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Fri June 11 2021 22:35:03

Amazon May Penalize Sellers over Listing Policy Violations

By: Ina Steiner

Amazon told sellers to make sure their listings comply with its policies or it could impact them negatively in the future. On Thursday, it issued the following announcement:

Ensure your listings meet detail page guidelines
To provide a great customer experience, it is important that your listings meet our product listing requirements. Before you create your listings, review the style guidelines, Product Detail Page rules, and the Selling Policies and Selling Code of Conduct.

If your listings violate our policies, we may remove content such as bullet points or portions of product descriptions. This will not impact your account health negatively at this stage, but may in the future.

For more information, go to:
1. Product Page Style Guide
2. Product Detail Page Rules
3. Selling Policies and Seller Code of Conduct

One seller pointed out in the comments, "We can't create detail pages anymore unless we own the brand."

Another agreed that many sellers are unable to correct listings in order to comply with Amazon guidelines and asked how they were supposed to correct the page. "Seller Support hasn't helped correct a product detail page in years, and the "brand owner" of the pdp's usually doesn't exist," they wrote.

When a seller recommended colleagues focus on the things they can do, "like following directions" instead of "the negative stuff that we as sellers cannot change," a colleague replied, "Yup... It's not that hard. No issues here with Amazon trying to standardize everything to make the platform cohesive and consistent and get rid of the amateurs so the pros have the ability to prosper."

The announcement and comments can be found on this page on Amazon Seller Central.

When you encounter product detail pages with errors or that don't comply with Amazon policies, how easy is it to get them fixed before you list an offer? And have you ever been penalized for listing an offer on a product page that contains errors?

Comments (4) | Permalink

Readers Comments

Amazon May Penalize Sellers over Listing Policy Violations

by: Rexford

Sun Jun 13 08:03:27 2021

I often list using the "Have One to Sell?" option on the app. Unless something has changed, I have little control as it relates to content of the catalog listing that is already there. Moreover, if I do edit what is there and somehow get it wrong, I will likely be slapped with a deeper violation.

Time and time again I see UPC numbered listings on Amazon that do not match the actual product when I scan the barcode of a product that I am thinking of selling. I can see why Amazon would want to crack down on those folks but honest sellers who are actually trying to do the right thing are likely getting slapped with violations because they try to correct information in an inaccurate listing or if they take a hands off approach due to the fear of being slapped with a violation.

When I encounter a problem with a listing on Amazon, I just move on and list that item somewhere else. My instincts tell me that it will not end well if I go ahead and list it. And when those out of control bots flag my products with any type of warning, such as a "pricing issue", I delete that product and sell it elsewhere. I know what I pay for my products and I need to make at least a modest profit therefore no one will tell me what I can sell it for, especially a mindless bot.

Amazon May Penalize Sellers over Listing Policy Violations

by: Chicago48

Mon Jun 14 04:39:18 2021

AMZ's catalog is screwed up. Trying to list (new) clothing is a nightmare with 100 item specifics. I wonder how the Chinese do it? I've had to resort to categorize clothing in non-clothing categorize to bypass their item specifics requirements. And the search in AMZ is a total fail. Total failure.

Amazon May Penalize Sellers over Listing Policy Violations

by: Mark4

Mon Jun 14 11:02:39 2021

This is all part of Amazon's "master plan" to give exclusive monopoly rights to larger retailers and purge all the small sellers from their site. "Intellectual Property Rights" is the guise they use to get rid of small sellers. Now they are going to look for specifics in the details section to get rid of more small sellers. If you are not a registered brand with Amazon your gonna get the boot. Be ahead of it, we moved all of our listings to Walmart.com Walmart welcomed us and our catalog which amazon had an issue with. Now we sell these items better than we did at amazon hassle free. Also if your a buyer, compare prices at walmart and amazon, walmart wins almost all the time. Amazon is a price gouging selling paradise with all the competition Amazon is throwing off their site. Where is the FTC?

Amazon May Penalize Sellers over Listing Policy Violations

by: mindelec

Mon Jun 14 17:41:33 2021

i have to laugh at this since everytime i look up a hardcover book by isbn amazon takes me to the kindle page.

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