Many sellers on amazon follows drop shipping policy model which is all about outsourcing all activities either to manufacturer or other third party retailers. In this model, they handles all the procedure of delivering the products to the customers. But recently some sellers misunderstood this concept and they started procuring the products from retailers such as Walmart and Sam’s Club and delivering the same to the amazon customers without getting delivery of the products to seller’s warehouses.
Why drop shipping is against amazon policies?
Drop shipping is not prohibited on amazon until it shows “YOU” as a seller of the product. You shall identify yourself on packaging of the product, slips and Invoices. This does not happen in case of Walmart and Sam’s Club. Walmart sellers fulfill the orders by keeping their details on the product packaging. This is where violation of Amazon Drop Shipping Policy took place. Now the amazon customer received the package from Walmart and he does not identify you as a seller of record. This will hurt the Amazon customer’s sentiment and cause the confusion about whom to contact in case of any discrepancies with the product.
What to do if your account has been suspended due to Drop Shipping Policy Violation?
If your account has been suspended due to Drop Shipping Policy Violation and you were doing Walmart to Amazon, Sams Club to Amazon and Amazon to Amazon drop shipping then this is your first and last chance to stop the drop shipping model.
Now you have to come up with the detailed Plan of Action addressing the violation.
General points that you need to mention in your Plan of Action are given below,
- –The root causes of Drop Shipping Policy Violation
- –The Corrective Actions that you have taken to resolve the Drop Shipping Policy Violation
- –The Preventive Actions that you have taken to avoid similar Drop Shipping Violations in future
You shall not ignore any of the above point in writing Plan of Action for Amazon Seller account suspension,
The root cause(s) of Drop Shipping Policy Violation.
Here you shall start with the apology statement stating you take full responsibility of the violation.
Example:
We have done full investigation of internal working management of the business and have found that we unknowingly violated the amazon drop shipping policy. We take full responsibility of the violations and apologized for the mistake we have made.
You can show that the issue was with the inventory. You did not have sufficient inventory of the products to fulfill the orders so you procured the products from other renowned retailers such as Walmart and Sams club and drop shipped the products directly at the customer’s address.
Root causes shall be relevant with your business and shall not be misleading.
The actions you have taken to resolve the Drop Shipping Policy Violation
In this section, you shall focus on the things that you did for resolving the drop shipping policy violation. It can be removal of walmart products from the inventory. Ceasing of the procurement from big retailers and drop shipping the same to amazon customer.
-We have thoroughly reviewed our warehouses and have removed all the Walmart inventory and boxes we had so that it will not get mixed with amazon boxes and produ
In this section, you shall focus on the things that you did for resolving the drop shipping policy violation. It can be removal of walmart products from the inventory. Ceasing of the procurement from big retailers and drop shipping the same to amazon customer. cts
Actions shall focus on the things went wrong in the root cause. It is meaningless to say that you hired manager for intellectual property violation if the violation is about Drop Shipping Policy.
Things to consider while writing this section,
- -Actions taken must erase the things went wrong in root cause
- -Actions shall be practical and achievable
- -Fictional actions will lower your chances of reinstatement
- -All actions shall relate with the Drop Shipping Policy
–The actions you have taken to prevent the similar Drop Shipping Violations in the future.
Remember, this is your first and last violation. Hurting the amazon repeatedly by drop shipping the products will throw out of the amazon business. This is the most important part in every Plan of Action that you need write with care.
Here, you shall mention the new internal business policies that you implemented to correct the drop shipping policy violations. Policies shall be unique and relevant. Generic statement to the policies such as “We have done full time training on amazon policies and we are ready to move forward.” wont reinstate your account.
Amazon seller performance team read thousands of Appeals/ Plan of Actions daily. If they found that your Plan of Action matches with other sellers, they are surely going to reject your plan stating generic statements.
What is Generic Statements?
Statements which are used by every suspended seller on amazon in writing the Appeals and Plan of Actions. Eg. “We have done full time training on amazon policies”
What is the Expected Statement?
Statement which are expected by the seller performance team. As compare to the generic statements, it is detailed and unique in the sense of details. E.g. “We have done full time training on amazon policies on 1 Jan, 2022 11pm to 1 pm PST. Training has been given by Amazon Professionals who has prior experience of nearly 5+ years in E -Commerce business. Special Attention has been given to the Drop Shipping Policy”
Making your own internal business policies and implementing them is directly proportional to the success of Appeal and Plan of Actions.
“AMAZON WILL FORGIVE YOU FOR ONE TIME“
If you repeat the same mistake again, then there is no back to the Amazon Business.
