We have recently answered many questions regarding Amazon account suspensions, and if Viralix is standing with Amazon’s TOS (the “Terms of Service”).
First, Viralix includes many promotional tools for Amazon sellers.
All of our tools are standing with Amazon’s TOS, and in case there will be a change in it, we will adjust ourselves in order to comply with it.
In this blog, we will Host Or Shamosh, the CEO of Seller Appeal – Amazon policy Experts, to talk about what people do when they get themselves suspended, and what you can do to avoid this situation.
Common Suspension - Misuse of....
One of the most common suspensions on Amazon in the last few weeks is because of “Misuse of Rating, Feedback, or Reviews“, “Misuse of Sales Rank“, and “Misuse of Search and Browse” Policies.
Until October 2016, sending coupons in exchange for reviews was a legit way to receive reviews on Amazon.
On October 2016, Amazon released a policy update saying that incentive reviews are no longer acceptable.
Since then, many reviews have been removed, and many accounts have been flagged and locked because of review manipulations.
Sending coupons remained the primary way for launching products, to increase sales velocity and expose the brand and products to as many customers as possible.
Recently, many Amazon sellers were suspended from selling on Amazon because of coupons launches.
Why is this happening? Together with Or Shamosh, the CEO of SellerAppeal.com, we have investigated all cases and found some significant insights and tips about the new suspensions.
Misuse of Rating, Feedback, or Reviews
Most of the suspensions we have investigated and successfully reinstated after sending an appeal, were because of review manipulations “Misuse of Rating, Feedback, or Reviews”
We can see that Amazon is putting more effort to track and suspend accounts who do review manipulations (Even for actions that was perfectly fine until a few months ago)
5 actions you should avoid while launching your product
- Offering discounts in exchange for reviews
- Refunding part or the full price in exchange for reviews
- Sending a massive amount of coupons and following up with review request
- Asking friends and family to review your products
- Asking people to click on “Helpful” for good reviews and report bad reviews
We can see that Amazon started to enforce follow up messages more they did before. For example, checking not only the follow-up messages content but also who gets them. Do you send the follow-up emails to everyone? We highly recommend not sending follow-up messages during promotions.
Misuse of Sales Rank
We can guess Amazon is talking about BSR manipulations, but actually, we have found that other actions are considered as misuse of Sales Rank. After creating many Plans of Action (POA) for Amazon sellers, we have found that some actions probably will cause a suspension.
5 actions you should avoid while launching your product
- Placing orders for your own products
- Asking friends and family to buy your products
- Using many buyer accounts who belongs to the same person
- Sending packages to addresses where the recipient does not order or expect them
- Soliciting or accepting false or fraudulent orders
When using a launch service or sales booster services, make sure the people who purchase your items are individuals and not multiple accounts operated by the same person. Those services can get your account suspended and the time and money you will lose worth much more than any page rank.
Misuse of Search and Browse
Super URL has always been a Controversial tool.
Some might say that this is the reason why Amazon suspend accounts who do launches with Super URL.
Although, after looking into the policy and Plans of Actions of Amazon sellers, we have found some reasons that are more relevant to the topic.
4 actions you should avoid while launching your product
- Adding ASINs to the search terms
- Adding competitors brand names to the search terms
- Promoting products on other Brand’s names
- Using URL that manipulating Amazon’s QID
You can understand Amazon for working on its search engine to be the most accurate and relevant to the shoppers. No one wants to search for a brand he likes and get another brand instead.
Any manipulation on the search results you do, to be shown on pages that your product is not relevant, might cause to a problem.
Until now, the only thing we know for sure that violates Amazon’s Terms in meaning of Super URL, is using a URL that changes the QID of the search result and it’s not recommended.
Q&A
Absolutely yes. As long Amazon allow you to create claim codes discounts, you can send them out without any problem, but, trying to manipulate Amazon system might be a problem.
Sending hundreds of claim codes a day will not do good to your Amazon account, even if Amazon will not suspend your account, your Ranking might go down dramatically after this kind of launch.
Yes. But, from the latest Amazon suspensions, we believe there is a problem with sending follow up emails to discounted orders. Turn off your follow up emails when you create promotions for your products.
Yes, make sure to be reasonable when you send deeply discounted promotion and do not empty your stock with your first launch.
Super URL its a link that includes parameters that show specific result pages. Using Super URL can be very helpful and can also suspend your account.
Make sure to use only general search results links and do not try to manipulate links in order to false Amazon. It’s not working, and it might get your account suspended.
How to launch products successfully?
Here are some key points you need to be aware of, and some tips for your next boost
- Send reasonable amount of coupons – you can consider “reasonable” as 50% of the daily sales velocity of your best competitor.
- Make sure individuals are buying your products, and not a services with many accounts who “fake” orders.
- Close your Follow-up messages campaigns while launching a promotion.
- RB Deals are still considered a great way to launch, click here to learn more
Thank you for reading so far, and thanks to Or Shamosh for the time and effort. If you have any questions to us or to Or, you are more than welcome to comment below, and if your account has been suspended, contact us for helping you open it back.