If your business plan involves the word drop-shipping, your odds of getting suspended for life go way up.
If your business plan involves keeping the retail receipts, your odds of getting suspended for life go way up.
You get one account for life. If you get suspended, that’s it - forever - in many cases. Do your homework first, and don’t plan on learning by doing.
If your business plan involves selling a brand name that your parents would recognize and you don’t have a letter from some Director or VP level person saying that’s ok, your odds of getting suspended for life go way up.
If your business plan involves selling “one that’s even better than the one in the listing” on that listing, your odds of getting suspended for life go way up.
A brand is a brand if Amazon makes it a brand, even if you can’t find it in a database at USPTO or elsewhere.
If you’re dealing with some company that is telling you that you can make lots of money selling their stuff on Amazon, ask yourself why they aren’t just selling it there themselves.
When Amazon asks for some piece of paperwork, make sure everything on it (Name, address, etc) exactly matches everything else you submit along with it.
Doing things to increase your number or rating of reviews makes your odds of getting suspended for life go way up.
If your business plan involves selling nutritional supplements or beauty products, your odds of experiencing black-hat behavior go way up.
On Amazon, education from Seller University is more useful than a business degree from an actual university.
Reading this Forum is the best way to gain experience without pain and costs.
Your odds of getting suspended for life are directly proportional to how many hours of YouTube video you’ve watched about selling on Amazon.
If you are selling something that’s valuable enough to steal, eventually one of your “customers” is going to use Amazon’s policies creatively to get one for free. You’ll likely be out of luck.
If you are selling something that is blue, your customers will return it because they don’t like blue ones. You’d think the pictures of your blue item and the word “blue” in the description would prevent this, but it won’t. You may get a negative review for it being blue. See #28 with regard to getting the review removed.
If you think anything in this effort is going to happen quickly, it won’t. Except suspensions. Those things are quick!
“Everybody else is doing it” is not a plan of action.
The most useful forum responses are often the most brutal.
If your business plan involves selling inexpensive books, you’re not going to make money.
If your business plan involves selling expensive books, you’re in for a lot of drama from both your customers and the Bots.
Sending to FBA can sometimes take many weeks before they’re available to sell. Account for this with regard to cash flow.
Sooner or later, everything gets counted as a pesticide for a while. Any claim your product makes that implies it prevents any sort of biological deterioration makes this much more likely.
Amazon wants your customers to have the same experience with you that they do with Sold by Amazon stuff. Definitely not worse, but not better either. If you’re looking to provide a personal, customer-centric experience, this isn’t the place to be. If you want to have a return policy your customers will love, you’re in the right place.
If you’re selling FBM, Amazon expects you to have a backup plan for if you have a personal catastrophe that stops you from shipping things that are ordered. Have a person who knows how to put your account on vacation before they come see you in the emergency room.
All kinds of things go wrong in shipping. Buying your FBM shipping from Amazon patches up a lot of problems from an account-health standpoint, assuming you get your stuff scanned in on time.
If you’re selling FBA, expect some breakage/lost product. Price this in.
If you’re selling FBA, your returns may not always be handled as you would have handled them. Expect that something used may get shipped out again. This will ding your reviews.
It’s almost impossible to get a bad review removed.
Your customer is going to break your product doing something you wouldn’t have possibly imagined, then return it, and Amazon will let them. Price this in.
Do lots of research before selling outside of the United States. Ask in the forums about experiences selling into the country you’re considering. Then probably don’t do it on this platform.
Don’t count on Prime day doing anything for you. Expect slower sales the week before.
Business plans that involve having lots of stock at Amazon have a deteriorating outlook at this point.
Selling your product next year will probably be harder than selling it this year. The degree to which this is true is proportional to the number of federal and state regulations that apply to your product type.
Half of the people on the forum don’t know what they’re talking about with regard to when to collect sales tax. I’m still trying to figure out which half.
Amazon is teasing you by showing you the contact information of your customers. There’s pretty much no valid reason to contact them. If you think you have a valid reason, run it by the forum first. Then probably still don’t.
You have cold, monetary a business relationship with Amazon only. Just like you would quit selling here if it ceased to be to your advantage, they’ll make you quit selling here if it’s ever to their advantage. This includes you being more trouble to deal with than you’re worth from a profit standpoint. They have no interest in helping you learn from mistakes that violate policies.
Things are going to change. Always have an idea in the back of your mind of what you would do if Amazon no longer wanted to let you sell your products on their platform or if the cost structure changed in a way that made your business plan unviable.
An item is inauthentic unless you can show it is not. A retail receipt will not show authenticity. Nor will having bought the exact item you’re selling on Amazon in the past. A true business-style invoice from the manufacturer is typically how Amazon wants you to be able to show an item is authentic.
Creating a new account is never the answer to a problem
You can’t sell an item on a page with a clickable brand name even if the items are obviously identical and came from the same nameless factory
Despite the name, Costco Wholesale is not a wholesaler, and a receipt from Costco won’t fly as an invoice. Buying name-brand stuff there and reselling it on Amazon will likely lead to a suspension
Buying something from a Brand’s .com web site is not the same as having a commercial (wholesale) relationship with them, and permission to sell. The receipt you got with your order is still likely to be seen as a receipt, not an invoice, and probably won’t fly to show that what you’re selling is authentic or to prevent brand related issues.
Sending multiple emails or submitting the same thing more than once will probably make things go slower not faster, and may count towards a limited number of appeals/POAs/etc. you get to solve your problem before a permanent suspension occurs. Response times from Amazon is often measured in weeks, not days or hours.
Telling people who respond to your forum question that their response is “off topic” may mean that you’re missing the bigger picture of your problem.
It’s now demonstrably easier to send a man into space than to build a bot that can tell the difference between text that is a product description and text that is part of a book title.
If you press the “Call Me Now” button often enough it can disappear. Be judicious.
For FBM sellers taking the time to research and understand every shipping method and free shipping material option available through the USPS can have a great return on investment, and make the difference between profit and loss on a low-value sale. You also need to understand what you get paid to ship an item, which varies for individual and professional sales accounts.
Find a friend who only half listens to what you say. Then explain to them the steps involved in Amazon processing your planned FBA shipment. Have them repeat it back to you. If they can’t repeat it verbatim the first time you explain it, then consider finding a way to make it easier to process, such as only having one SKU per carton or labeling the items yourself. This will reduce the likelihood that the wrong product will be shipped when an order is placed.
Just because the seller interface lets you list something, it doesn’t mean you’re allowed to do it according to Amazon policy. There may a bot coming 4 days behind it who is eventually going to find it to be a policy violation and possibly suspend your account.
Leaving up your old listings for things that you don’t currently sell and probably won’t sell again can lead to compliance headaches when old listings violate new policies. Consider removing them if you don’t need them anymore.
Amazon sees having a listing for something as intent to sell that thing, even if you never sold one and don’t have any in stock to sell at the moment.
Anecdotal evidence says that it’s a good idea to limit the places where you log into your Seller Central account from. Amazon may be linking accounts together based on the IP address from which you log in. If you get linked to a suspended account, your account may be suspended as well. Logging in from Public Wi-Fi, your day-job, or a VPN service may cause amazon to think you have a relationship with a (suspended) stranger’s account that also logged in from that location. This may also apply to services that help you with your Amazon account by logging in as you (Virtual Assistants, search optimization, etc.) since the people running those services may log into lots of Seller accounts from the same computer. This advice is highly speculative, because Amazon doesn’t reveal how they determine linked accounts.
Sooner or later one of your items will catch on, with sales spiking… This will lead to a Velocity Review and suspension of your sales. (from @AnOnyxMouse)
Everything takes three weeks, unless it takes longer. (from @AnOnyxMouse)
Raising the price 5% is too much, but lowering it by 5% is also too much. (from @AnOnyxMouse)
Red flags for me… expensive item, expedited shipping, different buyer then address. Not always fraudulent, but with the above I do a google search for the shipping address - especially if it’s an “apartment” address - if it looks at all like a warehouse, then it’s probably fraud. I will cancel the order with the reason (from the menu) “address not found”. (from @mn3boys)
When in doubt - just sell it - somewhere else… (from @vespa)
Interesting issues, move on to another platform… (from @vespa)
Not every widget you come across - you can make some money with - is a good fit for Amazon… that’s why you should have plan B - plan E -plan M - plan O plan P- & Maybe HIP… (from @vespa)
If Amazon says you did something against the TOS, you are guilty until proven innocent (from @Bug_seller)
You need Amazon more than Amazon needs you (from @Bug_seller)
Just because something seems acceptable today or maybe in a gray area (like sending an automated email to a customer asking for a review with subtle text/image that 5 stars would be good) doesn’t mean that Amazon won’t suspend you later, sometimes much later, because of it (from @Bug_seller)
PPC is for Amazon to make money - it is great if it also generates sales for you; but if your campaign is not working as planned, ask yourself “how is Amazon making money? why are other products appearing instead of mine? do they have a higher bid, more clicks, etc?” while you will not be able to come to a conclusive conclusion it might offer some insight. (from @Bug_seller)
Keywords - know your ****ing keywords. How are people going to find your product? Always look for new keywords, know the search volume, know how your competitors are getting sales. (from @Bug_seller)
Just because the top seller is selling 3,000 per month and has 2,000 reviews doesn’t mean that you will have the same level of sales with your new product. You don’t need to/shouldn’t send in 9,000 for 3 months. Start with 200 or less and see what happens. (from @Bug_seller)
Amazon Warehouses are not Climate Controlled. They may have mice or other vermin. Amazon is not responsible for storing and shipping your FBA items in a temperature and humidity controlled setting. You product MUST be designed to withstand all of this. (Partially quoted from @redskitchensink on another thread)
If your post is a story followed by a question, then you should start a new post (thread) rather than replying to one that already exists.
When you break up a relationship with someone related to your Amazon account or business keep good documentation of how and when you clearly severed the relationship. Pretend you have to be able to show in court that you stopped working with them, and organize emails, password change dates, letters, etc. as exhibits. Unfortunately these “corrective actions” may be part of a future POA needed to show your accounts are not related (see #52 above).
Growing too big too fast can cause problems. If your sales grow rapidly in a way that’s not typical Amazon may freeze your funds during a “Velocity Review” to make sure these are real sales and not some kind of scam. These reviews take weeks or longer. If you experience rapid sales growth and would rely on the income from those sales coming in quickly to pay bills or suppliers, plan for how you would deal with a 2 month delay in that revenue. Perhaps a commercial line of credit. (related to #53)
If your Buy Box percentage drops from 100 into the high 90’s, don’t panic. It probably doesn’t mean someone else is getting a sale. Rather, somebody from a market you don’t sell to, maybe Mongolia, wandered onto your listing on Amazon’s main .com site. They saw your listing but didn’t get a Buy Box to click because you don’t ship to Mongolia yet. Since they didn’t get a buy box to click, your buy box percentage dropped slightly. This is nothing to worry about.
If you’re selling your product FBA, understand that you need to package it to withstand a Five-point/Three-foot Drop Test. Amazon may package your item in whatever packaging is cheapest for them to get it to the customer. Generally it’s up to you to ensure that any protective packaging required is already on the product (bubble wrap, outer boxing, etc). Things that are easily broken (coffee mugs, Christmas ornaments, etc.) may not be a good choice for FBA. If a product arrives broken the customer will request a refund and Amazon will grant it.
Amazon FBA is moving from boxes to padded envelopes for many items. Things that get messed up by being bent (e.g. photos, cardstock, art canvas, etc.) need to be packaged in a way that will survive shipment in one of these envelopes.
As a generalization, It is against the terms of service for Amazon prime to buy things using prime for resale. This includes using Amazon prime to drop ship things you are R/A-ing to customers on other platforms. (See @Rushdie 's comment for more Nuance)
If you are drop-shipping from your supplier (the legitimate kind of drop-shipping, not the buying-from-other-retailers kind) have a backup plan for if they can’t fulfill your orders. You and your account will be held responsible for orders that don’t ship. And just canceling all the orders may lead to a suspension if the cancelations are too high of a % of your orders. You may need to personally keep enough stock on hand to fulfill orders that come in between the time you realize your supplier isn’t filling and when you can shut down the listing.
Don’t ever, ever share a credit card with someone that you use for your seller account, or use a credit card you’ve shared with someone else to open your account. This will forever link you to this person as a “related account”. If they have, had, or will ever have an Amazon seller account that gets suspended, your account will be suspended as well until their account is reinstated, which is generally totally beyond your control. Consider setting up a real company, llc, whatever, and opening a bank account and credit card under that company. (Note that all advice on related accounts is somewhat speculative as Amazon doesn’t reveal their related account criteria.)
Your account will forever be at risk if you register your address of the seller account and there is another person (spouse, child, roommate, etc) who has registered an Amazon seller account at the same address. This will forever link you to this person as a “related account”. If they have, had, or will ever have an Amazon seller account that gets suspended, your account will be suspended as well until their account is reinstated, which is generally totally beyond your control. (Note that all advice on related accounts is somewhat speculative as Amazon doesn’t reveal their related account criteria.)
Always have at least six months living expenses in cash or in a bank in case you get suspended. Suspended accounts happen quick, fixing the issue(s) can drag out for months sometimes years.
If your business plan involves Pokemon or other similar trading cards, your odds of getting suspended for life go way up. The fact that there are other people doing what you want to do may just mean they haven’t been caught yet.
If you are selling high end graphics cards you are a major target for “customers” that will try and scam Amazon policies to get one for free, or order one and use it to mine cryptocurrency then return it after a while. Lots of people on the forum have been burned for large dollar amounts selling these cards on Amazon.
You will not last long on Amazon if you read a requirement and then spend effort in trying to find a way around it. (Quoted from @JwsMarket )
If the local high school principal would look at an item and say “Yep, the kids use those to do drugs,” then Amazon likely considers it a prohibited item. Listing it may put your account at risk. Amazon does not seem interested in explanations about how that item also has other perfectly legitimate uses.
If you make a mistake (e.g. accidentally sell more of something than you have stock) you may be tempted to try and fix it and avoid a metrics hit by taking a well-intentioned emergency action (such as drop shipping to your customer from another vendor instead of canceling the order) even though you know your action violates Amazon policy. Doing this can turn a small or medium sized problem into a big problem.
You can NOT create “draft listings” on Amazon. You should always START with accurate data because most Sellers will be unlikely to change “placeholder” data easily, quickly, and/or at all. (from @papyrophilia) –There are some tricks you can use to get an idea of what your listing looks like live without it being searchable or viewable by most, but these are not for newbies. –There is no sandbox for practice. –Do not begin creating a listing until you have all required data available to you.
When you create a SoA (“Selling on Amazon”) Account, Amazon automatically created an associated Buyer Account. This Buyer Account is considered by Amazon to be ‘Primary,’ while the SoA Account itself is considered to be ‘Secondary.’ Amazon’s automated mechanisms may override data entered on the Seller-side with “Primary” data from the Buyer Account or treat Buyer Account data as authorative. You may prevent some types of bot problems by FIRST making credential, credit card, etc. changes on the Buyer-side, waiting for 24+ to 72+ hours, then making the same change on the Seller-side of things. Condensed from the excellent " Ancient Amazonese Secret" thread by @Dogtamer
If your product is “special” in some way that requires you to explain thing to Amazon or ask things of Amazon in order to sell it here ( Such as explaining why your item costs so much more than items a bot would think are the same, or asking Amazon to pack, display, or handle your product in some special way) then it is likely not a good fit for sale on Amazon. In 95% or more of all cases the answer is “No” to a question that starts “Can I ask Amazon…” or “Can I tell Amazon…” or “Can I explain…” .
Drop-Shipping through a reboxing service may still be seen by Amazon as drop-shipping and result in a for-life, no-appeals-accepted suspension.
Never use boxes that you buy at Home Depot / Wal Mart / etc. for shipping large items. Since they may have the retailer’s name on them, you could get suspended for drop shipping, even though you weren’t actually drop shipping. Only use plain boxes for shipping to customers. As of this writing you can use whatever you want to ship your properly sourced items to FBA.
