Amazon TOS updates on emails with Hanson Wu - a podcast by Michael Veazey

The Amazon TOS updates on emails mean a change in emailing habits to avoid being suspended. Listen to Henson Wu on how Feedback Whiz can help.

Henson Wu co-founder and CEO of Feedback Whiz, which helps manage and enhance the brand reputation for Amazon sellers, through email automation and monitoring. USA “Your account has been temporarily restricted from seeing messages”  - anything from 72 hours to 30 days. 

So you can’t proactively message buyers you can respond to inbound messages.A lot of people have been sending coupons codes etc via buyer-seller messaging with the Amazon TOS updates on emails.

Now there is a lot of news about Amazon’s practices. So Amazon is now trying to enforce TOS.Amazon has sent out emails saying “can’t use links” etc - conflicting messages. 

They actually sent out a message saying there is confusion and there is no big TOS change.It’s about enforcing existing TOS. 

However, there is a NEW change: you can only send out 1 review request email per product sale per order. Common TOS mistakes
About 10-15 % of sellers are violating something in the TOS.Just ask for a review - don’t tie in with if/then statements. No incentivised reviews. 

Avoid keywords like “good experience” or “positive experience”Or any words like “Bad experience” 
Staying safeIf you have a review request link, you need to leave out any “suggestive” language. 

No conditions, keep it short with the new Amazon TOS updates on emails.Feedbackwhiz has the ready-made template made by Amazon. 
New algorithmThey are now programmatically suspending sellers.
No huge dangerIf they flag your account, you don’t need to worry about account suspension. 

Sellers get this shut down for 30 days. If you don’t fix it, they get the campaigns shut down for another 30 days. 

This could however change!Feedbackwhiz blog article about this - direct you to Amazon TOS (7 different pages) 

The language is very vague!The team at Amazon
Direct communication with Henson. Making it clear that email automation IS still okay. 

And requesting reviews as such IS okay. “Review request button”
What is the review request button?About mid-November 2019, Amazon launched it inside the orders page 

 - automated review requests. Amazon will automatically send out a generic email to the customer. 
What does it do?Probably because in the TOS update, buyers don’t understand what to write. 

Amazon wants to make it simple for sellers. It’s a convenience. Drawbacks
Everyone gets the same generic email from Amazon. Five stars unfulfilled, name of the product, simple

 Many people selling on Amazon have been sending out feedback requests - most people don’t respond. Does it lead to a better conversion rate?
NO: No subject lineYou can’t customise the subject line

When you get the same exact email, buyers stop even opening them. A lot of sellers are excited about it. 

When to us it? when not?One-shot

You also only get to use that once. There is an opt-out - buyer can unsubscribe - same as seller communication. 

Over time this should get more unsubscription. Buyers should be more open to direct seller communication. 
No statisticsAlso, the review request email goes via a different mechanism - you get no statistics  eg open rates
What the software does Offers/free

30 day free trial and free plan - up to 150 emails/month for beginnersFor more experienced sellers, value. 

amazingfba.com/Feedback Use Promo code: amazingfba

 promo code allows you to get 50% off on the first month!Watch my full interview with Henson Wu

Further episodes of Amazing FBA Amazon and ECommerce Podcast, for Amazon Private Label Sellers, Shopify, Magento or Woocommerce business owners, and other e-commerce sellers and digital entrepreneurs.

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