If you sell on Amazon, you need to play by its strict rules. Failure to follow seller guidelines can result in suspension and penalties. You may not even be able to sell on Amazon again. But we want sellers to avoid these mistakes so they can be successful on the growing e-commerce platform. Check out these 7 common mistakes that sellers make that can result in account penalties!
1. Running Out of inventory
Amazon takes inventory very seriously. Overselling is a big mistake on this online selling platform. Provide accurate information about whether or not an item is in stock. Managing your inventory diligently can help you avoid overselling. If you do oversell, Amazon may suspend you, penalize your account, or block you from selling again on Amazon.
2. Incorrect Product Information
Although the marketplace is competitive, there’s no reason for you to ever lie about your product. Include only accurate information and avoid misleading sentences or false promises. Having complete and correct product listing information will ensure that buyers are getting exactly what they are looking for.
3. Incentivized Product Reviews
Do not attempt to manipulate reviews or provide incentives for positive reviews. Amazon wants reviews to contain honest and authentic feedback. Therefore, it penalizes sellers who create false, inauthentic, or misleading product feedback. That doesn’t mean that you can’t ask for feedback. In fact, sellers should encourage customers to leave reviews! But you can’t sway or nudge your customers to give a review that isn’t 100% honest.
4. Not Having a Main Image with a White Background
Amazon clearly specifies what a main image should look like. Main images should have a pure white background. Simply by having a background that isn’t white, sellers are asking for penalties. Main images should show the actual product and can’t be an illustration. In addition, they should be larger than 1000 pixels in either height or weight to enable Amazon’s zoom feature.
5. Claiming Healing Effects
Especially if you are in the healthy category, it’s important to be careful with your wording. If your product doesn’t meet FDA standards and regulations, you can’t claim to cure or treat diseases and conditions. Instead, you need to say that your product can help with symptoms.
6. Not Optimizing with Keywords
Because Amazon is a search engine, keywords are crucial! Customers enter a query in the search bar, and Amazon identifies products that most closely match that search string. Amazon looks at the content in the title, bullet points, and product description (among other factors) to determine if a product should rank for that search string or not. If your content isn’t optimized with keywords, you’re wasting your time. Follow this guide to find keywords to incorporate into your product listing content.
7. Ignoring Poor Account Health
Amazon uses several factors to determine your account health. These factors include cancelling orders, delivering on time, and answering customer emails. If you ignore these performance metrics, Amazon will revoke your selling privileges. It wants sellers who are truly devoted to good customer service and quality products.
We hope that you’re not breaking any of these rules. But if you are, they can be fixed! Start by reading through Amazon’s policies and procedures to make sure you understand the rules. But it can still be complicated to understand everything, and there may be additional issues to address with Amazon. Nozani can help! We have Amazon experts who are constantly researching policy changes, and we can help you avoid these common mistakes. Contact us to get started. We would love to do a complete account analysis to see if there are any unresolved issues.
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