Selling on Amazon - Tips to Help Avoid Suspension

[Low Cost Sourcing]

Selling on Amazon can serve as a great revenue stream for your business. Millions of people shop online with Amazon in the UK alone and you can increase that number by selling products across Europe and in the US.

For this potential customer base and the Amazon brand name there are strict policies and security controls in place.

On a daily basis there are sellers who get suspended for breaching any number of these policies and controls. Some reasons for a seller account being suspended can seem trivial while others are totally understandable. What you have to remember that no matter how trivial a reason may seem, if you fall foul of any of Amazon’s selling policies you run the risk of getting your seller account suspended.

Why is Amazon so tough when it comes to their sellers? The reason is simple. They have their image and reputation to think about and preserve. They cannot allow just anyone to open a seller account as this runs the risk of fraud. This is the main reason Amazon have brought in the seller verification system although they will insist it is due to EU regulations.

You only have to look at the Amazon Seller Forums to see the number of threads about sellers who have had their seller accounts suspended and the many, many reasons why this has happened.

So how can you protect yourself and your seller account from the dreaded suspension and loss of income? Whilst it is impossible to make your account suspension proof, you can make it unlikely just by following the Amazon selling policies. Simple really.

Here are some of the easiest and most important systems to put in place to help you avoid receiving that dreaded suspension email:

• You are only allowed ONE seller account

Amazon only allow an individual or business to open ONE seller account only. The only exceptions to this rule are if Amazon gives you permission to open a second or even third account. Amazon use some pretty nifty technology to link accounts and if your account is linked to another in any way then both accounts will most probably be suspended.

Even if you sell products under different business names in different niches your accounts will be linked and suspended if you do not have permission to open other seller accounts.

This has caught out many sellers who think they can benefit from opening other accounts to help them promote their products.

The same goes for sellers who have previously had suspended accounts and think they can get around this by simply opening a new one. It will be linked and your account suspended.

• Market your products correctly

This might sound a bit strange but you would be surprised to see the number of sellers who are suspended due to issues with their products. Make sure you only place your products on listings which are identical in every way to your product. This includes brand, packaging and any attributes such as size and colour. If there are any differences at all you must create your own listing with a unique barcode.

Product condition is also an extremely important aspect when listing your items for sale. Make sure if a product is used you choose the correct condition such as “Used Acceptable” or “Used Very Good”. If in doubt always choose a condition one level lower to be on the safe side as Amazon take a dim view on sellers who misrepresent their products.

• Maintain your seller metrics

Seller metrics are an important aspect of checking if a seller is performing or not when selling on Amazon. There are a lot of aspects which make up the seller metrics so you must make sure you are aware of them all and keep your metrics as high as possible.

• Dispatch products on time

Make sure you dispatch your orders quickly and on time as this can have a negative affect on your seller metrics and customer satisfaction which can lead to negative or neutral feedback from customers.

You should always try to send your orders out to customers at least the next day. This will then ensure you will never have any late shipment issues.

• Answer buyer questions immediately

To maintain your seller metrics you should aim to answer all buyer questions as soon as possible. Amazon allow you 24 hours to answer and unlike the shipping timescales this does not take into account whether the seller contacted you on a weekend or a bank holiday.

A simple trick you should use if you have a message which has been received longer than 24 hours is to mark the message as “no response required” and then go back into your messages and respond as normal. This will keep your metrics up to date and will not show as a late response.

• Keep track of your inventory

Make sure you keep your stock levels up to date, especially if you sell on other marketplaces or your own website as you do not want to sell a product when you have no stock available as Amazon do not like it, your customer will not like it and it will affect your seller metrics when you have to cancel the order and refund.

Your customer can also leave you negative feedback which can have a negative affect on your metrics and seller account as a whole as this will reduce your overall feedback rating on your seller account.

• Get on top of your feedback

Compared to eBay, the level of feedback you will receive from customers on Amazon is very low. In fact if you get a feedback level of 10% of orders this is extremely good but most of the time the level is around 5% or lower.

Amazon automatically send out a feedback request to your customers, however a nicely worded message to your customers 2 weeks after the sale requesting positive feedback will not hurt your chances of getting more feedback and increase the levels you receive.

• The feedback loophole

Another thing to look out for in the feedback department is whether the feedback a customer has left is regarding your service as a seller or is a review of the product.

Amazon operates a separate product review system which is independent of the feedback system and you can use this to your advantage.

If you are unlucky enough to receive a negative feedback on your seller account, this can not only damage your overall feedback score but can also have a negative affect on your seller metrics and your seller account status. You must check what the buyer has written as if the feedback is solely about the product, you can get this removed from your account due to it being a product review.

As we mentioned above, you cannot make your account suspension proof but you can improve your chances of not getting suspended by following these simple steps.

Please feel free to add anything to this if you think I have missed anything out. Cheers.

 

[Jayser100]

I can add a couple of things to that. Firstly, don't get tempted to list the same item twice with different titles and keywords - a lot of sellers do this and it's a great risk. I guess it's especially tempting if you buy a product from a wholesaler and then find it's already been listed by someone else, who has the Buy Box sewn up.

Second, don't sell anything you can't dispatch immediately (e.g. if you don't have stock).

If you get caught doing either it's a major policy violation and you risk the dreaded suspension.

Oh, and make sure any imported products you sell comply with British and Eu regulations where appropriate. If certification is necessary, factories and wholesalers should be able to product copies for you to look at. If they can't, move on and buy elsewhere.

A lot of sellers are still very sloppy with their listings, usually because they can't be bothered to read the listing rules. Images that don't comply are the most common, closely followed by adding rival brands as keywords. You won't necessarily get suspended for these things but they will destroy your seller rating if you get pulled up on it.

Because Amazon is so huge, they don't, in my view, police these violations very well at the moment but you never know when the purge is coming and so anyone who plays on the wrong side of the line could have a nasty shock coming in the future. Complacency is dangerous. You have to treat your inventory and customer service like a nice flower garden - to keep it nice, you need to be working on it all the time.

 

[Low Cost Sourcing]

Good add, thanks for that. I meant to put the images part in but it slipped my mind. It's worth noting that unlike eBay, Amazon do not allow any watermarks on your images.

 

[e-vulture]

I had my listings suspended because I sold a £2 pack of 100 of something, which turned out to apparently only have 99 in it, which definitely seems over the top to me without even giving any chance to send the missing piece. I'd sold thousands without any issue and I checked all of the remaining packs which were the correct quantity.

I had to provide a detailed "Plan of action", the exact reasons why this particular pack was one short and what steps I'm taking to ensure it never happens again.

So if a buyer complains your items isn't what it says on the listing, you can get your listings suspended regardless of the truth.

 

[Low Cost Sourcing]

That's one of the "trivial" reasons and I agree it is extremely harsh to suspend a seller for something like that but the way Amazon see it is your guilty until proven innocent and sometimes that does not always work.

Amazon are very trigger happy when it comes to items not being as described whether it is a genuine mistake or not.

 

[Jayser100]

It is frustrating when listings are suspended without good reason. You can have a perfectly good product that's sold without issues for months or even years, then a couple of people make similar complaints close together and bam, it's suspended. That has only happened to me once I'm pleased to say and I was able to get the item 'un-suspended' by making some sizing information clearer on the listing.