Suspension on Amazon is a nightmare for all sellers and it doesn't avoid even the biggest ones. But we have to see them as part of this giant system.
Amazon is the largest marketplace in the world. It currently has over 9.7 million sellers worldwide and hundreds of millions of shoppers. Amazon as the whole system is very pro-customer oriented, which implies demanding requirements for sellers. It carefully monitors all the movements of the products they offer. If Amazon assesses that your behavior within its system is against the rules, the product or the entire seller account is suspended.
Recently, Amazon has been pushing for advanced process automation, with the core task of assisting as many sales as possible. Due to the constant increase in registrations (approximately 2 new sellers every minute), requests need to be handled through an automated environment. Even seemingly trivial requests or deviations can therefore take a long time with a lack of experience. Automation is however also driving forward downsides such as blockages.
However, automation is also driving forward downsides such as suspension.
Low performance (low quality of service)
Amazon is one of the most pro-customer marketplaces, so it places great importance on the efficiency of sellers. They have to deliver on their promises from advertising campaigns (quality, speed of delivery, etc.). Not every seller can deliver on what they promise to the customer. If these conditions are not met, Amazon will evaluate the seller as a problem seller and suspended the account.
ODR - Order Defect Rate (high order defect rate)
This is the percentage of orders that had negative reviews for various reasons, were delivered late, were delivered with a different product or were damaged. The ODR should be less than 1%.
Pre-fulfillment Cancel Rate (number of cancelled orders)
The number of orders cancelled by the seller before the actual shipment should not be more than 2.5%.
Late Shipment Rate (late delivery of shipments)
As a seller, you should make sure that the shipped items are delivered on time to the given address. The rate of shipments that are delivered late should not exceed 4%.
Copyright Infringement
Since many companies guard their brand on Amazon, it is important to have reliable suppliers. They will supply you with documents confirming the authenticity of the product.
If a brand's copyright holder accuses you of product inauthenticity, Amazon can suspended your Account until you prove otherwise.
AT RISK, or suspended prevention
When you receive an AT RISK warning, you have 72 hours to respond. If you provide Amazon with a sufficiently detailed explanation, you will avoid a suspension and can continue to sell.
Product/category Suspension
Some categories (e.g. Health & Beauty) are restricted and require permission. The same applies to sales of a well-known brand (Adidas, Nike, Hugo Boss, etc.).
Amazon may also require permission to sell your own unique product that contains a battery or needs to be inspected in some way (e.g. kitchen knives).
Account Suspension
Your selling account may be suspended before you start selling or even after several months of successful sales. Customer reviews, a large number of cancelled orders, insufficient Account Health, etc. can all have an impact on account suspension. One of the reason may also be due to a suspiciously high volume of sales in a short period of time (which Amazon may evaluate as sales of non-original goods).
Suspensions for bizarre reasons >> potential linking to another account or attempted fraud (e.g. changing bank account) are no exception.
Generally speaking, Amazon will sell anything. But be careful what you sell - Amazon will allow you to sell anything it sees fit. There is quite a large list of products that are banned. If you find banned products on your selling list, you could be in big trouble.
🚫 If your products are suspended under the FBA program, Amazon has the right to destroy them.
Amazon has strictly reserved rights to suspend your account. This may include the destruction of all stocked products in FBA warehouses. You will not get your deposited funds back.Amazon also has the right to take legal action in case of violation of the current laws and legal standards of the countries where the sale takes place.There are a number of prohibited products and they are associated with many strict parameters ( >> product list).
In addition to the product rules mentioned above, there are also sales policies, community rules and performance platforms. For example, when you open an account, you must maintain a courtesy relationship with clients or update company information.When an account is suspended for violating Amazon's policies, in most cases sellers will attempt to open a new account. This will make the situation even worse. You are violating the selling policy again.
Just as the list of prohibited products is very extensive, the list of offences is also quite long (e.g. intending to induce a user to go shopping in your store outside Amazon or trying to communicate with them outside the platform).
We often encounter the idea that the suspended only affect small businesses. This is not true. Even giants such as some Chinese companies have been suspended by Amazon, not only because of review manipulation (the most common misstep) but also because of white label sales. It is estimated that the sales of the suspended accounts amounted to billions of dollars.
For most sellers, reinstatement an account is a superhuman task that can take several months, or even may not be reinstate at all. In some cases, you may need to consider seeking help from an external specialist firm such as EXPANDO or Amazon Sellers Lawyer.
It's important to remember that there are clear rules of the game and important metrics to follow. Amazon is uncompromising. It won't ask any questions and will simply suspended your account. So take everything seriously and follow what is mentioned. If you find yourself in a situation where you did everything right but still failed, we'll help you with that as well.
If you struggling with the reinstatement on our own, as a team of experts we offer an Amazon account reinstatement service.
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