Chapter 23: Selling with confidence

What you'll learn: how to keep purchase records that support your business, how to choose brands sensibly, how to keep your account healthy, and what to do, calmly, if Amazon ever asks for documents.

Buying products from shops and websites and reselling them on Amazon is a long-established, Amazon-permitted way to sell. Every product you sell must be genuine and in the condition you list it in, and good habits make that easy to show. This chapter covers the few habits that matter.

1. Proof of purchase: your records

Each till receipt or online order email shows where a product came from, what you paid and when. Together they're also the records your accountant needs (Chapter 2.2).

Make them as useful as possible:

• Buy in your business name, and use your business address for online orders. Make these match the name and address in Seller Central.
• Pay by card or bank transfer, so your statements back up each purchase. Keep the statements too.
• Save everything digitally. Photograph till receipts on the day, and save online order confirmations and any VAT invoices as PDFs. One folder per month, with files named by date and retailer, keeps things tidy.
• Keep a purchase log: date, retailer, product, ASIN, quantity, price paid and where the file is saved. It takes a minute per order and makes any later question quick to answer. Use the template in Downloads (purchase-log.xlsx) if you like.
• Ask for an invoice where one is offered. Many retailers can provide a VAT invoice or a business account invoice. It's a useful extra record.

Video coming soon

"Keeping good purchase records": saving receipts and order confirmations and keeping a simple purchase log.

2. Choose brands sensibly

Most brands are resold on Amazon by many sellers, and you'll see that in the seller count. A few brands control who sells their products closely. Choosing well keeps things simple:

• Favour brands with several FBA sellers. Many sellers on a listing is a good sign that the brand is widely resold.
• Use ArbiSource's potential IP issue warnings. Results can show a warning for potential intellectual property (IP) issues, and you can exclude them with a filter. Leaving these out is a sensible default while you're learning.
• Be cautious with brands that sell mainly through their own store, or where the listing has only one or two sellers.
• Check for Transparency. Some brands protect their products with Transparency codes: a unique code on every unit. If a product uses Transparency, every unit you send must carry a valid code. Never cover or remove it with your own labels. If you can't be sure the units you'd buy have valid codes, choose another product.
• Sell items in the condition you list. "New" means brand new, unused and unopened, in the original packaging with everything included (Condition guidelines).

3. Keep your account healthy

Your Account Health page in Seller Central shows how your account is doing. Its Account Health Rating runs from 0 to 1,000 and is colour-coded:

Rating	Score	What it means
🟢 Healthy	200 to 1,000	Not at risk of deactivation under the policies the rating covers
🟡 At risk	100 to 199	At risk of deactivation; deal with any issues promptly
🔴 Unhealthy	99 or lower	Eligible for deactivation

All new sellers start at 200. Points are lost for policy issues and regained when you address them. A few simple habits keep you comfortably healthy:

• Look at Account Health once a week, as part of your weekly checks.
• Read every performance notification and deal with it in good time, most serious first.
• Keep your emergency contact phone number up to date (under Notification preferences), so Amazon can reach you if needed.

Source: Account Health Rating programme policy.

4. If Amazon asks for documents

Occasionally Amazon may ask a seller to show where a product came from, for example after a customer or brand complaint. It's a routine check, and a calm, well-organised reply is what's needed.

1. Read the notification carefully. Note which ASINs it covers, what's being asked for and any deadline.
2. Gather your records for those ASINs: receipts, order confirmations and invoices. This is where your purchase log pays off.
3. Check them against Amazon's requirements. Amazon's invoice requirements ask for documents that:
   • are dated within the past 365 days;
   • cover the quantity you've sold and have in stock for each ASIN;
   • identify the products clearly, for example by name or model number;
   • include the supplier's contact details: name, phone number, address and website;
   • are PDFs or images (.pdf, .jpg, .png or .gif), not editable files such as spreadsheets.
4. Send them exactly as they are. You can hide prices and highlight the relevant products, but every document must be authentic and unaltered.
5. Reply through the link in the notification, with a short, polite note listing what you've attached.

If you can't provide what's asked for, you can choose to stop selling that product. One product doesn't define your business, and it's a useful lesson for your brand choices.

Keep it in proportion.

A document request isn't an everyday event, and it isn't a judgement on you. Good records, sensible brands and genuine products in the right condition are all it takes to sell with confidence.

Checklist

• I buy in my business name and pay by card or bank transfer
• I save every receipt and order confirmation, and keep a purchase log
• I favour brands with several FBA sellers and exclude potential IP issues while I'm learning
• I never cover a Transparency code
• I check Account Health weekly
• I know how to respond calmly to a document request