This Issue's TLDR...

• POTPOURRI: An assortment of reader questions that hit my inbox over the past two weeks.
• If you have SnS orders, most of your metrics are fake.
• Amazon sellers have a lot to learn from DTC marketers.

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I had a long list of reader questions pile up in my inbox over the July 4th holiday, and I responded to many of your over the weekend with uncharacteristically brief responses.

I wanted to help you all, but I didn't have time to write War and Peace length responses. I hope you understand.

Anyway, here are some of the reader mail-bag questions, along with my brief responses:

A: Check out Death to Stock Photos.

A: Use 1688 instead of Alibaba (with 1688, you can filter by city and see concentration of suppliers). Then, reverse search by city and KW on Import Yeti to find all suppliers with their export volume. Reach out directly or hire VA to collect quotes from each.

A: Certain Amazon reimbursement types become eligible for recovery after 60 days. Amazon automatically reimburses sellers in 98% of cases, but doesn’t process reimbursements until Day 64. As a result, FBA reimbursement providers can "front run" and recover these funds (and get their commission) that would have been reimbursed by Amazon automatically anyway. GetIDA is saying, without saying, that Seller Investigators has done this in the past. Seller Investigators says that they know of the loophole, and that's why they wait 100 days before processing any cases.

A: Reach out to seller-reactivation [at] amazon [dot] com. (h/t to ASGTG for this one)

A: There's no 1P Amazon data for this (yet), but you can use a tool like ASINSeed to get an approximation.

A: Use this link to reveal all unanswered customer questions: https://www.amazon.com/ask/questions/asin/B0CJ9W38VQ/1/ref=ask_ql_psf_ql_hza?isAnswered=FALSE

Use this link to just display all the customer Q&A: https://www.amazon.com/ask/questions/asin/B0CJ9W38VQ/

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BEST from LinkedIn

Who do you go to when you have very specific questions about Amazon data streams and data classifications?

It's a super niche-y niche, I know.

If you don't have someone like that in your rolodex, I'd highly encourage following and/or reaching out to introduce yourself to ​Demian Lazurko​. He runs an analytics company called My Real Profit, and is deeply in the weeds than almost any analytics software founder that I know.

In this ​post​, he talks about "fake" metrics. Or, put differently, metrics that are artificially inflated due to Subscribe & Save orders.

Worth a read if you have a large SnS base.

BEST from X

I don't run a DTC store for any of my brands.

But I pay close attention that people and brands that do.

Why?

Because these people are some of the best direct response, performance marketers out there.

I care about getting better at direct response marketing because it's a skill that most Amazon sellers don't have (myself included).

And, for good reason.

For nearly a decade, we've been spoiled by the ability to put Sponsored Product ads in front of customers, right at the point of highest purchase intent, and win sales simply based on a main image or review count or price.

We've then fine-tuned the placement and pricing of these ads based on what the data tells us and, voila...we've had paid sales.

Amazon sellers, as a whole, have become skilled performance advertisers, but not skilled marketers.

And, based on my reading of the Amazon Advertising tea leaves, the evolution of Amazon Advertising products and placements is going to require that Amazon sellers build this muscle of direct response marketing.

So, for that reason, I'm taking notes. ✍🏼

Jimmy Kim @yojimmykim Here's the Top 10 creative abandoned cart emails & why they work👇 1/10: Shock value: "Maybe you died?" — Liquid Death is a legend. One CTA + Fun copy = Bullseye. 9:34 AM • Jun 26, 2024 20 Retweets 183 Likes Read 15 replies

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