Amazon is gating and restricting more brands and categories.
Amazon sellers need to be aware of which categories they can sell in, and also which brands to avoid. Selling gated or restricted products on Amazon can result in your Seller Account being suspended.
There are three different types of gating and restrictions on Amazon. There are Amazon gated categories, gated brands, and restricted products.
So, let’s take a look at the current Amazon gated categories, restricted products, how to know which brands to avoid, and the tools you can use to get ungated.
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β IP RADAR: Checks for the likelihood of a product causing an Intellectual Property violation on your Amazon account.
β ELIGIBILITY CHECKER: Tells you if YOU can sell the product on your account at a glance!
β AUTO-UNGATING: Want to get ungated? BuyBotPro will apply for auto-ungatings for you and display the result in just SECONDS!
β PRIVATE LABEL ALERT: These are often the highest risk brands and you can be alerted to the ones to avoid.
What Are Amazon Gated Categories?
With certain ‘gated’ categories, you need permission from Amazon to list your products. These include Jewelry, Dietary Supplements, Grocery, and Watches. Some categories are easier than others to get approval from Amazon.
To get approval to sell in Amazon gated categories may require invoices from authorized wholesalers demonstrating the purchase of a minimum number of units.
Some categories can be ‘auto-ungated’, meaning no extra documents are required, and you can sell instantly. This will depend on how old your Amazon seller account is and which categories you are already approved for.
So let’s see what is gated and ungated on Amazonβ¦
Amazon Gated Categories List 2023
Here is the list of the current restricted Amazon categories for the USA:
- Collectible Coins
- Personal Safety and Household products
- Fine Art
- Holiday Selling Requirements in Toys & Games
- Jewelry
- Join Amazon Subscription Boxes
- Made in Italy
- Music & DVD
- Requirements for selling Automotive & Powersports products
- Services
- Sports Collectibles
- Streaming Media Players
- Video, DVD, & Blu-ray
- Watches
PRO TIP: There are companies that can assist you with getting Amazon categories ungated, such as BuyBotPro.
Amazon Gated Brands
Larger brands are increasingly getting their products ‘Gated‘ to protect against counterfeits and devaluing of their brand. To get these products ungated, it is a similar process to category ungating.
“…provide invoices…or have written permission.”
You will need to either provide invoices showing the purchase of a minimum number of units or have written permission to sell from the brand owner.
Getting written permission, or any reply at all, from the larger brands like Nike or Apple, is virtually impossible.
Some brands are only gated in certain countries, for example, you may be able to sell in the UK but not in Italy.
With some brands, you may only be restricted from selling specific products. For example, with Canon, you may be able to sell their printers but not their cameras.
Here is an example of the requirements to get approval for gated products on Amazon:
Submit the required documents
3 different purchase invoices for ‘product X’ products from a manufacturer or distributor
Make sure your invoices:
β’ Are dated on or after 24-Jan-2023 (within 180 days)
β’ Include your name and address
β’ Include the name and address of the manufacturer or distributor
β’ Show the purchase of at least 30 units across all invoices
β’ Show the purchase of at least five different products of ‘product X’ across all invoices
β’ Hide pricing information (optional)
PRO TIP: To check if a product or category is gated, use the Amazon Seller App, or try to ‘Add Product’ in your Seller Central Account.
Amazon Restricted and High-Risk Brands
This is where Amazon sellers often get caught out and can suddenly find their account permanently suspended.
There are products on Amazon that are not restricted, but the brand owners may still take legal action to stop people from selling them.
In these cases, Amazon will allow you to list the product, but listing could still result in you receiving an email from Amazon saying you have been suspended due to Intellectual Copyright Infringement.
Some smaller or private label Amazon sellers may not yet have the relationship with Amazon to get your account suspended. Instead, they will email you directly to ask you to remove the products and threaten you with legal action if you do not comply.
You can normally ignore these emails, but we recommend you stop selling the brand immediately. Even if they cannot get you suspended, they still have the option of taking direct legal action.
If they contact you, these brand owners have shown they are willing to actively protect their brand on Amazon, so it is better to switch your focus to lower-risk products.
Once your account is suspended, it can be extremely difficult and expensive to get reinstated.
If you are a new seller with no track record, Amazon might suspend you permanently. It is virtually impossible to set up another account so you are effectively killing off any future Amazon business.
How to Identify Restricted and High-Risk Brands
We have tried to include all the brands we are aware of on our Restricted Brands List. On the Restricted Brands List page, you can get the full list of over 700 restricted brands emailed to you in a spreadsheet.
When searching for products to sell on Amazon, it is helpful to be armed with the basic strategies for identifying high-risk brands. You can then make an informed decision on whether the product is likely to get your seller account shut down.
Here is a list of the best ways to spot the brands you should avoid selling on Amazon:
β There are some categories that carry a higher risk than others. For example, Sports, Outdoors, Baby, Jewellery, Watches, Grocery, and Health & Beauty mostly contain products you cannot safely buy and resell without permission.
β You also need to look out for Private Label sellers who will want to protect their brand and listings. You can normally spot private label products because there is usually only one seller on the listing. If it’s a brand you have never heard of, which is not commonly found in retail stores, then this is another sign it is a Private Label product.
β Amazon sellers can have multiple private label brands under their company name. If you look at the seller’s store, you can normally see that they are listing one or more brands and are normally the only seller on all the listings. This is a clear warning sign and these products are best avoided.
Increasingly, Chinese manufacturers are selling their own branded products directly on Amazon. If the seller is a Chinese-based manufacturer, this is also likely to be a product you need to avoid.
β When looking at the Amazon listing, watch out for the Copyright or TM symbols in the title.
Another warning sign is if there is a popular product with just a few sellers who are all established registered companies. The brand has probably taken action to clear all the smaller unauthorized sellers from the listing.
What Can I Sell on Amazon Without Approval?
New sellers understandably want to get up and running as quickly as possible, but get deterred as so many good products they find seem to be gated. π
Donβt worry, there are still plenty of categories you can start selling in where healthy profits can be made. The biggest and most popular categories like toys, groceries, home and kitchen, beauty, and books are not gated for most new sellers. However, you may still find some specific products within these categories are restricted. This will be because the brand owners have gated their brand and you will usually need to buy 10 or more products from an authorized wholesaler or get a letter of permission from the brand owner.
With the millions of products that you can sell in popular categories, we would strongly recommend new sellers focus on these rather than waste time ungating or creating new listings.
Tools to Protect Your Amazon Seller Account from Suspension
We recommend BuyBotPro to help protect your account from Amazon intellectual property violations and suspensions. BuyBotPro can also help you get automatically approved in Amazon restricted categories as well as being awesome for arbitrage sourcing.
β IP RADAR: Checks for the likelihood of a product causing an Intellectual Property violation on your Amazon account.
β ELIGIBILITY CHECKER: Tells you if YOU can sell the product on your account at a glance!
β AUTO-UNGATING: Want to get ungated? BuyBotPro will apply for auto-ungatings for you and display the result in just SECONDS!
β PRIVATE LABEL ALERT: These are often the highest risk brands and you can be alerted to the ones to avoid.
GetUnSuspendedΒ have an incredibleΒ 99.6% Amazon account recovery rateΒ since being established in 2017. They also offer an account monitoring service calledΒ Suspension Protect, to make sure you avoid any future account problems.
GetUnsuspended cover all Amazon marketplaces, including the US and UK. They offer an affordable service, so if you have been suspended or want to protect your Amazon seller account, we recommend you take a look at what they can offer.
They also offer a 100% money-back guarantee β if they donβt get your account back, you donβt pay!
Gated Amazon Categories Summary
As you can see, there are a lot of potential dangers and roadblocks when selling on Amazon. However, if you take your time, and carefully check products before listing them, you can normally avoid any problems. So, what’s the next step?
If you wanted to get approval in gated Amazon categories, read our guide: How to Get Ungated on Amazon in 2023: Step-By-Step Guide.
If you want to know which brands you should avoid selling on Amazon, you can find the complete list here: Current List of Amazon Gated & Restricted Brands.
If there are any brands you think should be on the list, please get in touch and let us know immediately so they can be added: Click here to contact us.
I hope you found our guide to Amazon restricted categories and gated products helpful. If you have any questions or advice, please let people know in the comments below.
You are also welcome to join our Amazon Selling Facebook Group, where we discuss similar issues:
Amazon Selling for Beginners & Pros β for people just starting their Amazon FBA journey, and pro sellers. π€·ββοΈπ
If you want to be kept informed of Amazon restricted products, then please sign up to our mailing list for updates and other free advice and information.
Useful Resources
How to Get Ungated on Amazon in 2023: Step-By-Step Guide
Current list of Amazon Gated and Restricted Brands
Good luck and Happy Selling!
James π
Restricted Amazon Categories FAQs
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James is an ecommerce entrepreneur with over 15 years of experience selling online. He has a wealth of knowledge in selling on Amazon FBA, eBay, and building ecommerce websites.
Despite running a successful business, James has decided to share his expertise with others by offering guidance through his website, βThe Selling Guys,β "The Selling Guys Facebook Page," and his βAmazon Selling for Beginnersβ Facebook Group.
James now has three children, two dogs, and a cat. π¨
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What do you do to prevent Amazon buyers making false claims and refusing to return your items despite you have presented your case?
So what can we sell I see most categories restricted in UK,please advice
I wish I had read this before getting suspended! hope to get reinstated and will stick to this.
It is getting harder to avoid suspension with Amazon. Good luck on getting reinstated.