Selling on online marketplaces is all about invoices! If you’re sourcing products from a supplier, you definitely should have the invoices, organize them and be ready for showing them to the platform! This is especially important while selling on Amazon, as this platform has one of the strictest systems that inspects Amazon sellers and makes sure everything is fine.
To show the real weight of invoices, let’s first of all understand all the risks that exist if you DON’T have them!
- Planning Budget Won’t Be EasyWithout keeping the invoices, you will most probably forget about the expenses that you had during this or that month. This means that you won’t be able to track your budget, which will in its turn affect your business! Without proper calculations and a certain finance-focused plan, you risk losing your money or spending it in an irrational and unreasonable way.
- You Will Have Problems With AmazonThere’s one thing that you probably didn’t know – Amazon can deactivate your account and take your selling privileges away. This is otherwise called an Amazon suspension, which happens more and more often, as sellers are unaware of the requirements that Amazon poses to those who choose this platform.More specifically, if Amazon decides to verify your supply chain, it will get your Amazon account suspended, and will ask you to provide invoices. What happens if you don’t have them? Well, you will say goodbye to your account, permanently!
How Your Invoice Should Look
Let’s get this straight, Amazon wants to have the best version of your invoice: even though it’s a simple paper, it should be just perfect! But let’s first of all understand what your invoice should include:
- Authentic information: the information provided in the invoice should be 100% authentic. If you faked the invoice just to please Amazon, then forget about getting your selling privileges back.
- Matching information: Amazon loves it when the information you provide is not only authentic, but also matches the reality. This basically means that your invoice should contain details which match the information found on your Amazon account. This includes account or business name, address, email, phone numbers, etc. So, if there’s even a slight difference between the information of the invoice and the info you have in your store, Amazon will suspect you! If you want to avoid similar situations, double-check everything before the suspension happens!
- The correct quantity: your invoice should demonstrate the quantity of all the purchased items per ASIN, and of course, the unit cost for each of them. If the invoice doesn’t show any quantity or provides information regarding 20 ASINs when you listed 40 on your store, Amazon will again deactivate your listings, hold the funds and deteriorate your situation!
- The date: each order is placed on a specific date, and your invoice should demonstrate it. What’s more, it should show the date you will or already received the expected products. Without this, Amazon can’t be sure that you are a legitimate seller!
- Accurate descriptions of products: make sure your invoice includes product titles, weight, dimensions, SKUs and UPC codes.
A seller without invoices is like a hunter without the hunt – it’s impossible! If you want to be a seller, be ready for the endless paperwork and documentation: without it, Amazon will not let you use its services and benefit from its buyers! In any case, you should always be flexible in order to adapt to the requirements of this eCommerce giant.
And remember, if you’re having a hard time, keep in mind the following quote from Jeff Bezos “If you’re not stubborn, you’ll give up on experiments too soon. And if you’re not flexible, you’ll pound your head against the wall and you won’t see a different solution to a problem you’re trying to solve.”
