You encounter this error: “No Internet Connection.”
What do you do? You normally check the modem, restart it and see if it does something. Sometimes, you’re even required to restart your system altogether.
Your car suddenly breaks down in the middle of the road.
What do you do? You check the fuel gauge if you still have enough fuel. If otherwise, you look for the nearest petrol station, and ask for some assistance. There are also times when you have to check the engine, if everything’s as it should be.
For Amazon Arbitrage business owners, what do you normally do when you receive this error: “Listings deactivated for potential pricing error”?
To start off, we first have to understand why this alert was set up by Amazon to begin with. Amazon’s goal is to be the most customer-centric company in the whole world, and that they uphold customer’s trust to a high pedestal. Needless to say, one best way of getting customers’ trust and loyalty is by providing low prices, hence, they want to make sure that prices are not set too high (or too low).
Here are the steps you need to take when you encounter a potential pricing error to try and resolve the issue:
1. Check Your Pricing
The “potential pricing error” alert is pretty accurate in assessing your prices and providing alerts when necessary. I mistakenly priced an item for £299.99, instead of £29.99. Amazon then deactivated my listing so other competing sellers that have the same price as £29.99 would not see the £299.99 pricing. This way, a customer’s trust will be fully protected.
I then received the pricing flag, I went to my inventory, corrected the issue inside my repricer, and my listing became active again - this time with the corrected price.
Whilst I love doing my due diligence of manually checking my prices (sometimes), I’ve found a more efficient way of doing this. I’ve been using SellerToolKit for sometime now. SellerToolKit helps me with a lot of tasks with my biz. One task is the repricing of my products automatically.
If you wish to know more about this amazing tool, click here.
2. Minimum And Maximum Price
To amend your min and/or max, you can go to the “Pricing History” page. Here, you have to enter the minimum (and maximum prices) of the ASIN that has the price alert. You have to ensure that your sales price is between your min and max. Save your changes, and the pricing error should disappear. If you are using an external repricer then also ensure the rule assigned and current price isn’t below what you have set in Amazon.
3. Price Adjustment
There are times that a little price adjustment can remove the pricing error. Go to the product page of that item on Amazon, check the current low prices of your competitors. It might be a case that the item’s price is much lower now compared to when you first sent the inventory to Amazon. If your price is significantly higher than other sellers, then this is usually the reason for the pricing error. Also, if the price of the product has tanked (reduced) due to competition or penny underpricers, you will need to decide whether to price lower and profit/breakeven or sell at a loss, or remove the stock and sell elsewhere.
However, do not go rushing in to lower your price and match theirs. What you can do is to adjust your price, and lower it down, and this might remove the price flagging. When you do this, do not forget to adjust your min and max as well. Remember, as mentioned earlier, you price should be in between your min and max. If you neglect doing this, then, it won’t be helpful in fixing your pricing alert.
4. Open A Support Ticket
Amazon’s pricing algorithm works as follows:
Item’s pricing history within Amazon
Item’s pricing history within your listing
Having said the above points, if Amazon remembers you pricing the item lower than how it is priced currently, then it might think that you’re pricing it too high based on your pricing history.
However, what if your pricing history is really low compared to the current lowest price?
What you can do is open a support ticket, and let Amazon know that sellers for that particular ASIN are selling around a certain price, and that your low price (the one that got deactivated) is comparable with the current price listed. You can even take a screenshot to show Amazon that your price is within the current price trend.
On the other hand, if you really priced your item high due to legitimate and acceptable reasons, then you also have to let Amazon know. Acceptable reasons include but not limited to increased supplier rates, increased shipping rate from your supplier, etc. Be very honest with your reasons (provide evidence where possible), and do not make up stories as this will not be helpful in your cause.
Amazon might reply and send you a list of possible steps you need to take to remove the pricing error and have your listing reactivated again. Remember a bot usually responds to your initial case that you raise so be sure to reply and reiterate your case with your evidence a second time for a human being to review and respond.
5. Escalate To A Supervisor
There will be times when the Seller Rep who will handle your case sends a generic ‘How To’ response, instead of fully answering your query. Some of these generic response processes and procedures that they use can be unhelpful towards your case, which in turn can frustrate you as a seller. In this case, you can use this phrase in your reply:
“Please escalate this to a case supervisor.“
Use the sentence verbatim. The current Seller Rep will know what to do, and will forward your case to a supervisor to review. Often, supervisors know more about certain cases and this phrase helps bypass the bots as it is a known keyword. They can give you help to fix the issues, or sometimes they can even fix the issue for you.
6. Deep Breath, Then Lower Your Price
This step is the last one and there’s a good reason for it. This is your last resort.
There will be times in your business that you’ve already done everything you can to remove the pricing error, but to no avail.
When this happens, just go to the item in question, and lower your price or create a removal and list on another platform to sell it.
Final Thoughts
The bottom line is there will be listings that tank and those that you make great profit on. The best strategy we have found is sales volume and keeping your price competitive. Be the first in and first out in terms of price and sales so you can reinvest the money made into your hot replenishable products and new leads. When you have a potential pricing error, follow these steps to resolve it. Worst case, if you leave it a few hours (and if the listing is a good seller) those priced lower than you may sell out and your repricer will kick in against the min and max price and rule you have set.
If you wish to make repricing more efficient, you may check out SellerToolKit by clicking here. They currently offer a free 14-day trial for you to test drive it for yourself.
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Need More Help? Here Are Some Additional Resources
Get Coaching: Want our help growing your eCom business? Apply for our Arbitrage Experts Academy Programme Here.
Free Training: How to start, systemise and scale your online business. Register Here.
Book a FREE Strategy Call: Get 1-2-1 support from the OSC Team to devise a tailor made plan you can follow to achieve scale. Click Here.
Get Expert Virtual Assistants: Want to build your team of transformational VAs and free your time? Learn more here.
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