This Issue's TLDR...

• A strategy to test if you're having trouble with Partnered Carrier pick-ups
• Amazon is holding your funds for longer, and there's unfortunately nothing you can do
• BIG SURPRISE: AWD fees are going up

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SPONSOR TrueOps Why are you paying more than a 10% commission to your FBA reimbursements provider? Seriously, I want to know. Are you sticking with your provider because they claim to recover more $? Are you sticking with your provider because some well-known "Amazon expert" (that might not even sell on Amazon anymore) is always recommending that provider? Look, man, you do you. But, for me, I'm going to pocket the extra cash from only paying 10% vs 25%. ​ Pay Just 10% with TrueOps Today

Look, I know a few things about Amazon from working there.

But, like most, I have to figure things out along the way, as the marketplace evolves.

And one of the problems that has stumped me for the better part of this year has been...

How can I get my products into FBA faster?

Now, before you reply to this message and suggest AWD or a Middle Mile solution, know that...I've already gone down those paths and costed them out.

Either the math doesn't math, or there are other overriding blockers.

So, I'm still muddling around, trying to find an answer to the question above.

I should probably spend a minute here on why I'm seeking an answer to this question...

You see, since Q2-2024, coincident with the launch of Amazon's new FBA Inbound Placement Fees and its restructuring of nodes in its fulfillment network to nIXDs, rIXDs, and FCs, I've been dealing with consistent inbounding delays, driven by Partnered Carriers missing their LTL pick-up appointments at my warehouse.

In the beginning, I chalked this up to carriers...sucking.

But as I dove in, and talked to folks inside and outside of Amazon, I learned that these carriers weren't missing their pick-up appointments out of incompetence. They were missing them because Amazon was allowing me to set up a shipment and choose an LTL pick-up date that may or may not coincide with available receiving dates at an nIXD/rIXD/FC.

Put differently, and to paraphrase T-Swift: "Amazon, hi, it's you. You're the problem, it's you."

And how big has that problem been?

I created a metric for my business, VarPU -- Variance to Pick-Up Date -- and calculated it going back ~18 months.

In 2H-2023, VarPU was 3.2 days. Carriers were, on average, missing their assigned pick-up dates by 3.2 days.

In 1H-2024, VarPU was 5.1 days. Higher than 2023, but not meaningfully different.

In 2H-2024, VarPU has skyrocketed to 16.3 days.

These delayed pick-ups have been nothing short of devastating.

But, I maybe had a root cause here.

So...I created a plan to *hopefully* address the root cause.

And that plan involved...Amazon Freight.

But not in the way you think.

If you don't know, Amazon Freight as an FTL option offers some unique ways to get products into Amazon's network faster. (If you want to know more, just email me; I don't want to go off on a tangent here)

BuT jOn, ArEn't YoU tRyInG tO gEt PrOdUcTs InTo AmAzOn FaStEr??

Well, yes.

The problem is...I don't always have a FTL worth of product to send in and, with Amazon Freight, you book the full truck.

So I don't want to be paying for empty trailer space.

Instead, the way I'm using Amazon Freight is to spy on Amazon.

Or, at least scope out nIXD/rIXD/FC availability.

If you don't have an Amazon Freight account, you can't do this.

If you do have one, you know that when you type in a delivery destination, you see a 2-week calendar of pick-up appointments which, to my understanding, are based on FC receiving availability and travel time from the shipper's location.

So, when my shipment plan gets assigned to a fulfillment node, using Amazon Freight, I can see pick-up date availability and book a Partnered Carrier pick-up appointment that aligns to that.

I've been testing this since mid-November, and my sample size is small (5 LTLs). But, preliminarily, this strategy...seems to be working?

Of those five loads, four were picked up on time, and one was delayed by two days.

Not bad compared to the 16.3 day VarPU that I've been enduring for most of the year.

FRIENDS OF B@A JustGro If you've looked into affiliate marketing for Amazon, you've probably come across Archer Affiliates, Creator Connections, Levanta, and Wayward. They're all great, but they're all platforms (i.e., you do the heavy lifting of connecting with affiliates). If you are looking for a more hands off approach, I suggest reaching out to the team at JustGro. JustGro is boutique agency that, for $0 upfront and $0 retainers, handles affiliate marketing on your behalf. Basically...at the same cost of many of the platforms that I mentioned above, you can have someone do the heavy lifting of affiliate marketing for you. The team at JustGro has 4 slots left in December, 3 of which I've asked them to hold exclusively for Best@Amazon readers. To claim one of these slots, either reply to this email or reach out to tommy@justgro.io and mention Best@Amazon.

BEST from my Inbox

Q: Hey Jon, what did you think of David Zimmerman's ranking of FBA reimbursement providers?

ME: He put a lot of time and thought into researching providers and building a scoring model. I have a ton of respect for David and his work on this, and the other tools/services that he's reviewed. I'm not surprised that TrueOps came in at #1. I tell people all the time that FBA reimbursements has become something of a commodity. And, if people out there are still willfully and knowingly paying providers 20-25% commissions when there's a great option for 10%, then those folks are probably a few bricks short of a full load.

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PS: Here's the video that this reader was referencing:

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BEST from LinkedIn

My LinkedIn and AMZ Innovate friend, Fred McKinnon, is speaking my love language this week, getting in the weeds on a small, but meaningful, change to Amazon's disbursement policy.

A little bit of a history lesson here...

DD+7 (or EDD+7, as it was called internally at Amazon) is not new, per se.

Back in 2016, I remember it being discussed internally, at length, as a fraud prevention mechanism (holding funds until after confirmed delivery reduces the financial benefit from fraudulent orders).

At the time, it was rolled out surgically, applied to accounts that carried the highest fraud risk.

Over time, all new accounts were subject to DD+7, but old accounts had no changes to their disbursements.

Now, DD+7 has been rolled out to all accounts -- old and new -- resulting in larger amounts of funds held by Amazon than before.

You can watch Fred's deep dive below.

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BEST from X

Three "quick hits" from the world of X this week.

First, a super useful sign-in hack from Aaron Cordovez:

Aaron Cordovez @Aaron_Cordovez Amazon hack of the day: When logging in to Seller Central, If you enter your Two-Factor Authentication AT THE END OF YOUR PASSWORD, you skip the 2FA page and get logged in immediately. Hope I just saved you a few seconds every time you log in to Seller Central. You're welcome. 10:44 AM • Dec 3, 2024 1 Retweets 23 Likes Read 5 replies

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Second, an important "watch-out" from Larry Lubarsky (FYI, this has happened to me, and my team now audits for this):

Watch Me Amazon @watchmeamazon Just a heads up to all my Amazon sellers: As you know, when you buy Amazon partnered shipping you have 24 hours to VOID it and not be charged (1hr for LTL) It has come to my attention that Amazon has still been charging these shipping charges after shipments are voided, and you… https://x.com/i/web/status/1864683636118667602 8:49 AM • Dec 5, 2024 1 Retweets 6 Likes Read 1 replies

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And finally...surprise, surprise...AWD is getting more expensive:

Michael Patrón @michaelpatron0 LMAO, I told you guys...someone pull up my tweets from months ago that said Amazon is going to force sellers into AWD and then inflate the prices once they are locked in. Such a shame this company is so predictable. The icing on the cake is they have done a horrible... 7:38 AM • Dec 5, 2024 3 Retweets 26 Likes Read 6 replies

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I've seen countless businesses come to market because of partner fall-outs.

I think that's a big reason why people go down the path of ETA, or entrepreneurship in general, alone.

But there's no Thanos-esque inevitability that leads all partnerships to implosion.

Successful partnerships take "pre-work"; they require honest reflection on what you bring to the table and what you expect from your partner.

Personally, everything entrepreneurial that I do involves a partner. For one thing, I have blind spots, capability gaps, and weaknesses, and my partners close those gaps. But also...entrepreneurship is hard and lonely. And, psychologically, it helps to have someone to bear the ups and downs with you.

If you're inclined toward finding a business partner, but worried about that real risk of implosion, Nik has some great advice on how to make things work.

CoFounders Nik @CoFoundersNik I've owned 13 companies with 21 partners 🤯 Picking the right partner is HARD! I've learned multi, multi-million dollar lessons from some big wins & BIGGER failures But YOU don't have to repeat my mistakes; YOU can learn from them! My 6 Partnership Non-Negotiables 👇 https://x.com/i/web/status/1862558593394110745 12:5 PM • Nov 29, 2024 3 Retweets 29 Likes Read 4 replies

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