Rohit Kadimisetty, 28, of Northridge, California, pleaded guilty to conspiracy in September 2021. Kadimisetty, along with four other former Amazon consultants, was accused of bribery and fraud to elevate and benefit specific merchants on the Amazon Marketplace.
In a press release made by U.S. Attorney Nick Brown, he shared that "Mr. Kadimisetty used his knowledge and contacts from prior employment at Amazon to enrich himself by manipulating listings on Amazon Marketplace. In addition, he was deemed critical cog in the bribery wheel: paying contacts in India to reinstate suspended accounts, steal confidential information, and attack competitors who got in the way of those funding the bribery scheme."
Kadmisetty, along with the other indicted Amazon consultants, was allegedly working with ex-employees of Amazon from India. He recruited these employees to misuse their employee privileges and access to internal information, systems, and tools.
The group offered illicit services, namely:
When Amazon sellers are desperate to find some leverage against their competitors or want to get their suspended accounts reinstated immediately, the chances of them resorting to asking help illicitly is quite high. Reports state that a client paid the defendants a staggering $200,000 for a successful account reinstatement in an alleged related incident.
If you're strapped for cash and need some help reinvesting towards your business, you can apply for the Amazon Lending Program.
What is the Amazon Lending Program?
This is a loan program that Amazon offers to eligible sellers with short-term financing to help grow their businesses. Amazon determines eligibility based on a seller's ability to increase sales while providing a high level of customer satisfaction. Depending on the evaluation, sellers can receive a 3, 6, 9, or 12-month business loan.
The minimum loan amount is $1,000, and the maximum amount is $750,000. Interest rates, however, are not disclosed by Amazon at the moment. Therefore, every seller receives a different payment term and interest rate depending on the evaluation.
Reasons to consider using Amazon Lending
To purchase inventory
One of the most pressing issues Amazon sellers face is inventory management. You can use the funds from Amazon Lending to purchase inventory and catch up with demand. This way, you're sure that you can keep a healthy inventory level.
For launching new products
If you're thinking about expanding your business, obtaining funds from Amazon Lending can be an option. Through this, you can expand your product selection and offer more to your customers.
How to apply for Amazon Lending
Eligible sellers will receive a notification from Amazon after they've identified you as a loan candidate. You'll see this on your Amazon Seller Central account. You cannot apply for a loan without an invitation.
It will take about five working days before Amazon approves your application. After approval, most loans are issued within two business days.
A user on Reddit posted what he did to cut down their costs and improve their profit margins. Here are some of the takeaways from the post:
1. PPC bills are too high - every seller should track their TACOS. As a seller, you might not realize that not every child ASIN of yours is doing well, or the keywords you're aiming to target are not ranking. Cut these costs down!
According to the seller, one benchmark you have to look out for is when you have high ad sales to the organic ratio (>50%) or high TACOS (>15%). Once you've reached these levels, cut them down.
2. Remove underperforming products - this is true, especially if you're selling many products. Let these go and redirect your energy towards your mid- and high-performing products.
3. Consider getting your warehouse - once your business is already making seven figures, this is a sign that you should get your warehouse! With that much sales, you are working with a lot of inventory, and Amazon's warehouse and storage fees may not just be doing it for you.
4. Change your FBA tier - if there's a way you can go down to a lower FBA tier to lower your costs, do so! You can do this by getting a package redesign or making your products lighter.
5. Eliminating unnecessary costs - reevaluate how money flows in and out for your business operations. If you can, cut down any necessary costs without compromising the product's quality.
You can do this by negotiating with your suppliers (find other alternatives) and considering sourcing from local shipping suppliers. If you've previously signed up for any subscriptions (usually tech software), you might want to consider developing an in-house tech for your business too!
The general opinion of achieving advertising success is through a low ACoS. A low percentage could either mean you're not spending much on your advertisements, or you've earned more in sales than you're spending on ads.
Lowering ACoS is typically a good thing for your finances, however, it can still affect the visibility of your listings. Here are some ways to balance both:
Select your keywords properly: A rookie misstep that Amazon sellers often make is to continue bidding on low-performing keywords. You can monitor your keywords' performance by downloading the search term report, where you'll see the keywords that are worth bidding on and which ones to ditch.
Try out different campaigns: When building out a campaign, you can select from two settings on Amazon: automatic and manual. As an FBA seller, you should know the importance and benefits of each.
If you want to maximize your campaigns, consider running each type(one automatic, one manual). This way, you can identify valuable keyword data from the automated campaigns and use it for your manual campaign. Adjust your bids accordingly from there.
Look at how your competitors are doing: You're not the only seller in your niche who's trying to get their ACoS down - many others are on the same boat. Take advantage of this by identifying the keywords they are bidding on and how they integrate relevant keywords into a listing's title and description.