As if you weren’t already aware, Black Friday is just around the corner (November 26th). Black Friday is traditionally the beginning of the holiday shopping season for consumers, and harvest time for ecommerce sellers. Whilst we’ve discussed at length about the fact that the holiday shopping season has started earlier than ever before this year, Black Friday remains one of the most important dates in the ecommerce calendar. If you’re an ecommerce seller, you’ve probably already started preparing your business for Black Friday, but there are a few changes to Amazon FBA that you should be aware of that come into effect from the 1st of November.
Label Service Changes For Small & Light
The main change that ecommerce sellers can expect to see when it comes to small and light packages is in the label service fees. To give you some background, since the beginning of June Amazon have made it a requirement for each unit of a small and light delivery to have a barcode label. Originally, Amazon stated that if you could not do it yourself, Amazon would do it for you for free.
However, from the 1st of November this service will no longer be free. For UK sellers, the Small and Light FBA Label service will cost £0.08 per unit. This will bring it in line with other European countries, where the service typically costs €0.09 per unit.
Amazon sellers should thus consider getting their stock to Amazon before the beginning of November. Sellers should also be aware that Amazon now offer pan-European FBA for small and light packages.
New Requirements For Carrier & Tracking Information For Shipping To Amazon FBA
The next requirement that Amazon have added is an increase of information required when shipping to Amazon FBA warehouses. Amazon will require their sellers to enter the carrier name and tracking numbers. Just like with the changes to the label service charges, this comes in from the 1st November.
This new requirement will not affect all Amazon sellers, however. If you use an Amazon partnered carrier system, such as the Amazon partnered carrier programme or Amazon global logistics, since with these programmes Amazon generate the carrier and tracking information.
If you do not use these programmes, you can find how to enter them via the track shipment section of your summary page, or the Amazon marketplace web services.
Make Sure You Meet These Amazon Requirements Before Black Friday
As you can see, it will be vital that you adjust your procedures before Black Friday. We will be doing other articles to help you prepare for the big weekend in the coming weeks, and if you want more advice on Amazon changes you can find our article on Amazon’s new approach to returns and inventories by following the link.
As usual, we would like to take this opportunity to remind you that our long history of working with Amazon and eBay sellers means we can offer you expert advice.
As well as helping with your Fulfilment, we would be more than happy to help you register for the OSS and help you with all your VAT compliance needs in case your account faces any issues. So please do not hesitate to give us a call on 0161 637 1080 or send an e-mail to enquiries@jpaccountant.com for a quote today.
