It’s not too late to watch BDSS 13 Virtual TODAY (and get all the replays of last 2 days).

Don’t get left behind as AI and e-commerce converge. Minds have been blown as cutting-edge tactics and strategies have been shared to a lucky group of sellers over the last two days at BDSS 13.

You can still join us today LIVE online, or sign-up to get ALL the replays, including today’s presentations plus the last several days.

… or get access to the LIVE event for just $9 when you join BDSC and get all the replays for just $200 - a $497.00 savings!

Here’s what’s on tap LIVE today at BDSS 13:

When you let customers keep products they want to return (while still refunding them), you're triggering a powerful psychological response.

We judge brands the same way we judge people: through warmth and competence. By giving without expecting anything back, you create a "communal relationship" where customers perceive you as genuinely caring about their welfare, not just their wallet.

Research across 9 experiments in the Journal of Marketing shows returnless refunds deliver:

Actionable Tactics for Amazon Sellers

1. Set Your Price Threshold Don't do this for everything. Focus on low-to-moderate priced items where return shipping costs approach or exceed the product value. For most sellers, this sweet spot is under $15-25.

2. Frame It Right (Critical!) The way you communicate matters enormously. Use one of these frames:

Never ask for proof of the defect. That kills the positive effect by 20%.

3. Create Your Policy Template

Example message:

4. Deploy Strategically Best use cases for Amazon sellers:

5. Protect Against Fraud

6. The Instant Refund Bonus Process the refund immediately when they request it, not when you receive the return. This amplifies the positive effect.

7. Turn Returns Into Upsells When issuing the returnless refund, include: "Since you're getting a full refund, here are some alternatives you might prefer..." and showcase related products at similar price points.

Critical Warnings for Amazon Sellers

Watch Your Delivery Promises: Items arriving earlier than expected increase returns by 3.8% per day of early delivery. If you promise 5-7 days, don't deliver in 3 days thinking you're doing customers a favor—you're actually triggering more returns.

Product Category Matters:

Amazon-Specific Implementation: Since you can't control Amazon's return system directly, use this strategy for:

This isn't about being generous, it's about being smart. For products under $20-25, the lifetime value of a customer who loves your brand (and tells others) far exceeds the cost of letting them keep one item. You're not losing money; you're buying loyalty at a discount.

The magic is in making customers feel like you're on their team, not trying to minimize your losses. That shift from transactional to communal relationship psychology is what turns one-time buyers into brand advocates.

Most creators focus on attention. The smart ones turn that attention into trust. And trust creates optionality.

In this episode of Marketing Misfits, Norm Farrar and Kevin King sit down with Jordan DiPietro to break down how content becomes trust, how trust becomes community.

Jordan has built at the center of some of the most influential media and community brands in the world.

He spent nearly 13 years at The Motley Fool, became CEO of The Hustle before its acquisition by HubSpot, ran HubSpot’s media division, and later served as CEO of Hampton, one of the most exclusive private tech communities.

This is a deep, tactical conversation on community design, pricing, trust, vetting, retention and monetization — not theory.

If you've seen Error 8541 when trying to update a listing, you're not alone. And no, you're not doing it wrong.

BDSS Dream 100 member Vanessa Hung has a new newsletter called OSS Lab that gives you the intelligence behind her eight years of decoding the Amazon ecosystem.

In each issue, she dissects a common problem sellers experience, why it happens and how to fix it.

Subscribe to her newsletter here.

Here’s an abbreviated summary from a recent edition of a problem we’re all familiar with.

What Error 8541 Actually Means

Error 8541 is a matching error, not a formatting issue. It appears when Amazon's system rejects your edit because a more authoritative data source already controls that attribute in the catalog.

Translation: You don't actually own the field you're trying to edit, even if Seller Central makes it look like you do.

Why It Happens

Amazon's catalog runs on a contribution hierarchy. Every attribute (title, bullets, images, etc.) has a single "owner" with the highest authority score. When you try to edit an attribute controlled by someone else, often an internal Amazon data augmenter, your update gets auto-rejected.

Think of it like this:

That 0.1 difference is enough to block every update you attempt, regardless of how many times you retry or how long you wait.

How to Fix It (The Right Way)

Stop retrying the same edits. If manual updates and flat files both fail, it's a catalog ownership issue, not a submission problem.

Two-step solution:

This specific language routes your case to teams who can:

Once ownership is cleared, your updates will go through immediately.

Error 8541 isn't personal, it's structural. Amazon's system is simply enforcing contribution hierarchy. The fix isn't better formatting or more patience. It's correcting who the system recognizes as the authoritative owner of that attribute.

Frame your issue correctly, and you'll save weeks of frustration.

For more tips like this, subscribe to Vanessa’s newsletter.

Sarah Chen was frustrated.

After three years building her kitchen brand on Amazon to $100K monthly revenue, cash flow was always tight.

"I'd wire $60K to my supplier in Guangzhou and watch that money disappear. Meanwhile, I'm paying my 3PL, photographer, and PPC agency on credit cards, racking up points. But my biggest expense? Zero rewards."

She did the math one night and nearly spit out her wine.

$60,000 per month to her supplier. At 2% cash back, that was $14,400 annually she was leaving on the table.

The "impossible" problem

Sarah asked her supplier about credit cards. They didn't accept them. Her bank said wire transfers were the only option for international payments.

Then a seller friend mentioned at a mastermind: "Wait, you're still wiring money to China? I've been paying by card for six months."

How it works

Specialized payment platforms act as intermediaries. You pay them by credit card. They pay your supplier in local currency within 1-2 business days.

Your supplier sees a normal bank deposit in CNY or EUR. You get credit card rewards, points, and 30-45 day float.

"I sent $5K as a test," Sarah says. "My supplier confirmed they received the RMB the next day. No issues."

The cascading benefits

Sarah now runs all international payments through cards. Beyond $14K+ in annual cashback:

Last year she reinvested everything into ads. This year? She used the points for a two-week Japan vacation with her husband. First real vacation since launching.

The math is compelling

If you're already spending tens of thousands monthly on inventory, shouldn't those purchases work harder for you?

Learn how to pay international suppliers by card.

✌🏼 Have a great weekend.

See you again on Monday.

The answer to today’s STUMP BEZOS is
Amazon reaches 652 million app users worldwide.