Common examples of missing or insufficient information that can lead to suppressed listings on Amazon include:
- Any product listing without at least one product main image.
- Any listing (excluding certain categories such as books, apparel, or shoes) without a detailed product description.
- Any clothing or accessories item with a title longer than 80 characters.
- Any product listing without a defined category type.
To identify and correct suppressed listings:
- Navigate to the Manage Inventory button under the Inventory tab in Amazon Seller Central:
- Click Search Suppressed:
- Click Search Suppressed on the desired product listings:
- Every product listing has an Amazon Product Summary page, which lists out all of the suppression and quality issues. Go through the "Issue Description" and follow the instructions to fix those.
- Once all of the issues have been resolved, click Save to finish and exit.
NOTE: For the items where the listing can not be fixed, add the reason to the comments in the Sitnsell\ Listing SKU\Comments.
What happens if my listing is incorrectly flagged?
Occasionally, even when your listing is in line with Amazon’s standards, the listing may be suppressed due to an unintentional prohibited claim. Sometimes, the Amazon algorithm incorrectly flags certain claims or keywords. Based on the type of issue, there are two ways that sellers can be notified of incorrectly flagged suppressed listings: Stranded Inventory and Performance Notifications.
Stranded Inventory
When a listing is classified as Stranded Inventory, an ASIN will be removed from Amazon. It can be found on the ‘Manage Inventory’ page as ‘Stranded Inventory’. On the Stranded Inventory page, Amazon will provide a stranded reason, such as a missing attribute or an incorrectly flagged prohibited claim. Sellers can either appeal or fix the issue.
In many cases, the issue can be resolved by modifying the copy in the listing. When resolving a pesticide claim, for example, removing words like ‘bugs’, ‘pests’, ‘mildew’, ‘mold’, and ‘insects’ typically, remove the ASIN from Stranded Inventory status.
Performance Notifications
Performance Notifications are sent to sellers when an ASIN is flagged for a performance issue. The product detail page may be removed from Amazon, or sellers may just receive an error that needs to be fixed while they continue selling. To resolve Performance Notifications, sellers must submit a Plan of Action (POA) with three parts: Root Cause, Corrective Actions, and Preventative Actions.
Sellers can visit their Voice of the Customer dashboard in Seller Central to review the flagged ASIN and find any recent customer comments that relate to the performance issue raised by Amazon. After submitting a proper POA, the performance notification should be removed.