Amazon has a lot of rules, breaking which results in account block. These rules don’t lie on the surface, but are buried in the terms of service, which you most likely haven’t read and ticked «I agree» like the others.
It happens as follows: you receive a notification that your account is under review. You can still convince amazon not to shut your account down with a reinstatement letter. You should take writing of this letter seriously. It should be written in detail, concisely and without emotions, more specifically about the plan of further actions by which you intend not to let that situation happen again.
If you have just started your business on Amazon or the shop already brings you expected income, then read this article to the end because it may save your business in the future. And remember that knowledge is an investment!
If you closed your account on Amazon?
If Amazon shuts your account down, you won’t have another chance. New accounts related to the old ones are banned automatically. Amazon is good at finding these relations. You’ll be exposed by:
- IP or MAC address of the computer
- Browser footprints such as cookies or flash objects
- Data from the previous account
One mistake and you’re on the hook.
So, you are banned –– you are in a big trouble. What could have led to this?
TOP 8 common seller’s mistakes leading to ban
To save you time, we’ve gathered all relevant information in this article.
1. Having multiple Amazon accounts.
Both accounts will be blocked in no time because of this. Only Amazon can give you a permission to open the second account. There are no exceptions. Even if you plan to open a second account for a firm with your friend, you should get permission. For that to happen, you should provide an explanation with justification of expediency.
For example, you have different and incompatible groups of goods. The only exception to these rules is to open an account on amazon.com, amazon.co.uk or amazon.jp.
2. Ignoring of quality / performance metrics.
Amazon won’t shut you down for low level metrics immediately. But if the dynamics of sales continue to fall, Amazon will decide to protect its customers from such seller.
Selling through FBA is more likely to have a long partnership with Amazon than selling through FBM. But there are reasons why you’ll shut down even through FBA:
- You ignore or don’t reply to customer’s messages (for Germany, it is better to reply in German).
- You have many returns of goods due to negative reasons.
- You have many negative reviews on products or on the shop.
How to avoid problems with metrics: sell through FBA. Sell high-quality goods. Quickly respond to messages. Study the reports.
Soon, we’ll make a detailed instruction for quality control with a check list.
3. Selling prohibited goods.
Thoroughly study the list of goods prohibited to sell on Amazon –– https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html/ref=hp_rel_topic?ie=UTF8&nodeId=200277040. If you don’t have an actual confirmation that you can sell a product on Amazon, then don’t sell it. You can even find a similar product from another seller, but there are no guarantees that he won’t be banned tomorrow.
4. Selling counterfeit goods.
Have respect for copyrights, trademarks and patents. Any competitor or customer can file a complaint against counterfeiting. Only an invoice from the official distributor will save you in this situation.
Check the availability of patents with your manufacturer and competitors.
5. Selling products with questionable properties.
Amazon attentively monitors that all medicinal, food, etc. products meet the FDA requirements. You have to be sure that all your product ingredients comply with them.
6. Selling products that do not comply with the listing.
Everything in the listing, especially the pictures, must correspond to what a client receives. And in the case of return, specify what exactly in client’s example doesn’t correspond to the product description.
7. Withdrawing customers from Amazon.
Any actions aimed at luring visitors of your shop or product to a third-party website will be regarded as a violation.
8. Copyright infringement (without owner’s written permission).
In the civilized world, theft of intellectual property is taken very seriously. Use only your original photos and descriptions of the goods.
What else should I know?
Always take very seriously any messages from Amazon Seller Central!
Amazon offers a long-term cooperation only to those sellers who value their reputation. Try to quickly respond to any feedback and don’t be greedy for returns. Work for your reputation and then it will work for you!