What if I include a small slip in my FBA prep packaging informing buyers of my FBM promotion? It would not be directing them off Amazon but to an alternate fulfillment method on Amazon. I don’t think that should be a violation, like the FBA items that I get with cards promoting websites and review incentives that clearly are violations.
I have successfully been promoting discounts for multiple quantity orders on several FBM skus, utilizing the savings of combining items for shipping and effectively growing sales. I’ve included slips in single item FBM orders to inform buyers of the promotion and it has helped to spread the word for repeat orders.
Recently an unauthorized seller appeared who sent the products to FBA, halting my sales with loss of the Buy Box.
The FBM promotion is still running but buyers are not finding it. As usual, Amazon is not making the best price and deal obvious to the buyer. There is nothing on the main page indicating that a promotion is available. If the buyer does not investigate the other offers page, they don’t know about it. I fear even repeat buyers who utilized the promotion before will think it’s no longer available.
May be available at a lower price from [other sellers link], potentially without free Prime shipping.
My goal would be to increase the FBM sales, not necessarily make up for loss of the BB. My shipping is free and new buyers who become repeat buyers would probably want the discount if they were aware of it.
I am not the brand owner and I am repricing my FBA offer to keep the Buy Box. Repricing the FBM offer to win the BB would require a price lower than I can go, there seems to be a much larger spread needed these days to knock out an FBA offer.
It does not appear that the problem will be transient.
I’m just wondering if promoting the discount in the FBA packages would get me in trouble. It is promoting an Amazon offer, not another marketplace or website.
If you cannot win the Buy Box, you cannot expect to succeed on Amazon. The never of buyers who never view all offers is huge.
That sounds really negative, I know, but it is real. The only exceptions may be for niche products with little or no competition.
You are unlikely to have a policy problem but are also unlikely to have a positive impact.
Free shipping is often slow shipping to many parts of the country, because of geography. And many buyers know that it fails to meet the standards Prime shipping does to their area.
Mass market retail is low thought process retail for the buyers, and you are trying to make them think and look.
I know of that filter. My FBM sales were going well, and growing, with repeat buyers increasing their order quantities because of the promotion.
I’ve had the products in FBA for about 2 weeks and the sales have not caught up with the former FBM sales yet; the FBM sales ground to a halt. None of the FBA buyers are the repeat FBM buyers so far. So the FBA buyers are new customers, that is nice. But the loyal repeat customers are not ordering FBM anymore, nor are they ordering FBA yet either.
I’m concerned that they think the promotion is gone because it’s effectively hidden.
2 weeks is not long enough for a realistic picture, I know.
Promoting the promotion won’t fix it all but could bring some improvement. It did work nicely on the FBM orders. As for shipping speed, the repeat orders are not impulse buys. They are planned, the buyer has experienced the shipping time and knows what to expect. So I don’t think ‘next day’ is a huge deal maker for them, especially at a higher cost.
I can and do win the Buy Box, but now at a cost that I did not have before.
