March 26, 2020 
Amazon, Inc, is regarded the world over as an e-commerce giant. Apart from e-commerce, its primary business focuses are cloud computing, artificial intelligence, and digital streaming. Along with Google, Microsoft, and Apple, Amazon is a part of the four big tech companies in the world.
Amazon offers various e-commerce solutions, a primary initiative taken up by the company is to offer its platform to third-party sellers. This platform was created with an idea to allow third-party sellers to sell their new or used products online at a fixed rate. Amazon gives exclusive access to its customer base to sellers for conducting sales.
Placing a product on Amazon ensures it is showcased to customers and businesses 24/7. As an Amazon seller, Amazon has ensured solutions to conceivable issues. Amazon seller support assists the seller on any queries that may arise. It also has the option to take help from professionals on any issuer a seller is having trouble with.
Amazon Seller Reconciliation
A problem that seems to occur occasionally is with seller returns and reimbursement. This issue usually arises when a customer returns an item that they bought. In such a case, Amazon sends a notification of the same to the seller through email and funds from the particular sale are extracted from the seller’s account and held by Amazon till the product is returned.
Amazon usually allows a time period of 45 days for the customer to return an item. In case the product in question isn’t returned, Amazon reverts the withheld funds back into the seller’s account usually but not always. These funds are sometimes not noticed in the wait for the returned product and not returned to the seller.
It then becomes the liability of the seller, and they have to find evidence of these inconsistencies and submit a reimbursement request to the company. Unfortunately, Amazon seller reconciliation becomes difficult when reconciling products that have or haven’t been returned against the amount that has or hasn’t been reimbursed is a tricky affair.
Something similar applies to the inventory damaged at the warehouses of Amazon. An Amazon seller dependent on the FBA (Fulfillment by Amazon) service, the seller’s products are placed along with millions of other products around the world. The Amazon reconciliation and reimbursement process can be especially hard when the products are damaged.
The biggest challenge when it comes to Amazon seller reimbursements is that most sellers don’t even figure out they are missing out on money. Even if the sellers figure out the inconsistencies in the amount, the process of reconciliation seems tiresome and it takes away time from which can be used to promote sales.
A seller, depending on the product they are selling, recovers only 3-4% of their sales volume on a monthly basis. As it stands, it can be beneficial for every seller to keep checking their reimbursements. The higher the sales reach, the more sense it makes to get the reconciliation process automated as there are a lot of transactions happening.
Process of reimbursement for lost or damaged products
- The first step is to go to ‘Amazon Seller Reports’, then ‘Fulfillment by Amazon’ and then select ‘Inventory adjustments’
- The data going back to 18 months should be downloaded
- An output file pops up showing all events by Fulfilment network stock keeping unit (FNSKU) and the quantities involved
- The seller can then either send the entire file or select the items to be reimbursed to Amazon
Process for checking lost inventory
This is a basic check to see whether the lists of missing and found are a match. If there are no matches, the seller is either in possession of some extra stock by mistake or they are lost. During comparing the lists, if there are more Missing than Found, then highlight the row and send it to Amazon.
Claiming items that are refunded but not returned
Sometimes Amazon loses track of your product when returned by the customer. It also neglects to refund or return the seller’s product after the customer returns it. Even after 45 days, there seems to be no action taken from the company, the seller can take this discrepancy to their notice and file for reconciliation or reimbursement for the said product. Amazon seller support investigates the inconsistency and the Amazon refund management refunds the withheld amount.
Process for claiming items lost in transit
FBA shipments should be the final segment to be checked. The ‘shipped’ and ‘received’ columns should be a match to the ‘closed’ shipments. The lack of a match implies that Amazon has lost possession of the particular product. The seller can use the ‘Reconcile’ tab to file the item as missing after 10 days of the shipment’s arrival at the warehouse.
The company asks for an invoice to reimburse the same price. It is also important to keep a note of all the items in the missing box and its weight. Taking a photo of the product in its original condition can turn out to be helpful in case of any disputes.
It is also important to note that Amazon shipments will just close despite the numbers pointing towards inconsistencies. It is only up to the seller to raise an issue in case of a missing product to open an investigation to look into the matter.
To help the seller out in this process, there has been the development of new tools to automate the Amazon Seller Reconciliation process. These tools can automate the process of applying for reconciliation or reimbursement with the required data and saves the sellers valuable time and resources.
Using Amazon reimbursement software tools, the seller can choose the level of involvement they want in their tracking of FBA issues. These tools act as a fail-safe tracking tool when the seller is occupied with some other business aspect. The tools carry on a thorough and intense check of the product review process and can find things that aren’t manually possible.
When it comes to scaling a business, investing in a tool that can make you put in the time for the required aspects of the business, offer an accurate representation of products, and get back the reimbursed money, can only lead the company to further success.
