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Originally published on April 4, 2023, updated August 1, 2023
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Have you ever checked your Amazon sales only to realize…there are none? Even worse, you don’t know why. Your top listing has been down for hours, and you’ve missed a lot of potential sales.
Selling on Amazon isn’t easy. It’s a highly competitive marketplace that moves quickly. It takes tremendous effort to protect your listings, stay in stock, and keep up with market trends.
If your listing is unavailable to shoppers, you need to find a solution, fast. Getting your listings to the top of Amazon’s search rankings is critical to the success of your entire business. Unfortunately, it's all too easy to lose that prime positioning.
In this article, we’ll discuss the listing changes that can affect your search rank and, ultimately, your profitability on Amazon. Then we’ll share solutions to help you act quickly when there are issues with your listings (for example, the listing status change alerts now available in FeedbackFive for Amazon suppressed listings and more!).
For the first two types of listing issues that we’ll discuss below, it's important to understand that when this is taking place, your listing isn't visible in Amazon's search results.
That’s a serious problem, especially when you know that 60% of all US shoppers start their product searches on Amazon. Being invisible means none of those searches are getting to your items.
You’ve spent a lot of time and money developing your products, creating A+ Content, driving traffic with ads, and getting reviews to increase your sales on Amazon. Having a listing unavailable to buyers is an emergency that needs to be handled as soon as possible to protect your product’s search rank and visibility on the marketplace. For every second that you fail to act, the competition is taking away all of your sales.
Keep reading to learn about some of the most common listing problems that impact your profitability plus possible solutions.
Amazon suppressed listings are virtually invisible to shoppers. According to Amazon, "Search Suppressed listings are products which Amazon has removed from the Amazon site product search due to quality reasons. Search suppressed products will not surface in customer searches until action is taken."
Search suppression is a major issue for Amazon sellers. In a recent survey, 59% of respondents told us that they're concerned about listing suppression.
Listings are suppressed due to not meeting Amazon’s guidelines. Common issues include:
If your listing is search suppressed, it can be restored after the issues are addressed. You can check to see if any of your listings are suppressed in Seller Central by going to the Manage Inventory page. If any listings are suppressed, you’ll see a link at the top that will take you to the Fix Your Products page. Click it to see which products are affected and make the changes as needed.
If your Amazon listing becomes inactive, it’s not available to purchase and won’t be visible to Amazon shoppers. The main reasons Amazon listings become inactive are related to stocking issues, manufacturer changes, and policy violations.
For example, if the product goes out of stock and you haven’t restocked or set up automatic restocking, the listing will become inactive. Or, if you discontinue a product and don’t update the listing, it will become inactive. The same is true if you set the product’s availability to “unavailable” in Seller Central or if your account gets suspended for violating Amazon policies.
Need help staying in stock? RestockPro by eComEngine tells you exactly what to restock and when so your inventory levels are never in doubt - or danger.
Listings can also become inactive if the item is no longer being manufactured or if it’s not available for sale. Amazon may also mark a listing inactive if you need additional approval to sell the item, it has received complaints about it, or the listing was not priced competitively compared to other websites.
You can help keep your listings active by staying in stock (have a backup plan for your top-selling items!) and following all Amazon policies very carefully.
If your Amazon listing is inactive, check to see if there are any problems with the product (you can use the same Fix Your Products page) or your account. After resolving any issues, you can reactivate the listing. If the item was discontinued or is no longer available, you can remove it from the marketplace.
Amazon listing hijackers sell their own products on your listing. (Note: Hijacking is not the same as reselling.)
A hijacker benefits from all of your hard work building a great reputation on Amazon as well as your advertising budget. This can cause serious damage to your brand, from negative reviews to an increased return rate.
A change in the number of sellers on your listing could indicate that the hijacker may be selling a counterfeit version of your product, often of a much lower quality.
Changes to your listing content such as the title, images, brand name, and other details could also signal that your listing has been hijacked. Hijackers frequently employ tactics to tweak the details of your listings in an attempt to make your products harder to find in search results or to mislead buyers about their true nature, resulting in unfavorable ratings. Additionally, they may try to make your listings ineligible for advertising (i.e. getting the item flagged as an adult item) or non-compliant, compelling Amazon to suppress or deactivate them.
Learn more: Amazon Listing Hijacking: What It Is and What to Do About It
Have you suddenly lost the Buy Box? While pricing is usually to blame, if you sell a private-label product, losing the Buy Box can be a warning sign that something is wrong. Similar to unauthorized listing content and/or seller changes, Buy Box changes could indicate that a hijacker is now selling a counterfeit version of your product at a lower price. This means that someone could technically win the Buy Box for your own product.
Unfortunately for you, most customers won't even notice. They won't recognize that their order came from a different seller, but you can guarantee that you'll get the full brunt of any bad reviews. Your product and seller reputation has never been more vulnerable.
One of the best ways to protect your listings is to sign up for Amazon’s Brand Registry program. It gives you more control over your listings and you get access to powerful marketing tools. There’s also a dedicated team for submitting and escalating intellectual property infringement claims. You’ll need a trademark to join, which also makes it easier for you to report fraudulent listings.
Make sure your branding is clearly visible in your product photos, on the product itself, and on your packaging. This makes it harder for hijackers to counterfeit your products. It also makes it easier to identify counterfeit items. You can also enroll your products in the Amazon Transparency program to help combat counterfeiters. Creating your own branded eCommerce website can also help increase credibility and trust with your customers.
If your listing becomes suppressed or inactive, act right away to resolve any problems.
FeedbackFive by eComEngine now includes several product listing status change alerts - including for Amazon suppressed listings - that make it quick and easy for you to identify issues. It also gives you recommendations for what to do next so you can get back to selling your product and making a profit.
You can choose to receive an email each time you have a listing status change (suppressed, inactive, or deleted) or you can opt for a daily update. You can also choose to get alerts when your listings become active so you can confirm that you’re back in business!
But that's not all - protecting your Amazon listings just got easier with FeedbackFive's number of offer change (hijacker detection) alerts. We’ll notify you whenever new sellers join (or leave) your listing, giving you a heads-up on potential hijackers attempting to sell counterfeit versions of your products.
With our hijacker detection alerts, you'll have the upper hand in preventing revenue loss and damage to your brand reputation. Plus, you'll receive valuable information like the new seller's rating, product price, and item condition so you can investigate the matter and take the appropriate next steps.
FeedbackFive's listing content alerts are also an invaluable resource for keeping you informed about any changes to your product's title, main image, or brand name. This even includes being flagged as an "adult" item by Amazon, which instantly reduces your visibility on the marketplace. If you did not authorize these changes or if the updated listing contains incorrect information, you must take action quickly to avoid unhappy customers and potential sales losses.
Finally, you can also benefit from FeedbackFive's Buy Box change alerts. To maintain a competitive edge and consistently win the Buy Box, it is vital to have a deep understanding of the key factors that contribute to success. By swiftly responding to any loss of the Buy Box through price adjustments or inventory optimization, you can ensure continuous visibility with customers on the platform.
FeedbackFive sends alerts for two types of Buy Box events:
What are you waiting for? Every minute counts! Sign up today.
Editor's Note: Stay tuned - even more product alerts are coming soon!
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