Why You Should Avoid Dropshipping on Amazon in 2022?

Dropshipping is a business model in which a supplier sends products to a buyer’s address anonymously on behalf of the store owner. It assumes the customers have found the products in the dropshipper’s store, and often don’t even know they made an order in a dropshipping store. In the case of Amazon currently (2020), it’s different. As a dropshipper, you will not be able to place products from Amazon on your site, or it won’t be easy to do.

Dropshippers shouldn’t step down their games because of the aforementioned amazon dropshipping issue. In this post, we’ll discuss why you might not dropship on Amazon in 2022. Don’t fret! We’ll show you some alternatives that you can use for dropshipping.

1. What is Amazon FBA? Why Isn’t It Real Dropshipping.
2. Can I import Amazon products to my website and resell them like a dropshipper with a margin?
3. Guide to avoid getting your Amazon Dropshipping account banned
4. What alternatives exist today for dropshippers who understand the Amazon platform is not an ideal option?

What is Amazon FBA? Why Isn’t It Real Dropshipping.

Firstly, let’s discuss the FBA. This is vital because, often, fresh entrepreneurs see it as the Amazon dropshipping model.

Definition: Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) is a service available to you when you sell on Amazon. With FBA, you store your products in Amazon’s fulfillment centers, and we will pick, pack, ship, and provide customer service for them. (source: amazon.com)

In simpler terms, FBA is not dropshipping because there is a significant difference in stock possession. When you do the regular dropshipping, you don’t own any merchandise, and you get to act as a middleman between suppliers and customers. Whereas when you use Amazon’s FBA program, you have to invest in merchandise and store it in Amazon’s warehouse. In return, Amazon takes care of all your shipments and returns.

Can I import Amazon products to my website and resell them like a dropshipper with a margin?

Officially Amazon allows dropshipping; you can know more about it in their dropshipping policy

However, Amazon has very complex rules, and your Amazon affiliate account can be blocked at any time if you violate their guidelines at some point.

For example, in its current policy, Amazon forbids to purchase products from other online retailers and send them directly to customers. You cannot sell the orders, where the seller isn’t mentioned on the package or the seller is anyone another than you. This means, that dropshipping in its simplest form is hardly possible. Do you still want to risk it and import products into your store from Amazon? We’ve compiled a list of useful recommendations. It’s advisable you read through and follow them to avoid getting banned from your Amazon affiliate account at once. But be informed that Amazon can block your account at any time still.

Guide to avoid getting your Amazon Dropshipping account banned

Amazon has ramped up its compliance game significantly in the last few months. In fact, if you still want to play by just the things you know before now, you might lose your dropshipping account sooner than you expect. Let us walk you through the top reasons we’ve seen and heard that get Amazon affiliates in trouble and sometimes even removed from the program.

Links In Email

Amazon explicitly bans any use of affiliate links in “offline promotion or in any other offline manner.” For many new users, it might be surprising to know that this applies to email promotions too. While there are a number of notable influencers that include Amazon links in their regular email newsletters, this is forbidden in section four, titled “Promotional Limitations” of the Policies page for Amazon’s Operating Agreement. (The most actual version of it was published by Amazon in October 2021, and the detailed description of policies can be found here).

Links In eBooks or PDF documents

If someone just finished reading your book, and they probably enjoyed it, every professional marketer knows it’s the perfect time to make them buy the continuation. This is even best if the book is a series. But then, promoting it could attract the hammer on you. If you include affiliate links in your eBooks or PDF, you could lose your Amazon Associates program.

Mentioning Prices (or availability)

Like every dropshipping model and store, it seems natural to add the prices on your site’s product pages while you are promoting Amazon products. However, you have to update the prices dynamically via the Amazon API. Otherwise, you violate the Operating Agreement. Apparently, Amazon detests making inaccurate or out-of-date claims about their products. They require that information is never more than 24hours old to avoid sharing outdated prices and info. Amazon mentions this in section two of the Policies page.

Using Their Star Ratings & Reviews

You can’t do some things easily when you’re into amazon dropshipping, and one of these is using their reviews and star ratings. You obviously aren’t the only person that loves this product; look at all of those star ratings and reviews on Amazon! While it may be tempting to copy over some of these amazing testimonials as social proof and the star ratings to help compare similar products, publishing in a way that doesn’t automatically update could be a quick way to getting removed from the Amazon Associates program.

Not Including An Affiliate Disclaimer

If you’re new to dropshipping on Amazon, it might feel awkward to think that you must have an affiliate disclaimer on your site. Come to think of it, such a thing might scare people away or make your site look cluttered, but it’s against the law and Amazon’s Operating Agreement!

Amazon advocates transparency, and their affiliates must be on the right side of the law!

Your site needs to have a disclaimer explaining that you are an Affiliate and earn a small commission from sold products. Put yourself in the shoes of a buyer; that might be a huge turnoff.

Affiliate Link Shortening or Link Cloaking / Hiding

Amazon is so conscious of its brand’s user experience. They don’t want affiliates to misdirect their audience, as Amazon’s reputation depends on how affiliates are referring the site to visitors. The e-commerce giant advocates that users are sure of the links they click and where they get directed. As such, Amazon bans link shortening that doesn’t make it obvious that you are sending users to Amazon.

So, if you want to get kicked out of the program swiftly, go ahead to shorten your link. We know you wouldn’t want to do that.

Using Your Affiliate Link for Items You Purchase

It’d be a pretty sweet deal if you could do all of your shopping online via Amazon using your affiliate link and earn some affiliate commission while you do. Unfortunately for thrifty shoppers, Amazon has expressly forbidden this practice. Rule #29 of the Participation Requirements states:

You will not purchase any Product(s) through Special Links for use by you or for resale or commercial use of any kind. 

Link from Sexually Explicit and/or Violent Sites

Amazon clearly forbids using affiliate links on site that contain or promote sexually explicit materials. This means that everyone participating in their Affiliate program must not use their links on such sites.

Violate Amazon’s Trademark Policy

Amazon can shut down things quickly if they believe you are violating their trademark rights. They do it so fast, even before you realize your offense. To clarify, Amazon owns a ton of trademarks, not all of which have anything to do with the phrase “Amazon.” Proprietary products like Kindle are trademarked too, and you can quickly violate these trademarks by including trademark information in your site’s domain name. However, you can use a trademarked name in your product link, title or description.

Take a look at these for more clarification.

OK – Abc.com/amazon-kindle-ebook-reader-review

Not OK – KindleReviews.com

Putting Ads on Search Engines

Putting product ads on Google Product Search or Bing Shopping to drive traffic to an Amazon Site through your affiliate links is prohibited. By the way, you can use free traffic sources instead.

So, if you must maintain your affiliate program, avoid running adverts on search engines. You’ll get kicked out soon.

No Sales In 90 Days

It becomes a violation if you fail to make at least one sale in 90 days. Apparently, no one would want to sign up for the program without the intentions of making sales. But if this eventually happens, you’ll lose your affiliate program.

What alternatives exist today for dropshippers who understand the Amazon platform is not an ideal option?

If you’re a dropshipper, or if you’ve been following our updates, to say the least, you should know that the core advantage of true dropshipping is being able to purchase the product from a supplier only AFTER a customer places an order. Unfortunately, you can’t do this when you dropship Amazon products. You either get a ban or leave their platform willingly.

The common dropshipping model can’t be built on Amazon. But we can suggest very good alternatives – use eBay dropshipping and AliExpress dropshipping.

AliExpress and eBay platforms have their policies but let dropshippers maximize their full marketing potentials and enjoy the true meaning of dropshipping. With these platforms, you only pay after a customer orders from you.

AliExpress and eBay let you import products on your website from both platforms, synchronize stock, and automatically place your clients’ orders. This gives you room to explore and scale your business.

To get the best of these dropshipping with these platforms, we have proven tools. Ali2Woo and eBay2Woo are uniquely designed to simplify your dropshipping business as they let you automate numerous activities. Below we put links to both tools:

1. AliExpress dropshipping plugin for WordPress (Ali2Woo)
2. eBay dropshipping plugin for WordPress (eBay2Woo)

It doesn’t seem like dropshipping on Amazon in 2021 is what marketers would want to do from several indications. Most marketers would prefer automating virtually every process while they hone their focus on marketing. Don’t be left behind!

Check out Ali2Woo or eBay2Woo today.