Selling Toys on Amazon - 2012 Holiday Season

Toys are a huge seller on Amazon. FBA Sellers usually prepare for the season during the summer. With that in mind, Amazon has released its restrictions and guidelines to gain the ability to sell in this category.

Effective November 13, 2012, only sellers who meet the following performance criteria will be eligible to sell in the Toys & Games category from November 13, 2012 through the first week in January 2013. Webstore sellers are also subject to these guidelines.

Your first sale on Amazon.com must be prior to September 17, 2012. The sale does not need to be specific to the Toys store.

You must have processed and shipped at least 25 orders during the 60 consecutive days preceding November 1, 2012. The orders do not need to be specific to the Toys store.

Your pre-fulfillment cancel rate must be no greater than 1.75% for the trailing 30 days preceding November 1, 2012.

Your late shipment rate must be no greater than 4% for the trailing 30 days preceding November 1, 2012.

Your order defect rate must be no greater than 1% short term as of November 1, 2012.

Your orders that use Fulfillment by Amazon will not be subject to the holiday season restrictions provided your account is in good standing.

If you currently sell on Amazon, can find your customer metrics in the Performance section of your seller account. If your performance does not meet the above criteria, you now have the opportunity to improve it before the holiday season begins.

Amazon will provide final notification about eligibility to sell in the Toys & Games store by the middle of November 2012. Then, beginning November 13, 2012, they will monitor the performance and listings of sellers who are approved to sell in Toys & Games during the holiday season. Amazon Services does reserve the right to cancel listings, remove selling privileges, and prohibit the sale of specific products to maintain a marketplace that is safe for buyers.

Here are some steps you can take to remain eligible to sell in Toys & Games throughout the holiday season:

Monitor your customer metrics and take corrective action when necessary.

Utilize Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) to ship products to your customers.

Check your orders frequently in the Manage Orders section of your account.

Minimize order cancellations; don’t show more stock for sale than you have available to ship.

Ship orders and confirm shipment in a timely manner.

Ensure your seller policies are up to date.

If you work with outside drop-shippers, solidify their SLA commitments for providing prompt shipping confirmation.

If you are considering selling toys on Amazon this holiday season, you may want to review the guidelines above again and start preparing. Take action to make any improvement needed if that is necessary. There are many time-sensitive tasks that need to happen before Amazon will allow you to venture into selling toys in the 2012 holiday season.


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Selling Toys on Amazon this Holiday Season

Today’s post is contributed by my colleague, Kim Tarrant, who co-wrote our book, Amazon FBA Recipe for Success. Kim has sold on Amazon for several holiday seasons.

If you’re selling on Amazon there’s no doubt you’ve received the “Holiday Selling in Toys and Games” email from Amazon. These guidelines are implemented to maintain buyer confidence in Amazon during the holiday season. If you do not meet the performance criteria you will not be eligible to sell in the toys and games category from November 15, 2011 through the first week in January 2012. These guidelines are only applicable for merchant fulfilled items, they do not apply to items fulfilled by Amazon as long as your account is in good standing.

In order to sell in the toys and games category from November 15, 2011 and the first week in January 2012 you will need to meet these guidelines:

- Seller’s first sale on Amazon.com must be prior to 09/19/2011 (sale does not need to be Toy-specific).

- Seller must have processed and shipped at least 25 orders (do not need to be Toy-specific) during the 60 consecutive days preceding 11/1/2011.

- No greater than 1% short term order defect rate as of 11/1/2011.

- No greater than 2.5% pre-fulfillment cancel rate for the trailing 30-days preceding 11/1/2011.

- No greater than 5% late shipment rate for the trailing 30-days preceding 11/1/2011.

This email can seem intimidating at first but it’s really quite simple to achieve all the requirements. Amazon will periodically send emails to let you know where you stand on meeting the criteria. On or around September 21, Amazon sent an email to all sellers letting them know where they stand on meeting the criteria for the holiday season. Amazon will send several more notices out before the deadline of November 1, 2011. In my experience, these notifications will come around the end of September, the middle of October, the end of October and a few days before November 15, 2011. If you haven’t met the guidelines yet, don’t panic as there is still time. The sales quota guidelines (first sale prior to September 19 and at least 25 orders during the 60 days preceding November 1, 2011) can be met through merchant fulfilled orders OR orders fulfilled by Amazon.

If you’ve sold during the holidays in the past, you know it can be a wild a crazy ride. If you haven’t, relax, don’t get overwhelmed and take it one sale at a time.

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