Review Manipulation Suspensions/ Topical and Electronics Approvals/ Calculating ODR Rate/ Deals & Vet Deals Group

November 15, 2017

Hello All,

1. Many sellers are getting suspended for using wording that’s considered review manipulation. Amazon does not allow any language, including feedback solicitation or messaging, that persuades buyers to leave a positive product review. Even asking a buyer to leave a review “if you’re satisfied”, is 100% against TOS. It is important to make sure to check your email for notifications. Some responses from various performance teams do not show up in the notification tab.

2. Topicals

“As part of our ongoing efforts to provide the best possible customer experience, Amazon is implementing requirements to sell Topical products. Effective December 8, 2017, you will need an approval to sell Topicals. If you do not obtain approval, your Topical products will be removed. There is no fee associated with this application.”

They made the approval process easier and are approving most sellers that can supply a COA for one ASIN. Some sellers received emails after this that the email sent was a glitch and no approval is needed. I think the original email is correct and the second one was a mistake. Will update as events unfold.

3. Center PPC, an Amazon PPC Management company with successful results, is offering the first month free to ASGTG members. You can get in touch with Josh Seid, [email protected]. 

4. Tax Amnesty ASGTG Poll results…..drumroll. Only 9% of the sellers who responded to the poll signed up for the amnesty.

5. Amazon updated the way they calculate ODR. They now include “withdrawn” claims against your score. If you have a high amount of transactions, your ODR score likely went up recently.

6. Please never ever make any changes to any safety docs you submit, even if its something insignificant such as a small typo. If you want to point something out on doc, you can hand annotate it to show the one investigating. This is true even when submitting docs to Seller Support. It can escalate very quickly if the doc is altered in any way.

7. Amazon.UK

“We recognize you will be concerned that customers are still unable to purchase some of your stock, especially at this time.

  Following our communication on November 8, we have reviewed the majority of inventory affected by the operational incident. However, some of your units are still in reserve status as a result of the incident. We expect to have evaluated all the remaining inventory by November 17.”

“Between now and then this inventory will either become available to customers again or will be automatically reimbursed as per the standard FBA Lost and Damaged Inventory Reimbursement Policy. After November 17, if any of your inventory still shows as “reserved” it will not be due to the incident. If you need more information on reserved status, please review the help page here.”

8. Some sellers received the following:

“Please read this email carefully. The listing information described below may affect your ability to sell certain products. As part of our ongoing efforts to provide the best possible customer experience, we are implementing approval requirements for certain Apple products in the Electronics category.”

9. It’s now easier to locate return reasons in SC. Go to inventory planning>manage FBA returns. This change is critical. This makes it easier than ever to locate and fix or remove “a headache” item I have spoken about in the past. (HT YC)

10. ASGTG  Deals Telegram Group: This group is to post deals you have in stock and cannot sell. Please follow the pinned messages. Millions of $ of sales have been made in this group. 

ASGTG  Vet Deals Telegram Group: This group is if your debating to buy a deal. You can post the product/ brand here to be advised if the market is flooded with the product or if there are RO issues with the brand. The information here has proven to be priceless and can avoid major pitfalls and loses. Please use it before taking the jump and buying a deal you’re not sure about. 

To get an invite links to these groups, enter your email in this form.

Ed Rosenberg

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