Amazon is a great place to resell products or to sell wholesale if you are not violating the IP of a brand that doesn't want that type of activity on Amazon. Essentially it is a great business for long-term players and is not encouraged for short-term flippers because if you treat it as such, you’re likely to get burnt out fast. Several things can happen that could get your account marked or even shut down by Amazon.
A good part of Amazon’s business model is focused on the execution of its third-party sellers. This simply means Amazon requires that all third-party sellers provide regular product quality to make sure you have the same high customer satisfaction standards as it does. Customers come first on Amazon and this is demonstrated by how seriously Amazon relies on its seller feedback and seller ratings to deliver a solid customer experience.
As a way to measure performance, Amazon then enforced certain metrics and policies to provide sellers with the tools needed to check and improve their performance. To understand more about account health, what metrics to pay attention to as an Amazon FBA reseller, and how to maintain Amazon account health, keep reading.
What is account health?
This is a section within seller central where Amazon displays all the metrics it uses to monitor you as a seller. It is the complete representation of your account complying with Amazon's rules and regulations. As an Amazon Online Arbitrage Seller, There are many metrics you need to maintain to continue selling on Amazon FBA; falling short will lead to a warning, account suspension, or if not rectified, the possibility of losing your account.
To keep your selling privileges on Amazon intact, it is critical to pay attention to Amazon’s metrics and policies. You can view your account health page in seller central. This page showcases a handful of important metrics that you, as an Amazon FBA reseller, need to stay on top of.
What are the key Amazon account health metrics for third-party Fulfilled by Amazon sellers?
Although Amazon already deals with fulfillment and handles returns and exchanges for participants of its Amazon FBA program, there are still certain metrics you need to be mindful of on a day-to-day or week-to-week basis as an Amazon Fba third-party seller, just to ensure that your account is in good order and that Amazon isn’t worried about your ability to sell on its marketplace.
Amazon is strict with how many stores one can open on its marketplace, so it's not likely that you can easily mess up the metrics of one store and try to set up another without hassle. Having multiple problems or complaints with your account health is likely to lead to things such as account suspensions or even losing your account selling privilege.
However, not all the metrics in the account health section are directly related to Amazon FBA resellers, but it is important to pay attention to the ones listed below;
Policy Compliance: It comprises the products you sell and the listing information you provided about those products. Policy compliance metrics show you how many violations or problems you have with your account. It is advisable to keep this as low as possible, as too many policy compliance warnings could bring your account health from good, down to amber, and then red which is poor. Once you get into the poor section, there is a very high risk of account suspension or even losing your account if not addressed quickly.
IP complaints: When you try to sell on marketplaces such as Amazon, some brands do not want you to sell their products on those marketplaces and this situation does affect mostly online arbitrage sellers and retail arbitrage sellers. Those sellers buy from another store; either online or physical stores at lesser costs and are looking to sell these branded products on Amazon’s marketplace for a profit. Now the problem arises when they try to sell brands that have a history of going after online sellers who are reselling their products.
Amazon takes IP complaints very seriously and if you get enough of these complaints, your account will get shut down.
3 ways you can predetermine if a product is going to have IP complaints and if that product is a no-go.
- If the brand is on a listing and no one else is there, and you try to sell such products, you may get away with it for a few weeks, but once you get noticed, the brand is likely going to contact you or go straight to Amazon to mark your account.
- When there is a sudden drop in sellers. Indicating that the brand is controlling the prices.
- Conduct an extensive IP complaints search for the brand you plan to sell.
Product Compliance Request: Amazon wants to be sure the product third-party sellers are offering is safe and compliant with regulations. Usually, when you first start selling or afterward, Amazon requires you to provide documentation for the products you are selling. Things such as product certificates, labels of conformity, and even declarations of conformity (DOC) all need to be uploaded and shared with Amazon as quickly as possible.
This is not to say that missing one will put your account in the trouble zone, but ideally getting them all filled out and passing it onto Amazon is safer so they can ensure they are getting the right documentation, while you keep your account metrics in good standing.
Return Dissatisfaction Rate ( RDR ): Quite simply, this is a metric to gauge the rate at which customers are satisfied or not with their return experience. It's best for your account health if the return dissatisfaction rate stays below 10%. The RDR can rise if you:
- Get negative feedback (Negative Return Feedback Rate),
- Don’t respond to the return request within 48 hours (Late Response Rate), or
- Incorrectly deny the return request (Invalid Rejection Rate)
How to Maintain and Address Good account health
For Amazon FBA resellers, ensure your products are sourced reliably and get whatever required documentation as you do so as they could become useful at some point.
It is also important to understand regional and local regulations affecting the product you sell to prevent being caught in the crosshairs of policy compliance infringements.
In summary, to maintain ‘Good’ account health, sellers should address all policy violations promptly. If the AHR score is ‘At Risk’ or ‘Critical’, the account may be at risk of deactivation.
Amazon sends out much documentation requests that third-party sellers may not always be able to fulfill. Still, it's important to maintain communication, reach out to them and provide what you can as opposed to none at all.
A final thing worth considering is that Amazon is mostly driving on momentum over inventory, so for third-party seller's offerings, running out of inventory does little good for positive account health.
