Anybody have ideas HOW WE ARE GOING TO FUND OUR BUSINESSES WITH NO ORDER DISTRIBUTIONS DUE TO DD+7 FOR NEXT 3 WEEKS?
Anybody have any ideas HOW WE ARE GOING TO FUND OUR BUSINESSES WITH NO ORDER DISTRIBUTIONS FOR THE NEXT 3 WEEKS due to DD + 7????
That's what Im concerned about right now. We are all working fulltime.... DD + 7 policy. This will be like a 3 week furlough with no disbursement check. Yet WE STILL have to give out our thousands of dollars of inventory, and still have to work fulltime. After we get through this "HUMP" we will basically be on a 3 week delay for the rest of our business LIVES on here, unless Amazon wakes up and realizes this is the worst decision for its business sellers in the last 16 years and $8 million in sales since i have been on here.
In effect, when the year is done, we will be short about a month of distributions, because we wont get paid for 3/4 of March. Anybody have any ideas on how to survive and not GO BANKRUPT over the cash flow disruption from this??? Anybody have a months worth of gross receipts sitting around in reserve to cover an entire month with no order distributions ??? My quarterly taxes are due next month. This is a big enough gap in cash flow to cause any seller to completely miss the deadline for taxes. If you gross $30k a month in sales to clear $7500 profit, a $20000 cash flow hold is like holding 3 months worth of profit in reserve. Those are common numbers, well within reason for those of us who net a tidy 25% profit. Some of us net ALOT LESS. And a cash flow hold like that for someone with 10% margins is like holding 6 months profit in reserve. As if waiting up to 2 weeks for order delivery to get paid isn't enough, they are ADDING AN ADDITIONAL 7 DAYS to put the cash flow nail in all of our coffins! That's up to 3 weeks of manpower, resources, and inventory exhausted with no replenishment.
As a seller who GREATLY APPRECIATES Amazon as a platform, and what FBA and FBM has done for our businesses, I say THANK YOU AMAZON, AND GOD BLESS YOU. However, this new DD + 7 policy of delaying everyones proceeds for 3 weeks, is like taking 2 steps backward. This should be a policy to vet NEW SELLERS WITH UNDER $35K IN SALES. NOT SELLERS WHO HAVE PROVEN THEIR HONESTY WITH THEIR RECORDS 10 TIMES OVER. I HAVE BEEN SELLING ON HERE 16 YEARS. SO MY QUESTION IS, "WHY NOW, AMAZON?" WHY DELAY OUR FUNDS 3 WEEKS AFTER WE HAVE BEEN DOING IT RIGHT FOR 16 YEARS? Great way to punish your good sellers Amazon. Way to say you appreciate our efforts. 80,000+ orders, $8 million in sales in 16 years. 100% POSITIVE FEEDBACK. No employees. I WORK MY TAIL OFF. AND I BARELY GET ENOUGH TO COVER LOAN PAYMENTS BY DUE DATES AS IS. I HAVE $300,000 IN LOANS/CREDIT CARD PAYMENTS FOR MY SMALL BUSINESS. *** HIGHLY LEVERAGED WITH DEBT. *** CREDITORS DONT WAIT. THEY STILL EXPECT PAYMENT ON TIME THIS MONTH.
IDEAS ON HOW TO SURVIVE THIS FOLKS? ANYBODY GETTING A 2ND LOAN ON THEIR HOUSE TO COVER THIS MASSIVE GAP IN DISTRIBUTION???
Anybody have ideas HOW WE ARE GOING TO FUND OUR BUSINESSES WITH NO ORDER DISTRIBUTIONS DUE TO DD+7 FOR NEXT 3 WEEKS?
Anybody have any ideas HOW WE ARE GOING TO FUND OUR BUSINESSES WITH NO ORDER DISTRIBUTIONS FOR THE NEXT 3 WEEKS due to DD + 7????
That's what Im concerned about right now. We are all working fulltime.... DD + 7 policy. This will be like a 3 week furlough with no disbursement check. Yet WE STILL have to give out our thousands of dollars of inventory, and still have to work fulltime. After we get through this "HUMP" we will basically be on a 3 week delay for the rest of our business LIVES on here, unless Amazon wakes up and realizes this is the worst decision for its business sellers in the last 16 years and $8 million in sales since i have been on here.
In effect, when the year is done, we will be short about a month of distributions, because we wont get paid for 3/4 of March. Anybody have any ideas on how to survive and not GO BANKRUPT over the cash flow disruption from this??? Anybody have a months worth of gross receipts sitting around in reserve to cover an entire month with no order distributions ??? My quarterly taxes are due next month. This is a big enough gap in cash flow to cause any seller to completely miss the deadline for taxes. If you gross $30k a month in sales to clear $7500 profit, a $20000 cash flow hold is like holding 3 months worth of profit in reserve. Those are common numbers, well within reason for those of us who net a tidy 25% profit. Some of us net ALOT LESS. And a cash flow hold like that for someone with 10% margins is like holding 6 months profit in reserve. As if waiting up to 2 weeks for order delivery to get paid isn't enough, they are ADDING AN ADDITIONAL 7 DAYS to put the cash flow nail in all of our coffins! That's up to 3 weeks of manpower, resources, and inventory exhausted with no replenishment.
As a seller who GREATLY APPRECIATES Amazon as a platform, and what FBA and FBM has done for our businesses, I say THANK YOU AMAZON, AND GOD BLESS YOU. However, this new DD + 7 policy of delaying everyones proceeds for 3 weeks, is like taking 2 steps backward. This should be a policy to vet NEW SELLERS WITH UNDER $35K IN SALES. NOT SELLERS WHO HAVE PROVEN THEIR HONESTY WITH THEIR RECORDS 10 TIMES OVER. I HAVE BEEN SELLING ON HERE 16 YEARS. SO MY QUESTION IS, "WHY NOW, AMAZON?" WHY DELAY OUR FUNDS 3 WEEKS AFTER WE HAVE BEEN DOING IT RIGHT FOR 16 YEARS? Great way to punish your good sellers Amazon. Way to say you appreciate our efforts. 80,000+ orders, $8 million in sales in 16 years. 100% POSITIVE FEEDBACK. No employees. I WORK MY TAIL OFF. AND I BARELY GET ENOUGH TO COVER LOAN PAYMENTS BY DUE DATES AS IS. I HAVE $300,000 IN LOANS/CREDIT CARD PAYMENTS FOR MY SMALL BUSINESS. *** HIGHLY LEVERAGED WITH DEBT. *** CREDITORS DONT WAIT. THEY STILL EXPECT PAYMENT ON TIME THIS MONTH.
IDEAS ON HOW TO SURVIVE THIS FOLKS? ANYBODY GETTING A 2ND LOAN ON THEIR HOUSE TO COVER THIS MASSIVE GAP IN DISTRIBUTION???
131 replies
Seller_OvL8C4BJWiuS9
Unfortunately, if you cannot withstand 3 weeks until disbursement, are you really equipped to sell on this platform? I am not trying to be rude, but you are right, this is a full-time job for lots of people and as the account owner, it's your responsibility to be able to cover things like this. Amazon has turned into more of a business model platform then a garage sale site or marketplace. and you have to run it is such.
It's all about the money and how this economy is struggling, from the top to the bottom (bottom being sellers).
Seller_171whtfaYxvhd
Have no idea how all the sellers will cope, even though we are prepared about it. I guess the best solution for all of us is to informed the Social Media and our goverments, just in case Amazon will feel sympathy and extend this policy a little bit further. That's the only solution to be heard
Seller_4zBzdtgCyS9EI
This wont be popular.......
but as @Seller_OvL8C4BJWiuS9stated.........what kind of business doesn't have the emergency funds to cover at least 1 month of expenses (3-6 really)
While it hurts, I can see that, you are still running a business, not holding down a job for someone. That comes with a whole set of responsibilities.
Any sort of emergency can happen any given day and any one you can think of happening, needs to be addressed, before it happens.
That includes illness, account suspension, supplier issues, payment issues.....
Seller_9tyECqnuxPUwF
Did you have your available funds from the last two weeks get put into account reserves like I did? I’m assuming it’s related since it happened the same day as my new order credits went into deferred payments. If it’s not just me I’m assuming they want you to have a balance while they charge shipping costs for the next three weeks. Honestly the shipping labels being charged without the credits coming in for them is what’s freaking me out the most.
Seller_hLH0bAcCwYcos
Reposted reply for the main chat to see:
I was a property accountant for 13 years. I have a bachelor's degree in accounting. I know how to budget. But I've always been aggressive in investing in growth in my business. It has a 30% profit margin. And I have made a lot of sacrifices to get here. And I mean a lot!
I've been selling on here 16 years, and doing just fine. I've had over 80,000 orders, and $6 million in sales (corrected from $8 million). With no employees mind you! It's just me! I work my tail off.
But if you're asking me if I have a month's worth of gross receipts, about $20,000 lying around? The answer is no. I am leveraged. And I have to hold inventory until it is valuable enough to make a profit on here. So my inventory levels exceed my debt and I'm more than liquid. But I don't have $20,000 sitting here. Mainly because I would have to pay 15% or higher interest. There's a reason Shark Tank exists on tv. Because venture capitalist debt is often what's used to fund inventory expansion. I do not have $20,000 sitting around. I do drive a $2,000 26-year-old car. I've made a lot of sacrifices to get here. I haven't had health insurance for 16 years either. I did these things so that I could get more inventory to sell on here. And now they're going to hold $20000, the equivalent of 3 months profit in reserve for 3 weeks. And I have 1st qtr taxes due next month. That s about $8000. So the answer to your question is no. I don't have that kind of money laying around due to the financing cost for it. I have to finance most everything. I am working toward Cash basis. But I'm a long way from there. Who is this policy going to help? Zero sellers will benefit from this. It will hurt a lot of us. Not everybody has a month's worth of Revenue in reserve my friend. When you hold products up to 2 years for them to be able to sell, you don't have the luxury of extra cash because you're constantly financing inventory. I may have to go get a second mortgage on my home to cover this gap in cash flow. Or perhaps a large loan. It's not just our paychecks being put in reserve. It's our gross receipts. That's ALOT of change.
The money we used to pay all of our bills for inventory, as well as our mortgage utilities and food.
Seller_hLH0bAcCwYcos
Here is a repost I gave to encourage another seller that is literally about to close their account out specifically due to this policy:
I agree with you my friend. This policy is going to hurt a lot more Sellers than it's going to help. Zero sellers will benefit from this. I am trying to map out right now what I'm going to do to cover 3 weeks with no cash flow from all of my orders. And I've been selling here 16 years. Very thankful to sell on here. Very blessed. People have been lecturing me about putting a month's worth in reserve. But I am highly leveraged due to inventory holding cost. If I put aside $20,000, I have to pay 15% Finance cost on it. So I don't have that kind of cash laying around.
It's not just our profit being held in reserve. It's our GROSS receipts. This policy is truly a challenge for sellers to survive through. To put every single seller on Amazon through this , even the veterans who have been selling on here 16 years proving themselves a hundred times over to be honest and trustworthy like me, it makes no sense. Hang in there brother. If you want to keep trying, go for it. God bless you.
I kind of hope you will keep on trying and get through this and survive brother. Amazon is still a great platform to sell on, despite them repeatedly kneecapping their best sellers with programs like returnless refunds, which encourages fraud, not letting us block fraudulent and high rate of return customers like other websites do, to instantly stop fraud, and now holding our gross receipts in reserve for 3 weeks. Alas, we will endure. We must adapt to survive. Businesses are living creatures similar to us.
Consequently though, starving a business of all it's revenue for 3 weeks is no way to help an organism survive. It will cause people to use up all their reserves, and massively slow growth on here. How Amazon thinks that holding our gross receipts in reserve for 3 weeks will help us expand on here and generate more revenue for them and for us, I will never know.
Seller_BeWo5Xt3t43rn
AMAZON is using this DD-7 NONSENSE AS A WAY TO EARN INTEREST on our money they owe us but we did have sufficient warning to plan ahead and I am sure many did so they can weather the disruption in income. I am sorry if this caught some flat footed! In California we already were facing increased gas/transportation costs due to the shutting down of two refinaries that produced 18% of only in CA GASOLINE then of coarse now the IRAN WAR so frankly that has me more worried than AMAZON'S silly games. But the good news for us is we are used to paying close to $5 gallon anyway and with a quick action by our state government we may just outbid the gasoline that is available or just use all those electric self driving cars instead.
Seller_cTRcCppK12wQN
In Amazon's example, the disbursement balance isn't updated until 8 days after delivery and with deliveries taking about 4-5 days on average, that means sellers must wait 12-13 days longer for their funds. Most businesses don't have 12-13 days of surplus cash flow. Amazon is not an easy place for which a business can do well so most Amazon businesses are low margin and cash flow limited. This change to DD+7 puts the very existence of Amazon centered businesses at risk as businesses cannot operate unless they pay their bills on time and lenders are not going to wait 12-13 days longer to be paid because the borrower tells them their receivables are now taking 12-13 days longer. Amazon really should have considered the financial stresses they are causing their sellers before implementing this change. Amazon's sellers would overwhelmingly agree to pay a fee to avoid the receivables delay since at least with an additional fee, the cash flow is preserved so the livelihood of the business is preserved. It is unfortunate that Amazon treats everything including their sellers as an AB test in which they squeeze repeatedly until they notice a loss in profit and only then do they loosen their grip. It is unfortunate that many sellers have to go bankrupt for insolvency while the rest have to significantly reduce their inventories leading to less product selection for customers in response to Amazon's greed and constant AB test on their sellers.
Seller_9H5tLtAvo6re9
Amazon should do what many of my distributors I sell to (I license and release albums as my "day job" portion of this business) and since I also sell other people's products (approved seller of music, movies and grocery products like teas) I have to either pay net 30 or pay immediately depending on the company I deal with.
I have situations where I need my distribution royalties early so they bill me an advance payment fee. Rare as it is, but why can't Amazon come up with this as an option for sellers over x amount of business per month. I hate giving MORE fees but if it means giving dollars for comfort, I'll do it.
Seller_FnJ5AO446JTkO
Yes I've noticed the the deferred distributions are going to be held up. You won't be able to fund your business. Me I'm just a micro seller selling 1000 to 1500 dollar a month. So I won't be affected all that much. I can see holding back 75% of 30 K. om a month's sales being a huge problem. Amazon gets 3 weeks of cash flow while you have to wait. Not good for you.
Cliff
