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A lot of sellers and buyers alike have problems with the Add-on badge. You see, sellers don’t know whether their products will become Amazon Add-on items or not. When they do, the buyers must add more items to the existing item to reach an order threshold. Most buyers don’t want to add more stuff to their cart, so they leave, not purchasing the item they originally wanted.
Because of that, it’s a lose-lose situation for both parties. The buyers don’t get the item they want, and the sellers lose sales. That said, is there possibly a way that sellers can take out the Add-on badge so they can sell typically? Let’s take a look and see.
How to Find Add-on Items on Amazon?
So, what does an Add-on item mean on Amazon? Before we know if there is a way to take out the badge or maybe find a loophole in the system, what is an Amazon add-on item anyway?
An AMZ Add-on item is an item that may be eligible for free shipping if you couple it with other goods to reach a threshold. It is possible to complete the threshold by mixing more Add-on items with non-Add-on products as long as the total matches or exceeds the threshold amount. The amount you need for free shipping is $25.
This $25 minimum threshold was made by the marketplace so that they won’t incur a loss when some of the products shipped are low-cost items that amount to less than the shipping fee. You can’t purchase the item if your purchase falls short of the minimum. It is cost-prohibitive to ship made by Amazon.
How Do Amazon Prime Members Get Affected?
Now that you know what an add-on item is let’s see how Prime members are affected. For those who are Prime Members, AMZ is banking on them, adding new items to the cart so that it can reach the threshold of $25. Therefore, Amazon wants Prime members to either order more stock of the Amazon Prime add-on merchandise if they enter the number of items they want, add more random items to the cart, or join the Subscribe and Save program, which is an Amazon add-on program.
In theory, Prime members are now driven to buy more goods which is beneficial for both the platform and the seller since more products are being pushed. In actuality, though, this could work against the seller. One of the most likely scenarios is that the customer may become so annoyed that they’ll just opt out of the purchase since they may not need anything besides what they want to buy. Another scenario is that they’ll leave their order there and return it when they already need other stuff. In any case, the biggest loser here is the seller since they will be the ones to lose out on the sale.
That said, it’ll really be better if the badge doesn’t get in the way of the purchase. Fortunately, there are a few ways to take out the badge and to also go around the system in the event.
How to Remove the Add-On Badge
The first thing you can do is increase your item’s price. While Amazon’s algorithm generally sees low-priced products as Add-On items. So you can experiment with the price range and see which price removes the add-on badge.
Sell in Bundles
Another method that you can use to take out the badge or just help customers out is to offer your low-priced items in bundles. If you offer several Amazon prime add-on items in a bundle, the total price could possibly remove the badge.
At the same time, keep in mind to maintain positive customer feedback and seller ranking. Read this article on how to get reviews on Amazon.
Cancel FBA
The last method is to cancel your FBA benefits. For those who don’t know, the FBA program allows Amazon to give you free two-day shipping benefits for your items if AMZ ships them. Amazon is stricter on those under the FBA program because they don’t want these members to abuse their privileges. However, if you don’t want the annoying Add On badge to get in your way, switch to FBM instead.
Sell Other Goods
The worst-case scenario is you just sell other goods and take out your low-cost ones. On the other hand, it could be a sign that it’s time to diversify your product list. You see, Amazon wants to push more of its products so it can also help sellers diversify and introduce buyers to more possible purchases. While it’s normal for Amazon to offer thousands of products on its platform, it has more bias toward higher costing and more diverse items. As I mentioned above, this is a good concept in theory. However, it may not work out too well in actual practice.
These are some of the ways that sellers can take out the badge. To check whether your items are already eligible for free shipping, you have to look for your product in the filler item finder to see if it’s an Amazon filler item. You may also check specific AMZ add-on item finders online to check for eligibility.
Other Ways to Go about
Fortunately, taking out the badge isn’t the only way to do it. There are many ways for buyers to go around the system. As a seller, it’s essential to know some of these hacks so that you can still push for your products. Here are a few techniques to do so:
Push for Pre-order Items
It is a rather sneaky way to go about in order to avoid the Add-On feature. If you have such a product, push your customers also to buy pre-order items along with it. As a buyer, you’ll pre-order an item with the Add-On item. If you do this, your product will be shipped as scheduled, but the pre-order product will only be dispatched when it is released. So while you wait for your pre-order merchandise (or you may cancel it if you don’t want it anymore), you’ll already get your Add-On item.
Encourage Buyers to Use Alexa
Strangely enough, Alexa doesn’t seem to be affected by the $25 threshold. All you have to do is install the Amazon Echo, and you can use Amazon Alexa’s Voice Purchasing feature. If you ask Alexa to purchase the Add-On item for you, you don’t need to follow the whole $25 threshold. It could be a bug, but while it still works, you might as well use it. As a seller, you could encourage customers who have Amazon Echo to use the voice ordering feature. Sure, it may be a bit different at first, but at least it can work.
Push for Items that Are Up for Restock
Another technique you can use is pushing for items that are out of stock but up for restocking. It is quite similar to the pre-order hack. If you order an item that is up for restocking along with an Add-On item, you’ll get the product as scheduled but will only get the out-of-stock goods when there are available stocks.
Conclusion
Buyers will find the Add-On badge extremely annoying because it hinders their overall shopping experience. Sellers will also be annoyed because they won’t be able to let go of specific merchandise that is stuck in their inventory. If you want to take away the Add-On badge, it pays to try and use some of the strategies that were mentioned above. If those didn’t work, you could also try some strategies to get around the system. However, I’d recommend that you don’t use those too often, to be sure.
Once you have already sold off all your low-cost items, I suggest you try selling other items at a higher cost if you’re planning on continuing to sell on Amazon in the long run. Doing this will ensure that you won’t have any more problems when selling items on Amazon in the future.
