How Amazon Glitches are Affecting Amazon Sellers

Although price glitches have been a recurring concern with Amazon, there is no conclusive or updated information about its impact on sellers. To date, no available statistical data focuses on Amazon glitches and its impact on Amazon businesses.       

However, it is safe to speculate that based on sellers’ inquiries and complaints, system errors and glitches are affecting their Amazon business operation in terms of listing optimization, sales, logistics, brand registration, customer feedback, engagement and so much more.    

From a macro perspective, system glitches, including Amazon glitches in 2020, are responsible for customer frustrations and decreased store engagement. In general, these eCommerce system issues led to 40% of online shoppers  failing to complete their transactions.                                                     

Among the said customer segment, 62% had to ditch their shopping experience due to system glitches, while 52% transferred to a competitor website or other online selling platforms.          

Amazon Glitches & Other Issues Reported By Sellers 

Here are some of the recently reported Amazon glitches and other issues. These Amazon issues are not only exclusive to Amazon US, other third party merchantsand clients outside the United States have also experienced some of the issues outlined below.  

The majority of the Amazon issues mentioned came straight from Amazon sellers active on Seller Central Forums, and those issues reported by news outlets. 

Amazon Listing Pricing Glitch| March 2020

According to many Amazon sellers, there were major concerns about product listings being blocked for alleged potential high pricing errors or price gouging. Thus, limiting the sellers to offer incredibly amazing deals.

Based on the information shared by Seller Snap clients and sellers on the Amazon Seller Central Forum page, the pricing of the blocked listings was not really altered nor incorrect price, and yet Amazon blocked listings. One seller pointed out that their pricing was well below their competitors.

Amazon Selling Partner Support confirmed the notion of an Amazon glitch, a response email mentioned that there is “a technical issue currently that is impacting sellers listings in regard to pricing and our engineers are working hard to resolve this as quickly as possible.”                                      

Amazon Delivery Glitch | March 2020 

Another infamous Amazon glitch in 2020 concerns the delay of grocery deliveries as reported by consumers. Unlike the previous issue, the system glitch reached news outlets and was published online. 

In a published article by Bloomberg, it detailed that a technical glitch affected online grocery orders through its “Whole Foods and Amazon Fresh delivery services.” The severity of the glitch also disrupted Prime Now orders, according to a memo as reported by Bloomberg. 

Amazon Seller App Glitch | April 2020

Some Amazon users reported that they experienced an Amazon glitch when using the Seller App. The majority of the users were complaining about mobile login issues and being unable to press specific buttons on the Amazon Seller App. 

While others tried to contact tech support, some sellers discovered a workaround for this type of Amazon glitch. The proposed solution of some sellers included app deletion and the reinstallation of the application after a few hours. 

Amazon Cart Glitch | May 2020

Some Amazon sellers noticed that there was an issue with Amazon’s “Add to Cart” button when used via smartphone. While using another account, some sellers tried to add their product listing to the cart but to no avail. Instead, they received an error message: “Failed to add an item to cart.”

Amazon Nerfing Issue | May 2020

Amazon sellers reported an Amazon issue concerning the system’s preference for FBM sellers over FBA sellers. There was a lot of talk among FBA sellers about the issue, especially because their Amazon Buy Box Winning rate was dropping. 

There was a lot of speculation surrounding the Amazon issue, but the recurring premise emphasized the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the ability of Amazon to process voluminous orders during statewide lockdowns and quarantine protocols. 

Thus, prompting the tech-giant to make an alleged tweak to their Algorithm that resulted in some FBM sellers being awarded the Buy Box over FBA sellers. 

Amazon Data Glitch | June 2020 

Some of the Seller Snap clients noticed discrepancies in Amazon’s data. There was an inconsistency between the Marketplace Web Service API, Amazon Price Change Notifications, and the data shown on the product detail page. However, Seller Snap managed to make a workaround for this repricing concern.                          

Amazon Sales Summary Issue | July 2020     

An interface update done by Amazon caused a real ruckus among sellers. The main issue (according to sellers), was the disappearance of “Sales Summary” from the seller’s dashboard.

Most sellers find the said summary report as invaluable and would like to revert to the old Seller Central Home Page layout. However, Amazon in its response stated that “there is no option to go back to the old version.”

Amazon Buy Box Glitch | July 2020

The Amazon Seller Central Forum was buzzing with concerns about a potential Amazon glitch affecting Buy Box rotation. This critical Amazon issue was resolved 3 weeks later, but already caused huge damage to the sales performance of Amazon Sellers.

Apart from the Amazon Buy Box rotation problem, the glitch also resulted in inconsistent data display and listing suppression. 

Amazon Search Result Glitch | September 2020

Some sellers also reported an Amazon issue concerning the sudden drop in their search ranking for a particular keyword. Although others have associated this concern with Amazon’s algorithm change, other sellers believed that a potential Amazon glitch may have caused the problem.  

Amazon Refund Form Issue | October 2020

Another issue brought up by Amazon sellers in the forum was the lack of “Partial Refund” on the new form. Apart from that, retailers were complaining that the refund form has no area to write a note for customers. 

Additionally, third-party merchants also noticed that the new form does not have the cost amount for the shipping charge paid for prepaid returns.  

Amazon Catalog Error | September 2021

An Amazon seller shared his concern about his experience with a listed product whose brand name has been changed from Intel to Epson due to an ASIN error for ASIN number: B005LLBJ9Y. This concern was shared on the Amazon Services Seller Forums page.

The forum post with the heading “Amazon catalogue error/glitch caused a copyright strike and it seems I might lose my account over this.” Since the brand has been mislabeled as Epson, Amazon has suspected the merchant of copyright infringement for illegally using Intel’s logo. 

The forum post created by “Standard of” detailed that the transaction was done through Amazon Italy. 

Amazon Web Services Glitch | December 2021

Last December 2021, a glitch in Amazon Web Services (AWS) was reported. It was considered a very serious matter and one of the worst outages ever. According to Amazon, a network device issue led to the outage resulting in multiple issues, including Amazon’s retail operation during the holiday shopping rush. 

Due to the glitch in Web Services, delivery drivers were sent home and packages piled up. Furthermore, the AWS outage also affected a sizable portion of the internet, such as Walt Disney Co. theme parks’ online check-in and online ticket sales. 

Amazon App CS11 Error | May 2022

Back in Q3 of 2021, some Amazon users shared their experience of getting a CS11 error when accessing their cart or accounts via the Amazon shopping app. Although most of the affected users were using iOS devices, some Android users likewise reported experiencing such errors. 

Fast-forward to 2022; some people still experience such an error. The primary reason behind the CS11 error is the large amount of traffic on the server caused mainly by a growing number of visitors daily. If you are still experiencing this error, the best fix would be to update your Amazon app to its latest version. 

International Marketplace Listing Glitch | April 2023

Just most recently, a Seller Central Forum post shared an issue regarding a seller’s newly created shop. Such a concern affects international transactions, as there was a problem with building international listings. Accordingly, all Amazon marketplaces showcase similar prompting: “Selected offers failed auto-translation of ASIN.”

Although this concern is not a pricing glitch, it still affects the sale performance of the store and its revenue as it hinders sellers from showcasing favorite deals and categories to global shoppers.

Mitigating System Glitches & Possible Responses

Your goal of becoming a top Amazon seller should not be hindered by these Amazon glitches and issues reported by other sellers.  Similar to other merchants who found a workaround on certain Amazon issues, you may also perform certain tasks to prevent or resolve future Amazon concerns. 

To avoid disruptive issues, you should start your day, week, or month, performing operational and technical checks. Inspect workflows and Amazon tools for possible issues to avoid unnecessary complications and delays. 

One of the common workflow issues you should anticipate is the lack of remote team collaboration. This concern is especially valid for huge Amazon businesses with multiple departments and teams. Sharing information among team members from different parts of the globe can be challenging, which can sometimes stifle a business’s overall performance. 

To mitigate this workflow concern, you should hold regular meetings or video conferences. You can also incorporate collaborative software to improve the communication and teamwork of your remote staff.

Furthermore, you can likewise prevent errors or glitches in the workflow of your Amazon business by automating some aspects of your day-to-day tasks. For your product pricing needs, you can take advantage of an AI repricer to automate the repricing process. You can decrease human errors through automated repricing while increasing your workflow efficiency. 

For errors beyond your control, reach out to expert assistance from Amazon or the creator of the application you are using. For Amazon concerns and support, you may CLICK HERE. 

Although the threat of cyber attack or cyberwar should not be overlooked, system glitches should not be underestimated. A much bigger and more imminent threat to data security and processing efficiency is the so-called software glitch. One of the reasons for such occurrences is the vast amount of data stored, which makes it difficult for a system to regularly refresh or run tests to immediately spot and fix errors.

And with a multinational company like Amazon that operates globally, eliminating the possibility of an Amazon glitch, including Amazon price glitches, is somehow virtually impossible. There are tons of variables to be considered, including interactions of hardware & software components, and not to mention those third-party applications whose development is beyond the control of Amazon.

Third-Party Software Amazon Glitch

An Amazon glitch, particularly price glitches on Amazon, mainly caused by a third-party software is more than just a possibility. For in 2014, such an incident actually happened. For easy reference, we will be calling the incident the Amazon Price Glitch.

It was on December 12, 2014 that the said pricing glitch was noticed by Amazon shoppers. On the Amazon UK website, numerous items were priced at one penny (1p).

Clothes, toys, furniture, games, and electronic devices were among the products that were listed on sale and were priced for 1p. As a result of such a massive discount, Amazon shoppers quickly took the bargain. One online seller shared that during the price glitch, he had received a total of 1,600 orders for his toys and game items.

“People were buying 10, 50, 100 copies of everything. It is £50,000, £60,000, £100,000 of stock; we can’t even work it out,” Amazon seller Martin Le Corre told The Guardian.

Upon checking, it was found out that the said Amazon price glitch was caused by a third-party Amazon repricer. Repricers are used by Amazon sellers to help them automatically adjust prices of their Amazon products to ensure their product stays competitive online.

However, despite the fiasco, sellers were not penalized for such pricing errors or Amazon price glitches, and the vast majority of placed orders were canceled.

Amazon Price Guard & Price Rule

The incident cited above is just one of the many examples wherein glitches are caused by third-party softwares. And with the case of Amazon, solutions to safeguard the safety and security of both sellers and shoppers were quickly implemented. To avoid experiencing a similar incident of price glitches on Amazon, the company added a price guard. This helped avoid repricing tools adjusting the price to the point that losses will be incurred by sellers.

In relation to that, creating a price rule has been highlighted by Amazon as well. Sellers may create a rule that sets the price to stay a certain amount below the Amazon Buy Box price as an example. To know more about creating a price rule, you may CLICK HERE.

Amazon Repricers

Although Amazon offers a repricing tool of its own, there are other Amazon repricers that are more advanced and feature-packed. One of the reliable and trusted Amazon repricing tools on the market today is Seller Snap.

Unlike rule-based repricers that would require you to manually set up rules against competitors, Seller Snap is an algorithmic repricing tool that is based on the Game Theory principles. This means that it uses algorithms and principles behind Game Theory to continuously optimize the prices and to completely automate the repricing process.

Seller Snap offers a dynamic repricing strategy, taking various factors into account in order for it to come up with the best solution in a given market situation. CLICK HERE FOR YOUR FREE TRIAL!

Subsequent Amazon Technical Difficulties

The Amazon price glitch is just one of the many examples of technical difficulties encountered by the company. In the subsequent years, other issues were likewise reported, including the ones we have outlined below.

• Amazon Email Glitch

This particular technical issue happened in 2019, and mainly concerns third-party sellers who were suspended by Amazon. The said merchants were trying to make an appeal to Amazon in order to be reinstated, but they encountered some technical difficulties along the way.

The suspended sellers were trying to send an appeal through email but were being redirected to Amazon’s Account Health. In a report made by CNBC, one Amazon merchant claimed to have spoken with a support team who then confirmed that the email was caused by a system bug.

However, Amazon was quick to respond saying that the emailed response was not caused by a technical error, and sellers are encouraged to file their appeals through the Seller Central portal.

• Amazon Food Delivery Glitch

Just this March of 2020, Amazon encountered another system glitch. The Amazon glitch affected the delivery of food and grocery items. In a statement made by an Amazon spokeswoman, Bloomberg quoted her saying that:

“As COVID-19 has spread, we’ve seen a significant increase in people shopping online for groceries. Today this resulted in a systems impact affecting our ability to deliver Amazon Fresh and Whole Foods Market orders tonight.”

Panic buying due to the Coronavirus has affected the efficiency of Amazon and has also caused technical issues as has been pointed out in a company memo. Thus, resulting in a queue to enter delivery stations, and ultimately delayed the arrival of customer ordered goods.

• Amazon Order Glitch

Still, March this year, another glitch was reported. According to surfacing reports, military families overseas were refused delivery for certain items, including but not limited to clothing, electronics, and diapers.

However, the Amazon glitch that hindered the delivery of goods to families living in Japan, Italy, and Bahrain was quickly fixed by Amazon. In a report by Military.com, an Amazon spokeswoman was quoted stating that:

“We noticed an unfortunate glitch in our system on Wednesday that did not allow some items to be shipped to military addresses…We worked quickly to fix the issue, and thank our customers for their patience and understanding.”

Needless to say, Amazon is not just the only company experiencing such issues, for companies like Walmart, Google, Facebook also have their own share of technical issues. It is somehow normal to encounter system glitches, especially if your operation is global. What is not normal is when companies take no actions to resolve those system issues. And Amazon should be credited for their quick response to any issues they notice or reported to them.

Secure Your Amazon Business Today

In terms of securing your Amazon Web Services or AWS accounts and workloads, the tech-giant offers Amazon GuardDuty. As an overview, Amazon GuardDuty is a service offered by Amazon that will monitor any malicious activities or unauthorized behavior that are potentially threatening to your account. With Amazon GuardDuty, you will have “an intelligent and cost-effective option for continuous threat detection in the AWS Cloud.”

Alternatively, on the business and marketing aspect, if you require a secure and safe repricing tool for your Amazon store, you can always turn to Seller Snap. With years of experience in the industry and numerous satisfied customers, you can trust Seller Snap to perform an optimum repricing strategy that will help protect your profit margins.