Adjust size and quantity later

Is it against t&c’s to adjust the size or quantity of a product down the line ? I.e. if I had a car cleaning kit and I wanted to take a shamy cloth out to reduce the cost of it, but kept the price the same.

Answer: As long as you update the product page to match the image to what the customer is receiving then this shouldn’t be problem. Just make sure all the changes have gone through as sometimes bullet points take longer to update than description and vice Versa

FOB Insurance

I’m using FOB for the first time but my supplier has added a $114 Logistics Insurance Premium to the order on top of the order value. Any ideas what this covers? I’ve googled it but not had much luck. It’s twice what i paid last time using air freight but the order is only 50% larger.

Answer: Look up inco terms and you will see. This is marine insurance. Fob essentially means that once the goods are loaded into the ship they are your responsibility. I am sure you can cancel this if you dont want insurance

Recommend courir home to FBA

Shipping from home to FBA Amazon warehouse 20kg package which is the recommended courier?

Answer: Use Amazons Preferred Carrier option when creating your shipping plan. It’s £4.37 for up to 15kg max box length 63cm.

Use UPS partner account. Do the shipment on Amazon seller, leave as default settings and it will choose UPS for you. £3.50 for 15kg

If shipping from uk to uk fba centre then you wont beat the rate amazon has with ups

Fake review on Amazon

After 12 months of successful selling and over 200 positive reviews someone has targeted my listing with 21 fake 1star reviews. All unverified, all on the same day. Although I have to admit they have put some effort into writing them as they are legit issues that are seen with my product – just not true of mine. Does anyone have any experience with this happening to them and/or advice on how to get them removed.

Answer: Unfortunately I think you’re going to have a hard time getting amazon to remove them, unless they violate their rules with swearing/abuse etc. But by the sounds of it they’ve made sure they don’t do this. The only option is to bury them with new positive reviews

Anser: You need to persevere with Seller Support, I have now discovered help-reviews@amazon.com which is one the bypass email addresses.

Brand for FBA

Is it not possible to list a new product for FBA without having your brand registered first with Amazon?

Answer: Yeah 100% you don’t need brand registry

Refund of FBA fees

Is it possible to get a refund from the months that you never sold anything? As in not using the amazon seller account at all.

Answer: This has changed recently and they don’t refund professional accounts anymore. You have to switch back to individual account if you dont want to be charged for unused account or to get a refund. It’s annoying.

Starting a company

Anyone got some advice on starting a company? Trying to figure out what would be best for Amazon wholesale as I’m finding most of the better wholesalers want VAT and business registration which is understandable. I’ve never done anything like this. Do I register it as a sole trader, limited or partnership?

Answer: You can set up a company for free and register for VAT for free – I’ve recently done both. Had to do a bit of research but it was relatively well explained on the .gov website and saved a bit of cash.You might need to get an accountant to do VAT returns and bookkeeping / annual accounts depending on how financially literate you are, but doing the registration yourself will save some cash.

It depends, ltd company has advantages (lower tax, much less personal liability if anything goes wrong) but there are more paperwork requirements.If you google ‘sole trader vs partnership vs ltd company UK’ there will be loads of websites explaining the differences

FBA showing two delivery dates

Puzzled as to why 2 FBA offers have different delivery dates for Premium shiping. Any ideas?

Answer: It depends on how close the customer is to a fulfilment centre that has stock. Might be slow to “you” but will be quick to someone else

Corona virus and FBA

Greetings from Northern China. I suspect some of your are concerned about your supply chains from China and just wanted to update on that briefly. In most provinces the government had factories delay opening until Feb 10th. Wuhan area will be much more delayed and Guangzhou is the 2nd most effected province right now but much less so then Wuhan. Some factories are only expecting partial capacity this 1st week as some provinces are having returning workers quarantine for a few days before returning to work. The good news is that this time of year all factories struggle with getting back to full speed as workers return slowly every year. China manufacturing will soon return to normal even if it takes a couple weeks.

GS1 or our codes?

Should you get a barcode prefix from the GS1 or buy barcodes from you?

Why we may be a Better Deal.

GS1, formerly the Uniform Code Council (UCC), is the provider of UPC barcode prefixes. A company goes to the GS1, they purchase a prefix and then are responsible for the self-assignment of the identification numbers that go after the prefix.

In 2002 GS1 attempted to codify the agreement with UPC Barcode prefix holders which included renewal fees. The codified agreement included rules that were in the form of a contract which included not being able to subdivide a barcode number. Prior to this, there were no signed restrictive agreements with any prefix holders.

They started sending out renewal notices insisting that the prefix holders pay renewal fees and agree to the new terms and conditions. Ultimately a class action suit was levied against the GS1 in the state of Washington and the GS1 lost. All prefix owners prior to August 28, 2002 became exempt from the GS1’s renewal fees and new codified agreement.

All of the UPC barcode prefixes that we own are 6 digit prefixes and all predate 2002.

Quoting the UCC Settlement web site:

This Settlement provides that companies who became members of UCC before August 28, 2002, are not obligated to pay membership renewal fees to UCC to maintain membership as a condition for their use of Company Prefixes issued to them by UCC, or as a condition for Basic Membership Benefits as defined in the Class Settlement Agreement. Class members who have paid a renewal fee to UCC are entitled to compensation from a $3,895,000 settlement fund. The settlement also provides that the “licensing agreement,” which accompanied UCC renewal fee invoices, is null and void as to those who became members in UCC before August 28, 2002. **

In addition to renewal fees and added constraints, the GS1 also implemented variable-length 6, 7, 8 and 9 digit prefixes. Prior to this time, all prefixes were 6 digits in length allowing prefix holders to create as many as 100,000 UPCs. The GS1 realized that not every company needed to be able to generate 100,000 UPCs and also realized that by creating these variable-length prefixes, they would be able to sell more prefixes, for more money, to more people.

As far as we know, there are only a handful of companies that require a copy of this certificate: Kroger, Walmart/Sam’s Club, JC Penney and Macy’s. Depending on your buyer and region, Walgreen’s, Lowes and Home Depot may have additional requirements. It’s always important to ask your (major) retailers for their Vendor Compliance Documents prior to purchasing from us. According to our clients, we have sold barcodes to companies with products in Pep-Boys, Autozone, Amazon, Guitar Center, CD Baby, Whole Foods, Raley’s, Toys-R-Us, Safeway, Longs (CVS), etc.

The GS1 maintains the database of UPC Prefixes. It is our opinion that, although this database is conceptually a great idea, and has to be maintained, it is virtually ignored, unknown and unused.

Retailers input information from product data sheets filled out or given to them by their suppliers. The supplier gives the retailer the product information including the barcode based on the complete 12 digit code and the retailer enters it into their point of sale system.

There are no formal centralized databases of all product barcodes. Using the mathematical formula x=11*10 there are potentially 10 billion products that can be represented by UPC-A Barcodes at any given time. This, more than anything else, explains why there is no centralized database of products. No one has the bandwidth, energy or resources to catalog something this massive.

There is nothing programmed into a UPC barcode. The bars only represent the 12 digit number that is the barcode. The retailer associates these 12 numbers with the product information. This information is pulled from the retailer’s database when a product is scanned.

You have two choices when you need to buy a barcode or block of barcodes. You purchase directly from the GS1 (They charge a minimum of $750.00 plus a yearly renewal fee) or you purchase from us or a company like ours. Unlike some others, we do not charge set-up or renewal fees.

Quoting George Laurer, “Often I am asked if a person that purchases a number from a subset seller will have legal problems in the future. Again, I am not a lawyer, but if the number was originally assigned to the seller by the UCC before August 2002, the answer is no problem.”****

The decision to go with the GS1 or us is a matter of economies of scale. GS1 charges an upfront fee and a yearly renewal fee based upon the number of 12-digit barcode numbers that you need along with your company’s revenue. The more you make, the more the barcode prefix will cost you, and this amount can increase over time. We believe that the GS1 is a great organization, they provide a tremendous service, however, for a small business with a limited budget, we makes the most sense.