Amazon issued a "restriction order", and a large number of ASINs suddenly became unsaleable

Amazon issued a "restriction order", requiring a large number of ASINs to "require approval" before they can be sold , and many ASINs are old products that have been sold for many years. When following the approval path, sellers received a red message that "the account does not meet the requirements" . In their view, the restriction on ASIN sales this time is a major disaster!

Sales of a large number of ASINs are restricted

Recently, many sellers have found that their usually active ASINs have suddenly been restricted and can only be sold in the "approval required" state. Most of these ASINs have been sold by sellers for many years, with a certain order base and a large amount of inventory. After the restrictions, product sales have dropped sharply, and many peers have suffered heavy losses.

Seller Jack said that he had about 260 active ASINs that were affected and had a " need approval " status before they could be sold . These ASINs that had been sold for a long time had never been restricted. On many of these ASINs, if you continue to operate, you will receive a red message: " Your account does not meet the conditions . " Seller support was almost no help, just pointing out that brands can set restrictions at any time .

Amazon did not provide an answer as to why it could not seek approval ( “ Your account is not eligible ” ). Jack ’s account health score was 1000, and the platform did not seem to have a reasonable reason to believe that the account was not eligible, but in fact it did encounter this problem .

Because these ASINs usually sell well , and these ASINs come from multiple brands, Jack now has thousands of stranded stocks, and there are more in the warehouse. If this wave of restrictions cannot be lifted, he will be greatly affected.

Similar to Jack's experience, more peers have recently reported ASIN sales restrictions, and some restricted products have received deletion notices. Many people think that this problem is strange because these restrictions basically happened overnight.

Seller Sam said that his ASIN was also restricted . He had been selling the brand for 10 years and he had to keep reapplying for sales, but often to no avail. This was simply a nightmare, and the time for his ASIN to be restricted was even earlier. He encountered this problem three months ago.

Other sellers are also troubled by the restrictions. Under the restrictions, the sales of their products are bound to be affected.

“—I’ve had this happen with books I sell, where they disappear from my inventory without notice and warning, and the website becomes a mess;

——A lot of our products are restricted and have been sold for several years. We have hardly tried anything new, which is very frustrating;

——Every day we receive notifications of restricted product removal, file an appeal, and a few days later it’s another nightmare;

- We just noticed that an item was previously relisted due to pricing errors and now must be approved before it can be sold, so we had to remove it from the site at a loss of $300..."

Amazon restrictions and policies are subject to change

Some of the affected peers found that it seemed that Amazon robots were causing trouble again. Only robots could have caused such a sudden problem overnight. This time, it was suspected that the robot added restricted brands, or the product itself had key information about restricted brands that was detected by the robot.

One affected seller, who claimed to be a brand owner / manufacturer, also had some of their products restricted and received the message “account not eligible . ”

After repeated confirmation , it was discovered that Amazon added an attribute with a restricted logo name to the list. There was an attribute called " League_Name " in the list , and Amazon's AI filled it with NFL . Although the seller 's product has nothing to do with the NFL , because the NFL is restricted, the platform removed their products and needs approval to sell , and the seller account was judged ineligible.

“ This is a mistake made by the Amazon robot when filling in this attribute ! ” the victimized seller said helplessly.

Feedback from another affected seller seems to confirm this view. He said, "Considering that many of Buckeye's products are restricted at the same time, I think it may be that Amazon robots have filled in this attribute without anyone knowing. This is for the products I produce. The product details should be relevant and should not be changed."

Jack’s 260 ASINs were also restricted because of the brand. According to Amazon’s response, the ASIN was banned because the brand “CGE Czech Games Edition” was restricted. Many categories, brands, and products require Amazon’s approval before they can be sold, and in some cases, restrictions and policies change .

Amazon also mentioned that as the category grows, the platform will continue to make new decisions about which products should be restricted based on a variety of factors. Amazon does this to ensure authenticity and customer satisfaction.

Some sellers expressed their understanding of Amazon's practice. A seller who sells CDs said that record companies would limit inventory to authorized sellers, and sometimes I had to remove some CDs from the shelves. This situation does happen, and manufacturers will only authorize approved merchants, so the platform cannot be blamed because there are too many fakes on this website. Consumers want to buy branded products but end up buying counterfeits.

Robots are removing unqualified sellers one by one

One thing that sellers should be aware of is that Amazon is constantly imposing new restrictions on products on sale, which can sometimes be hard to guard against.

Some time ago, a seller said that he found that the products he had sold on Amazon for 4 months were restricted. The seller sold Nike and Adidas products, there was no problem with the products, and the account status was also good. The seller had been approved for sale before the sale.

During the sales process, the seller suddenly received an email and was informed by Amazon that he was no longer approved to sell. The seller tried to apply again and received a reply that "your account is not eligible."

A colleague gave me some advice: Just because Amazon "approves" you to sell products on its website doesn't mean Nike and Adidas will approve it. If sales are restricted, you need to provide a letter of certification from Nike and Adidas to prove that you are allowed to sell their products.

However, the restricted seller found that he could not provide supporting documents because when he clicked to apply for sales, it directly displayed "Your account is not eligible" and he could not upload the brand authorization letter at all. This is the same situation that many sellers are facing now.

According to Amazon’s response, the platform has recently implemented new restrictions on Nike and Adidas products. Even though sellers may have been approved by brands in the past, as Amazon’s catalog grows, the platform continues to make new decisions based on a variety of factors.

"Amazon robots are currently removing all unqualified sellers one by one," said a person familiar with the matter.

The sales restrictions on a large number of ASINs have a wide impact. It is recommended that affected sellers obtain approval through formal channels. If sellers work directly with brands, they can ask them if they can be added to the list of authorized sellers on Amazon.

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