Audit Amazon and the challenges of the high season

We have many years of experience and the implementation of over two thousand audits of sales accounts in Gonito. Therefore, we have developed our own methodology regarding Audit Amazon. Thanks to that, we can make it possible for you to examine the status quo. We can also prepare appropriate steps to improve your sales efficiency in the marketplace.  

What will you read about?

1. Audit Types on Amazon
2. Amazon account audit: external and internal
3. Specific audits of your Amazon account – conducted by area of activity
4. Types of Amazon account audits
5. What can the results of the Amazon account audit reveal?

 

1. Audit Types on Amazon

  Audits conducted on the Amazon Marketplace are a complex process of data extraction and phenomena occurring in sales and advertising accounts, product cards, rankings, search engine, categories and subcategories, and then drawing conclusions and creating:

• reports – Amazon audit report on the actual state;
• action plans – plans of action;
• media plans – media budgeting;
• sales plans – sales predictions.

    There are several basic types of audit on Amazon:

• by type:
  • external
  • internal
   
  • by area:
    • general audit
    • health audit
    • content audit
    • advertising audit
    • logistics audit
    • formalities audit
    • tax audit
    • staff audit
    • sales potential audit
    
     

    2. Amazon account audit: external and internal

      The division by type into external and internal audit results from the conditions encountered during implementation. An external audit is a less thorough method of verifying a sales account, product cards, brand, positioning, advertising, logistics or competition. That regards both direct and indirect insight. The general nature of this audit is due to the inability to know the exact data from sales account reports. Another reason is the need to rely on information available in general sources:
    • the platform itself, such as the Amazon storefront, product cards, Amazon Brand Store, A+ Content, Bestseller Ranks
    • paid tools such as Helium10, Keepa, Amalyze or JungleScout
    Internal audit stands on the other side of the barricade. It allows you to extract a large amount of precise data from the seller’s account, as well as other historical resources that it has access to in the company. It is usually limited to the possibility of conducting it based on own resources. Therefore, it effectively excludes obtaining the same type of result from its competitors. However, usually, the most data to create action plans comes from your own sources. That makes for half the battle in the process of optimizing sales.
     

    3. Specific audits of your Amazon account – conducted by area of operation

      The most extensive branch in the context of verifying activities on Amazon are specific audits focusing on a narrow section of operations. This way, they allow you to learn the perspective of a specific area. Let’s use an example to better illustrate the functions performed by specific audits. Let’s think about an account that, despite achieving high sales results, is in a terrible state of health. In due time, it will translate into the blocking of funds, and in the worst case – into blocking the account itself. In such a situation, an account health audit would allow for the correct diagnosis of emerging threats and prevent them. The list presented below is not exhaustive. However, it deals with the most important areas that are worth analyzing. Our goal here is to improve the sales process in the short and long term.  

    4. Types of Amazon account audits

      There are the following types of specific Amazon audits:
    • General audit. It consists in a cursory account audit from the point of view of the most important information in the areas of Seller Central, Case Log and Account Info.
    • Health audit. It focuses on the “in minus” verification of the Account Health, Performance Notifications, Inventory, Return Rate, Case Log and Account Info sections.
    • Content audit . It consists in verifying the level of optimization of published content in terms of views, SEO, conversion, brand consistency and attractiveness, and content saturation.
    • Advertising audit. It analyzes the area of paid advertising in terms of the structure and types of campaigns, advertised products, keywords and numerical results.
    • Logistics audit. It verifies the methods of delivering goods to end customers and external warehouses. It also verifies methods of their time and cost optimization.
    • Audit of formalities. It allows you to verify both the compliance and validity of data on the account. Moreover, it also allows you to check the validity of your documentation, certificates and permits to sell a specific range of products.
    • Tax audit. It consists in checking the tax settlement structure in relation to the logistics methods used.
    • Staff audit. It focuses on verifying the potential of the human resources to conduct and expand sales, as well as the possible need to use external entities.
    • Sales potential audit. It is based on data on the sale of a specific group of products on the target market. Based on the available resources, it allows you to anticipate the sales trend and the necessary expenses.
    

    5. What do the results of an Amazon account audit reveal?

      Regardless of their type, each of the audits carried out brings results in at least one of the three areas:
    • factual status – allowing to establish the status quo as at the date of the audit;
    • improvement – presenting recommendations for correcting errors and introducing improvements in the sales process;
    • sales opportunities – showing the real potential of the company, the product range and the sales account itself on the marketplace.
    Based on the extracted figures and written applications, we can prepare the aforementioned reports, action plans, sales plans and media plans. We can also plan actions to optimize the process and increase sales on Amazon. A meticulous performance of each of the audits indicated will help prepare for the sales peak in the upcoming fourth quarter. Moreover, it will also protect the existing operations against potential threats resulting from increased traffic.   Want to improve your sales performance in the marketplace? Our experts will help you! Fill in the form and arrange an account audit!