Last week one of the most popular giveaway tool RebateKey was removed, but before we start discussing what does this mean for you and all of the other sellers we need to understand what is a giveaway and how does it affect your sale.
What are giveaway (RebaeKey)
A giveaway is a system that allows the seller to generate awareness, free traffic, and hype for a product before the launch so when the product actually launches and becomes available in the market for the seller to buy the demand will be more than the supply. Earlier amazon used to provide this service free of cost and amazon even handled all of the logistic parts of the giveaway as well. So previously it was very easy for the seller to generate awareness for their product launches. Before this news, external tools like helium 10 also helped the seller to determine how much product the seller needs to giveaway in order to rank the product.
I will let Rebate Key explain what they do?
Now that you are aware of the giveaway and how it works. Let’s see what Amazon has changed in their “Seller Code of Conduct Language” under “Acting Fairly”.
Previous wording “Activities that could be perceived as attempting to manipulate Amazon’s search results or sales rankings”
New wording “Manipulating sales rank (such as by accepting fake orders or orders that you have paid for) or making claims about sales rank in product titles or descriptions.”
Please note that in the new wordings “Accepting orders that you have paid for”, e.g., giving away products for a 100% discount through a service such as RebateKey.
Reason for amazon banning RebaeKey?
Now the question is about why now? These giveaways have been going on for years now and amazon is just now starting to ban them. Well, the reason for the recent action is the increased scrutiny from the FTC over deceptive marketing practices. Last week FTC issued letters to over 500 companies including amazon in which they warn them about the fake reviews and deceptive endorsements and the penalties that they have to pay if they did nothing to stop these fake reviews and deceptive endorsements. FTC has also asked amazon about what action it will be taking to stop these fake reviews and deceptive endorsements.
Now it should be noted that FTC does not say anything about banning the use of rebates, but it seems like Amazon is taking this seriously and does not want to leave this matter unattended.
End of giveaways on amazon?
The short answer is NO. At this point, the Amazon marketplace is at a tipping point and it could go either way. I am saying this because only RebateKey has been blocked and other similar services have not been affected but this ban. It is looking that Amazon wants to keep the discount on its platform and not outside of amazon.
Will your account be suspended for using Rebatekey?
No, no seller account has been suspended because they were using RebateKey before the ban but if you are giving access after Rebatekey then your account might be blocked.
