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Table of

Contents Our Brands Brand Spotlight: Fisher Space Pen

Brand Highlights

Informational Resources Amazon Expands Same-Day Delivery

The Amazon Buy Box

Addressing Suppressed and Restricted Listings

ZQ Community

ZQ 101

Charlie’s Corner

Join Our Team

Get in Touch

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A letter from the CEO Spring is known as the season of renewal, a time of growth. For our team, John Muir said it best: “Spring work is going on with joyful enthusiasm.” At ZQUARED, April offers the opportunity to celebrate and embrace our number one priority for 2022 - expansion. We are doubling down on our commitment to investing more deeply into our partnerships by laying the groundwork for new hires. These new hires will boost our team’s ability to support internal operations and external outreach to foster continued growth for our partners. We continue to work towards our goals of serving those in our circle well and hope spring brings the same sense of joyful enthusiasm to your work.

Zach Cornett

Co-Founder & CEO, ZQUARED

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Our

Brands 5

Brand

Spotlight Paul C. Fisher revolutionized the pen industry with his sealed and pressurized ink cartridge that allows a pen to write in zero gravity, upside down, under water, over grease and in extreme temperatures. His invention literally launched Fisher Space Pen into space in 1967. Debuting on the Apollo 7 mission, the Fisher Space Pen has been on every NASA-manned space flight to this day. In addition to their unique outer space functionality, Fisher Space Pen have become a beloved staple to everyday consumers who use the pens everywhere from the office to in the field, due to their top-notch design, quality and seamless writing experience.

CHALLENGE

PLAN

Before partnering with ZQUARED, Fisher Space Pen enjoyed decades of success in both retail and ecommerce, but sought out assistance for dealing with unauthorized resellers who began muddying the waters, especially on Amazon. The reseller issues on the platform brought their company unique challenges, including lack of MAP control, inconsistent brand positioning, and disorganized listings.

When Fisher Space Pen partnered with ZQUARED, the teams worked together to develop strategies for optimizing the Amazon space and regaining control of distribution. First, they mapped out a plan with the purpose of eliminating rogue resellers, allowing only trusted distributors that abided by MAP to continue buying and reselling product. They also outlined plans for limiting the products available for sale on Amazon to only those that were profitable in the space, thereby streamlining the product catalog and optimizing advertising campaigns to strategically focus and apply ad-spend funding.

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RESULTS Because Fisher Space Pen regained control over MAP and cleaned up their distribution network, distributor relationships from trusted, policy-abiding resellers improved. This positive development even led to the recovery of many previously lost brick-and-mortar dealer accounts once MAP was restored across the board. Additionally, ZQUARED successfully helped Fisher Space Pen streamline their product catalog, reducing their number of listings from over 500 to 216. This change allowed for more focused advertising efforts, a driving factor in continued growth.

EXECUTION ZQUARED identified harmful resellers who were not abiding by MAP and the established guidelines Fisher Space Pen set forth. Ultimately, this change led to the removal of offending resellers from affected listings, leaving a network consisting only of trusted distributors. By creating a marketplace branding guide and optimizing existing content, Fisher Space Pen’s messaging benefited from clarity and consistency. Additionally, a reduced number of product listings led to streamlined advertising campaigns focused on growth.

“ZQUARED has been a game changer for our brand. Our partnership has allowed us to maximize sales and revenue growth, streamline our product offerings, and increase our pricing back to MAP - which ultimately led to many lost brick-and-mortar dealer accounts coming back. They are also able to identify errant sellers hurting our business to keep the channel clean.”

Joshua Skidmore, Director of Sales & Marketing, Fisher Space Pen Co.

Brand Highlights For the month of April, we’re highlighting Glideaway, Argentyn, Pet Center, Inc. and Fitterfirst. We’re honored to be a part of the journey alongside these incredible Brands.

Year Founded: 1962 Category: Furniture & Bedding

Year Founded: 1998 Category: Supplements

FUN FACT Glideaway was founded by brothers Dave, Harry and Niel Fredman in the early 1900s. By 2019, leadership expanded to the fourth and fifth generations of the Fredman family.

FUN FACT Natural Immunogenics (the Argentyn 23 parent company) currently leads the industry in colloidal silver product development and has its own custom, state-of-the-art GMP certified facility and laboratory.

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Year Founded: 1978 Category: Pets

FUN FACT The American Canine Association uses PCI’s chicken nibbles to train their rescue dogs.

FUN FACT Year Founded: 1985 Category: Fitness

Fitterfirst is family-run by founder Louis and his wife Margaret. They design and manufacture many of their products in-house.

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Informational

Resources 11

AMAZON News

Amazon Expands Same-Day Delivery In March 2022, Amazon announced the latest expansion of their “mini-fulfillment centers” to Boston, which allow for same-day delivery to Prime customers within the Greater Boston Area. This service is now available in 27 cities across the country. Same-day delivery allows orders to arrive within hours of purchase. Orders placed as late as midnight arrive at the customer’s doorstep by the next morning. Prime members qualify for free sameday delivery on purchases over $35, or $2.99 for same-day delivery on orders under $35; non-Prime members pay a flat fee of $9.99 per order. Expansion of mini fulfillment centers poises Amazon for further domination not only in e-commerce, but in retail generally, as same-day delivery becomes a viable alternative to brick-and-mortar stores. Mini-fulfillment centers are one-tenth of the size of traditional fulfillment centers, use robotics for processing orders at the warehouse, and carry up to 3 million “need it today” items across a dozen categories like baby, beauty and health, kitchen and dining, electronics, and pet supplies. First announced in 2020, Amazon’s same-day delivery is the latest progression in their strategy to reduce delivery time and expand their transportation infrastructure across the country. In 2018, 51% of the U.S. population was within a 60-minute drive of an Amazon delivery station. By the end of 2021, coverage for Americans living within an hour of their

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delivery centers increased to 77%. Amazon looks to close the gap on Walmart and Target, who had a head-start with brick-andmortar infrastructure and currently have store networks that can reach 99% and 94% of the U.S. within 60 minutes, respectively. Jason Murray, former Vice President of Supply Chain and Retail Services at Amazon highlighted the importance of shipping speed in e-commerce, stating, “You can do whatever you want with marketing, check-out, one-click (ordering), whatever it is – speed is what drives everything.” Although the high costs for developing sameday delivery infrastructure have caused a dip in Amazon’s revenue in recent years, Amazon’s additional facilities are expected

to increase capacity for faster and lessexpensive delivery in the long term, ultimately leading to sustained growth. Additionally, Amazon touts that widening their delivery infrastructure will significantly shrink their carbon footprint by reducing transportation costs, allowing the company to achieve netzero carbon by 2040. It is yet to be seen whether same-day delivery will expand to further product categories. However, given their trend in continually reducing delivery times, same-day delivery as the norm for the entire population across numerous product categories would be no surprise. Same-day delivery highlights Amazon’s potential to expand their market and compete with traditional brick-and-mortar retailers.

The Amazon Buy Box One of the terms often seen in Amazon reporting and metrics tables is the “Buy Box Percentage”, a metric that provides data on how often you are winning the sale for a particular product. The Buy Box is one of the most important aspects to capturing sales, and critically affects your chances of success on the platform. Understanding the affecting factors and variables is essential to informing a good selling strategy. What Is the Amazon Buy Box? The Amazon Buy Box is represented by the widget on the right side of a product listing. This widget, housed with a “box” allows customers to see a variety of details, such as price, delivery options and product quantity, and then allows them to “Add to Cart” or “Buy Now”. How the Amazon Buy Box Works Per Amazon’s selling policy, only one listing can be created per product identifier – in other words, you can’t create multiple listings for the exact same product. If you want to sell a black Apple iPhone 11, 64GB, for example, you’ll have to list on the existing listing for this product along with any other sellers who are offering this item for sale. It’s possible that there will be dozens of other sellers listed on that singular listing, all trying to sell the same black Apple iPhone 11, 64GB. When a customer visits the page, they probably won’t be sifting through the dozens of sellers – they’ll simply add the product to cart. The seller who “owns” the Buy Box is the seller whom Amazon chooses to receive the sale when a customer clicks the “Add to Cart” or “Buy it Now” button. How to Win the Amazon Buy Box Amazon doesn’t explicitly specify the factors that influence the algorithm’s selection when assigning the Buy Box to sellers. However, these are the top

five factors that are suspected to significantly contribute. 1. List as a Prime Seller Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) provides unpronounced confidence from Amazon in regard to seller shipping and delivery commitments. Although a non-Prime seller can still qualify to win the Buy Box, Amazon gives preference to its Prime sellers. 2. Price your products competitively One of Amazon’s primary goals is to maintain competitive prices in the e-commerce space. As a result, when multiple sellers are listed on a single listing, the algorithm tends to favor the seller with the most competitive pricing. According to Amazon, by listing your product within 5% of

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THE ZQUARED ADVANTAGE

the current Buy Box price, you increase your chances of winning the Buy Box. 3. Sell New Products While it’s acceptable to sell used or refurbished products under the right specifications, only in rare conditions are these sellers the winning contributor. “New Condition” offers have a much higher chance of maintaining the Buy Box. 4. Keep Your Inventory in Check When you begin to reach low inventory thresholds as an FBA seller, your product is likely on the shelf at fewer Amazon warehouses across the country. This can affect shipping speeds, potentially triggering the algorithm to give preference to another seller with product that’s available in a wider distribution network. 5. Maintain Positive Seller Feedback Ratings Although the details of this specific factor are murky, it’s generally assumed that sellers with poor performance metrics are lower on the priority list when determining who will receive the sale. Logically, it’s thought that Amazon gives preference to sellers who have a history of positive customer feedback. Another Important Feature to Note More than the obvious advantage of winning the majority of sales, winning the Buy Box affects another critical component for success on Amazon: Advertising. Sellers who do not own the Buy Box are not eligible to advertise the listing. Conversely, those who maintain ownership can create and control their campaigns to drive additional sales. Advertising is essential to a successful long-term strategy on the platform.

Owning the Buy Box requires top-to-bottom successful account management. With Amazon’s ambiguous terms and numerous variables affecting success, winning the Buy Box can be an overwhelming challenge. ZQUARED is positioned to help its Brand Partners achieve excellence in all-things Amazon, and has the expertise necessary to lead your brand to success. We provide end-to-end solutions that focus on growing our clients’ businesses through advanced brand optimization and marketing, proprietary technology, forecasting tools, logistical support, product distribution, and more. To learn how ZQUARED can help you stay ahead in the Amazon game, request a comprehensive assessment of your Amazon channel from our Amazon Investment Partnership Team. You will receive audit results focused on your listings, category, competitors, reseller landscape and more with an individuallytailored strategic plan designed to capitalize on opportunities.

Addressing Suppressed and Restricted Listings Selling on Amazon can be an exceptionally profitable business if properly set up and well managed. Many mistakenly believe that once you set up an Amazon product listing, you can simply rake in the profits without having to adjust or maintain it. However, a wide variety of potential issues can arise for various reasons including listing suppressions, restrictions and violations. Many of these issues arise as a result of policy changes, Amazon bots flagging prohibited words or phrases, or account issues. This article covers the most common errors affecting listings, as well as potential causes and solutions.

SUPPRESSED AMAZON LISTINGS What is a Search Suppressed Listing? If sellers are in violation of any of Amazon’s program policies or TOS (Terms of Service), Amazon may suppress or hide their product listing from search results. Identifying if an Amazon Listing Is Suppressed To check if a listing has been suppressed, log in to Seller Central, select “Inventory”, click “Manage Inventory”, and check the status of each ASIN. When a listing is suppressed, you will see “Suppressed” or “Search Suppressed” under the Status column. Understanding Why an Amazon Listing Is Suppressed A variety of issues may cause suppression, including but not limited to: exceeding character count, using prohibited keywords or

promotional terms, improper use of images, customer complaints, selling counterfeit or expired products, or prohibited account activity. How To Fix a Suppressed Amazon Listing The first step for fixing a listing suppression issue is to discover the root problem. Under the Status tab in Manage Inventory, find the affected listing and click on “Search Suppressed”. Amazon will direct you to the “Fix Your Products” page. You should see columns with Product Details, Reason, and Issue Description. Pay attention to the Reason and Issue Description sections that relate to the product in question. These sections should give you insight into why the Suppression issue is occurring. Take action to correct the problem appropriately. If addressed properly, the listing should become Active again within 24 hours.

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While many times these steps will resolve a suppression, other times the answer is not so straightforward. For example, Amazon may be flagging keywords or phrases that are not immediately obvious due to recent category or policy updates. Exact details are not always provided, and sometimes the resulting Reason or Issue Descriptions can be vague. When this occurs, a good next step is to contact Seller Support. Request additional information regarding the issue to help gain clarity on the specific action that must be taken. BLOCKED & REMOVED LISTINGS What is a Blocked or Removed Listing? A Blocked or Removed listing means that Amazon has restricted your product from being sold on its site. This can be permanent or temporary depending on the nature of the violation. While a suppression typically resolves by a quick listing edit or revision, blocked and removed listings can require a much more involved process for reinstatement. Identifying if an Amazon Listing Is Blocked or Removed Similar to a suppression issue, you’ll see if a listing has been blocked by visiting the “Manage Inventory” page in Seller Central, and checking the status column. When a listing has been blocked or removed, you will see “Blocked” or “Detail Page Removed” under the Status column. Understanding Why an Amazon Listing Is Blocked or Removed A listing restriction or removal can occur for a variety of reasons. Some common triggers include: possible property rights violations, selling potentially expired products, selling used products on a listing categorized as new, or using keywords that inadvertently classify your product as a pesticide or dangerous

good. It’s a good idea to be familiar with Amazon’s Restricted Products help pages for a full list of safety and compliance policies that must be followed. How To Fix a Blocked or Removed Amazon Listing Fixing a blocked or removed Amazon Listing can be a lengthy, frustrating process depending on the nature of the problem. In some cases, similarly to suppression issues, a removal of a particular keyword, image, or claim may solve the issue. Other times, you may have to submit detailed appeals to the Product Reinstatement team within Seller Support in order to protest the restriction and demonstrate the steps you will take to ensure it doesn’t happen again in the future. Still other times, it may simply not be possible to get a product reinstated if the violation is serious enough. Checking the “Fix Your Products” page by clicking on the status of the affected listing is always a good place to start when trying to understand the nature of the removal or blockage. The Reason or Issue Description sections may give you enough insight to accurately diagnose and take action on to solve the problem on your own. An additional place to review for information on potential policy violations is the Account Health page located under the “Performance” tab in Seller Central. The Policy Compliance section offers insight into the rating of your overall account health, and also lists any policy violations. In many cases, blocked or removed listings will require case creation with Seller Support in order to try to resolve or understand the issue. They may ask for documentation, a revised process, or proof of compliance in order to consider reinstatement.

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Community 19

Founded in 2010, ZQUARED is ranked as a top 125 AMAZON SELLER with over 75k reviews, 100% of which are positive over the last 12 months. OUR PURPOSE ZQUARED invests in brands who sell on Amazon and are poised and ready for growth. WE-COMMERCE Putting the “we” in e-commerce. ZQUARED, we are a team of professionals At who understand the opportunities, risks and challenges on Amazon. With nearly 40 years combined experience as Amazon sellers, our primary goal is helping you multiply your success by serving as an extension of your team to maximize results. From distribution to advertising strategies, we have solutions proven to grow your brand.

YOU GROW, WE GROW—TOGETHER Built on the belief that all boats rise with the tide, our services are based on this principle. ZQUARED invests time, money, effort and energy into brands poised for success with the expectation of a worthwhile result— because we go all-in, growing together and winning when you win.

OUR MISSION

Our mission is to invest in brands who sell on Amazon and are poised and ready for growth by forming partnerships built on trust and rooted in relationship to maximize value and achieve results.

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OUR VALUES UNPARALLELED CULTURE ZQUARED’s motto is “we—not me”, and we strive to build an unparalleled culture by incorporating this attitude into every aspect of our workplace, empowering a team built on communication and trust with a service-based mindset to get the job done. FIRST-RATE EXECUTION We strive to provide unmatched quality when servicing each of our Brand Partners. By intentionally being proactive, prepared, and in constant pursuit of improvement, our promise hinges on delivering top-quality results in all aspects of our work. ENTHUSIASM Our partnerships are more than transactions—we invest in people and brands who share our drive and enthusiasm, deepening partner relations while collaborating to execute expert-level growth strategies.

OUR HISTORY With more than a decade of experience, we’ve learned what it takes to win on Amazon: ultimately, people matter more than products, and investing in people first leads to growth and profitable Amazon brands.

2010

2011

2014

Originally named Advantage Nutrition, ZQUARED brothers and Co-Founders Chad and Zach Cornett set out to establish a brick-and-mortar retail company with an emphasis on health and wellness. They pivoted when they realized e-tail, particularly Amazon, was taking off, recognizing brands needed help navigating the everchanging e-commerce landscape.

Charlie Meyer was ZQUARED’s first official hire, and he’s been with us ever since. Our people are our foundation.

ZQUARED three time its origina basement footprint w and growi 50+.

WORKING OUT OF CHAD’S BASEMENT

HIRING OUR FIRST EMPLOYEE

PLANT IN ST.

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2019

D has moved es since leaving al spot in Chad’s t, doubling its with each move ing to a staff of

Inc. recognizes ZQUARED as one of the fastest-growing privatelyheld companies in the United States, while the St. Louis Business Journal names ZQUARED on its “Fast 50” list.

TING ROOTS LOUIS

HARD WORK PAYS OFF

2021

AND BEYOND

ZQUARED hires Jeff Bush as President, positioning the company for continued growth