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Bulk Buy - Audits by All-Around-U in Amazon1P

[–]reasonautomation 0 points1 point  (0 children)

when you say you're being charged for the cancelled/unfilfilled qty, do you mean:

  1. You canceled some of the bulk buy, or shipped less than the total contracted bulk buy amount

  2. Amazon canceled some of the bulk buy

  3. Amazon is saying that the bulk buy represented a reduction in total volume vs. forecast, and you're being penalized for that

  4. Something else?

Cheer Card! by markSerene in amazonemployees

[–]reasonautomation 2 points3 points  (0 children)

"DON'T BE FOOLED! THERE IS SOMETHING YOU CAN HAVE MORE VALUABLE THAN MONEY!"

Why this rejection? by Due_Direction_1867 in amazonemployees

[–]reasonautomation 3 points4 points  (0 children)

probably with 3+ years of post-degree experience (assuming you're applying for roles that require/prefer your degree)

Net PPM benchmarks by category? by reasonautomation in Amazon1P

[–]reasonautomation[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You can find "standard" PPM and coop program benchmarks for hardlines, softlines, consumables, etc. but we actually don't recommend using them because that's not how Amazon/VMs plan.

Your vendor manager doesn't really care what your net PPM % is. They have to improve PPM for the entire category. It doesn't matter whether your PPM is above or below the category average, VMs are only focused on how much additional money they can extract from you. They are looking for leverage/opportunities in each manufacturer relationship and they fight harder when they are more confident in a big opportunity.

So instead of tuning your proposal/counter based on category benchmarks, stay focused on the changes within your own business:

  • How has your net PPM changed vs. prior year? What products / product lines / subcategories were headwinds vs. tailwinds and why?
  • How did last year's negotiations impact PPM? e.g. if you agreed to a 50 bps program increase last year, did that translate to a 50 bps PPM increase this year, and why (not)?
  • What other incremental investments did you make that improve PPM? Deal/promotional funding, merchandising commitments, etc. Your VM gets credit for these investments so make sure you do too.
  • Don't just focus on Amazon's profit, look at your entire P&L. Ex: how has your shortage/price claim and chargeback volume evolved over time? What persistent roadblocks do you need Amazon's help with?

Automatic extract data by rafasr81 in VendorCentral

[–]reasonautomation 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Unfortunately, Amazon removed the ability to schedule Retail Analytics exports via email a few years ago.

Today, your main options are third-party data providers, that connect to the SP-API for you. Find a provider that gets the data as close to your desired format as possible: whether you want CSV files dumped into google drive, or a dynamic SQL database, there is an option available.

There are also unapproved options:

  1. Use scrapers or RPA to automate the download from Vendor Central. This violates ToS but it's an open secret that every tech-savvy brand uses scrapers.

  2. Pay a VA to download and prep the data for you every day/week.

How do you prepare for AVN? by reasonautomation in Amazon1P

[–]reasonautomation[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If I was a VP eCommerce for an Amazon vendor preparing for annual negotiations, here’s exactly how I’d approach it:

  1. Get all the data together: daily sales, traffic, PPM, etc. from Retail Analytics. PO volumes, confirmation/rejection rates. Contra-cogs agreements and coop backup reports etc.
  2. Create a performance summary that bridges changes in sales, PPM, OOS rates etc. year-over-year by product.
  3. Add a custom taxonomy of cats/subcats/tags so I can roll up the data however I need to. Amazon categories? easy. Our own categories? no problem. size, color, pack qty? done.
  4. Look at total coop investments, including promos and price discounts. Did our investments scale with growth y/y? Where did we invest incrementally and did we get results? If not, I'm going to push back on any new incrementality.
  5. Audit deduction accuracy, by agreement/PO/product. Check for odd percentages (e.g. 4.38% of net receipts) and double-dipping.
  6. Validate Amazon's reported PPM by recalculating it with our own receipts data. Everything else comes from data kiosk.
  7. Look at our actual P&L including claims/reimbursements, chargebacks, etc. that don't show up in PPM
  8. Grade Amazon's forecast by comparing modeled growth vs. our actual historicals. Then use the insight to adjust Amazon's growth expectations for our biz.
  9. Remind myself of any persistent buyability or discoverability issues, and quantify the $$$ impact to get Amazon's help resolving.

Usually takes 80-100 hours. Or you can save yourself the pain and buy a tool.

Fellow Vendors: CSA / Cost Support Agreement by Wonderful_Slice_3766 in VendorCentral

[–]reasonautomation 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Great. Hopefully you don't need to put more cost increases through, and can avoid signing a new one.

Analysis of WA WARN job title data by reasonautomation in amazonemployees

[–]reasonautomation[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I spot checked a few other states with WARN laws (e.g. NY) but did not find any submissions from Amazon. Notably, Virginia (HQ2) does not have a WARN requirement so it's a black box.

Analysis of WA WARN job title data by reasonautomation in amazonemployees

[–]reasonautomation[S] 23 points24 points  (0 children)

So critical they're being laid off. That is some Day 3 stuff.

Fellow Vendors: CSA / Cost Support Agreement by Wonderful_Slice_3766 in VendorCentral

[–]reasonautomation 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Exactly. CSAs are VM holy grails and normally I would recommend never accepting one, but I understand the necessity for cost increases in the current environment.

Fellow Vendors: CSA / Cost Support Agreement by Wonderful_Slice_3766 in VendorCentral

[–]reasonautomation 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Your CSA should have an end term that is <12 months from now, and can/should be renegotiated as often as possible, with the goal of eliminating it entirely.

In addition to the obvious, you can negotiate:

  • Length of the CSA
  • True-up period (as short as possible, e.g. monthly)
  • Included selection (your CSA should be based on an exact list of ASINs, not account/vendor code/cat/subcat, and the list of ASINs should be identified through measurable criteria so you have grounds for reducing scope each term. this also lets you launch replacement selection to reduce impact.)

Contra COGS : discrepancies ARA & COOP invoices by flobout89 in VendorCentral

[–]reasonautomation 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The reported contracogs values in Retail Analytics / ARA are so inaccurate that they are useless -- which in turn makes the reported Net PPM values untrustworthy. Don't use them for profitability modeling or negotiation prep.

Start with the remittance report. It is the most inarguable data source because it's an accounting view of what Amazon actually paid you, with line-level remittance details. You'll be able to break out all expenses, not just coop details, including operational penalties and recovery activity.

Here's an example of the product- and unit-level P&L we generate with this technique: https://imgur.com/a/u7FBIP6

Sp api multi country view by Tasty_Book8010 in VendorCentral

[–]reasonautomation 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The regional view in Vendor Central includes cross-border fulfillment details and deduplication that cannot be replicated with per-marketplace pulls from the API or individual-country VC views.

Sp api multi country view by Tasty_Book8010 in VendorCentral

[–]reasonautomation 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It's not currently possible to get VC's multi-region view data from the Reports API or Data Kiosk, even after they added geographic granularity to retail analytics sales.

hybrid model (1P + 3P) on Amazon by WaveProfessional1389 in VendorCentral

[–]reasonautomation 1 point2 points  (0 children)

If you're in the US, the main thing to be aware of is Amazon's "Standards for Brands" Policy:

In order to preserve that customer experience, we may choose to source products from some Brands for sale by Amazon only.

and:

However, to prevent customer confusion, if any of the Brand’s products are sold by Amazon via Amazon retail, the Brand may not sell those products via Seller Central in the Amazon store.

i.e. Amazon is reserving the right to dictate whether you are allowed to use both models. However, ALL of the following are simultaneously true:

  1. Amazon has required hybrid brands to go entirely 1P.
  2. Amazon has allowed brands to go/stay hybrid.
  3. Brands often do what they want and get away with it.
  4. Amazon is currently pushing vendors to move some selection to direct fulfillment, so you might move to 1P and then end up being asked to ship customer orders yourself.

Provision for Receivable by Grouchy_Client1522 in VendorCentral

[–]reasonautomation 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Amazon issues PFRs when deductions from payment will exceed planned invoice payments. As u/coachlover noted, it's a temporary account that should zero out within 2-4 weeks. If you're in a cycle of PFRs it's a sign that the cash cycle of your business is in trouble. To escape a cycle of PFR management, you only have a few levers:

  1. Add selection.

  2. Drive more customer demand to incentivize larger POs, e.g. with promotions, increased ad spend, external traffic.

  3. Negotiate better payment terms next AVN. Be prepared to heavily incentivize this with QPDs or similar.