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Amazon Close Listing and What It Means

What Does Close Listing Mean On Amazon

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It is no secret that selling on Amazon comes with its fair share of challenges.

But sometimes, tackling these challenges with limited knowledge can seriously prove to be fatal. You can lose the ratings, rank, and credibility that you’ve earned from months, if not years’ worth of hard work.

To tackle these problems and analyze your stock, Amazon has a decent way that lets you handle your listing without further damaging your rank.

Indeed, you guessed it right; we are talking about Amazon’s close listing. In this piece, we will touch through all the vital information needed to close your listing successfully.

What does a close listing do?

difference between close and delete listing

Closing an Amazon listing means removing your product listing from the Amazon storefront temporarily.

Since each product has a dedicated listing, a seller can either close or delete the listing according to their needs. When you directly close your Amazon listing, the product you chose will automatically display as “Not Available.”

No customer can order the product once Amazon shuts the listing. This close listing acts as a barrier to receiving new orders while getting your business and inventory in place. 

As soon as you close a listing, that particular product would directly get tagged as ‘inactive’ on your inventory page too.

The most crucial benefit of closing the list is the surety. Your product information, sales history, and the most vital stock-keeping unit (SKU) would still be available to you. As soon as you reactivate your listing, you need not go through the hassle of writing and listing a new product.

One can almost start from where they have left off without damaging the business and sales in any way.

This feature of close listing keeps all your valuable information, data, and product statistics safe, so you can process any urgent emergency without losing your rank. 

Why would you want to close the listing?

There can be several reasons why choosing to close a listing is the most beneficial for a seller.

Below, we have explained the most important causes and signs.

However, if your business is pointing towards any one of these reasons for quite some time, it’s high time you close the listing and prepare a plan.

If your product is constantly receiving bad reviews

bad reviews on products

Bad reviews are one of the most prominent reasons why you should consider closing the listing. Many sellers start selling on Amazon with the hope of becoming successful sellers.

But in the rat race to achieve high ranking, they forget about their customers and, most importantly, the product. You can only earn profits if the product you sell has quality.

A seller has to ensure that the product is good; they also have to provide suitable packaging, customer service, and warranty to match the promise. Any of these can result in constant bad reviews.

If people give you low-star ratings because of late shipping, you might want to close the listing and pay proper attention to the things that are causing the delay. Once you overcome the issue, you can instantly start the listing and wait for the good reviews to flood in.

Supplier issues

Suppose your current manufacturer and supplier suspends the production indefinitely. In such cases, you would want to keep your options open if a new supplier of the same product decides to join your business.

Sometimes, the shipments are delayed because they are shipped internationally; during such times, you want to hold on to customers, so closing the listing is the next best idea during such supplier issues.

Vacation/Break

going on vacation

If you wish to go on a vacation or break, closing the listing can be a good idea. Closing the listing is especially necessary if you sell via FBM, i.e., Fulfilled By Merchant.

You might lose a little business, but at least your ranking would stay safe. Ensure to close the listing 24 hours before your break, as Amazon typically takes one day to close the listing altogether.

In our experience, Amazon does it in a few hours but keeps the maximum of 24 hours aside. It might take a few hours to restart, but assuming 24 hours will give you a decent safety net.

Miscalculating Lead Time 

Forgetting to factor in the time required for packaging and production could easily lead to inventory delays and stockouts.

Many sellers stock up buffer stocks just for situations like this. If you are already running through the buffer stocks very quickly, closing the listing has to be the solution until there is adequate stock consistency.

Not Forecasting The Demand

Even a well-stocked inventory can quickly deplete if you haven’t forecasted an increase in demand because of a festive season or holidays.

Since each product has its trends and seasons, it is essential that a seller understands this and stays prepared in advance. If you sell fancy gadgets or cookware, it becomes imperative to stock a lot during the Christmas holidays.

The same applies to seasonal products like umbrellas, cardigans, etc. A seller has to be extremely smart about picking up the trends. If a celebrity mentions a product you sell, ensure that you are stocked up as people would surely want to buy the same product.

Most sellers who cannot forecast these demands usually need to close their listing for several days to stock up.

Increasing Competition

Increasing Competition

You might encounter increasing competition, primarily if you sell in specific niches. With lots of sellers on the marketplace, it becomes nearly impossible to grab customer’s attention.

With no sales, you are losing money as the operational charges get piled up. To tackle this, sellers sometimes voluntarily close the listing to plan out a better plan.

They might release the stock on sales, festivals or shower the consumers with offers. When they re-list the product, it will swiftly appear everywhere as though the seller never left.

Trends

You might want to close a listing if you feel the product isn’t going to do well in the current market.

Instead of selling all the stock at low prices, some sellers hoard the supply and close the listing till an appropriate time comes. As soon as they see an opportunity window, they re-list the product and sell at a double price.

If you have a considerable marketing budget, you can even manipulate trends and create a demand for your product. Once that happens, you are free to sell your item by exorbitant price margins. All this could only be possible with the flexible feature of closing the listings. 

What exactly is the difference between closing and deleting a listing?

Many sellers often get confused and press the wrong button, which eventually ruins their ratings and ranks. 

As mentioned above, closing a listing deactivates the listing temporarily. As a result, no consumer can put your product in their cart or order. On top of that, you will quickly recover all your data, statistics, and history after re-listing. 

But compared to when a seller chooses to delete a listing, they practically remove that product from their Amazon catalog. They also end up deleting the history, written content, reviews, etc.

You can opt for deleting a listing when you become 100% sure about discontinuing a particular product.

How to close the listing?

guide how to close listing

Now that you understand the entire phenomenon, let’s learn how to close the listing without permanently deleting your listing.

Step 1: Log in to Amazon’s Seller Central page and find the “Inventory” tab.

Step 2: Click on ‘Manage Inventory’ to access the complete list of active products on your storefront.

Step 3: Once you find the listing of your desired product, select the ‘Actions’ button. You can also opt for selecting multiple items at the same time.

Step 4: You will spot an option of ‘Close Listing’; carefully click the option without selecting the ‘Delete Product And Listing’ option. You have now successfully closed your listing to plan a better future strategy.

How to re-list a closed listing?

Re-listing is just as easy as closing the listing.

Step 1: Visit your Inventory management page and look for the link that says “Inactive’.

Step 2: Carefully select the ‘Actions’ tab, which is located next to each item, and click the ‘Relist’ option.

Step 3: Update the quantity and put the selling date. Once you are finished, click “Save and Finish.” Your listing will become visible within 15-20 minutes, and soon you will start getting the orders as intended.

A tip before wrapping up

Amazon tends to give the seller a negative mark if they run out of stock. If you notice your supply depleting, you should consider closing your listing before it runs out.

Closing the listing will indicate that you have voluntarily paused the selling and have not run out of stock.

Doing so would save you a lot of trouble after your product goes live. You will surely stay safe, as Amazon won’t penalize you.

Conclusion

We hope this write-up provided sufficient insight on the topic.

Becoming an Amazon seller is difficult; even veterans with experience of many years face issues to date. Luckily, having such an impressive feature of closing the listing gives the freedom to balance the inventory and keep the business afloat.

We highly recommend closing your listings rather than keeping your listings and orders unattended.

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