Unlocking the Power of Amazon: Navigating the 'Frequently Returned' Label and Utilizing ‘Sales Data in Search Results’

Imagine if you were to make an annual rough estimate of the value of products returned on Amazon. I am sure your guess would not come anywhere near $761 billion dollars (2021). The return rate is even higher for orders placed online. The average rate of return for online purchases stood at 20.8% in the year 2021.Two years down the line, Amazon is making concentrated efforts toward bringing down the rate of return for its products. The retail giant has started flagging products with the tag: “Frequently Returned Items” for some of the product categories.

As per one of Amazon's spokespersons, Betsy Harden, "We’re currently showing return rate information on some product detail pages to help our customers make more informed purchase decisions."

What does it mean for Sellers?

The "frequently returned item" label on Amazon indicates that a seller's goods have a high percentage of customer returns. For sellers, having a product marked as a "frequently returned item" can have a number of implications. First off, it can affect how visible their product is on the Amazon platform, as the company might give preference to items with lower return rates in search results and other places. Sales and revenue for the seller can decline as a result of this.

The label can also affect how customers view the goods and the seller. Even if a product has been carefully examined and is still in good condition, customers may be less likely to buy it if it is marked as "frequently returned."

How to Mitigate the Impact of Frequently Returned Labels with DataChannel?

Sellers can access the ‘return insights’ of their inventory using the Amazon Seller Central Platform. Simply toggle to Inventory → Manage Inventory to view your complete report of frequently returned items with ASIN level granularity. Amazon allows you to download your Frequently Returned Item report ranging from the last one day to a Year. However, you have to separately view the FBA (Fulfilled by Amazon) and FBM (Fulfilled by Merchant) reports every time you want to track if your inventory is hitting the high return rate mark. Meaning, you’ll have to manually download the reports by repeating the same tedious process over and over again.

An easier way could be to start moving your data into a centralized data repository using DataChannel, where you can easily infer short-term and long-term return or purchase trends for your products. You can easily forecast if your products witness a high rate of return around the holiday or sale season, and what measures can you take to break that cycle. 

Moving on, we’ll talk about Amazon’s other UI update i.e., Sales data in search results. 

Why is Amazon displaying Sales data in search results?

In order to give customers more relevant and helpful information when making purchasing decisions, Amazon is now presenting sales data in search results. Amazon attempts to assist customers in making better-informed decisions by emphasizing products that are well-liked and highly valued by other customers by displaying sales data such as the number of units sold and customer ratings.

By increasing visibility for their products, especially those that are selling well, sellers profit from the display of sales data in search results. Sellers may draw in more clients and boost their sales by using sales data to highlight the reputation and calibre of their products.

In order to boost sales and enhance customer satisfaction, sellers can further be inspired to improve the quality and functionality of their items by having their sales data displayed.

How can 1P & 3P Sellers Gain Advantage with their Sales Data?

Both first-party (1P) and third-party (3P) sellers can gain leverage through their Sales data being displayed to attract more customers. By keeping a close track of customer feedback and their sales performance in a given time frame, sellers can improve their search ranking and get their products showcased amongst big brands as well. Here’s how we think sellers should prepare their data-driven strategy for this newest UI feature update from Amazon with DataChannel:

Gather near Real-Time Sales data: DataChannel enables sellers to transfer their sales data in near real-time into any data warehouse of their choice via  Amazon Seller Central, allowing them to keep track of their sales performance on Amazon more accurately. Automated data fetches mean that no information is lost and correct insights are available. This can help sellers make informed decisions about their inventory, pricing strategies, advertising campaigns, customer feedback, etc. 

Customer Reviews: With all your sales data secured in a data warehouse, you can easily identify high-performing ASINs or SKUs during peak seasons (Festivals & Amazon Sales Events)  and run ad campaigns for those products to attract better sales and more customer reviews. Sellers can also enroll in the “Amazon Early Reviewer'' Program to get customers to provide authenticated reviews for their best-selling products. A seller can then plan well in advance their sales & marketing strategy.

Analyze Ad Performance: You can also analyze the ad performance data to identify trends, patterns, and areas for optimization using our integration with Amazon Ads. The insights gained from the analysis can be used to refine your ad campaigns and improve performance.

Enables Custom Analysis: With integrations surmising almost the entire Amazon ecosystem (Amazon: Seller Central, Ads, Vendor Central, Demand Side Platform, Sizmek, and Marketing Cloud) sellers can centralize their data into a centralized cloud destination and make it query ready to conduct custom analysis.

Off Amazon Analytics: If you are a seller using multiple platforms to run ad campaigns such as Google, Facebook, Twitter, etc. sellers can easily extract data related to their ad campaigns, such as impressions, clicks, conversions, and more, and bring it into a centralized data warehouse. This allows sellers to perform a deeper analysis of their advertising performance across multiple platforms and make data-driven decisions quickly. 

Amazon's emphasis on displaying more sales data in search results indicates that sellers need to step up their game to remain competitive. They need to ensure their products are of top-notch quality to stay ahead of their competitors. In this regard, ETL tools such as DataChannel can be highly beneficial. These solutions can help sellers manage their data more effectively and save time and resources that would otherwise be needed for manual data processing. 

DataChannel can automate the data processing tasks, enabling sellers to focus on analyzing the data and fine-tuning their strategies accordingly. Its scalability feature enables sellers to manage large volumes of data with ease, which can be vital for businesses experiencing growth. Additionally, timely access to data can provide sellers with real-time insights into their business performance and make quick decisions accordingly.

Furthermore, it gives sellers granular control over what data to move and can help them optimize their marketing, pricing, and inventory management strategies based on their specific needs. 

In conclusion, Amazon's increased focus on displaying sales data in search results emphasizes the importance of data for sellers. ETL tools like DataChannel can be crucial in managing this data efficiently, automating the process, and providing sellers with valuable insights to make data-driven decisions. By leveraging these tools, sellers can stay ahead of the competition and achieve their business goals effectively. Schedule a demo call with us to know more.