As a new seller on Amazon, the fate of your account depends solely on whether you can follow Amazon selling policies and its outlines best practices.
However, beginners selling on Amazon have a series of avoidable mistakes they make so easily when they are not careful or don’t respect Amazon policies. Amazon has purposely put fine print in such requirements so that you should not overlook them. The marketing site sets its selling policies based on shopper experience. Let’s take a look at the 10 avoidable mistakes Amazon sellers should avoid at all cost as they set up accounts, sell on Amazon, or handle orders on Amazon.
-
Creating Beyond One Amazon Seller Account
Amazon allows only one seller account for every Amazon seller. So, if you register more than a single account, you’re violating Amazon policies and risk being sanctioned by Amazon. The fact that Amazon hasn’t yet caught some sellers with more than one account doesn’t mean that they will continue scout-free.
-
Pointing Your Website to Shoppers: Amazon seller
If you point buyers to your website on Amazon, it will be a policy violation. You should neither include a URL in your product nor your information such as the name of your business or product inventory file. Amazon brings sellers and shoppers together but doesn’t favor retargeting and branding opportunities like other platforms do. Instead of playing games with Amazon, strategize on how to pull traffic to your account using legal channels.
-
Copying a Setup from Another Amazon Seller
Don’t think that selling on Amazon doesn’t require a lot of effort. You may copy a setup from a competitor whose account violates some Amazon policies. Also, their account might not be optimized. So, just create your own setup. Remember to be making a regular review of Amazon best practices, test, and audit to improve your seller account.
-
Having a Misunderstanding of Amazon Policies
It is a big mistake to work on Amazon as if it’s eBay or a similar site. Amazon is basically different in structure compared to other shopping sites. You better have a store that can handle Amazon policies and can help you get a great ROI on Amazon. Evaluate your Amazon spend and estimate profit margins to picture your success rate before venturing into Amazon. You can get more information on Amazon Seller FAQs and Amazon seller account on the Amazon’s Seller Account help page.
-
Including Store Marketing Messages or Coupon in your Product Title
It may seem like a good idea that including a sale, coupon, or store marketing message within your product title will promote your store on Amazon. Well, Amazon considers that a serious policy violation. You don’t want your account to be hurt in the long run despite the short-term benefits you may reap from such a violation.
Stay away from using URL or any promotional information related to “discount” or “Lowest Price.” Amazon also shuns descriptive information that is salesy for a product.
-
Adding in Watermarks, Image Borders or Other Descriptions
Amazon takes its image policy quite seriously for the sake of a good user experience that is highly impacted by product images.
Avoid these common image violations:
- Publishing an image that features multiple product colors whereas the products are not sold as one
- Adding animated images
- Including artistic representations or drawings like cartoons
Make sure to cross-check every image before publishing it. Also, get more information about Amazon image policies by reviewing Amazon’s product image requirements.
-
Using Amazon Product Categories that Don’t Match
Amazon has a browse tree whose product categories must match. You can learn the right product information and title formatting by reviewing Amazon’s inventory file templates.
-
Paying for Positive Feedback
Amazon considers user trust a top priority for its success. Sellers have to invest in monitoring and improving what makes their customer metrics score better. That includes shopper reviews. But, it is risky and a violation to try to use paid positive feedback to increase your rating on Amazon. You can leverage to improve on the resources that handle your Seller Feedback management and review this tutorial on product and seller reviews on Amazon.
-
Including Promotional Messages in Images
Amazon doesn’t permit promotion text on images, and you risk being caught for violating that policy. Avoid using messages that include “Free Shipping,” “Sale,” or similar.
-
Being Upset or Arrogant to Customers
It’s common knowledge that there are unreasonably demanding customers on Amazon like elsewhere. It’ll be a big mistake to get upset or argue with them as you sell on Amazon. Ease the situation at all cost. Shoppers on Amazon are already familiar with kind treatment from Amazon (review Amazon’s A-Z guarantee).
The Bottom Line
Basing your content and format on Amazon product information is all you need to do to avoid these mistakes. Note that Amazon puts the customer first, and sellers have no choice but to do the same to excel. Some marketing sites might not be strict on putting the customer first, but Amazon is. Hence, sellers on Amazon must work with that in mind.
