Gated Brands don't approve
Hello Seller Forum members.
I am Nina and the founder of Mavarmcorp.
Amazon was something that for many years I have researched and wanted to start. Took some courses, started researching on my own to make sure I comply with every rules, terms and conditions.
Finally, this year I have decided to buy bulk items from a US based distributor where I get an invoice, detailed manifest. As I read before how to ungate the listings, I needed to have a distributor or manufacturer's invoice. I do have the distributor's invoice with supply chain. At the beginning I received approvals but past month all brands declined me. First time applying it is asking me to provide 10 units but then declines me stating I must have 100 units then 400 units. It is so frustrating because I have invested my time, money, for past few years to understand Amazon and finally when I took the risk to start my business just got stuck and now I don't know what else to do. SPS never helps all they say internal team and you cannot contact internal team at all. I was wondering how else I can contact with Amazon? but not with regular associates who cannot help at all.
I thought Amazon is a great platform for resellers and majority of the business is through 3p resellers.
6 replies
Seller_nRFmxiQg4EGrw
Amazon has gotten considerably harder over the years. If you are going to sell a branded item, very often you will need approval FROM THE BRAND to sell their products on Amazon.
Seller_4zBzdtgCyS9EI
Yes, that is how Amazon makes a lot of it's revenue......meanwhile you are paying your professional selling fees, often for months. Then they randomly suspend your account and you keep paying, if you used FBA, you are going to get billed a few hundred a month in storage fees while your inventory is held hostage. Maybe your research should have included visits to the seller forum, rather than guru videos?
Seller_kIukTwdhvntAp
"I thought Amazon is a great platform for resellers and majority of the business is through 3p resellers."
Partly true -- this part --"majority of the business is through 3p resellers" and NOT true any longer -- this part -- "I thought Amazon is a great platform for resellers".
It USED to be, but as noted by @Seller_nRFmxiQg4EGrwa LOT has changed in the past few years and more changes come daily.
Now it is pretty much a 'fool's errand' to just buy stuff and HOPE to be able to list things here.
Here is the new reality for most sellers (exceptions seem to apply to certain 'offshore sellers' that Bezos tried to bribe into letting Amazon sell in China at a tremendous cost.
THE AMAZON TWO STEP -- A NEW DANCE FOR SELLERS
More and more frequently Amazon is taking a TWO STEP approach and you are probably caught with not doing one of the steps (or either one!) There are still instances of Amazon NOT requiring the following but they are becoming more and more rare. Ignoring these is placing your account on the endangered species list if (when) Amazon asks for them.
DO NOT CONFUSE AMAZON allowing you to list (or at least "ungate") an item or category and actually being APPROVED to sell a product. Amazon might ungate you for a CATEGORY, but there can be 100's of brands in the category and they ALL have their own restrictions.
AMAZON is only interested in FEES. They will allow a chimpanzee to list if it means they collect $$$$$.
Additionally, brands that you COULD sell yesterday may be restricted today or next week. Amazon is a moving target to deal with.
DO YOU have an LOA from the brand allowing you to sell on here?
If you have an LOA that specifically says you can sell on Amazon you MIGHT survive listing items.
More and more brands are providing a "whitelist" of their approved sellers and if YOU are NOT on the list you will be stopped in your tracks and probably hit with an IP violation.
DID YOU source from AUTHORIZED wholesale sources that your rep at the brand says are OK? You DO have a sales rep at the brand, don't you?
NOTE the verification is required from the brand that the source is legitimate and authorized, NOT from one of those touted on TikTok and YouTube as having "thousands of brands and products" that assures you that they are authorized.
If you have watched any YouTube or TikTok videos FORGET everything you saw there. And it is likely that any courses that you paid for as mentioned above were just a money grab telling you how 'easy' it is to sell here.
Spend hours/days on Seller U and read the Forum to see all the really creative ways rookies and experienced sellers find to get suspended by ignoring the advice above!
https://sell.amazon.com/learn
If you do FBA and you don't already have the above requirements in place you are probably going to have stranded inventory and a suspended account.
Get an LOA from any brand that you want to sell here BEFORE you even buy anything. ASK the brand if they allow sales on Amazon!
Sandy_Amazon
Hi @Seller_sOJmiwaef854Q
Thank you for the details in this post and welcome to Amazon.
I'm sorry to hear the experience didn't go as smoothly getting started.
Would you please provide me the case ID where you received this message? I'd like to look at the brand and attachment details to investigate.
Best,
Sandy
