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Just think carefully about it. When you start looking for new products, where do you go first? Most likely, you will go to the Amazon platform, type in your most relevant keywords, and click — thousands of items are at your disposal. With more than 60% of item searches starting on Amazon, companies have understood it is crucial to use the marketplace to reach larger audiences, move more goods, and develop widespread brand awareness.
What many sellers don’t know, however, is that product listings on Amazon require continuous upkeep and maintenance. It is impossible to succeed in the marketplace with a “set it and leave it” approach. Instead, merchants might take many steps before listing their goods on Amazon. But it is important to mention there is great work to be done when a product listing is active.
All product listings on the Amazon platform must be regularly maintained and updated. When some elements of a product listing fail to meet Amazon’s rules over time, it might be suppressed or deactivated. Sometimes even your entire account might be suspended until you resolve this issue. Besides, suppressed listing simultaneously translates to lost sales for every hour it is down.
What Does Suppressed Mean on Amazon?
A suppressed (deactivated) listing happens on Amazon when an Amazon seller creates a particular product listing that does not meet rigorous standards on Amazon. This situation detracts from a positive customer experience for the website’s millions of shoppers.
When the platform suppresses a product listing, it is deleted from visibility in browse and search options until you fix the policy breaches and issues. At the same time, you can still see it in your seller account dashboard.
How Can Suppressed Listings Impact Your Business?
The likelihood of your item getting suppressed by AMZ grows when your product pages don’t match the guidelines and standards created by the platform for seller listings. Thus, following the polivies set by the marketplace is the only way by which you can make each item in your stock visible to the clients on the website to ensure that you’re not losing sales for any of your goods that may ultimately influence your brand if it gets unnoticed.
Suppose AMZ suppresses one of your product pages. In that case, that particular item will not be able to make it into the buyer’s search results and, hence, will not be visible to the clients on the website. And you know well that if an item does not appear in the search results, it won’t attract the target audience, which will get the sale of that item down to zero. So you can’t imagine that even if such pages go unnoticed for a couple of hours, you can miss up to thousands of dollars depending upon the niche you sell in the marketplace.
This won’t only influence the sales figures of your online business, minimizing the revenue and overall earnings but will also affect the client base. The unavailability of a particular item will make the shoppers redirect to other companies in this marketplace, influencing your brand image and eventually reducing your client base.
Why is My Amazon Listing Suppressed?
There are several common reasons for the platform to suppress your product listing. Fortunately, most of them suppose quick fixes that Amazon sellers can put right themselves.
You might find your product listing suppressed if:
- It has been created without the main image or if the photos you have attached to accompany your item do not meet the required specifications and standards of Amazon.
- Important info is invalid, incomplete, or missing within the product description.
- You have tried to list products prohibited from selling on the platform.
- You have attempted to list your goods without a certain category type.
- Your listing or product title is too long (above 200 characters for most categories).
- Your product listing violates one or more selling policies on Amazon.
Occasionally, the platform might suppress product listings for more complicated reasons that will be difficult and time-consuming to resolve.
These are the following:
- Considering that your products are counterfeit items.
- Having got safety complaints about the items listed.
- Believing you’re trying to sell already used items as new.
- Supposing you are trying to offer an expired product.
- Not believing you are the true owner of the products listed.
If you are unsure how to fix your suppressed listing issue or don’t agree with the platform’s decision, try contacting customer services with Amazon Seller Support. You are free to contact the marketplace’s representatives via phone or email. Though the Amazon platform no longer shares a contact number. So, merchants need to provide their contact number to get back to them instead of an official adviser.
How to Activate Suppressed Listings on Amazon?
Firstly, it is not easy to spot that one or more of your pages has been suppressed, as the marketplace does not automatically notify merchants when it occurs. Therefore, they must regularly look for listing deactivation to fix the problems behind AMZ’s decisions.
Go to the ‘manage inventory’ button under the ‘inventory’ tab in your AMZ Seller Central to check for listing suppressions. If you do have any page suppressions, you will immediately get a ‘suppressed’ button in the upper navigation pane. This option won’t be visible when you do not have any troubling pages.
In case you notice listing suppressions, do not panic! It’s usually fast and easy to rectify a problem resulting in blocking without much delay. Keep in mind that such listings aren’t visible to shoppers, resulting in no sales for the deactivation duration. So it’s essential to get on top of them decisively and quickly.
To handle common deactivated listing problems, you should:
- Choose ‘Suppressed’ and check the ‘All suppressed listings’ option or only a particular type of deactivated listing, for example, ‘Image missing.’
- Select an individual page and choose ‘Edit’. Next, proceed to ‘Edit’ or ‘Manage images.’
- On your AMZ product summary section, select a bar with an alert indicator next to it. Suppressed listings will be indicated with red exclamation marks. However, you might also notice quality alerts have a yellow triangle.
- After resolving all notifications for a page, just click ‘Save and finish.’
Indicating and fixing suppressed pages is an easy and quick process in the ‘Manage Inventory’ tab of your Seller Central account.
Each of the product pages also has an AMZ Product Summary page with full info about the explanations of the product suppression.
As soon as you resolve all listed problems, the platform should promptly remove the issue, and your page will get visible again.
How to Prevent My Pages from Being Deactivated Again?
Most sellers wouldn’t question the advantage using the Amazon marketplace gives their business. However, many fail to realize the constant maintenance their listings require to meet the site’s stringent policies.
Ongoing upkeep and fine-tuning are required for all listings as Amazon is constantly evolving and adjusting its listing requirements. Suppose any of your product listings fail to meet these ever-changing standards. In that case, they can be suppressed or deactivated without notice. So it’s important to regularly check Amazon’s policy pages along with your product listings, making tweaks or big changes in accordance to avoid the hassle, stress, and loss of revenue that suppressions can cause.
Having a trusted service that will monitor changes to your listings is crucial. It can help eliminate both the marketing and logistics stress of selling on the platform, as well as the ongoing maintenance and upkeep of your listings. At SellerSonar, we take the hassle out of Amazon listings monitoring and let brands focus on creating winning products and businesses.
Not sure if our app is a match for you? Register for our 29-day free trial and make sure that we will meet your needs as an Amazon seller. Connect with our customer support team to learn more.
