Unsuppressing ASINs: GO's success with documentation & Amazon communication
What we’re celebrating:
Unsuppressed three of our client’s high-performing ASINs in less than a month via language changes, case submissions, catalog listing reports, appeals, and direct communication with Amazon representatives.
Once all three ASINs were back online, they earned the brand nearly $7,000 in sales in just two weeks.
Overview:
In February 2023, GO began working with a client that has several health & wellness brands under their belt. The client has had a history of their products getting suppressed on Amazon and when we began our partnership with them, we saw three of their highest-performing ASINs were suppressed. The suppressed ASINs fell under two distinct categories:
Amazon deemed some product detail page (PDP) claims to be lacking evidence and therefore unverifiable. While the copy accurately portrayed the products’ benefits, it contained phrasing that was no longer acceptable to Amazon.
Product quality concerns stemming from a customer complaint. A shopper bought too much of one item at a time, lasting them well beyond the product’s expiration date and giving them the impression that they were sold old goods.
Due to these suppressions, the brand missed out on over $10,000 in sales when comparing February’s performance to January’s performance.
To mitigate this, our GO team began making language updates, submitting cases, sending in catalog listing reports, filling out appeals, and communicating directly with Amazon representatives to get these suppressions overturned.
The Challenges:
Several of our client’s ASINs were suppressed and therefore barred from being sold on Amazon, causing them to miss out on thousands of dollars in sales.
While the language on our client’s PDPs accurately described their products’ capabilities, Amazon decided they were claims that our client could no longer make.
A customer submitted a complaint that was flagged as an issue by Amazon. The customer bought too many of the same product at once and had several of those items expire over time. This was shopping behavior the brand had limited control over.
The Strategy:
To mitigate the two suppressed ASINs that were receiving claims disputes, we…
Reworded their bullet points, eliminating the restricted phrasing but still indicating the products’ benefits and capabilities.
Opened a case with Amazon to make these bullet point updates.
Sent two category listing reports per Amazon’s request. One report was a partial catalog update and the other was a full catalog update. Unfortunately, neither worked.
Called Amazon and spoke directly with a representative. This was the last piece of the puzzle – the representative was able to push our case to the right people on the backend and help get these ASINs live.
For the ASIN that was flagged due to expiration date concerns, we…
Opened a case with Amazon and asked what we needed to do to get the ASIN live again.
Submitted an appeal per Amazon’s instructions. The appeal needed to include as much documentation as possible and cover information like:
The root cause of the complaint.
The order # we believed the expiration complaint came from.
Efforts we made to contact the customer.
Invoices that proved the “expired” products were sent from the manufacturer to our client and from our client to Amazon warehouses well before the expiration date.
Documents showcasing the quality assessments that take place at our client’s manufacturing facility.
Steps we’ve implemented to ensure this won’t happen again. To reduce future expiration date complaints, we’ve included the shelf life of the ASIN in both the product’s title and bullet points.
Sent in a removal order to get the ASIN’s remaining two units out of Amazon fulfillment centers. The brand has both fulfilled by Amazon (FBA) and fulfilled by merchant (FBM) capabilities, so we’ve transitioned this ASIN to being strictly FBM. Once we completed this step, the ASIN was unsuppressed.
The Results:
Through our team’s persistence, dedication, willingness to try different tactics, and communication with Amazon contacts, we were able to get these three high-performing items unsuppressed in less than one month.
Once all three ASINs were back online, they earned the brand nearly $7,000 in sales in just two weeks.
Having problems with Amazon suppressing your items?
Our retail team has the experience, determination, and bandwidth necessary to deal with the headache that is suppressions. Don’t unnecessarily lose out on sales. Click the contact button below to set up a call with us today.