Hannah Blackburn is the Co-founder and Director of The Hawkers Club, a company that helps vendors and sellers solve their most pressing challenges and navigate eCommerce marketplaces, including Amazon and Target. In her role, Hannah advises online sellers and vendors on how to directly position their brands and value offerings as Amazon partners to increase profitability and revenue. 

Before co-founding The Hawkers Club, she joined Amazon as a brand specialist with an initial focus on vendor excellence and marketing before transitioning to stock management and profitability. Since she’s written the business logic powering some of the algorithms that run Amazon, Hannah knows how you can systematically make profitable decisions that Amazon’s algorithms reward.

Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:

• [2:07] Hannah Blackburn shares her background and how she founded The Hawkers Club
• [3:40] How Amazon’s overbilling calculations have shifted and what it means for brands
• [13:08] The aged shortage updates in Vendor Central 
• [18:25] Advice for managing aged shortage disputes
• [22:51] How Amazon’s packaging reclassification has increased chargebacks
• [25:47] Hannah’s perspectives on Amazon Vendor Central updates
• [29:31] Why brands must adapt to new tech integrations

In this episode…

Recent sweeping changes to how Amazon Vendor Central calculates and processes chargebacks, shortages, and overbilling have left many brands scrambling to adjust their internal processes and preserve cash flow. What do these updates entail, and how can vendors stay ahead of the curve?

Former Amazon insider Hannah Blackburn explains that overbilling calculations have shifted from “distributor shipment” to “Amazon payables,” potentially reducing double billing and improving predictability if brands adapt quickly. Brands must now track and forecast co-op charges based on expected payments rather than shipments. Additionally, Amazon no longer accepts bulk aged shortages, so brands should track aging internally and file disputes for shortages immediately. Hannah maintains that staying proactive prevents long-term revenue loss under Amazon’s new conditions. 

In this episode of the Digital Deep Dive, Aaron Conant welcomes Hannah Blackburn, the Co-founder and Director of The Hawkers Club, back to the show to discuss Amazon’s evolving Vendor Central policies. Hannah talks about rising packaging chargebacks, updated dispute workflows, and how to protect future chargeback recoveries.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

• Aaron Conant on LinkedIn
• BWG Connect
• Hannah Blackburn on LinkedIn
• The Hawkers Club

Quotable Moments:

• “The overbilling change is the most significant change I've seen on the Amazon platform in over a decade.”
• “It's almost like Amazon has created a secret window into what they're thinking.”
• “You cannot really dispute a shortage if it was not disputed in the first place.”
• “If you do not see co-op-related audits reducing, something is really up with your account.”
• “Right now, you're pretty much seeing that squeeze where your older overbilling is starting to time out.”

Action Steps:

1. Update co-op forecasting models to reflect Amazon payables: Shifting from shipment to payment-based co-op calculations means your forecasts must now align with when Amazon pays you, not when they receive goods. Adjusting for this improves cash flow planning and prevents surprise deductions.
2. Dispute current shortages immediately: Amazon’s new process requires initial disputes to be filed when the shortage is still considered current. Failing to do so can permanently eliminate your ability to recover those funds once the shortage becomes aged.
3. Submit shortage claims one PO at a time: Although Amazon allows multiple POs per dispute, one error often causes all to be rejected. Submitting claims individually increases your chances of successful resolution and reduces wasted effort.
4. Monitor and track Amazon ticket responses closely: Amazon frequently auto-closes open disputes within a few days, even if unresolved. Keeping tickets open requires ongoing attention but prevents your claims from being dismissed.
5. Watch for rising packaging chargebacks under new SHIP rules: Amazon’s January 2025 shift from SIOC to SHIP includes tiered penalty increases based on weight class. Brands must reevaluate margins and compliance strategies to avoid unexpected cost spikes.

About BWG Connect...

BWG Connect provides executive strategy and networking sessions that help brands from any industry with their overall business planning and execution. We network and knowledge share together to better understand and adapt to the newest trends, strategies, and pain points shaping growth in the digital space. BWG Connect, in conjunction with BWG Strategy, has built an exclusive network of 125,000+ senior professionals and hosts over 2,000 virtual and in-person networking events on an annual basis.

In addition, we have had 1x1 conversations with over 5,000 brands and have a real-time pulse on what digital strategies are successful and why. This in-depth knowledge allows our team to operate on the cutting-edge and provide our clients with best-in-class guidance on how to win in the digital world. We have provided free consultations and strategy sessions for companies of all sizes, from start-ups to Fortune-100, to enable growth, resolve issues and make curated service provider introductions that can impact your digital footprint.

We have held to the philosophy of providing high-level insights and actionable knowledge with no sales pitches in order to provide to our network the ability to listen, learn and act to improve themselves as well as their organizations. Our ultimate goal is to be the resource out there to help digital executives find the research they need to excel in the modern marketplace.

If you are interested in getting involved with any of our current or past events, you can find them here. If you are looking for help & would like to set up some time to chat with our team, you can schedule a time or reach out directly to Aaron@bwgconnect.com or Tiffany@bwgconnect.com.