Amazon’s Buyer-Seller Messaging Service, as the name implies, allows sellers to communicate with buyers in the Amazon marketplace through email or Seller Central. Currently, it is the only approved method for communicating with customers on Amazon. If you want to learn how to use the Buyer-Seller Messaging Service, visit this page.
Majority of Amazon sellers still think that sending multiple emails per order is the smartest move. It might be a common practice but it doesn’t mean that it is the best one. Nowadays, less is better. If you are not sure what you can or cannot do when it comes to messaging customers, we put together a list of guidelines to help you stay compliant when using Amazon’s buyer-seller messaging.
Amazon’s Buyer-Seller Messaging Guidelines
In October 2018, Amazon rolled out a new guideline within their Terms of Service (TOS). Here’s what it says: After an order is placed, Amazon automatically emails customers requesting for a seller feedback and product review. For sellers, you can send one email per order to ask for a review – but here’s the catch:
- You cannot request for a positive review only.
- You cannot request customers to change or remove their review.
- You cannot send messages more than 30 days after an order has been placed.
- You cannot request reviews solely from customers who have had a positive experience.
- You cannot use Amazon’s buyer-seller messaging for marketing or promotional purposes.
- You cannot request customers to email you directly their negative reviews and only write positive comments on the review page.
- You cannot offer incentives – such as free/discounted products, gift cards, reimbursements and other rewards – in exchange for a review. Including a coupon code for future purchases is also prohibited.
Wait, there’s more!
Including links to your messages are a big no-no as well. The only link allowed is the product review page. This means…
- You cannot include a link with your logo.
- You cannot include links to a third-party website.
- You cannot include a link to your Amazon storefront.
The bottom line is that you must not attempt to manipulate seller feedback or product reviews in any way whatsoever. If you fail to comply with any of the rules above, your messaging could be revoked for 30 days or your selling privileges could be suspended. In our previous blog, we share other potential consequences you could face when you break Amazon’s Terms of Service.
For a detailed list of violations against product reviews, head over to Amazon’s customer product reviews policies.
Benefits of Amazon’s Buyer-Seller Messaging Service
When effectively managed, Amazon’s buyer-seller messaging system offers a lot of upside, including:
- Masking your private e-mail addresses, which increases the security of buyer-seller communication. This safeguards your products from predatory buyers, fake buyers and phishing scams.
- Like a regular email, this service allows you to create templates, send attachments and track some metrics for response time.
- Buyers and sellers can see all sent and received emails whether from the service or from your company’s own email system.
- Facilitate smooth communication between buyers and sellers, thus minimizing disputes and claims.
- In the event of disputes and claims, Amazon can handle the problem easily because it has access to all correspondence between sellers and buyers.
Using Amazon’s Buyer-Seller Messaging Service is necessary when selling in the marketplace. You just need to be aware of its proper usage and guidelines. Keep in mind as well that this service is mainly used for managing customer’s order completion and questions, not for soliciting feedback and product reviews.
How Can SellerMobile Help You
When you sign up for SellerMobile and integrate your Seller Central account with our app, you can easily create email campaigns for the products that you sell on Amazon. You can write emails from scratch or choose in our Template Library fun and personalized email templates.
Plus, with our Automated Feedback Tool, you can automatically send an email for every order made. By automating the process of requesting feedback and reviews, you are much more likely to get a positive response from your customers.
If you want to learn more about our Automated Feedback Tool, you can schedule a live demo – our team of experts would be more than happy to show you around.
