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Last Updated on October 23, 2022 by Chris Panteli
Amazon Close Listing
When you sell a product on Amazon, you may be wondering what it means when you close a listing for your product.
You may wonder if you should close a listing and whether it will impact your credibility as a seller.
If you’re wondering what close listing means and how it can affect you, keep reading this article to understand what you’re doing when you close your listing.
But first, let’s talk about a close listing and what it means to do this.
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What Is A Close Listing?
When you close a listing on Amazon, the product you list will change from active to inactive. By changing your listing to inactive, buyers can no longer purchase that item from you on Amazon.
You can close a listing when you cannot sell this product at that time, but you will be able to retain your sales history.
When you close the listing, this is not a permanent method of removing your product from a sale, but you can utilize this when you cannot stock and sell your product for any reason.
If your product is at one of Amazon’s fulfillment centers, they will remain there when you choose to relist or if the products need to be returned to you or disposed of.
How Do You Close And Reopen A Listing?
Before explaining why you should close a listing, let’s go through a step-by-step process on how you do this.
- Step 1: Log into your Amazon Seller Central account and head to the Inventory tab.
- Step 2: Click Manage Inventory to see the list of active products available in your store.
- Step 3: Choose the product you want to close the listing for and select Actions. You can choose multiple products at once if you have more than one item.
- Step 4: Select Close Listing. Make sure you don’t choose Delete Product And Listing by accident, and your product will now no longer be available.
You now know how to close your listing, but what if you want to re-open your listing?
- Step 1: Log into your Amazon Seller Central and enter the Inventory tab.
- Step 2: Head over to Manage Inventory and head over to the Inactive products.
- Step 3: Select the Actions tab next to the product you want to re-open and click the Relist option.
- Step 4: Update the quantity of your item and put in the selling date. Then, hit Save and Finish. Your listing will become available within around 20 minutes, and then you will get orders for your item again.
Now that you know how you can close your listing and re-open it, let’s consider why you would want to close it.
Why Should I Close A Listing?
I’ve already briefly touched upon why you should close a listing in the previous section, but let’s go into a little more detail on why you would do so.
Here are some examples of why you would close a listing and how it would affect you.
Stock Issues
Depending on the item you’re selling, you may not have enough stock to supply your item. If you don’t have the stock, you won’t be able to sell it.
However, you may find the product will come back in stock in the future.
Should the manufacturer of your item have issues with production, you can close the listing until you find you have the inventory to fulfill orders.
Many sellers have concerns about their sales rank if an item goes out of stock.
But because you will retain your sales history, you don’t have to worry about filling in all of your data again.
You may also wonder how this can affect your product’s organic keyword ranking, and some theories say that if you close your listing, you can prevent a build-up of poor sales history on your listing.
However, Amazon hasn’t confirmed this theory. But you can consider this if you decide to close your listing due to stock issues.
It’s important to remember that when you close a listing due to stock issues, you do so before you completely run out of your product.
If your listing remains open and you run out of your item, Amazon will penalize you, and your seller ranking will suffer.
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Quality Control
When you look at your reviews, you should consider how many poor reviews you’re receiving. If your bad reviews are outdoing any positive reviews, look at the feedback your customers are leaving you.
You don’t want to sell poor-quality products, as you won’t receive any customers if they mostly see bad reviews.
You should close your listing to investigate the quality of your products. Take a look at what your customers are saying.
Are there issues with the packaging or the shipping? You should see what these issues are and whether there’s anything you can do to rectify them.
While the investigation occurs, close your listing until you’ve fixed any significant problems impacting your product’s review score and listing quality score (LQS).
Once you’ve discovered and rectified the issue, you can open your listing again.
You may find that your reviews are improving, and customers will appreciate you taking the time to investigate the problem and take your product reviews seriously.
Vacation Time
If you fulfill your orders, you may want to close your listing if you will be unable to take orders during that time.
You don’t want to receive poor reviews because you couldn’t ship the product on time.
Close your listing at least a day before you go on your vacation so that you can ensure that you won’t lose your credibility.
While you may lose out on some business, you can quickly get that business back when you return from your vacation. The last thing you want to do is get penalized for not shipping your product on time.
After all, your customers won’t know that you’re on vacation, and they may be confused as to why the product is still available when you cannot fulfill it.
You may lose more business in the long run, so combat this by making sure you close your listing before this happens. Then, when you return, it will be as though you never left.
Competition And Trends
Sometimes, your product may become more widespread through trends, and you may find more competition.
If you notice a trend affecting your business, and competitors jumping in, you should close your listing to develop a better strategy.
Your competitors may only be there for a short period, and you can monitor what prices they are offering.
However, the opposite may also occur. You may notice a trend on the market that will decrease your sales.
If this happens, you should close your listing to ensure you don’t end up losing money on a product that isn’t selling.
By closing it, you can keep your stock for when your item becomes more popular again. You can also strategize for this by focusing on your competitors and figuring out the best way to stay ahead.
You can keep ahead of the competition by keeping an eye on both trends and your competitors. One good way to do this is by checking social media and online keyword rankings.
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Supply And Demand
We’ve already touched on keeping an eye on when you’re low on stock, so you should always keep holiday seasons in mind.
By keeping an eye on trends in your product, you can remove them from the listing when your sales are at their lowest.
That way, you can prepare your stock for in-demand seasons and devise a plan for when your business will need it.
If you don’t prepare for in-demand seasons, you may notice that you’re running out of the items you sell because you weren’t doing your research.
When you find this happens, you can close the listing for a short period to ensure that you can meet your customers’ expectations and ensure it won’t affect your seller’s rank.
Always consider what holidays your items will be more popular, and do what you can to keep up with your supply and demand, so you don’t lose out on business.
Final Thoughts
Now that you know what close listing is, you can utilize this feature to make your life a little bit easier when you cannot sell a product at a particular time.
Closing a listing is a valuable method you can use when you know that you can’t temporarily supply an item or when you cannot do so.
Due to the ease of how you can do this, you will be able to manage your inventory successfully without hurting your seller’s ranking.
When you know when you should close your listing, you will see that you will still retain your sales history.
Just remember that if you close your listing too late and have already run out of an item’s stock, Amazon may penalize you.
It’s always better to keep track of your inventory and know when to close your listing.
