This document provides information from a presentation on expanding internationally from the EU to the US Amazon marketplace. It discusses common pitfalls like not having clear supplier agreements or evaluating total landed costs. It also covers regulatory compliance issues and the importance of quality control and assurance. Specific services from Cascadia Seller Solutions are mentioned, like compliance inspections and consulting support for international sellers. Overall the document aims to help beginner Amazon sellers expand internationally while avoiding suspensions.

1. Expanding Into International Amazon
Marketplaces: EU to EU vs. EU to US
with Rachel Greer & Cynthia Stine
Day Two, May 4, 2016

2. Automate Messages to generate product reviews and seller
feedback
Support for 8 Amazon marketplaces
Receive negative and positive feedback notifications through
email and SMS messages
Product review monitoring
Custom messages for repeat buyers

3. Increase conversions and generate product reviews
Control the quantity and duration of your promotional campaign
Shoppers promote your products with reviews and social sharing
Compliant with Amazon’s Terms of Service

4. Amazon product research tool
Know how much your competition is selling
Understand the fees associated with selling and sourcing a
product
Know the best price to sell your product
Find what keywords will get you ranked better in search

5. More than 7 years of Amazon experience
At Amazon she managed audits, product testing and packaging,
and inspections
She founded Cascadia Seller Solutions in 2015
She and her team consult small- to medium-sized enterprises
who need help protecting and building their brand on Amazon
Rachel Greer

6. Entrepreneur with 25+ years of experience selling, consulting
companies, launching products and services, and helping sellers
survive crisis situations
Author of best-selling book Suspension Prevention: Get
Reinstated and Protect Your Amazon Seller Account
She blogs about all things Amazon at onlinesalesstepbystep.com
Cynthia Stine

7. Stay Out of Trouble with Amazon
when Selling in New Markets
EU to US
Suspension Prevention
BY CYNTHIA STINE
Amazon Seller Advocate
Online Sales Step by Step LLC

8. Rise of the Robots…The US is Ahead of the
EU in terms of Algorithm and Suspensions
Algorithm tightened Spring 2015 for Product Quality…
• No warning
• No humans involved
• No metrics
• Not your fault, but you are responsible
• No help or instructions

9. Common Suspension Reasons for
Expanding Sellers…
They don’t understand…
1. Amazon’s shipping requirements
2. Products that are forbidden in the new market
3. What constitutes inauthentic in Amazon’s world
4. Legal implications – trademarks, copyright, IP, patents
5. Different standards of customer service
6. The buyer
7. Manipulation of the Platform
8. Product Quality

10. Rise of the Robots….
What exactly is Product Quality? It is not what you think…
• Used sold as new
• Not as described
• Not as advertised
• Defective
• Damaged
• Counterfeit/fake
• Inauthentic

11. Suspension Prevention
Want to know more?
SuspensionPrevention.com
Buy the book at Amazon.co.uk
Suspended? Check out our reinstatement services
OnlineSalesStepByStep.com/reinstatement

12. EXPANDING
INTERNATIONALLY:
EU TO US
Helping Beginner Amazon Sellers Stay Compliant & Avoid the
Biggest Pitfalls
with Rachel Greer, Founder of Cascadia Seller Solutions

13. WHO WE ARE
▪ Founder Rachel Greer – Law Enforcement Liaison for Amazon.de from 2007-2010, NA
recalls/safety manager 2010-2012, manager of AmazonBasics (global brand) from 2012-2014, and
manager of global imports, responsible for relaunch of Amazon’s EU imports program in 2014.
▪ Former Amazonians:
▪ Jennifer Moser – former Trade Compliance Manager
▪ Emily Murray – former Customer Service and Product Safety Investigator
▪ Kelly Johnston – former Seller Performance Manager
▪ Leo Ho’onani Reyes – former Private Brands Compliance Manager
▪ Rain Huang – former AmazonBasics Sourcing Manager
▪ Xiangping (Belle) Yang - former AmazonBasics Sourcing Manager

14. 5 MOST COMMON PITFALLS
▪ Not having a clearly spelled out supplier agreement and purchase order
▪ Not defining your brand identity and sourcing based on that identity
▪ Not evaluating the profitability of total landed cost before purchase (duties, freight, returns,
packaging, compliance)
▪ Not checking for regulatory compliance
▪ Not checking for quality control and quality assurance

15. SUPPLIER AGREEMENTS
▪ You need the full name and address of who you pay, and who is producing the goods for you
▪ You need to specify the invoice format to meet Amazon’s standards in case there are any
questions from Product Quality about authenticity
▪ Define payment terms for POs, samples, and tooling costs
▪ Define infringement and code of business conduct as you expect it to be
▪ Keep it to 2-3 pages

16. PURCHASE ORDERS
▪ Clearly define what you are purchasing, what amount you are placing as the 30% down payment,
and under what circumstances the factory will receive the remaining 70%
▪ Include Appendices for:
▪ Product testing protocol
▪ Product inspection checklist
▪ Exclusivity or brand protection (if relevant)
▪ Packaging expectations

17. TOTAL LANDED COST
▪ Duties – anti dumping duties, HTS classifications that result in 30% duties, tariff engineering, evaluate BEFORE cutting the
PO
▪ Freight – based on proposed port and product size, compare freight quotes from factory and from US based importer,
they’ll include Customs Bonds and port fees usually, whereas that’s often not included in the factory’s quote, review
carefully
▪ Returns – Always structure in 2% return rate into your cost. You don’t want to argue with customers about returns
▪ Packaging – standard packaging is rarely sufficient for Amazon, polybags are too thin, cardboard is too thin. You’ll need to
increase your packaging allowance by typically $.03 to $.10/unit
▪ Compliance – include product testing, factory audits, and inspections for launch, and testing/inspections that occur on an
ongoing basis into the landed cost

18. REGULATORY COMPLIANCE
▪ CPSC/Children’s Products – toys, durable infant and toddler products, all “junior” size sporting
goods, children’s clothing, shoes, scarves, purses/accessories, jewelry, ANYTHING for a person 13
or under
▪ FDA regulatory – food contact, medical devices (class III for items like bandaids or toothbrushes),
food or supplement labeling/ingredient approval, lasers, sunglasses
▪ Other Governmental organizations: FCC, FTC, Coast Guard, Fish & Wildlife, USDA, NHTSA, DOE,
EPA, ATF, DEA, OSHA, FAA, and DOT

19. QUALITY CONTROL
▪ Inspections ($309/man day)
▪ Raw Materials
▪ During Production
▪ Pre-shipment
▪ Based on AQLs, which are statistical likelihood charts, not percentages. Factories are accustomed
to 2.5/4.0 for major/minor (zero critical). This can result in 6-12% defect rate for the shipment. For
Amazon, I recommend .65/1.0 AQL

20. QUALITY ASSURANCE
▪ Safety – Underwriter’s Laboratories (UL) is one of the oldest safety testing laboratories in the
world. Safety used to be mostly an insurance issue in the U.S. Product liability insurance is,
however, very expensive to purchase and maintain, and ensuring compliance can be cheaper.
Even if you have product liability insurance, doing compliance lowers your risk of a recall or stop
sale and a claim on your insurance, which could greatly increase your premiums and reduce your
profitability
▪ Quality – Multiple independent trade association standards. These are at the lowest common
denominator that the entire group could agree to, your products may need to meet higher
standards to achieve your brand goals

21. IMPACT ON AMAZON
▪ Higher volume of returns – these are placed back into inventory if there is not anything obviously wrong (even if
you disable FBA Repackaging), increasing costs
▪ Overall unhappy customers – leaving negative feedback or A-Z claims, which increases your ODR (order defect
rate) and can get your funds held or your account suspended on Amazon
▪ Poor packaging – results in damaged product and customer complaints, then warnings of “used sold as new”
▪ Non-branded packaging – results in lack of customer trust, and complaints about “inauthentic” or “not as
described”
▪ IP infringement or safety issues – other sellers or rights holders complain to Amazon, and your product is taken
down

22. CASCADIA’S SERVICES
▪ Compliance Services – we contract with reputable third party accredited labs for you to get
inspections completed for $309 flat rate and audits completed for $750 flat rate. If you consistently
work with us (more then 12 inspections annually), we’ll reduce the rate to $299/inspection in
coastal China, SE Asia, and India. Rates are higher for US/Europe sourced products .
▪ Consulting Services – we consult with companies to create testing protocols specific to the
Amazon marketplace and to US law, and packaging that meets Amazon’s and Amazon customers’
exacting expectations. We also support our clients with writing detail pages, HTS classification,
freight quotes, and any interactions with Seller Performance or other Amazon enforcement teams.
▪ www.thinkcascadia.com

23. Questions & Answers