Prepare Your Amazon Account for the Holiday Season

Merry Christmas to all our amazing subscribers! 🎄

In this special edition of Hunter's Insights, we bring you key Amazon updates and industry insights to help you stay ahead in the fast-paced world of e-commerce this holiday season:

📲 Amazon Advertising Revolution: Personalization Coming in 2025

🎁 Prepare Your Amazon Account for the Holiday Season

📃 Amazon Introduces Centralized Invoice Management for Advertisers

💻 Amazon DSP Rolls Out New Ad Placement Targeting Features

❗ Important Changes to Amazon’s Bundling Policy for Consumable Products

👥 Amazon Rolls Out New Customer Service Quality Insights for Sellers

💰 Amazon Updates FBA Reimbursement Policy to Focus on Manufacturing Cost

📲 Amazon Advertising Revolution: Personalization Coming in 2025

Amazon has announced a groundbreaking update for 2025: the ability to use Amazon Marketing Cloud (AMC) audiences in Sponsored Products campaigns. This innovation presents significant opportunities for sellers to refine their campaign strategies and better target specific customer segments.

With this new capability, sellers may soon be able to create audience-specific promotions and personalized coupon codes. This will provide new tools for engaging both new customers and returning shoppers. As a result, brands can enhance their interactions with audiences, making campaigns more effective and tailored to individual preferences.

As personalization becomes a key element of digital advertising, this update underscores Amazon's commitment to providing sellers with advanced tools to meet changing consumer expectations. By implementing these strategies, sellers can position their businesses for growth in a competitive marketplace.

🎁 Prepare Your Amazon Account for the Holiday Season

Amazon has announced updates to assist sellers in managing their accounts during the busy holiday season. Sellers who plan to take time off are encouraged to activate vacation settings to avoid potential performance issues. When this feature is enabled, seller-fulfilled listings will be temporarily removed from product detail pages and search results, ensuring no missed orders.

For those who will continue operating on public holidays, Amazon allows sellers to override the default holiday settings by marking those dates as "operating days." This adjustment updates delivery promises to customers and helps prevent discrepancies in shipping timelines. Sellers should be aware that these changes may take up to four hours to reflect in their accounts.

Additionally, Amazon’s Account Health Support will have limited hours during the holidays. Support will be closed on December 25, 2024, and January 1, 2025, with regular operations resuming on December 26, 2024, and January 2, 2025. Sellers are advised to address any account-related issues in advance to ensure smooth operations during these closures.

📃 Amazon Introduces Centralized Invoice Management for Advertisers

Starting December 16, 2024, Amazon will launch a global invoicing feature for advertisers using Sponsored Ads and Amazon DSP. This new feature allows users to manage their invoices from a single page, streamlining financial management by providing access to invoices individually or in bulk. Advertisers will have a country-level summary of amounts due and overdue.

Previously, advertisers had to navigate multiple country-specific pages to track their billing, which was time-consuming and inefficient. Now, with a centralized location, they can view and download invoices from all regions, making the process faster and more transparent. Users of Amazon DSP will also benefit from improved search, sorting, and filtering tools to manage their linked accounts. Additionally, public APIs will allow third-party integrators to automate invoice retrieval and consolidation.

This feature will be available in key markets across North and South America, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia Pacific. Advertisers can access it through the Amazon Ads Console or the Amazon Ads API. This update simplifies financial oversight and helps sellers stay organized, ensuring smoother billing and payment processes worldwide.

💻 Amazon DSP Rolls Out New Ad Placement Targeting Features

Amazon DSP has introduced two new targeting features aimed at giving advertisers greater control over their ad placements in display and native inventory. Advertisers can now specify fold positions (above or below the fold) for display and video ads, as well as select from various native placements such as in-feed, in-article, or recommendation widgets. This update seeks to enhance visibility and engagement by ensuring that ads appear in strategic locations.

These targeting options are accessible directly in the Amazon DSP user interface and API. Advertisers can apply the new settings during campaign creation or editing by using the targeting widget within the line item settings. This enhancement is available across third-party inventory and Amazon Publisher Direct (APD), with plans to expand fold position targeting for Amazon-owned inventory by Q1 2025.

The rollout spans key regions in North America, South America, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia Pacific, enabling advertisers to fine-tune their campaigns on a global scale. With these features, Amazon DSP continues to offer tools that help sellers maximize the effectiveness of their ads, resulting in improved performance and return on investment.

❗ Important Changes to Amazon’s Bundling Policy for Consumable Products

Amazon has introduced updates to its Product Bundling Policy for consumables, effective October 14, 2024. These changes aim to ensure that consumable products - especially those used by children, pets, and vulnerable populations - are safe, authentic, and handled appropriately. The updated policy clarifies that all bundled consumables must include products packaged by the original manufacturer or brand.

Sellers can bundle items like dish sprays and refills, provided they come directly from the brand. However, creating bundles by repackaging products from different brands is prohibited unless sellers obtain a Letter of Authorization from the brand owner. Gift baskets remain an exception, allowing products from various brands to be combined if packaged in a gifting format.

New consumable bundles must comply with this policy immediately, while enforcement for existing bundles will begin on January 1, 2025. Ensuring compliance with these guidelines is essential for maintaining product listings and avoiding potential issues moving forward.

👥 Amazon Rolls Out New Customer Service Quality Insights for Sellers

Amazon has introduced updates to the Feedback Manager in Seller Central, which provides sellers with enhanced insights into their customer service performance. This new dashboard emphasizes key metrics that are essential for managing seller-fulfilled orders, offering valuable data to help improve the buyer experience.

The dashboard tracks three important performance indicators: the Preventable Contact Rate, which highlights customer service issues related to product quality, shipping, or fulfillment; the Average Contact Response Time, which measures how quickly sellers respond to buyer inquiries; and the Buyer Dissatisfaction Rate, which reflects the percentage of buyers who are unsatisfied with how their issues were resolved.

Sellers can compare their performance against top performers and store-wide averages, allowing them to identify trends and areas that may need improvement. Month-over-month comparisons provide a clear view of progress, with color-coded indicators that show improvements or areas requiring more attention. Although these insights do not impact account health, they offer valuable guidance for refining customer service practices and enhancing overall buyer satisfaction.

💰 Amazon Updates FBA Reimbursement Policy to Focus on Manufacturing Cost

Amazon has announced updates to its Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) inventory reimbursement policy, effective March 10, 2025. Under the new policy, reimbursements for lost or damaged inventory will be based on the product’s manufacturing cost, allowing sellers to have greater transparency and predictability. The manufacturing cost is defined as the price of sourcing the product from a manufacturer, wholesaler, or reseller, excluding expenses such as shipping, customs, or handling fees. 

Sellers will have two options for determining the manufacturing cost. Amazon will provide an estimate based on comparable products sold across various channels, or sellers can submit their own manufacturing costs directly. If no cost is provided, Amazon’s estimate will automatically apply, with the option to update it later. This new feature will be accessible through the Inventory Defect and Reimbursement portal starting in late January 2025.

Additionally, Amazon will continue to offer automatic reimbursements for items lost in fulfillment centers, eliminating the need for manual claims. For inventory lost or damaged after a customer purchase, reimbursements will still reflect the original sales price, minus applicable fees. This update demonstrates Amazon’s ongoing efforts to streamline processes, reduce inventory losses, and provide sellers with consistent and timely compensation.

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