Quote of the Week

It makes me shudder any time I hear someone say "I wish I had kept better track of my purchases."

Now let's see what we might have missed on the back pages of Amazon news:

What's the Matter?

📰 A Quarter of a Million Bodies for Q4

That's how many seasonal, part-time, and full-time employees Amazon is hiring in the U.S. for the holiday season.

Seasonal employees will start at $18 per hour plus benefits (including health care) starting on day one.

About Amazon has Details

Why it matters:

In the literal sense, that's great for sellers because we know how much volume spikes in Q4.

We hope these extra bodies will shorten the check-in to receiving times on shipments and shorten the time we see "pending" on FBA orders placed before being shipped to the customer.

It also matters from a "sometimes it's hard to grasp how big Amazon really is" perspective.

Worldwide, it's estimated that Amazon employs 1.5 million people. So, 250,000 people hired is less than a 17% boost to the existing workforce.

📰 A Bundle of Changes

Ring the bells in the town square because Amazon released a clear, straightforward policy update!

This newsletter doesn't dabble in breaking news often, but this is one I want to make sure you know about.

(Seriously, if you rely on me for breaking news, you should reevaluate your consumption sources)

I won't go into a detailed summary of the changes, but safe to say, you won't need those "Sold as a Set: Do Not Separate" stickers much anymore, if at all.

Here's the policy:

Amazon's Bundling Policy

Why it matters:

The Good: We're done with those bundles offering a bottle of vitamins along with a pamphlet of health nonsense. Also those multi-packs that come with a stupid sticker or in a branded box.

Many of those bundles sold well, so those sales will most likely divert to listings of the individual components or brand-assembled bundles.

The Bad: At face value, the policy prohibits seller-constructed multi-packs.

Those two and three packs of the same item we prepped in polybags would not be allowed reading the policy. Only multi-packs with a manufacturer UPC are permitted.

As always, enforcement will provide more details as to how many of these listings actually get taken down.

A sticker or pamphlet doesn't add value for a customer. However, if my favorite brand of vitamin C only has a 200 count bottle as its largest size and I need/want more, an argument can be made that a two-pack with 400 is both valuable and convenient.

👉 *This topic was the first one we covered on yesterday's live show.

You can watch the replay here.

And join us live every Wednesday at 5pm EST on YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook.

📰 Fulfilled By Fraudulent Walmart Seller (FBFWS)

There's a saying that I just made up that says: It's not a rivalry until one side sues the other.

If there's truth in that, we might officially have an Amazon-Walmart rivalry.

Amazon sellers are suing Walmart, claiming that the retailer allows fraudsters to resell their products on Walmart's marketplace without proper oversight.

Yahoo Finance has the Story

Why it matters:

We've predicted the next few months will be big for FBM on Amazon and that's at the heart of the lawsuit's claim.

The lawsuit alleges that these scammers trick consumers into buying items from their Walmart listing, while the actual products are shipped from the legitimate FBM sellers.

The scammer will then claim the item wasn't received and request a refund from Amazon. The scammer gets the money from the sale, Walmart gets their fee, customer gets their product, and Amazon seller is cheated out of their inventory.

📰 Spooked Halloween Spending

Consumers are expected to spend $11.6 billion on Halloween this year, down from last year's $12.2 billion.

The average spending per person is projected to be $103.63.

Retail Dive has Details

Why it matters:

Despite being a decrease year-over-year, this is still an incredible number to me.

The biggest surprise? Probably the $500 million spent on greeting cards. That number feels like it's much more than those cheap folded cards for classmates in schools we buy in packs.

And there's no reason to think interest in Halloween (and the spending associated with it) will fade away. It's mostly younger generations fueling the holiday love.

56% of the 25-34 age group said they started their Halloween shopping before October.