WOW Water Sports is a leading brand on Amazon in the outdoor sports category, and they sell towables, backyard slides, pool noodles and similar outdoor water sports equipment’s. The company has grown significantly on Amazon over the past few years and with that the Shortage Claims and Chargebacks also have.
In 2020, WOW sports which had an in-house Purchase Order Processing Team decided to opt for SalesDuo’s Finance and Operations program that takes care of all the stages of the Purchase Orders process on Vendor Central, including the disputes for Shortage Claims and Chargebacks. While all steps of the PO processing are full automated via SalesDuo’s EDI solution, the process of disputing Shortage Claims and Chargebacks and getting them resolved is done manually.
Amazon raises shortage disputes after receiving the POs in their warehouse and the pattern is too random - even if a product is sent part of a Full Truck Load (TL) / Less than Truck Load (LTL). The reasons can be any of the below.
1. Vendor warehouses not sending the correct number of units.
2. Items can be lost during transit from Vendor warehouse to Amazon.
3. Lost during cross-docking by Amazon.
4. Incorrect Counting at Amazon FCs.
5. Pilferages in Amazon FCs.
6. It could even be due to improper catalog data
Amazon raises shortage claim invoices stating that “X” units are missing from a specific Purchase order and expects you to dispute the shortages if you have sent the quantity. Many of the Vendors just ignore disputing these shortages or don’t have enough know-how on the documents needed for disputing the shortages.
Since the reason for an item getting lost can be any of the above, SalesDuo’s Team uses a combination of documents and processes while disputing the shortages with Amazon.
For Small Parcels, the documents needed are Carton Labels and Proof of Delivery (POD) that can be downloaded from the carrier’s website.
For TL/LTL, the documents needed are Carton Labels / Pallet Labels (Pallet orders) and a scanned copy of the signed BOL by the carrier driver.
For Direct Imports, we used the Forwarder Cargo Receipt (FCR) that was given at the time of pick up in China or Shipping point.
Between 2020 and 2022, SalesDuo recovered a total of $475K by disputing it both at the portal and through bulk requests. One of the significant recoveries was a $126K Direct Import order, which was lost completely. This was later recovered after more than 8 months by providing the needed documents and following up multiple times with Amazon.
Currently, SalesDuo’s recovery rate for WOW Water Sports stands at 66% against 20-25% of recoveries that most of the vendors get out of Amazon.
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About the Author
Giridhara Prasad is an Associate Director at SalesDuo and a startup enthusiast. With extensive expertise in e-commerce, this ex-Amazonian has been instrumental in driving success for businesses worldwide. Apart from his passion for creating innovative sales strategies and optimizing online retail experiences, Giri finds interest in watching and playing sports, including starting to play pickleball, traveling, and exploring political science, and philosophy.
