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Amazon’s ‘Gating’ Epidemic – How to Protect Your E-commerce Store

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Need help getting ‘ungated’ from Amazon’s new marketplace rules? We’ll show you how to avoid some issues in this guide.

For a long time, a multitude of luxury brands resisted the thought of selling their products on Amazon. But after years of Amazon’s pitches and analyzing the ever-changing user preferences, even industry giants such as L’Oreal has caved in and has started to use Amazon.

Amazon’s results within the beauty industry have been impressive. For instance, Q2 2018 sales on personal care and health items has reached a total of $1.9 billion. This increased by 23% year after year. And the sales for beauty products have reached approximately $950 million, up to 26%.

Amazon’s plans to make their beauty product listings more selective (through using subcategories) has paid off. Since high-end beauty products are starting to become “gated” and unable to be sold by third parties, brands are working diligently to get their products available to Amazon’s 100 million Prime customers. As a result, Amazon’s “Luxury Beauty” category has received an estimated $250 million in sales.

Myths About the Amazon Ungating Service

While there is detailed information on how to protect yourself from amazon’s gating, there are a few myths that need to be debunked:

  1. Multiple Failed applications will place your account in trouble: There’s no reason to worry that the application process will negatively affect your account. Even if you’re unable to send the correct documents, Amazon won’t penalize you for sending out an application.
  2. Users Have a Limited Number of Attempts: Some users tend to think that they have a few application attempts before Amazon bans them from the product category. If you’re getting repeatedly rejected, then sit back and find what you’re missing, then try again.
  3. When you’re untagged in a product category, you can only show the item you showed previous documentation for: When you’re untagged from a category, you can list additional items that fall in into it. You can do this without having to go through Amazon’s extensive updating progress.

You always want to preserve your authenticity (reselling authorizations, invoices) and safety (Safety Data Sheet and certificates) documents at hand. You should do this for every item that’s sold to prevent clients from complaining about your product listings.

Common Pitfalls to Avoid

When looking for an amazon ungating service, it can take time to decide which one is the best for you. To help reduce the amount of time researching, we’ve decided to show a few pitfalls that you and your team need to avoid.

Unverified Suppliers

One of the biggest mistakes you’ll make is by buying from an unverified supplier. Either their online presence is untrustworthy, don’t have clear contact information, or they’re selling unverified items.

To solve this, only buy from verified suppliers. This ensures that you’ll save time, money, and reduce the chances of your products being delayed.

Amazon Keeps Rejecting My Images

As a rule of thumb, make sure your label complies with the FDA requirements. The pictures should show the trademark/patent number on the label. To ensure that your pictures aren’t artificially generated, try to include a “human compartment” to the product (i.e., having a hand hold the products).

Amazon Rejected My Invoices

Even if you’ve created a compelling paper to become “ungated,” Amazon doesn’t take invoices lightly. You won’t be ungated if you provide order details, packing slips, retail receipts, or online retailer invoices. Also, buying retail is unaccepted. You have to make sure that you’re using official distributors and manufacturers.

Conclusion

In the end, you’ll have to use an amazon ungating service if your product has been accidentally taken off the listings. By doing this, you increase your credibility towards Amazon and increases the chance of selling your desired product. So, make sure your Amazon site is verified and legitimate to protect your products from getting “gated” by Amazon’s algorithms.

HubSpot