How to improve your Amazon seller rating

By Sharon Fussell, June 25, 2015

Amazon is always striving to improve seller ratings and over the years have introduced various data, such as the Matrix Report, which basically measure how sellers are doing over the month.

You may not realise it, but if you do not meet Amazon’s overall targets, they may close down your account. So do take note and ensure you meet Amazon’s targets!

To assist you, Amazon have created ways of ensuring you do stay within the rules…

‘Seller Rating’ is a data-driven rating system, only visible to you in your Seller Account, intended to help you manage your customer satisfaction scores and to measure your performance relative to other sellers.

Amazon’s A-to-Z Guarantee can affect your seller rating: here are some suggestions to help you avoid this…


  • Answer all email messages from buyers within 24 hours.Refund orders proactively and respond to requests quickly.
  • Always be accurate with your descriptions and images in your listings.
  • Dispatch only to the address provided to you by Amazon.
  • Make sure you use high-quality product images.
  • Dispatch with care: always use decent packaging, traceable shipping methods, and signature-required methods for high-cost items.
  • If you do receive an order for a product you cannot dispatch, cancel the order promptly and be hands-on in resolving any delivery problems related to the delivery method you use.
  • Never solicit or accept payments outside of Amazon Marketplace.

Additionally, Amazon says: ‘Your seller rating can be negatively affected by A-to-Z Guarantee claims and service chargebacks. Make sure you respond to notifications from Amazon about claims and chargebacks within 7 calendar days of the email notification date. If you do not respond to our notification, you may be faulted for the transaction. If we write to you again asking for additional information, make sure you reply within the time frame given.

Expired orders can also affect your seller rating. (An expired order is one that has been cancelled by Amazon because you have not fulfilled or confirmed dispatch for an extended period of time after the order date.)

If expired orders are negatively affecting your seller rating, here are some steps you can take to help avoid them…

Keep an eye on your spam filter. Check your orders in the Manage Orders tool in your seller account.

Always cancel an order as soon as you know you will be unable to fulfil it: buyers may be more inclined to be forgiving if you cancel immediately, rather than after the expected dispatch date. Follow up with a sincere apology.

If you are going on holiday or are temporarily unable to manage your account for any reason, set the status of your listings to ‘inactive’.

Your seller rating is also affected by negative feedback, possibly caused by problems with your product listing or order fulfilment process.

To counter this and combat the chance of negative feedback, always, always always provide accurate product descriptions and include images with your listings. As Amazon says: ‘It’s important that buyers receive exactly the product described on the detail page where you place your listing.

Also, always dispatch of your orders by the expected dispatch date and make sure buyers can see the status of their dispatched orders online. Only list items for sale that you’re sure you can dispatch on time.

To aid you in a smooth dispatch process, you might want to use Amazon’s Buy Delivery Service to buy and print packing labels for orders you fulfil.

Furthermore, aim to respond to buyer enquiries within 24 hours. Amazon says: ‘With the fast-paced nature of e-commerce, buyers expect a response from you within 24 hours, including at weekends and on public holidays. Auto-responders are not considered a valid response.

Finally, ensure that all communication with buyers is courteous, relevant and appropriate.

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