No VA, No Problem — Here’s How I Automated It All

Look, I’m all for hustling — but if you’re still manually tracking inventory, chasing reviews, and dealing with refunds one by one… that’s not a hustle. That’s a hamster wheel.

Let me introduce you to Brian.

Brian sells kitchen gadgets on Amazon — spiralizers, avocado tools, those kinds of things. He was doing okay, pulling in 15–20 orders a day.

But behind the scenes?

Total chaos.

He was buried in tasks:

• Forgot to reorder his best seller and ran out of stock for 3 weeks

• Missed dozens of review requests because he couldn’t keep up

• Manually processed refunds and returns like it was 1998

And guess what?

He didn’t want to hire a VA.
Not because he’s cheap — but because he didn’t want to manage another person. Just wanted a system that ran without him.

So we built one. ⚙️

📖 Brian’s “Hands-Off” Automation Blueprint

Today, Brian spends less than 20 minutes a week managing his entire Amazon operation. Here’s how he did it — and how you can do it too.

Let’s break it down by the 3 big pain points:
Reorders, Reviews, Refunds

🔁 PART 1: Automating Reorders (So You Never Go Out of Stock Again)

Brian’s first issue?
He’d reorder based on gut feel and random notes in his iPhone.

That’s cute… until your best seller goes out of stock during Prime Day. 😬

So we plugged him into RestockPro (you can also use SoStocked or even InventoryLab’s forecasting).

Now:

• His min/max inventory levels are calculated automatically

• He gets reorder alerts before things get low

• He batches POs to suppliers every Friday — in 5 minutes flat

📈 Bonus: It improved his IPI score, which helped reduce storage fees.

⭐ PART 2: Automating Review Requests (Without Breaking ToS)

If you’re not asking for reviews, you’re leaving money (and ranking juice) on the table.

Brian used to:

• Send manual follow-ups

• Copy/paste messages

• Sometimes forget for weeks

Now?
He turned on Amazon’s “Request a Review” automation using FeedbackWhiz. You can also use Helium 10 or JungleScout’s automation tools.

The trick:
✅ Stay within Amazon’s rules
✅ Set the request to trigger after delivery
✅ Let the software handle the rest

He saw a 32% lift in reviews over 60 days. 🤯

💸 PART 3: Automating Refund Handling (Without Talking to a Single Customer)

Refunds used to make Brian feel like a customer service rep.

“I sent the wrong item.”
“It arrived broken.”
“I changed my mind.”

He’d spend 10–15 minutes per refund manually responding, processing, and logging it.

Now? He uses:

• Returnless refunds for low-cost items

• Auto-messages via SellerTools (or Amazon’s built-in options)

• A Zapier workflow that logs all refunds into Google Sheets

Refund requests are handled in seconds.
Brian only jumps in if something’s truly weird — like a buyer claiming the avocado slicer bit them (yes, that happened 🤦‍♂️).

🎯 THE BIG TAKEAWAY

You don’t need a VA.

You don’t need to micromanage everything.

You need systems.

Brian didn’t scale by working harder. He scaled by stepping back — and letting smart tools do the heavy lifting.

Automate the stuff that drains your time, so you can focus on what actually grows the business:

• Better listings

• Smarter products

• Higher conversions

💬 Say it with me:
“Set it. Forget it. Scale it.”

🙋‍♂️ Still stuck in spreadsheet mode?
Or found a sweet automation that changed your biz?

Comment if you’ve been there 👇
Forward this to a seller friend who needs to ditch the chaos 💌
Hit the star if this helped ⭐

Keep it lean, keep it mean, and automate like a boss.

To your success,
Andy Splichal
Founder & Managing Partner of True Online Presence & Author of the Make Each Click Count Book Series

P.S. Want to scale your sales without scaling your stress? I manage PPC for sellers who are serious about growth. 🎯 Book a free strategy call here — we’ll map out a winning game plan.