FAQ: Amazon Seller Alerts and Other Account Notifications
There are currently around half a million U.S. sellers on Amazon netting an average of $200,000 in sales annually. This tells us two things, the platform is hugely popular and many sellers on Amazon earn impressive profits.
If you are an Amazon seller, you may be asking yourself "How do I take my business to the next level?"
The devil is in the details. In short, those sellers that pay special attention to amazon seller alerts and use the information to make strategic adjustments to their listings, have an edge up on the competition.
Want to learn more about what Amazon notifications are and how to use them to boost sales? Keep reading as we cover the most common questions we get about Amazon seller alerts.
What Are Amazon Performance Notifications?
The importance of the Amazon Performance Notifications section of seller central should not be underestimated. This is where Amazon notifies you of important warnings and decisions made concerning your account and listings. These messages may include notifications about:
- Suppressed listings from Amazon search results
- Selling account suspension
- Category approvals
- Issues/changes with your banking information
- Pricing issues
- Policy warnings
Checking and responding to Amazon performance notifications on a regular basis ensures that your account with Amazon remains in good standing. Although it is Amazon policy to send an email concerning these important notifications to sellers, oftentimes these emails go unread for days or get "lost" in waves of other emails.
How Do I Check My Amazon Seller Performance?
From the Seller Central homepage, click on Account Health in the top-left corner of your screen. This is where you will find the standing of your account based on six main criteria for Amazon seller performance. These criteria are:
- Order defect rate
- Cancellation rate
- Late shipment rate
- Policy violations
- On-time delivery
- Contact response time
It is extremely important that you take your account health seriously. An account that remains "unhealthy" for too long will eventually face suspension and even termination from the Amazon Seller platform.
How Do I Get Notifications For My Amazon Seller Account?
When a new notification comes into your seller account a flag will appear next to notifications on your Amazon Seller Central homepage. Notifications are also sent to your email on file with Amazon.
Typically, some time passes between when a new Amazon seller account health problem occurs and when you notice it. With 3p services, you can set up instant alerts and your whole team can receive them in your messaging and communication app, such as Slack or Microsoft Teams.
Let's continue talking about Seller Central. You can change your notification preferences from your seller account. Select Settings then Notification Preferences. From the Notifications Options tab, you can click Edit to change your email address and which notifications you want to receive by email. Notification types vary slightly by the type of seller account you have but likely include:
- Order notifications
- Returns and claims notifications
- Listing created or closed notifications
- Scheduled performance reports
- Make an offer notifications
- Amazon Selling Coach notifications
- Change in account notifications
- Amazon Lending notifications
- Amazon shipping notifications
- Customer message notifications
- Pricing and other offers notifications
As you can see, these notifications are the lifeblood of your business selling on Amazon. In order to sell profitably on Amazon, you will need to stay informed of every aspect of your seller's account.
Why Am I Not Getting My Amazon Notifications?
I can't stress enough how important it is to understand that Amazon does NOT notify you of all the possible costly problems that may arise with your merchant account.
Strongly consider the benefits of using 3p alerting tools that can notify you about a much wider range of business issues than is offered by default in your Seller Central.
Now let's outline some reasons why you might not receive Amazon seller e-mails.
- Double-check that notifications are enabled in your Amazon selling account.
- On the Seller Central home page, go to Settings in the upper right and select Notification Preferences.
- Make sure that at least the Business Updates are checked. These are business-critical information and updates regarding your products, listings, account, and more.
- Ensure that an email address is correct. Seller Central will use the value that comes from your Merchant Default Contact.
How Often Should I Check My Seller Account?
We live in a fast-paced business world and your customers will expect nothing short of the best in their online shopping experience when purchasing products on Amazon. The pros take notifications as they come and immediately respond to customers in order to build a reputation of excellent customer service with the Amazon customer base.
Your account health is of the utmost priority as it represents your business's reputation not only with Amazon but with your customers. We recommend that sellers check Amazon Seller Central Performance Notifications at least two times a day and take immediate action when issues occur.
How to get warned about potential issues which could lead to a suspension or Buy Box loss?
Amazon seller alerts are at the heart of your business operating well, but unfortunately, you can't just count on Amazon to have your back with everything. That's why you need to take advantage of the additional Amazon seller tools - like Bindwise.
With Bindwise, you'll get:
- immediate email notifications when hijackers or piggybackers start selling on your Amazon listings.
- real-time alerts that alert you about any potential issues which could lead to a suspension or Buy Box loss
- alerts about wrong Amazon FBA fees and overcharges
- ... and so much more. Read about the full features list here.
