So it’s Valentine’s week. There’s gonna be a number of different feelings in the air, but let’s talk first about some numbers and feelings that can make your seller's heart beat fast:
- $700 billion in Q4 2023 💲
- Benefits of automated Amazon accounting 🔢
- Automated review removal process gets mixed reactions from sellers 😖
- Amazon Business Reports as tools of business growth 📈
POST OF THE WEEK
AMAZON NEWS
In its official Q4 report, Amazon proved once again that it's here to soar and break records. The retailer made a jaw-dropping $700 billion in sales last year—double what it was raking in 4 years ago!
🗓️ Here's a summary of Amazon’s financial milestone in the last quarter of 2023:
- Net sales
- Q4: Amazon saw a 14% surge, hitting $170 billion in net sales. That’s up from $149.2 billion in the same quarter in 2022.
- Entire 2023: Sales skyrocketed to $574.8 billion, marking a 12% increase from the $514.0 billion recorded in 2022.
- Operating income
- Q4: Operating income skyrocketed to $13.2 billion in the fourth quarter, a massive leap from $2.7 billion in the previous year.
- Entire 2023: Amazon raked in $36.9 billion in operating income compared to $12.2 billion in 2022.
- Net income
- Q4: There was a more-than-healthy income bump that reached $10.6 billion.
- Entire 2023: The full year’s net income reached a staggering $30.4 billion.
✨ 2023 highlights
Amazon took its mantra of making life easier for everyone involved seriously. The company constantly rolled out new features and services to keep customers and sellers happy.
- Prime perks galore: Prime members enjoyed more benefits, including easier order tracking, 24/7 live chat support, and hassle-free returns.
- Speedy deliveries: Amazon fulfilled and delivered billions of packages globally at lightning speed, with over 110 U.S. metro areas enjoying same-day delivery.
- Record-breaking holidays: The retailer owned Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Customers bought over a billion items and saved big. Plus, millions joined Prime, making it rain money for small and medium-sized businesses.
Fun fact: Did you know that in that billion-level sales revenue, 61% was contributed by third-party sellers? So, in a nutshell, 2023 was a year of innovation, growth, and working hand-in-hand to give customers their dream products.
TOGETHER WITH UNLOOP
Why should you automate your Amazon accounting
The road to making money on Amazon is full of sharp turns. For instance, you'd have to navigate around accounting challenges standing between you and a smooth-sailing cash flow.
Unloop knows how exhausting managing your books can get. That's why they devised Unloop Connect—a self-serve app that'll help you brave endless Amazon transactions with ease.
🔢 What can Unloop Connect do?
The main charm of Unloop Connect lies in its ability to automate your accounting process. But aside from this, you can squeeze 4 amazing benefits out of this app:
- Streamline your transactions by connecting Amazon to QuickBooks Online and letting the app categorize them for you.
- Monitor how much you're making and spending with organized profit and loss reports.
- Show off your finances to potential investors with confidence.
- Complete your bookkeeping conveniently with its easy-to-use interface.
Why should you choose Unloop?
First off, its app is FREE! Who doesn't want an extra hand with crunching numbers without the extra costs?
But if you want a more premium experience, they also offer comprehensive accounting services. You'd have to shed a few dollars, but their team of experts will make it all worth it. They're more than willing to handle your books if the free app seems overwhelming. 🤝
Ready to transform your Amazon accounting journey? Get started with Unloop today and book a 30-minute discovery call!
BITES OF THE WEEK
- Highs and Lows: The best sellers know all relevant (and updated) Amazon Seller statistics.
- Changing Course: Join Retail Brew for a sit-down on how customer journeys are changing.
- Black History Month: There are many ways to support Black-owned businesses on Amazon.
- February Best Sellers: Here's a rundown of the most popular products on Amazon for February.
BLACK MARKET
Amazon’s automated review removal process isn’t a win-win just yet
Reviews help buyers decide if your product is worth buying. But fake reviews? They do the opposite and hurt your reputation and your business.
Fortunately, Amazon launched an automated process to remove reviews from buyers who have violated its policies. But according to SoStocked, some sellers have mixed feelings about it. 💬
🗣️ What do the sellers say?
FYI, this isn’t the first move Amazon made to combat fake reviews. In May 2023, the retailer started deleting false reviews to regain customer trust and protect sellers from buyer extortion.
- Some are cheering on Amazon’s efforts. Fake reviews not only deceive customers but also undermine sellers’ hard work in ensuring product quality. Imagine receiving fake negative reviews from customers just because they want refunds or damage your business!
- Others are worried becauseAI might mistakenly remove a real review. Sellers don’t see the specific reviews that have been deleted, which makes it hard for them to resolve any possible error.
🛡️ Amazon’s efforts are a step in the right direction to make the platform safer and more honest. And with the FTC’s proposed rule on banning fake reviews and testimonials, the company is also avoiding being fined up to $50,000 for each fake review seen by customers.
But without transparency and accuracy in the removal process, its push for a safer marketplace may lack a solid foundation. Let’s hope Amazon finds a way to address the inefficiencies to effectively serve and protect sellers like you.
SELLER REFRESHER
How to grow your business through Amazon Business Reports
Business decisions must be based on data, not solely on intuition. That’s why Amazon provides various seller reports, such as payment, return, disbursement, business, and advertising reports.
JungleScout gives a detailed rundown of how to leverage them to enhance your sales and conversion rates.
📊 But first, what are Amazon Business Reports?
Amazon Business Reports are tools that allow you to view the performance of every aspect of your business. To avoid being overwhelmed by data, here are some tips for navigating these docs:
- Check the Detail Page Sales and Traffic by Child Item report regularly. This report has the most comprehensive metrics per product.
- Break down/sort data. Don’t try to digest everything at once—you can’t. Instead, arrange the reports based on the information you want to view (by date, ASIN, etc.). 💾
- Pay attention to the Unit Session Percentage (conversion rate) and Sessions metrics.
- Unit Session Percentage refers to the ratio of the number of units you’ve sold on an ASIN in a timeframe. In short, it shows how good your listing’s conversion rate is based on pricing and number of reviews. A 5%–10% Amazon conversion rate is considered good.
- Not to be confused with Page Views, Session refers to the number of unique Amazon page visits per day (traffic). There’s no specific number to aim for, but the general rules are:
- If you have high traffic but low conversion, you may have irrelevant traffic due to the wrong keywords.
- If you have low traffic but high conversion, your listing is fine—but you need to promote more.
There are other types of reports worth understanding for better business management. But as we said, take it slowly but surely to make sure you’ll know them by heart.
📂Have you reviewed your seller reports? Do share how you use them in your business by replying to this email!
