Top 5 Amazon News for April 2023
Each month, we monitor Amazon news and updates to seize opportunities as well as to avoid potential problems before they become an issue for us and our clients.
Stay informed with our monthly newsletter!
Here we share the top updates and news for April 2023:
1. Ask Amazon: Simplified FBA capacity limits (USA & Canada)
Amazon announcement:
“(…) We recently announced that we’re replacing the weekly restock limit and quarterly storage limit with a single monthly capacity limit per storage type to give you more predictability and control over your inventory.
We also introduced the Capacity Manager, giving you the opportunity to request additional capacity based on a reservation fee that you specify. (…)”
ProMerit Tip: In the “Capacity manager” you can find your current usage measured in cubic meters, including “open shipment” meters (capacity used by your incoming shipments) and “on-hand” meters (capacity used by your current inventory at Amazon fulfilment centers). This is where you can request additional capacity. You can see more information in the “FBA capacity limits” section, where it explains how capacity limits are set and other FAQs.
2. Improved benefits for your new FBA products (USA)
Amazon announcement:
“Effective March 1, 2023, we expanded the benefits for FBA New Selection to help make it even easier to launch new products on Amazon.
10% rebate for brand owners
If you’re a brand owner enrolled in Brand Registry, you can receive an average rebate of 10%, up from 5%, on sales of your eligible parent ASINs. The rebate applies to up to 30 units for eligible oversize ASINs for 90 days, and up to 100 units for eligible standard-size ASINs for 120 days.
Benefits for more units and for extended days
For all eligible standard-size ASINs, the storage, liquidation, and rebate benefits apply to up to 100 units per parent ASIN, up from 50 units.
Storage and rebate benefits are also available for 120 days per standard-size parent ASIN, up from 90 days.”
ProMerit Tip: These are benefits Amazon is offering on new FBA products, allowing sellers to qualify for free monthly storage and free removals for all eligible new-to-FBA parent ASINs.
To participate, you must enroll in the program, and then AMZ will determine whether you qualify for the fee waivers based on the criteria provided by them. All conditions and criteria are available on the platform, such as eligible ASINs and existing limits.
3. Diverse on-model apparel imagery for better representation of Amazon customers (USA)
Amazon announcement:
“Amazon started adding new imagery to some adult apparel products detail pages on March 31, 2023, to diversify models’ representation of people and reflect our customers.
Amazon is for everyone, so our stores’ imagery should feature representations of people that are as diverse as are our customers. This new feature adds on-model imagery to the detail page for select ASINs in the Apparel Category at no additional cost for sellers.
The result will be a curated image block that includes between 1 and 3 new images (MAIN, PT01, PT02). On mobile we are increasing the number of available image blocks to 10 so that as many as three curated images can be featured without supplanting any existing images. For desktops, the last 1-3 images of the block will not be shown to customers.
The result will be multiple diverse models featuring the same product.”
ProMerit Tip: This news is not surprising as it is in keeping with market trends, but we advise those with apparel brands to monitor their listings going forward, to detect any automatic changes that may be made by Amazon, to ensure that they best reflect their brands, and in order to be able to take action or contact support in the event a correction is needed.
4. New options to report product detail page image issues (USA)
Amazon announcement:
“We’re making it easier for you to report issues with images on your product detail page, based on your most common requests.
You’ll soon be able to select from two new options when you report an issue with your product listing images in Seller Central:
- “Remove images” will allow you to report images on the detail page that don’t align with Amazon’s product guidelines.
- “Dispute main detail page image” will allow you to open a case to investigate why your images are not showing on the detail page.
The new options will allow our Selling Partner Support team to quickly and accurately investigate and resolve issues with images.
These changes will roll out to all US sellers in the coming weeks.”
ProMerit Tip: We’ve experienced some issues on detail page images, so we’re pleased to have these two new options to identify and solve those issues more quickly.
The most common issues we face are the automatic changes that Amazon makes to our images, the deletion of images due to a policy change, or simply errors on the platform. Issues may also arise if you have not applied to the brand registry, or, even with the brand registry, it can sometimes overwrite content you’ve uploaded, which requires submitting a claim with support.
5. Multi-Channel Fulfilment Canada: 2023 fee updates starting April 21 (Canada)
Amazon announcement:
“Starting April 21, 2023, Multi-Channel Fulfilment (MCF) fees will be increased to reflect the rise in operational costs brought about by inflationary pressures. This update will help ensure that we can continue to provide best-in-class fulfilment services for your business.
The changes include the following:
- Fee increases across all size tiers
- Addition of a remote area surcharge for orders that are shipping to Yukon, the Northwest Territories and Nunavut, effective June 15, 2023
- The 5% fuel and inflation surcharge will be covered in the base fee and will no longer be applied separately.
Multi-Channel Fulfilment improvements
To continue to support your business growth, we’ve made the following improvements:
- We are now shipping Multi-Channel Fulfilment orders in Canada in unbranded packaging, at no additional cost to you.
- We recently achieved ISO/IEC 27001:2013 certification of our IT security systems, demonstrating our commitment to maintaining the highest standards of data security and compliance.
We registered an on-time delivery rate of more than 98% for Multi-Channel Fulfilment orders in Canada.”
ProMerit Tip: New fee increases have arrived due to inflationary pressures. This will require our detailed attention, as all size tiers are impacted. Some territories within Canada will also face a specific impact.
The good news is that Amazon’s platform keeps up to date with unbranded packaging needs without impacting the cost to brands, while also seeking to maintain high standards of data security and compliance.
You can find further information about this topic under the “Fulfillment fees for Multi-Channel Fulfillment orders” section.
We hope this article is helpful for your businesses. Please note that the above announcements have been sourced from Amazon’s official channels as well as from some well-known business blogs.
If you have any questions related to our services, please contact us. Remember to sign up for our newsletter to receive more exciting news every month!
