Received: from mm-retail-out-1104.amazon.com ([207.171.165.136]:45791) by stodi.digitalkingdom.org with esmtp (Exim 4.76) (envelope-from ) id 1RntId-0007da-P4 for treasurer@lojban.org; Thu, 19 Jan 2012 06:49:22 -0800 DomainKey-Signature: s=rte02; d=amazon.com; c=nofws; q=dns; h=Received:X-VirtualServer:X-VirtualServerGroup: X-MailingID:X-SMHeaderMap:X-Destination-ID:X-SMFBL: Content-Transfer-Encoding:Content-Type:X-PVIQ: X-Report-Abuse:Reply-To:MIME-Version:Message-ID:Subject: Date:To:From; b=dMSOTPxxiKCYRtrRn4S/d0VLO5yx6RKz0hs85sFLqxinh7q57ogG7KDj nM7vpKYqCB5IEfqEKcnOffJaLv1o5g==; Received: from mktomail.com ([172.28.0.48]) by amazoneu-rel.mktdns.com (StrongMail Enterprise 4.1.1.6(4.1.1.6-56715)); Thu, 19 Jan 2012 07:05:30 -0600 X-VirtualServer: eu-vsg49-amazoneu, amazoneu-rel.mktdns.com, 172.28.5.49 X-VirtualServerGroup: eu-vsg49-amazoneu X-MailingID: 1297400139::amazoneuBetacust-3231-11695-1-4581-prod-13214::13214::0::2102761865::4757 X-SMHeaderMap: mid="X-MailingID" X-Destination-ID: treasurer@lojban.org X-SMFBL: dHJlYXN1cmVyQGxvamJhbi5vcmc= Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary="----=_NextPart_001_AEA6_74B0DC51.19495CFF" X-PVIQ: 000326-000757-003231-000000-007341 X-Report-Abuse: Please report abuse here: http://www.marketo.com/policy Reply-To: no-reply@amazon.com MIME-Version: 1.0 Message-ID: <1297400139.4757@amazon.com> Subject: FBA Newsletter January 2012 Date: Thu, 19 Jan 2012 07:05:30 -0600 To: treasurer@lojban.org From: "Fulfillment by Amazon" X-Spam-Score: -0.1 (/) X-Spam_score: -0.1 X-Spam_score_int: 0 X-Spam_bar: / ------=_NextPart_001_AEA6_74B0DC51.19495CFF Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Disposition: inline From the editor Greetings from Fulfillment by Amazon, We hope you had a great holiday season selling with FBA. With a new year come new developments. Below you'll find a reminder about upcoming fee changes, an update to the Long-Term Storage fee, and an update on how we process reimbursements. You can also read about how FBA is helping Mowtown USA succeed with online sales. Our tip for the month introduces a guide for helping you identify products that are potential hazardous materials. ------------------------------- FBA News ------------------------------- Reminder: FBA fees change February 1, 2012 Since the launch of Fulfillment by Amazon in 2006, sellers have used it to deliver their products to Amazon's millions of customers with fast, free Super Saver Shipping and Amazon Prime free 2-day shipping. In the five years since we launched, we've made few adjustments to our fulfillment fees, despite rising costs to us and to other fulfillment and transportation providers. On February 1, 2012, our fulfillment fees and how we calculate weights for Units sold on Amazon.com will be changing. We remain committed to providing low cost fulfillment services. At the same time, we must balance this with our commitment to provide the high level of service and the fast, free shipping our customers expect. FBA storage, order handling, optional services, and Multi-Channel Fulfillment fees will not be affected by these changes. The following fees will be effective as of February 1, 2012: The Pick & Pack per Unit fee will be $1 for all Standard-Size Units ordered on Amazon.com. The Pick & Pack per Unit fee for Oversize Units ordered on Amazon.com will be $6.00. We will use the Outbound Shipping Weight rounded up to the nearest pound to calculate the Weight Handling Fee and decrease the per-pound fee from $0.40 to $0.37. * The Weight Handling Fee will be based on Outbound Shipping Weight, which is the combined weight value assigned to the Unit plus the packaging weight (box and packing materials). * The packaging weight will be 2 oz for Standard-Size Media, 4 oz for Standard-Size Non-Media, and 1 lb for Oversize products. * To reflect the costs of industry practices by carriers, including UPS and FedEx, the Outbound Shipping Weight will be rounded up to the nearest whole pound when calculating the Weight Handling Fee. For Oversize Units we will use either the weight of the Unit or the Dimensional Weight of the Unit to determine the Outbound Shipping Weight. * Following industry practices, for all Units ordered on Amazon.com with a volume greater than 5,184 cubic inches (based on length x width x height), we will use the Dimensional Weight if the Dimensional Weight is greater than the Unit weight. * The Dimensional Weight is the volume of the Unit divided by 166. For full details, please review the help section Fulfillment by Amazon Pricing Changes. http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html/?nodeId=200789180 ------------------------------- Refresh your inventory for the New Year With the start of a new year, it’s time to clean out the old and make room for the new! Now's a good time to check your fulfillment center inventory and, if necessary, remove any old inventory or re-price it to sell. The next FBA Inventory Cleanup will be conducted on February 15, 2012. Inventory that has been in our fulfillment centers for 365 days or more as of February 15, 2012, and that was not assessed a Long-Term Storage Fee in August 2011, will be assessed a Long-Term Storage Fee. Please note the following changes to the Long-Term Storage Fee. The fee will be decreased effective February 15, 2012, from $45.00 per cubic foot to $22.50 per cubic foot, but will now be charged twice a year. However, Units that were charged a Long-Term Storage Fee on August 15, 2011, will not be charged a Long-Term Storage Fee on February 15, 2012. The Recommended Removal report provides a way to easily identify and remove Units that may be assessed Long-Term Storage Fees. Six weeks prior to the Inventory Cleanup, this report will auto-calculate on an ASIN-by-ASIN basis the number of Units you would need to remove (assuming no further sales of your inventory) to avoid Long-Term Storage Fees and will pre-populate a removal request for those Units if you choose to remove them. You can access the Recommended Removal report in your Seller Account by going to Reports > Fulfillment > Inventory > Recommended Removal (https://sellercentral.amazon.com/gp/ssof/reports/search.html/?recordType=RECOMMENDED_REMOVAL) and requesting a download. If you receive a "No results found" message when you run the Recommended Removals report, it means that you have no inventory that will be charged the Long-Term Storage fee. For fees and more information go to FBA Long-Term Storage. http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html/?nodeId=200684570 ------------------------------- Updated FBA Seller Reimbursement Process for Customer Returns To make the most accurate assessment of product condition and responsibility for any damage of customer returns, we will soon change the way we process returns-related seller reimbursements. Reimbursements, which have in the past been issued at the same time as the customer refund, will instead be initiated once the customer return has been processed at Amazon’s fulfillment center. Reimbursements for customer refunds issued when a return is received will typically be processed a day or two after the refund. For customer refunds issued before the return is received, reimbursements may occur up to 45 days after the customer refund is processed, depending on if and when we receive the returned item. For further information on returns-related reimbursements, please see Customer Returns and Refund Requests. http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html/?nodeId=200386180#returns ------------------------------- Seller Success ------------------------------- Sales grow like weeds for eTailer of lawn and garden supplies Mowtown USA is an online lawn mower parts supplier. When they started their business in 2001, they catered exclusively to commercial landscapers, but over the years, they saw more and more savvy homeowners ordering professional equipment. In 2005, Mowtown USA launched a consumer-facing website and began to sell on multiple eCommerce platforms. They joined the ranks of Amazon sellers just one year later, adding leaf blowers, snow throwers and power tools to their lawn mower parts product offering. "FBA helps us stand at the ready. It's grown our business faster than weeds." Douglas Hellebuyck, President, Mowtown USA Read the Before the Stores success story http://www.amazonservices.com/content/case_studies_mowtown.htm ------------------------------- Tools & Tips ------------------------------- Hazardous Materials Identification Guide Sometimes we take for granted how many household products can be hazardous to our health and safety. Any product that is or contains a liquid, powder, or paste could be a hazardous material. Hazardous materials can place the health and safety of our fulfillment center staff and customers at risk and can damage or contaminate other products in the fulfillment centers. For this reason, products containing hazardous materials (hazmat) cannot be shipped from or stored in our fulfillment centers. Here are some examples: * Explosives: Flares, Fireworks, Ammunition * Flammable Gases: Spray Paint, Hair Spray, Mousse, All Aerosols Cans * Non-Flammable Gases: CO2 Cartridges, Fire Extinguishers * Flammable Liquids: Paint, Perfume, Nail polish * Flammable Solids: Matches, Solid Camp Fuel * Organic Peroxides: Hair Coloring kits * Poisons: Insecticides, rodenticides (rat and mice killers), some cleaners * Corrosives: Some cleaners are considered corrosive. * Batteries: Lithium batteries and lead acid batteries, including when packaged with other products If you have products that are liquid, power, or paste, and you are not sure if they are considered hazardous or not, check out the Hazardous Materials Identification Guide. Since we cannot handle or ship hazardous materials, we won't be able to return Units that are or contain hazardous materials to you if you ship them to us. Hazardous Units are subject to immediate disposal. So, take the time do your homework and make sure you're sending inventory that is not considered hazmat. Get started with the Hazardous Materials Identification Guide http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html/?nodeId=200525830 ------------------------------- Regards, The Fulfillment by Amazon Team ------------------------------- We hope you found this message to be useful. However, if you'd rather not receive future e-mails of this sort from Amazon Services, please opt-out here: http://www.amazonservices.com/content/unsubscribe.htm (c) 2012 Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Amazon, Amazon.com and the Amazon.com logo are registered trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates. Amazon.com, 410 Terry Avenue North, Seattle, WA 98109-5210 - ------=_NextPart_001_AEA6_74B0DC51.19495CFF Content-Type: text/html; charset="UTF-8" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Disposition: inline FBA Seller Update

 

FBA Merchant Update
  in this issue...

Farewell to EasySell
on February 1, 2012

As previously announced, FBA's EasySell feature will no longer be available effective February 1, 2012. All sellers will use the Create a Shipment workflow to create shipments to send to our fulfillment centers. The Create a Shipment workflow offers a more robust experience for both Media and Non-Media products and more versatility in creating your shipments.

When you use the Create a Shipment workflow, you will need to provide appropriate labeling. Learn more about FBA Labeling requirements.

General information about the Create a Shipment workflow can be found in FBA help under Create a Shipment.

Time to remove
unsellable inventory

Now is a good time to remove Units that cannot be fulfilled through FBA. You can see your unfulfillable inventory from the Inventory Amazon Fulfills view in your seller account. Sort by clicking the "unfulfillable" column. You can also see detailed Unit disposition in the Daily Inventory History report. All unsellable Units must be removed from inventory within 90 days.

For more information on removing inventory, go to FBA Help section 6.4 Create Removal Orders.

New "Manage FBA Inventory" report
replacing CSV download

FBA recently launched the "Manage FBA Inventory" and "Manage FBA Inventory-Archived" reports. These new reports replace the "Download Comma-Delimited File" option on the "Inventory Amazon Fulfills" page.

Please note that the downloadable CSV report will be going away soon. If you haven't done so already, you should transition any systems relying on this report to the new "Manage FBA Inventory" or "Manage FBA Inventory-Archived" report no later than January 31, 2012.

 

  useful links

From the editor

Greetings from Fulfillment by Amazon,

We hope you had a great holiday season selling with FBA. With a new year come new developments. Below you'll find a reminder about upcoming fee changes, an update to the Long-Term Storage fee, and an update on how we process reimbursements. You can also read about how FBA is helping Mowtown USA succeed with online sales. Our tip for the month introduces a guide for helping you identify products that are potential hazardous materials.

  FBA News

Reminder: FBA fees change February 1, 2012

Since the launch of Fulfillment by Amazon in 2006, sellers have used it to deliver their products to Amazon's millions of customers with fast, free Super Saver Shipping and Amazon Prime free 2-day shipping. In the five years since we launched, we've made few adjustments to our fulfillment fees, despite rising costs to us and to other fulfillment and transportation providers.

On February 1, 2012, our fulfillment fees and how we calculate weights for Units sold on Amazon.com will be changing. We remain committed to providing low cost fulfillment services. At the same time, we must balance this with our commitment to provide the high level of service and the fast, free shipping our customers expect. FBA storage, order handling, optional services, and Multi-Channel Fulfillment fees will not be affected by these changes.

The following fees will be effective as of February 1, 2012:

The Pick & Pack per Unit fee will be $1 for all Standard-Size Units ordered on Amazon.com.

The Pick & Pack per Unit fee for Oversize Units ordered on Amazon.com will be $6.00.

We will use the Outbound Shipping Weight rounded up to the nearest pound to calculate the Weight Handling Fee and decrease the per-pound fee from $0.40 to $0.37.

  • The Weight Handling Fee will be based on Outbound Shipping Weight, which is the combined weight value assigned to the Unit plus the packaging weight (box and packing materials).
  • The packaging weight will be 2 oz for Standard-Size Media, 4 oz for Standard-Size Non-Media, and 1 lb for Oversize products.
  • To reflect the costs of industry practices by carriers, including UPS and FedEx, the Outbound Shipping Weight will be rounded up to the nearest whole pound when calculating the Weight Handling Fee.

For Oversize Units we will use either the weight of the Unit or the Dimensional Weight of the Unit to determine the Outbound Shipping Weight.

  • Following industry practices, for all Units ordered on Amazon.com with a volume greater than 5,184 cubic inches (based on length x width x height), we will use the Dimensional Weight if the Dimensional Weight is greater than the Unit weight.
  • The Dimensional Weight is the volume of the Unit divided by 166.

For full details, please review the help section Fulfillment by Amazon Pricing Changes.

Refresh your inventory for the New Year

With the start of a new year, it’s time to clean out the old and make room for the new! Now's a good time to check your fulfillment center inventory and, if necessary, remove any old inventory or re-price it to sell. The next FBA Inventory Cleanup will be conducted on February 15, 2012. Inventory that has been in our fulfillment centers for 365 days or more as of February 15, 2012, and that was not assessed a Long-Term Storage Fee in August 2011, will be assessed a Long-Term Storage Fee.

Please note the following changes to the Long-Term Storage Fee. The fee will be decreased effective February 15, 2012, from $45.00 per cubic foot to $22.50 per cubic foot, but will now be charged twice a year. However, Units that were charged a Long-Term Storage Fee on August 15, 2011, will not be charged a Long-Term Storage Fee on February 15, 2012.

The Recommended Removal report provides a way to easily identify and remove Units that may be assessed Long-Term Storage Fees. Six weeks prior to the Inventory Cleanup, this report will auto-calculate on an ASIN-by-ASIN basis the number of Units you would need to remove (assuming no further sales of your inventory) to avoid Long-Term Storage Fees and will pre-populate a removal request for those Units if you choose to remove them.

You can access the Recommended Removal report in your Seller Account by going to Reports > Fulfillment > Inventory > Recommended Removal and requesting a download. If you receive a "No results found" message when you run the Recommended Removals report, it means that you have no inventory that will be charged the Long-Term Storage fee.

For fees and more information go to FBA Long-Term Storage.

Updated FBA Seller Reimbursement Process for Customer Returns

To make the most accurate assessment of product condition and responsibility for any damage of customer returns, we will soon change the way we process returns-related seller reimbursements.  Reimbursements, which have in the past been issued at the same time as the customer refund, will instead be initiated once the customer return has been processed at Amazon’s fulfillment center. Reimbursements for customer refunds issued when a return is received will typically be processed a day or two after the refund.  For customer refunds issued before the return is received, reimbursements may occur up to 45 days after the customer refund is processed, depending on if and when we receive the returned item.  For further information on returns-related reimbursements, please see Customer Returns and Refund Requests .

  Seller Success

Sales grow like weeds for eTailer of lawn and garden supplies

Mowtown USA is an online lawn mower parts supplier. When they started their business in 2001, they catered exclusively to commercial landscapers, but over the years, they saw more and more savvy homeowners ordering professional equipment. In 2005, Mowtown USA launched a consumer-facing website and began to sell on multiple eCommerce platforms. They joined the ranks of Amazon sellers just one year later, adding leaf blowers, snow throwers and power tools to their lawn mower parts product offering.

"FBA helps us stand at the ready.
It's grown our business faster than weeds."

Douglas Hellebuyck,
President, Mowtown USA

Read the Before the Stores success story

  Tools & Tips

Hazardous Materials Identification Guide

Sometimes we take for granted how many household products can be hazardous to our health and safety. Any product that is or contains a liquid, powder, or paste could be a hazardous material. Hazardous materials can place the health and safety of our fulfillment center staff and customers at risk and can damage or contaminate other products in the fulfillment centers. For this reason, products containing hazardous materials (hazmat) cannot be shipped from or stored in our fulfillment centers.

Here are some examples:

  • Explosives: Flares, Fireworks, Ammunition
  • Flammable Gases: Spray Paint, Hair Spray, Mousse, All Aerosols Cans
  • Non-Flammable Gases: CO2 Cartridges, Fire Extinguishers
  • Flammable Liquids: Paint, Perfume, Nail polish
  • Flammable Solids: Matches, Solid Camp Fuel
  • Organic Peroxides: Hair Coloring kits
  • Poisons: Insecticides, rodenticides (rat and mice killers), some cleaners
  • Corrosives: Some cleaners are considered corrosive. 
  • Batteries: Lithium batteries and lead acid batteries, including when packaged with other products

If you have products that are liquid, power, or paste, and you are not sure if they are considered hazardous or not, check out the Hazardous Materials Identification Guide.

Since we cannot handle or ship hazardous materials, we won't be able to return Units that are or contain hazardous materials to you if you ship them to us. Hazardous Units are subject to immediate disposal. So, take the time do your homework and make sure you're sending inventory that is not considered hazmat.

Get started with the Hazardous Materials Identification Guide

Regards,
The Fulfillment by Amazon Team
We hope you found this message to be useful. However, if you'd rather not receive future e-mails of this sort from Amazon Services, please opt-out here: Unsubscribe

(c) 2012 Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Amazon, Amazon.com and the Amazon.com logo are registered trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates. Amazon.com, 410 Terry Avenue North, Seattle, WA 98109-5210

 

------=_NextPart_001_AEA6_74B0DC51.19495CFF--