Ben Anderson

[Ben Anderson @bca1313]

@michaelpatron0 I missed the new round. I guess delaying to order might be painful.

[Ben Anderson @bca1313]

@pydsigner @Molson_Hart If you lower your website price directly Amazon will stop showing your product on Amazon. They are basically price fixing.

[molson 🧠⚙️ @Molson_Hart]

Everyone with an Amazon prime account who cares about the prices they pay on Amazon should read this.

1. Amazon used to reimburse sellers according to what we’d receive if we sold an item. So when we sell a $19.99 Brain Flakes jar we'd get $9.50 which is roughly what we'd receive from Amazon, before a few costs.

2. Amazon shareholders (which includes management) are constantly pressuring the company to make even more money. Normally a company as powerful as Amazon would just raise prices, but (this is me speculating) Amazon doesn't do that because they know it looks bad so they do it in sneaky ways.

3. So instead of reimbursing us for revenue after fees they say “well reimburse you for your manufacturing cost (which they do not know)” which means instead of $9.50 we get much less.

4. So now, when Amazon accidentally feeds a jar of Brain Flakes discs into a robot sending discs exploding everywhere they give us like $3 instead of $9.50 basically whatever they determine is the manufacturing cost. You can go through the headache of proving your manufacturing cost by sending invoices from your supplier but who wants to give the good people at Amazon Basics this information.

5. Here's where it gets crazy. After they reimburse you, they’ll, without any expertise in the product, “fix it”. They'll tape it up or whatever.

6. And then they'll sell it and undercut you.

7. And then they'll tell you to match their price of the inventory they broke, which they reimbursed you for insufficiently

8. And who knows, maybe they'll punish you in search

9. So the best way to handle this is to actually buy the product back from Amazon so your customers don't get a shitty broken product and leave a bad review hurrying your brand

10. So now Amazon has an incentive to break your stuff so they can get the product for way less than manufacturing cost and then capture 100% of the revenues (they don't pay you when the product sells because they own it now because they reimbursed you for it)

It's a total scam and you can't do anything about it because Amazon has every company like ours by the balls.

We can't say “oh yeah Amazon we'll stop selling on your platform” because without Amazon we can’t pay our bills because they account for 80% of our sales!

Next time you shop, ask yourself if you can do it directly with the brand (https://t.co/yGgzMQnLr0).

For us we’ll give you the same products for less simply because on our website the fees are so much lower.

1/3

[Ben Anderson @bca1313]

@michaelpatron0 How can they really make someone pay for something that no one gave consent to be charged for. It’s inane that they do this and so many other things.

[Ben Anderson @bca1313]

@michaelpatron0 We don’t participate in any of these prime day or other events because of the fee stacking. It doesn’t make much sense unless you need to clear out excess or old stock.

[Ben Anderson @bca1313]

@EugeneKhayman We don’t do any of these. It’s not worth it when they have a new sale every couple months and add in so many fees. The deals used to be substantial as well. Not as much anymore.

[Eugene Khayman @EugeneKhayman]

https://t.co/F6JRtpIvlm

[Jan Krapp @KrappJan]

🚨 AMZ ACCOUNT AT RISK FOR FALSE COUNTERFEIT VIOLATIONS
Some marketing agency working for a competitor just hit me with 5 fake counterfeit violations on my original sticker books. My Account Health was always perfect at 1000. Today it dropped straight to 0 in one day. The account could get shut down any minute.

My legal counsel confirms this is a clear case and it’s just a dirty move by a competitor.

We submitted invoices, original design files and clear side by side proof showing the products are totally different (design created in house). Amazon rejected every appeal. Not even reading them. Account Health support is doing nothing.

@amznsellerhelp please escalate this false flag case ASAP.

[Eugene Khayman @EugeneKhayman]

https://t.co/ssReLLMaa8

[Vlad Ionascu @vlad_ionascu3]

@amznsellerhelp

One of my ASIN’s lost the Buy Box because of the Competitive Price Matching. This is a product that sells on Amazon and off Amazon in general between 29.00 EUR and 32.00 EUR. Now Amazon system wants me to price this product at 1.80 EUR.

[Ben Anderson @bca1313]

@EugeneKhayman Ads are off and it’s time Amazon took care of its sellers. No other organization treats their partners as poorly as they do. It’s beyond shocking.

[Matthew Turner @MbtHawk]

Amazon just quietly killed credit card payments for advertising.

Starting April 15, ad spend is auto-deducted from your seller payouts. No announcement. Just a letter to Seller Central with 13 days warning.

Here is what that means at $50K/month in ad spend:

THE FLOAT YOU JUST LOST

Old system: You charged ads to a credit card. You had ~45 days before the bill was due. Amazon held your proceeds ~17 days then paid you. You got your money BEFORE you paid for ads. That gap was ~60 days of free working capital.

New system: Ad costs are deducted from proceeds before Amazon pays you. You never touch that money.

At $50K/month that is $75,000 in working capital that vanishes overnight.

YOUR PAYOUTS JUST SHRUNK

Every biweekly payout drops by ~$25,000. At a 33% ACoS your payout gets cut by a third. At 50% ACoS it gets cut in half.

Amazon already holds your money 7 days after delivery before it is even eligible. Then you wait for the next 14-day payout cycle. Now a massive chunk never arrives at all.

THE REAL COST

Lost credit card rewards at 2%: $12,000/year.
Replacing the float with a line of credit at 10%: $7,500/year.
Opportunity cost of that $75K not going into inventory: $15,000-$30,000/year.

Total annual hit: $19,500 to $49,500.

THE VICIOUS CYCLE FOR SMALL SELLERS

1. Smaller payouts mean less cash for inventory.
2. Less inventory means stock-outs and lost organic rank.
3. Lost rank means you need MORE ad spend to maintain visibility.
4. More ad spend on shrinking proceeds accelerates the spiral.

For seasonal ramps into Prime Day or Q4 it is even worse. You need to increase ad spend weeks before revenue arrives. Now it eats your disbursements when you need cash for inventory most.

WHAT AMAZON GAINS

They save an estimated $400-500 million/year in interchange fees on $68.6 billion in ad revenue. The $2,500 promo credit they are offering is less than 2 days of ad spend at this level.

WHAT YOU CAN DO

Model your cash flow without the float now. If the math breaks, cut ad spend before April 15.

Secure a line of credit to bridge the ~$75K gap.

Check if Pay by Invoice is still available before the deadline.

Front-load inventory purchases this week while you still have the float.

This is not an accounting change. It is a $75,000 permanent working capital hit with almost no notice.

What is your plan?

#AmazonSellers #AmazonFBA #Ecommerce #AmazonAds #SmallBusiness #CashFlow

[Eugene Khayman @EugeneKhayman]

https://t.co/IxemSJaxqO

[Ben Anderson @bca1313]

@EugeneKhayman Great post and highlights how continuously @amazon continues to ruthlessly destroy small businesses. Usually it’s a small fee here or there but this is one right on top of the other at once. Time to really focus on how to build your own customer base through other channels.

[Eugene Khayman @EugeneKhayman]

My community has $15b of yearly sales on Amazon with 800+ members.

These are small businesses. They employ real Americans and support local communities.

They do not have large margins to absorb shocks.

Every year Amazon squeezes them more and supports overseas Chinese sellers instead of local American businesses.

Now Amazon is hitting sellers with even more of a squeeze all back to back:

https://t.co/Xc1IeD5QHd has moved many sellers to DD+7
Meaning funds are held until 7 days after delivery, not simply paid out on the old cadence.
https://t.co/YkUKQvr0Uo just added a 3.5% fuel/logistics surcharge on fulfillment fees.
https://t.co/L9WWJUDkr8 top it off now Amazon Ads charges will be pulled directly from disbursements rather than floating on a credit card.

That combination matters.

Amazon already forces sellers into an environment where ads dominate visibility.
So now the same platform that pressures brands to spend more on ads is also tightening payout timing and pulling more cash out before sellers ever see it.

For a very large business, this is just a minor annoyance. But for a small business making payroll just got 50x harder.

Less cash on hand means:
less inventory
more stockouts
more debt
more strain on small teams
and ultimately a worse customer experience

This is not “supporting small business.”
It is starving the brands that create so much of the value customers come to Amazon for.

@WSJ @business @nytimesbusiness @BusinessInsider @ReutersBiz @CNBC @APBusiness

If you’re covering Amazon, local communities hit by a hard economy and large companies trying to squeeze hardworking Americans hit me up.

[Ben Anderson @bca1313]

@michaelpatron0 Great post capturing so many items that are infuriating to try and run a business on Amazon

[Michael Patrón @michaelpatron0]

Not only is Amazon out of touch with sellers but their AI features are a disaster. Below is the page that shows AI listing changes Amazon is making and there are SOOO many problems with it that it is hard to cover them all...
1. The blue box at the top is supposed to give you...

[Ben Anderson @bca1313]

@UPS Sent one and hope you can help. This is devastating to our business and getting rid of reps leaves us with no contacts.

[Ben Anderson @bca1313]

@UPS had a system glitch and dropped our pickup that they do every day off the board. Hundreds of packages sitting and waiting. UPS got rid of reps so no help. @FedEx is going to see more shipments.

[Ben Anderson @bca1313]

@amznsellerhelp this has to be something you can stop. This buyer should be banned from the platform.

[Rich Tesoriero @Rich_Tesoriero]

Amazon believes buyer return abuse is a solved problem. I have 379 orders from one buyer that say otherwise. A Seller Support investigation last month did not solve the problem. Please help me escalate this issue to the right team. @amznsellerhelp