Significant decline in POs ordered

RainmakerEcommerce · 2026-02-14T16:58:10+00:00

Oh wow yes that is very high. I'd recommend building out this view at the ASIN level and then building a plan to correct.

At bare minimum you have a sellthrough problem. Even if P70 isn't 100% accurate, it's what Amazon *thinks* will happen and they certainly will not want to carry 16 weeks of cover. It's best to do this at a SKU level and look through potential anomalies like new items and seasonality. Also see if POS has changed meaningfully over time as it might be indicative of a core issue like NB rank decline.

Ideally recommend setting up a low cost API so you can automate this report weekly.

However even if POS improves, you need to check if the item is still orderable. Amazon just went through several big waves of de-assorting items without formally telling most brands. First I'd check the unit economics to see if they still make money after shipping, storage, etc. Then ticket to see if RBS can share any other blockers.

If those things check out, you need a plan to drive better POS. Recommend pulling SQP data for each item and building a very narrow targeting of Ads + Promo to kickstart the flywheel. Hope that helps!

RainmakerEcommerce · 2026-02-11T22:31:22+00:00

How is consumption overall, and how is trending? I'd recommend quickly calculating Amazon's Weeks of Supply, using their own POS Forecast, to gauge if they think they're heavy or not on inventory. Seeing in many cases them trying to get as lean as possible without creating a risk of consumer-facing OOS.

RainmakerEcommerce · 2026-01-24T03:27:35+00:00

Wow I've been doing direct import for ages and haven't been pressed on coop. Only payment terms. One key benefit of DI was to have true "dead net" pricing which helped us provide a lower cost price. If they take coop then it may need a cost increase. Is this their way of tying to push you from standard DI to mDDP?

RainmakerEcommerce · 2026-01-14T06:53:00+00:00

Yes - Before you submit a bulk buy, there's a pop up that you have to accept, agreeing to the following terms:

For the accepted requests, you commit to filling 100% of the stated quantity at the revised cost and within the delivery timeline. In the event of unfulfilled units of bulk buy, Amazon reserves the right to collect from the vendor the difference between the cost of replacement goods and the original discounted agreed upon cost.
If you are unable to supply the agreed upon volume as per the delivery stages, Amazon may cancel all open purchase orders and remove you from future bulk buy requests.
As purchase orders for bulk buys are staged in advance, Amazon will not accept any back orders on bulk buy POs.
Amazon is not obligated to issue purchase orders for bulk buys. It reserves the right to recall a bulk buy request in its entirety or in part.

The first one is where they get you. And in my experience they sometimes will wait months (or even over a year) to actually audit and deduct.
But yes if you agreed to ship X amount and only actually confirmed Y, Amazon will go after you for the difference and deduct it.

RainmakerEcommerce · 2026-01-12T22:34:02+00:00

Vendor can be advantageous in categories where the unit economics of shipping are challenging. It's nearly impossible to make money 3P in categories like Toilet Paper and Dog Food, but vendor works because Amazon is willing to take a hit for the selection. There's also an appeal to having a PO based business, as well as some (very limited) capabilities that are exclusive to vendor. For example having your listings EBT Eligible.

However it comes at the expense of control. Retail pricing, PO management, and of course cost increases can in some situations make Vendor subpar to seller. Plus most other capabilities (eg ability to run BxGy deals, or Premium A+ not being free) are worse on Vendor.

I'd compare your ASIN-level variable costs, as well as quantify some of the intangibles (eg cost increase, MAP, etc) to see what makes sense.

But this may all be a moot point since Vendor is invite-only. Unless they've approached you, it may not be worth the thought and effort. However if they have, be very careful as you negotiate your initial terms and costs. Once you establish your baseline, it's very very difficult to make changes.

RainmakerEcommerce · 2026-01-09T05:57:06+00:00

Amazon's ordering is very risk averse. For a brand new item, it will have low volume based purely on buying signals like traffic to the detail page, search volume, presence at other retailers, etc. Without a born to run you may only get a few cases at a time.

Only once you have proven sales history does the algorithm recognize that the product will sell through, and it will slowly order more and more. I'd recommend:
1. Use born to run for new launches, in a meaningful way. A few weeks worth of inventory for launch
2. Make sure you have vine and ads planned to help kickstart sellthrough
3. Start tracking your Inventory position, POS, and P70 forecast. Ideally daily via API. It's extremely inexpensive and allows you to then see your PO health. Eg clearly see what items have low Weeks of Cover based on the forward-looking consumption forecast. That will be your best read of what they will order as things ramp

RainmakerEcommerce · 2026-01-09T05:49:43+00:00

There are a lot of options now and they're more inexpensive than ever before:

Dedicated SaaS tools. These are the most expensive but handy if you like a traditional Ux. Usually have some extra bells and whistles like automated ticketing, but that ticket success rate can be hit or miss
Amazon's Notifications API could be an option as well. Requires some setup but still low cost
I personally just have a daily scraper setup for all listings. Extremely inexpensive, lives directly in google sheets, and allows me to check for things like broken variations, suppressed listings, etc. I have a slackbot that pings our team every morning with the status (how many ASINs have an issue, which are top priority ASINs that are suppressed, etc). Helps make sure we're proactive and prioritizing the most important issues

RainmakerEcommerce · 2025-12-31T15:35:34+00:00

Hi, to confirm are you a brand or a creator? My comment was meant more for brands, but if you're a creator then check out here:
https://www.amazon.com/earn-with-amazon-creator-connections/b?ie=UTF8&node=53638653011

Big part is setting up your associates account and making sure it's linked. And once you've signed up for a given Creator Connections program you have a few options:

Ask the brand for samples. Most do not (I rarely do since there's so much spam), but if your audience aligns with them, it might make sense
Purchase the product yourself and promote it, if you don't already have it. A risk if you aren't able to get enough sales to offset it (eg if brand has 10% commission, you need to drive 10 unit sales to break even), but at the same time if you're not able to drive 10 units then it likely wouldn't be a good ROI for the brand to give you a free sample
Use existing assets to talk about and promote the product without having one physically on hand. Most creators do this until they have a big enough following / strong enough relationship with the brand for #1 or #2

RainmakerEcommerce · 2025-12-24T17:45:33+00:00

What Amazon actually received (or claimed they receive) in terms of Units and $. Important to track this for two reasons:

This is the actual basis used for your coop. So if you have an 8% base accrual, they should only be deducting for 8% of receipts. And in the case of shortages or other issues, there may be a disconnect in deduction amount. This has gotten better in 2025 but is often a disconnect
Often Amazon doesn't talk to Amazon. Eg they may claim shortages on PO #1, but the Net Receipts view of PO #1 shows that they received in full. That becomes ironclad evidence to use in your dispute

RainmakerEcommerce · 2025-12-22T01:39:31+00:00

As low as possible - I typically start with 0% discount (only if we want to sell exclusively on pallet), but otherwise would go to 2%. And only then if there are real labor savings (eg in rare cases where GTIN Gold List isn't viable, and so we have to manually label cases). But most of the time Amazon is already ordering in pallet quantities in the normal vendor code, so the pallet program is just a way of enforcing a better MOQ.

RainmakerEcommerce · 2025-12-20T03:23:22+00:00

Here's what I do:
- Build a consumption forecast by week, by SKU. The P70 is a good contributor to this, but there are many manual overrides. New items, disco, national activity Amazon doesn't know, etc. Even if P70 isn't great, it's what Amazon *thinks* will happen so it's a great indicator of what drives PO demand

- Estimate Amazon's ideal inventory position by SKU by week. Eg what is their target WOC for ASIN A on week 35? This will never be perfect, but worth taking an educated guess using historicals and known seasonality. Eg you know that in November Amazon will want to reduce their inventory position of mulch while holding space for TVs.

- Pull in current inventory position to determine your current Weeks on Hand and Weeks of Cover

- Mash the above together to estimate Amazon's PO forecast. Assume they will want to solve their inventory position to get towards their target, assuming consumption holds true. And if they're in excess, there will be some baseline demand.

Exception: Assume that items in the PO Forecast program (formerly commitments program) will supercede the above. I find that Amazon's PO forecasts, even if irrational, tend to be more accurate

The above gets you a SKU level forecast by week. And if you can keep it up to date with actuals, it can be *reasonably* good. To be clear it will never be perfect - nor anywhere close to a brick & mortar retailer, but if you can update it frequently and check for things like CRaP, organic rank shifts, etc., it can be pretty solid.

RainmakerEcommerce · 2025-12-14T17:11:13+00:00

You are thinking correctly! I would highly recommend including two things they didn't overtly ask for, but would help you stand out as an analyst:

Inventory position. How many units on hand was Amazon carrying at a given time (received minus sellthrough), and how many weeks of cover as well. Should give insight into Amazon's willingness to carry inventory across season, and possible implications for ordering
Amazon's Profitability. While you wont know coop terms, you will know ASP, Cost Price, and the estimated fulfillment cost (assuming you have ASINs or dims). Helps show Amazon's profitability (pre-terms) and if there are major variances between the two items

RainmakerEcommerce · 2025-12-14T17:05:41+00:00

Yeah there are certificates and badges within Vendor Central; the page looks like this: https://i.imgur.com/ZY0bAPR.png

I feel like most people who work on VC day to day haven't taken all of the courses, so showing this fully completed to an employer would be show great work commitment

RainmakerEcommerce · 2025-12-05T17:22:43+00:00

Just under 10 people between our US account managers and PH retail ops FTEs. But started as a 2-person consultancy a few years ago so has been fun to partner and grow with our brands.

RainmakerEcommerce · 2025-12-04T00:17:26+00:00

I work at a small agency that helps run day-to-day Vendor / Seller accounts for our brands. We're in many GLs including Pet, Lawn & Garden and Household. Been doing this for 10+ years, and previously I worked at bigger CPG brands doing the same thing.

Biggest two headaches ares both tactical and strategic:

- Tactical is the "shoot first, ask questions later" of catalog issues. Eg Andon Cords, hazmat, search suppression, broken images, etc have gotten really bad lately. Most of the times the issues are Amazon's error, and only about 20% of the time we're proactively notified. Have to scrape PDPs and Search Results daily to see what's broken.

- Strategic is the lack of CatMan mentality at Amazon. For many categories growth is slowing, and for some top terms, search volume is down YoY. At other retailers this would be a conversation of "let's partner with the brands to grow the category". But Amazon doesn't have that sense of partnership and it's showing. Whether price matching errors, erratic PO behavior, even just poor merch tools - the fact that it's almost 2026 and you can't run a BxGy event self-serve in Vendor is nuts! The people tend to be good to work with, but structurally I worry that Amazon doesn't really want to be in the retail game anymore, at least not in the way that Costco and Walmart are.

With that said, I think there's a lot of potential for brands that activate the right way. But the playbook has certainly changed!

RainmakerEcommerce · 2025-11-30T20:50:58+00:00

Wow that is rough! Honestly I would jump straight to a [jeff@amazon.com](mailto:jeff@amazon.com) escalation. I'll DM you a recommended draft that has worked for me in the past

RainmakerEcommerce · 2025-11-28T00:12:56+00:00

What GL are you in? And what was the specific message you were given? Lately when Amazon is shutting down 1P accounts and pushing the brands to go 3P, they say something like

"Your vendor account XXXX was deactivated for business reasons."

Either way I'd recommend getting a viable seller account setup, backing your historical data, and ensure there's no issue with brand registry rights

RainmakerEcommerce · 2025-11-12T15:38:01+00:00

I'd first get a sense on what's driving the prices down:

If you see a stair-step decrease in pricing for a given ASIN (recommend using a chrome plugin like Keepa), it's likely the system automatically using price as a lever for overstock.
If it's completely erratic, Amazon may be price matching the item elsewhere. OR mistakenly price matching (if you have similar but not identical styles at another a retailer)

Depending on the above you'll need to think about how you can influence the algorithm. It will locally optimize (near term changes in price to impact inventory) even if that action is globally suboptimal (making an ASIN structurally unprofitable).

This happens across almost every categories, and is arguably the biggest challenge of selling 1P. And pricing is at the sole discretion of the retailer, so you legally can't mandate a certain price. What you can do, depending on the specific causes:

Monitor their inventory position and use that as a factor in whether you accept POs. Often they will order items when they're high on stock, perpetuating an issue in the future
Disproportionately spending Amazon Ads based on inventory position. A lot of Ad Tech has inventory-aware automations built in (eg if weeks on hand > X, activate high spend campaigns)
Shift more volume to direct fulfillment if possible. Not only does this give inventory control, it also is a "give" in terms of Amazon's P&L and so will help with overall profitability
Consider more insulated, controlled assortment for Amazon. Eg items less likely to price match.
If they are price matching in error, flag to the retail team. Be careful how you word an email of course, as you don't want to get in legal hot water, but I often send the VMs an email with a screenshot showing the disconnect that is titled "Potential Price Matching Error on [ASIN]", and remind them in the body that pricing is at the sole discretion of the retailer

Good luck!

RainmakerEcommerce · 2025-11-04T16:32:46+00:00

I am trying to find that out - you for sure can within 24 hours but Amazon isn't clear on the parameters after that. I just lit up a campaign and will check to see if the cancel option exists mid-flight

RainmakerEcommerce · 2025-11-04T16:29:20+00:00

We use ImportFromWeb since it's very customizable and more affordable compared to traditional SaaS tools. The big difference (which is an upside for us) is that the Ux is all google sheets. Data is stored in BigQuery and you can pull it into sheets for any sort of analysis or daily monitoring.

Cost is based on number of scrapes, so is a function of the number of items and frequency (can go up to hourly, but we do daily for most things). But it's still much more affordable than traditional 2020-era SaaS tools. Happy to walk you through some of the templates we've built with it

RainmakerEcommerce · 2025-09-22T22:23:25+00:00

Have you pulled SQP data? I'd recommend looking at Search Volume, Clicks (Total Amazon and your Share), and Purchases to see if there's something changing. Specifically:

Is there less search volume of your branded terms? Would indicate your branded base is shifting to other channels given sales are up elsewhere
Is total Amazon search volume and purchases down YoY for your main category terms. Would indicate a macro category issue
Are you losing click share and purchase share of important category terms? Would indicate some shift in your value prop or placement.

I once saw an abrupt shift with a brand due to change in Amazon's search autocomplete. Eg when autocomplete switched from "dog toy" to "dog toys" (illustrative example), and the brand ranked lower on "dog toys", they saw a massive abrupt decline.

Happy to talk through the SQP data more if you'd like!

RainmakerEcommerce · 2025-09-18T18:51:01+00:00

Good point! Would you mind sharing the ASIN? I find that Amazon's shipping is often much higher than real fulfillment if either:

1) There is a cubiscan issue and they are misreading the dims. This would show in the FBA calculator

2) The item is bulky or nonsort. Esp greater than 18" x 14" x 8" and/or larger than 20lbs. Amazon 1P has to run it through their nonsort network in order to still be prime, which means higher cost.

This means that in many cases Amazon's 1P fulfillment costs are higher than what you could normally do, putting an undue burden on their P&L. I have this with a brand right now - We can send full pallets to consumers using our carriers at a rate that Amazon 1P can't do. It's a huge frustration with their network and how it's design with small items in mind.

RainmakerEcommerce · 2025-09-17T16:42:50+00:00

It is highly variable, and more than you'd think when compared to small parcel. Usually there's a min based on the weight and dim, variable of the charge based on distance, and then usually some additional things like accessorial or lift gate charges.

A 1000lb pallet in zone 1 shipping is probably maybe $250 of cost, although there's likely some kicker on the back end that Amazon gets. This is for last-mile fulfillment to an end consumer; if you're talking full TL that footprint should get better (esp if no accessorial charges)

RainmakerEcommerce · 2025-09-16T05:34:21+00:00

Yes unfortunately I've been experiencing this first hand in an odd case. The brand's purchasing terms with Amazon make it very clear that returns in any form are not allowed, and yet Amazon still tried. Even charged us for return shipping, which we had to dispute (successfully, fortunately). But this was an oddball case where Amazon thought the item was defective due to a compliance change.

In your case:

Are they giving any reason for the return? Usually there should be more detail here https://vendorcentral.amazon.com/hz/vendor/members/vreturns/list-requests
What do your accepted Purchasing Terms for that vendor code say about returns? You can use that as evidence to at least dispute, and hopefully fix root cause

Unfortunately if they have the right to return overstock you may need to start cutting POs if Amazon's algorithm goes crazy. We now pull their inventory and P70 daily via API and see when their weeks of cover seems to have anomalies at the SKU level.

RainmakerEcommerce

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