listening. That's perfect. Speaking of internal power struggles. So today I was writing content because I write blogs and such, us and I write content for newsletters. And I was I was actually working ahead go me not not at the last minute for one. And I was working on a blog about the things that we saw this year and then the things we expect for next year and all. One of the things that I have had, I had to leave Unwritten is one of my things that is prediction for next year. And it is how will Amazon's enforcement be like? Is it going to be more or less? And I'll tell you, I can finish writing it and I'll tell you because it's as we're as we're recording this right now, it's October 23rd. So the reason I couldn't finish writing that is because the presidential election hasn't happened yet. And I think this election could be incredibly consequential for Amazon sellers and all of the Amazon platform. Although I'm not completely sure how.
Kelly Johnston [00:17:04] Yeah. I mean, write the chips are going to fall where they do, actually. But yeah, we're, we're far enough out that I don't even think we're going to really know until January probably where we stand with some of these things. But I know what you're thinking. I know what you're thinking because Amazon to me has been what's the word? Hyper aggressive this year on. So many fronts, but particularly when it comes to anything that revolves around authenticity and catalog, because there are those tours, they may not seem like they're intertwined, but they really are because so many shenanigans happen under the color of manipulated detail pages. And so authenticity issues can escape by because the pages are obvious gated in a way that makes it easier to sell things that they shouldn't be selling for whatever reason. But yeah, it's what's it what's going to happen? I don't know. Reading those tea leaves is a bit of a struggle right now for sure.
Lesley Hensell [00:18:11] So a lot of my a lot of my thinking is around the FTC and the FDA. So the Federal Trade Commission is the genesis of the antitrust lawsuit against Amazon. And then that's not even the problem right now for Sellers. The problem for sellers is Kelly used the word hyper, and that was the best word hyper enforcement on review manipulation to the point where it's ludicrous. I am the first person to say you shouldn't manipulate reviews and tell you the ten ways you shouldn't. Some of this silliness people are getting penalized for is blowing my mind. Also, some of the hyper enforcement on product safety, product ingredients, things that are being driven by it looks like A.I. at this point, or even if it's not, it's machine learning. And then people aren't being given the power to overrule it when it's stupid. But they're being like super hyper aggressive about it. I think to impress the gods that the agency's biggest agencies have filed, not lawsuits, but those warning letters and consent decrees and all that. That's right. And and then my biggest question is, so I know that if Trump is elected, Lina Khan will no longer be leading the FTC. I don't know if Kamala Harris is elected, if we con will no longer be leading the FTC. But I can tell you that. We recall leading the FTC has not been a net happy thing for Amazon.
Kelly Johnston [00:19:58] Yeah, that's a good question. And honestly, I, I can't tell either. There's there's no real clear indication to me. But if I had to guess, I would say Kamala would probably clean house and multiple positions. I feel like that that seems likely. And I feel like she would be kind of at the top of that list for a variety of reasons, because she's made everybody angry on all sides.
Lesley Hensell [00:20:23] Just baggage. Agree with her or don't agree with her. She's got a lot of baggage. And a lot of people that the enforcement it's been a little ham fisted at times and that doesn't go over well. And especially with the states. Some of the states are mad at.
Kelly Johnston [00:20:35] Right and right that and I think the issue there becomes you have no trust, no basis for trust. Where do you go forward? And because nobody nobody, I think, would argue that there isn't some merit to having these agencies. And what they do can be very important work. But who leads them and how they're directed really shows whether or not they're effective or not. And if they're not effective, then it's time to reconsider how that's being led. And I think she is probably the number one, if not the definite number one that people are looking to go. And I really don't like the way that this has been run under you. And like you said, that creates a lot of baggage. And when that many states are mad. Yeah, it's hard to get buy in from anybody.
Lesley Hensell [00:21:19] Yes. And red states and blue states, all the states. That doesn't it's not it's not just one side, y'all. There's a lot of people who have kind of had enough of her. And I know this sounds very inside baseball, especially if you're not an F t C follower. You don't know who Lina Khan is. And I would like to be you if you don't know who later on is. But like, if I if I had to pick the bureaucrat that I think has done the most damage really to Amazon sellers, I wouldn't pick her because it all rolls downhill. So when the FTC and the FDA and all of these other agencies, the EPA, when there are all up in Amazon's grill, the only thing Amazon can do is to push on the people who supply 60 to 65% of the products, which is third party sellers. Right.
Lesley Hensell [00:22:09] And they and so, Matt, a colleague of ours, put a comment on YouTube. He said that appears to be a fear based, caution based response from Amazon. They're terrified of regulation targeting them. And he's absolutely right. Sometimes Amazon will actually over overcorrect with sellers to impress the agency, so they'll ensure that they give selves. Yes. So I'm sure they're showing stats saying, look, we did that because y'all have all seen those press releases that Dharmesh made his organization puts out. We kept this many counterfeits off, right. Well, I'm sure they do the same thing. They took down this many products for safety, which have done this many products for medical claims, and they want those big numbers and it's all to get the FDA to leave them alone, the FTC to leave them alone. And and I mean, what else are they going to do? That's really the easiest and maybe not the best, but it's the fastest, easiest way to make it stop. So I this will be really interesting to watch over the end. You're right, Kelly. It could actually be if, you know, if they're replacing commissioners, I think it'll be sometime.
Kelly Johnston [00:23:20] Yeah. And and the other thing too is that this is not the first dance that Amazon has done like this with the FDA in particular. This happened ten years ago as well. And there was a whole lot going on that didn't make as much of a public splash at that time about these kinds of issues. And the FDA was big mad at Amazon at that point about what it considered a complete and total failure of Amazon's platform to in any way capture products that were going to be problematic, and particularly in that restricted product status, restricted product space, mostly with consumables, although the undercurrent then, as I recall, was also about firearms and weapons and things of that nature, but mainly the consumables, there were big, big concerns about those. And and not not unfounded. But like we said a minute ago. If the direction is so incredibly ham handed and is not reflective of the reality of what e commerce has become over the last 24 years. The only thing that can come out of this is harm to these small businesses that are relying on these platforms. And I don't care which platform we're talking about because it affects all of them. Ultimately, what happens to Amazon goes the other way. For the other platforms. It may take a minute, but it does as long as it's not a complete apples to oranges thing. But you know, what happens to Amazon is definitely going to affect affect eBay a lot of times. But you know, what happens to Etsy may not it's there's not always a 1 to 1 but in many cases if there's consumable sold particularly, you're going to see that happen. So. We'll see.
Lesley Hensell [00:25:02] So you all. You know what's really fun is that Kelly and I, if you wanted to talk about, like, political philosophy, we're very different. But on this kind of stuff, we agree. Like 90%. Yeah. It's it just shows how much it's like common sense and caring about constituents and caring about small business and people and caring about the public and safety. So much is about that. And yet our politics, not average people like us, but like the people allegedly in charge. They turn it all into something it's not. And so much of this, it's just like freaking common sense. And they're hurting elements of small businesses and people who sell on Amazon. And a lot of the it's interesting because the bureaucrats don't seem to understand that when they target Amazon, they don't understand how it rolls downhill. A lot of small businesses. It's it's it's really interesting. And I think that if we got a whole lot of sellers in the room who also have diverse political perspective, we could probably still agree on 90% of this stuff.
Kelly Johnston [00:26:10] Oh yeah. yeah. I mean, like I think common sense is absolutely the right phrase to describe where so much of this disconnect to me comes from, because I don't I don't blame any agency or state, federal looking at safety issues for consumers. I think that is a very, very valid thing to do. But what blows my mind and I just can't wrap my my brain around this whenever I think about it, is that with the advent of e-commerce. We are still operating like it's 1984 in many ways when it comes to our our our law enforcement and the way that the government agencies, again, state or federal, investigate this stuff. It's like, you guys, we have technologies that didn't exist 40 years ago. You've got to look at this through a different lens. The whole structure of how retail is was disrupted by Amazon in a way that I still think. I would say probably 50% of people that I talked to, you don't understand it. Like they don't get that third party sellers exist. They don't understand how that network is set up. And like you said, it's inside baseball a little bit to some people. And I get that they don't have to fully. But at the same time, if you're participating member of society and you care about these things and you care about everything from capitalism being healthy to worker's rights and everything in the middle, then you should understand at least a little bit how things work. Because saying, what supply chain problem really kind of glosses things over about, Well, do you realize how many links in that chain there are? It's not just here to here. There's so much in the middle. It's fascinating to me and I think an endless source of like kind of I don't know. It's cap, it's capitalism philosophy. I guess, in a way, like you're talking about the underpinnings of what makes a system work or not work and what could be better about it. And to me, I think that's really fascinating because it impacts every every aspect of our lives.
Lesley Hensell [00:28:15] I absolutely agree. See see people we can all agree.
Kelly Johnston [00:28:21] Can be done.
Lesley Hensell [00:28:23] It can be done. We joked before about how we want to be like co cleans up the world for 24 hours, 24 hours, just 24 hours. And we won't hit anything that'll make anyone mad. We can like do some commonsense stuff and in and out. That's all we want.
Kelly Johnston [00:28:39] To write our manifesto and peace out.
Lesley Hensell [00:28:42] That's right. We got a lovely comment from Ryan, one of our regular listeners. Thank you, Ryan. This is great perspective. And then Shecky is asking, what does engaging River been to deal with the Section three deactivation look like and cost? So first I want to say I'm sorry.
Kelly Johnston [00:29:00] Yeah, I am too. But I'm going to I'm going to have to say that is a difficult question to answer because Section three is simply boilerplate language that speaks to the overarching policy that Amazon has that they can shut you down for any frickin reason they want. So there has to be a sub reason. So whatever is underneath that is going to dictate a little bit more the cost and the difficulty and things like that. Now I want to caution you that everybody's situation is different and we have some of these that resolve really easily because they're bad enforcement or they're mistakes or understandable mistakes even. But some of these are a little bit more tricky. There is not much in between. It's just kind of like, this is really hard. That ended up being simple, so it's difficult to classify that, but we help with those every freaking day across all the different stripes, all the difficulties, all the problems, all the really bad situations you can imagine, and also the really simple ones where people just get caught in the crosshairs and it is over enforcement. We help with all of that. We help with it. Every single aspect you could imagine.
Lesley Hensell [00:30:10] So if you. Shecky If you can just. Oh, sub reason.
Kelly Johnston [00:30:15] I like this man.
Lesley Hensell [00:30:20] ASIN authenticity they are requesting COC docs that can't be obtained.
Kelly Johnston [00:30:23] Okay. So it sounds like inventory verification is what we call it. We do those all the time. Those can be a little bit of a pain in the butt. Depends. And just because the document that they are talking about isn't necessarily available is not the end of the road. That does not mean that the ax has fallen. It just means we might have to change our tactics a little bit. There are ways to explain the problem and provide whatever you do have that can move the needle in the right direction. So we need to talk to you to get more details. But this sounds like something we deal with all the time.
Lesley Hensell [00:30:58] Yeah. So Cody and Shecky, you can email sales@riverbendconsulting.com or me, lesley@riverbendconsulting.com or go online and fill out a form and one of our guys to get back to you will run through these questions and we'll figure it out. We'd love to be of service.
Kelly Johnston [00:31:14] Yeah, absolutely.
Lesley Hensell [00:31:16] Okay. So I got a question sent to me directly from a friend who said, You're doing happy hour. I want you to talk about this. And I was like, Cool, great idea. So thank you. So what he was asking about. Is a sign. And you and I always have to think about it before I say the names, because I pronounce them wrong. Because they look like she's in chemo. So Temu has announced this program where they are talking about waiving cellar fees. And the reason they're doing it is they want more US based sellers to sell on table. And it's partially because they want some stuff that quickly. They want things that are filled quickly out of the US because there's a long wait for products and you buy them on time. And they also want more selection. Right.
Kelly Johnston [00:32:20] All all reasons. I cannot fully understand why you might temporarily waive such fees.
Lesley Hensell [00:32:27] Since you set the magic word. She's so smart. So Temu is just saying we're going to waive fees and it's because they want to compete with Amazon. Let's be real. But those keyword Kelly is.
Kelly Johnston [00:32:41] Temporarily because I have no money. It ain't going to be long enough to make a difference for somebody who wants to try that transition. I would be so nervous.
Lesley Hensell [00:32:50] Here's the question I was asked is, is this worth it? Should I jump on this? Should I try it? Okay. I see two tremendous problems. Two really big problems. Problem number one is you're a US seller and chances are almost everyone who watches this podcast listens to us. Most of them are U.S. sellers. We have some who are EU and UK and and some in other parts of the world, but those are our main audience bases. Your products are more expensive. You can't compete on team stuff on a team who is dirt cheap, stuff on team who is so cheap. It makes no sense to me. It's almost like it's free. I don't get it. And so if you're going to that audience, so a lot of people who buy a team and I'm not making this up, they are kids. A lot of them are kids or they are young women and young men who are literally buying disposable clothing or items and jewelry and things. Disposable. They're buying disposable clothes so they can have new stuff for next season. You will never compete with these Chinese sellers for one big reason is you can't sell jewelry with lead in it.
Kelly Johnston [00:34:10] Cadmium and all sorts of other things are problematic with jewelry. And the U.S. has very strict and clear regulations around those things that timber doesn't care about.
Lesley Hensell [00:34:19] And the Temu sellers are getting away with it and they're going to continue to get away with it for a long time. I'm here because, as Kelly mentioned earlier, our lovely enforcement agencies in the federal government are ten years behind and not focusing on the right things. They're so busy trying to target specific companies, they're not looking at the bigger issues with much more scary companies. Right.
Kelly Johnston [00:34:42] You know, the other thing is, if I wouldn't wouldn't you would not catch me putting my brand on tomorrow because no one respects the IP. People are constantly ripped off. I know so many artists who do not sell on that platform who find their work on there practically every day. And Tim does not care. They do not action DMCAs or anything because they're not required to.
Lesley Hensell [00:35:08] So you put your products on Amazon and a seller rip you off, you at least have some opportunity if you're brand registered to report that and to fight it. You may not when it may be Whack-A-Mole, but at least you have the tools, right? If you're putting your stuff on those platforms, you got nothing. Because the business ethos and the entire societal attitude toward intellectual property in China is completely different. And I can say that with zero judgment. You can argue whether it's good or bad. I don't even care. It's different. And so here we have that. There they don't the two don't mix well.
Kelly Johnston [00:35:51] No, they don't. And I think that, you know. In in the US, whether you're talking about Amazon or other marketplaces, I think it's pretty much universally accepted that you can make money one of two ways. You can either make money on margin or you can make it by volume. You are not going to make it by volume and you definitely aren't going to make it on margin on time because all those things that Lesley and I just said. So I know I think that would be a bit big no for me, dog. And I love it when I do this to her. For every once in a while I could make her crack up. It's so hard to do. It's getting harder because we've known each other for like eight years. But now when I do get it to go with Mark, that calendar, go. Remember that day I said.
Lesley Hensell [00:36:45] That because Kelly's saying dog.
Kelly Johnston [00:36:49] I know right? Because that makes total sense for me. But whatever. I could help. I could just see that guy from What was that? America's Got Talent? No, the other one, American Idol is the guy for American Idol. Would say that to people.
Lesley Hensell [00:37:00] Because that's like me. I still say to my kid, dude, and you know, the kids have moved on from you. They're there, bruh. Yeah. Or breath or broth or whatever the hell grump that is. So I say, dude, and he just rolls eyes. So, yeah, there we go. And then one last reason to not do the thing with the team. Mood team, Mood Memo, whatever the heck it is. Any time that you are dealing with a new platform and you have like a team and you're selling it volume, you're having to set up infrastructure. And as Kelly said, the fees are going to be temporarily waived. They can't afford to not have them forever. I mean, it's a stunt. It's to get you in there, probably get you through a peak, and then you'll be like, whew, look at all the cash flow. Not profit, but cash flow that I had during peak. And then they're going to hit you with the BS. So. For the time after. If you are having to build any kind of significant infrastructure to build these orders, just remember that you're not going to you know, that's going to be sunk cost. Yeah.
Kelly Johnston [00:38:13] And you can't, like replicate that for something else, right? It's one thing if you're building infrastructure or talent or resources that you can go, well, I can just shift that to my business over here or I can just shift it to this other thing. You probably are not going to be able to do that with this. I mean, maybe to some degree. It's some things are crossover. Like, you know, you back orders pretty much the same way across all businesses. But when it comes to having to know those individual platforms fairly intimately, which a lot of people employ, folks who do, then yeah, then you're you're probably losing some money on that, too. Good point.
Lesley Hensell [00:38:49] So speaking of other platforms, I have something exciting to talk about with you. Something exciting to talk about briefly. Over in the land of the mart, the Walmart. The only world. The one. Yes, Yes. Yes. Every time. So on Saturday, Saturday is college football day. And if my kid isn't playing a high school football game on a Saturday, which, believe it or not, he does some time. We are watching college football at our house on Saturday, and every time we flip by an Arkansas game, it's got that Daisy, the Walmart Daisy on the field and every time it makes me jump for some reason, I don't know why.
Kelly Johnston [00:39:35] It's kind of terrifying at that size.
Lesley Hensell [00:39:37] It's just weird. It's just weird. But over on a Walmart land, we do handle account suspensions. And over there it's item, not ason item suspensions. But we are also launching a new service and we are in beta and welcoming beta customers for Walmart reimbursements. And that is because if you're selling on Walmart, you're probably using WFC, which is FBA in Walmart land. And just like Amazon, Walmart will lose your stuff rolls under the. Selves or whatever, and they may or may not find it. They may not receive some stuff. You know, it happens. We have some accounts we've already been working on and we have found significant dollars for these clients. In fact, we have one client who's done very low volume on Wal-Mart, and we have already found them $1,800. Nice reimbursements are magical. It goes straight to your bottom line, y'all. This is money that you thought you'd lost out in the ether. Anything that you get back, it's like a bonus. And you don't pay us unless we get your money. So if you are interested, please drop an email to sales at Riverbend consulting.com. We would love to introduce you to our Walmart's reimbursement service. It is just as magical as Amazon reimbursements. You really don't have to do anything. The only time we need something from you is occasionally they will ask for some kind of an invoice for some product that you sent in. But that happens a lot. Yeah, so far that happens a lot less from Wal-Mart than it does on Amazon. yeah. Yeah. So we've gotten really good at the service and I'm confident we can make you happy and get some of your money. So if you are interested, please drop us a line. And of course, if you have any problems on Walmart this season, let us know because we would love to work on that as well. Okay.
Kelly Johnston [00:41:40] Somebody who does because you know. Yeah. And we love those, too.
Lesley Hensell [00:41:45] Yeah. The thing about Walmart is there aren't a lot of service providers out there doing any of these services. So lucky you you know up and and we do.
Kelly Johnston [00:41:55] We do. We do the things.
Lesley Hensell [00:41:59] Alrighty. I've got a KDP question for you, Kelly.
Kelly Johnston [00:42:04] My. Not weakest area, but among them. Thanks for that. No, I'm happy. I like KDP. It's interesting. So let's go. What we got?
Lesley Hensell [00:42:13] So KDP is Kindle Direct publishing. You all. This is where you upload a book to Amazon and they printed on demand and ship it out to people. My husband publish my books on his KDP account. We are not sure if this is the reason for his KDP account being terminated without warning. We've appealed via email several times before realizing this may have been the reason for termination, and we still don't know what happened. If this is the reason, would it be possible to get the account back by agreeing to remove my books?
Kelly Johnston [00:42:46] Well, any form of money? Yeah, well, anything is possible. What I will say about Katy Perry now, you don't even know what I was going to say. Come on.
Lesley Hensell [00:42:57] Really? Really. Use your brain. Yeah.
Kelly Johnston [00:43:00] We do share, right? Okay, so what I will say is KDP is not always clear cut and straightforward, as you just proved by saying you're not even really sure what happened. But I think you hit on a really important factor, and I want to congratulate you for that, because that kind of introspection and being able to that can save your account regardless of what type we're talking about, could be pay associates, whatever. Being able to look back and going, what could I possibly have done and take kind of seeing it with different eyes is really important when we have these scenarios which happen across all Amazon services. For people losing their accounts with no explanation. That definitely sounds like something we can help with. And I would really love for you to talk to one of our consultants because untangling these is not always easy, but it is doable. And we've seen a lot of really strange situations with KDP this year. In fact, I would say next to Amazon Pay has probably been our biggest source of unusual work, things that we don't see every day. Vendor is vendor and forget about that but but pay and Katie or things that we see a lot more of this year and we've had some really great successes with some incredibly complex situations where we did know what the problem was. So definitely something we could look into for you, but that seems like a good starting point for the potential issue.
Lesley Hensell [00:44:28] Yeah. And so, Avani, I'll tell you, a lot of the suspensions and KDP we've seen recently have been because Amazon, wrongly in the cases of many of our clients, believe that the person who owns that KDP account stole the intellectual property so that the book didn't belong to them. So if your books have previously been published on your own KDP account and then they were put on your husband, it is very possible that they believe that your husband doesn't own that property and doesn't have permission to put the books in there. And that could be the reason they shut him down. It is also I just want to tell you that you've done nothing wrong in your appeal. KDP is garbage to work with on these things. They're very unclear about the reason for the termination. They often give the wrong reason for termination. Sometimes we've seen clients who've appealed and then been told that wasn't the reason, and then they keep changing the reason over and over again as you appeal each one. So just just know that you're not alone. And this is not like a, you know, problem.
Kelly Johnston [00:45:46] That is, they had it.
Lesley Hensell [00:45:47] It's not. And also, I would second what Kelly said about giving us a call, because once you've appealed a few times via their. Their systems yet, she says they give us nothing. Yet once once you've appealed via there, it's not even an interface but their help. Once you've done that a couple of times. Yeah, they don't really read it anymore. Now we do executive escalations to get these solved. Sometimes we do an executive escalation and they kind of yell at the front line people and then we have to go back and give it to the front line people. But you probably need some hollering at this point to get them to understand and I hate saying this out loud, but it's true. They are probably holding your royalties and not going to let them go unless we solve this. They have been really stingy. That's a nicer word than I was going to use. I was going to use like fish sticks or something really horrible.
Kelly Johnston [00:46:50] Ionian And intractable.
Lesley Hensell [00:46:53] Well, those are still nicer, but okay, because I don't really understand. I mean, there are situations where they think you ripped off someone else's intellectual property, so they're holding it for those reasons. But we've even had situations where they don't think someone ripped off someone else's intellectual property and they're still holding the royalties. And I'm like, Who are you? Bank of Amazon? It's not your money. If you want to take that money. Going back to our governmental scheme, if you want to take that money and hand it over to a government agency and say, you know, this is the this is the fruits of the poison tree, and so we can't have it and we're giving it to you, right? But where do they get off keeping people's money anyway? Sorry, I'm not. Rude.
Kelly Johnston [00:47:40] You can we can talk about that for days because it's such a source of frustration. But I agree with everything that Lesley said. And, you know, if nothing else, if you want to do a console call, talk to a consultant about maybe how to attack this. If you're not comfortable getting our direct help, which I totally would understand. A console call may help you as well, but I firmly believe we can help you. And you would be better off working with the consultant because they can help you do two things that are really important. One interpret the Amazon garbage, because even though they're not giving you anything, I bet you there's something that we would see because we know what to look for. I'm sorry, I have a bug that has invaded my office and it's in my face too. It's going to give you some mental reassurance that, as Lesley said, this is not about you. It feels really personal. And it's really hard because you. You've put your your heart and soul into your books. I'm sure you're very creative if you're writing and you're doing all that and you've just been violated by Amazon taking this and ripping it out of your hands. I can't even imagine how that feels. But a consultant can help you not be mired in those feelings so that you can pursue this logically and with determination, but also confidence that you're doing the right thing. So definitely, I think give us a call and see if we can't help you.
Lesley Hensell [00:48:58] Okay, So if you've made it this far because we're like at minute 48. So what are you doing here? Crazy people. We're so glad you're still listening. I have two things for you. Two things. Two things. I want to pitch something to you and I want to give something away. So first, the pitch. Halloween is coming up. It's just a week and change away. And so for Halloween, we we really like to help you get your we call them Zombie ASINs it's kind of a misnomer. But let's go with it because it's fun. We like to get your Zombie ASINs back up and revived Fourth quarter is here but more importantly Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Turkey five, whatever you want to call it, coming the month. Yeah. And it's going to be here before you know it. And if you've got a suspended ASIN and you've got inventory sitting at Amazon, they're killing you on fourth quarter fees y'all. All those storage fees, all the extra fourth quarter bonus they take for themselves. Yeah, you've got to get these things live so you can sell them and try and at least break even at this point, even though they've been holding yourself hostage.
Lesley Hensell [00:50:07] So give us a shout. Visit riverbendconsulting.com, fill up a little form or you can email sales@riverbendconsulting.com. Let us help you get these ASINs back up. One of the best things you can do for account maintenance right now is go into your account, especially if you have a team that manages your account and it's not you, but you're the PNL guy because it's your business. Go in and look for things like stranded inventory. I want you to see what you've got in stranded inventory, because a lot of those are because of Ace and suspensions. It can be other things as well. But anything you've got in stranded FBA that is costing you money and you have got to get that stuff live so you can unload it fourth quarter. You don't want to be hanging on to it in January and February. You need to make your money now. So go check out your stranded inventory, see if there are some assets that we can bring back from the deficit.
Kelly Johnston [00:51:06] That's right. Give them some brains and watch them reanimate.
Lesley Hensell [00:51:09] Yeah, right. And then because you listen to my sales pitch. Thank you. I also want to tell you that I wrote a book. I wrote a book about selling on Amazon. I called the Amazon Incubator. I had not the Amazon taught me that the Amazon incubator. And I would love to give you a free copy. So if you will send that email, you can send it right to me. lesley@riverbendconsulting.com and just say I want a free book. Yeah. And give us your give us your address if you're in the United States and we will send you a copy. We would love to do that. Love on you and your business and help you to get to the next step. And I hope that is useful for you. So do that today. Lesley at Riverbend consulting.com. And Avani is so sweet. She was actually on YouTube listening and said, I appreciate you taking the time to respond. So thank you, Avani, for being here with this and sending the questions.
Kelly Johnston [00:52:09] Now I wish you nothing but the best and I hope we can help you because this seems like a painful situation. So as a as a fellow artist, I just can't stand to see people stuff held hostage like that.
Lesley Hensell [00:52:19] So it's so maddening.
Kelly Johnston [00:52:24] So very and also so very unsurprising and, you know, fits with the horror theme that we have going, because it is horrifying to me that this continues to happen with such regularity and no improvement because, as you said, the front line support for Kindle is somehow, somehow, I'm still not sure, several steps below both seller performance and seller support. Like how are you this bad? Still very, very frustrating.
Lesley Hensell [00:52:54] And sadly, it's going to get worse because of Amazon's return to work. Return to the office. Sorry, not return to work. Return to the office initiative, which is going to take place in early January. And if you are not willing to go into the office, is it going to be four days a week versus three? Think it's for four days a week, they will dispense with your services. And so they have a lot of experienced people who are going to fail.
Kelly Johnston [00:53:22] And already are and have been for since that announcement came out. So it's been going on for a few weeks already. And I, like some of my friends that have been there for 17 and 18 years and I'm like, you just can't you can't replace those people. And you so much experience walks out the door. And also usually a lot of really great smart people that are fun to work with and know their things and.
Lesley Hensell [00:53:44] You know. Okay. So. So if we. So I don't think we said anything about the election or the FCC that would make anyone mad. I don't think this will make anyone mad either. But some people would consider it very controversial. Andy Jassy replacing Jeff Bezos, the CEO, has been devastating. Yeah.
Kelly Johnston [00:54:10] I feel like now I feel I feel the same way. I don't I don't like the direction and everything I hear from people who have left within the last year especially is so resoundingly negative. I don't know what happened exactly there or what exactly it is about his leadership that is so drastically different. But it seems to me and I think you know, less I think you and I have talked about this, that. Jassy is so focused on provable metrics that everything human that makes all this stuff go round, which is the creativity and the innovation and the things that make people think differently instead of just doing what they've always done. Those don't seem to be in play anymore.
Lesley Hensell [00:55:00] Now that you know, he's a data guy. So Jassy, before he became CEO, was the guy, in essence, the server firm that Amazon owns. And Amazon has actually made the majority of its profit off of those server farms for several years because there's I mean, there is the physical server farm, but there's not physical product. They're moving retail up the lower margins. It just is what it is, right? So he's a data guy. He's a data head. Data means more than people resources. So servers are more valuable than people resources and you know, just God love him for all of the he's taken over so many things. And when you're a CEO of a massive company, you're going to have haters. Even if you're the second coming, you're going to have haters, you're going to make mistakes, you're going to piss people off. You can't make everyone happy. All those things. And there were things he did I didn't think were super awesome. However, there were things that he did to make Amazon that I think were brilliant. The Everything store was brilliant. He it was under him and his team that brought in the third party marketplace. Brilliant. He believes in selection through the third party marketplace. Brilliant. And you know, I know that sellers have felt for several years that they're disposable. They can just be replaced. Now, that is like super true. Like under Andy, no one cares. And the fact that you're a small business and you have people and mouths to feed and cool product, no one cares. And that comes from the top and the and they are willing to kill selection at this point for goals that I can't figure out. And the thing is, you know, we know we're not on the inside and Karl is not inside anymore. I never have been. But in the past, I've always been able to see and understand the business cycle based on the patterns and the trends that I've seen in enforcement and the way that they interact with sellers. And some of the stuff from this last calendar year don't make any sense because they don't support any goals that I have seen before. Like I don't even get what the goals are. And that's a Jassy thing, and I'm not a fan. And so I never thought I would say this, but, Jeff, I miss you so.
Kelly Johnston [00:57:28] Yeah, I think that there's a lot to be said for all of those perspectives. And and it it bothers me intensely to see all these really brilliant people who have done fabulous work, whose infrastructure went from their programing and their programing teams and things have built wonderful tools and folks that have really understood what it is to that makes Amazon special and keeping those buyers coming back, because that's really the secret is keeping people coming back. And they seem bound and determined to make that not happen. The number of times I have had a bad experience on Amazon as a consumer in the last two years has probably doubled. And they don't care. I can't get anybody to resolve anything, no matter what they do. And it doesn't matter what the issue is. Customer service is completely, utterly inept and cannot even have a basic conversation. I have a blank. Thing that we bought for the cameras that I cannot get resolved because they literally do not understand the basic requests that we're trying to make. And it's so dumb. And that degradation of service combined with the driving out of all of the talent. And only seemingly hiring people who either can't hack it or only designed to hack it for a short amount of time. To me is like the most short sighted thing and it dishonors all the work that's gone before. So I don't understand either. I don't get the goals and I don't get what the the long term vision is because the long term vision just seems to be. Darkness at this point, there's just no clarity there. And if that changes, great. I'll reconsider my point of view. But right now. I don't see anything worse doing that for.
Lesley Hensell [00:59:10] You have a long term vision right now is to come into the office so you can sit at your desk there and be on a zoom instead of being on a zoom from your plane seat.
Kelly Johnston [00:59:22] This is not freaking kindergarten. That just.
Lesley Hensell [00:59:26] My goodness, y'all. If you missed it, the return to office announcement, they literally said they're going to have a sign seating. Can you imagine? Okay. I'm an old person here. I'm in my 50s. I'm not sitting in a frickin assigned seat. Are you kidding me? Are you kidding me? My goodness.
Kelly Johnston [00:59:47] So you won't make any damn sense. Like the way the organized people will not make any sense. I hate open concept offices, too, but that's another discussion. That's another corporate L for another day.
Lesley Hensell [01:00:01] But when people say corporate hellscape, that's what they mean. Yeah. Okay. Well, on that happy note, thank you all for joining us for Amazon seller Happy Hour. Sorry we're Debbie Downers on that last point but just know that, number one, we believe that no matter who wins the election, there's going to be some turnover at FTC. And I can't see that being a bad thing at this point. I think that'll be a good thing for Amazon and therefore for sellers. And then number two, hey, we're here for you. You've got someone on your side. So when you have questions or you're trying to fight that Amazon piece, we are here to make them recognize that you are a real valid human being with a business, not just a number. That is why Riverbend Consulting is here. So thank you so much for joining us. Thank you. Kelly.
Kelly Johnston [01:00:52] Yes, you are verse welcome. It's been a pleasure, as always, because, you know, I can never, ever say that these are boring because we always cover a wide array of subjects. And those subjects come from you guys, our listeners and people who return again and again. Thank you because it's always a pleasure to have these conversations with you and be able to answer those questions. So thanks for that opportunity.
Lesley Hensell [01:01:12] And please be sure and send us those questions as they come up through the month. And we will see you again next month right here. And if we can ever help you, just reach out at riverbendconsulting.com. Thank you and happy selling.