Expanding Into International Amazon Marketplaces: EU to EU vs. EU to US with Rachel Greer & Cynthia Stine Day Two, May 4, 2016

Automate Messages to generate product reviews and seller feedback

Support for 8 Amazon marketplaces

Receive negative and positive feedback notifications through email and SMS messages

Product review monitoring

Custom messages for repeat buyers

Increase conversions and generate product reviews

Control the quantity and duration of your promotional campaign

Shoppers promote your products with reviews and social sharing

Compliant with Amazon’s Terms of Service

Amazon product research tool

Know how much your competition is selling

Understand the fees associated with selling and sourcing a product

Know the best price to sell your product

Find what keywords will get you ranked better in search

More than 7 years of Amazon experience

At Amazon she managed audits, product testing and packaging, and inspections

She founded Cascadia Seller Solutions in 2015

She and her team consult small- to medium-sized enterprises who need help protecting and building their brand on Amazon

Rachel Greer

Entrepreneur with 25+ years of experience selling, consulting companies, launching products and services, and helping sellers survive crisis situations

Author of best-selling book Suspension Prevention: Get Reinstated and Protect Your Amazon Seller Account

She blogs about all things Amazon at onlinesalesstepbystep.com

Cynthia Stine

Stay Out of Trouble with Amazon when Selling in New Markets

EU to USSuspension Prevention

BY CYNTHIA STINEAmazon Seller Advocate

Online Sales Step by Step LLC

Rise of the Robots…The US is Ahead of the EU in terms of Algorithm and SuspensionsAlgorithm tightened Spring 2015 for Product Quality…

• No warning

• No humans involved

• No metrics

• Not your fault, but you are responsible

• No help or instructions

Common Suspension Reasons forExpanding Sellers…They don’t understand…

1. Amazon’s shipping requirements

2. Products that are forbidden in the new market

3. What constitutes inauthentic in Amazon’s world

4. Legal implications – trademarks, copyright, IP, patents

5. Different standards of customer service

6. The buyer

7. Manipulation of the Platform

8. Product Quality

Rise of the Robots….What exactly is Product Quality? It is not what you think…

• Used sold as new

• Not as described

• Not as advertised

• Defective

• Damaged

• Counterfeit/fake

• Inauthentic

Suspension Prevention

Want to know more?SuspensionPrevention.com

Buy the book at Amazon.co.uk

Suspended? Check out our reinstatement services

OnlineSalesStepByStep.com/reinstatement

EXPANDING INTERNATIONALLY: EU TO USHelping Beginner Amazon Sellers Stay Compliant & Avoid the Biggest Pitfallswith Rachel Greer, Founder of Cascadia Seller Solutions

WHO WE ARE▪Founder Rachel Greer – Law Enforcement Liaison for Amazon.de from

2007-2010, NA recalls/safety manager 2010-2012, manager of AmazonBasics (global brand) from 2012-2014, and manager of global imports, responsible for relaunch of Amazon’s EU imports program in 2014.

▪Former Amazonians:▪Jennifer Moser – former Trade Compliance Manager▪Emily Murray – former Customer Service and Product Safety Investigator▪Kelly Johnston – former Seller Performance Manager▪Leo Ho’onani Reyes – former Private Brands Compliance Manager▪Rain Huang – former AmazonBasics Sourcing Manager▪Xiangping (Belle) Yang - former AmazonBasics Sourcing Manager

5 MOST COMMON PITFALLS▪Not having a clearly spelled out supplier agreement and purchase order

▪Not defining your brand identity and sourcing based on that identity

▪Not evaluating the profitability of total landed cost before purchase (duties, freight, returns, packaging, compliance)

▪Not checking for regulatory compliance

▪Not checking for quality control and quality assurance

SUPPLIER AGREEMENTS▪You need the full name and address of who you pay, and who is producing

the goods for you

▪You need to specify the invoice format to meet Amazon’s standards in case there are any questions from Product Quality about authenticity

▪Define payment terms for POs, samples, and tooling costs

▪Define infringement and code of business conduct as you expect it to be

▪Keep it to 2-3 pages

PURCHASE ORDERS▪Clearly define what you are purchasing, what amount you are placing as

the 30% down payment, and under what circumstances the factory will receive the remaining 70%

▪Include Appendices for:▪Product testing protocol▪Product inspection checklist▪Exclusivity or brand protection (if relevant)▪Packaging expectations

TOTAL LANDED COST▪Duties – anti dumping duties, HTS classifications that result in 30% duties, tariff engineering, evaluate BEFORE cutting the PO

▪Freight – based on proposed port and product size, compare freight quotes from factory and from US based importer, they’ll include Customs Bonds and port fees usually, whereas that’s often not included in the factory’s quote, review carefully

▪Returns – Always structure in 2% return rate into your cost. You don’t want to argue with customers about returns

▪Packaging – standard packaging is rarely sufficient for Amazon, polybags are too thin, cardboard is too thin. You’ll need to increase your packaging allowance by typically $.03 to $.10/unit

▪Compliance – include product testing, factory audits, and inspections for launch, and testing/inspections that occur on an ongoing basis into the landed cost

REGULATORY COMPLIANCE ▪CPSC/Children’s Products – toys, durable infant and toddler products, all

“junior” size sporting goods, children’s clothing, shoes, scarves, purses/accessories, jewelry, ANYTHING for a person 13 or under

▪FDA regulatory – food contact, medical devices (class III for items like bandaids or toothbrushes), food or supplement labeling/ingredient approval, lasers, sunglasses

▪Other Governmental organizations: FCC, FTC, Coast Guard, Fish & Wildlife, USDA, NHTSA, DOE, EPA, ATF, DEA, OSHA, FAA, and DOT

QUALITY CONTROL▪Inspections ($309/man day)▪Raw Materials▪During Production▪Pre-shipment

▪Based on AQLs, which are statistical likelihood charts, not percentages. Factories are accustomed to 2.5/4.0 for major/minor (zero critical). This can result in 6-12% defect rate for the shipment. For Amazon, I recommend .65/1.0 AQL

QUALITY ASSURANCE▪Safety – Underwriter’s Laboratories (UL) is one of the oldest safety testing

laboratories in the world. Safety used to be mostly an insurance issue in the U.S. Product liability insurance is, however, very expensive to purchase and maintain, and ensuring compliance can be cheaper. Even if you have product liability insurance, doing compliance lowers your risk of a recall or stop sale and a claim on your insurance, which could greatly increase your premiums and reduce your profitability

▪Quality – Multiple independent trade association standards. These are at the lowest common denominator that the entire group could agree to, your products may need to meet higher standards to achieve your brand goals

IMPACT ON AMAZON ▪Higher volume of returns – these are placed back into inventory if there is not anything obviously wrong (even if you disable FBA Repackaging), increasing costs

▪Overall unhappy customers – leaving negative feedback or A-Z claims, which increases your ODR (order defect rate) and can get your funds held or your account suspended on Amazon

▪Poor packaging – results in damaged product and customer complaints, then warnings of “used sold as new”

▪Non-branded packaging – results in lack of customer trust, and complaints about “inauthentic” or “not as described”

▪IP infringement or safety issues – other sellers or rights holders complain to Amazon, and your product is taken down

CASCADIA’S SERVICES▪Compliance Services – we contract with reputable third party accredited

labs for you to get inspections completed for $309 flat rate and audits completed for $750 flat rate. If you consistently work with us (more then 12 inspections annually), we’ll reduce the rate to $299/inspection in coastal China, SE Asia, and India. Rates are higher for US/Europe sourced products .

▪Consulting Services – we consult with companies to create testing protocols specific to the Amazon marketplace and to US law, and packaging that meets Amazon’s and Amazon customers’ exacting expectations. We also support our clients with writing detail pages, HTS classification, freight quotes, and any interactions with Seller Performance or other Amazon enforcement teams.

▪www.thinkcascadia.com

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