[ BDSN ] 🏴‍☠️ 3 Ways Chinese Sellers Manipulate Amazon

If you are one of the 2,000 folks in Austin starting today for the soldout Amazon Unboxed conference, be sure to check out this post from Dream 100 member Jeff Cohen for everything going over the next three days.

📺 WATCH the REPLAY from FRIDAY’S HACK WEBINAR

🪄 THE MAGIC of DECOY PRICING

Dan Ariely, a professor at MIT, breaks down the psychology behind The Economist's pricing structure below:

Looking at it, the print-only option looks useless.

But, it's not.

Dan Ariely led a study where he gathered 100 MIT students and presented them with two different pricing options.

He presented the first 100 students with the current pricing structure:

• 16% said they'd purchase the online-only option.

• 0% said they'd purchase the print-only option.

• 84% said they'd purchase the online and print option.

But, when Dan Ariely eliminated the middle option and presented it to another 100 students - the results changed:

So, what was the most popular option became the least desired option.

• 68% wanted the online-only option.

• 32% wanted the print & online option.

So, what seemed useless was useful in helping consumers determine what they wanted.

You can do this in e-commerce too, as Harry Molyneux recently highlighted on X.

He asked “Can you guess the winning test variant below?”

The correct answer is B.

Here's why:

• Shifting the best value offer to the right while using an eye-catching color.

• Displaying the comparison price larger than the discounted price.

• Displaying the price per day minimizes the mental cost.

Your takeaways:

• Use the decoy effect to help consumers determine what they want.

• Add a middle option that makes the premium purchase seem like a great deal.

• Use a different color to make the premium purchase eye-catching.

• Make the comparison price or original price much larger than the discounted cost.

• Minimize the mental costs by adding a price per day that shrinks the cost with logic.

🎃 👻 🐈‍⬛ TONIGHT IN AUSTIN! 🧟 ⚰️ 🧙

👛 AMAZON CHARGES for HIGHER than AVG RETURNS

In September Amazon introduced a new fee for sellers with return rates higher than the category average (as defined by Amazon).

This fee is called the Returns Processing Fee.

Here’s an example of how it’s calculated:

If your brand’s return rate is 12%, and the category average is 10%:

Calculation:
⤷ 10% (category threshold) - 12% (brand return rate) = -2%
⤷ You will pay a fee for those 2%.

This fee shows up under a different name in your transaction report:
⤷ "FBA Customer Returns Fee (Non-Apparel and Non-Shoes) for ASIN."

Demian Lazurko of MyRealProfit created the chart below for sellers so you know what the category average is currently for many items on Amazon:

🇺🇸 SEE HOW YOUR INVENTORY is ALLOCATED with HELIUM 10

Are you aware of how Amazon is distributing your FBA inventory across different regions?

Do you know how your inventory locations compare to your sales in each area?

With Helium 10’s powerful Heat Maps tool, you can easily see where your inventory is stored and how your sales are distributed across the country.

By comparing these insights, you can discover if you're getting more sales in specific regions due to how your inventory is being allocated.

🪦 HOW to FIX a TOMBSTONED LISTING

Matt Kostan (the winner of last week’s Spooktacular Hack contest) recently shared this helpful trick in the Billion Dollar Seller Summit Whatsapp Group (restricted to just those who have attended a BDSS event).

🛍️ AMAZON’S BIG PRIME DAYS SETS SALES RECORDS

Amazon's Prime Big Deal Days on October 8-9, 2024 was the company's largest October shopping event ever, with more Prime members shopping than last year.

Shoppers saved over $1 billion globally, with many taking advantage of early holiday deals. High satisfaction rates were reported, with 57% of buyers very or extremely satisfied with the discounts.

• Holiday Shopping Kickoff: 24% of shoppers purchased holiday gifts, and 86% expect to return to Amazon for more holiday shopping in the coming months.

• Top Categories: Popular categories included household essentials, apparel, home goods, beauty, and health items.

• Competition: 55% of shoppers compared prices with other retailers, particularly Walmart, Target, and Costco. Many participated in competing sales like Walmart Holiday Deals and Target Circle Week.

More upcoming key dates:

• 𝗢𝗰𝘁𝗼𝗯𝗲𝗿 𝟭𝟵: Last day for inventory to arrive for Black Friday & Cyber Monday

• 𝗢𝗰𝘁𝗼𝗯𝗲𝗿 23: Last day to file for reimbursement claims over 60 days old

• 𝗢𝗰𝘁𝗼𝗯𝗲𝗿 𝟯𝟭: Last day to order inventory before Chinese New Year (January 29)

• 𝗡𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗺𝗯𝗲𝗿 𝟮𝟯 - 𝗗𝗲𝗰𝗲𝗺𝗯𝗲𝗿 𝟮: Cyber Deals will start running during this time frame

• 𝗡𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗺𝗯𝗲𝗿 𝟮𝟵: Black Friday

• 𝗗𝗲𝗰𝗲𝗺𝗯𝗲𝗿 𝟮: Cyber Monday

🎉  PARTY in MANHATTAN DURING AMZ INNOVATE

If you’re going to be in New York City during AMZ Innovate, you don’t want to miss Dream 100 member Rich Goldstein’s latest event. 

If you know Rich and his penthouse after-parties during Prosper, it’s not surprising he’ll be throwing a bash in his native NYC.

Well technically, it’s going to be a B.A.S.H.H.:  Big Apple Sellers Happy Hour. In addition to cocktails and networking, there will be live music from some top NYC jazz musicians.

It’s happening from 6PM - 8PM on October 30th, right down the block from Innovate.

Tickets for sellers are complimentary while they last.

Typically sponsored events like these are for sellers only.  However at this event, service providers are welcome!

Rich has made a block of inexpensive tickets available so that service providers can be a part of the fun too!

Want to be featured in this section? Use your referral link in this email to refer at least 10 active subscribers to get your event, course, webinar or tool “Shouted-Out” to 13,200+ subscribers.

✌🏼 See you again on Thursday …

The answer to today’s STUMP BEZOS is
The average online return rate is 18%, or $247 billion.