Many Amazon Sellers are wondering what does it mean when they, from time to time, receive a worryingly looking e-mail from Amazon titled “Action Needed: Update your shipping prices”. In this article I will be clarifying the meaning of this notification using my own words.
The alert states that “To protect the customer experience, we may suppress shipping options when we believe the shipping rates to customers are excessive. We’ve identified this potential error in your ship rate configurations for the ship options and SKUs below:”
It is then followed with a list of SKUs and further explanatory wording:
| What is happening? The ship options listed above are no longer being shown to customers for affected SKUs. Customers can still see and buy your offers, excluding these ship options, unless all configured ship options for an offer violate the policy, in which case your offer is not shown at all. Why is this happening? These ship options appear to have excessive shipping rates for these SKUs and are in violation of Amazon’s Marketplace Fair Pricing Policy. This policy can be found at: https://sellercentral.amazon.com/gp/help/5TUVJKZHUVMN77V. How do I reenable my ship options? Please review the policy and update your shipping rates on the Shipping Settings page in Seller Central. There may be up to a week of delay in our email notification system, however, your ship options will be reactivated immediately when shipping rates are updated to comply with our policy. To learn how to edit your shipping settings, refer to: https://sellercentral.amazon.com/gp/help/201834090 Please also ensure your product listing contains the correct package weight and dimensions. To learn how to edit your product listing, refer to: https://sellercentral.amazon.com/gp/help/201836910 Have your ship options been removed in error? Contact Us if you believe there has been an error, and please submit an explanation. Your explanation should include the following information: A description of how your shipping rates have complied with the Amazon Marketplace Fair Pricing policy. When reviewing shipping rates, Amazon takes into account current public carrier prices and reasonable handling charges, as well as buyer perception. If your ship rates are reasonably related to your shipping costs, please provide Amazon with an explanation for your shipping rates. Evidence or examples that demonstrate your shipping rates have complied with the Amazon Marketplace Fair Pricing policy. |
As you know, Amazon is the only e-commerce marketplace in the world that doesn’t offer any seller protection to its merchants. Buyers can obtain instant full refunds using the A-to-Z Guarantee, even if their order’s tracking information clearly shows timely delivery to the buyer address in Order Details.
The highest chance for a third-party Amazon seller to successfully dispute a non-receipt claim is by using a service that provides signature confirmation upon delivery. However, such a service doesn’t come cheap, especially when shipping internationally. The price ranges from anywhere between 10€ to 150€, depending on the seller’s location and the delivery address.
There would be nothing wrong with setting a shipping cost that covers such a service, as long as it provides increased protection for the merchant. However, using the warning above, Amazon is enforcing its Marketplace Fair Pricing Policy on shipping costs. This causes more expensive shipping rates that cover signed service to get deactivated under the allegation of “excessive shipping cost.”
As a result, Amazon sellers are prevented from offering a service that would protect them against non-receipt claims.
Local sellers who reside in countries such as the United States or the United Kingdom can purchase heavily discounted shipping directly from Amazon and remain protected. Only international sellers based in countries without an official Amazon site, who have no access to Amazon’s shipping and need to arrange their own postage, remain affected.
If you received this warning, it therefore means that you won’t be able to offer better and safer postage, which protects you, but is more expensive.
As opposed to appealing, all you can do is simply continue selling without offering these safer and faster shipping methods to your buyers.
I hope you found this article helpful. If you are experiencing issues with your Amazon Seller Account and your Seller Account already received a warning or is under a review, I can help you resolve the matter.
If you would like to hire me to privately assist you, feel free to subscribe and reach out through my dedicated assistance page at www.onlyfans.com/kikaangelic, where I provide support with Amazon related matters in exchange for a small $24.99 fee. Alternatively, you can post into my free public discussion forum for Amazon Sellers, where I will answer your question.
To stay in touch, feel free to join and post into my large Amazon Seller Performance – Friendly Advice – Worldwide Facebook group, where you will be very welcome.
Many Amazon sellers recently started trading stocks and crypto currencies, hoping to diversify their income, which is a very good idea with all the uncertainty which comes with the platform. For this reason, we launched a new Facebook group, Crypto Arbitrage Income (Bitcoin, Crypto, Altcoins, Blockchain, Trading) – feel free to join us and forget about the troubles of selling on Amazon for a moment!
Additionally, here you can watch my YouTube video, where I am addressing everything you need to know about Seller Identity Verification and how to pass it:
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