2020 has been one big roller coaster ride for everyone who further tried to understand what is SEO and how it will affect their Amazon business. For sellers, it’s a progressive train ride. Amazon sellers continue to grow their business despite the pandemic that shocked the world. Despite the growing number of seller profiles and profit margins, there are also sellers that face shocking Amazon account suspension, which hurt their business.
Suspension increases the risk of an online seller losing their reputation and income. The entire experience may be tedious and may leave one stressed for a period of time. Plus, the process of regaining the account may be quite a ride.
What to do when your Amazon account gets suspended?
This blog post aims to help you, if you are struggling with Amazon account suspension. Moreover, this shall help you regain your Amazon seller account.
What does it mean when your account gets suspended?
Account suspension means you may still appeal the status of your store or even your account. You will need to create a clear action plan.
What does getting denied mean?
This means your appeal got rejected. You may worry, but it’s okay since you’ll be given a chance to submit a revised action plan.
What if you get banned?
Getting your account banned is the worst among the three. It means you’re out, and Amazon will no longer read your emails or even your appeals, no matter how many times you send or revise them.
If you’re thinking of opening another account in place of the old one, don’t. Frankly, Amazon notifies sellers about opening another account when their earlier accounts get suspended. Isn’t it a pain?
Sellers often feel frustrated when their account gets suspended. They have worked hard, and they have crafted or sourced their products, only for all effort to lead to a suspension. Frankly, sellers lose money every second their account is suspended. Moreover, sellers cannot talk to someone to help them resolve this issue.
What’s worse is that suspension may last for weeks or even months.
Why do Amazon selling privileges get suspended?
- Amazon observes your performance as a business. They check if your store is competitive and whether you provide great customer service
- A violation of the Amazon policies
- Selling of restricted product/s
But there’s a silver lining to that! Sellers may learn about their suspension by checking the Performance Notifications in Seller Central. Most of the time, Amazon notifies you about violations of their existing policies.
You will see the title, “Your Amazon.com selling privileges have been removed,” which means the next thing you’ll see would be a list of Amazon Standard Identification Numbers (ASINs) that they believe to have violated their rules and regulations.
Hence, sellers must carefully craft their Plan of Action based on the information they have received from Amazon.
How to prevent suspension?
1. Request an annotation to declare that the ASIN is not a counterfeit
Most of the time, sellers check if there are reports or even notifications pertaining to their business. They want to stay in the loop about any news or updates regarding the improvements of Amazon or their store.
Pay attention to the Returns, Feedback (whether good or bad), and Incomplete Orders, for these will also affect how the store performs. When sellers double-check how they treat their customers and how they respond to messages and inquiries, they may alleviate any mishaps such as delays in order.
In addition to that, observe shipping, refunds, and even the return policies in order to give the best to the customers.
Remember that unhappy and unsatisfied customers can mean trouble.
2. Download the app
Most people already have too many apps on their phones. However, with Amazon sellers, it’s advisable to download the Amazon app to make sure that the response time is quicker.
Know more: guide to Successful Analysis of Mobile App Needs and Features
Also, this helps sellers update their listings faster as they will be able to do it anywhere. Sellers may change labels that pertain to new products or classify other items as used, and they may review every detail in the listing as it is the first place where customers engage with the brand and seller.
3. Review your listings and check if there are any red flags
When selling generic or privately labelled products, refrain from claiming them as your own. Always inform the customers and be transparent with Amazon. This way, you will be able to distinguish yourself from other sellers on the eCommerce platform.
When composing the product listings, use bullet points to show features and benefits in a glance. Customers stay away from lengthy and chunky paragraphs as this may seem like an eyesore to them. Plus, using short readable descriptions is one of the ranking factors that affect the performance of your listings.
4. Close and archive old and outdated listings
Migrate to Fulfillment by Amazon or FBA as this protects sellers from eCommerce fraud or hijacking. Part of selling on Amazon is dealing with returns and refunds from customers — especially if they receive the wrong item or even the wrong size or color.
See more: How To Optimize Your eCommerce Site for the Holidays?
Do you remember that saying, “Customer is always right”? No matter how painful and unfathomable it may be, there are times when it’s better to give replacement items for returns or even issue refunds.
When sellers focus on the bigger picture, refunds and replacements help boost the feedback and rating on the listings. Plus, sellers may request for positive reviews from the customers who had their items replaced or refunded.
5. Never sell counterfeit items
This is simple; never sell counterfeit items. Even if these products may seem easier to sell or invest on, it will never be worth it if Amazon account suspension lurks around.
What to do if your account gets suspended?
When you get a notification from Amazon about account suspension, don’t reply or respond just yet. Make sure you do the following:
- Identify the reason for the suspension
- Think of ways to provide solutions, especially for the affected shoppers
- Create new ways to prevent these kinds of issues (e.g. failure to respond to customer’s request for item replacement or refund) and make sure they won’t happen again
- Compose an appeal to Amazon that declares that you take full responsibility. Let them see your dedication to prevent this kind of problem.
Another tip, be honest and responsible about the issues.
What’s next?
Start checking your seller profile and the dashboard. Make sure that all your listings have the necessary information — from product descriptions to features, and benefits. Write them in a way that customers easily understand.
Make sure to follow these tips and if you have experiences or stories about your own Amazon account suspension, feel free to share them!
Author’s Bio
Jayce is the managing director of Seller Interactive, an Amazon full service marketing agency dedicated towards helping brands grow on Amazon. His content marketing expertise has led him to work with brands such as Toyota and GoDaddy, producing content that reached over 20M views in a month. He is on a journey to help D2C brands scale their business on Amazon.
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