Questions
Straight answers. Where something is not decided yet, it is left off this page rather than answered vaguely.
Who does the work
Who does the work on my account?
One person: Mayank Sonegara, who runs Shelf Pilots and also runs MeAyurv on Amazon.in. The person who answers your email is the person who touches the account. There is no account manager in between.
Do you work with sellers on Amazon.com?
Yes. The work covers Amazon.in, Amazon.com, Amazon.ca, Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.de, Amazon.fr, Amazon.it, Amazon.es, Amazon.ae, Amazon.com.au and Amazon.co.jp. A Amazon.com account is billed in US dollars.
Each marketplace is modelled on its own tax and fee rules, because the same SKU is a different business in each one. In India the price includes GST that you remit; in the United States Amazon adds and remits sales tax on top, so your listed price is your revenue.
Do you work with brands that compete with MeAyurv?
Yes. Before you sign, you are told which accounts we run in your category and exactly what overlaps. It is a question worth putting to any agency you speak to.
Access and approvals
What access do you need?
A user invitation in Seller Central with the Advertising: View & Edit Campaigns permission, and your landed cost per SKU.
You keep ownership of the account and can remove access at any time, from your own Seller Central. We never ask for your password.
Will you change things without asking?
No. Every change in the first 30 days is signed off by you before it goes live, and the diagnosis that justifies the first of them reaches you in week one.
After that, every change is logged with what changed, why, what it was expected to do and what it did.
Which ad types do you manage?
Sponsored Products, Sponsored Brands and Sponsored Display. Not Amazon DSP.
Reporting, contract and price
How often will I hear from you?
A written report every week, in contribution per SKU rather than ACoS. The change log is updated as changes happen, so nothing waits for the report.
How long is the contract?
Month to month, or a 90-day package: diagnosis in week one, then stop the losses, rebuild, run and report. The 90 days matches how long the method needs to show contribution moving.
How is it priced?
By the number of ASINs we advertise for you: month to month, or a 90-day plan, in two bands (up to 10 ASINs, and 11 to 50). On Amazon.com month to month starts at $299 a month before applicable taxes, a launch price for a limited time. More than 50 ASINs is a custom quote after the free audit.
You will not see an hourly rate or a timesheet. The full table is on the Pricing page.
Why contribution
Why do you talk about contribution instead of ACoS?
ACoS is a ratio of ad spend to ad revenue. It cannot see your referral fee, your fulfilment cost, your tax or what the stock cost, so it cannot tell you whether the revenue was worth having.
Contribution is what one order leaves you after all of those. Two SKUs at the same ACoS can be far apart on contribution, and the fulfilment line is usually what separates them. You can work it out for one of your own SKUs with the calculator on this site.
Something not answered here?
Email hello@shelfpilots.com. Real questions about an account get a real answer, whether or not they turn into work.