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Amazon announces an official update to their Communication Guidelines, effective November 6th, 2020.
These updates will change communication between sellers and Amazon buyers, influencing the ways sellers use Buyer-Seller Messaging to run their businesses and represent their brands on Amazon.
Michael and Tygh review Amazon’s full update and annotate with their thoughts and comments along the way.
While the main goal of this update is to prevent fraud and abuse of Amazon buyers on the Buyer-Seller Messaging platform, you may be unknowingly participating in messaging practices that will soon be forbidden, and the consequences can be very serious, even if you’re not intentionally trying to do harm.
[UPDATE (10/30/20)]:
We wanted to include a helpful summary of the most critical changes sellers needed to be aware of, but during that effort, Amazon released a secondary update on 10/22 which revised their initial update from several weeks prior.
- Amazon’s initial update to the Communication Guidelines.
- Newest update doc (from 10/22)
So in an effort to reduce confusion, and to prevent ourselves from reporting information that is still in flux, we wanted to provide you with a direct link below to the page where Amazon’s latest updates are announced. Please bookmark and review periodically:
Amazon’s page: “Changes to program policies.”
Biggest takeaway: Audit your messaging to ensure you’re sending “permitted” messages
The most important updates aim to define what is permitted vs. what is not permitted when communicating with an Amazon Buyer.
Amazon definitively sets a limit of one (1) Product Review or Seller Feedback requests per order, which means that extra care must to exercised to avoid sending more than one request, especially since many sellers are using automatic outbound messaging, Buyer-Seller Messaging, and Amazon’s “Request a Review” feature, all simultaneously.
If you have questions about how this update may affect your business, please schedule a call with SellerSmile today and we can discuss how to prepare to avoid restricted messaging privileges or even account suspension.
Show Outline
- 1:00: Topic intro and disclaimers.
- 4:23: Start Reviewing Amazon “Communications Guidelines” update document.
- 6:20: Direct vs. Indirect Communication.
- 9:25: What are “Permitted Messages”?
- 12:45: Proactive Permitted Messages and Automatic Outbound Emails.
- 13:25: The seven things that are NOT permitted in messages.
- 15:54: Repeat requests for Product Reviews and Seller Feedback.
- 17:06: What sellers may NOT include in messages (Email addresses and telephone numbers).
- 21:40: Permitted message styling for accessibility.
- 25:40: Indirect Communication (Shipping and refunds notifications)
- 27:30: Consequences for not following the Guidelines, including limitations or suspension!
- 29:13: Wrap up.
Show Links
- Seller Labs article [LINK]. “The Amazon customer communications policy, including Buyer-Seller Messaging, changed on September 8, 2020. Sellers have until November 3, 2020 to adopt the policy changes.”
- Amazon page [LINK]. “Changes to program policies” Communications Guidelines Doc.
- Amazon’s guidelines in Customer product reviews policies.
- Amazon’s Communicate with buyers using the Buyer-Seller Messaging Service.
Video of our Screen Recording Review
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