EcommerceBytes-NewsFlash, Number 1400 - October 31, 2006 1 of 5 
Amazon.com Restricts Third-Party Sellers During Holiday Season
By Ina Steiner
A new Amazon policy is making some third-party sellers consider eBay for their holiday selling. Amazon.com announced on Monday it was restricting third-party sales in its Toys and Games category to pre-approved sellers through 2006. Amazon said it was making the policy change because it "wants all third-party orders to be fulfilled in a timely manner so they're delivered by December 23."
Amazon said it considered several factors when determining which sellers could list within Toys & Games, including the length of time at Amazon.com, feedback rating, sales history, guarantee claims rate, and refund rate. Amazon said it would notify those sellers who could continue to list products and said it is not approving additional sellers to sell within the Toys & Games category. Starting January 22, 2007, other sellers will be able to list in the Toys & Games category again.
Three sellers who received notice they could no longer sell in the Toys & Games category on Amazon reacted on the discussion board:
"Good luck amazon with selling toys with Christmas. Competition this year will be fierce it will be alot more competitive for the company now that you have blocked the sellers that offered consumers the best value for their money!"
"If they are going to do this, then they should be accepting applications to become approved (especially at this time of the year). I made the move from ebay to Amazon, and now i am heading back as i am pretty much being kicked off Amazon. And even if they were, i would probably not be approved as i don't have enough feedback, and i can't get any feedback as i cannot sell - a Catch 22 situation."
"Amazon has screwed up this time. They sent an email out saying they are booting all non-approved sellers from selling Toys. I've been selling on Amazon for months. I have a perfect rating, I have the best prices, the biggest selection. Amazon really doesn't care...they just booted my listings. After I've invested lots of time and money in learning their whole system, opening a zstore, keeping my customers happy, and my listings current. Without notice they just cancel all my listings. Who suffers? Everyone. Me, the ciustomers I've been serving, and most of all Amazon. Buyers of my products may have heard that Amazon has the best prices...well...they did, until they booted me.
Bad policy. Bad decisions. Bad business. On top of that, no warning. Informed me at 5 PM so I could call anyone there. And no option to try to get approved. they simple said, we're not approving any more sellers.
They really are bad. Can't feel good about a company that acts like this. Guess ebay is the place to be."
http://www.amazonsellercommunity.com/forums/thread.jspa?threadID=125258&tstart=0
About the author:
Ina Steiner is co-founder and Editor of EcommerceBytes and has been reporting on ecommerce since 1999. She's a widely cited authority on marketplace selling and is author of "Turn eBay Data Into Dollars" (McGraw-Hill 2006). Her blog was featured in the book, "Blogging Heroes" (Wiley 2008). Follow her on Twitter at @ecommercebytes and send news tips to ina@ecommercebytes.com.
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