Why your listing got suppressed & how to prevent it
On Amazon, a seller’s product pages or listings are where customers can browse and order your products. The product listings are what drive your business and produce sales. So, what happens when shoppers can’t find your listing anymore? This is what occurs when a listing is suppressed. Here we’ll go over what a suppressed listing is, why listings get suppressed, and the steps sellers can take to prevent this from happening in the future.
what is a suppressed listing?
A suppressed listing is a product listing that cannot be seen or found by shoppers. The listing will be hidden from product searches and thus will not be able to produce any sales. Suppressed listings however are not removed from the platform, they are simply deactivated. This means sellers can potentially restore the product listing to an active status. But before we review how to resolve a suppressed listing, let’s take a look at some of the reasons Amazon flags and suppresses product listings in the first place.
why did your listing get suppressed?
The main reason why Amazon suppresses a listing is if the listing did not follow Amazon guidelines or meet their standards. Whether you are a large corporation or a small business, any listing can get suppressed for not adhering to Amazon’s rules. Some common offenses are: your product images do not meet the image requirements, the listing does not have a specified product category, information on your listing is not filled out correctly, your product description is inadequate or incomplete, your product title or category does not abide by character limits, a duplicate listing already exists on Amazon, and/or the product you are selling is an Amazon Restricted Product. Amazon will also suppress listings for more serious issues including: a product is flagged as fraudulent, a seller is selling used or expired products, or Amazon is receiving safety complaints regarding your product.
One of the most common reasons why listings get suppressed is a failure to adhere to the image requirements for product images. Amazon has a very specific set of guidelines for images posted on a product page. So when creating your listing, you’ll want to pay extra attention to your images and ensure they meet Amazon’s technical standards. Missing product details are another common reason why a listing may get suppressed. Amazon’s algorithm will tag listings that are missing item details like Color, Size, Department, or Color Map. Details are important for the consumer shopping experience.
In a 2021 survey conducted in 117 different countries, the most popular product category on Amazon among sellers was Home and Kitchen, with 32% of respondents saying they had such products listed for sale. With giant categories like this, it is essential that sellers distinguish their product listings with the proper details so consumers will know what they are purchasing. Luckily, most of the issues that cause a listing to be suppressed, like missing item details, can be resolved quite easily. This allows sellers to restore their listings without expending too much time and to continue gaining new customers and boosting sales.
how do you know if a listing is suppressed?
To see if any of your product listings have been suppressed, simply log on to Seller Central, go to your Inventory Tab and select Manage Inventory. If one or more of your listings have been suppressed, you will see a link at the top of the page that says Suppressed. Clicking this link will show you which product pages are suppressed. If you do not see this link, that means none of your listings have been suppressed and you are good to go.
how do you fix a suppressed listing?
Sellers can resolve and restore suppressed listings by using Seller Central. Again, under the Manage Inventory tab, sellers will see a link to their suppressed listings on the horizontal menu. You can fix all of your flagged listings on the Fix Your Products page or click Attribute to filter by type of issue. If your issue involved images, you could resolve that by replacing the images on your product page with new ones. For all other issues, you will see an Issues to Fix column that will list the missing or incorrect information from your product page. Sellers can go in and add the missing information to the editable cells or select the missing information from a dropdown menu.
There are some more complex issues that will not be displayed in the Issues to Fix column. For these, sellers can click Edit, then Edit Product Info which will take them to a new page. On the Edit Product Info page, sellers will see that the problematic information is highlighted. There may also be further instructions/informational messages displayed advising sellers on how to resolve the issue.
how to prevent your listing from getting suppressed
The best way to prevent your listings from getting suppressed in the first place is to simply follow all of Amazon’s rules. Amazon sellers must comply with all state, federal, and local selling laws. Amazon is constantly updating its rules and regulations, so sellers must stay on top of product guidelines to prevent a listing from getting suppressed. A good way to manage your listings is through the Amazon Listing Quality Dashboard. The dashboard highlights listings that are at risk of being suppressed and details the adjustments that need to be made. A few key things to look out for are prohibitions your product may have on the marketplace, character limits for titles and categories, and the validity/accuracy of your information.
Amazon is strict about the standards of its product listings to give customers a quality shopping experience. This is a positive aspect of the platform but also means that sellers will have to be meticulous about keeping their listings in line with requirements. You should now know how to discover if you have any suppressed listings, fix most issues to restore your listing status to active, and prevent listing suppressions from happening altogether. Happy selling!