AMAZON ACCOUNT PERFORMANCE. How to take care of your account's health and what to do if it gets sick?

In the era of the coronavirus, the topic of health is literally everywhere and is being discussed in all cases. We hope you are healthy and staying at home. On the topic of health and Amazon, we decided to write a bit about how to maintain the good condition of your Amazon account and what to do if problems arise with the health of your Amazon account.

 It is no secret that one of the greatest reasons for Amazon's success has been its unparalleled customer service compared to other platforms. Amazon places a strong emphasis on maintaining consumer trust and ensuring positive consumer experiences in every aspect of its operations. One factor that helps maintain the best possible experience for Amazon customers is the obligation for external sellers to uphold appropriate sales standards. Below, we present the requirements you must meet to ensure your sales are not suspended.

ACCOUNT HEALTH - Amazon Account Health

This is a set of factors used by Amazon to evaluate the overall performance of sales and customer service. It consists of three basic elements:

Order Defect Rate (ODR): <1%

Cancellation Rate: <2.5%

Late Shipment Rate: <4%

ORDER DEFECT RATE (ODR)

The Order Defect Rate (ODR) is a key measure of your ability to provide good customer service. It encompasses all orders over the last 60 days and is a combination of three different metrics:

- negative feedback (Negative Feedback Rate) - comments and ratings

- A-to-Z Guarantee Claims (A to Z Guarantee Claim)

- credit card chargebacks (Chargeback Claims)

These three factors are collectively taken into account when determining the ODR level for an account. Amazon considers all defective orders and then divides them by the total number of orders during that period. So if one A-to-Z guarantee claim was ruled in your disadvantage, and customers left two negative feedbacks, with a total of 100 orders placed during that period, your ODR would be 3%. According to Amazon's policy, sellers must maintain an ODR below 1%. If the ODR is higher than 1%, it will result in account deactivation. However, this does not happen automatically. If you are just starting to sell on Amazon and your number of orders over the last 60 days is 50, and you encounter one negative experience raising your ODR to 2%, you are likely to only receive a warning. However, if the rate remains above 1% for an extended period or it jumps to that level on an account that already has thousands of orders and has been selling for years, a sales restriction or account suspension is practically certain.

NEGATIVE FEEDBACK RATE

Negative feedback is usually given by customers who did not receive exactly what they wanted - an error in order shipping, a product arrived damaged, etc. Another common cause is delays in product delivery or unsatisfactory contact with the seller. If you received negative feedback from a customer, you can take two steps to have it removed. If the feedback left by the customer is unjustified, and the order was shipped according to applicable standards, you can ask Amazon to remove it. Another option is to contact the customer to resolve the situation, offer a discount, rebate on future orders, or simply apologize in hoping they will remove such feedback.

A TO Z GUARANTEE CLAIM - A-Z GUARANTEE

An A-to-Z Guarantee claim protects customers when: they did not receive the package by the maximum estimated delivery date, receive a different product than expected, or the product arrived damaged. According to Amazon's rules, in such situation the customer should first contact you to resolve the issue. If after 48 hours you have not reached an agreement with the customer or the solution is not satisfactory for them, Amazon allows lodging a claim. Upon receipt of a claim, Amazon gives you 5 days to resolve the issue. During this time, you must contact the claimant; if you do not, the claim will automatically be ruled in favor of the customer. If you have attempted to resolve the issue, the customer lodging the complaint must describe their position - the reason for which the claim is being made, to which you, as the seller, must respond. Amazon then considers both positions and makes a decision in the matter, which may negatively affect your ODR or may not.

Types of A-Z Guarantee resolution that will negatively impact your ODR:

- Claims ruled in favor of the customer and the purchase cost refunded from your account to the customer. Note: in this case, the customer has the right to keep the purchased item.

- Claims for which you refunded the purchase cost to the customer after the A-Z guarantee claim was opened. Note: if the customer agrees to a refund through mediation between you and the buyer, ask them to close the A-Z claim first and then refund the amount.

- Claims in cases where you or Amazon cancelled the order.

The following types of claims do not impact the ODR:

- Claims awarded in favor of the customer but paid by Amazon.

- Claims rejected by Amazon.

- Claims withdrawn by the customer.

If an A-Z claim arises on your account, you should always try to resolve the dispute with the customer as quickly as possible. If you are unable to do so, remember that your response to the claim to Amazon should not be emotional; try to respond briefly and specifically.

CHARGEBACK CLAIMS

A chargeback is similar to an A-to-Z guarantee claim, except that the credit card issuer reviews the claim and makes the decision, not Amazon. A chargeback means that the buyer confirms the purchase but informs the credit card issuer that they encountered a problem, such as:

- The buyer claims they did not receive the item.

- The buyer returned the product but did not receive a refund.

- Unauthorized use of the credit card.

To prevent chargeback claims, follow the tips below:

- When shipping a product, always use the customer's address provided in the Amazon system. The seller is responsible for any disputes arising in connection with orders shipped to an incorrect address.

- Always add the tracking number received from the carrier to the system when shipping the product.

- Use delivery confirmation options (signature required) for high-value goods.

For all chargeback claims, you must respond within 7 calendar days of receiving the complaint, just as in the case of receiving an A-Z complaint.

All three factors count towards the ODR level; additionally, there are two important factors that also influence the health of your sales account, and exceeding them also threatens sales suspension.

LATE DISPATCH RATE

Similar to the previous metrics, this timely shipping rate is also presented as a percentage of defective orders in relation to the total and cannot exceed 4%. Therefore, it is important to remember that all received orders should be confirmed in the Amazon system by the designated date.

PRE-FULFILMENT CANCELLATION RATE

This is the percentage of orders cancelled by the seller before shipping confirmation. The pre-fulfilment cancellation rate should not exceed 2.5%. Therefore, when adding products to your Amazon offer, you must ensure that you can fulfil their shipping. It is also important to pay attention to the settings for international shipping. If you want to ship your products, for example, only to Germany, remember to uncheck the option to ship to other countries in the settings.

CONSEQUENCES

Amazon's goal is to protect customer experiences and maintain buyer trust. If the orders you fulfil do not meet the requirements, customers' feelings while shopping on Amazon will be negative, which ultimately threatens Amazon's reputation. To reduce the number of such situations, Amazon has implemented a range of restrictions in case of failure to meet established standards.

Firstly, if your ODR rate starts to rise significantly, you will automatically lose the Buy Box for your products. Secondly, Amazon may freeze your account funds, preventing you from withdrawing them, or suspend or close your selling account.

AMAZON ACCOUNT SUSPENSION - Amazon Account Health

Amazon can block your sales in three different ways. Each of these three suspensions arises from different causes, and their consequences will vary.

SUSPENDED ACCOUNT

Suspensions occur when the order defect rate is slightly above 1% and no other negative factors, such as delivery delays or order cancellations before confirmation, are present. At this point, you simply cannot sell on Amazon. After the seller privileges are removed, you have 17 days to create a Plan of Action (POA). If you have a history of suspensions, regaining the ability to sell on Amazon can be difficult.

REJECTED ACCOUNT

Your account receives the status of rejected when, in the case of a suspension, you submit an unsatisfactory Plan of Action (POA) or if it is another suspension of the account in recent times. To avoid finding yourself in this situation, you should carefully and diligently prepare your first POA. In this situation, you also should not submit a POA repeatedly and thoughtlessly, as this can lead to the third level, which is the blocking of the seller's account.

BANNED ACCOUNT

Amazon does not accept repeated appeals against account bans. Your Plans of Action cease to be read, and you have irreversibly lost the ability to sell on Amazon. In this case, Amazon will block the withdrawal of your funds for a period of 90 days, after which your selling account will be closed.

PLAN OF ACTION (POA) - AMAZON REQUIREMENTS

According to Amazon's guidelines, your Plan of Action should consist of three parts.

ROOT CAUSES: The plan should begin by explaining the mistakes that led to customer dissatisfaction. Accept whatever has happened and do not shift blame onto the customers.

SOLUTIONS: Discuss the activities undertaken, new policies, and procedures you have implemented to resolve the issue. Explain in detail how the solutions taken will help your business maintain compliance with Amazon's policies.

PREVENTIVE ACTIONS: The last step is to formulate preventive actions. This is an important part of your action plan; at this point, you need to show what you will do in the future to avoid a similar situation from occurring.

Your action plan should be based on facts and specifics. Focus on the events that led to the issue rather than presenting your product, company, or customer. Avoid using emotional language. Do not challenge Amazon's policy enforcement. Amazon needs to be confident that you know which actions led to the suspension of your account.

Provide explanations for all issues. Some deactivations may result from a combination of problems (for example, a high number of defective orders may result from negative feedback and undelivered orders). You must address each defective order by specifying the reasons for the occurrence of this situation.

Ensure that your submitted plan is clear and the Seller Performance team will have no issues reading your explanations. Remember that you are one of thousands of Amazon sellers writing to the Seller Performance department, which is why your action plan should be concise - excessive verbosity in the description may lead to plan rejection.

The second step of the action plan is to resolve the issues, which means that for each cause of the problem you have a ready solution. If your results were lowered due to late shipments, mention a new shipping fulfillment system or a new agreement with the courier company and how this improved the situation.

The third step is to ensure that in the future you will not allow a similar situation to occur again. So, for example, if your customers complained about receiving damaged products, you must ensure that new packaging standards have been implemented so that products will be delivered to customers in perfect condition.

SUMMARY

If you are a new seller on Amazon or want to start selling, remember that maintaining your account health level will allow you to have safe and sustainable sales. Knowing Amazon’s policy rules is the most reliable way to achieve success in international sales.

If you have any doubts or need assistance, reach out to us. Want to share feedback on this article? Write a comment - it might just be the answer to another seller's question. Be part of the Go2Market community.

Happy Performance Management

Go2Market Crew