I would agree with you except I have had issues with variations in the paste. Amazon took down some of my listings and I got an account health warning. Enough of those and they will suspend your account.
If you are the brand owner of these products, it’s probably worth cleaning it up before Amazon decides to do it their way with a sledge hammer when an X-Acto blade is really the tool needed.
I would take the time to clean it up if it’s your brand. Instead of trying to do a flat file of 700 listings, try cleaning them up category by category. Download a flat file for each category, then you can cut/paste the products that are incorrect from your master list. Select “partial update” from the Update Delete column of the sheet and include ONLY what you want to change beyond the seller sku that will identify the product. Doing this leaves everything else exactly as it is now and will only update what you tell it to update.
This is going to take some time but doing it by category instead of all your listings at once gives you an opportunity to look for and fix errors within that category instead of trying to fix all the errors (and possibly creating more) for all your listings.
So when I was first researching why my listing was not selling, I downloaded the Category file and it had the audacity to show that everything was correct, including the node.
But it wasn’t. Even the file was incorrect, and what was live on the internal server was incorrect.
The only way to see what they really thought was to go to Edit and see the grey text above the input box.
Also, speaking of nodes, I got an alert that the same listing was being penalized for missing a “leaf node”, which is the final part of the tree. I put in an SAS request, showing that an SAS report confirmed the leaf node was missing, hurting the listing, and needed correction. After two weeks they said its fine without it and didn’t “fix” it.
So, umm, classic Amazon support, even when paying for it.
That’s the way I’d do it. See what it displays live on each listing.
Forever I didn’t realize the breadcrumbs were hidden if you visited with the ?ref=myi_title_dp still on the URL. but Amazon fixed that. Was seriously a weird idea. And if you search out your product (which might not be the best since counts as a search visit), breadcrumbs don’t exist either, favoring “back to results”
I’m familiar with the term “browse tree node” – from back when Handmade first started…and complaints (feedback to Amazon).
I think that I as the seller can see it, but I don’t think the customer can see it.
I’ll have some time soon to do the homework.
The other way this affects my listings is when the listing has suggested improvements because certain fields are not filled in.
Back in the day…on the left side of a buyer’s screen, or at the top, you’d get drop downs…so say Kitchen. Then on the left side, a customer would see the first break down and could eliminate or whittle it down to the category they were looking for.
IF my item is considered a “candle” – how is that supposed to show up in place-mats? On my end, it looks right. Am I supposed to go to incognito mode and test all 66 items? Does Amazon think I’m bored? Venting…but thanks!
leaf node is basically the end most tip of the browse tree node. According to the report, you can be one short, sort of like a parent node, which it allows but penalizes.
Again, doesn’t make sense, but my payment to SAS had them give me the benefit of letting me know I am not in the “leaf node” for one product that has been mysteriously penalized (after an automated browser node update) and then, when I put in the ticket to fix, they say the listing is in the correct node.
So the answer comes with confusion direct from Amazon
This is when you insist that it gets corrected. This is total BS. This is what you are paying for.
I’d just keep escalating and escalating until they fix the squeaky wheel. There’s no limit to how many times you can escalate something with SAS if it’s not resolved. Believe me, I know. They don’t like me over in the escalation department and Jimmy Cracked Corn and I don’t care…
Maybe right now the issue doesn’t matter but the next time Amazon adds another piece of duct tape to some algorithm and this issue exists, you might have a big problem again.
