Amazon made a massive misjudgment, and listings in multiple categories were swept up!

According to official news, Amazon Prime Day 2024 will be officially held in July. Although the specific time has not yet been disclosed, based on past experience, it is usually around mid-July.

Now the preparations for the Prime Day have entered the final sprint stage, but the closer we get to the finish line, the more complex the challenges we face. In addition to being stuck in the common off-season quagmire on the eve of the big promotion and bleak orders, Amazon's "iron fist" is also ruthless, constantly increasing its efforts to regulate the platform's business environment and launching multiple rounds of sweeps.

Just recently, many sellers reported that multiple categories were swept by Amazon, and a large number of listings on sale were suddenly misidentified as children's products.

As we all know, Amazon's children's category has broad market opportunities, and multiple sub-segments such as toys and school supplies have shown extremely strong demand. But at the same time, based on the protection of children's safety, this category also faces more stringent sales supervision. The products sold by sellers must meet safety standards and present relevant certificates, such as uploading CPC certificates.

However, recently, at this critical juncture of the Member Day sprint, a large number of sellers in non-children's categories were misjudged, which affected the sales of their main listings.

It is learned that according to feedback from many sellers, since June 18, multiple category listings have been identified as children's products by Amazon, and sellers are required to provide relevant certification information.

One seller said that his main business was adult accessories, and the nodes, pictures, A+ and other listing information did not involve any information related to children. However, Amazon suddenly scanned them as children's products and required him to upload a number of information including product labels, product instructions and manuals, manufacturer name and address, etc.

  ▲ The picture comes from Zhiwubuyan

The seller filed an appeal on the grounds of misjudgment, but it was not only rejected but the number of misjudged products continued to increase: "My appeal was rejected once and all, and I was also asked to provide information for the newly created listings."

Amazon responded in an email: From your email, we understand that ASINXXX is adult jewelry, but it was mistakenly classified as children's jewelry. You need to provide information to explain that these products are not children's jewelry.

After the seller's complaint, some ASINs have gradually returned to normal as of June 21. Amazon said that after careful investigation, in order to ensure that the relevant ASINs are not marked as children's products, sellers need to delete all keywords mentioning "kid or children".

Judging from the feedback from sellers, this large-scale misjudgment involved multiple categories such as toys, accessories and jewelry, and home furnishings. Many sellers were generally misjudged due to keywords on the detail pages, including but not limited to words such as girls, boys, girlfriend, boyfriend, kids, children, child school , etc.

"My appeal was also rejected. They deleted words like girls and boys. I heard that they also recognize girlfriend and boyfriend."

"More than 300 SKUs were scanned. Some of them were automatically restored after the listing was changed. Now I have to delete the words related to children first and then appeal."

"Since June 18, they have been judged as children's accessories, and it has continued today. Only a few ASINs have child models. I tried to change the child-related keywords in the ASINs, but my appeal was rejected."

  ▲ The picture comes from Zhiwubuyan

So far, there are still a large number of sellers whose listings have not been restored due to misjudgment, and their appeals have been rejected after they submitted the materials. In this regard, some sellers have compiled the following appeal methods:

1. Check the "Manage Your Compliance" page, click the question mark behind "Children's xx products" to see which categories are marked, and delete such keywords + keywords describing children according to the lsiting information.

2. Add a description on the details page: This product is not suitable for children 12 years old and under.

3. Send a complaint email in English, which must include the following: product sales target; product ASIN code; product supplier information; comparison chart of the product and children's products, etc.

In short, if it is not a children's product by mistake, you need to submit CPC and other certificates as required; if it is a misjudgment, you need to upload relevant information to prove that it is not a children's product.

The closer Prime Day is, the more frequent the platform's actions such as crackdowns on accounts and category cleanups become. In addition to the rectification of the children's category, the recent continuous second-number sweeps have also caused headaches for many sellers.

"A must-scan number during every big sale" seems to have become a routine. It is understood that recently many sellers have reported receiving Amazon's second review email.

According to feedback from sellers whose accounts were scanned, newly registered accounts, purchasing accounts, and accounts with low activity were the hardest hit by the second-instance scanning. It is reported that many sellers received Amazon's scanning notification shortly after registering their accounts.

However, some sellers have discovered that a new form of number scanning has emerged in this round of second-instance review.

The first is to verify through a third-party platform. Amazon said in an email that sellers must click on a link to complete identity verification within 14 days before they can continue to sell on Amazon. The link provided will guide sellers to a website hosted by persona, a third-party identity verification service provider.

Relevant information shows that this is not a new type of fraud or phishing email. Persona is an industry data verification platform with official authorization from multiple platforms such as Amazon and Etsy.

The second is receiving an abnormal second review email. Some sellers reported that they initially received a normal second review email, and the reply they received after appealing was also a normal second review, but after appealing again, it became an abnormal second review.

In a normal second-review email, Amazon will ask the seller to provide bills for pipeline gas, natural gas, electricity, etc. within the last 90 days ; in a scan-number second-review email, Amazon will point out that it cannot verify the information related to the seller's account, or has not received any new information about the item listing or sales history , and the seller also needs to provide water, electricity, coal and internet bills.

However, if an abnormal second instance is encountered, the seller must provide evidence that the account complies with Article 3 of the Amazon Services Business Solutions Agreement. Some sellers said that encountering such a situation means that Amazon is unwilling to accept the appeal, and subsequent appeals will only receive the same template reply or no reply at all.

▲ The picture comes from Zhiwubuyan

At present, many sellers have encountered similar situations, but there is no effective solution:

"After submitting the materials for the normal second instance, it became an abnormal second instance. The materials submitted were all true."

“Is there any other team’s email address that we can send an email to? It seems that the appeal portal always rejects people immediately.”

"After passing the first review, I immediately entered the second review. After submitting the bill, I received a reply saying that it could not be verified and asked me to continue submitting the bill. I continued to submit the bill, and the email reply was the same as before. The key point was that my credit card was directly deducted $39.9."

Now is the final stage of the Member Day sprint, and many sellers have encountered the second review and number scanning incident shortly after shipping. Compared with previous years, this number scanning trend is also more complicated and changeable.

For sellers at this stage, the best way to deal with the problem is to strictly abide by the platform's compliance operating guidelines and avoid exploiting platform loopholes to make profits through improper means, so as not to miss the opportunity for big sales.