What You Should Know About CPC Strategy's Amazon Vendor Operations Program
All vendors focused on growing their partnership with Amazon need to be invested in an ongoing, data-driven process to manage their Amazon operations.
Unfortunately, many brands struggle to balance Amazon’s pace of innovation, processes, and often ambiguous motives. This dynamic makes it difficult to proactively manage operations and drive sales growth.
“Amazon is constantly changing. Every day there’s new advertising features, new content opportunities and much more. All these changes will create operational stress — unless you are prepared for it,” Pat Petriello, Head of Marketplace at CPC Strategy said.
Introducing Our Amazon Vendor Operations Program
Due to recent investments (ARA Premium), Amazon is continuing to improve the depth of analytics available to its vendors.
Today, brands have more insight and tools than ever before to improve their operational performance and Amazon competency. Unfortunately, interpreting (and implementing these changes based on a wealth of data) can be challenging.
The goal of CPC Strategy’s Amazon Vendor Operations Program is to provide ongoing support, data insights, and consulting so that brands can achieve operational excellence and grow their sales with Amazon.
We combine decades of Amazon expertise with your Vendor Central data to create a holistic analysis of your catalog’s performance, the dynamic factors that affect your sales and profitability, and how that aligns with Amazon’s ongoing purchase order process.
Do I Need Amazon Vendor Operation Services?
When considering whether our Amazon Vendor Operation Service is the right fit for your business, here’s a list of questions you should consider:
- Have you been able to consistently keep in stock across your catalog or have you run into stockouts?
- Have you ever had ads paused by Amazon due to low profitability or stockouts?
- Has Amazon approached you about expanding your catalog coverage? Do you know why or why not?
- Are you reviewing chargebacks for accuracy?
- Do you have issues with unauthorized resellers taking Buy Box share?
- Have you seen your purchase orders with Amazon grow in value over time or have they remained pretty flat?
- Are you aware of your current customer return and unsellable rate?
- Are you transitioning from ARA Basics to ARA Premium?
If you responded yes to any of the questions above, keep reading to learn how we can work together to further improve your Amazon Vendor Operations.
Benefits of CPC Strategy’s Amazon Vendor Operations
After assigning a Vendor Operations Manager, we will perform an extensive review of your account to diagnose your overall operational health.
At CPC Strategy, we provide vendors with:
- Detailed Vendor Performance Analysis
- Result-Driven Business Recommendations
- Ongoing Amazon Consulting & Support
As experts in the Amazon space, we understand the daily issues vendors face including but not limited to inventory stockouts and chargebacks.
We work directly with vendors to address and provide support for the following areas of concern:
1) Avoid Inventory Stockouts
“Currently Out of Stock” – four words no vendor ever wants to hear.
Not only do inventory stockouts send a signal to Amazon that you are an “unreliable” vendor, they also negatively impact your sales rank and give competitors a chance to capitalize on your marketing dollars.
We empower brands to use the new forecasting reports to keep up with Amazon’s demand and avoid stockouts. We also grow and monitor your Replenishable Buy Box Instock Rate to ensure inventory sell-through and diagnose problem areas.
Because Amazon is always fine tuning this process, CPC Strategy works directly with vendors to stay on top of changes and better understand how each update impacts your business.
“Inventory is the fuel for your advertising engine. Proactively preventing stockouts is the equivalent of ensuring ongoing advertising security.”
How Vendors Benefit:
- We grow and track your Replenishable Buy Box Instock Rate and analyze / advise on the underlying metrics that lead to improvement for this metric.
- We monitor available inventory levels and Amazon’s dynamic forecast to optimize your stock replenishment rate.
2) Optimize for Purchase Order Growth
By ensuring you always have the proper level of inventory (and catalog coverage) available in Amazon’s facilities, this allows us to optimize your account for purchase order growth.
What does that mean exactly?
In simple terms, we make sure your inventory levels are in tip-top shape, so you can maximize every opportunity to increase purchase orders. The better your inventory health, the better your chances to grow your business with Amazon.
How Vendors Benefit:
- We maximize your operational potential to allow your purchase orders to reach their optimal level.
3) Stop Losing Buy Box Share
Inventory levels can also impact your ability to maintain Buy Box share against third party sellers. If it’s a pricing issues, our experts can advise you on how to potentially make adjustments.
Amazon wants to ensure a positive customer experience. Whenever you run out of inventory (and lose your seat in the Buy Box), Amazon is going to give other sellers the opportunity to capitalize on that sale. We implement precautionary steps to help prevent this from happening.
How Vendors Benefit:
- We work directly with your team to creating instock efficiencies, so that you don’t lose the Buy Box (not only from out of stock issues but also for data quality issues & product that is visible on the site for a select period of time).
4) Leverage Operational Data to Inform Advertising Efforts
CPC Strategy also leverages your vendor operational data to help inform marketing efforts on- and off-Amazon.
For example, by leveraging data within ARA Basic and ARA Premium, we can better refine targeting efforts across other Amazon advertising platforms including Amazon Marketing Services and Amazon Media Group.
We can also use this operation data to inform marketing efforts across other channels (example, social) to drive traffic back to Amazon.
“It doesn’t matter if you are using ARA Basics or Premium, if you need assistance in some form – that is something we can provide,” Eric Kauss, Manager, Vendor Operations – Amazon at CPC Strategy said.
“That being said, the premium module is significantly more sophisticated and requires much more of an analytical deep dive.”
How Vendors Benefit:
- Continually monitor performance through data audits to ensure there is increased performance and targeted needs are being addressed.
- Align operational metrics with AMS, AMG & other channels to maximize ROI.
5) Save You Money By Identifying Chargebacks
Amazon Chargebacks are operational fees a vendor will see as deductions from their Amazon remittance checks. From packaging problems to technical errors in transmitting Electronic Data Interchange (EDI), Amazon will charge vendors for almost anything they can.
Today, there’s 22 different categories that Amazon can file chargebacks on & those fees add up quickly!
Amazon vendors should be informed on how these fees impact their account and what steps they can take to avoid deductions.
“Chargebacks are a big issue,” Kauss said.
“Vendors can get hit with $20,000 to $30,000 in chargeback fees every time they handle a purchase order. By helping a vendor with its operational efficiency, we can limit chargeback exposure in key categories.”
How Vendors Benefit:
- We review warehouse operational data to identify areas of concern and reduce potential chargebacks.
6) Our Team Is Here to Support You
Finally, we help vendors master the ins and outs of Vendor Central, vet Amazon’s Business Recommendations, and better understand Amazon’s goals and general practices. Most important — you can rely on our team of Amazon Vendor experts for ongoing support and guidance in urgent situations.
How Vendors Benefit:
- We work with your team to help you master the ins and outs of Vendor Central, vet Amazon’s Business Recommendations, and understand Amazon’s goals and general practices.
- We are available for consultation in times of critical issues.
Why Choose Us to Handle Your Vendor Operations?
From independent consultants to marketing agencies, there’s no shortage of competitors on the market promising the “ultimate hack” or “silver bullet” to solve all your Amazon operational challenges.
But at CPC Strategy, we don’t build our service line on quick fixes. In contrast – we’re invested in the long term growth and ongoing optimization of your business.
Everything we do is based on real data, best practices, expert insight, and sophisticated strategy.
As it relates to Vendor Operations, what sets CPC Strategy apart from other consultants is our ability to harvest your valuable operational data and strategically advise on the marketing side.
“Traditionally, operations and advertising have been somewhat siloed,” Jeff Coleman VP, Marketplace Channels at CPC Strategy said.
“If you’re looking at agencies specifically – there are very few (if any) handling both Vendor Operational Consulting and Full Service Advertising Management. What makes us different is we have dozens of employees who obsess (daily) over Amazon.”
Petriello adds, “Being able to marry advertising with the operational piece is not only good for the vendor’s business because it’s more comprehensive, it makes our operation consulting better because we are strategically responding to what is happening on the Marketing side of your business.”
Want to learn more? Email [email protected] for more information.
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