Amazon is undoubtedly the largest eCommerce platform in the world, with more than 2 billion users every month and at least 100 million Prime users nowadays in the U.S. That is why the company’s policy strictly regulates Amazon Seller accounts and selling privileges to maintain the high quality of the marketplace sellers.
Amazon seller account suspension can be unpleasant but it can happen to any seller. Imagine that you have done a lot of product research, searched for suppliers and sourced products, created a listing, and collected reviews. Suddenly your find that your Amazon Seller Account is blocked. Your payments are suspended, your listings and warehouse stock is frozen and the storage fee is charged. There are no sales as a result and suddenly your profitable business has turned into a loss-making business
Amazon can make or break your seller business, especially if you’re an FBA merchant. Amazon may suspend or ban seller accounts temporarily at its discretion. You don’t have to be a genius to see that relying too heavily on Amazon is not a good idea. However, Amazon offers many benefits. The trade-off, to be honest, is fair. Access to millions of customers is yours. All you need to do is follow the rules.
In this article, we will learn about the top reasons why Amazon could suspend or ban your Amazon Seller account, and how to avoid them.
Table of Content
Reasons Why Amazon Seller Account Can Be Suspended
Poor Seller Performance
Amazon puts a great deal of focus on customer service, so having a poor seller performance can get your account suspended. You may be suspended for the following:
• Order Defect Rate Above 1%
• Late Shipment Rate Above 4%
• Pre-Fulfillment Cancel Rate Above 2.5%
Get your account reinstated. Our team of experts will help you create an effective appeal with a plan of action ensuring Amazon that your rates will stay within acceptable limits.
Selling Prohibited and Unregulated Items
To avoid any regulatory or legal trouble, Amazon does not allow any prohibited and unregulated items on its platform. It would be impossible to list all items that fall into this category, but one category where this problem is most common is pharmaceuticals and supplements.
You should only sell FDA-approved items in this category and avoid making any claims that cannot be substantiated. If you have developed a product yourself, then you will have a good idea of its regulatory situation. In cases where you are sourcing a product from a manufacturer, never accept their claims at face value.
Do your own, independent research before listing a product on your Amazon store, because you will be the one that gets banned if the item doesn’t meet Amazon’s standards.
Account Creation Failure
Amazon Seller accounts can get suspended right at the very first step – during account creation. Even before you completely begin, allow our team to assist you from getting verified to setting up your account and listing so you can start selling in no time.
Violation of Amazon Policies
Suspension due to violation of Amazon policies is often vague, so sellers are usually clueless about how to fix the problem.
One of the following may be the reason for your suspension:
• Account Verification
• Multiple or Related Accounts
• Seller Identity
• Forged or Manipulated Documentation
• ASIN Creation
• ASIN Variation
• Review Manipulation
• Selling Restricted/ Prohibited Items
Get help from our team of professionals. We’ll do an in-depth review of your account to identify the main issues, prepare a corrective action plan, and set up procedures that ensure your account stays active.
IP Complaints Resolution
Copyright, trademark, and patent violations not only take away your Amazon selling privileges; they also have law implications.
If you have received a notice of IP rights infringement from Amazon, we have a team of skilled IP lawyers who can get the complaint withdrawn and appeal to Amazon legal, so you can get your account reinstated.
Brand Protection
With the rise of counterfeiters and hijackers, it’s necessary to set up all measures to protect your brand. Let our team do the work for you. We’ll help you file for copyrights, trademarks, and patents for your brand.
If you’ve spotted unauthorized sellers in your brand listing, we’ll closely work with you to get rid of hijackers and regain control of your listing. From evaluation, drafting cease and desist letters, filing for reports of infringement, and setting up preventive measures, we’ll be with you all throughout the process.
Recovery of Damages
If you’re accused of selling counterfeit products, Amazon can immediately suspend your listing or your seller account entirely. Falsely accused of selling counterfeit products? Let us help. Our legal experts will help you file legal claims and recover damages from brands that filed false complaints.
Buying Reviews
Buying reviews is a touchy subject with Amazon. They do not want you to solicit or pay for reviews, but so many sellers resort to this to boost their listings. To stay on the right side of Amazon’s rules, you must never offer money, free products, or any kind of discount/benefit for writing or modifying a review.
There are ways around this, including coupon campaigns, but always be sure to err on the side of caution so that you don’t get your Amazon Seller account suspended or banned.
Inaccurate Listings
If you consistently publish inaccurate listings, or poorly describe products, then you will eventually be banned from selling on Amazon. Poor listings like this directly impact the customer experience and if you want to be a successful seller, then you should want to have high-quality and accurate listings.
If you are getting a warning about your listings and don’t know why get some professional help immediately to nip this issue in the bud.
Wrong UPC Codes
UPC codes, colloquially known as barcodes are a unique identifier of your product and it is important that they are accurate. Amazon uses these codes to keep a track of the products listed on the platform and your codes should be unique to you and your products.
Too many sellers overlook the importance of these codes and generate their own, or buy from dodgy third parties. Always use an authorized UPC code seller, who can ensure you have unique and legitimate barcodes for your products.
Hijacking Listings
Hijacking a listing is when you get a similar or counterfeit of a popular product and sell it on the original product’s listing. This is stealing from the hard work of others and is highly unethical.
Sellers are very aware of hijacking and will report you quickly. There is even software that will alert sellers to hijacking attempts. Amazon acts fast in hijacking cases and your account will be impacted. So don’t do it!
How to open a new Amazon Seller Account After Suspension?
This is not a good idea. Every Amazon expert will suggest you not open another account, it’s too risky. As per Amazon’s Terms of Service, “you may only maintain one Seller Central account for each region you sell.” Others say that you could do so with a legitimate business justification like you own different brands with separate businesses for each or Amazon recruits you in a program where you’re required to open multiple accounts. But it is better to be safe than forever be banned.
While there are a wide variety of ways to appeal a suspension, there are times that a seller simply cannot get the account reinstated. We can suggest two ideas to set up a new Amazon selling account without flagging Amazon:
Setup a new legal entity
- Open a new legal entity for your business. This can be a subsidiary of your existing business. For example, if business A is suspended by Amazon, you can create business B which can be owned by business A and still sell on Amazon.
- A unique bank account, credit card, e-mail, phone number, and tax information is needed.
- Make sure you are not using the same static IP address associated with the suspended account. If all these things check out, you should not run into any issues with the new account.
Buy existing Amazon Seller Account
- Buy an existing Amazon seller account.
- There are various platforms where you can purchase existing seller accounts such as flippa, empire flippers, etc
- There are options to buy both small size and large size amazon seller accounts. One chooses the most suitable based on their requirements.
- It is also suggested to purchase an existing business with verifiable tax information to ensure smooth processing.
Appealing a Suspension or Ban
Getting your account suspended or banned means you have a serious problem on your hands, especially if you rely on your seller account for the majority of your business’s sales. Amazon’s systems can sometimes identify problems where there are none, but luckily they have an appeals system to help you get back in action as quickly as possible.
So what do you do if Amazon has suspended your account? The first thing to do is not panic and make a fatal mistake, like breaking more rules by opening another account. Instead, follow these steps:
- Identify the reason your account was banned or limited. Typically, Amazon will provide the reason for your ban, but may not say exactly which listing or product is at fault.
- Figure out how the mistake happened. Was it poor practice on your part? Did you make a silly mistake or is there something inherently wrong with your processes?
- Fix the identified issues and create a comprehensive Plan of Action (POA) about the problem and how you have fixed it. This is forwarded to the Amazon Seller Performance Team who will review your appeal.
Conclusion
If you’re selling on Amazon, Account Suspension is your biggest obstacle. Once you receive that dreaded notification that your account has been suspended, you need to act on this, and you need to do it fast. However, given how tricky suspensions are, you can’t afford to make mistakes. You need to reinstate your account quickly and resolve the issue using the best solution.
Most of the triggers for listing suppression or suspension are out of your control and are generally triggered by external factors. When this inevitable situation arises during your Amazon selling journey, individual and very specific actions need to be taken to resolve this issue to avoid substantial financial losses and a negative brand reputation. For those lucky enough to have avoided this, it becomes a frantic stressful struggle to put all the pieces together when it does happen. However, with all the ideas and suggestions shared in this article, you will be able to handle such situations a bit more smartly. Happy Reinstatement!
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