Last week, I came across a great article by Spencer Soper in Bloomberg (link below, I recommend reading it) about how Amazon sold a returned used diaper, and hurt an American small business relying on the FBA program. I found that this story is the perfect example of the shit (no pun intended) Amazon sellers have to deal with every day. The process of the incident is complex, with many actors and tasks involved, and I’d like to break it down to identify what went wrong and what could have been done better. Then, I’ll give my opinion on what I think was the main issue here, and how frustrating it can be for millions of sellers.
The Ordered Diaper Journey and the Consequences
Paul and Rachelle Baron created a best-selling reusable swim diaper that they listed on Amazon. The business was successful for a while, but troubles started after a customer posted a negative review, featuring photos of a used, stained diaper. The couple tried to get Amazon to remove it, but the review stayed online, causing a massive drop in sales. It turns out, Amazon did not check an item returned and shipped it to another customer.
Now, what went wrong and who is responsible? This story is more than just a returned item processed incorrectly. Below is a chart showing the complete story and where I think things didn’t go well.
The first problem occurred during the listing creation. At the time, Amazon did not give sellers the option to disallow reselling returned items. They have since fixed this, but this change could have helped this couple avoid the whole issue.
Next is the customer who returned used diapers. This is obviously very disrespectful and unsanitary for the workers who need to process the shipment and open the box.
Yes, Amazon should have never put the item back for sale. But it is hard to blame them; they process tons of returns every day, and as explained in the article, it is impossible to do a full inspection on each package. There will be some mistakes, and it would be unrealistic to expect a 0% error rate.
I think the main issue here is how hard it was to remove the review (which was still on until the article was published in Bloomberg). It should have been an easy process, but the review stayed, and the review sorting algorithm made this review visible to thousands of customers. I am not saying this alone contributed to the decrease in sales (Amazon got a lot more competitive in the last few years, and they may suffer from other sellers duplicating their product), but I can imagine how frustrating it was. I believe this highlights one of the main issues Amazon sellers are facing: the difficulties dealing with Amazon Seller Support.
The Problem with Seller Support
The few times I interacted with Amazon’s customer service as a customer, I had the best experience. Employees on the phone were knowledgeable, and the return/refund processes were extremely easy. As a seller, however, it can be a different story. You don’t have to go very far to find a lot of negative testimonials on Amazon seller support:
To be fair, providing quality customer support is expensive, especially knowing there are over 9.7 million sellers worldwide on the platform. And the marketplace is extremely complex; it can be very difficult to resolve unique cases. While things got worse until about 2020, I have noticed an improvement since the pandemic.
But it is very frustrating that critical cases causing millions of losses for third-party sellers sometimes take so long to resolve. Between the cases being transferred between departments and the AI-generated responses, sellers must be very patient. While some brands may choose to work with an Amazon account manager (at the cost of $1,600/month + 0.3% of total sales in the previous calendar month + tax), others may resort to outside firms. A lot of companies are now specializing in helping sellers reinstate their accounts after being suspended or with other issues when seller support may be difficult to deal with. According to CNBC, there were even Amazon employees offering to help sellers, selling their services on the black market via Telegram (Although Amazon cracked down on these practices).
I advise Amazon sellers to learn and understand the “language” of seller support. There are more efficient ways to formulate an issue and get a case resolved faster. I also found that calling or using chat is typically better than via email. It involves luck, as some seller support reps are way more knowledgeable than others. Finally, I recommend sellers ask the community about critical issues on the official seller forums, and on other sources such as LinkedIn or Reddit.
Conclusion
The incident with Paul and Rachelle Baron’s business gives us a great example of how a minor incident can cause major troubles for a business. While Amazon has made some improvements, the complexities of the marketplace and the current seller support can cause a lot of frustration for third-party sellers. I recommend sellers learn as much as possible about the platform and don’t hesitate to reach out to experts when facing major issues.
https://www.ft.com/content/64f01bfe-39b9-49f6-86eb-be96374539cf
