Amazon Halting Shipments and the Impact of COVID-19: Key Takeaways and Actionable Steps

Amazon has announced a major update* prioritizing essential items to be received at fulfillment centers in response to global concerns regarding COVID-19.

*Read the full report from Amazon here!

Some sellers are panicking about how this will impact their businesses, but we’re here to help you proceed calmly and continue to thrive in a changing global environment.

At SellerTools, we want you to prioritize your health as well as the health of your loved ones, but hope you can use these quick tips to remove some financial stress and make your business run smoothly during this time.

March 17th was determined as the cutoff date with shipments created/sent prior to not impacted, and are only shipping items from a limited number of categories.

Categories still able to receive shipments include:

1. Baby Products
2. Grocery
3. Beauty & Personal Care (including personal care appliances)
4. Health & Household
5. Industrial & Scientific
6. Pet Supplies

Note, we have heard of brand owners in these categories running into SKU-specific limitations, so you may want to double-check your own shipping capabilities if you meet the criteria Amazon has set forth.

This will no doubt have a major impact on FBA logistics as a whole in the short term, and the long term impacts will remain to be seen.

We wanted to share with you some key tips and takeaways so you can act quickly on solutions and next steps.

Practical next steps and solutions:

– Using ManyChat?

Use the SellerTools API counter that is built into our powerful free ManyChat flows to DRIP sales and manage inventory while still realizing optimized sales via ManyChat.

– Make doubly sure you’ve requested reviews from customers.

By combining the power of our Bulk Review Request and Rules features in the SellerTools Chrome Extension, you can request reviews from ALL of your customers in seconds, as well as dial in to focus on repeat customers, specific ASINs, etc. This is all about making the most of already realized sales and inventory moved.

– Pursue FBM solutions or bring online existing solutions if possible.

By using our MCF Order API in ManyChat, you can run promotions and generate sales to supplement FBA sales.

– Configure Alerts to stay on top of any adverse events and monitor activity

Turn any worry into action during this time. Configuring Alerts for all of your products (and even priority keywords) will give you more peace of mind during this time to monitor activity and have you and your team stay vigilant.

Level up your alerts by using Webhooks!

– Monitor competitor inventory levels to benchmark what’s taking place in your category and make decisions accordingly.

Quick tips:

– Consolidate your keyword efforts.

Now isn’t a good time to stretch yourself thin and it’s better to WIN (by ranking) for keywords then trying to go after everything at once especially if you have limited inventory

– Consider fresh keyword research and re-optimizing your listing for greater visibility organic visibility

Running Keyword Wizard on higher priority ASINs can be beneficial at this time!

– Build out your internal SOPs and dial in your processes for activities taking place now and in the future.

We use Notion as our company wiki and it helps to centralize processes, resources, etc.

– Re-run your numbers in your business.

Now is a great time to re-review your KPIs and financials to understand the health, growth, and trends in your business. Take this bit of extra free time to invest in your business!

Stay safe. Stay vigilant. We’ll adapt and overcome this difficult time!

Have more ideas for how you can make the most of this change in the business environment? Join the conversation in FBA Kings!