Medallion Fulfillment & Logistics

May 7, 2020

Don’t Let Your Business Suffer Due to Amazon’s Policies, You Have Options!

We’re all about solutions here at Medallion Fulfillment & Logistics. The coronavirus pandemic demands that we think outside the box to keep businesses growing and homebound customers satisfied.

Amazon froze shipments from March 17th to April 5th, and stated the following on their website:

“While we will continue prioritizing the products we can receive beyond April 5, we are now able to broaden the list. Given our constrained capacity, we are doing this on an item-by-item basis. We have updated the Restock Inventory page and Restock report in Seller Central so you can check which products are eligible for shipment creation. We consider many factors when determining eligibility, including high-demand products customers need now; current inventory levels and inventory in transit; fulfillment center capacity; and our ability to adhere to the latest health guidelines.” Read the full article at Amazon Seller Central.

What we are continuing to hearing from Amazon sellers even as recently as this week, is that Amazon is still restricting or refusing incoming stock replenishment shipments.

To solve problems many sellers are having with Amazon, we have developed a special program called FBM (Fulfillment by Medallion). The FBM program allows you to ship product to both or either of our East Coast or West Coast warehouses, and gets you back shipping goods to customers the day after we receive your products.

This redundancy with FBA lets you be proactive to the current business and virus situation. And, our FBM allows you to leverage sales to homebound workers; who may be shopping to pass the time, or who are buying items for family members to stay entertained with while home from school. With no shipping or stock restrictions, our program can get you back in business fast!

You can easily select to move to Fulfillment by Seller within the Amazon Seller Central and not be held hostage or be affected by Amazon’s changing policies and shipping problems.

With a growing dissatisfied Amazon warehouse staff that has expressed fears of contagion requiring management to provide temperature checks and masks in warehouses, FBA now seems a less stable option for businesses in the coronavirus pandemic.

Here’s how our FBM (Fulfillment by Medallion) program works:

1. Ship your goods, or a selection of goods, to our East Coast or West Coast warehouses or to both.

2. Our special dedicated FBM On-Boarding Team fast tracks processing and works with you to implement your ordering and shipping fast. We can start shipping orders the day after we receive your products in our warehouse.

3. There are no long term contracts and you can even get a formal and affordable price quote today.

4. Get back in business – shipping to homebound and internet-connected potential customers in one day after receipt of your products in our facility. Don’t miss a beat and make your sales projections this quarter, even with communities and workers on lockdown.

If you are shipping from Amazon Fulfillment and having trouble getting your orders fulfilled due to the coronavirus disruption, please consider Medallion Fulfillment & Logistics for your shipping needs.

• We Provide Fulfillment By Merchant for Amazon & Replenishing FBA

• We Support Shopify, WooCommerce, Amazon, Ebay and all other e-commerce platforms

• We Offer Same Day Shipping

• We Have Competitive Pricing

• 37 Years of Family Owned & Operated Services

Fulfillment Centers in Los Angeles and Boston for East/West Coast shipping.

We are here to help. Give us a call today and let us show you how we can get you back in business fast.

May 6, 2020April 23, 2020

Mobile Matters – Important eCommerce Trends to Embrace

Ecommerce was a seismic shift in the retailing landscape, allowing consumers to shop from the comfort of their own home. Now mobile commerce (mcommerce) has expanded that freedom even further as smartphones and tablets turn any location into a virtual marketplace

By 2021, mcommerce is projected to make up more than 50 percent of all retail ecommerce sales. Are your ecommerce fulfillment services optimized to meet the demand? Stay ahead of the competition by implementing these mcommerce trends and innovations.

Mobile First

In the earlier days of ecommerce, the norm was to design websites that were responsive to mobile. As mcommerce has risen in importance, online retailers are reversing the practice and designing for mobile first and optimizing for the web.

Speedier Checkouts

Convenience is the biggest advantage of ecommerce. Studies show payment options such as one-click checkout and mobile wallets generate up to 10 percent more mobile conversions.

App or Website?

When Apple and Google launched their app stores, industry experts predicted that mobile apps would be the dominant form in the future. While apps definitely have grown in popularity, mobile browser users still outnumber mobile app users approximately 2 to 1. Give careful consideration to which option will better serve your audience.

Augmented Reality

Brick-and-mortar stores still offer a more tactile experience than ecommerce, but innovations like augmented reality help close the gap. Augmented reality apps use cameras, touch screens and other sensory elements to integrate real images for greater functionality. One of the more successful examples is IKEA Place, which lets users virtually “design” a home, office or other space with 3D true-to-scale objects.

Chatbots and Messenger Apps

When your online customers have a question, do they have to ask it via email? Savvy shoppers don’t want to wait, and they’ll head for another site that’s more responsive. Provide real-time interaction with chatbots and messenger apps for prompt customer service and a more personalized experience.

Omni-Channel Marketing

Ecommerce is the most recent spoke in the multi-channel wheel which offers customers a variety of ways to browse and shop. Mobile commerce helps e-retailers go beyond a multi-channel model to an omni-channel model that breaks down boundaries to present a single, unified user experience. Products are at the core of the multi-channel model, but the omni-channel model is centered on the customer.

Improved Page Speed

It’s no surprise that page speed, which is inextricably linked to ease of use, is a primary driver of customer loyalty. Nearly 50 percent of shoppers won’t wait longer than three seconds for a page to load before leaving.

If you need another reason to ramp up page speed, Google rolled out their mobile-first indexing in 2018, which means rankings now give preference to mobile sites instead of desktop sites.

Ecommerce Fulfillment Services for Today and the Future

Is keeping up with the demands of ecommerce fulfillment taking valuable time away from growing your business? We offer customized ecommerce fulfillment services that scale along with your company. Contact Medallion Fulfillment & Logistics to learn more.

May 1, 2020

How Fulfillment Service Impacts Customer Satisfaction

“If people are failing, they look inept. If people are succeeding, they look strong and good and competent. That’s the “halo effect.” Your first impression of a thing sets up your subsequent beliefs. If the company looks inept to you, you may assume everything else they do is inept.” – Daniel Kahneman

When you work with a fulfillment partner, it is easy to oversimplify their involvement. True, a fulfillment house picks and ships orders. How could that hurt customer satisfaction?

Final Hands

Simply put, they are the last hands to touch your products and they are responsible for delivering the final product to your customers. To see where you stand, ask yourself a few questions:

• When your customer receives an order, how does it look?

• What packaging materials are used?

• How quickly does it arrive?

• How is the tracking information transmitted?

• How are returns handled?

If you have not audited the results in a while, it may be time to check your fulfillment results. Check our Guide for Fine Tuning Fulfillment for more tips and remember: A great fulfillment provider increases customer satisfaction, while a poor provider can actually damage satisfaction.

Case Study

One of our clients moved from a different 3PL because of customer dissatisfaction. The business started receiving complaints that orders were arriving in junky old boxes with newspaper used as packaging. Many orders were incorrectly shipped, leading to reshipments and delays.

If customers had not reported these issues, our client would not have known the impression their former 3PL was leaving on the customers. You have spent time and money making a good impression on customers. The last thing you need is a lousy box or a packing error to erode your credibility.

Errors Undermine Credibility

Mistakes not only cost money and time, but they damage customer trust. Medallion and Sprocket Express have a 99.9%+ accuracy rate and exceptional customer service personnel. In the case study above, errors and complaints stopped after the business switched to Sprocket Express for fulfillment for East Coast servicing. Customers almost never received incorrect items again, and the clean uniform packaging made a great impression on the recipients. The client added a packing tape printed with their logo, for a complete branded solution.

Speedy Delivery

When we first opened, our CEO used to joke that someday customers would hit the “buy” button and then check the mailbox. Ironically, we’ve nearly reached that point!

With Amazon leading the charge, customers continually have a higher expectation of speed (and shipping cost). To answer the call, most 3PLs expect to provide same day delivery within the next 5 years. And 40% say they anticipate 2 hour shipping by 2028. Interestingly, when Amazon offered 1- and 2-hour delivery in select markets, many customers preferred the free 2-day shipping instead. Speed is not everything, but shipping value is essential. The best shipping strategies offer a few options with a range of costs.

Knowledge is Satisfying

Immediately after placing an order, most website systems generate an order confirmation email. The more transparency a business provides during the order process, the more confident a customer can feel when interacting with the company. Therefore, as soon as an order is released to a carrier for shipment the tracking information should be communicated in real-time.

Both Sprocket Express and Medallion Fulfillment & Logistics sends automatic tracking information to your customer. And we can brand the email with your company information for a consistent image. We ship the same day and we also offer rush and special services.

We Are Here When You Need Help

These are just some of the ways that your fulfillment service partner can affect customer satisfaction. We strongly encourage you to call references when choosing a fulfillment provider and ask some of these questions. Your choice will be representing your business in public view, so it’s no easy decision.

Whichever partner you choose, we invite you to connect with us to share challenges and ideas via email or social media. To learn more about our services and our low industry pricing, see “What We Do”, or get a quote today.

April 29, 2020

USPS Announces New Software Changes Today

Today, Wednesday, April 29, 2020, from 10:00 AM CT to 2:00 PM CT, the United States Postal Service will implement the following software change: Package Platform Release 2.1.4.0.

Delivery of packages will not be impacted during the implementation and validation window, there will be processing and reporting delays related to receipt of the following data:

• Pricing Data
• Fee Assessment Data
• Final Notification Data
• Informed Visibility Mail Tracking and Reporting (IV-MTR) Data
• Enterprise Payment System (EPS) Reporting Data
• Package Platform “USPS Automated Returns” Data

Notification will be provided immediately after release-related activities conclude.

April 29, 2020April 15, 2020

Don’t Get Banned from Selling on Amazon; It Could Be Forever!

Amazon.com offers small businesses and entrepreneurs ready access to a huge customer market for their goods. Of course, sellers pay a price for the opportunity to trade on Amazon’s good name, internet saturation and global market reach. Not only do private sellers often find themselves in direct competition with the internet behemoth for products and services, but Amazon holds all the cards. To protect its own reputation and maintain a satisfied customer base, Amazon’s sellers’ agreement and myriad rules stack the deck firmly in Amazon’s favor.

In order to sell on Amazon.com, sellers must follow an exacting list of expectations that dictate how and when they interact with their customers at every point in the sales process. Fail to meet Amazon’s performance expectations and you could receive a not particularly cheerful “Hello from Amazon.com” letter notifying you that your account has been blocked and your sales listings terminated. And, by the way, Amazon will be hanging onto your money for the next 90 days to cover any unresolved financial issues.

For businesses that rely on Amazon.com as a primary conduit to customers and order fulfillment, receiving one of Amazon’s computer-generated “Hello” letters can spell disaster. A big part of the problem is that the letters are computer-generated. Computer algorithms don’t care if you didn’t respond to a customer within the required 24 hours because you were hospitalized or on vacation. They’re completely unsympathetic that your approval rating appears to be in the toilet not because you provide poor service but because the only customers who have bothered to offer feedback are dissatisfied ones.

Many Amazon.com sellers complain that they’ve been unfairly booted off Amazon because they’ve fallen victim to the “law of negative averages” in which a small number of negative comments can, if they outnumber positive feedback, result in a negative feedback score. For example, if out of 50 sales, 47 customers are satisfied, but only 1 posts positive feedback while 2 dissatisfied customers post negative comments, Amazon’s trackers will record a negative average and you’ll soon be the recipient of a letter from alliance@amazon.com, Amazon’s enforcement department.

What sends sellers into a panic is the phrase “the closure of an account is a permanent action,” implying that you will be forever banned from selling on Amazon. And the ban will not only affect you, but anyone Amazon’s online trackers can connect to your name, street address or email address. All is not lost, however, sellers can petition Amazon for reinstatement and a number have done so successfully. The process is not easy; and, if reinstated, you can expect Amazon to scrutinize your account carefully for some time (and hang onto your money while they do so); but you can get back in the game.

Look carefully at the points made in the letter you receive from alliance@amazon.com. Review your consumer metrics to see if you’re falling short of expectations.
Respond promptly via email, explain that you feel your suspension is unfair and rebut each charge with as much factual information as possible. Attach pertinent records or letters from consumers and offer your explanation of any negative feedback.
If you’ve failed to meet Amazon’s performance targets, review your sales practices and provide an action plan to correct the problem.
Plead your case, emphasizing your sales and customer service record and pointing out how your product benefits consumers.
Monitor your email for Amazon’s decision.

To prevent being terminated, keep a close eye on your email and regularly review Amazon’s agreements and help pages as Amazon may change its procedures and guidelines at any time without notifying sellers. Monitor the customer metrics Amazon provides and compare your performance to the Amazon’s seller performance targets to make certain you are hitting the expected benchmarks.