Step-by-step guide for Vendors & First Party Distributors to update prices in Amazon Vendor Central.
To generate profit and improve your margins as an Amazon Vendor, you’ll sometimes need to increase the cost prices of the products. However, Amazon easily accepts reductions in the cost prices but when it comes to increasing the cost prices, there are possibilities that it is likely to get rejected by the assigned Vendor Managers. It mainly happens because Amazon tries to maintain competitive prices among other Retailers. The algorithm compares your product cost prices to make sure that Amazon is getting the product at a lower cost price than its competitive Retailers.
As a back-office support company, PHP Workshop, also known as Staffloud.net, has successfully navigated this situation for our valued Amazon clients on numerous occasions. To update or make any changes to the cost prices, is only possible through the “Edit item Costs” option.
Let us help you learn how to make the cost changes for the catalog products in simple steps for Amazon Vendor Central:
Step 1: Accessing Vendor Central
Login to your Vendor Central account, click on the “Items” tab > Go to the “Edit Items Cost” option.
Step 2: Downloading the Template
To download the template with the current cost, you have two options available:
- Download cost for all available ASINs – Click on it, if you wish to make changes to the entire ASINs or several ASINs in the catalog.
- Specify costs to update – Click on it, if you wish to make changes to some specific ASINs from the catalog.
Step 3: Click on the “Download Costs” option, and a downloadable Excel spreadsheet will be generated. Click on “Download Excel Spreadsheet”.
When you open the spreadsheet, you may receive a warning: “format and extension don’t match, could be a corrupted file”. Click on “Yes” to open it anyway.
Step 4: Read all the helpful information from the “Instructions” tab before making any changes. Now jump to the “Costs” tab. Specific color columns denote specific information requirements.
- Grey Color: The data in the columns must not be overwritten, they are locked fields where we cannot make any changes.
- Green Color: It comes under optional fields to provide:
Updated cost and currency
Effective date: Where a vendor can set future dates for the changes to effect. If the Effective date column blank is left blank, the price change will go into immediate effect after approval.
Reasons for cost change: Amazon has provided some common and key cost drivers in the template so that a vendor can easily specify the reasons behind the cost update. The most common key drivers for the cost changes are:
– Transportation costs
– Labor costs
– Raw Material costs
– Changes in Foreign Exchange rate - Blue Color: These are the corresponding columns linked to the “Green columns” to further specify relative information.
- Pink Color: Columns with missing attributes or any other errors are displayed with pink color. The detailed error information is visible on the “Notes” tab in the downloadable error spreadsheet if any errors occur after submission.
Step 5: Once the changes in the template are done, go to “File”. Click on the “Save as” option and save the file with the format either “Excel 2003 XML Spreadsheet(.xml)” or “Excel 2004 XML Spreadsheet(.xml)”. It is important to note that Amazon won’t accept the spreadsheet in any other format.
Step 6: Once Saved, click on “Browse” and upload the excel spreadsheet.
To check the status of the “View the status of recent cost change requests”.
If Amazon accepts the cost change, the status gets updated as “Approved” and the cost-effective date is visible. If Amazon is unable to accept the cost increase request, the status is updated to “Rejected”. A vendor still can request to make changes to the cost price even after rejection. A meeting can be arranged with the vendor manager or the vendor can be contacted through email if you wish to discuss the current cost updates or chances of changes in the future.
Fixing errors in Amazon Vendor Central and Seller Central can be a challenging task for sellers. However, with our vast experience in this field and troubleshooting techniques, we can promptly identify and resolve these issues. StaffCloud enables sellers to ensure the smooth listing of their merchandise and increase their visibility on Amazon’s platform. With the support of StaffCloud Services Private Limited, sellers can have peace of mind knowing that their Amazon accounts are in capable hands, allowing them to dedicate their time and attention to other vital aspects of their business operations.
Contact StaffCloud Services Private Limited today and unlock seamless solutions for your Amazon product listing errors!