Amazon cracking down on selling during Holidays

[SoulBlazer]

I tend to sell most of my stuff on Amazon and only once in a while use either EBay or Craigslist. I nornaly sell about 2-3 items a month and have about a dozen things up at any one time. This includes everything -- books, games, music, movies, video games, and so on.

 

For the last couple of years Amazon has enforced guidelines on selling things under 'Toys and Games' during the holiday season to try to minimize problems. I fully agree with it, that's the time of the year as a buyer you DON'T want any issues! And in the past I always met the guidelines.

 

Just got this e-mail from them and they made it a LOT stricter this year:

 

We are writing to let you know that your seller account does not currently meet the Holiday Selling Guidelines for the Toys & Games store this holiday season:

 

- Seller’s first sale on Amazon.com must be prior to 09/19/2011 (sale does not need to be Toy-specific): Yes

- Seller must have processed and shipped at least 25 orders (do not need to be Toy-specific) during the 60 consecutive days preceding 11/1/2011: Not Yet

- No greater than 1% short term defect rate as of 11/1/2011: Your current defect rate: 0%

- No greater than 2.5% pre-fulfillment cancel rate for the 30-days preceding 11/1/2011: Your current pre-fulfillment cancel rate: 0%

- No greater than 5% late shipment rate for the 30-days preceding 11/1/2011: Your current late shipment rate: 0%

 

:-o

 

As you can see, item #2 is where I have the issue. Who the hell sells that much stuff in 30 days unless you're a good size business?

 

This enforcing of rules basicaly means for the months of November and December that only large stores and companies can sell anything in the major 'Toys and Games' area of the site. Thank God this doesn't include video games.....

 

Can you imagine EBay trying to do something like this?

[Andre81]

I can see why they are doing it. And 25 items in 60 days is not that much. They probably just want to exclude private sellers, who may not be able to fulfill a lot of orders.

[Almost Rice]

They have always been this way in certain categories during Christmas. They make us guarantee Christmas delivery by date and level of service, starting last year. They are trying to improve the customer experience. If it excludes part time sellers, then they do it. You must meet Amazon metrics in order to sell on their website. I have been playing by their rules for 5 years. They are hard but the extra sells are worth it.