In our final article on maintaining a healthy Amazon seller account, we will address frequently asked questions and key areas of concern among sellers. Topics that we will touch on include Buyer-Seller communication policies, modifying product listing pages, maintaining consistent delivery performance during the peak season and more.

If you have missed our earlier articles, do refer to the first and second segment of our series on account health. Part I covers the basics on keeping a healthy seller account, while part II addresses common account health issues that sellers encounter.

The following policies and guidelines pertain to Buyer-Seller communication on Amazon:

● Selling Policies and the Seller Code of Conduct
● Customer product review policies
● Communication guidelines
● Answers to questions about product reviews

The Amazon Seller Code of Conduct stipulates that Buyer-Seller messaging is the only approved method for communicating with customers on Amazon. A seller may contact a customer for the purpose of fulfilling the order or providing customer services, and not for marketing or promotional purposes.

Sellers should not attempt to influence customer ratings, feedback and reviews. Amazon has a zero-tolerance policy towards customer review violations, and will take immediate action to address any attempts to manipulate reviews. Amazon may permanently withdraw a seller’s selling privileges, and withhold any funds that may be in the account.

In addition to the above, the Seller Code of Conduct outlines other guidelines that sellers need to adhere to. Access Seller Central, and navigate to “Policies, Agreements & Guidelines > Programme Policies > General Policies” to read the full policy.

Drawing insights from the seller survey we conducted previously, we have identified three areas of Amazon policies that sellers are most concerned about:

● Policies and information on copyright, patent and trade mark infringement: Intellectual Property Policy for Sellers, including FAQs on copyrights, trade marks and patents
● Product Detail Page Rules and the ASIN creation policy
● Category, product and listing restrictions, including general listing restrictions, category requirements, category and products that require approval and the Restricted Products Policy

You can:

● Modify a product description to include additional details or clarifications, rectify grammatical errors or remove content that violates Amazon policy.

You cannot:

● Modify an existing product listing to use it for a new version of a product. If there are any changes in colour, size, material, features or product name, the product is considered to be materially different from the older version. Therefore, it must be listed as a new ASIN.
● Modify an existing product listing after a product rebranding: You are required to create a new ASIN—instead of modifying an existing ASIN—after rebranding a product. This applies even if the product was unbranded, and there are no material changes to the product after the rebranding (e.g. you added a brand to a previously unbranded product).

Further information can be found on the Product Detail Page Rules help page. To locate the resource on Seller Central, navigate to “Policies, agreements, and guidelines > Programme Policies > Product and Listing Requirements”.

Deleting the listing—without successfully resolving the violation—will not remove the listing violation from your Account Health page. If your listing contains content that violates Amazon policy, you will need to remove the offending content and file an appeal for the listing to be restored.

If you believe your listing was mistakenly identified as a restricted product, you will need to submit an appeal, along with documentation to show that you have not violated Amazon’s Restricted Products Policy. Examples of supporting documents include invoices, receipts, authorisation documents, or contracts and delivery orders from manufacturers or brand owners of the product. You may also contact the Amazon support team for assistance.

Further information is available in the following resources:
● How to Maintain Amazon Seller Account Health (Part II)
● Account Health Rating: Frequently Asked Questions
● Category, product and content restrictions

There are several steps you can take to ensure a consistent delivery performance throughout the peak season:

● Monitor your performance metrics: Keeping a close watch on metrics listed under the Shipping Performance section of your Account Health page—Cancelation Rate (CR), Late Dispatch Rate (LDR) and Valid Tracking Rate (VTR)—is important, especially around the peak season. If you are unable to meet Amazon’s performance targets, you will be at risk of having your account deactivated or your product listings removed. This can adversely impact your bottom line, as you may not be able to participate in shopping events or make the most out of the sale opportunities around the peak season.

● Stay on top of your orders: Do not rely on order confirmation emails, as these may be accidentally deleted or blocked by your spam filter. Check your Amazon Seller app and Seller Central at regular intervals throughout the day, and fulfil new orders daily.

● Update your inventory regularly to avoid running out of stock. And if you have many SKUs and are selling in multiple channels, consider using inventory management software and automation tools to improve your inventory planning.

● Keep your customers updated: Monitor the progress of your orders while they are in transit. If you notice any delays, notify your customers immediately. If you know you are unable to fulfil an order, cancel it as soon as possible and follow up with an apology to the customer. Customers may be more forgiving when the cancellation occurs immediately, rather than after the expected ship date.