Common Reasons For Amazon Seller Account Suspension or Deactivation
Written by Ashwini, Published by Hani
Account seller account deactivation or suspension can adversely affect the sellers. It can cause income disruption, reputation erosion, and challenge in restoring sales on the marketplace. The suspension or deactivation happens when sellers are alleged of infringing the standards or policies of the business. With a suspended account, sellers forfeit their selling privileges and access to their funds. Here are some of the reasons why Amazon suspend or deactivate sellers account;
A) Seller Account Health:
Account seller account deactivation or suspension can adversely affect the sellers. It can cause income disruption, reputation erosion, and challenge in restoring sales on the marketplace. The suspension or deactivation happens when sellers are alleged of infringing the standards or policies of the business. With a suspended account, sellers forfeit their selling privileges and access to their funds. Here are some of the reasons why Amazon suspend or deactivate sellers account;
A) Seller Account Health:
Sellers on Amazon can be suspended for failing to meet Amazon’s performance targets. The following are the key metrics that needs to be in tact;
i) Order defect rate (ODR): This parameter measures the proportion of orders from a seller that have received negative feedback, an A-to-z Guarantee claim or a service credit card chargeback. To avoid suspension, sellers are required by Amazon to maintain an ODR that is lower than 1%.
ii) Pre-fulfillment cancellation rate: This metric measures the number of order cancellations initiated by the seller before the shipment is confirmed. This type of cancellation by the seller divided by the total number of orders in that period is the cancellation rate. Amazon does not recommend this rate to be over 2.5% to avoid suspension. Generally, higher pre-fulfillment cancellation rates are a result of poor inventory management.
iii) Late shipment rate(LSR): The late shipment rate indicates the orders ship confirmed after the expected ship date as a percentage of total orders, over a specified period. LSR only applies to seller-fulfilled orders. A high number of late shipment rates often lead to customer dissatisfaction since shipments that aren’t confirmed by their ship date by the buyers. Amazon suggests the sellers to maintain a late shipment rate not more than 4%.
iv) On-time delivery: This metric indicates the proportion of packages fulfilled by sellers that customers received on or before the delivery date promised by Amazon on seller central. This number is based on packages that had confirmed tracking information in the system. To provide a good customer rating, sellers are advised by Amazon to maintain an OTD higher than 97%.
v) Valid tracking rate (VTR): VTR measures the percentage of seller-fulfilled packages that have a valid tracking number on Amazon. They suggest that the sellers must maintain a VTR greater than or equal to 95% at a product category level.
vi) Address Customer Feedback : If received negative feedback from customers, sellers should identify the source of the problem and collaborate with the customer to help resolve the issue.
B) Violations of Amazon-restricted products
Rather than one set of product rules, Amazon has specific product restrictions for each of its product categories. Supplying restricted products could be another cause for account suspension, so make sure you check the Restricted Product pages to make sure that your supply is appropriate and whether your supply categories require additional action, like getting pre-approval from Amazon or do not fall under the Hazmat category.
C) Violations of Amazon selling policies
All sellers are expected to adhere to Amazon’s policies when selling products on Amazon. If you don’t adhere, Amazon reserves the right to suspend your account. However, if you are a new seller, it is possible that there may be some policy overseeing issues and or not being adhered to and it may be viewed as a policy violation. Hence, understanding Amazon selling policies and knowing the updated changes would always help in keeping one obliged to the terms of service.
Having understood the reasons why Amazon would suspend or deactivate a seller account, it doesn't mean an end to the seller's selling dream on Amazon. Amazon is open to help the sellers restore the account as there is an option for the seller to appeal by submitting the relevant documents and details requested by Amazon.
Disclaimer:
Amazon is the registered trademark of the e-commerce brand.
Amazon is the registered trademark of the e-commerce brand.
About ChannelMAX.NET :
ChannnelMAX.NET has been helping sellers on various eCommerce platforms since 2005. Some of the eCommerce platforms supported by ChannelMAX.NET are Amazon, Walmart, eBay and Shopify. ChannelMAX.NET has been an Amazon technology partner since 2007. Some of its key offerings include its pricing management tool, the ChannelMAX Repricer, FBA Refunds Management offering, RefundMAX, and ChannelMAX Remote Full-Time eCom Assistants to help its seller partners run their business. The ChannelMAX Repricer is available at the Amazon Appstore.