Take-off Thursday — 10 August 2017
Welcome to Take-off Thursdays, your one-stop shop for the latest news and updates about all things ecommerce and Amazon.
Join me each Thursday in pondering the present and the future of commerce in 2017 and beyond!
If you’ve been reading any of the other digest posts and you have enjoyed them, I’d love it if you could give us some likes and shares!
This week I am writing this from Amsterdam, where I am spending my time up until the upcoming Jungle Scout retreat in Budapest. It’s great to be back in Europe this summer, the cities in this part of the world always have an amazing vibe — but the weather could do with a little improvement 🌧
There’s been some interesting Amazon and ecommerce news shared over the past week. But before I get into that I just wanted to drop in a little reminder that we are now two sessions in to our Million Dollar Case Study: Europe. Where, fittingly, I am mentoring my colleague Kym on the full process to find and launch an Amazon product in Europe.
We are spending three weeks drilling down into our product research and sharing every bit of detail along the way, so it’s definitely one to pencil in your calendars!
Sales Tax Amnesty
This was a very interesting piece of news… Thirteen US states have announced a deal for a tax amnesty program for online merchants and Amazon sellers.
According to CNBC, collectively, Amazon sellers owe $2 billion in taxes. This could soon be waived if sellers agree to comply going forward beginning on August 17. All they have to do is sign up with the Multistate Tax Commission. This program is set to be in place for 90 days.
Why has this happened? Well, sales taxes are complicated. Merchants are not required to collect sales tax if they don’t have a physical presence in a particular state. This becomes difficult when FBA sellers send inventory to various states.
It can become so confusing that some sellers easily fall behind with their taxes, and it’s not always intentional. In some cases, Amazon make it difficult for the seller to even know where inventory is stored.
When sales taxes were invented, there was no ecommerce. Perhaps now that the big player that is Amazon is refusing to change it’s policies or enforcements unless the rest of the industry does too, there may be bigger changes ahead.
Amazon Makes Moves In Australia
It has been announced that the first Amazon warehouse will be situated just outside of Melbourne. This comes just three months after Amazon announced they would be opening a marketplace in Australia.
It seems Bezos is prepared to go up against some of Australia’s larger retailers, but so far Amazon have not confirmed or denied whether they will start their warehouse service in Australia. The only confirmed services at the moment are advertising space and logistics support.
Right now, Amazon products can only be bought offshore in Australia, but this addition of logistics support will allow products to be stored locally.
Yet another indication of Bezos path to worldwide domination in ecommerce and perhaps a welcome addition for consumers and sellers alike in Australia.
Prime in 50% of American Homes
A financial services firm have predicted that Amazon Prime will be in more than 50 percent of American homes by the end of THIS YEAR!
Their monthly survey found out that an astonishing 49% of consumers surveyed already held a Prime membership. Speculation is that Prime Day had a great impact on this sudden surge.
This same survey is the one that found out that household income was a huge factor in holding a membership or not, so Amazon have started offering lower rates for those who can show proof they are in a household that receives public assistance.
It really is astonishing how well the Prime ‘product’ has been established and marketed in the US to reach these dizzying heights. It’s such an obvious example of a success story in tech, where a useful membership product with high demand has been executed almost to perfection!
Tightening The Shipping Rules For Fulfilled By Merchant Sellers
Until recently, merchant fulfilled third-party media sellers (read: books, CDs, DVDs) had a four-to-fourteen window to get their orders in the hands of their customers. This allowed sellers the option to use the US Postal Service’s media mail option and save money on shipping. A new announcement changed this time frame to a shorter four-to-eight day window.
A pessimist might suggest Amazon are tightening up and forcing more sellers to use their FBA service. An optimist might say that Amazon are tightening up on slow deliveries from third-party sellers to improve the customer experience.
Even if both are true, this is another step towards offering an incredibly fast and convenient service to consumers who increasingly want to order things online at a competitive price and receive it within a few days.
Seller Awards
Did you hear that the Seller Awards 2017 are now open for nominations?
Shameless self-promotion time! 🙈 I am up for nomination in the “Best Private Label Seller” category. But hey, it’s not just me, we also have a bunch of other nominations too:
- Best Repricing Software for Splitly
- Best PPC Expert for Kym Ellis who has written several in-depth articles and ebooks for Jungle Scout on the topic of Amazon PPC
- Best Overall Amazon Software for Jungle Scout
- Best Amazon Expert — yours truly again
If you do use our software, or have enjoyed any of our informational content, webinars and courses in the past, then I’d really appreciate your votes. It only takes a second to enter usingb the links above!
Quote of the Week
The secret to happiness is freedom… And the secret to freedom is courage. — Thucydides
Podcast of the Week
Entrepreneur on Fire has been a huge inspiration lately, with 7 new podcasts a week, always a something great to choose from!
I’m off to enjoy the weekend here in Amsterdam and I will see you at the same time and place next week! 🚲
