Consulterce

I founded Consulterce to help B2C Household and CPG brands reliably increase their 1P vendor profits with Amazon. I help my clients with their:

» Digital Commerce Strategy,
» Annual Vendor Negotiations (JBPs),
» Profitability Initiatives,
» Marketplace & Channel Alignment,
» Performance Analytics Practice,
» Digital Transformation.

If you are looking for a solution-oriented expert who can help you maximize your profits while growing your business, look no further. Let's talk!

Strategy & Amazon Consultant

Amazon

Commercial P&L ownership of Food Grocery FMCG (Coffee, Food, Snacks & Desserts) product categories for Amazon Core. 

Spearheaded the strategy development for vendor negotiations across EU marketplaces to maximise category growth and profitability. 

Designed and implemented the pan-EU Grocery margin compensation strategy, exceeding plans and tripling returns. 

Managed cross-functional account management team of 7 in 2 locations (London and Manchester).

Pioneered process improvements to enable scalable growth by analysing, managing and building comprehensive selection through strong vendor relationships, while prioritizing vendor resources to improve customer experience, product availability, sales and efficiencies.

Senior Category Manager - Food, Snacks & Coffee

Commercial P&L management of the Food Snacks & Desserts FMCG product category for Amazon Core. 

Formulated seasonal buying strategy for Confectionery goods that accelerated availability and profit margins while reducing overstocks by over 90%.

Accelerated the category-wide return from annual trade terms negotiations (Joint Business Plans) with leading CPG brands by 400%.

Managed cross-functional team of up to 6 account managers.

Pioneered process improvements to enable scalable growth by analysing, managing and building comprehensive selection through strong vendor relationships, while prioritizing vendor resources to improve customer experience, product availability, sales and efficiencies.

Senior Category Manager - Food, Snacks & Desserts

Pan European P&L management of the Housewares product category, focusing on commercial vendor negotiations and process improvements to enable scalable growth by analysing, managing and building comprehensive selection through strong vendor relationships while prioritizing vendor resources to improve customer experience, product availability, sales and efficiencies.

Vendor Manager - Home Living

Management of the Housewares product category, focusing on commercial vendor negotiations and process improvements to enable scalable growth by analysing, managing and building comprehensive selection through strong vendor relationships, while prioritizing vendor resources to improve customer experience, product availability and efficiencies.

Assoc. Vendor Manager - Home Living

Want higher profit margins for your 1P Amazon business? Then we should talk!

Hi, I'm Martin Heubel...

I help multinational 1P Amazon Vendors with their:

» Digital Commerce Strategy,
» Annual Vendor Negotiations (AVNs),
» Profitability Initiatives,
» Marketplace & Channel Alignment,
» Performance Analytics Practice,
» Digital Transformation.


My clients typically hire me because they need:

» Support to prepare, conduct and optimise their annual Amazon negotiations (JBPs),
» Guidance on how to integrate Amazon into their sales channel strategy,
» Clarity on how to improve their profit margins with Amazon.


Unlike other consultants, I bring years of experience, successfully advising CPG & Household brands to master their bottom line.

So if you are looking for a solution-oriented expert who can help you maximise your profits while growing your Amazon business, look no further. 

Get in touch today!


PS: You can also get my insights directly to your inbox:

📨 https://consulterce.com/newsletter/

The price deadlock - where #Amazon Vendor margins go to die. 💸👇

Picture this:

Amazon price matches a 3P Seller offering your product at a lower price. As a result, Walmart starts matching Amazon's price.

A few days later, the 3P Seller runs out of stock.

🔓 𝗕𝘂𝘁 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗹𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗶𝘀 𝗻𝗼𝘄 𝗹𝗼𝗰𝗸𝗲𝗱 𝗮𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗱𝗶𝘀𝗰𝗼𝘂𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝗹𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗹.

Walmart price-matches Amazon. Amazon in turn price-matches Walmart.

It's a price lock that hurts your margins across the entire channel.
And exactly why a leaky distribution is the killer of your profit margins.

So what can you do?*

1- Confirm the 3P Seller is out of stock
2- Consult your legal team for next steps
3- Raise a case in VC under “Amazon Retail Contributions → Pricing Issue → Competitor Price Match Error.”
4- Do the same with Walmart

You may phrase it like:

“Our analysis suggests your system may be referencing a temporary price on another retailer that’s no longer active. Please review whether this match remains valid.”*

It's not a guaranteed fix for getting your product out of the deadlock.

More often than not, you'll have to wait for either Amazon or Walmart until they take down the listing to protect their margins.

𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝘀𝗵𝗼𝘂𝗹𝗱𝗻'𝘁 𝗱𝗼: 𝗚𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗔𝗺𝗮𝘇𝗼𝗻 𝗼𝗿 𝗪𝗮𝗹𝗺𝗮𝗿𝘁 𝗮𝗻𝘆 𝗮𝗱𝗱𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗳𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴. 𝗜𝘁 𝘄𝗶𝗹𝗹 𝗷𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝗸𝗲𝗲𝗽 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗱𝘂𝗰𝘁 𝗮𝗹𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗺𝗮𝗸𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗶𝘀𝘀𝘂𝗲 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝘀𝗲.

To prevent this deadlock in the first place:

Tighten your distribution control. If you sell to everyone, price becomes the only differentiator.

--- 

How do you handle price deadlocks on Amazon? 
Let me know in the comments!

*Disclaimer: Not legal advice. Always consult your legal and compliance teams before taking action. Pricing at all times at the sole discretion of the retailer.

#amazonvendor #amazonstrategy

Martin Heubel

Commercial Advisor to 1P Amazon Vendors // Advanced Profitability & Negotiation Strategies

Stop trying to cheat the #Amazon price algorithm. It won't work and hurt your vendor business. 🚩👇

Many vendors still look for shortcuts:

❌ Launching different pack sizes
❌ Bundling existing ASINs
❌ Creating 'fake' UPCs

If your teams are proposing any of these strategies, stop them immediately.

Amazon will quickly identify that these aren’t exclusive SKUs and trigger its similarity price-matching. Your bundles will then be compared against the single units, or matched by price per gram/oz or per ml.

𝗪𝗼𝗿𝘀𝗲, 𝗔𝗺𝗮𝘇𝗼𝗻 𝗺𝗮𝘆 𝘀𝘂𝗽𝗽𝗿𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 '𝗲𝘅𝗰𝗹𝘂𝘀𝗶𝘃𝗲' 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗱𝘂𝗰𝘁𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗱𝗲𝗹𝗶𝘀𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗺 𝗳𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝗶𝘁𝘀 𝗺𝗮𝗿𝗸𝗲𝘁𝗽𝗹𝗮𝗰𝗲.

The better way?

✅ Develop truly exclusive product lines
✅ List bundles that don't exist in retail
✅ Launch differentiated SKUs (25%+ ingredient change)
✅ Innovate the USP (advent calendars, gifting hampers, etc.)
✅ Build entry offers (assorted packs)

Because if you sell the same products everywhere online, the only differentiating factor left is price.

Which Amazon will match – whether you like it or not.

---

How do you protect your Amazon margins? 
Let me know in the comments!

#amazonvendor #amazonstrategy

Want higher profit margins for your 1P Amazon business? Then we should talk!

Hi, I'm Martin Heubel...

I help multinational 1P Amazon Vendors with their:

» Digital Commerce Strategy,
» Annual Trade Term Negotiations (JBPs),
» Profitability Initiatives,
» Marketplace & Channel Alignment,
» Performance Analytics Practice,
» Digital Transformation.


My clients typically hire me because they need:

» Support to prepare, conduct and optimise their annual Amazon negotiations (JBPs),
» Guidance on how to integrate Amazon into their sales channel strategy,
» Clarity on how to improve their profit margins with Amazon.


Unlike other consultants, I bring years of experience, successfully advising CPG & Household brands to master their bottom-line.

So if you are looking for a solution-oriented expert who can help you maximise your profits while growing your Amazon business, look no further. 

Get in touch today!


PS: You can also get my insights directly to your inbox:

📨 https://consulterce.com/newsletter/

Austin Tate Hughes

🖐️ Five common habits of 1P Vendors that will kill your profit margins (avoid these at all costs):

1- Focusing on the most recent P&L trends, not understanding how they impact your full-year performance with #Amazon.

2- Relying on account or brand-level profitability while not having SKU-level insights about your gross margin performance. 

3- Reviewing gross margins and Amazon's Net PPM ad-hoc instead of during monthly and quarterly business reviews.

4- Spending all your time forecasting sales, margins, and market share instead of being laser-focused on executing the basics.

5- Not comparing your sales, margin, and operational performance year-over-year, quarter-over-quarter, and month-over-month. 

Avoid as many of these as possible to drive a healthier bottom line with Amazon.

---

What else would you add?

Let me know in the comments!

#amazonvendor #amazonstrategy

❌ There's no point in asking #AVS to do a better job. Your expectations may simply not match reality: 

That's because AVS is not a done-for-you solution. And despite how #Amazon may have sold you the service, it's reactive rather than proactive.

So if you think that investing in AVS will solve all your problems, I have some bad news for you:

It's not going to happen.

Instead, it's critical to engage with AVS in a way that fully utilises its service capacity.

So here's a blueprint for vendors who want to get more out of AVS:

𝟭- 𝗔𝘀𝗸 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗮𝗻 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗿𝗼𝗱𝘂𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝘁𝗼 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗔𝗩𝗦 𝗧𝗲𝗮𝗺 𝗟𝗲𝗮𝗱
This is the person your AVS is reporting to. If you don't know who your AVS Team Lead (TL) is, you're not talking to the right person. 

After the introduction, set up monthly calls to discuss the service quality and any areas of improvement.

𝟮- 𝗘𝘀𝗰𝗮𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗱𝗶𝘀𝘀𝗮𝘁𝗶𝘀𝗳𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗹𝘆
By early, I mean *outside* your vendor negotiation cycle. If you only complain about AVS when it's time to discuss the investment, Amazon may ignore your team. That's because it will be seen as a negotiation tactic.

𝟯- 𝗟𝗶𝗻𝗸 𝗮𝗻𝘆 𝗔𝗩𝗦 𝗶𝗻𝘃𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝘁𝗼 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝗰𝗿𝗲𝘁𝗲 𝗦𝗟𝗔𝘀
Service Level Agreements are your best friend when it comes to AVS. Make sure to define these in your trade negotiations. If your Vendor Manager wants to delay the discussion, also delay your commitment to invest.

👉 Bonus: Insist on quarterly business reviews with your VM, TL and AVS. This ensures that any shortcomings in the service are resolved quickly.

---

Have I forgotten anything?
Let me know in the comments!

#amazonvendor #amazonstrategy

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