Jeff

⛷️ Skier | 🚴‍♂️ Mt. Biker | 🏡 Real Estate Investor | 📦Amazon Seller

Videographer for my crazy kids:

[Jeff @JeffSendsIt]

I started selling on Amazon 11 years ago this month. Crazy to think about how much my biz has changed over the years. From a side hustle while working a corporate job to full time gig. Going from dining room to a finished garage to 2.5k warehouse to 7.2k to almost 15k warehouse. One man team to having 20+ working for me. Suppliers / sources / sourcing methods constantly changing with the times.

2019 we did $8M in sales with a huge focus on RA. I did OA and WS myself and I had a team of RA shoppers up and down the east coast. I had 3 people that were local and would shop and drop off almost daily. Then 2 that were semi local (60 to 90 mins away) who would shop during the week, store stuff locally and then do one big drop off. And then 5 shoppers scattered around stores we targeted in FL, TN, GA, DE, MD. They would shop and ship back to my warehouse to prep.

While I was having good success with RA, I always struggled with efficiently managing it and how to scale it further. In 2020, COVID hit and I shifted our RA team to OA shoppers and went all in on OA. We hit $11M in Q4 alone that year with RA just being 1.47% of our total sales and OA sitting at 80%. Massive unplanned shift based on adapting to what market was giving us.

Once constant I've seen in past 11 years it Amazon is always changing and you need to adapt or you will be pushed out. Excited to see what the next 11 years bring!

[Jeff @JeffSendsIt]

@BuyHoldCollect always need more cash, especially w/FBA

[Jeff @JeffSendsIt]

@QuinnAidan_ Happy went to Union game to see them continue their 12 game unbeaten streak vs. watching that slop last night!

[Jeff @JeffSendsIt]

Unions #1 fan

[Jeff @JeffSendsIt]

@JHartFlips 😂😂😂

[Jeff @JeffSendsIt]

@amznsellerhelp @michaelpatron0 😱🤣

[Jeff @JeffSendsIt]

@OFFAJake @FBA_mazing dont think so. though one of the ASINs in BR is an IA and has option to use seller challenge so may try that!

[Jeff @JeffSendsIt]

Dealing with Amazon seller performance / CSM Brand Review team is fun!

-Got brand review, submit submit requested docs
-Auto rejected
-Call Account Health. Your invoices look perfect, you should have been approved, let me send it up for 2nd review
-Another auto rejection, and now added 2 more ASINs to brand review
-Resubmit, rejected again, but finally get some feedback, we can't accept invoices bc they are altered
-Only "alteration" was highlighting the items, so submit without highlighted
-Rejected, you MUST highlight the impacted items
-Resubmit with 2 versions of invoices. one that is raw unaltered, one with highlighted. Add another document and further proof to address all concerns
-Rejected, please only submit documents we request

Usually need to wait 2 to 5 days between these responses while six figures of inventory sits sidelined. Craziness!

[Jeff @JeffSendsIt]

@CEO_of_ADHD crazy and not at all surprising all at the same time!

[Jeff @JeffSendsIt]

@NBennett8373 all you can do!

or shut it down and move on!

[Jeff @JeffSendsIt]

@FBA_mazing we will get them cleared, eventually!

[Jeff @JeffSendsIt]

@JohnPaterson24 Especially when its a brand you've sold 10+ years, sold over $50M of the brand and have great reviews. If I was selling fakes, returns and negative reviews would be off the hook.

[Jeff @JeffSendsIt]

For a Cowboys fan, this guy is pretty funny.

[Cameron Magruder @ScooterMagruder]

NFC East Meeting: Week 2

[Jeff @JeffSendsIt]

@NBennett8373 Somedays I question why i still bother!

Still have 6 figures of inventory tied up for a brand review which the rejections just get sillier and sillier.

[Jeff @JeffSendsIt]

On September 1st, Amazon randomly restricted me in Carhartt. No warning, no email, just restricted. Think most sellers got hit too and most I spoke to seemed to reverse itself pretty quick or could get auto approved. Not me.

I tried to ungated for 3 weeks with various invoices, order confirms, packing slips, etc. Nothing worked. Getting denied for invoices being mailed to my buying email and not my Amazon selling email and other ridiculous reasons (or no reasons at all).

Then other day, restriction is gone. No explanation. Still had open case requesting approval which i closed. The restriction glitch just fixed itself.

Amazon is nuts and an absolutely horrible to work with. However, you can't beat the eyeballs it site brings and money you can generate through that traffic.

For me to help mitigate the risk of dealing with such a shitty partner, I've diversified off Amazon (have decent size RE/rental biz) and stay diversified within Amazon (try to keep most brands under 5% of biz).

Certainly not a full proof plan bc Amazon can still shut your whole damn biz down for onw reason or has been known to hard restrict your top 10 brands without notice, but it can help in situations like this in which we been down 2 brands for a few weeks (day before Carhartt restriction we got a Brand Review that we are still fighting!).

[Jeff @JeffSendsIt]

@DanielBaker1 PrepShipHub supports WFS and even INCLUDES storage fees in its P&L 🙃

[Jeff @JeffSendsIt]

@CajuaRobinson Hey don’t just blame the arbs sellers. Plenty of WSers were in the fraud label scam

[Jeff @JeffSendsIt]

@Alidevji lysted

[Jeff @JeffSendsIt]

Might be time to hang it up with Amazon and move to flipping tickets! Not bad profit for a preseason basketball game!

[Jeff @JeffSendsIt]

@fbacontrarian @kimcoghlan4 Yea i could see that!