Amazon’s Forum Post That Broke the Internet – The State of Amazon Rebates in 2021

And the title says it all.

Amazon’s latest forum post related to off-Amazon rebates, coupons as well as other marketing incentives literally broke the internet and shook third-party sellers to the core.

Selling on Amazon is never a linear journey. It’s filled with lots of ups and downs. And the most important part to keep in mind is to have an eye on the latest news and keep yourself updated with the Amazon Selling Policies & Seller Code of Conduct.

One wrong move and you can get in trouble.

Throughout its latest forum post, Amazon stated:

At the same time, Amazon third-party sellers who were subscribed to services like Elite Seller and RebateKey received an email with the Seller Code of Conduct Policy warning them to avoid violating the rank manipulation, review manipulation, and seller code of conduct policies.

Additionally, we witnessed Amazon dig a grave for pure rebate and discount platforms like Elite Sellers & RebateKey by suspending their Amazon API privileges. Amazon third-party sellers using RebateKey & Elite Sellers received separate emails as well.

What Are Amazon Influencers?

Elite Seller is now back, yet without features like ManyChat, SuperURL, or others that Amazon has asked sellers to discontinue on its latest forum post.

While there has been no concrete mention about the strategies and tactics that you can equip and the ones you can’t, and there has been no official changes to the official Seller Code of Conduct guide or Terms of Service, Amazon has indicated that it’s keeping an eye on third-party sellers with their forum post and email notifications. 

Why hasn’t anyone been banned? Literally, thousands, if not millions, of Amazon sellers used RebateKey & Elite Sellers. And obviously, Amazon can’t ban or suspend all of them. That’s the reason they rolled out a warning – asking them to comply with Amazon TOS.

That being said, let’s learn what has changed – as per the latest Amazon’s forum post.

Diving Deep into Amazon’s Forum Post

Up until Amazon rolled out its forum post, Amazon sellers were using third-party platforms like RebateKey and Elite Sellers to offer hefty discounts and rebates off Amazon. Product rebates and coupons have helped numerous third-party Amazon sellers climb the ranks and grow their business.

In fact, we recently wrote an article titled “The 5 Best Amazon Giveaway Sites to Grow Your Amazon Business.”   In this article, we listed down the five best Amazon giveaway websites that third-party sellers can use to offer discounts and product rebates. 

But now, Amazon has clarified:

This means – if you want to ensure that your Amazon seller account stays in healthy condition, you need to comply with the Amazon Seller Code of Conduct. It doesn’t matter if third-party sellers have been manipulating Amazon search with RebateKey or Elite Seller or not, it’s better to use in-house Amazon-offered programs to drive discovery of your products on the marketplace and boost your sales.   

At the same time, with an ever-increasing number of third-party sellers signing up on the marketplace, the competition has become incredibly fierce. And it’s important to note that Amazon’s A9 algorithm considers reviews as an important factor to determine the search engine rankings.

This means – it’s really hard for new sellers to organically rank at the top. As a result, new sellers and even the existing ones started offering product rebates or hefty discounts in exchange for reviews, leading to manipulation of the Amazon search engine. 

Apart from this, some other tactics sellers have been using to manipulate Amazon search include:

• Search-Find-Buy
• 2-Step URLs
• Super URLs
• Funnels
• Treasure Hunts

Now, with Amazon having had made a bold statement via its latest forum post, it makes sense for sellers to avoid such shady tactics that could get them in trouble and lead to account suspension.

When we dived deep into the TOS, we found out this under the “Acting Fairly” section:

Here, they’ve mentioned that it’s not advisable to artificially inflate web traffic by paying for clicks. But – with Amazon, Google Ads, or social media advertising, you’re obviously paying for clicks. So – that hasn’t been clarified as well. 

Well – this is not the point. But here what we’d like to shed light on is despite rolling out it’s forum post, Amazon hasn’t clarified the strategies third-party sellers can equip and the ones they can’t. Most of it has still been left unclarified. 

NOTE – Running Google Ads or influencer marketing campaign isn’t against TOS.

However, it’s really important for Amazon to update its TOS and make things clearer for third-party sellers.

What Does Amazon’s Latest Forum Post
Mean for Third-Party Sellers?

If you’re a third-party seller, you can still offer rebates or product discounts via third-party platforms. But – you’ll just be risking entering into a gray area. And while Amazon didn’t take strict action this time or update their official TOS, they have left sellers equipping these tactics with a warning, and prospect of what may come with the TOS changes.

In our opinion, tactics like Search-Find-Buy, 2-Step URLs, Super URLs, Funnels, Treasure Hunts are dead. And if you tap into any of these, you’ll be risking your Amazon Seller account. And these aren’t the only tactics that you shouldn’t use. There are many Amazon product growth strategies that can help sellers manipulate search rankings. So, before you apply any strategy, it’s important to make sure that it doesn’t seem shady or doesn’t manipulate search rankings.

The Safe Alternative to Product Rebates, Discounts & Shady Product Growth Strategies

At Stack Influence, we’ve helped thousands of Amazon sellers boost their rankings with strategic micro-influencer marketing and social media promotions. We prioritize Amazon third-party sellers’ growth over anything else.

Since Amazon has strictly asked sellers to discontinue off-platform product rebates, discounts, and various shady tactics that can manipulate Amazon’s A9 algorithm, it makes sense to come up with safe innovative tactics to launch products and drive growth.

And that’s what we can help you with. 

We run systematic high-end influencer marketing campaigns across different social media platforms to help both new and veteran Amazon sellers grow their business without any hesitation. And we’d love nothing more than to help you out. 

Don’t wait around!

Schedule a call with us today! 

By William Gasner

CMO at Stack Influence