Amazon Sellers and Seller Performance Need to Communicate

Originally posted on Linkedin in May 2018

When I started the incredible Amazon Sellers Group TG groups my motivation was fueled by a fierce desire to show people the “truth” about Amazon.

At the time, I believed that Amazon was simply missing the bigger picture when it comes to suspensions. I believed that Amazon often did not consider the larger situation — instead, they carelessly tossed around perfectly valid appeals sent in by truly good, honest sellers.

After years of helping sellers with Amazon compliance, I realize this is far from the truth. Of course, it happens — the nice guys really do finish last on this marketplace. It’s the nature of the beast. Sellers with shady business practices have caused Amazon to be on defense constantly.

The damages? A whole lot of very angry, completely innocent suspended sellers.

Despite all this, I came to a humbling realization that actually, it often was me and other sellerswho weren’t seeing the bigger picture. Sellers almost never see the bigger picture — and neither does seller performance.

ASGTG skyrocketed in the past several months thanks to one single group of people: all of you. Amazon Sellers. When push comes to shove, we all know the truth. Amazon is too powerful to “expose” or “take down”. They aren’t going anywhere.

As sellers, all we can do is work together to collaborate with Amazon — not fight back with animosity. As sellers, we need to understand and interpret the picture from a seller performance agent’s view. They aren’t aimed to ruin our lives.

One thing for sure, “they” are not cruel or indifferent to the pain, profit loss and real damages these suspensions cause. They aren’t on a mission to avoid reinstating 100% valid POAs from honest sellers — rather, they are simply reading from a different point of view.

Those agents on the other end of the chat are a collection of real people just like we are. They are just doing their jobs as they’ve been trained to do. Nothing more, nothing less. As sellers, we need to adapt and learn from each other. We need to work together to improve the process, eliminate the misunderstandings, and ultimately, become better sellers.

My goal is to see a new way of selling where Amazon sellers don’t need to live in fear, depend on Amazon to make their living, or have the constant stress of knowing that their business could be gone in a day. This situation is unreasonable for both sides.

Yes, there needs to be a better system. Instead of fighting the current system, as sellers, it is up to us to provide ways to balance what is fair, what is acceptable, what is punishable and what is grossly offensive to the sense of rights and decency.

Amazon should internally have an algorithmic trust score for every entity they take action against or accept a complaint from. It’s worth Amazon’s time to spend more human effort and diligence on this type of collaboration. ( Bernie T.)

Sellers deserve a bulletproof system to ensure that no returns of any kind are ever eligible to be put back into sellable inventory. Total segregation. An option to choose whether to have all returns sent back to you, destroyed or another reasonable option. It’s only a setup for failure to have FBA returns going back to sellable inventory. (Scott M.)

Sellers need a way to proactively send in documents that are considered high-risk. It would be great to be sure to send in FDA, Inspection, MSDS, etc. proactively, and not have to wait until a problem comes up. (Brandon F.)

Regarding rights owner complaints, I never understood why it’s so “secret” and unclear. Amazon is improving and trying to mention the IP in question, but not always. I suggest that:

1) the Rights Owner must attach the IP in question (TM or patent), 2) the seller receives a copy of the IP in question AND a copy of the complaint, 3) the appeal should be reviewed by an attorney who understands US IP laws. It would also be great if the counter-complaint process applied also to trademarks. But that’s a legal problem (need to fix the legislation)- not Amazon’s fault. — Yael Cabilly Esq.

Some common sense should be used in the invoice vetting process, along with many other Amazon procedures. For example, a retail receipt from Walmart should generally be acceptable if things add up, even if the buyer’s name and address on the account are not listed on the receipt.should not work. These policies shouldn’t be based off an all-or-nothing checklist. It’s all a part of the real “bigger picture” — the one neither side is seeing.

These are the true root causes of seller pain points. Amazon is like an out-of-control Octopus with too many pipelines and no top tier team truly seeing the big picture. This is why we see the same infringing sellers still in the marketplace, the honest sellers finishing last, and a dangerous situation that we must work with to improve — not against.

Join ASGTG groups www.asgtg.com/join-asgtg/

Originally published at https://www.linkedin.com.