7 posts tagged with "Operations"

Amazon loses and damages inventory. Not often, as a percentage, but across millions of units it adds up, and some of it is yours. Amazon pays back much of it automatically. The rest you have to find and claim yourself, and since late 2024 you have far less time to do it.

This guide covers how reimbursements work now, what Amazon catches on its own, what it doesn't, and a twice-a-month routine that keeps you from leaving money behind.

When Amazon removes a listing, flags a policy violation, or suspends selling privileges, the way back is usually a Plan of Action (POA): a short written explanation of what went wrong, what you've already fixed, and what you've changed so it won't happen again.

Most rejected appeals aren't rejected because the seller did something unforgivable. They're rejected because the POA was vague, blamed someone else, or promised to do better without showing anything had changed. This guide covers how to write one that holds up, with a template you can adapt.

Q4 is the make-or-break season for most FBA sellers. Without a written inventory process, you risk more than lost sales. You invite stockouts, aged-inventory fees, and overstock that ties up cash well into the new year.

Most Amazon VA hires go the same way. You do a few screen-share calls, the VA says they've got it, and two days later the questions start. By the end of the second week you're spending more time answering messages and fixing mistakes than you spent doing the work yourself.

The VA usually isn't the problem. Verbal training doesn't stick, especially for someone who's new to Seller Central. What works is giving them a written procedure for every task before they start, and handing over work in a deliberate order.

Here's a five-day plan that does that.

Plenty of Amazon businesses stall somewhere between their first and fifth hire. Sales are steady, the products still sell, and yet growth has flattened, and the founder is busier than ever.

When nothing is obviously wrong with the market or the product, the cause is usually the founder's calendar. Everything still runs through one person: every suppressed listing, every Seller Support case, every judgment call about inventory. The business can't grow faster than that one person can make decisions.

A listing disappears. An FBA shipment is flagged. A red banner shows up in Account Health. The first half hour after you notice decides whether it costs you an afternoon or two weeks.

Most of that time usually goes to searching: YouTube, Facebook groups, a Reddit thread from 2021, a Seller Support case that takes two days to get a reply. Meanwhile the listing stays down.

Here's a routine for the first 30 minutes instead. It works for almost any Amazon problem, and it's the same order of steps we use in every ZipTopic SOP.

An Amazon SOP (standard operating procedure) is a written, step-by-step procedure for one task in your Amazon business: fixing a suppressed listing, building an FBA shipment, replying to a buyer message. Anyone on your team can follow it and get the same result you would.

Most sellers know they should have them. Few have SOPs that anyone actually uses. This guide covers what makes an SOP usable, which ones to write first, a template, and how to stop them going out of date.