The 2018 PROSPER Show Recap
Last week, hundreds of sellers, technology suppliers, and agencies gathered at the 2018 PROSPER Show in Las Vegas to discuss new and innovative ways to improve their business on Amazon’s Marketplace.
In it’s third year, the PROSPER Show featured several ex-Amazon leaders and CEOs/General Managers from leading Amazon marketplace solution providers using workshops and seminars to help sellers learn how to build better online businesses.
According to the event page:
“This conference is ideal for the established Amazon online seller seeking to learn how to build its business more profitably, while meeting leading solution and service providers that can help sellers scale their businesses more efficiently.”
Trending Topics at the 2018 PROSPER Show
The event featured dozens of sessions across a 3-day period, focusing on topics such as new product launches, listing optimizations, tax strategies, and international selling.
If you didn’t get a chance to attend the event, you can find the presentations (along with presenter notes) provided by PROSPER including:
- How 6 Years at Amazon Trained Me For a Second Life as an Efficient, Profitable Private Label Seller
- How I Build And Sold My 3P Seller Business for $75MM
- How US Brands Capitalize on China’s Online Shopper Behavior
- Visual Listing Optimization That Work in Outperforming the Competition
- The right questions to ask when shopping for software for long-term profits
- Advanced Tax Strategies for High Income Earners
- Expanding from 3P to 1P
- The Amazon Way, Metrics behind building a Million Dollar Amazon Business
- And more!
Events like PROSPER provide a unique opportunity to bring together the biggest and brightest minds under one roof to discuss the tactics, strategies, present and future of Amazon advertising.
But one topic in particular came up pretty frequently – Seller Suspensions.
“One of the panels which had conference attendees engaged in discussion was the Seller Performance panel in which the panelists discussed the best ways for Sellers to avoid getting their accounts suspended and how to respond to a suspension,” Pat Petriello, Head of Marketplace, at CPC Strategy said.
“What really stood out was the wide range in experiences Sellers had reported with regards to suspensions and the prevalence of alleged workarounds and backdoor tactics they attempted to remedy such cases.”
“Despite the evolution of the Marketplace and the increasing level of Seller knowledge, this area of selling on Amazon still represented a black box and felt “random” to many Sellers.”
“For the Seller community, it was a great reminder that with all the exciting new functionality being offered to Sellers (Amazon Stores, Amazon Media Group, New Brand Registry, Headline Search Ads in Seller Central, etc.), it still of the upmost importance to stand vigil over the core customer service and performance metrics which can lead to account suspensions.”
What should be the first steps if my account is suspended?
According to Nancy-lee McLaughlin, Manager of Marketplace Channels at CPC Strategy (who also attended PROSPER), there are 4 steps sellers should take in the event their account is suspended:
1) Look back at previous communication.
“Do not make hasty actions”. Look at all recent communication with Amazon and within Seller Central. There may be some indicators or warning messages that you may have missed or seem like an extra note at the bottom of another message. Read through any messages carefully to ensure that you are not in violation of any Amazon policies.
2) Make sure you have all your documents in order.
Take ownership of your Seller Performance and permissions. Ensure that all your documents are in order and up to date and do not take short cuts or try to use documents that are not aligned with Amazon TOS.
3) Take a moment to digest what Amazon is saying and customize your response to your account and customer.
Knowing that “Customer Obsession” is their Number 1 Leadership Principle, spend time customizing your language and rebuttal with the customer in mind.
And most importantly;
4) If your processes or products did violate Amazons TOS, own it and own the solution.
Work with your team to rectify the process and then document what you are doing to improve your process and customer experience. Be direct but not rude and keep your case focused on the customer experience.
CPC Strategy Hosts Happy Hour for Brands
In addition to the main event, CPC Strategy hosted a free happy hour for high-performing brands on Tuesday evening at The Barrymore.
For those who attended the invite-only social hour, it was a great opportunity to get 1-1 time with some of our top Amazon advertising experts.
Jeff Yamauchi, Sales Development Representative at CPC Strategy with PROSPER attendees.
- Did you get a chance to attend PROSPER this year?
- What did you think of the event this year compared to previous?
- Will you be attending any additional events in 2018?
Share your thoughts with tara@cpcstrategy or comment below!
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