T. Ryan Rogers - Why is my Amazon FBA product listing suppressed in search?

2023-11-28

Why is my Amazon FBA product listing suppressed in search?

Raised Flags

My company currently has just one product on Amazon. We use the Fulfilment By Amazon (FBA) method; and as it's a small gag gift with no variations, it's a pretty simple listing. During my routine check on this product's performance, I noticed that today I've had zero sales and even zero ad-generated clicks or impressions. This raised several flags since our product has been doing well lately, so I needed to investigate more.

When I searched Amazon for the product, I couldn't find it in the usual ways. Even when I fully typed out "TRR Designs H2Zero dehydrated water prank packet gag gift" (which should be a bullseye search), nothing came up. All the competitor products are shown, but not mine. I also advertise on several competitor products; but my product isn't even shown in the usual "Products related to this item" or "Similar items that may ship from close to you" sections.

It appears that Amazon has suppressed our product listing!

How to Confirm Suppression

In my Amazon Seller Central account, I checked out my product listing with the "Manage All Inventory" option. Here's what it looks like now:

As you can see in this screenshot, my listing looks mostly the same/familiar so far, except:

Something (rather than nothing) does show up when the "Search Suppressed" Status radio button is selected,
There is a link under the Status column that reads "Search Suppressed," which I don't recall seeing before, and
My BSR is mysteriously shown as "-".

So now I'm pretty sure Amazon is suppressing my product. Clicking on the "Search Suppressed" brings up this screen:

ah-HA! Now we're getting somewhere: there's an "Issue Description" which reads:

We believe the main image has text, logo, graphic or watermark which is not permitted for this product type. Please submit a compliant image to lift the suppression. Also refer to Product Image Requirements.

The Problem and Solution

According to the afore-mentioned Amazon Product Image Requirements,

Products must fill at least 85% of the image. Images must show only the product that is for sale, with few or no props and with no logos, watermarks, or inset images. Images may only contain text that is a part of the product.

And while I had read this before (I'm always trying to read carefully and take baby steps), I suppose I was testing Amazon's limits a little when I set this as my main product listing image:

Ok, ok, you got me, Amazon. I've now uploaded a compliant, non-offensive, I'll-be-good-I-swear version:

(It's worth noting that the offending version is allowed in the product listing images, just as long as it's not the "Main" image. But I did want it to be the main image.)

"Where can I get my hands on this fine product," you ask? Right here!

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