When done right, selling used items makes for a win-win situation. It lets sellers profit from whatever sources are available. On the other hand, it allows customers to purchase items they want without breaking their bank.
eBay has managed to get the commerce of used/renewed items right. That’s why it has transformed into one of the most reliable platforms for buying and selling those products. The website registers one of the highest sell-through rates for used products globally.
Amazon also caters to buyers and sellers interested in items other than brand-new through its Renewed Program. However, the program has a lot of potential that is yet to be tapped. In other words, there is a huge opportunity for sellers on the platform dealing in used items.
If you want to enter this territory on Amazon and make the most of it, continue reading on. In this piece, you will learn all about what does renewed on Amazon mean.
Amazon Renewed program allows the trade of used items on the platform. You can sell refurbished, open-box, and pre-owned products under this program. However, Amazon Renewed doesn’t work like the majority of used items marketplaces where quality assurance is not always up to the mark.
At Amazon Renewed, you can only sell fixed-up, tested, and certified products that look and act like new. Amazon has laid out extensive product and seller criteria to enforce that quality control (more on it later).
It is important to remember that Amazon doesn’t have separate “Renewed” and “Refurbished” programs. There is only one Amazon Renewed program through which you can sell refurbished products (besides open-box items). Any pre-owned product that has been fixed up to work and looks like a new counterpart can either be termed as “renewed” or “refurbished”.
Amazon Renewed Premium is at the top tier of the Renewed Program. Products sold under this sub-category are done up by the original manufacturer or Amazon instead of third-party sellers. In addition, they come in deluxe packaging with a full-year warranty, unlike the standard 90-day Amazon Renewed Guarantee.
Amazon Renewed Premium is not for third-party sellers. It primarily caters to big brands with universal appeal and a loyal consumer base (e.g. Apple, Dell, Samsung, etc). Small brand owners will find a little luck in selling their pre-owned and open box items as Renewed Premium.
Amazon Renewed program doesn’t extend to every product category that you can sell on the platform otherwise. Amazon maintains that you can only sell those products through the program that possess “repair/refurbish capacity”.
In other words, you can sell items featuring mechanical or electrical components that can be refurbished, repaired, replaced, or upgraded to their optimal state.
Amazon has made 12 products categories that can fulfill the criteria mentioned above.
Smartphones, Computers, Home & Kitchen, Tools
Smartwatches, Gaming, Tablets, Cameras
Lawn & Garden, Office Products, Home Entertainment, Headphones
Under these 12 categories, you can sell the following products on Amazon as renewed and refurbished.
As mentioned earlier, Amazon has set out very detailed and stringent qualification criteria for products sold under the Amazon Renewed program. Here, we will briefly outline those requirements that you need to fulfill with your used/refurbished inventory if you want to sell it through Amazon Renewed.
Even if you are already an Amazon seller, you won’t be automatically qualified to sell on Amazon Renewed. Instead, Amazon has established a multifaceted qualification process for those who want to sell renewed and pre-owned products on the platform.
First, you need to qualify for the program by fulfilling certain conditions. Then, you need to comply with a list of requirements on an ongoing basis to stay in the program.
If you can take care of the following requirements, you can sell renewed and refurbished products on Amazon.
ISO-90001 compliance is not a requirement to sell on Amazon Renewed for now. However, Amazon encourages sellers to meet that ISO standard. Having ISO certification might help fast-tracking your application to sell on Amazon Renewed.
You need to maintain the following key performance metrics to remain in the Amazon Renewed Program.
You can see that consistency is the key to stay in the Amazon Renewed program. You can achieve that by continuously maintaining product quality and delivering good customer service.
You can list Amazon renewed items the same way you do regular product listing while taking care of the following points.
Amazon Renewed Program can be a lucrative prospect for many sellers due to these reasons.
You may have already gathered from the above discussion that not everyone can become an Amazon Renewed seller. You need to bring in good upfront investment and then put up a consistent performance to keep selling on Amazon Renewed. These strict criteria make Amazon Renewed sellers a member of an exclusive club of sorts where only they can sell the refurbished/renewed products on the world’s largest e-commerce platform.
If you’re already selling refurbished and pre-owned products, you can scale your business several times while using the global outreach and excellent logistical expertise and muscle of Amazon.
Price proves to be a deterrent for a number of brand-conscious consumers when it comes to buying new products. Many of those customers look forward to affordable renewed and refurbished variants that are new-like. You can reach out to that considerably large consumer base by enrolling in Amazon Renewed Program.
Amazon covers every renewed, pre-owned, and refurbished product selling on its platform through Amazon Renewed Guarantee. It works just like a regular product guarantee i.e. an unsatisfied customer can return the product within 90 days of the purchase.
Renewed products fulfilled by Amazon automatically qualify for Amazon Renewed Guarantee. Meanwhile, if you are fulfilling the orders yourself, you will have to choose pre-paid return labels within your Seller Central account. Without doing this opt-in, your products won’t get eligible for Amazon Renewed Guarantee.
It is only natural that customers expect renewed products to cost less than their brand-new counterparts. Therefore, Amazon has set a minimum discount of 5% for all the refurbished/renewed items. This percentage is calculated by factoring in the price tag of the similar new items listed on Amazon.
You can also provide bigger discounts. However, if the discount on refurbished products is less than 5%, you can face these unwanted consequences.
Before we wrap up this guide, it is essential to answer this question.
Besides the standard category referral fee, you will have to pay an additional referral fee for selling renewed/refurbished products. For all renewed categories except smartphones, you will have to pay an additional 1% referral fee on every sale. For renewed/refurbished cell phones, the additional referral fee is 2% per sale.
Selling on the Amazon Renewed Program shows great prospects if you can make a large upfront investment and maintain good seller performance. The program gives you access to a large base of consumers looking to buy original products and brands at a reasonable price.
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