Table of Contents
1. **Introduction**
2. **What is Being Ungated or Being Gated on Amazon?**
3. **Five Different Ways You Can Be Gated on Amazon**
4. **Three Main Ways to Get Ungated on Amazon**
5. **What to Do When Applying to Get Gated**
6. **How Long Does It Take to Get Approved?**
7. **Troubleshooting Your Invoice and Application**
8. **Optional Comments**
9. **Waiting and Applying Later**
10. **Conclusion**
Highlights
* Being gated means that you cannot sell a particular product or brand on Amazon.
* There are five different ways you can be gated on Amazon: gated AFNs, gated brands, gated subcategories, gated categories, and gated Amazon.
* The three main ways to get ungated on Amazon are paying to engage, auto-gating, and ungating yourself.
* When applying to get gated, you will need an invoice from a manufacturer or distributor and a combined purchase of at least 10 units.
* The approval process can take anywhere from a few hours to several weeks.
* Troubleshooting your invoice and application may involve making sure the invoice is in a non-editable format, is a finalized invoice, and matches your Amazon account address.
* You can also try including your sales rep's name and contact information in the optional comments section.
* If you are still having trouble getting approved, you can try waiting and applying later.
Introduction
In this article, we will discuss everything you need to know about getting ungated on Amazon. We will cover the different ways you can be gated, the three main ways to get ungated, what to do when applying to get gated, how long it takes to get approved, troubleshooting your invoice and application, and waiting and applying later.
What is Being Ungated or Being Gated on Amazon?
Being gated simply means that you cannot sell a particular product or brand on Amazon. This is done to protect Amazon's customers from counterfeit products and to ensure that they are getting the best possible quality products.
There are five different ways you can be gated on Amazon:
* **Gated AFNs:** AFN stands for Amazon Fulfillment Network. If you are gated for a particular AFN, it means that you cannot sell that product on Amazon Fulfillment. This is usually done for products that are sensitive or require special handling.
* **Gated brands:** If you are gated for a particular brand, it means that you cannot sell that brand's products on Amazon. This is usually done for brands that are exclusive to Amazon or that have strict requirements for selling their products.
* **Gated subcategories:** If you are gated for a particular subcategory, it means that you cannot sell products in that subcategory on Amazon. This is usually done for subcategories that are highly competitive or that require special certifications or licenses.
* **Gated categories:** If you are gated for a particular category, it means that you cannot sell products in that category on Amazon. This is usually done for categories that are highly regulated or that require special expertise.
* **Gated Amazon:** If you are gated by Amazon, it means that you cannot sell any products on Amazon. This is usually done for sellers who have violated Amazon's policies or who have a history of selling counterfeit or low-quality products.
Three Main Ways to Get Ungated on Amazon
There are three main ways to get ungated on Amazon:
* **Paying to engage:** This means that you will pay a gating service to get you ungated in a specific subcategory or category. This can be a very expensive option, especially if you are trying to get engaged in multiple different things all at the same time.
* **Auto-gating:** This means that when you go to apply to sell, where normally it would prompt you to provide different documents to Amazon, it's just going to tell you congratulations, you've been approved to sell this brand or this category or this subcategory. This is the easiest way to get ungated because it literally requires you to do nothing. The problem with this is that it comes with an undetermined time frame. A lot of people have theories of how long this is going to take or how long you have to be selling on the platform or how much you have to sell on the platform, but what I found personally and by helping hundreds and hundreds of students is that this time frame varies greatly and it's not specific or black and white that as long as you sell for six months or one year, you're going to get auto-gated on on the majority of the things I haven't found that it's been that simple. It varies greatly from account to account. So if you want to wait to get ungated