In addition to managing sales, you still need to constantly monitor and track your product listings to make sure they don’t get compromised. If you don’t, you may see your listings copied, taken down, or suppressed, with all your hard work benefiting someone else’s bank account. Below, we explain the dangers your listing faces and how you can prevent them. 

Threats to Your Amazon Listings

The current state of Amazon is rife with threats: hijacking, sabotage, and search suppression — all on top of staying profitable in the world’s largest and most competitive marketplace! Let’s take a closer look at the risks faced by everyday Amazon sellers. 

Hijacking

Amazon listing hijacking is a newer strategy employed by dishonest Amazon sellers, but it’s caught on quickly. The idea is that other sellers steal or counterfeit your products to siphon your customers, but the tactics get more intricate than that. 

Amazon hijacking is most common with private-label products. Hijackers notice that your private label product does well, so they track down your supplier and offer the same product under their brand. They typically undercut your price to win Amazon Buy Box for your product, and often, the hijacker’s version is of poorer quality, leading to more bad reviews. 

Sabotage

Recently, more Amazon sellers have reported that their innocent listings have been marked as “adult” products. This can be disastrous for sales because adult listings are generally hidden from shopper searches. 

Similarly, hijackers may also change your Amazon listings to make them less appealing and/or harder to find. Typically, these listing changes involve the product title, brand name, or other product details that turn shoppers away. Sometimes, they even change your product images, which can lead to both less sales and more product returns. 

A sabotage like this is an effective way to drive traffic to the hijackers’ listings instead of yours. It’s essentially a smear campaign that can undermine a reputation years in the making. 

Search Suppression

Sometimes, your worst enemy is yourself. Failure to comply with Amazon policies, discontinuing a product without updating the listing, or forgetting to restock an out-of-stock product can all result in the listing’s removal from shopper searches or even getting it marked as “inactive.” 

More often than not, search suppression is caused by some oversight of the Amazon seller. Sometimes, they forget a detail in their listing, like setting a product category, or accidentally violate a policy, like using a title that’s too long. 

The good news is that these issues are usually easy to fix, but the bad news is that your listing could be suppressed without you even knowing why. For this, it’s crucial to track your Amazon product listings to ensure everything is above board.  

How to Monitor Your Amazon Listings

The best way to mitigate all these threats is to catch them early. You need to constantly monitor all your products to spot early warning signs, such as consistently losing a Buy Box (which accounts for more than 80% of Amazon sales) or a sudden dip in ratings. Once you see the signs, you can take action, whether sending a cease-and-desist to a hijacker or simply correcting your own mistakes to make a listing compliant. 

For monitoring your listings, you have two options: do it yourself or use protective software. 

Monitoring Your Own Listings

Monitoring your own listings makes sense from a fiscal standpoint, but the real drawback is time and effort. You’ll have to essentially check the status, searchability, and product page of all of your products — every day for optimal reaction time or once every few days for more leisurely security. 

This works fine for small Amazon sellers with only a handful of products; they will most likely have tighter budgets as well. But for serious Amazon sellers with a lot of products, this could be a massive time drain. 

Use Protective Software

The act of checking for changes in listings is a mechanical task, making it perfect for automation software. Third-party Amazon software will monitor your listings in real-time and send you notifications the moment anything suspicious happens. This lets you rectify the situation as soon as possible. 

Different software monitors different aspects of your Amazon listings, so find one that does everything instead of relying on multiple software simultaneously. For example, eComEngine’s SellerPulse alerts you for:

• search suppression 
• hijacking
• suspicious Buy Box behavior
• status changes
• listing changes (including titles, images, and brand names)
• “adult” category changes

SellerPulse is the complete package for Amazon protection, and it’s more affordable than you might expect, starting at $19/month. Test it yourself by starting a free trial now. 

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About the Author:

Matt Ellis is a freelance online content creator specializing in eCommerce, content marketing, branding, and web design. He’s been sharing his industry knowledge through eBooks, website copy, and blog posts for over a decade. You can learn more about his work on his website.

Amazon has provided specific product detail page rules, including style guides and updated writing policies. Last year, the tech giant released an updated Amazon product description HTML policy guideline.

The updated Amazon product description HTML policy emphasized the shift of Amazon’s view on using HTML content on product detail pages. The update centered on the new policy stipulating that Amazon “will stop supporting the use of HTML tags in the product description on product detail pages.”

Effect of The Amazon Product Description HTML Policy  

The product description HTML guide set by Amazon, took effect last July 17, 2021. Since its implementation, third-party merchants were discouraged from using HTML content on product detail pages. 

Sellers are instructed to refrain from using HTML, JavaScript, or other types of code in the product detail pages. Currently, Amazon only accepts specific HTML tags, including the use of breaks </br> in the description.

Insisting the use of HTML tags banned by Amazon would be ineffective, for if sellers use such HTML tags in one line of a product description, that line might be removed or shown without HTML formatting, depending on the usage of the tag. 

Due to the updated Amazon product description HTML guideline, numerous sellers are now utilizing the Amazon product description editor to help them create product descriptions aligned with the updated writing guidelines. 

What is an Amazon Product Description HTML Editor? 

Since Amazon has regulated the use of HTML codes, Amazon sellers now turn to the Amazon product description HTML editor. This type of Amazon seller tool converts your product descriptions into HTML codes in accordance with the policies set by Amazon. 

With the help of an Amazon HTML editor, you can create neat and appealing product descriptions. Showcasing a readable, attractive, and professional-looking product description can help improve customer engagement and conversion. 

Simply put, an Amazon product description HTML editor helps sellers adjust their listings’ product descriptions to align with Amazon’s permitted tags and formats.

Easy to Use Product Description HTML Editors for Your Amazon Business

The updated product description writing guidelines released by Amazon have made HTML editors a necessity for Amazon business owners. To help you create appropriate Amazon product descriptions for your listings, here are some of the top product description HTML editors for your Amazon business. 

Amazon HTML Editor by SellerApp 

SellerApp is a popular Amazon seller tool that offers multiple tool options for Amazon sellers, including the Amazon HTML editor. Sellers will only need to paste their product descriptions on the box provided, and SellerApp will automatically convert the text into an HTML code. 

This tool requires no prior coding knowledge, making it a newbie-friendly seller tool. Once the HTML code has been generated, you simply click ‘Copy HTML Code’ to copy the code to the clipboard. 

Fee: Free to Use

Amazon HTML Editor by SoStocked

The Amazon product description HTML editor of SoStocked has a function similar to the abovementioned Amazon HTML editor. However, it offers additional features, such as Text or HTML preview and multiple quick edit rules. 

Some of the available rules include Line Break, Paragraph, Uppercase, and Bulleted List. Choosing the options available under each rule can make HTML editing much faster for sellers. 

Fee: Free to Use

Amazon HTML Editor by Amazon ASIN 

Amazon ASIN is an all-in-one Amazon seller tool that offers a free-to-use Amazon HTML description editor. Using this tool is easy; you simply paste your prepared product description into the writer box. 

You can stylize your product description with various formatting options to make it more appealing. Once you are done formatting your text, you just click “Copy HTML Code” to copy the code to the clipboard. 

Fee: Free to Use

Crucial Amazon Policies To Follow When Creating Listings 

To help you create appropriate product descriptions for your listings, here are some critical writing guides set by Amazon. 

• – Amazon discourages using HTML, JavaScript, or other types of code in your product detail pages.
• – Including spaces, your product title must not have more than 200 characters. 
• – Avoid using all capital letters throughout the product title, description, and bullet points. 
• – Your product title, description, and bullet points must be concise and well-written for customers to understand your product quickly. 
• – The product detail page titles, descriptions, bullet points, or images should not include the following:
•      – Requests for reviews or positive customer feedback
•      – Adverts or promotional materials
•      – Time-sensitive information like dates of lectures or seminar
•      – Any type of spoilers on books or videos
•      – Phone numbers, email or physical address, and website URLs
•      – Obscene and offensive content 

Tip for Writing Amazon Product Descriptions

Apart from Amazon’s technical guidelines for writing product descriptions, here are some additional tips on writing compelling product descriptions to increase the likelihood of Amazon shoppers purchasing your product.

Highlight Product Benefits

When writing a product description, you should not simply describe your product but instead focus on your product’s benefits. When you highlight what shoppers get from your product or the problem it solves, they will be more inclined to make a purchase. 

Incorporate Keywords

Your product detail page will be more effective if you incorporate powerful keywords. Adding relevant keywords to your product listings can help increase its visibility and organic search result rank. You can use Amazon keyword research tools for keyword ideas. 

Avoid Text-Heavy Descriptions

Keep your product descriptions short and direct to the point. Avoid using too many words or unnecessary texts on your product description, for you only have a few seconds to get the attention of Amazon shoppers. 

Maximize Bullet Points

The best way to improve the readability of your product description is to use bullet points. Using bullet points can help create short and comprehendible pieces of information about the listed product. This approach is an excellent alternative to long paragraphs. 

Maximize Other Amazon Seller Tools for Conversion

Amazon product listing can be a mundane task, but it remains an integral part of your Amazon business. It serves as a sales copy or the text that shoppers read to help them know more about the product and decide whether to purchase it or not. 

Your product description must be relevant, direct, concise, and honest. Similarly, it should follow the writing guidelines set by Amazon. By doing so, you can create an elegant and attractive listing. 

To further increase the sales conversion rate of your listings on Amazon, you should not simply limit optimization to the use of the Amazon product description HTML editor. You can further optimize other aspects of the business, including keywords and pricing.

Hence, it would be best to use other Amazon seller tools, such as keyword research tools and Amazon repricers. Using multiple Amazon seller tools will help improve your listings and the overall performance of your Amazon business.