What not to Do on Amazon?
In the last month, people have contacted me whose Amazon accounts were blocked not so much due to negligence, but due to a lack of knowledge and incorrect information gained from some online courses on selling on Amazon.
1. The first case is manipulating search results.
Here, there were actually two reasons for the block, but one of them was using links for product “positioning” on Amazon. In other words, manipulating SEO on Amazon, something that could be called Black Hat SEO.
How Does it Work?
In Facebook ads and mailings, a link to an Amazon product is placed, but it’s not a regular link. It’s a link containing a special code that makes Amazon treat such an entry as if someone searched for that product on Amazon using a specific keyword.
What Does this Give the Seller?
Theoretically, it positions the product for a chosen keyword.
In practice, it can end up like this:
This was also the case here. The seller’s Amazon account was blocked.
Fortunately, this Amazon account was successfully unblocked, and in a short time.
2. The second case is selling using the dropshipping model on Amazon.
A new seller started operating in the dropshipping model because that’s what was taught in some Amazon selling course.
I wonder if anyone who prepared such a course has ever sold anything, or even bought anything, on Amazon.
Dropshipping might work on a certain Polish auction portal, but not on Amazon if you’re just starting to sell there.
Amazon is a very difficult marketplace, and dropshipping at the beginning, when you have no experience with this platform, is at least an ill-advised idea.
No one in the course said that you can’t just list goods for sale on Amazon and, once sold, order them on eBay or from an online store and ship them to the Amazon customer for a profit.
The seller listed audio equipment of a well-known brand. After a few hours, the account was blocked.
If recovery is even possible, it certainly won’t be cheap or fast. We are currently in the process of unblocking the account.
3. Selling counterfeits/substitutes on Amazon.
Another idea my client heard in some course was to find products that are already selling well on Amazon and commission their equivalents (i.e., counterfeits) to be produced in China, which would allow them to replicate the original’s success. This is clearly a suggestion to violate, among other things, patents.
Unfortunately, ignorance of the magnitude of this abuse results in account blocking, which is sometimes a much smaller problem than a lawsuit, for example, in Germany, filed by the owner of the rights to the original product.
My client violated the rights of one of the largest phone manufacturers by ordering accessories from China that were substitutes with an identical appearance to the originals, but about 80% cheaper.
This time, however, despite a serious violation of the rules, the account was unblocked in a short time.
Unfortunately, people who start selling on Amazon have no idea how easy it is to lose an account on this platform, often permanently. They don’t read Amazon’s terms and conditions, and instead of seeking help from Amazon experts, they experiment. Also, knowledge gained from uncertain sources on the internet is often incorrect, and instead of executing a business plan, it ends with a blocked Amazon account.
