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It is almost mid-September, and the traditional peak season in the second half of the year is about to begin. At this stage, Amazon is preparing for the autumn promotion in full swing, and many sellers have tasted the joy of the explosive orders boosted by Halloween.
However, the peak season is coming, which also means that the platform policies are most changeable, and all risk control and strict inspections are much tighter than usual. Sellers have already felt the turbulence - following the changes such as the imposition of multiple fees and the addition of multiple traffic entrances, some sellers have recently discovered that the flash sale policy has suddenly changed. As the most common limited-time promotion on the platform, Amazon BD has always been one of the important means for sellers to increase sales, increase exposure and accumulate reviews.
However, Amazon's flash sale rules have changed frequently in recent times. For example, at the beginning of the year, the service provider's BD entry was closed, and it was no longer possible to report BD for products only through LD.
A few weeks ago, the relevant policies changed again: first, you can fill in the number of flash sales; second, a progress bar will be displayed during the BD process; third, the BD logo may not be displayed if the listing score is lower than 4 points.
On September 9, a large number of sellers discovered that there was a major update to the flash sale policy: inventory could no longer be adjusted for ongoing flash sales, which meant that LD could no longer control the progress in real time through the background.
A seller reported in the forum: "Today, I ran LD for several products at the same time, and found that I could not increase the inventory. The quantity of the confirmed participating products turned gray and could not be edited in the middle of the flash sale. In other words, LD will not be able to control the progress in real time through the background in the future. There will be fewer and fewer unfixed bugs left for flash sales, so run and cherish it."
▲ The picture comes from the seller’s disclosure In this regard, many sellers were caught off guard by this sudden change:
"Is this the latest update? I suddenly noticed it turned grey. My colleague had changed it on Saturday." "It was only updated on Monday, so I can still add more inventory to my LD on Sunday." "It was suddenly updated last night. I was still adding quantities on the 8th, but on the 9th I couldn't add last night's LD anymore." "The flash sale I bid today has turned gray and cannot be modified. So according to Amazon's policy, is modifying the flash sale inventory an Amazon bug?"
A seller consulted the payment manager and received a reply that the deal policy had been updated recently and the quantity of the current LD/BD could not be modified while it was in progress.
“We have also received a lot of feedback from sellers and have confirmed with our internal colleagues. We should fill in as much quantity as possible before the launch (still referring to the actual situation). We have a client who suffered a loss when the 7-day BD was reduced to half a day.” The manager further suggested.
Judging from the policy information provided by sellers, the key points of changes in flash sales policies should focus on the following aspects:
1.ASIN is grayed out: If the product does not meet the eligibility requirements, the ASIN will be grayed out and cannot be edited, and it needs to be removed from the promotion. If too many SINs are grayed out, the seller may not be able to create or re-enable the promotion.
2. Suppressed: Your promotion does not meet the eligibility requirements. For each grayed-out ASIN, click "Information" on the left to learn why it is suppressed, and then make the necessary changes to the product price, quantity, or inventory. Sellers must do this at least 25 hours before the scheduled start time to avoid the promotion being canceled.
3. The following reasons may lead to the cancellation of the flash sale:- The seller manually canceled the promotion.
- The promotion was previously suppressed and the issue was not resolved at least 25 hours before the scheduled start time.
- The promotion has been canceled. Amazon may cancel a promotion without notice if it violates Amazon's promotion frequency policy.
As the autumn Prime Day approaches, the flash sales BD, as a necessary means for sellers to prepare for the big promotion, has been frequently changed recently. In this regard, sellers need to read the policy changes carefully and adjust their operation strategies in time to avoid being tripped up by the policies. [ Seize TikTok e-commerce traffic and detonate big promotion growth at the 2024TikTok Shop Peak Season Big Promotion Traffic Summit. Click here to register] In addition to the continuous policy changes, Amazon's risk control has also been tightened recently. In addition to cleaning up illegal accounts, many sellers have recently reported that the internal message policy has changed. Amazon may strictly investigate such cases and impose penalties such as account suspension.
We have learned that recently, there has been a lot of talk about Amazon's strict investigation of in-site messages: The US has tightened its penalties for "sellers' illegal behavior in communicating with consumers through backend in-site messages (emails): the intensity of the punishment has been changed from the original "warning followed by appeal" to the current "closing the store and not accepting appeals."
▲ The picture comes from the seller’s disclosure To this end, sellers must immediately stop communicating with customers through in-site messages or emails using words such as "comments", "shopping experience", "give gift", and "share".
If this news is true, it means that sellers must be extremely cautious when using in-site messages to communicate with customers. Otherwise, once a violation warning is triggered, they may face permanent store closure and be unable to appeal.
Amazon internal messages have always played a very important role on the platform and are also an important hub for merchants to establish relationships with customers. They play an important role in order processing, marketing promotion, customer service, customer relationship maintenance, etc., which helps sellers improve customer experience and satisfaction, thereby promoting business growth.
According to the original policy, if a seller engages in behaviors such as requesting reviews or inducing others to post negative reviews, they will be warned by Amazon, but their store will not be closed, and they may file an appeal. For this reason, some sellers choose to take risks and secretly exploit loopholes in the platform's policies.
In response to this possible policy change, some sellers said that it might be due to the new regulations issued by the US Federal Trade Commission last month, which explicitly prohibit the phenomenon of false reviews. In response to this call, Amazon further strengthened its review efforts and upgraded its compliance risk control policy for in-site letters.
Although Amazon has not officially announced any reforms to its in-site message rules, feedback from multiple parties shows that many sellers have received performance warnings for violations and have no way to appeal.
Therefore, sellers should be cautious when using in-site messages from now on, and avoid using illegal words such as review, evaluation, comment, feedback, rating, etc. Also, be careful not to provide listing links and contact information.
The closer it gets to the peak season, the more "unpredictable" Amazon becomes, and the more likely sellers are to fall into traps. In order to prepare for the upcoming autumn Prime Day, Black Friday and other major promotions, everyone needs to keep up with and adapt to any policy changes, and keep compliance operations in mind, so that they can more smoothly usher in a fruitful harvest during the major promotions.
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