Sellers be warned, Amazon seems really peeved by those who violate its drop-shipping policy. It issued another reminder to sellers about its policy on Friday.
In January, Amazon updated its drop-shipping policy page, and as we noted at the time, it can irritate buyers if they feel they ordered something on one marketplace and ended up getting it from a seller on a different marketplace.
In its May 14th announcement, Amazon said it had (again) updated its Drop Shipping Policy page “to provide additional details about our policy and help you adhere to the guidelines.”
Amazon wrote in part:
When a customer sees packaging and invoices/receipts identifying a seller that is not you or Amazon, they may be confused about how their order is being fulfilled and who they should contact with any problems or questions.
If you intend to fulfill orders using a drop shipper, you must always:
- Have an agreement with your supplier that they will identify you (and no one else) as the seller of the record of your products on all packing slips, invoices, external packaging, and other information that is included or provided in connection with the products
- Remove any packing slips, invoices, external packaging, or other information identifying a third-party drop shipper prior to shipping the order
- Be responsible for accepting and processing customer returns of your products
- Comply with all other terms of your seller agreement and applicable Amazon policies.
You can find the full announcement on Amazon Seller Central. Clearly it’s something of concern to Amazon – consider yourself warned.
Amazon can get bent.