As a former long-time member of Seller Performance, Amazon’s team responsible for monitoring and regulating the Amazon third-party marketplaces, I have seen far too many sellers run their businesses without a proper understanding of rules and procedures needed to stay the path towards a highly-disciplined, clean operation.

1. to ensuring that your account remains in good standing with Amazon
LET’S TALK ABOUT SPECIFIC STEPS YOU CAN TAKE TODAY
you can contact him at : chris@ecommercechris.com
As a former long-time member of Seller
Performance, Amazon’s team responsible for
monitoring and regulating the Amazon
third-party marketplaces, I have seen far too
many sellers run their businesses without a
proper understanding of rules and
procedures needed to stay the path towards
a highly-disciplined, clean operation.
The Definitive Guide
OF YOUR AMAZON SELLER ACCOUNT
If you want to see Chris speak more about these topics in
person, join us at the PROSPER Show in Salt Lake City,
February 8-9, 2016, www.prospershow.com
1 REMEMBER YOUR AMAZON BUSINESS IS YOUR RESPONSIBILITY
Not Amazon’s. Know the rules. Competitors may be committing
policy violations, but that should not be interpreted as a free
pass to rule-breaking. While you may see a competitor doing
something you were just told not to do, remember you have to
keep your account in good standing and not focus on what
other sellers are up to. You can report other sellers, but first and
foremost, you have to keep your own account in good standing.
If another seller is page tampering on one of your listings or
created bad product detail page content to the detriment of all,
you always have the option of reporting their activities to
Amazon teams for corrective action.
2MANAGE YOUR BUSINESS TOWARDS A CLEAN BILL
OF ACCOUNT HEALTH
Monitor daily on main page of Seller Central. Each requires
specific actions on your part:
Order defect rate
Cancellation rate
Late shipment rate
Policy violations
On-time Delivery
Contact Response Time
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3 MOVE PRODUCTS INTO FBA
If you have any doubts about your own customer-facing
operations, getting your products into FBA will reduce
significantly a lot of potential operational issues that will hurt
your performance metrics. Let FBA worry about order
fulfillment and getting your orders to buyers on time. FBA use
also improves your chances of winning the Buy Box, which
means more revenue to you.
4KNOW EACH OF YOUR SUPPLIERS WELL
Know each of your suppliers well – who are they? Where are
they getting product? Are they sourcing legitimate product?
Are they offering you prices that are too good to be true?
Ultimately, selling illegitimate, counterfeit or in any way
“materially different” will not be worth it in the long run.
You will get caught, you will be punished, and you will find
it very difficult to get your account back.
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When the time comes that you do get into some trouble with
Amazon, you’ll need to have your paperwork in order, ready for
easy access to share with Amazon, as requested.
KEEP TRACK OF ALL OF YOUR SOURCING DOCUMENTATION
6BE CAREFUL OF YOUR PARTICIPATION IN AMAZON'S
COMMINGLED FBA INVENTORY PROGRAM
While co-mingling FBA inventory can reduce your immediate
costs, it represents the same type of risk a smoking two-packs
a day – eventually it may catch up with you and cause you big
problems. Items sourced from an FBA Warehouse located
closer to the buyer may be sourced from another seller with
the same inventory that you have. However, if the buyer claims
that the item is in any way not as you had represented it on
Amazon, the policy warning will go to you, not to the other
seller. This puts you at risk for policy violations and eventual
account shut down.
7 REQUEST AND MONITOR CUSTOMER FEEDBACK
Often will help you find early warnings of problems to come.
There are inexpensive, effective solution providers that offer
help here, including feedbackfive.com, feedbackgenius.com,
and bqool.com. Finding out exactly what a buyer considered
different about an item they have received can help you prevent
future instances of the same complaint and/ or identify areas in
your listings that are unclear. You do not want multiple buyers
complaining to Amazon that the items they have received are
not as you had described them in product detail page content.
8CROSS-TRAIN YOUR WAREHOUSE STAFF TO AVOID GETTING
STUCK WITH LATE SHIPMENTS DUE TO THE UNEXPECTED
ABSENCE OF A SINGLE WAREHOUSE EMPLOYEE.
Orders shipped late or orders not arriving on time for
whatever reason means a bad buyer experience and
undermined trust in the marketplace. Those buyers
also won’t be ordered from you again in the future.
They have come to expect what Amazon does best,
deliver orders in a timely and reliable manner.
9 READ ALL EMAILS AMAZON SENDS YOU
Whether general policy notifications, rule changes, etc. While
Amazon may not always tells you the specific reason why YOU
are receiving a particular note, there is almost always a good
reason why you are receiving each note sent. It’s up to you to
make sense of the notes, even if that means reaching back out
to Amazon for clarification.
10NO FUNNY BUSINESS, EVER
There may be temptation along the way to resell used product
as new, or include questionable product in an otherwise
legitimate batch of product. If you get caught doing anything
egregious like selling counterfeit product, or trying to pay a
customer for good feedback, you can expect a permanent ban
from selling on Amazon. Amazon is intent on creating the best
buyer experience on the planet, and expects, in fact, demands
that you contribute to this effort with 100% cooperation. The
Product Quality team is ready to intercede and take action on
any seller found to be violating policy, whether accidentally or
intentionally, in order to protect Amazon’s reputation as a safe
and effective marketplace.
selling on Amazon is hard
Remember! The rules are there to protect customers, sellers
and Amazon alike. While you may not like the
rules, you have to know the rules and follow the
rules, or anticipate problems to find you.
AMAZON TEAM
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