If you have been operating on Amazon long enough to know the ropes, then you are no stranger to Amazon seller suspensions and have probably heard about the grueling process of appealing Amazon seller suspensions and the issues which come with reinstating seller accounts. Hey, you may have even been suspended at some point yourself.
Whether you’re an Amazon seller suspension survivor or not, this Got Suspended Clients blog will be of great use to you. Sellers get suspended on Amazon left and right, and at first glance, no one really knows why. Sometimes account will get shut down for no apparent reason, and Amazon’s email will be vague as to why, and it falls on the shoulders of the seller to dig out the root cause of their suspension, with hopes of appealing their Amazon seller suspension and getting out of the wormhole.
But how come seller account suspensions occur so often? Let’s take a gander at this:
Number One: Safety
Customers mean everything to Amazon. In fact, it’s an inarguable fact that Amazon thrives on its customers because without them, there is no Amazon. The building blocks of the world’s largest online platform consists of relentless clicks made by customers on the e-commerce giant’s website per day. Amazon, in turn, is very caring towards its customers and has put top-notch customer service at its highest priority. From Amazon Prime’s two-day shipping plans to designing flying drones (yes, you heard that right!), Amazon always strives to be on top of the game when it comes to customer service. Providing safety for its customers on and off the website is indeed a part of this incentive.
In some cases, sellers will get their Amazon seller central accounts suspended simply because A9, Amazon’s main algorithm, decides that they are a threat to Amazon’s customers. In some cases, the suspension is just, because sellers are in fact a threat (more on this later!). In other instances, they are merely suspended due to a lack of information. In either case, Amazon is trying to provide a secure platform for its customers, making sure their purchase experience runs as smoothly as possible.
Number Two: Reputation
With operations expanding globally and years of experience under its belt, Bezos’ creation is constantly looking for ways to both protect and add on to its reputation as the leading shark in the e-commerce ocean. One way it does this is through eliminating rogue and unwanted sellers on its platform. What this means is that any seller which potentially breaks Amazon’s rules even in the slightest way possible, they will be hit with the suspension hammer. Why? Well, because Amazon is hellbent on keeping its reputation clean by showing that it allows only legitimate and law-abiding sellers on its platform.
Recently it has been cracking down heavily on counterfeiters and price-gougers and is enforcing its pricing regulations even more strictly than before. If a seller sells fake or copied products, they will get their seller account suspended immediately because both Amazon can detect these products easily, and brands are also on the lookout for sellers who infringe on their intellectual property rights.
When COVID-19 hit the international marketplace with a vengeance, some sellers made the mistake of being sneaky and greedy, raising the price of essential products to fish in some extra cash. Amazon was quick to respond by suspending accounts left and right. Now in some cases, sellers were unjustly suspended. They did, in fact, increase the pricing, but purely out of necessity because manufacturing costs had risen. Luckily Amazon will reinstate these accounts when they prepare a clear-cut appeal which showcases that they were in the right when they raised the prices.
Why does Amazon take its Fair Pricing Policy this seriously? Well, because not only is violating pricing policies during times of crisis an inhumane thing to do, cracking down on such sellers will also serve in cementing Amazon’s reputation as a just marketplace, even though it is also criticized on issues at the backend of things.
Number Three: Protecting the Brands
Managing a brand is not an easy task. Everything must be taken into consideration, from managing manufacturing costs to employee management, to marketing, to monitoring MAP compliance. It can indeed be a hassle. That’s why Amazon assists brands by suspending seller accounts who violate any sort of rule related to a given brand. This can be either a MAP violation, meaning sellers raising the minimum advertised price dictated by the brand, or sellers selling unauthorized copied versions of a brand’s products. Sometimes certain sellers will list products from a brand for which they have no selling authorization. What this means is that they either purchased those products from unauthorized distributors, or they did not know that they had to get letters of authorization directly from the brands, along with not ordering through authorized distribution companies. This could be done either with ill intent or simply because of a lack of knowledge. Either way, the Amazon seller central account will get suspended and will have to be reinstated through appeals or even legal action in some cases.
How Do Sellers Respond to Suspensions?
The reasoning behind Amazon suspensions is different from case to case. Obviously, unlawful sellers should, by logic, know why they were suspended. You need to know the rules before you break them, right? But for some sellers, the suspensions come suddenly like a thief in the night, and they are left scratching their heads as to why it happened. As an example, sellers might get suspended simply because they added or removed a piece of information on their Seller Central dashboard. Unknowingly, they made a move that A9 decided was against Amazon’s policies and suspended the account to figure out what exactly happened. In other cases, a seller might order products which they do not realize are either restricted, or they are not allowed to sell them.
When suspensions hit, there are usually two types of sellers:
- Those who panic. These types of sellers lose control of their logic and try to get their accounts back on their own and usually, this just adds insult to injury because they are not fully aware of the steps they must take, and they make matters worse.
- Those who calculate their next move. They are the ones who pay close attention to Amazon’s requirements, go through their business, and pinpoint problems. They take calculated steps and try to work with Amazon on getting their accounts back.
Which of these two do you think has a higher chance of success? It takes a great deal of time and patience to reinstate seller accounts on Amazon. Especially when Amazon starts sending you generic responses, and gives you what many sellers on the platform called the “kiss of death.” The proper thing to do is to trust your Amazon seller suspension to a professional account reinstatement team such as us at Got Suspended Clients. With our shining record of reinstating seller accounts (in both easy and difficult cases), you can rest assured that we can have you up and running on Amazon in no time. Meanwhile, we advise that you run an honest business and act as a law-abiding seller in order to wholly avoid suspensions from the get-go!
