August 5, 2024
2 minute read
Log in to download the full report linked at the bottom
The Amazon Vendor Services (AVS) program (also known as Strategic Account Services or SAS) provides your brand with dedicated headcount inside Amazon called a customer success manager (CSM) to solve day-to-day issues and support a variety of operational initiatives, from getting started with new supply chain programs to full catalog overhauls, and more.
It’s also a great way to get access to betas, new programs, and other teams inside Amazon that are otherwise hard to reach.
According to our latest benchmarking, 69% of North American vendors and 88% of European vendors are currently enrolled in the program, climbing steadily over the last few years and increasingly becoming a table stakes investment.
While the growth of the program is in part due to Amazon’s persistent asks each year during AVNs, our research suggests the program has been very impactful for many brands, and thus they are happy to invest in it.
Of course, it’s not without its drawbacks (which this report covers) but by and large, participating brands rate the program favorably and view it as a necessary investment to keep the business running smoothly.
The Report
This report shares our comprehensive learnings from benchmarking over 250 brands and conducting qualitative research with 26 Amazon leaders inside brands that are familiar with the program.
It includes….
- Top Takeaways on the AVS Program
- Understanding the Amazon Vendor Services (AVS) Program
- About the program
- Benchmarking on program adoption
- Brands’ favorite use cases
- Use your CSM for the right things, not everything
- Program Cost and Yielding an ROI
- Benchmarking on program cost
- Justifying the investment
- Yielding an ROI
- Mapping AVS to Stratably’s Amazon Competitive Edge Framework
- AVS benefits to AVNs and profitability
- Program drawbacks
- Other investment considerations and important intel
- Best Practices for Working with Your Customer Success Manager (CSM)
- Interpersonal management principles to apply to your CSM relationship
- Communication cadences
- How to manage the ticketing system with your CSM
- What to Do When It’s Just Not Working
It’s meant to provide practical value to brands evaluating the program and those already enrolled, including 18 pages of insights developed from our benchmarking, interviews, share groups, and additional data inputs we studied.
We recommend sharing it with any colleagues involved in 1) evaluating the program investment and 2) working with the CSM on a regular basis.
Once logged in, you’ll see the link to download the PDF directly below.