Amazon Reinstatement Efforts for Suspended Sellers

Amazon Reinstatement Efforts for Suspended Sellers
Published on ChannelAdvisor Strategy & Support Center (http://ssc.channeladvisor.com)
Amazon Reinstatement Efforts for Suspended Sellers
Amazon has very strict performance and behavior requirements a seller must follow in order to keep
good standings with Amazon. If your selling privileges have been removed, they may be eligible for
reinstatement by appeal.
Steps for Appealing a Suspension
1: Determine Why you Were Suspended
Read any notices in your Seller Central account under Performance > Performance Notifications. This
will help you determine if your suspension was due to poor performance or for a potential violation to
their selling Policies and Agreements.
2: Evaluate Your Selling Practices
Review your customer metrics in ChannelAdvisor or Amazon Seller Central and identify those that do
not meet the the Amazon performance targets. Evaluate your selling practices for those that may
result in buyer dissatisfaction. Review your inventory for items that are in violation of their Policies
& Agreements [1].
Seller Performance Targets
All Amazon sellers should be working toward achieving and maintaining a level of customer service
that meets the following seller performance targets:
- Order defect rate: < 1%
- Pre-fulfillment cancel rate: < 2.5%
- Late shipment rate: < 4%
Amazon selling accounts are commonly suspended or blocked for:
- Poor performance [2], i.e., your Amazon customer metrics (order defect rate [3], cancellation
rate [4], and/or late shipment rate [5]) do not meet their performance targets [2].
- Violations of the Amazon Selling Policies [6] and specifically:
- Setting up a second Amazon account, in the same locale, to have two Amazon listing identities.
-
Operating and maintaining multiple seller accounts is prohibited by Amazon.
- Setting up new Amazon account with a different name after being suspended
from Selling. Amazon will monitor IP addresses on closed accounts.
- Violating the Price Parity clause of the Amazon Policies & Agreements. You
should refer to your agreement for details. The basics of the clause state that a
merchant must maintain price parity between the products you offer through
your other sales channels (your own website, eBay, etc) and the products you
list on Amazon. This includes consideration of shipping charges, refunds and
discounts.
- Marketing directly to your Amazon customers in violation of the Amazon Policies
& Agreements. You should refer to your agreement for details. The basics of the
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Amazon Reinstatement Efforts for Suspended Sellers
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requirement state that a seller will not use Amazon information contact or
market to a customer with the goal of having them make additional or
alternative purchases outside of Amazon (eg directly on your own website).
- Violations of the Amazon rules about Prohibited Content [7] and/or Restricted Products [8].
3: Create a Plan of Action and an Appeal Letter
Create a Plan of Action to outline the steps you will take to correct the problem(s) that Amazon
identified in the suspension notice or that you identified in Step 2. Providing a precise Plan of Action
that effectively addresses the problems improves the chance that your selling privileges will be
reinstated.
What to include:
- A thorough understanding on what happened. If this suspension was a result of repeated
warnings, be sure to speak specifically to the most recent warnings.
- What was done to resolve the issue(s) that caused the suspension.
- What will be done to avoid the issue moving forward.
Best practices:
- Be as specific as possible. Broad messaging makes it look like you are hiding something.
- Quantify everything possible. Don’t say “many,” “a few,” ”several,” “occasionally,” etc. Use
numbers for everything and provide exact time frames.
- Make reference to the specific policy that caused the issue to demonstrate you understand it
and are taking action to comply with it.
- Include a robust process as part of the forward-looking plan, preferably one that does not have
a single point of failure. Amazon expects that if you failed to comply with a policy in the past,
you will need to invest in some way (time, money, people) to comply in the future.
- Just saying you are sorry and that you’ll try to do better in the future will not work.
- To have the best chance of success, your plan must address the specific concerns
that Amazon has raised in their suspension notice.
- Submission of an appeal, even one following these best practices, does not
guarantee re-instatement
An example reinstated on Amazon [9] letter can be downloaded.
4: Send your Appeal to Amazon
Once you have created your Plan of Action, send it to Seller Performance with your request for
reinstatement. You can submit your appeal via your Seller Central account (using the Appeal button
in the Performance > Performance Notification screen) or email it to
seller-performance@amazon.com [10]. 5: Watch your e-mail for a decision from Amazon
After receiving your Plan of Action, we'll notify you of our decision by e-mail, usually within 48 hours.
We review all appeals carefully. However, submission of an appeal does not guarantee reinstatement
of your selling privileges.
Additional Information
In the event that you find your Amazon account has been shut down, you should refer to the
instructions on the Amazon Seller Central page Appeals for Suspended or Blocked Accounts. [11]
-
Amazon Strategy Blog Post (August 11, 2012) - How to be Reinstated on Amazon [12]
Category, Product, and Listing Restrictions [13]
Product Detail Page Rules [14]
Prohibited Content [15]
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Amazon Reinstatement Efforts for Suspended Sellers
Published on ChannelAdvisor Strategy &amp; Support Center (http://ssc.channeladvisor.com)
- Prohibited Seller Activities and Actions [16]
- Amazon
- Marketplaces
- Strategy
Source URL:
http://ssc.channeladvisor.com/strategy/marketplaces/amazon-marketplace/reinstatement
Links:
[1] https://sellercentral.amazon.com/gp/help/521/ref=au_521_cont_200370560
[2] https://sellercentral.amazon.com/gp/help/200370550/ref=au_200370550_cont_200370560
[3]
https://sellercentral.amazon.com/gp/help/help.html/ref=ag_200205250_cont_help?ie=UTF8&itemID=
200205250&language=en_US#defect
[4]
https://sellercentral.amazon.com/gp/help/200205250/ref=au_200205250_cont_200370560#prefulfill
ment
[5] https://sellercentral.amazon.com/gp/help/200205250/ref=au_200205250_cont_200370560#late
[6] https://sellercentral.amazon.com/gp/help/1801/ref=au_1801_cont_200370560
[7] https://sellercentral.amazon.com/gp/help/200386260/ref=au_200386260_cont_200370560
[8] https://sellercentral.amazon.com/gp/help/200164330/ref=au_200164330_cont_200370560
[9] http://ssc.channeladvisor.com/sites/default/files/reinstatement-amazon (2).doc
[10] mailto:seller-performance@amazon.com?subject=Amazon Reinstatement
[11]
https://sellercentral.amazon.com/gp/help/help-page.html/ref=au_200370560_cont_scsearch?ie=UTF
8&itemID=200370560
[12] http://www.amazonstrategies.com/2012/08/how-to-be-reinstated-on-amazon.html
[13]
https://sellercentral.amazon.com/gp/help/help.html/ref=au_200301050_cont_1801?ie=UTF8&itemID
=200301050&language=en_US
[14]
https://sellercentral.amazon.com/gp/help/help.html/ref=au_200390640_cont_1801?ie=UTF8&itemID
=200390640&language=en_US
[15]
https://sellercentral.amazon.com/gp/help/help.html/ref=au_200386260_cont_1801?ie=UTF8&itemID
=200386260&language=en_US
[16]
https://sellercentral.amazon.com/gp/help/help.html/ref=au_200386250_cont_1801?ie=UTF8&itemID
=200386250&language=en_US
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