Cyber Monday no doubt kept you on the edge of your seat or packing station, whichever applies. But there’s more excitement coming your way. So, now that the holiday rush is in full swing, take a minute to do your Amazon seller check-up and get ready for 2018 the right way.
Some of you have just had your best Black Friday weekend ever, now the time has come to look ahead and think up new ways to grow in 2018.
With the holiday sales rush already going strong, you don’t have much time to sit back, sip your brew of choice, and think into the future. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. First things first: list, prioritize, and schedule your end-of-year tasks.
Here are some of the things you could consider doing or delegating in December:
Check Your Reports
Seasoned Amazon sellers know that there’s no better time to check your inventory, your sales, your fees, and your margins than the end of the year. Seller Central tools and features change all the time, but a few reports have always been there for you to access, with slight variations from one venue to the other.
Here are the reports you need to run, download, and analyze by the end of the year:
- Monthly Inventory History (Reports>Fulfillment>Show More)
- Amazon Fulfilled Inventory (Inventory>Select Report Type)
- Received Inventory (Reports>Fulfillment>Show More, as shown in Fig. 1)
- Inventory Health
- Date Range Report
Here’s a helpful video showing you how to access most of these reports:
Disclaimer: Responsibility for the information in this video lies entirely with the author. We are not in any way affiliated with the author of this material.
Keep in mind that it takes some time for large reports to become available for download. Think ahead and schedule your download requests one or two days before you can start processing them.
Note: Schedule an end-of-year inventory report on December 31 for tax purposes.
Get Your Tax Affairs in Order
All sellers operating in any of the 50 states need to file their taxes in January online, by mail, or via AutoFile. Some reports need to be filed at the end of the month and some several days ahead, depending on the state. We’ll provide a list of the due dates for each state on this blog as soon as it becomes available.
As a side-note, you need to file your taxes for each state where you have nexus, including states where you have an office, a remote employee, or goods stored at an Amazon warehouse. Once you download your inventory report, you’ll be able to see where your goods were stored this year. You’ll then need to register for sales tax permits in those states.
You may find that you no longer have nexus in certain states, and you should then contact the authorities to help cut down on costs. This sales tax map from our partner, TaxJar, should help. More information is available in this guest post, courtesy of Jennifer Dunn from TaxJar.
Think January, Think Returns
There is such a thing as deliberate over-purchasing. You’ve also probably come across serial returners or ‘returnaholics’, as The Retail Equation calls them. What’s more, you’ll probably be receiving lots of unwanted gifts before the end of the year.
Of course, you’re free to charge restocking fees of up to 20% if you’re not at fault, but you must always process the refund in 48 hours or less. This brings up some complications. You need to have:
- consistency in the level of fees you charge (so draft or check your return policy);
- manpower to handle these returns;
- extra funds available.
An alternative would be to offer a rebate, a gift card, or a discount on a future purchase. But this also involves drafting a good template, having extra people that handle these returns, and even monitoring automated returns to see if you can contact your customers and convince them to keep the items.
Note: Never request feedback, ratings, or product reviews in exchange for a discount, even if you feel that the customer is truly grateful for your offer.
December is a good time to get all of these details ironed out, so get busy accomplishing and/or delegating these tasks.
Draw Up Your Seller Conference Calendar
We can’t stress this enough: you need to get out more. For ‘get out’ read ‘network’. If you’ve never been or aren’t sure about going to a seller conference, please check this list of Amazon seller events in 2018.
It’s never too soon to start planning and budgeting for these events, some of which are pricey but for good reason. It’s always worth looking for early-bird deals online and, you may even find discount codes on our blog early next year, so make a note to check back.
This concludes our Get Ready series, which aimed to help both new and expert Amazon sellers organize themselves and stay one step ahead of the competition. We hope you’ve taken our advice to heart and that you’ll be reaping the rewards in the months to follow.
If you have any concerns or questions, please get in touch with our Services Team, or take a look at our Amazon Business Coaching service page.
Melanie takes an active interest in all things Amazon. She keeps an eye on the latest developments and keeps Amazon sellers up to speed.