Listing suppression can tank your sales and organic ranking on Amazon. If one of your listings is suppressed, it’s important to act as quickly as possible.
However, listing suppression isn’t always immediately obvious, especially if you sell several products. Amazon doesn’t notify you when your listing is suppressed, so if you’re unaware that there’s an issue you can lose a lot of momentum for your product.
Let’s cover the top reasons Amazon listings are suppressed and what to do if you experience listing suppression.
What is Amazon Listing Suppression?
In a recent survey, eComEngine found that 59% of Amazon sellers surveyed were concerned about listing suppression.
Amazon listings that are suppressed are hidden from product searches. That means that they effectively can’t be seen by shoppers.
A suppressed listing can quickly experience a drop in sales volume. Regaining the momentum you’ve worked so hard to build can take several weeks or even months, so it’s best to avoid listing suppression altogether.
Amazon will suppress product listings that don’t meet its standards or guidelines. The affected listings can be restored if those issues are addressed, however.
Go to the Inventory tab in Seller Central and select Manage All Inventory to check for suppressed listings. If you see a link for suppressed listings, click on it to see which listings are flagged. If you don’t see a link, none of your listings are currently suppressed.
Monitoring your listings and resolving any issues quickly is the best way to ensure that your listings are available in Amazon search.
Common Reasons for Listing Suppression
There are several reasons your listing might be suppressed on Amazon, so you’ll need to check Seller Central for more information about your specific listing issues. However, there are some common reasons for listing suppression that are helpful to know.
Possible reasons for listing suppression include:
- Images don’t meet Amazon’s requirements
- No set product category
- Description incomplete or insufficient
- The title is too long
- Product details are not filled in correctly
- There’s already a duplicate listing on Amazon
- The item is an Amazon-restricted product
Related content: The Amazon Product Listing Optimization Guide
Most of these issues are relatively easy to resolve, as long as you’re aware that there’s a problem with your listing.
Failure to follow Amazon’s image requirements is the most common reason for listing suppression. Taking the time to fully understand the requirements so your products are photographed correctly can help you avoid costly reshoots.
The main image is the one that’s easiest to get wrong, so here’s a quick overview of some key requirements:
- A pure white background
- RGB color values of 255, 255, 255
- No graphics, illustrations, or drawings are allowed.
- Don’t include props or accessories that aren’t sold with the product.
- You can’t use text, logos, borders, watermarks, or other graphics.
There are many additional image requirements, so be sure to do your homework for your specific product and category.
Fixing and Preventing Listing Suppression
To fix suppressed listings, log into Seller Central and go to the Manage All Inventory page. Now, select Search Suppressed and Inactive Listings from the horizontal menu to see your suppressed listings on the Fix your products page.
You’ll see information about how to resolve errors for each suppressed listing in the column on the right.
Sometimes the same listing can be suppressed for multiple reasons. If that’s the case, you’ll need to solve the problem that is currently displayed and check back later to see whether the listing is un-suppressed or has another suppression reason shown.
Make sure you’re following all of Amazon’s guidelines to avoid listing suppression. You can use the Amazon Listing Quality Dashboard in Seller Central to help manage your product compliance and check for any missing details.
The dashboard highlights your at-risk listings and provides information about what you need to add to avoid listing suppression.
Protect Your Amazon Listings
When your listings are suppressed, buyers won’t be able to find your product page in Amazon’s search results. This can put both your sales volume and organic search ranking at risk.
While Amazon provides helpful details in Seller Central, it doesn’t send notifications when your products become search-suppressed. That’s why we created SellerPulse, a 24/7 listing monitoring and alerting platform designed to save you time while protecting your listings.
When your listings are unexpectedly merged, blocked, or suppressed, you’ll receive an email alert so you can take care of it right away. The alert includes recommendations to help you resolve issues as soon as possible.
SellerPulse also includes alerts for Buy Box changes, listing content changes, hijacker activity, and stockouts, so you can manage your seller reputation with ease. Try it today!
Author
Becky Trowbridge is the Digital Marketing Manager at eComEngine. Her mission is to empower Amazon sellers with the information they need to be successful in a competitive market. When she’s not creating content, she enjoys spending time outdoors, trying new recipes, and reading.
