Amazon takes heat from sellers due to unannounced switching on of their automated handling time

Which would you rather sell, time-sensitive or heat-sensitive products?

Amazon asked this question in a Seller Central post, to which one replied the pros and cons of selling both. We’d love to hear your thoughts about this, so feel free to share them by replying to this email—but not before you read the weekender news we prepared for you today. 

• Sellers’ frustration over unannounced Amazon actions 🔛
• A good tactic to drive early sales for October Prime Day 🛍
• Tiktok Shop’s Deals For You Day vs. Amazon’s Prime Day 🛒

BLACK MARKET

Amazon’s Automated Handling Time is designed to streamline order processing by automatically setting handling times for you. Unfortunately, this supposed-to-be efficiency tool is causing some issues for sellers with specific shipping schedules.

🚫 In a report by ChannelX, several sellers reported that Amazon changed the Automated Handling Time for their accounts without notifying them!

• One seller discovered their Automated Handling Time was activated without notice. Amazon changed their custom-made items' handling time from 5 days to just 1 day.
• Another seller, who needs 2 days to craft handmade items, now has to rush everything in just 1 day. Other sellers who sell handmade products also share the same sentiments.

🔍 Why is this an issue?

• Late shipping: Automated Handling Time assumes you ship every day, including weekends. This means you might be marked late if you don’t.
• Permanent effects: For the first 90 days, your Late Shipment Rate (LSR) won’t be affected by late shipments caused by the new handling time. But once late shipments are recorded on your LSR, the scores can’t be fixed, even by Amazon support.

What should you do when this happens to you?

• Check your settings and make sure Automated Handling Time is not turned on. It’s the most proactive way of avoiding these headaches and keeping your ratings high.
• If it’s turned on, you can opt out by changing the Shipping settings on Seller Central. All SKUs will go back to your original handling times automatically—no need for manual updates!

Most importantly, don’t let this automated change catch you off guard. Always be alert and watch out for similar issues our team will share with you as early as we can. 🍽️

TOGETHER WITH LEVANTA

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The second Prime Day of the year is coming (October), and now’s a good time to get ahead of that wave. Be riding high when the holiday sales season hits.

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BITES OF THE WEEK

• TikTok’s £1 Million Club: TikTok aims to help sellers earn £1M in revenue through incentives and support.
• TikTok in Asia: TikTok Shop is having a blast in Asia, along with a quadrupled GMV.
• Going for Gen Z:  L'Oréal is taking on social commerce to grab the Gen Z market.

ECOMMERCE NEWS

TikTok tries to take on Prime Day with its Deals For You Day—how did it do?

In a very ambitious move, TikTok Shop bravely competed with Amazon’s Prime Day with a sales event of its own—Deals For You Day. The sales event ran from July 9–17.

According to Modern Retail, the “David vs. Goliath battle” ended with the former being the clear winner. 🏆

How did the TikTok Shop’s event go?

Salesforce analysts have the same insight: TikTok Shop faced some challenges. 

• Lower discounts. One factor that led to the defeat could be the 18% average discount offered. This was lower than Amazon’s 22% average.
• Price glitches. Discounted prices weren’t displayed on the first day of the event (July 9) despite brands applying for them weeks in advance. The issue was resolved by the end of the first day—only 7 hours later!
• Lack of participation. Analysts also said “Neither retailers nor consumers participated heavily in TikTok's version of Prime Day this year.” TikTok needs to pull more big-name brands to gain traction. 
• “Apples and oranges.” Another thing to consider is that TikTok and Amazon are fundamentally different and aren’t direct competitors. For instance, TikTok doesn’t even have a subscription model.

✨ Not a complete loss, though

There were still some TikTok sellers who said it was their “best week ever”. But one fact remains: TikTok Shop has a long way to go before it can go toe to toe with Prime Day.