Selling on Amazon is known to present quite a few challenges. But sometimes, tackling these challenges with limited knowledge can seriously prove fatal. You can lose the ratings, rankings, and credibility gained from months or even years of hard work.

To address these issues and analyze your inventory, Amazon has a nice way to handle your listings without further hurting your rankings. Indeed, you guessed it; we're talking about closing listings on Amazon .

In this article, we'll cover all the important information you need to successfully close your listing, and what happens when you close your listing on Amazon.

What does a closed listing mean on Amazon?

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

Since each product has a dedicated listing , sellers can close or delete listings as needed. Remember, when closing listings and deleting Amazon listings, when you close your Amazon listing directly, the products you select will automatically appear as "unavailable".

Once Amazon closes the listing, no customer can order the product. This inactive Amazon listing becomes a barrier to receiving new orders while keeping your business and inventory in place.

Once you close a listing on Amazon, that particular product will also be marked as "inactive" directly on your inventory page. The most important benefit of closing lists is guarantees. Your product information, sales history, and most importantly, stock keeping units (SKUs) are still available to you. Once you reactivate your listing, you don't need to go through the hassle of writing and listing new products.

People can pick up pretty much where they left off without hurting business and sales in any way. Turning off this feature of listings keeps all your valuable information, data, and product statistics safe, so you can handle any emergencies without losing your rankings.

How to close a listing on Amazon?

Now that you understand the whole phenomenon, let's learn how to turn off your listings without permanently deleting yours.

Step 1 . Log in to the Amazon Seller Central page and find the "Inventory" tab.

Step 2 . Click Manage Inventory to access a full list of products available on your storefront.

Step 3. Once you find the list of products you want, select the Action button. You can also choose to select multiple items at the same time.

Step 4 . You'll see the "Close Listing" option; click it carefully without selecting the "Remove Products and Listings" option. You have now successfully closed your list to plan a better future strategy.

How do I relist a closed listing on Amazon?

Relisting off Amazon is as easy as closing a listing.

step 1. Visit your Inventory Management page and look for the link that says "Inactive".

Step 2 . Carefully select the Actions tab located next to each item and click the Relist option.

Step 3 . Update the quantity and enter the sale date. When done, click Save and Finish. Your listing will be visible within 15-20 minutes, and soon you will start receiving orders as expected.

Why close your listing on Amazon?

There may be several reasons why choosing to close a listing is most beneficial to a seller.

Below, we explain the most important causes and signs. However, if your business points to any of these reasons for an extended period of time, then you should close the list and prepare a plan.

If your product keeps getting bad reviews

Bad reviews are one of the most prominent reasons why you should consider closing your Amazon listing. Many sellers start selling on Amazon hoping to become successful sellers.

But in the fierce competition for the top, they forget about the customer, and most importantly, the product. You can only make a profit if the products you sell are of quality . Sellers have to make sure the product is good; they also have to provide the proper packaging, customer service and warranty to live up to the promise. Any of these can lead to persistent bad reviews.

If people are giving you a low star rating for late shipping, you might want to close the listing on Amazon and pay due attention to what's causing the delay. Once you get over that, you can start listing right away and wait for the rave reviews.

supplier problem

Suppose your current manufacturers and suppliers suspend production indefinitely. In this case, you may want to keep options open if a new supplier of the same product decides to join your business.

Sometimes shipments are delayed due to international shipping; in such cases, you want to retain customers, so closing an item on Amazon is the next best idea when such supplier issues arise.

holiday/rest

Closing Amazon listings might be a good idea if you want to go on vacation or take a break. Closing listings is especially necessary if you are selling through FBM (i.e. fulfilled by a merchant).

You may lose a little business when you close your listing on Amazon, but at least your rankings will remain safe. Make sure to close listings 24 hours before the break, as Amazon usually takes a day to close listings completely. In our experience, Amazon will do it within a few hours, but keep it up to 24 hours. The reboot may take a few hours, but let's say 24 hours will give you a nice safety net.

Incorrect calculation of delivery time

Forgetting to consider the time required for packaging and production can easily lead to inventory delays and out-of-stocks.

Many sellers stock up on buffer stock just for this situation. If you've depleted your buffer stock very quickly, closing listings must be the solution until the stock is sufficiently consistent.

Not forecasting demand

Even well-stocked stocks can run out quickly if you don't predict a holiday or holiday that will lead to increased demand. Since every product has its trends and seasons, it is imperative for sellers to understand this and prepare in advance. If you sell fancy gadgets or cookware, you'll have to stock up on Christmas holidays.

The same goes for seasonal items like umbrellas and cardigans. Sellers have to be very smart about trends. If a celebrity mentions a product you sell, make sure you have it in stock because people will definitely want to buy the same product. Most sellers who can't predict these needs often need to close their listings for a few days before they can stock up.

Competition intensifies

You may encounter increasing competition, mainly if you sell in a specific niche. With so many sellers on the market, it is almost impossible to grab the attention of customers.

Without sales, you'll lose money as operating expenses pile up. To address this, sellers sometimes voluntarily close listings on Amazon to make better plans. They may post inventory during sales, festivals, or offers to consumers. When they list a product, it pops up everywhere as quickly as the seller never leaves.

trend

You may want to close the listing if you feel that the product is not doing well in the current market. Instead of selling all of their stock at low prices, some sellers are hoarding supply and closing listings until the right time. Once they see the window of opportunity, they relist the product and sell it at double the price.

If you have a sizable marketing budget, you can even manipulate trends and create demand for your products. Once this happens, you are free to sell your items at an exorbitant price profit. All this is only possible with the flexible functionality of closing lists.

Amazon Closing a Listing vs. Deleting an Amazon Listing: What's the Difference?

Many sellers are often confused between closing their listings vs. deleting their Amazon listings, and pressing the wrong button, which ends up ruining their ratings and rankings.

Closing a listing on Amazon: As mentioned above, closing a listing temporarily deactivates the listing. Therefore, no consumer can put your product in their cart or order. Best of all, you'll quickly restore all your data, stats, and history upon relisting.

Deleting a listing on Amazon: But compared to when the seller chooses to delete the listing, they actually remove the product from the Amazon catalog. They also eventually delete history, written content, comments, etc. When you are 100% sure you want to discontinue a specific product, you can choose to delete the listing.

Frequently Asked Questions

What does a closed listing mean on Amazon?

When you close your listing on Amazon, your product will no longer sell on Amazon, but you will keep your sales history. You can republish the product at any time.

What does it mean for an Amazon seller to close a listing?

You can close an item on Amazon at any time until the item is purchased. This action will not delete records from your inventory. The product's SKU and all product information will be preserved. Additionally, the list can be relisted (or reactivated) at any time.

in conclusion

We hope this article provides enough insight into this topic. Becoming an Amazon seller is difficult; even veterans with years of experience have faced issues so far. Fortunately, having such an impressive closed-to-list feature gives the freedom to balance inventory and keep the business running.

Rather than leaving your listings and orders unattended, we strongly recommend that you close your listings on Amazon. More cross-border information public account: cross-border video cici