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- Amazon’s feedback shake-up has sellers fuming đ„
- $504M shows luxury buyers playing it smart đ
- Keep more profit from every Amazon sale đ§ź
- Get Looped In and take the chaos out of ecommerce accounting âïž
HOT TOPIC
Ever been graded without knowing what you did wrong⊠or right?
Last week, Amazon axed the written feedback requirement, switching seller reviews to star-only ratings.
Amazon says theyâre âmaking it easierâ for customers to rate youâthough maybe a little too easy for sellersâ liking.
One frustrated seller lit up the seller forums, and the thread turned into a full-on roast of the policy.
đ„ Why sellers arenât buying it
This isnât just a âminor update,â itâs stripping away the one shred of transparency sellers had.
And the fallout could be brutal:
- FBA sellers take the fall for Amazonâs mistakes. Late shipments, crushed boxes, or warehouse mishandling? Still your problem, even if you never touched the product.
- No text means no fix. Without context, youâll never know if that 1-star was for product quality, buyer confusion, or a cat stepping on the keyboard.
- Disputes get buried. No written feedback means no ammo to appeal an unfair rating.
- Pointless for FBA orders. Amazon controls the entire fulfillment chain, yet the seller score still takes the hit.
To clarify, Amazon representatives said customers have to pick a reason before submitting ratings under four stars.
đ„” The bigger picture
Sellers see this as another notch in Amazonâs long game of outsourcing blame while tightening performance metrics.
Pair that with ballooning fees, harsher rules, and shrinking ad margins, and itâs starting to feel like a slow squeeze on smaller accounts, the kind that ends with them gone.
Read the full thread here:
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- Resource Replay: Here’s a quick recap of all the top forum content for July.
SOCIAL PULSE
The $504M proof that shoppers are getting smarter
Luxury Recommerce leader The RealReal just scored its biggest quarter everâ$504M in resale sales, up 14% YoY.
According to PYMNTS, tariffs, inflation, and a healthy dose of economic anxiety are pushing even high-income shoppers toward secondhand luxury goods.
đïž Pre-owned is the new “just dropped”
This isnât a one-off tariff boost, itâs a legit consumer shift, especially for Gen Z and millennials. Theyâre:
- Hunting for deals without sacrificing brand prestige.
- Treating resale platforms as both a shopping destination and a side hustle.
- Dropping $581 on average (+8% YoY) when itâs authenticated and still cheaper than retail.
đĄ Seller tip: Economic uncertainty is reshaping buying habits across categories.
Consumers still want premiumâbut theyâre choosier about value, timing, and sourcing. Sellers who frame their products as âsmart buysâ will ride the wave, even if the tide turns on spending.
CASH CORNER
5 ways to keep more of what you sell on Amazon
Too many sellers fall in love with a âwinningâ product⊠until Amazon fees, taxes, and storage costs quietly devour their profits. Avoiding this trap means knowing how to calculate your FBA profit accurately.
Seller Assistant has listed 5 tips to help you do just that:
- Scan in bulk. If youâre sourcing wholesale catalogs, donât waste time on manual checks.
- Tip: Use bulk tools to scan hundreds (or thousands) of SKUs and spot the winners fast.
- Deep-dive the promising ones. For online arbitrage, dropshippers, or wholesale sellers validating bulk results, individual product analysis is non-negotiable. đ
- Tip: One product at a time might be slower, but itâs how you catch the margin killers.
- Count every fee. Referral, storage, inbound placement, prep, fulfillment⊠Amazonâs fee list is longer than a Prime Day checkout line.
- Tip: Leave one out, and your âprofitâ can vanish instantly.
- Donât skip taxes. Sales tax (U.S.) or VAT (international) can wreck your margins if you ignore them. đ
- Tip: Always factor them in before you place the order.
- Know your break-even. Your break-even price is the minimum you can sell without losing money.
- Tip: Skip this, and you could be selling at a loss without even realizing it.
The market is getting leaner, fees are creeping higher, and buyers are savvier.
Sellers who survive arenât the ones chasing every shiny ASIN, theyâre the ones who master their numbers and adapt their pricing before the competition does. đ