COMPLETE GUIDE TO INVOICES… Everything You Wanted to Know + Way More

Posted by Big Brand Wholesale.com on 12th Feb 2021

You would be amazed at how many times a day we are asked about invoices, so I decided to write this blog post to answer every possible question imaginable and more. Here you go:

WHAT IS AN INVOICE:

When you go to the grocery store and make a purchase you are given a RECEIPT:

This, as you know, is a thermal printed piece of paper that displays the items you purchased and the cost. This is NOT an invoice.

An invoice is what a company, like ours provides. It's typically a full sheet of paper (or even multiple sheets of paper) that would be printed on traditional 8.5 x 11" printer paper. An invoice is usually available in your account online through any real site you buy from (NOTE: If you use "Guest Checkout" you are completing the purchase as a "Guest", therefore it will NOT appear in your account. The solution is to simply login before purchasing).

An invoice basically says “Here’s all of the details of our transaction”. The invoice is the official document of the transaction. Our invoices look like this:

As you can see, it includes our company logo, name, address, contact info, the purchase info, billing / shipping address and more. Sometimes companies print these and attach them to the outside of the parcel or place them inside of the shipment. Here at BigBrandWholesale.com we do not add them to shipments because 99% of buyers throw them away, therefore it creates needless environmental waste in addition to an added expense to our business.

HOW DO I GET MY INVOICE FROM BIG BRAND WHOLESALE.com?

You can print, save or email your invoice in four simple steps:

1. Log-in to Your Account by clicking SIGN IN:

2. Click ACCOUNT

3. Select the Order You Want to Print an Invoice For. Click the Order Number to Open it.

4. Click PRINT

If you need an invoice included in your parcel, simply type "INCLUDE INVOICE" in the "Comments" section at checkout and we will print one for you and place it into your parcel, otherwise you can access your invoice 24/7 by simply logging into your account.

AMAZON UNGATING WITH INVOICES:

We are often asked “If I buy from your site will Amazon Ungate me, for sure???” - and the answer to this question is never a simple “yes” or “no” - we have had tons of buyers get ungated on Amazon and we have had just as many who do not get Ungated. But why? Why do some get the approval and others don’t?

The reason for this is because the decision to Ungate is 100% Amazon's decision. Amazon bases their decision on whether or not:

The Ungating Applicant followed all of the directions and submitted all of the correct paperwork (must read: Amazon Ungating Checklist)
The Ungating Applicant has good Seller Metrics (a positive HISTORY of Amazon sales... this means you have sold on Amazon for a while with no major issues!)
Amazon does not like overpopulating their site with specific brands or products, so Amazon will flat out stop Ungating that brand / product-type until further notice. This means that even if you did meet every requirement and even if you do have strong Metrics, you might be denied “just because”.... Yes, “just because” and nothing more. I remember a while back Amazon had 100% stopped allowing new Beauty / Body Care sellers and people were outraged with Amazon. I am not sure if they have since began allowing more but I assume they have.
The Ungating Applicant did/didn't purchase the correct merchandise quantity and also purchased merchandise that qualifies for Ungating. Last I saw Amazon requires 11 duplicate items. This could change at any moment. Please be sure to check todays policies prior to purchase.
The Ungating Applicant is applying to be Ungated for merchandise that Amazon ALLOWS the sales of; there are TONS of brands Amazon will not Ungate, even IF everything else is 100% correct! Read our Amazon Restricted Brands List. Or check them out by Category below:

In fact, MANY brand require a paid FEE to Ungate. Read our Amazon Ungating Fees Brands List.
And more. There's a lot more. An awful lot more factors. *sigh!*

HOW LONG DOES UNGATING TAKE WITH YOUR INVOICE?

After you have met the Amazon Ungating criteria and submitted documentation to get ungated, IF Amazon considers you as a potential seller for that brand, Amazon emails us directly to ask us to confirm the purchase details. Here’s an example of an actual email we received from Amazon to verify a purchase made through our site (for privacy reasons we had to redact certain details):

Here’s another email sent to us by Amazon to confirm a purchase. As you will notice it is similar, but also a little bit different:

So, as you can see, the wholesale company you made the purchase through is told, by Amazon, what the purchase was. The Wholesaler then has to match the information in the email to their record to confirm. So this means that you NEVER want to fudge an invoice. For example, if you purchased 1 Cole Haan handbag from a vendor, you do not want to alter the invoice so it says you purchase 111 Cole Haan purses because this would not match the wholesalers records and this could end up with you getting forever banned from Amazon selling!

The first order was placed on August 12th, 2020

And the Amazon email was sent to us on September 30th, 2020

Which means there was 7 week in between

As for the second example in this article; this order was placed on our site on April 23rd, 2020

And the Amazon email was received on June 27th, 2020

Which is approximately 9.5 weeks

The quickest we have seen was 5 weeks and the longest we have seen was 18 weeks. Granted, we have no way of knowing if the buyer made paperwork errors and had to reapply for Ungating multiple times. Regardless, I think it is safe to assume that you are not going to receive an answer on getting Ungated quickly. BUT, if you want to get Ungated quickly, first make sure that you meet all of the Amazon Ungating requirements and be sure that you have purchased merchandise that is not on Amazons "Restricted Brands" list.

WHICH WHOLESALERS GUARANTEE UNGATING?

If you need to know more about "Guaranteed Ungating" we also have a blog post for you to read called Which Wholesalers Guarantee Ungating if I purchase through them?

AMAZON WON'T UNGATE ME!!!! CAN I RETURN IT?

We do not allow returns on merchandise because Amazon won't Ungate. The reason for this is because we did nothing wrong, there is no issues with the merchandise, we shipped it correctly, it arrived... the only issue is Amazon's choice to not allow a buyer to sell something on their site... as you can see, our company has no control over the latter part of this equation. As a wholesaler, our goal is to sell merchandise, show you a video of exactly what you are buying, ship it fast and hope it arrives to you as fast as we get it in transit. But since we cannot control your Amazon Metrics, your Amazon Ungating paperwork, etc, we cannot accept returns regarding your dealings with Amazon.

However, a very simple solution is to sell the merchandise on literally any other site; eBay, PoshMark, Jet.com, Sears, Walmart, etc. We have taken the time to review all of the major selling platforms that are Amazon Alternatives:

SCAM ALERT! RecycleYourFashions.com

Depop.com

MassGenie - is it even Legit?

Jet.com

eBid

Sears.com Marketplace

OpenSky.com