Are you eligible to sell toys and games this festive season?
A product range that is continually in demand is toys and games – not just at Christmas, but all year round.
Have you noticed how, each year, there always appears to be an in-demand, must-have toy that parents queue for hours to buy from stores across the land.
As my children are grown up now, I have no idea which toy it will be this year – but I guess I should take note, as I could look for items now that are suitable to sell within the Christmas period.
My youngest son has just reached his 20th birthday, but when he was very young, we were probably just like parents of young children are now – in that we would always try and ensure the toy he most wanted would be there for him to open on Christmas Day.
Of course, now many parents/family members purchase their toys and games online, taking advantage of home delivery, and sometimes even having items wrapped before they arrive to shield young children’s view form whatever gift ‘surprise’ they wish to receive.
As you can image, toys and games present a fantastic opportunity for selling online: there are thousands of products and you only need a few to sell consistently with a reasonable profit mark-up to increase income.
If you are currently thinking of selling toys and games on Amazon (to take advantage of their global presence and reach a huge audience), you need to ensure you will be entitled to sell them in good time of Christmas: easily the most prolific period to sell products from the toys and games range.
You need to ensure now that you will qualify, because Amazon restrict sellers that do not meet their criteria.
This is to ensure that ‘Jonnie-come-lately’ doesn’t hijack the Christmas selling period with (possibly) inferior toys and games and disappear after Christmas.
Here is Amazon notice for sellers currently on the system who qualify: ‘Only sellers who meet the criteria listed below will be eligible to sell in the Toys & Games category from November 17, 2015 through January 5th, 2016.
- Your first sale on Amazon.co.uk must occur prior to September 18, 2015. The sale does not need to be specific to the Toys & Games store.
- You must process and ship at least 25 orders from September 1, 2015 through October 31, 2015. The orders do not need to be specific to the Toys & Games store.
- Your pre-fulfilment cancel rate for the period from October 1, 2015 through October 31, 2015 must be less than 1.75%.
- Your late shipment rate for the period from October 1, 2015 through October 31, 2015 must be less than 4%.
- Your order defect rate must be less than 1% as of November 1, 2015.
‘Your eligibility to sell in the Toys & Games store is determined separately for each country. If you sell in multiple marketplaces, your performance metrics will be evaluated separately for each country.
‘We will provide final notification about your eligibility to sell in the Toys & Games store by November 11, 2015. As of November 17, 2015, we will monitor the performance and listings of sellers who are approved to sell in Toys & Games during this holiday season.’
Do you qualify?
If so, here are some steps you can take to remain eligible to sell in the toys and games category throughout the holiday season:
- Monitor performance metrics and take corrective action when necessary.
- Use Fulfilment by Amazon (FBA) to ship products to customers.
- Check your orders frequently in the Manage Orders section of your account.
- Minimise order cancellations; show inventory for sale only if it is 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, ensure that their SLA commitments provide for prompt shipping confirmation.
Take action now if you want to benefit from the rich pickings of selling in the Christmas season.
What do you think?
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