EcommerceBytes-NewsFlash, Number 1603 - August 20, 2007     2 of 3

Amazon Places Holiday Restrictions on Third-Party Toys & Games Sellers

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Amazon.com is again placing restrictions on third-party sellers in its Toys & Games category during the holiday shopping season. Effective September 19, 2007, Amazon.com will not be accepting new sellers to sell within the Toys & Games category. Effective November 19, 2007, existing sellers who do not meet certain performance criteria will be unable to sell products in the Toys & Games category during the period beginning November 19, 2007 and ending January 7, 2008. The Holiday Selling Guidelines for the Toys & Games category are the following:

  • Seller must have been selling in the Amazon Marketplace for the 60 consecutive days preceding November 19, 2007.
  • Seller has processed and shipped at least 25 orders total during the lifetime of seller’s account (does not need to be in the Toy & Games category).
  • No greater than 5% negative feedback rate for the last 90 days.
  • Must have feedback received on at least 5 orders for the last 90 days.
  • No greater than 0.5% seller fault claim rate for the trailing 90 days.

Starting in September, Amazon.com will send weekly performance check-ins to sellers in the Toys & Games category that include reviews of their negative feedback and claims rate. Starting January 7, 2008, all sellers will again be able to list in the category.

Amazon.com first launched its Toy store in July 2006 after Toys"R"Us exited the platform, and Amazon invited third-party sellers to list items. But 3 months later, it restricted third-party sales in its Toys and Games category to pre-approved sellers through the end of 2006.

Sellers can submit feedback to Amazon.com via email at holiday-toys-selling@amazon.com.

http://www.amazonsellercommunity.com/forums/thread.jspa?threadID=139752

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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