In order to sell products on Amazon, brands and retailers must adhere to the company’s strict code of conduct while maintaining high performance metrics, otherwise, they risk facing penalties as severe as account suspension and having entire listings removed.
When a suspension occurs, sellers have the ability to appeal these decisions and ask to have their account privileges reinstated by submitting to Amazon a plan of action (POA).
Overall, an Amazon POA details the specific steps a seller will take to rectify any outstanding issues , which can range from having poor marks on key performance metrics like Order Defect Rate and Cancellation Rate to being suspended over price gouging or selling counterfeit items.
Get the facts about Amazon’s write-up policy for creating an appeal letter and explore this guide for expert tips on how to write a POA the right way.
When filing an appeal over suspended selling privileges, the company will often request that sellers submit a POA, which provides a thorough overview of what they will do to improve their account health and correct all issues Amazon has identified. While many aspects of an Amazon appeal plan of action are straightforward, sellers must ensure that they are following Amazon’s best practices for writing a POA.
When submitting a POA, make sure that your letter answers the following three questions:
1. What was the root cause that led to the issue?
Identify the Amazon root cause and the critical factors behind the situation.
2. What actions will you take to resolve the issue?
If the issue persists, explain the specific steps that will be taken to fix this current problem.
3. What steps will you take to prevent future issues?
Create an outline of the systems and measures you plan to enact to prevent similar situations from occurring in the future.
Sellers can review the issues that led to a deactivation, as well as submit appeals, through the Account Health section of their Amazon Seller Central profile.
Beyond addressing the three key questions above, your POA should also be written to give Amazon transparent insight that is easy to read and understand. Amazon outlines the following four guidelines for what keep in mind when crafting a POA:
-Your writing should be clear and concise: A plan of action is not meant to be a lengthy essay that covers every aspect of your business. Instead, it should be direct and factual, focused solely on the events that caused the issues and important supporting details.
-Include explanations for all issues: If an Amazon account suspension was caused by a combination of factors, make sure to address every root cause and include corrective action plans for each.
-Submit supporting evidence for all items in question: As part of your POA, do not forget to include supporting evidence related to all products or ASINs that Amazon is reviewing. Additionally, make sure that requested documents cover the pertinent time frames needed for the review.
-Bold and highlight important evidence and sections: Make your Amazon POA more reader-friendly by highlighting specific sections within documents to showcase important information, such as Terms and Conditions clauses, supplier details, ASINs, and more.
In addition to Amazon’s POA recommendations, there are other dos and don’ts that sellers should also follow when submitting an appeal, which may further help increase their chances of having Amazon account suspensions removed.
-Stick to the facts about the issues and your situation
-Provide context with a succinct company introduction
-Include all relevant examples and requested details behind the suspension
-Make your writing easy to read by breaking POA topics into bullets
-Keep things positive and focused on solving the problems at hand
-Submit automatic and non-personalized responses as an appeal
-Get negative and blame Amazon or others for the issues
-Include irrelevant information that does not pertain to the issues
-Write too much, addressing more than just the key points
