A group of Chinese sellers with monthly income of millions of dollars had their accounts blocked

"Although the account blocking phenomenon in recent years is not as terrible as in 2021, with a large number of accounts going bankrupt, it does not mean that Amazon has stopped blocking accounts," an Amazon seller told Yien.com.

Indeed, Yien.com has also noticed that the Amazon platform is constantly improving the seller-side rules and mechanisms to improve the platform's reputation and buyer experience, and account blocking seems to be becoming more and more "commonplace."

A group of Chinese sellers with estimated monthly revenue exceeding $1 million had their stores closed

Data from Amazon research tool SmartScout shows that on November 20 alone, about 500 Chinese sellers’ stores stopped selling on Amazon. According to the table, hundreds of Chinese sellers’ Amazon stores stop selling every day. From November 1 to 20 alone, about 5,000 Chinese sellers’ stores were suspected to be blocked by Amazon.

The following only describes the stores that were suspected to have been blocked since November and whose estimated monthly revenue exceeded US$1 million.

LETIANPAI

On Amazon, this store page is currently unavailable, and its last sales date is November 16th.

This is a seller from Longgang District, Shenzhen, Guangdong. Since the store launched the products, it has received a total of 952 reviews, and 523 reviews in the past year, with a positive rating of 98%.

Judging from the specific store information, it mainly deals in the home category, and the products sold are in Amazon's "Tools & Home Improvement" column, specifically selling LED Strip Lights.

However, as of November 20, there were still product reviews in this store, and they were five-star reviews.

For example, "The product works well and can cut the wires to the required length", "Nice light, easy to install, looking forward to not having to open and dismantle the light year after year", etc.

The reason for the store closure is currently unknown, but based on the data, the store's estimated monthly revenue can reach US$3.2249 million , with a growth of 629% in the past six months. There is only one brand with revenue exceeding US$1,000.

Newshows Official

Also stopping sales on November 16th, this is a fashion category store owned by a seller in Jiangmen, Guangdong.

Since listing its products on Amazon, the store has received a total of 2017 reviews, with a total rating of 4.9 stars, of which 88% are five-star reviews. In the past year, there have been a total of 741 product reviews, with a 100% positive rating. As of November 19, the store still received some five-star reviews, but looking through the previous reviews, it seems that the five-star reviews were automatically left by the system.

Entering the overseas market with relatively low barriers to entry such as shoes and clothing, although there has been a 23% drop in the past six months, Newshows Official 's estimated monthly income still reached US$1.755 million .

Specifically, the store mainly sells women's casual wear, especially skirts, which are more popular, as can be seen from the reviews.

"Love this sweatshirt style dress. Very comfortable and soft material. Shipped on time. I will probably order another in a different color when it comes back in stock."

"I like this skirt, but it's a little big for me."

“This dress is perfect.”

Hasuit Direct

A home kitchen supplies seller from Shenzhen, Guangdong, stated on its Amazon page that it was established in 2019 and is a professional storage product designer .

It is reported that its products include dressing tables, bedside tables, bed frames , and other home furniture suitable for bedrooms, living rooms, kitchens , dining rooms, bathrooms , etc. According to estimates, the store's monthly revenue reaches US$1.4445 million .

However, the number of store reviews seems to be a bit small, with only 1,158 reviews, a rating of 4.1 stars, and five-star reviews accounting for only 66%. The number of reviews in the past year was 548, with a favorable rating of 76%.

And two of the three reviews on November 19 only gave it one star:

"Two of the four boxes are missing."

“Please email me a prepaid return label. Amazon has contacted you and you agreed, but it’s been four days and I haven’t received it.”

According to the reviews, the problems that this store has include missing and wrong products, returns without the buyer's consent but no refund, products that have not been delivered, product defects, and goods that are damaged upon arrival.

LayinSun

Judging from the category information, this is an outdoor products seller from Ningbo, Zhejiang, mainly engaged in garden products, which belong to the "terrace, lawn and garden" category on the Amazon platform .

The store stopped selling on November 16. Since the product was put on the shelves, it has received a total of 390 reviews, with an overall rating of 4.2 stars, only 69% of which were five-star reviews. In the past year, there have been a total of 172 reviews, with a favorable rating of 78%.

There are many home product sellers on Amazon, but LayinSun has been able to achieve an estimated monthly average income of $1.1342 million amid fierce competition. However, judging from the reviews, there are problems with its products and operations, which may be the reason why Amazon has closed its store.

“The fire pit and the cushions were gone.”

“Except for the barbecue table, all other products have been received.”

"Missing parts from the kit. Only got two chairs and a couch. Fire pit missing. Box damaged."

Reviews like the one above where buyers did not receive complete ordered products are not uncommon and account for the majority of one-star reviews.

Maibani

The seller from Xuzhou, Jiangsu, stopped selling on Amazon on November 17, and the store link is currently unavailable.

Judging from the information, this is a seller of beauty and personal care products, and mainly sells facial essence products on Amazon.

Thanks to beauty and personal care products, the store ’s estimated monthly revenue on Amazon reached $1.0915 million , and there were 11 brands in the store with revenue exceeding $1,000.

But it is worth noting that the store currently only has 4 reviews, all of which are five-star reviews, but the reviews were posted in 2023 and 2022, and the products mentioned in the reviews are all clocks, not beauty and personal care products.

In addition to the four new stores with monthly revenue of one million dollars in November, many stores with high monthly revenue have stopped selling this month, such as:

Caroma Scooter , a Shenzhen outdoor seller who sells scooters , has an estimated monthly income of $915,600; GsunUS , a Ningbo seller who sells kitchen appliances, has an estimated monthly income of $836,800; KBS Direct , a Jiangmen home appliance seller who sells bread machines , has an estimated monthly income of $717,300; HOMBCK , a Ningbo home appliance seller who sells bed frames , has an estimated monthly income of $691,800; BLUEWHALE US , a Huzhou home appliance seller , has an estimated monthly income of $635,500...

Judging from the information, the specific reasons why the above-mentioned stores stopped selling on Amazon are unknown. They may have been closed voluntarily or blocked by Amazon. If it is due to the platform, bad sellers violated the rules and laws, causing buyers to have a lower consumption experience, which in turn affected the platform's reputation. It is not surprising that they were blocked.

Amazon cracks down

Not to mention last year, from the beginning of this year to date, Amazon sellers have been suffering from declining sales and plummeting profits, and have also been frequently troubled by Amazon's store closures . A large number of sellers have had their funds frozen and their stores closed by the platform .

In early January , Amazon started to strictly control stores, especially new accounts that had not been in operation for a long time , which immediately became the focus of verification on the platform and required video verification.

In addition, even the U.S. domestic accounts, which domestic sellers believed to have a high security factor , were exposed on a large scale , and many sellers said that their U.S. domestic accounts had been wiped out.

Some sellers who were affected had more than a dozen stores closed during this cleanup . They also said that new accounts had even started shipping products , and some accounts that had just been registered were closed before they had even shipped products .

There were also sellers who said that several local accounts they bought for more than 100,000 yuan were all blocked, causing heavy losses overnight, and they were unable to claim compensation from the service providers , which added insult to injury .

In late March , when Amazon was holding its big spring sale in the European and American markets , another group of sellers said that their accounts were directly deactivated and many old accounts were closed in batches .

Not only were old accounts affected, but new store accounts that had just listed products were also notified of violations by Amazon . Many sellers even said that their accounts were caught even though they had not performed any illegal operations.

Amazon's email stated that these accounts were abused and violated Section 3 of the Amazon Business Solutions Agreement .

In April, without prior warning or performance notification , Amazon launched another round of surprise cleanup, this time mainly targeting illegal variants, and a number of seller accounts were directly deactivated .

One seller reported that within just half a month, all six of his stores received performance notifications for variant violations.

In this round of cleanup, in addition to the problems with variant merging itself, the platform also mentioned "abnormal behavior in product reviews" and cracked down on false review behavior.

In mid-May, Amazon stepped up its review of variant violations , a number of seller accounts were removed, and many accounts that abused merged variants were blocked.

Sellers have reported that the links have been removed and the mall is shown as closed . Some sellers have even received direct notification of store closure, and their accounts have been unable to appeal since then .

The seller said that after the parent body was disassembled, the re-upload and merge always failed. It also showed that due to violation of the policy, it would not be possible to create a change relationship between ASINs within 30 days . At the important node when the summer sales peak is about to come, another wave of losses was incurred.

Also in May, Amazon sent out a large number of emails stating “[Request action] Check your account information immediately to avoid future deactivation of your account”, prompting sellers to conduct secondary verification . Some sellers were even directly banned as a result.

As Member Day approached in June , Amazon stepped up its crackdown on multiple account operations . A number of sellers’ newly registered accounts, accounts that were not registered long ago and were still being maintained, and new accounts that were just being prepared for shipping were all blocked by Amazon .

Some old sellers have reported that this year, most people who register on the US site will encounter a second review , and accounts that have not been operated for about three months will be judged as inactive.

Purchased accounts, newly registered accounts, and inactive accounts are subject to strict inspection by Amazon. In addition, if the legal representative of a company is too old and has been registered for a short time, he or she will also be the focus of the platform.

Video verification + second review, a group of sellers are worried before the big sale.

In July, after Prime Day, Amazon conducted strict inspections on the compliance and authenticity of CPC reports in children’s categories (such as children’s clothing, cribs and mattresses, strollers, children’s furniture, pacifiers and teethers, etc.). The scope of impact was very wide, and even misjudgments occurred, and products that were not children’s products were also affected.

At first, the links were taken down, and then accounts were blocked one after another, and it was extremely difficult to appeal.

Some sellers stated that children's jewelry products that had passed compliance audits were judged to be restricted products, resulting in the deletion of links and the unsalability of the products. Appeals submitted for CPC and other certificates were rejected.

So far this year, Amazon has conducted multiple rounds of cleaning of seller accounts on the platform, and the cleaning before the big sales has become routine. One seller laughed wryly and joked, "Fortunately, there is usually less cleaning during the peak season at the end of the year, but various fees have been raised, so it seems much easier to solve it with money."

In addition, a seller told Yien.com that “Amazon’s suspensions this year are very harsh. Accounts are directly suspended and there is no way to appeal. Also, the reasons for suspension are very general. Sometimes, a reason of ‘violating Section 3 of the Amazon Business Solutions Agreement’ is considered a good reason.” He also joked that “ Section 3 of the Amazon Business Solutions Agreement has become Amazon’s killer weapon . ”

Frequent account blocking requires caution

According to the summary of sellers, the reasons for Amazon's account suspension are nothing more than performance, patents , etc. , which may be:

1. Fake reviews or low ratings

As mentioned above, Amazon often blocks accounts for "violating Section 3 of the Amazon Business Solutions Agreement ," which states that fraudulent, false or illegal activities are not allowed.

Some sellers will artificially brush reviews in order to increase sales. The specific operation is to purchase relevant packages from those engaged in the gray industry chain, and the other party will provide four-star or higher reviews. Such reviews are simple and generally have a strong "machine-like" flavor. In addition, some sellers will put gift cards in the buyer's package to guide good reviews.

Of course, if there are too many negative reviews for a product, resulting in the store’s overall star rating being too low, the link will be removed at best, and the account will be blocked at worst.

2. Abnormal growth in order volume

If a store’s sales suddenly increase dramatically in a short period of time , this can easily be suspected of fake orders or other improper means , and then be judged as false activity by Amazon .

3. Manipulating listing rankings

Sellers use technical means to manipulate the sales rankings of listings (which can be classified as the above-mentioned fake orders), or improve search rankings by manipulating keywords , using incentives , etc.

4. Artificially increase traffic

Such as using robots or paying for clicks .

5. Performance not up to standard

Indicators such as order defect rate, cancellation rate and late shipment rate did not meet Amazon's standards .

6. Selling prohibited items

Amazon explicitly prohibits the sale of illegal drugs, contraband and other products .

7. The actual product does not match the picture

The product images in the listing are misleading . Excessive photo editing or plagiarism of photos of similar products may result in the product not being the same as the one described.

8. The product lacks authenticity

Selling counterfeit or substandard products or providing false product information and descriptions.

9. Not declared as “resale”

If the product is second-hand but not clearly marked, it is also a violation of Amazon's regulations.

10. Abuse of variants

For example, different types of products may be sold as variants to increase product exposure and sales. Common illegal variants include incorrect use of variants, illegal merging of variants, repeated splitting of variants, and repeated creation of listings.

11. Improper use of keywords

Sensitive words, trademark words, etc. are used in the listing .

12. Product Infringement

The above-mentioned trademark words are also considered infringements, after all, there are patents; on the other hand, the appearance of the product may also involve related patent issues .

13. Account association issues

There are connections between multiple accounts , such as the same IP address, payment method or other related information , which violates Amazon's "one person, one store" policy.

14. Lack of product certification

Specific products on Amazon require certification . The certification and review procedures of different sites are different, so sellers must complete the corresponding product certification in the corresponding market before putting the products on the shelves for sale .

15. Tax non- compliance

For example , under-reporting or non-reporting of sales tax in the United States, consumption tax in Japan, and VAT tax in Europe will lead to non-compliance issues.

16. Identity verification failed

For example , European regulators require that Amazon conduct company and company owner identity verification ( KYC verification) on sellers who open stores in European sites (including the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Spain, Italy, etc.) . If the verification fails, the account will be blocked.

17. Failure in the Second Trial

Based on the basic audit in the United States ( SIV) and Europe (KYC), Amazon will conduct further review and verification of the water, electricity, gas, and network service bills of some accounts . Failure in the second review may lead to account suspension.

The above are the more common reasons for account blocking on Amazon. In the past two years, Amazon has taken strong measures against suspicious accounts on the platform, and many sellers have fallen into trouble.

Not long ago, Amazon issued a notice announcing that the new “Account Health Rating-Repeat Violation” policy will officially take effect from October 31, 2024.

The policy states that if a seller violates the same Amazon policy twice or more within 180 days, it is considered a "repeat violation."

Specifically, account health policies that affect the account status rating, such as intellectual property policies and restricted product policies, will be recorded as repeated violations . The number of repeated violations related to infringement policies can be up to 5 times ; the number of repeated violations related to restricted product policies can be up to 2 times .

Repeated violations will be marked in the "Impact" column of the account health page, such as "High-Repeat violation", and the account health rating will be downgraded faster .

If the number of repeated violations reaches the upper limit, it will be marked as a serious violation, the account health rating score ( AHR) will be directly reduced to zero, and the account will face deactivation .

Of course, after the number of violations reaches the upper limit , the seller still has the opportunity to appeal. Within 3 days of receiving the email from Amazon , the seller must successfully resolve the problem, otherwise his account will be completely blocked.

At the same time, new compliance requirements in several markets are about to take effect .

On December 13 , the European GPSR ( General Product Safety Regulation ) came into effect . In response, Amazon requires sellers to comply with GPSR for most non-food products (including CE and non-CE products) sold in the EU and Northern Ireland, including uploading European agent and manufacturer information, as well as type, batch, serial number, safety and warning information on product labels.

Sellers must update their US tax identity information before December 30 .

According to the regulations of the U.S. Internal Revenue Service, non-U.S. taxpayers must provide Amazon with the latest W-8 form to be exempted from U.S. tax filing requirements. If the tax information is not updated in time, Amazon will suspend the account operation .

Before December 31 , sellers on the European and UK sites must provide country of origin /COO information.

In accordance with EU -UK customs trade regulations, Amazon will collect country of origin/place of origin (COO) information for products shipped through the Amazon Logistics (FBA) final logistics program. Failure to complete this information will prevent the successful creation of new products and all existing products will be restricted from entering and exiting the EU and the UK.

Regardless of the platform or the local market policies, if sellers want to expand overseas, they must first comply with the regulations. If their accounts are blocked, how can they make money?

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