Stale Sellers: Don’t Let Expired Inventory Kill your Account

 

Do you sell items with expiration dates via FBA? If your answer is yes, chances are you’re breaking the rules, and putting your ASINs – and maybe your account – in jeopardy.

Darlene loved to sell limited-edition potato chips with unusual flavors. But it was her third account suspension. Why? Potato chips have super-quick expiration dates.

Same for special-edition Oreos sold by Tim. He enjoyed the super-high ROI for these snacks, and he thought that Amazon FBA promised to sell his inventory first-in-first-out. Somehow expired packages kept making their way to customers, yielding soggy cookies and a wave of complaints.

Most sellers don’t pay enough attention to the rules for expired products.
More importantly, they don’t apply best practices that can ensure a good customer experience.

Why should you care? When an Amazon seller sends expired inventory to customers, Amazon sees that as a behavior right up there with selling inauthentic goods. The item is no longer usable. It is trash – and Amazon want better for its customers.

First, let’s talk about the rules.

Here’s what the folks at the FBA warehouse are going by:

• Inventory needs an expiration date if it is a topical or consumable product (including nutritional supplements) for human or animal consumption. And yes, it needs an expiry date even if there is not a date already on the packaging.
• If an item is in the Health and Beauty category, and it has a “period after opening” symbol, it should be marked to expire 900 days after the date it is processed at the fulfillment center.
• Does it have a sell-by or best-by date? Amazon considers that the same as an expiration date.
• If you ship a food or beverage item to FBA, it must have a minimum remaining shelf life of more than 105 days. Items within 50 days of expiration date when they arrive at the warehouse will be marked for disposal.

Now for the parts that most sellers ignore:

• If a product has a consumption period because of regular use, add that period to the 105 days. For example, if you are selling a 120-day supply of vitamins, they need to have a shelf life of at least 225 days.
• Only one expiration date is allowed per ASIN per shipping box. Don’t mix up expiration dates – it will confuse the warehouse and the process.
• If your item has an expiration date, the date must be printed in a font that is 36 points or larger. It should be printed in the format of MM-DD-YYYY or MM-YYYY. If the date is in a different format on the item’s package, it needs to be covered up with the correct format.
• Case-packs, multi-packs and display boxes must have the expiration date on the box or the bundle, as well as each individual item inside the box or bundle.
• Items that are polybagged or bubble wrapped require the expiry sticker on the outside of the package.

Why bother with expiry stickers?

Amazon claims to treat inventory on a first-in-first-out basis. So in theory, your oldest items should sell first. In reality, this simply does not happen.> In addition, too many sellers rely on Amazon to track its inventory expiration dates. Let’s face it. The Amazon FBA warehouse has too much to do as it is. They are not going to track your expiration dates and reliably dispose of old inventory.

What’s an FBA seller to do?

1. Follow the rules. Sticker every individual item with an expiry date. Amazon asks for large type because it is machine readable. This dramatically improves your chances that old, expired inventory will not be sold to a customer.
2. Track your expiration dates by inbound shipment. Create a unique MSKU for different expiration dates to ensure that old MSKU’s are sold out before new MSKUs are sent in to the warehouse.
3. When your items are within 50 days of expiration, pull them from the warehouse immediately.
4. Don’t expect customers to translate. If a product has a “period after opening” or lot number, do the research. Determine the appropriate date with the manufacturer, and label it accordingly with an expiration date.

What’s an MFN seller to do?

1. If it’s hard to read, add a label. Many sellers in Health and Personal Care assume that MFN shipments don’t need expiration dates. While this is technically true, it can lead to problems. Customers want to know the expiration date. If it’s difficult to decipher, add a sticker with the correct date.
2. If it’s from overseas, add a label. Products from other countries often put expiry dates in DD-MM-YYYY format. This can lead to complaints of expired products. Add a sticker so that customers are not confused.
3. If it has a lot number or “period after opening” date, add a label. Again, reassure your customers. Tell them when the expiration date actually is, so they will not accuse you of selling old product.

Need more strategies to ensure you always sell fresh, usable product? Call on Riverbend Consulting for ideas and advice.

An Introduction to Cascading Style Sheets (CSS)

 This introduction isn’t meant to teach you everything about Cascading Style Sheets, but is rather meant as an overview of what can be done with CSS. Read through this article, and then decide whether or not CSS is right for your site. At the very least, you’ll know what can be done using CSS, so when the time comes to gain more control over the layout and typography of your site, you’ll know where to turn.
What Are Cascading Style Sheets?

CSS is a form of HTML mark-up that provides web designers with greater control over typography and spacing between elements on a page.
Why Should I Bother Using CSS?

1. Greater control over layout and typography. CSS provides you as a designer with precise control over the fonts used on your site, including size, letter spacing and text decoration.

Elements on a page can be positioned precisely using CSS. In fact at least one major HTML Editor, Dreamweaver 2, uses CSS to control the layout of a page, although it does provide the option to convert to tables.

2. Site-wide changes become easy. Rather than having a style sheet as part of the HTML code of a page, it is possible to specify the URL of a style-sheet that is to be used when formatting a particular page. This makes it very easy to modify the entire site by simply editing a single file.
What About Browser Compatibility?

CSS support is provided in Internet Explorer 4+ and Netscape Navigator 4+. However, some annoying browser inconsistencies continue to make life difficult for those deciding to use CSS on their site. It is possible with a little bit of JavaScript to serve up different style-sheets depending on the browser that is being used to view your site. Alternatively, workarounds can be used so that the style-sheet works in both browsers correctly.
What Does CSS Look Like?

The basic template for CSS code looks like this:

" Tag: {Property: value; Property2: value2} "

Tag – The element that will be affected
Property – What part of the selector will be affected
Value – How it will be affected

Notice that CSS makes use of curly brackets instead of < and > .

A Small Snippet:

" H1 {FONT-SIZE: 9pt; FONT-WEIGHT: bold} "

The example above will make all the text within H1 tags bold, and size 9.
The Three Ways To Use CSS

There are three ways to use Cascading Style Sheets: inline, embedded, and external/linked style sheets. I’ll briefly explain each of them below.

Inline

If you just want to apply formatting to a small piece of text you can use inline styles, which look something like this:

"<h3 style=”font-weight: bold”>this will be bold Embedded "

Embedded style sheets are put between the <head> </head> tags on every page that you want to use style sheets on. This is how they look like:

"<HEAD>
<STYLE TYPE=”text/css”>
<!– "

Tag: {Property: value; Property2: value2}

–>
</STYLE>
</HEAD>

External

Remember how I said that you can use a single style sheet site-wide, and then change all of your pages by editing one file? This is done with external style sheets, which look something like this:

"<HEAD>
<LINK REL=”STYLESHEET” HREF=”/PATH/SHEET.CSS TYPE=”TEXT/CSS”>
</HEAD> "

The SHEET.CSS file would then contain all the style-sheet code which would be applied to any page that calls it using the code above.
Remove ‘Em Underlines – A Complete Style Sheet

Do you want to remove underlines from links on your site? Below is a short and sweet style-sheet that will do just that, just copy and paste it between the <head> </head> tags on your site:

"<STYLE TYPE=”text/css”>
<!–
a { text-decoration: none}
–>
</STYLE> "
Where To Go From Here

If you’re intrigued by the brief overview above, and you want to learn more about Cascading Style Sheets check out the tutorials below:

HTML Goodies – A brief Tutorial on Classes and ID’s which are used in CSS.

W3.org – More information than you can shake a stick at.

HTML Help – Several tutorials covering different aspects of Cascading Style Sheets.

Writing Stylesheets – A Brief Guide.

CSS Is Easy! – SitePoint’s own Kevin Yank explains the nitty gritty, with plenty of examples.

Good luck!
Frequently Asked Questions about Cascading Style Sheets (CSS)
What is the difference between CSS and HTML?

HTML (HyperText Markup Language) and CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) are both fundamental technologies used in building web pages, but they serve different purposes. HTML is used to structure the content on the web page, such as text, images, and links. On the other hand, CSS is used to style this content and layout the web page. It controls the visual presentation of the elements that you write in HTML, such as color, font style, and layout.
How can I link CSS to HTML?

There are three ways to link CSS to HTML: inline, internal, and external. Inline CSS is used to style a specific HTML element, by adding the style attribute in the relevant tag. Internal CSS is used to style an entire HTML document, by placing the CSS code within the style tags in the head section. External CSS is used to style multiple HTML documents, by linking them to a .css file using the link tag in the head section.
What are CSS selectors?

CSS selectors are used to select the HTML elements that you want to style. There are several types of CSS selectors, including element selector (selects elements based on the element name), id selector (selects elements with a specific id), and class selector (selects elements with a specific class).
What is the CSS box model?

The CSS box model is a box that wraps around every HTML element. It consists of: the content (the actual content of the box, like text or an image), padding (clear space around the content), border (goes around the padding and content), and margin (clear space outside the border).
How can I center an element horizontally with CSS?

To center an element horizontally with CSS, you can use the margin property. Set the left and right margins to auto, and the element will automatically be centered horizontally within its parent element. Note that this method only works if the element has a specified width.
What are CSS pseudo-classes and pseudo-elements?

CSS pseudo-classes are used to define a special state of an element. For example, :hover can be used to change the style of an element when you hover over it. CSS pseudo-elements are used to style specific parts of an element. For example, ::first-letter can be used to style the first letter of a text.
How can I make my CSS code more efficient?

There are several ways to make your CSS code more efficient. One way is to use shorthand properties, which allow you to specify the values of multiple properties in one line. Another way is to group selectors, which allows you to apply the same style to multiple elements.
What is responsive design in CSS?

Responsive design in CSS is a design approach that makes web pages render well on a variety of devices and window or screen sizes. It uses CSS media queries to adapt the layout to the viewing environment.
How can I debug CSS code?

You can debug CSS code using the browser’s developer tools. The inspector tool allows you to select an element and view its CSS properties. You can also modify the CSS properties and see the changes in real-time.
What are CSS frameworks and should I use one?

CSS frameworks are pre-prepared libraries that are meant to allow for easier, more standards-compliant styling of web pages. They provide a structure for common tasks, styles, and components. Whether you should use one or not depends on your specific needs. If you’re building a complex project and want to save time and ensure consistency, a CSS framework can be very helpful. However, if you’re working on a small project or want to learn CSS from scratch, you might not need a framework.