If you are not familiar with the concept of suppressed Amazon products, here is a story from 2014 that candidly explains this situation that can occur to almost any seller who joins the third-party marketplace:
Graeme Reynolds is a British writer who specializes in fantasy novels dealing with werewolves and other supernatural topics that he publishes through the Amazon Kindle platform. In late 2014, Mr. Reynolds received an email from Amazon Seller Central about his book “High Moor 2: Moonstruck,” which at the time had been well received by more than 120 readers leaving four and five-star reviews.
The email sent to Mr. Reynolds referenced the Amazon Standard Identification Number of his Kindle novel and the gist of the message was that the book was suppressed. When Amazon moves to suppress a listing, sellers can still see the item in their accounts, but shoppers will not find it. There are various reasons why Amazon will make a decision to suppress ASINs, but the reason given to Mr. Reynolds was quite peculiar: a reader complained about a high number of hyphens in “High Moor 2.”
Why and When Are ASINs Suppressed?
It so happened was that Amazon used spell-checking software to find more than 100 hyphenated words in Mr. Reynold’s novel, and thus the company decided to suppress the eBook out of readability concerns and potential impact to readers. In terms of probability, the chances of a reader feeling uncomfortable by coming across 100 or so hyphens in a book that has more than 90,000 words would be about one-in-a-million. However, what are the odds of getting an ASIN suppression notice over a single such complaint?
“High Moor 2” was suppressed over a few days and the incident was actually mentioned by British newspaper The Guardian, which likely ended up boosting Mr. Reynolds’ author profile; nonetheless, Amazon readers who were looking for some good fiction involving lycanthropes could not find the eBook in question because its ASIN was suppressed.
Dealing With Suppressed ASINs
The blanket reasoning that Amazon gives sellers when ASINs are suppressed is that the product listings do not meet certain criteria. Some of the most common details include:
- Incorrect categories
- Product titles are too long or too short
- Product images are not adequate
- Items are on Amazon’s list of restricted products
In some cases, the reasons for ASIN suppression are not clear; in other cases, such as the aforementioned “High Moor 2” situation, the reasons are outlandish. At any rate, it is up to you to take the initiative, contact Seller Support, and work with Amazon representatives to rectify the situation.
How to Prevent Your ASINs from Being Suppressed
When your ASINs are suppressed due to recent changes to the product page that you do not recall making, there is a chance that unauthorized sellers may be trying to hijack your listings. A good method to prevent unwanted changes to your ASINs is with active monitoring through a subscription service such as Brandlox. If you have introduced 10 or more new ASINs to the Amazon Marketplace, Brandlox can keep an eye on them for you and immediately notify you when unauthorized sellers try to list against your products.
Presenting Brandlox notifications to Amazon Seller Support representatives can help you lift the suppression notices on your ASINs. Contact us today to learn more about how Brandlox can protect your Amazon business.
