Is It Safe To Sell On Amazon? How You Can Protect Yourself From Bad Competitors
Life as we know it can be unfair. We gave up trying to make sense of that after some unfortunate things happened to us. That does not mean that bad things happen to us because it just happens. Sometimes, bad things happen because of somebody.
This can be the case on Amazon.
Like crabs trying to pull you down if they think you are above them, some competitors won’t stop until you’re pulled down the food chain. This means getting your account suspended at all costs. If you don’t believe that this could happen to you, simply go to the amazon forum and you’ll read some stories of accounts suspended. No matter how strong their brand is.
Of course, this does not mean that you cannot fight back or appeal. But with thousands of support tickets created daily, what are your chances?
Maybe there’s a resolution in trying to spam Amazon on all of their social media channels and raising your questions. Or you can use the often mentioned method of emailing Jeff himself. Again, what are the chances?
Knowing the blackhat tactics that your competitors do will help you see danger ahead of time before it even starts. Who wants all that hardship that it takes to build a valuable Amazon brand only to have it burned to the ground? No one.
So keep your defenses up, these are the bad tactics your competitors might do to take you out of the competition:
The flooding of positive reviews
Amazon’s war on reviews is longstanding. When people with ill intentions try to flood a product with numerous negative reviews, Amazon’s justice is quick to take effect.
But the war does not stop there. When unscrupulous competitors are determined more than ever to dominate sales, they had to improvise. This time, flooding a product with positive reviews that are not even related to the product.
This is still seen as a manipulation of reviews. That’s why if you recount the story of Zac Plansky who ran a multi-million dollar company on Amazon, you will know that it is a pretty serious deal.
There is no clear line of defense on this but to report an entire listing to amazon’s support. They will then take a look at the reviews in question and see if they could be removed. You just have to be quick in taking action on your suspicions if you get flooded with these positive reviews.
Evil competitors buying tons of your products
Clearly, at this point, there is no stopping these competitors from trying to smear your brand. Another way that they could launch an attack on your brand is to buy tons of your products over and over again.
Once they do this, they will eventually report your product as defective or counterfeit. This is a painful jab and the only defense you have is to provide Amazon with supplier invoices. The verification process of the invoices you sent will be a long and painful process but it is the best defense.
Cloning your entire products
If buying products was not enough, how about copying your products intentionally? With not even the shame of trying to improvise something on your product, counterfeiters have challenged the system by creating fake products.
Of course, these knock-offs can be quite cheap, and since there really is no major difference, sales are now siphoned to these counterfeiters.
How do you take care of this situation? The best method to defend this is to create a strong brand that is trademarked and then getting your product on the brand registry. You can also do a test buy from these stores trying to put you out of business. Once you confirm that these products are indeed a copy-cat, send them to Amazon to confirm the legitimacy. Be warned though that like other decision-making, Amazon might take time to suspend the fake account.
In the meantime, it means that you must wait and a few negative reviews may come your way. At least, it is not suspending your account!
Compromising your Amazon account
Persistent bad actors also have skills, in fact without persistence, how long can they try and do the above-mentioned tactics?
This is why some of them have resorted to hacking your account. It is pretty hard to take down Amazon’s login defenses considering there are many things to consider. A complex password can always help with that.
Once this hack has been executed, they will try and change your listing and post some unflattering photos just to scare the buyers. On the other hand, if they are capable, they can just completely take over.
However, it might be the panic of your life once your money has been drained and the hacker’s bank is still in your account!
When this happens, it might be time to lawyer up as many have been successful in recouping account hacks when brought upon by legal teams.
The claims that your product is hazardous
You know what rings the Amazon ‘action bell’ more than anything? Safety risks! This method of bad actors trying to grind you down is quite similar to buying tons of products for bad counterfeit claims.
The only difference with buying a product with this bad tactic is that the bad actors stage a fire hazard from your product. It seems like all of these people took a photography course for the kind of fire they can capture.
While it is both laughable and unbelievable, this can happen and has happened to many sellers. This happens to sellers who are selling electronics as it’s quite a believable story to say because of short-circuiting.
In Retrospect:
Amazon’s press releases are always the same: there is a team of both internal and external teams reviewing and enforcing suspensions and manipulation of the system. While there are success stories of getting Amazon to take action, some are still trying.
Things like this call for an experienced seller that can guide you in the right direction. Navigating the Amazon mayhem alone is your choice but doing it alone can have consequences that might lead to miserable experiences.
If you do not have any idea, researching will do you some good. If you want to focus your time on something important, try getting some help.
VDM Partners has been helping several brands to take care of their Seller Central account and helping them grow their business. Schedule a call and we will be happy to discuss how you can avoid these attacks on your brand.