Amazon is a one-stop virtual shopping platform for food, home decor, games, toys, and other needs. Most items come new in the package, and others are “renewed.”
But what does renewed mean on Amazon? When you see “renewed” on an Amazon listing, the item was pre-owned and refurbished for selling on the platform.
Amazon Renewed is a segment on the platform where sellers offer refurbished products that received inspection for quality before being listed.
What Renewed Products Can Amazon Renewed Sellers Offer?
For Amazon sellers, there are limitations to what you can sell to their customers. Pre-owned products such as kitchen appliances, household devices, gaming consoles, backyard equipment, office equipment, and others qualify as products that Amazon Renewed sellers can offer.
Here is a list of some of the products that are allowed as renewed product listings:
- Air conditioners.
- Blu-ray devices.
- Cell phones.
- DVD players.
- GPS devices.
- Fitness machines.
- Lawn mowers.
- PC keyboards.
- PC processors.
- Shredders.
- Video game consoles.
- And so many more!
If you are an Amazon Renewed seller and do not see your product listed amongst the allowed items that can be sold, send customer service an email to get more information. More than likely, if it is not listed, it is not allowed to be sold as a renewed product. However, it does not hurt to ask to be sure.
How Are Renewed Products Categorized?
Renewed products fall under three categories, which you will see mentioned on the product listing before you make a purchase. They are either open-box products, pre-owned, or refurbished.
Open Box
Have you ever seen a damaged item package in a grocery or department store with a markdown sticker on it? An open-box item is about the same thing as this example.
An item’s package could have been damaged for whatever reason during shipment. Perhaps a previous owner opened it and could not restore the package to its normal form when sending it back to the manufacturer. Hence, the client reaps the benefits of a cheaper product all because the seal was broken on the box.
Pre-Owned
Pre-owned items such as kitchen appliances, gaming consoles, and office equipment still have some life left in them. Just because the previous owner no longer wants them does not mean that they should be trashed.
Sellers can pass on pre-owned products to another owner while earning some cash and helping the buyer to find a great deal. However, pre-owned products are still tested for quality and how well they work before being listed on the platform.
Refurbished
Refurbished products have more guarantees of being better quality than pre-owned or open-box products. A refurbished item has been restored to its normal form at the time of manufacture. For example, a game console will have its memory wiped off saved games from the previous owner before being sold to its new owner.
What Is the Amazon Renewed Guarantee?
Buyers are protected under the Amazon Renewed Guarantee. This means that anything renewed that you purchase can be returned up to 90 days after the original purchase date if you are not satisfied with it for whatever reason.
Purchasers should mark on a traditional calendar a one-week reminder before the 90 days is up. Then, they can evaluate if the purchase decision was truly for them or not, so that they can make the return accordingly.
As a plus, if they have Amazon Alexa hooked up on Echo Dot, buyers can make a one-week reminder for Alexa to verbally tell you about choosing whether to make the return on the renewed product, if needed.
What Is the Best Price for Renewed Products on Amazon?
You cannot expect buyers to purchase your renewed product at exact market value, especially since the package may be damaged or it was once pre-owned. Aim to have your price at least 5% to 10% below the original market value of what the newly packaged product would cost.
When pricing renewed products, evaluate how long it was pre-owned. A longer time pre-owned means you should sell it for cheaper. Depreciation should be an important factor with pricing.
For example, if a gaming console that lasts 10 years has already been used for seven, it should be priced cheaper than the same one from a different owner than has only been used for three to four years.
Products with only an open box and the items inside unused can get about 20% discount being the product is still new itself but with damaged packaging. Refurbished products, being restored to a manufactured state and going through more tests of quality, can be priced a little higher than pre-owned products.
Is There a Large Return on Investment Selling Renewed Products?
Not as many people sold renewed products as the many sellers that offer new items to their clients. Hence, you can have a much larger return on investment as long as you go about the process correctly.
Firstly, Amazon requires that you have physically purchased the items which you would like to sell on Amazon Renewed before publishing listings for them. Then, evaluate if the product is already listed from the Amazon company itself or other private label sellers. If so, then do not attempt to resell that item as a renewed product.
Finding an item with potential demand amongst your clients that is not already listed can increase sales chances. Having to compete with other sellers on the same item will complicate your monthly sales. Hence, this is why we suggest steering clear from selling items already listed on Amazon.
Where Can You Purchase Items To Sell As Renewed Products?
If a company discontinues an item, you can purchase it at a discount to resell to your clientele. Perhaps you have partnered with a company that sells you their open-box returned product at a discount so that you can resell it on Amazon. No matter where you retrieved your renewed products, you need an invoice stating how many of each unit you purchased and the original purchase value you paid to the merchant.
Note how much you will sell each item for in a separate copy of the invoice that you send to Amazon for review when you sign up for your Amazon Renewed seller account.
How to Sell on Amazon Renewed
You can’t jump into becoming a seller for Amazon Renewed until you have built loyalty and trust with your buyers with other purchases. You need to have an Order Defect Rate (ODR) of 0.8% or lower over the past consecutive two-month period. Selling at least 70 products or more while maintaining a lower ODR will be the first step to you becoming approved as an Amazon Renewed seller.
Before you can list the products on Amazon Renewed, you must have at least $50,000 in value of items that can be sold as renewed products within 90 days after submitting your Amazon Renewed application. Make purchases here and there so you can arrive at the appropriate value before the 90 days are up.
Each item that you wish to sell needs at least eight pictures taken of it so Amazon representatives can evaluate its quality. If you have phones, tablets, laptops, PCs, or best selling video game consoles, you will need to show pictures proving that the device works on its corresponding screens.
If any products are sold at $15 or below, it does not count towards the $50,000 value. When submitting your invoice, omit these items by crossing them off.
Sellers utilizing Amazon Renewed are typically running on Seller Central rather than Vendor Central, so their listings do not show “Sold by Amazon.”
Tips for Selling on Amazon Renewed
Now that you know the answer to “what does renewed mean on Amazon?”, let’s look at some tips for selling this kind of product. Besides finding products that are not being sold on Amazon as an edge over your competitors, there are many other tips that you can try when selling on Amazon Renewed. Let’s review them below:
- Vary up the inventory available to your clients. You do not want to sell all of the same items. Have about 15 to 20 or more different items available for sale under your Amazon Renewed store.
- Try to find renewed products that fall within a like-category so you can have a theme going for your Amazon Renewed store name.
- If you want to vary your products into different categories, you can brand yourself as an “everything” virtual store.
- List one or more of your products on the Amazon Deals page to increase the likelihood of making a sale. Before this can be approved, you must be a quality seller with at least a 3.5-star rating or higher on your selling profile.
- Run Amazon Ads to increase visibility on your products.
Think outside the box and brainstorm ways that you can bring more traffic to your Amazon Renewed store page. Start a blog about your product-hunting adventures.
Writing a review about the renewed product you are selling and linking to the Amazon listing can be a great way to build trust with a customer before they make a final purchase from your store. List the pros and cons of the item, information about its manufacturer, and where you found the product. Transparency can lead to increased sales as well.
You’ll also need a tool to manage your inventory and sales forecasting. That’s where Synchronize comes in. We enable you to connect your Amazon data directly to Google Sheets, so you can focus on running your business and not juggling spreadsheet files.