Amazon runs daily polls on Seller Central asking sellers to weigh in on how they feel about certain statements, such as “My account is safe from being suspended unexpectedly,” or, “Amazon makes changes to improve the seller experience.” Sellers can respond by indicating if they Strongly Agree, Strongly Disagree, or somewhere in between.
Recently a seller posted that they’d like to see Amazon make the polling results public. And while sellers have expressed skepticism about the usefulness of the polls – likely in part because Amazon never shares the results – it turns out they are a serious initiative by the company to take the pulse of sellers on various issues.
Corliss Collier, Senior Leader of Seller Insights & Research, held a chat session with her team on the Amazon discussion boards last week to discuss the polls and how Amazon uses the results. Many sellers may not realize that at least as early as last year, responding to a poll will also let you add a comment – something the Research team confirmed during Tuesday’s chat.
During the chat session, Amazon revealed that it is currently recruiting sellers to participate in a Voice of the Seller panel. “Our goal will be to collect feedback from Selling Partners like you on the pain points you experience as an Amazon seller. The insights collected through the panel will be shared with our partner teams to improve your selling experience.”
Amazon also used an example of how one poll resulted in a new practice:
“We use polling responses as metrics to track how sentiment is trending and changing over time to prioritize seller-facing improvements. As an example, we heard from selling partners via the polls that they were having a difficult time contacting Account Health Services when they needed support. As a result of this feedback, we were able to work with the team that owns this area and implement a Call Me Button so sellers would receive a call from AHS rather than wait in a queue.””
When a seller asked the team to share the results of seller polling, Collier responded in part, “although we will not directly share the results of the global polls with you, we will and can share any improvements, updates or changes that are made as a result of the feedback and insights received. We will be sharing through events such as this as well as in other manners within the Seller Forums and Seller Central. We plan to begin sharing back in these places in Q3 2024.”
Amazon’s Seller Insights & Research team responded to other questions during the chat session, the following are just a few of the responses:
“We ensure your feedback is captured and shared with the relevant teams for taking actions to address them. Unfortunately, not everything can be prioritized by the business and addressed immediately, but they are definitely on the list for future fixes/considerations. Each piece of feedback helps us understand your issues better and assists in prioritization.”
“Utilizing AI to determine seller issues or themes is also an area of focus. In addition to using the polling response data, using AI to identify common themes or critical issues from text- based responses and then escalating them to the appropriate teams for resolution is another area of investment for seller experience improvements.”
“Let me attempt to provide you with an answer two-fold. 1) Why: We want to ensure that you have a voice in the changes that are made at Amazon to help Selling Partners like you worldwide. 2)Time Spent: The inputs shared go a long way in helping to form the strategy, drive innovation and program updates that happen. We know it doesn’t seem fast enough or look as you expect every time but all feedback is taken in and used. We understand we are asking you to take time out of your day running your business to provide input and you feel that it goes nowhere and no action is taken, but I can assure you that every poll question and every text feedback is used in making the selling experience on Amazon better each day and we appreciate you taking the time.”
You can read the chat session on this thread of the Amazon Seller Central chat, and be sure to let us know what you think of the Seller Central polls. Let us know if the information provided by the Seller Insights & Research team during the chat session will make a difference in your decision on whether to participate in Amazon Seller Central polls.
“Amazon revealed that it is currently recruiting sellers to participate in a Voice of the Seller panel. “Our goal will be to collect feedback from Selling Partners like you on the pain points you experience as an Amazon seller. The insights collected through the panel will be shared with our partner teams to improve your selling experience.”
1001% BS
Maybe ask them why they GATE entire brands. Maybe ask them about virtually open ended returns. Maybe ask why their FBA fees are so high ….
Amazon USED to be a great place for sellers – until they started making these kinds of bad decisions.
Just ask any of the 1000+ makeup sellers who Amazon kicked off the site for selling Clinique (for no reason) (aka gating).
(like the rock)(since its almost Wrestlemania)(this is me trying to be timely) Amazon doesnt care what you think – its all “window dressing”.
ONE THING ABOUT AMAZON … they can sell their goods to you and me and then offer FREE SHIPPING – BUT – if you and I wanted to ship THAT VERY SAME ITEM then you could expect to PAY MORE FOR SHIPPING THAN THE ITEM IS WORTH. WHY IS THE UNITED STATES POSTAL SERVICE giving AMAZON such a “DEAL” – BUT – no other retailer in the entire UNITED STATES OF AMERICA gets the SAME DEAL that ONLY AMAZON receives?
Amazon now sucks big-time! I sold on there for over 20 years and was doing fine until all the ridiculous rules started. The final straw was them wanting to hang onto my money (allowing me to have it only when they saw fit). I left last November and have not looked back.