Amazon organises grooming camps to ready its sellers for festive season sales

With the biggest sales event just around the corner, online retailers, Amazon, Flipkart, Snapdeal and the rest are making sure they are well prepared. The festive season is expected to to boost the decelerating sales on account of new marketplace restrictions. Indian etailer Flipkart plans to provide credit to its sellers against discounts and Snapdeal plans to introduce next day delivery in 104 cities.

On the other hand, the foreign player, Amazon cut down commissions to make way for discounts. The etailer plans on taking the preparations further by readying its sellers for the boom period.

Seller grooming camps by Amazon

Amazon is facilitating the setup of multiple events in the country for effective seller grooming. Online sellers will be prepped in a way that will help them cope with increasing festival season sales. They will be incentivised for listing highly viewed products.

Gopal Pillai, director of Amazon India seller services said, “We want to invite top-performing sellers to this event so that they can connect with us. This is also an opportunity for us to discuss how excited we are about the upcoming festive season so that they are better prepared for it.”

Almost 1.4 million products on Amazon fall under the next day and same day shipment program. Preparing its sellers for the newly launched Prime is a top priority.

Looking of innovation to push sales even further

Amazon is trying to make the most of the festive season by developing innovative ways to boost sales.

The online marketplace showed its sellers a list of all the out-of-stock products that are highly viewed as well. The Amazon reward team said via email, “Adding these products in your FBA (Fulfillment by Amazon) catalogue will help you grow your sales with the right set of in-demand products. In addition to more sales, you also get an assured sum of Rs 150 for every new ASIN (Amazon Standard Identification Number) listed and Rs 50 for bringing the existing listing in-stock.”

Expectations of high sales figures

Last festive season, Amazon sellers witnessed a three to five fold rise in their sales. The sales in the fourth quarter of 2015 were much higher than those in 2014’s last quarter. That’s why the ecommerce firm would like to be ready for massive ales this time round as well.

The period of celebration begins with Durga Puja and ends with Bhai Duj. The grand festival of Diwali lies in between these. This festival period is traditionally known for increased customer spending.

Hence, etailers are having their sellers make the most of the customer data and behaviour analytics to push for higher sales.

Amazon Sponsored Ads will no longer need advanced payments

Sponsored ads are a great way to get noticed on an online marketplace. They increase visibility and boost sales making them a very effective means of marketplace promotions. Your products are guaranteed to show up in customer search results, that too in the top results.

Delayed benefits from Amazon Sponsored ads

Amazon is one of the online marketplaces that provides the sponsored ads option. However, the etailer’s payment system was considered a bit troublesome to its users. Originally, Amazon sellers were required to make advanced payments for the acquisition of sponsored ads on the platform.

The earlier’s payment process included sellers requesting Amazon to send a payment link to them via email. This link would allow them to credit Rs.5,000 or Rs.10,000 based on the seller’s request. By the time the payment was made it would take a couple of days to reflect the same on the seller’s Amazon account. This in turn delayed the whole process of advertising.

With other marketplaces like Flipkart and Snapdeal, sellers are allowed top-ups. In this case, the seller’s COD balance and prepaid payments are used to pay for the ad.

Request for a simpler ad payment process

Amazon sellers mentioned the delays and inconveniences they were facing to the marketplace and asked it to simplify the current payment process for advertising.

“Advance payment for advertising on Sponsored Products blocks our money up front. Why don’t you (Amazon) charge us on a usage basis” – Asha, Paathra Bhandar

“Recharging my advertising account again and again is a hassle. Even after recharging it takes 3-4 days for the balance to reflect in the account. This impacts our sales volume negatively” – Ajesh George, Tekkitake

After careful consideration of feedback like the above, Amazon sent out an email to its online sellers informing them that it will be introducing a new payment process.

What benefits will sellers enjoy?

• No need for advanced payments
• Ad fees will be deducted directly from sales proceeds in the seller’s account
• No more waiting 2-3 days for your advertising balance to get updated
• No more payment failures
• No more stopped campaigns due to ad balance running out
• No need for net banking, credit cards or debit cards to make payments

This form of payment has already been launched by Amazon in other countries like the US, UK, Germany and Japan. This mode of ad payment will soon be available to Indian online sellers as well.

What do the online sellers think?

According to online seller association, AIOVA, “It’s a good move and will help sellers effectively. However, we are not sure about the reconciliation of the same yet. So we shall be tracking the reconciliation of this deduction once it goes live.”

The association also states that the this new payment process will put Amazon at par with the Flipkart system. A system that understands the ease of business required by esellers. It is overall a good initiative by the marketplace and the association hopes to see other changes too based on seller requests.

Shopclues sellers can now log into Store Manager with one time password (OTP)

With product returns, delayed logistics and payment recovery to deal with forgetting your seller account password is the last thing you want. But luckily for online seller on Shopclues, losing their registered password is not an issue.

The online marketplace announced through an email to its online sellers that sellers can login to the Shopclues store manager even if they forget their passwords.

The etailer has introduced a mobile OTP (one time password) login for sellers to access their store manager account.

How to enable this feature on your account?

Step 1 – Log into the store manager and select the ‘My Details option under the ‘Settings’ option on the top right.

Step 2 – Select the ‘Verify mobile no.’ option that is next to your mobile number on the screen.

Step 3 – You will receive an OTP on the mobile number entered on the seller information page. Enter this password into the pop-up that appears on the screen and click on ‘verify’. In case you do not receive the OTP you can resend OTP and even change your number..

Step 4 – Now log out of the store manager and re-login by selecting the option ‘Login with OTP’. You will be requested to provide your verified mobile number to receive the OTP. Once you enter the OTP provided click on login and access your store manager account.

Paytm asks online sellers to say no to Ecommerce malpractices

Cutting corners can be bad for business. Especially business on an online marketplace. Etailers have their own set of guidelines to ensure online sellers stay true to their word and deliver nothing but the best. Paytm is looking at developing its marketplace business and malpractices on the platform are So to discourage them Paytm has made sure its sellers are aware of the different activities it considers as malpractices.

In an email to its online sellers, Paytm mentions the following malpractices that should be avoided in ecommerce:

1. Shipping wrong products or empty boxes

The etailer says all sellers on its platform must ensure the product they how in the display image is the product their customers receive. Should the product be out of stock, a different product cannot take its place. Also shipping of empty boxes should be avoided.

2. Selling use/ fake/ refurbished products

Selling replicas, OEMs, refurbished/unauthorized products, non-genuine brands or branded goods without warranty is a malpractice, according to Paytm. Even the sale of used goods, products that have been opened, have tampered seals or improper packaging, is frowned upon.

3. Tampering with MRP

Online sellers must maintain the set MRP of the product. The selling price cannot be higher than the MRP. And the MRP cannot be adjusted to show false discounts.

4. Self-ordering

Sellers are prohibited from buying their own products though consumer accounts on Paytm. Not even relative, friends or staff should use your customer account to buy your goods. Even persons unknown to you are not allowed to your customer credentials to buy your products. These activities are considered fraudulent ad per Paytm guideline.

5. Inaccurate and misleading prices for combos and freebies

In case of combos, the selling price pacified should be the sum total of the combo product’s MRPs. For freebies on the other hand, the free product’s price should not be included in the selling price.

In the advisory email, the online marketplace specifies that issues of integrity are a serious matter. Also wrong doers will be penalized without hesitations the etailer specifies. Corrective actions will involve seller account suspension and legal action thereafter.

Snapdeal sellers allowed to upload signatures for ecommerce documents

Sending documents across borders is a real hassle. There are chances of delays, loss of important documents and so on. To avoid all these troubles Snapdeal urges its sellers to upload their signatures on to the seller panel.

In an email last Friday, Snapdeal informed online sellers that uploading their signature will enable the marketplace to capture seller signatures for:

• State transfers
• Legal and compliance forms
• Other documents

This way the seller doesn’t have to manually sign these documents each time.

How to use the ‘Upload Signature’ feature?

The ‘upload signature’ feature on the seller panel allows Snapdeal sellers to upload their signatures in the form of an image onto the seller panel.

To upload your signature on the Snapdeal seller panel, Snapdeal suggests the following steps:

Step 1 – Log into the seller panel and go to the profile drop-down list at the top right corner. From there click on the ‘manage profile’ options.

Step 2 – On the ‘manage profile’ click the ‘upload signature’ button. An ‘upload seller signature will pop-up will appear with the option ‘ choose file’. Click on it to upload a PNG or JPEG format file of your signature.

Step 3 – The selected file will open and the signature will be displayed. To resize the signature you can use the ‘crop image’ option. There are options to rotate the image clockwise and anticlockwise is required.

Step 4 – After resizing the image make sure you read the terms and conditions and check the box near statement ‘I have read and accepted the terms and conditions’ to accept them. Finally click the upload button and you are done.