😴 Sleepless Nights as an Amazon FBA Seller: Dealing with Unexpected Problems
As an Amazon FBA seller, you can never sleep easily at night without wondering when the Amazon Gods will next be throwing a problem at you that's completely unexpected and removes all of that confidence in one fell swoop. Well, this week it was my turn to be laughed out by Jeff Bezos and his chums because, for seemingly no reason at all, my product disappeared from Amazon's search results with my profit evaporating overnight.
Fortunately, I realized that something was amiss pretty much immediately because of the fact that I use the Shopkeeper app to track my daily sales. So, when I saw that they were incredibly low, I knew trouble was afoot.
🕵️♀️ Investigating the Problem
As soon as I realized that something wasn't right, I took the steps that every seller should follow whenever they think that there's a problem with their listing, such as it not appearing in Amazon's search results.
Firstly, you need to check the inventory page of Seller Central to see if the listing has been suppressed because its title is too long or your main image isn't compliant. For me, when I checked, there were no identified issues, so I moved on to the second step, which was to search for my product using the Amazon identifier code or the ASIN.
If the listing appears when you do search using this, it means it's not suppressed and it's still searchable by customers. Annoyingly for me, when I searched using my ASIN, it still showed up, meaning that it wasn't being search suppressed. So, I still hadn't found the cause of my product's underperformance.
🔍 Identifying the Problem
So, I took the next step, which was to search for my product in Amazon's search bar using the ASIN and a number of relevant keywords. So, do that if you're suffering from the same problem as me - pasting your ASIN and then enter the search term that you think a customer would be using when looking for you on Amazon.
And when I did that, that is where I identified the problem that had led to me making no sales at all. No matter what keywords I put in after my ASIN, my listing just wouldn't show, meaning that it was impossible for customers to find me.
The only explanation for why this would happen is if Amazon doesn't view those keywords as being relevant to the product, which it knows based on the keywords that you've got in your listing and the category of the product that you're selling in. And this is where the problem was being caused for me.
When I scrolled down to the product details section on my listing, I saw that some filthy scoundrel had changed my category to something completely irrelevant within DIY, and that had caused it to lose its entire ranking position, resulting in it no longer appearing for any relevant keyword.
🤔 Dealing with Amazon Seller Support
In order to fix this problem as quickly as possible, I was forced to do what every Amazon FBA seller dreads doing, and that is to contact Seller Support and request for help. In my case, to ask that the product category be changed back to what it was.
Problem solved, you might think. Unfortunately not, because Amazon Seller Support is largely run by bots and people/monkeys that don't know what they're doing. So, within minutes of me making my request, I had a reply back from some anonymous person saying that sorry, the category is correct, and we're not going to be changing it.
Because I've dealt with Amazon Seller Support far too many times to count, I know that the number one rule of dealing with them is not to panic if they come back to a question or request of yours with a flat-out no or a load of nonsense in their response. These guys are dealing with thousands of requests every single day, so in order to reduce their workload, they often send you back a templated response without even reading your message.
It can be pretty disheartening to get a response back that makes zero sense, especially if you're panicking and you're in a rush to fix things, just like I was. But the secret is to keep your cool and try again. You can slightly reword your request to make it less complicated to understand if you think that's the problem. Using something like ChatGPT can be a great way of doing that if you're not that confident at rewriting what you've written or English isn't your first language.
In my case, though, it was pretty obvious what I was asking Seller Support to do, but they just replied back to me with a templated response that said no. So, I got the big guns out and I said I want an expert to review my category and not one of their bots. And lo and behold, they agreed to my request. So, it really did pay to not take Seller Support up on their first word and give up.
Just a few days after Amazon agreed to review my product's category, they accepted that it had indeed been changed to the wrong one. They corrected it, and my rank and sales were soon restored, which I was really pleased about. A few days of sales and profit lost, but in the end, not as disastrous as the Amazon Gods probably wanted me to endure.
📝 Conclusion
So, if you find at any point that your Amazon listing has disappeared from the search results with no explanation, firstly check that the listing isn't being shown as search suppressed on your inventory page, which could be because your title is too long or your product image isn't compliant. And then, secondly, check whether the listing appears in the search results when you paste your ASIN in along with any relevant keywords.
Taking both of these steps will, in the majority of cases, allow you to understand whether you're not appearing due to an issue that can be easily fixed on your side, such as shortening your title, or whether it's something that you'll need Amazon support in fixing, such as changing your product category to one that is relevant.
Above all, though, if you do encounter problems with your Amazon listing, try not to panic. Take your time, and if you're unsure of what to do, reach out to fellow sellers, your mentor, or your accountant for some guidance.
I hope that you enjoyed the article and learned something from my experience.
🌟 Highlights
- As an Amazon FBA seller, you can never sleep easily at night without wondering when the Amazon Gods will next be throwing a problem at you that's completely unexpected and removes all of that confidence in one fell swoop.
- If your Amazon listing has disappeared from the search results with no explanation, firstly check that the listing isn't being shown as search suppressed on your inventory page, which could be because your title is too long or your product image isn't compliant.
- Secondly, check whether the listing appears in the search results when you paste your ASIN in along with any relevant keywords.
- If you do encounter problems with your Amazon listing, try not to panic. Take your time, and if you're unsure of what to do, reach out to fellow sellers, your mentor, or your accountant for some guidance.
❓ FAQ
Q: What should I do if my Amazon listing disappears from the search results?
A: Firstly, check that the listing isn't being shown as search suppressed on your inventory page, which could be because your title is too long or your product image isn't compliant. Secondly, check whether the listing appears in the search results when you paste your ASIN in along with any relevant keywords.
Q: What should I do if Amazon Seller Support doesn't help me?
A: Keep your cool and try again. You can slightly reword your request to make it less complicated to understand if you think that's the problem. Using something like ChatGPT can be a great way of doing that if you're not that confident at rewriting what you've written or English isn't your first language.
Q: How can I avoid problems with my Amazon listing?
A: Make sure that your title is not too long, your product image is compliant, and your product category is relevant. And if you do encounter problems, try not to panic. Take your time, and if you're unsure of what to do, reach out to fellow sellers, your mentor, or your accountant for some guidance.
Resources:
- Shopkeeper app: https://www.shopkeeper.com/
- Amazon Seller Central: https://sellercentral.amazon.com/
- ChatGPT: https://chatgpt.com/
