Editor’s Note: This article has been reviewed and updated for 2026 to reflect the latest trends and best practices.
Your Amazon seller account is the lifeblood of your e-commerce business. A suspension, warning, or performance dip doesn’t just hurt sales for a day — it can set back months of hard work. Proactively managing your account health is what separates sellers who build sustainable Amazon businesses from those who scramble from crisis to crisis.
This guide covers the key areas to monitor, practical habits to build, and exactly what to do when issues arise.
Amazon’s algorithm and policy enforcement operate continuously. Small issues left unaddressed — a slightly elevated return rate, a handful of authenticity complaints, a slow response to a performance notification — can escalate into restrictions, listing removals, or full account suspensions.
The sellers who thrive long-term check their account health dashboard at least weekly. Think of it like monitoring your business finances: you can’t fix problems you don’t know exist.
Performance notifications are Amazon’s direct communication channel for policy issues and listing problems. Set them to go to an actively monitored email address and respond within 24–48 hours. Ignoring or slow-responding to these is the single most common cause of avoidable suspensions.
The Account Health Dashboard in Seller Central provides your overall health rating and flags active policy violations, at-risk behaviours, and warnings. Review it at least twice a week. Not every warning is accurate — but every warning needs a response.
Amazon tracks listing completeness: image quality, missing bullet points, thin product descriptions, and compliance with category-specific requirements. Suppressed or incomplete listings reduce search visibility and sales. Run a weekly audit to catch and fix issues before Amazon does.
The Voice of the Customer report shows how customers describe their experience with your products — including negative feedback, return reasons, and poor review trends. This is early warning data. If multiple customers mention the same issue, fix it before it becomes a returns or authenticity problem.
Excess inventory generates long-term storage fees. Stranded inventory earns nothing. Aged inventory over 365 days incurs steep surcharges. Review your inventory health weekly, run removal orders on slow-moving stock, and use Amazon’s Restock recommendations to avoid both stockouts and overstock.
When Amazon flags an issue, the worst thing you can do is ignore it or respond defensively. Here’s the correct approach:
At minimum, twice a week. If you’re actively running promotions, launching new products, or have experienced recent performance issues, check daily. Many experienced sellers build a 10-minute account health review into their morning routine.
Ignoring performance notifications, high ODR (above 1%), selling counterfeit or inauthentic products, and manipulating reviews are the fastest paths to suspension. Policy violations around product safety and restricted products are also common causes.
Yes — most suspensions can be appealed successfully with a strong Plan of Action. The key is responding promptly, taking responsibility (even if you believe the suspension is unjust), and presenting a concrete, specific action plan. Many sellers recover within 1–4 weeks.
The Order Defect Rate (ODR) measures the percentage of orders that resulted in a negative experience — negative feedback, A-to-Z claims, or credit card chargebacks. To lower it: improve product quality and accuracy of listings, respond to buyer messages within 24 hours, and resolve issues proactively before buyers escalate to A-to-Z claims.
Generally yes. FBA shifts shipping, storage, and returns handling to Amazon, eliminating common FBM-related performance metrics issues like late shipment and poor packaging. However, FBA sellers still need to manage listing quality, authenticity, and buyer feedback carefully.
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