Amazon…the journey of Yin-care®’s Herbal Wash on Amazon
About five years ago, we were solely distributing Yin-care®’s Herbal Wash to about 7 different distributors who in turn sold only to practitioners. We additionally sold directly to practitioners as well, but we had not entered the direct to consumer market.
We discovered however, that our product was being sold on Amazon and was going direct to consumers. What we wondered was, who was selling it and how were they getting our product? After all, we were the sole importers and we knew exactly who we were distributing to. Our big concern was that this seller was putting forward some mis-use information that was deeply concerning to us.
Yin-care®’s Herbal wash is a fully concentrated formula created from both a water based extraction of herbs as well as an essential oil based extraction. You simply can not put it on full strength on every thing you wish to treat as doing so could irritate certain situations.
As it turns out, if you want to police any Amazon activity, you have to actually be selling on Amazon. So, we began our journey to sell on Amazon. We were planning to sell on their platform briefly, get a hold of the situation, and then migrate over to our own website. Alas, many things changed in the world when we were about to do all of that and our tour on Amazon has lasted much longer than planned. We did discover that one of our distributors was selling to a practitioner who was reselling on Amazon, but there was simply no way to control that until we pulled back from working with distributors all together.
We have relied heavily on the practitioners that we have distributed to for over 20 years to do the heavy lifting of educating our herbal wash users on how to use the product at a variety fo dilutions for varying situations and yet, we were so glad to enter the direct to consumer market ourselves. We love that many of you know exactly how to use it, but for those who don’t we are glad to the be the main ones now selling it direct to consumer so that we can be there to assist when possible and direct folks to a practitioner who knows our product when necessary.
Over these years, we have experienced some major challenges with dealing with Amazon. As a seller, they have horrendous customer service. You have to create a type of support ticket and Amazon can get back to you whenever they want…could take days; however, if they have responded and you do not respond within 24 hours, they will close your ticket and you have to start all over again. That can happen with any issue…over and over again! Very frustrating.
Recently, another seller decided to add that they were selling our product. They call themselves Zulu Solutions. When another company wants to sell the same product, they then get access to your product page. Which is strange for us because we have Yin-care®’s Herbal wash protected by the Brand Registry program through Amazon. In any case, Zulu gets into the product listing and starts to change it. They list a bunch of discounts within the product description and also inaccurately describe the product itself.
So I start to get contacted by the many buyers we have asking why they are not getting a discount even though it is listed there. I go in and low and behold, it is listed as such and is inaccurate. I try to change it back and it won’t let me! I start the Amazon support process. I get no resolution. That was back in February/March. Months go by and I just leave it because I am getting no assistance.
I then start getting emails and calls from women who are saying they never got their wash! I go in and look and they did not order from us. I then look to see that Zulu Solutions has listed the product, and is selling it….BUT (and this is a big BUT)…they don’t have any product, because as the sole importer and distributor, I never sold them any!
Can you feel my frustration? Here we have a product used by women when their vagina is all a mess, and the thought that they are not getting their product and having to deal with this is just incredibly frustrating. So again, I reach out to Amazon – with 10 back and forth emails via their case log system – I am getting ZERO help. They just say how much they care and then re-direct me to maybe reach out to this department or that department. NO RESOLUTION. So upsetting.
So I leave it…I get back on to building the website…this time at a more frantic pace now that some of the insanity of the world has subsided.
And then abruptly without warning, our sales channel on Amazon gets shut off. No orders are coming through. I think maybe the API has expired…nope! I very reluctantly fill out their case log request form and in the end they say I have to submit all of this paperwork to remain open. The amount of time it would take to complete all of that now would take time away from getting the more sustainable solution of building the yincare.com website. So after about 10 minutes of “should I, shouldn’t I?” back and forth…I say FORGET IT! Forget Amazon! I’m done.
I get right back on to building the website with more focused attention and drive. One day goes by, two days go by…I am also kind of freaking out, thinking that many women who rely on this are not going to be getting it. My email starts filling up with questions. The phone starts ringing like crazy. Good golly! What to do…and then with the same lack of rhyme or reason for shutting it off – Amazon suddenly turns the channel back on.
So, if you wish to purchase right now until we launch our website, please go right ahead and purchase on Amazon, but please know that we will very soon close that sales channel down and direct everything to be sold off of our website.
Thank you all for your patience and knowing that we are working hard behind the scenes!
