Q1) The objective is to increase the offer depth of 250 books by x+5 offers in the

next 30 days, using Mass Account Management (MAM).

Criteria to select the sellers:
To make sure that the product is a match for what the seller is offering, we propose following
factors for selection of seller for the products i.e. the 250 books mentioned in the appendix.
Since this is part of the Mass Account Management process, we assume that all the target
sellers are smaller and not the key sellers.
Criteria

Priori
ty
25%

Past performance of the

seller
Seller competition factor

Technolo
gy
adoption
(Priority
= 20%)

Frequency of
emails accessed
Usage of access
reports
Average time
spent on seller
forum
Activity on seller
platform

15%
5%
5%
5%

5%

10%
Change orientation
Change responsiveness

10%

Sellers presence across

categories
Growth of sales
Proportion of MFN listings

7.5%
7.5%
5%

Seller Preferred Attribute

Good past performance of the seller, metrics
would be for example on-time delivery, return
orders, pricing, positive rating
How effectively can sellers compete against the
key sellers
Should be high, easy to communicate
Should be high, easy to communicate and
convince
Should be high

Measures the number of hours spent, number of

offers listed per month, number of price revisions
per month
Seller with high number of implementations of the
product recommendations provided by Amazon in
Popular OOS report and Product opportunity report
Time taken by the seller to list the product after it
has been suggested
Sellers with only books preferred
Sellers with high growth in recent months
Preference to sellers with high proportion of FBA
offers

Plan of Action
1. Understanding the scope of the project
Offer depth to be increased by 5 for a list of 250 books which means adding 1250 offers
from the smaller sellers. Assuming a hit ratio of 40% i.e. of all the recommendations made
only 40% offers are listed, we need to reach out by 3125 offers within one month.
Offer depth net increase = a = 5
Number of books = b = 250
Net offers to be listed = a*b = 1250
Hit ratio z=40%
Thus, total number of offers to be recommended = a*b/z = 1250/0.4 = 3125 offers
2. Gathering, analyzing and clustering sellers data
The selection of sellers would be on the basis of the criteria mentioned above. The sellers
would then be classified into five clusters based on the below mentioned parameters.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

Technological proactive nature of seller

Implementation of recommendations
The selected seller base would be sorted on the basis of the scores that they have received
on the above factors and the sorting would be done on the summation of these scores in a
descending order. Priority would be given to add maximum offers to the sellers in cluster 1,
followed by cluster 2 and so on. Thus, sellers in cluster 1 would be expected to immediately
respond to the recommendation by listing the product. These sellers are easy to reach by
technological medium such as emails. On the other hand, cluster 5 sellers will show high
amount of inertia in listing of product. They are also less comfortable with technology and
hence it will take time and efforts to get them to list the product.
Implementation, analysis and assessment for Cluster 1
Under this plan, the sellers in cluster 1 would be approached. Maximum amount of
recommendations would be given to these sellers. The target would be to get around 700
offers listed from these sellers. These sellers would be communicated through mails and
updates on the seller platform and forum. A thread for discussion of these books would be
opened on the seller forum where seller can discuss and share their experience and ideas.
As mentioned in Question 2, a dashboard will also help in communicating with these sellers.
Implementation, analysis and assessment of cluster 2 and 3
Under this plan, sellers in cluster 2 and 3 would be approached. The target would be to get
around 400 offers listed from these sellers. The sellers would be sent hard copies of the
newsletters and would be communicated through SMS.
Implementation, analysis and assessment of cluster 4 and 5
Under this plan, sellers in cluster 4 and 5 would be approached. The target would be to get
around 150 offers listed from these sellers. Communication in this phase would be through
calls and newsletters. Since these sellers are not using technology, we would rely on calling
them.
Overall assessment of the action plan
The assessment would include the overall success measure of the plan. (Metrics are
mentioned in Question 1c) In addition, it will include the improvement areas and the
opportunities arising from the plan.
Feedback from sellers
Since the above action plan is a key input in deciding the best practice for MAM process,
feedback from sellers will be collected regarding the effectiveness of the plan, their pain
points, their recommendations etc which will help to plan for the future phases. Feedback
would be taken from sellers who implemented maximum and minimum number of
recommendations. Inputs would then be given to the next phase of mass account
management process.
Analysis of improvement areas
Improvement areas would be analysed to make sure the rate of addition of listing
increases. Also, ways to convert the smaller sellers into key sellers would be identified.
Activity

Understanding the scope

Formulation of criteria for selection
of sellers
Selection of sellers
Clustering of sellers
Analysis of seller selection and
clustering
Implementation of cluster 1

No of AM
man hours
required
4
4
4
4
24
10

Assessment and analysis of cluster

20
1
Implementation of cluster 2
20
Assessment and analysis of cluster
20
2
Implementation of cluster 3
30
Assessment and analysis of cluster
15
3
Overall assessment of plan
24
Feedback from sellers
16
Analysis of improvement areas
16
Total number of man hours
211
required
Thus, one AM would be able to handle the project assuming he/she works for 9 hours/day and
6 days/week.

Finding the right seller is not the only problem. We need to also choose the right book for the
seller. Hence, the following inputs will be given to the seller and books would be suggested
based on these criteria:
Parameter
Popularity of the book
Seasonality factor
Out of stock factor
Number of existing
offers
Number of small sellers
offering the book
Number of key sellers
offering the book
Seller Overall
Performance factors
Geographic location of
demand
Publication house factor
Time taken by seller
Formats provided
Payment options
Bundling of books
Price range

Description
Popular books(based on past weeks sales) will get preference
Priority should be given to books which have immediate
demand
Sellers would be advised to list under books which have
maximum out of stock offerings and modest demand
Books with less number of offers (<=x-2) to get preference
Greater the number of small sellers offering the same book,
more likely it is to be recommended
Greater the number of key sellers, lesser the number of
recommendations provided to small sellers
Preference to books belonging to the category which the seller
has a comparative advantage
Sellers from the same geography using MFN will be preferred
while catering to the demand
Preference to books with the publication house from which the
seller is procuring maximum books
Lesser the delivery time greater the recommendations given
to seller
Preference to sellers who provide the desired format like hard
cover and paper back
Recommendations based on sellers preference to give cash
on delivery or not
Seller will be recommended books which are bought together
Seller will be recommended to list under books which fall
within his price range

Metrics to evaluate the success of the plan - These metrics would be evaluated for the
offers/products in the context of the recommendations provided by Amazon

Seller Evaluation
Customer Activity Evaluation
Total number of offers listed by sellers
Total number of purchases made from new offers liste
Total number of sellers who listed a product
Total number of clicks by customers on the books new
Total number of sellers who listed under a new category
Total number of clicks by customers on the new offer
Average increase in the number of offers listed for every cluster of the target sellers
Number of products which were listed following the recommendation and then deleted
Average increase in the number of hours spent by the seller on the forum and platform

Impact Evaluation
Impact on revenue from newly added books by sellers
Overall impact on revenue of the target sellers after implem
Overall deterioration/enhancement in the performance of th

Process Evaluation
Q2).a Devise a framework to evaluate the benefits and shortcomings of these
Average time taken by the seller to list the product after receiving the recommendat
mechanism.
Number of calls made to the call centre by the target sellers
Measuring
the framework
accuracy ofare
theas
demand
The parameters involved
in the
follows:forecasts made by Amazon using the actual
Parameter
Ease of Use
Cost Effectiveness
Scalability
Manpower
requirement
Degree of
Collaboration
Frequency of Usage

Significance
Simplicity of the mechanism in view of the technological
orientation of sellers; the simpler the better
Cost of deployment & operation ; the lesser the better
Ability to proportionally expand with the fast expansion of mass
seller base;
Self-explanatory; the lesser the better
Mechanism fostering collaboration; the more the better
Self-explanatory; the more the better

Following is the framework deployed to measure the overall efficacy of the mechanisms
deployed by Amazon:
Mechanism/
Metric

Ease
of
use
Newsletter

Emails

Seller forums
Webinars

- Perfect -

Cost
Scalability
Effectivene
ss

Moderate
- not fit/ up

Manpower
requiremen
t

to the mark

Degree of
Collaborati
on

Frequen
cy of
Usage

Q2)b. If Priyanka has to modify these, what will you modify and why ?
The following can be the tweaks that can be implemented in the given mechanisms:
Mechanis

Modifications

Reason

ms
Newsletter

Emails

Seller
forums

Webinars

1. Inclusion of Facts & figures

related to performance indices of
the total seller community
2. Comparative data analysis
3. Current e-tail industry trends
4. Launch of an integrated mobile
app having the newsletter feature

1. Analytics done about the online

timings of the seller & sending mails
accordingly
2. Using Google drive or equivalent
to upload important reports on a day
to day basis
1. Sellers with excess cash can lend
credit to others and the credit
matching system can be done on
this platform ( CreditConnect)
2. KM repository build up in the
forum related to issues faced by the
sellers in different aspects
1. Timely updates, self help guide,
clear and concise invitation
2. Maximum use of interactive
technology

1. Inclusion of performance indices

gives better visibility of the
community performance
2. Comparative analysis helps bring
clear visibility amongst peer group as
to where the business stands
3. App reduces great amount of manhour and brings automation, cost
efficacy
1. Emailing when the seller is online
can bring in best results in adoption
rate
2. Google drive or equivalent is easy
to use & cost effective
1. Credit facility can increase the
growth of both the lender & borrower
2. Integration of sellers bringing in
more collaborations
3. No existing KM implementation, if
deployed, can bring in better adoption
rate by Sellers
1. Simplifying webinar process and
following up with sellers for increased
adoption
2. More involvement of sellers in the
interaction through interactive
technology

Q2) c. Apart from the available mechanisms suggest one more mechanism which
will provide the best results for Indian sellers and will be more engaging. What will
be resource requirement? Why do you suggest this mechanism?
There can be basically two kinds of sellers in the Indian Context 1. Tech Savvy 2.Technology
averse. We have devised one mechanism each for both of them to maximise the benefit of
Amazon and the sellers. The description is as follows:
IVRS & Catalogue
This mechanism is aimed towards the second (Technology averse) category of sellers.
Following is the description of the mechanism:
IVRS & SMS service
There are several aspects on which improvement can be done to enhance the performance of
a seller. The point in focus in the case is the adoption rate. The mechanism enables Amazon
to cater to such sellers in an easy way to remove the technological barrier so as to avail the
reports and services provided by Amazon. During the on-boarding process the sellers would
be given a manual to use an IVRS & SMS service accessible through mobile phones. The IVRS

would contain information about the following parameters (most of which are already
available in the report formats):
Item
Top 10 prices offered
for best selling SKUs

Product opportunity
report
Popular OOS report
FBA days of Inventory

Percentage of best
selling SKUs in the total
offer list of a seller

Process
Write the name of the particular SKU and send an SMS to get
this information or just call on the IVRS no and go through the
required path mentioned in the manual to get one/ multiple
SMS having the required the information
Dial the required extension to get this report in one/ multiple
SMS. Alternatively, write the required code for the information
in an SMS and send it to the correct SMS service no of Amazon
Process same as that mentioned in the immediate earlier point
Either dial the required extension from the manual or send an
SMS typing the required code and name of the SKU to get the
information
Process same as that mentioned in the immediate earlier point

Catalogue

New Product Entry

Current Trends

Leading Seller for the

period
Performance Indices for
Mass & Key Seller
groups
Newsletter Contents
Seller Performance
Metrics
Key Advice

Section wise Section Generic Content

Probable hit products that are to be launched in the platform in
the upcoming months; appraise sellers in advance of the
wave
Current trends (best selling products in all categories, offers
given in all items etc) in the e-tail market; this would give
higher level strategic information to the sellers
Facts and figures about the leading sellers in the Amazon
platform
Seller community wide performance index of different
parameters
Contents previously used in Newsletters
Section wise Seller Specific Content
This part will consist of the performance of the seller vis-a-vis
the indices performance
This section would contain key suggestions for the sellers in the
days ahead.

Dashboard & analytics software

This mechanism would be applied to the tech savvy sellers. The aim of this dashboard is to
(lastnot
4 weeks)
takeDemand
care of the
only the performance metrics of the sellers on Amazon but also fine tune
Procuringmanagement.
Lead time
their inventory
This dashboard will have the following
inventory
management
Re-order
point suggestion
(Last
4
weeks)
Safety Stock suggestion
functionality:
Service level
Cycle stock suggestion
Analytics Software & dash board functionality
Lead time std dev
Pipeline inventory
(Last 4 weeks)
Logistics decision making
Ordering cost
Holding cost

Mechanism
IVRS & SMS
service

Catalogue

Dashboard &
Analytics
Software

Key touch points

1. Service free of cost
2. Restrictions in use/ day
3. Manual would be designed in
pictorial form and in all vernaculars
as per demand
4. A feedback about the mechanism in
sellers forum would attract some
predetermined reward points for the
seller who had given the feedback
5. Any changes in the IVR menu would
be informed to the sellers through
sending couriers of latest manual
1. Catalogues would be circulated free
for the first few months and charged
later on
2. They will be published in all
concerned vernaculars as per the
demand
3. It would not be text heavy and would
contain a maximum of 10-15 pages
1. The dashboard service might be given
free
2. The analytics service would be
provided through Cloud to make it cost
effective
3. Feedbacks would be taken from
sellers to update functionality on a
periodic basis

APPENDIX
Amazon Virtuous Circle & IVRS-SMS service

Rationale for deployment

1. Extension of an existing
mechanism
2. Easy to implement
3. High adoption probability
4. Easier to access for
technologically challenged sellers
5. Sellers can be convinced of the
importance of the reports in a
firsthand experience which can
later lead to better adoption of
existing reporting facilities in the
website later on

1. High end inventory

management solution
2. Huge cost saving for sellers
3. Growth enabler for mass sellers
4. Cost effective implementation
5. Overall adoption rate increase
due to word of mouth testimony of
this measure

Us
e
of
e
Ea
s
Amazon Virtuous Circle & Dashboard Analytics

In

r
to
n
ve

st
co

se
a
re
ec

Scenario Analysis
Related to the selection of sellers using the above stated factors, we have taken an extreme
scenario to test the validity of our framework. The scenario is depicted below:

Factors
Past

Scores
Weighta
Seller
ge
Seller1
2
25
60
39

performance
Competition
factor
Others
Technology
Adoption
Change
Orientation
Change
Readiness

Cluster selection

15
20
20
10
10

20
40
80
79
Cluster
Cluste
3/4
r1

In this case, the Seller1 scores 60 out of 60 in the first three parameters but still finds itself in
the Cluster 3/4 as it fares poorly in the Technology Adoption & change orientation
parameters. Now, this is a paradox where the seller has extremely well past performance,
competition factor and should get higher priority so that the offer depth increases. Thus our
algorithm to choose sellers to increase offer depth fails in such situations, apparently.
The catch in this case is that if a seller is extremely good at Technology Adoption and Change
orientation, Change Readiness, the only possibility that it fails to come good in the
performance and competition factors is when the seller fails in timely Customer delivery.
This is exactly the situation with Seller 2 .Simply put; Seller 2 takes advantage of all the
technological services provided by Amazon but fails in competition and performance (sales
growth, profitability etc). It is safe to assume that this seller is using MFN and has not been up
to the mark in delivery due to which it is unpopular amongst customers. Moreover, its
inventory and logistics cost must be high and hence the business is not profitable. Now, if
inventory and logistics is better handled through FBA, the natural logical selection should be
to move from MFN to FBA. Hence, this scenario can be considered a distant one where the
focus of the sellers are totally misplaced in terms of profitability and thus can be safely
excluded in our discussion.