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New Title Requirements, Reimbursements Take a Hit, Hidden B2B Opportunities
Amazon changes their title policy and cuts back on reimbursements, Julian shares how he takes an old B2B brand to the front page of Amazon.
Josh Rawe
07 Jan • Estimated Reading Time: 7 minutes
Good morning, eCommerce leaders.
Welcome to the first full week of 2025! Don’t worry, Black Friday is 46 weeks away. You’ve got plenty of time for your new product launches.
– Josh Rawe
New Title Requirements
Amazon Will Update Your Listings for Compliance
Dom knows that the only constant in life is change. And so does Amazon. They will be implementing new title requirements starting January 21, 2025. The platform will automatically modify non-compliant titles after a 14-day notice period.
What's Changing
200-character limit (including spaces) for most categories
Ban on special characters (!, $, ?, _, {, }, ^, ~, }) unless part of brand name
No word repetition except for prepositions, articles, and conjunctions
The major question is, “What about brand names that include the product name?” For example, Craig Leslie, owner of The Bean Coffee points out that his best-selling listing duplicates the word “Coffee” because it’s in the brand name and product name.
Why This Matters
This isn't just another policy update - Amazon is implementing automated enforcement. After your 14-day notice period, they will automatically modify non-compliant titles. This means disruption to your search rankings, keywords targeted, advertising campaigns, and more.
Action Plan: Next 14 Days
Audit your catalog by downloading a category listings report.
Update your listings for any that have 200+ characters (Pro Tip: Sav a copy of your titles before pushing your update in case something breaks)
Schedule manual reviews of your catalog before after the change date and notice period to ensure listings are still live.
Join the Amazon Seller Forums event on January 8 for direct Q&A
BONUS TIP
Save your current title performance data now. This will give you valuable before/after metrics to understand the impact of cleaner titles on your conversion rates.
Bottom Line: While painful for many sellers, this change aligns with what we've seen work: shorter, cleaner titles often convert better than keyword-stuffed alternatives. Use this forced change as an opportunity to test cleaner title formats.
Reimbursements Take A Hit
Amazon's New FBA Reimbursement Policy
Starting March 10, 2025, Amazon is changing how they reimburse sellers for lost or damaged FBA inventory - and it's not in sellers' favor.
The Change
OLD: Reimbursement based on selling price
NEW: Reimbursement based on "manufacturing cost"
Amazon will "estimate" your manufacturing costs based on market data unless you provide your actual costs
The Impact
This is effectively a reduction in reimbursement values. If you're selling a product that costs $10 to manufacture and sells for $30, you're now losing $20 every time Amazon loses or damages your inventory.
2 Key Distinctions
Pre-order damage/loss: Manufacturing cost only
Post-order damage/loss: Reimbursed at selling price minus fees
Action Plan to Protect Your Margins
Document your manufacturing costs.
Be ready to challenge Amazon's estimates in late January when the new portal opens
Consider increasing your selling prices to account for potentially higher inventory loss costs
Bottom Line: While Amazon frames this as providing "greater transparency," it's a significant shift of inventory risk onto sellers. Brands need to factor this increased risk into their FBA strategy and pricing models for 2025.
The Hidden B2B Opportunity
Let’s Reach B2B Buyers on Amazon
We’re talking about business. The majority of B2B product sales on Amazon are coming from consumers, not businesses. This insight from Julian Fenn, Ecommerce Growth Specialist at Ansell (world's largest PPE manufacturer), reveals a massive opportunity most B2B brands are missing.
Breaking Down the Success
Fenn's team transformed their safety equipment line from an overlooked B2B product to the #1 branded search in their category on Amazon.
Here's the playbook:
Flip Your Content Strategy
Most B2B brands make a critical mistake: they copy-paste their Grainger.com content to Amazon. This kills conversion because consumers don't care about technical specifications or industry certifications.
Here's what works:
Replace "ANSI Z87.1 Certified" with "Perfect for weekend projects"
Remove SKU numbers from titles
Focus A+ content on lifestyle benefits over technical specs
Show the product in consumer scenarios (yard work, home projects)
Rethink Your Product Strategy
The breakthrough came when they stopped treating Amazon like a B2B channel. Instead of selling 12-packs optimized for factory vending machines, they:
Created single-unit purchases for consumers
Added consumer accessories (protective cases with belt clips)
Developed Amazon-exclusive variations for pricing control
Made products discoverable through consumer use cases
Action Plan
Pull up your Amazon listings. Read them pretending you're a consumer who knows nothing about your industry. If you see technical specs and certifications in your titles or bullets, you're leaving money on the table.
Bottom Line: The opportunity for B2B brands on Amazon isn't in fighting for the business buyer - it's in capturing the massive consumer market that's already buying your products for personal use.
ICYMI
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