Prime Day, July 12-13, is right around the corner! This is the perfect time to refresh on a few key things so you can prevent a catastrophe on a day you’d prefer to focus on a revenue spike. Buyers have already proven their loyalty to the concept of a major summer shopping holiday. At least Amazon says it is, and buyers typically follow along whenever they have a chance to save big. They keep an eye out for great deals, alongside more willingness to spend. You want to take advantage of those sales instead of fighting off competitor attacks or wasting time messaging Amazon’s “copy and paste” responses when suspensions ruin your strategy, right? You could wake up on Tuesday the 12th to suspended listings, due to policy violations or sudden, condition, or item safety complaints. You’ll want to identify the types of attack strategies likely to be used now, not after they happen. Be ready for them with real preparation, don’t just pray that your competitors won’t attack. What can you do to prevent damaging attacks during Prime Day? If you prepare, you’ll be ready to counter any safety or counterfeit complaint that comes your way.
Prime Day means you can expect an increase in anti-competitive behavior. Be ready for this!
What kinds of abusive behavior results in a successful attack against a listing? Whenever there’s a ton of revenue on the line, consider that many sellers and black hat services will attempt takedowns of successful products even more than usual. The fraudster shops know how to get listings pulled overnight, and to make it stick at least for 48 hours. That’s why they offer services like this to brands, helping them take out their competition on one of the busiest days of the year.- Fake negative reviews usually complain about health hazards, injuries, difficult to use or cheap or fake products that resulted in a terrible buyer experience, or similar things. Amazon’s automated scripts capture ugly terms and flag ASINs for review by an investigator. Those ASINs go under their microscope for a few minutes of review, then in many cases they move straight to suspending the listing without providing key details on “Why” – that’s always up to you, the seller, to tell them. The sellers or black hat services know you’ll eventually get the listing back, right? But they can easily keep you down for Prime Day to score more sales of their own products, in place of yours.
- Keyword Abuse is often a factor during Prime Day. It occurs when another party adds illicit words to a listing which implies that the product is a pesticide, a drug, “adult” or an illegal product, for example. Attackers understand that Amazon’s teams react to keyword attacks the same old ways as they did before this type of abuse became a main abuse method. Make sure you are monitoring your listings for ANY ASIN contributions you did not make, so you can catch and delete them before Amazon suspends you.
- Fake safety health hazard complaints often show up at the last minute to trigger a compliance review process. Buyers will load up their complaints with phrases to make Amazon believe they must take immediate action against you, and your ASIN, to protect the buying public. Have all invoices pre-vetted for verification at the ready, so you don’t have to scramble to put together information about your supplier or manufacturer. Asking for documents from suppliers can take awhile, if they’re not around to respond.
- Many brands contacting us during 2022 have been hit with counterfeit or authenticity complaints against their own brand. In other words, they’re accused of counterfeiting their own products. As straightforward and bogus as this type of complaint should appear, Amazon internal teams could spend hours, days, sometimes weeks trying to understand that you don’t fake your own branded items. It’s just a fact of Amazon enforcement life right now. As discouraging as that sounds, you should be able to knock down those fake complaints quickly. Understand how to escalate stuck appeals, and don’t wait to act. Hire out for the right kind of help.
- Amazon is in full crackdown mode on supplier websites, invoices, and any sourcing info that they claim they cannot verify. How long have you done business with your supplier or manufacturer, and how much of that info is online and independently verifiable? An invoice or supplier that Amazon accepted fully a few months ago may suddenly get rejected without any rhyme or reason to the denial. Amazon is typically obscure about why documentation or appeals get denied, so you will need to decipher their reasons for them. Make sure they have a website and look like an established business or manufacturer.