What is Amazon Seller Account Health Rating?

Amazon Account Health Rating is the indicator that shows how healthy your seller account is and whether there’s a risk of its deactivation due to non-compliance with Amazon policies.

Its target is to help sellers stay in line with all policies and maintain accounts in good standing. With Account Health Rating, sellers can see the severity level for policy violations and how they affect their account status. They can also prioritize the most critical problems and address them.

Keep reading to find out what Amazon Account Health Rating is, how it is measured, and how to improve it.

What is the Account Health Rating?

Account Health Rating (AHR) is the metric showing sellers the overall state of their account health in an easy-to-understand way.

It indicates if your seller account is “Healthy,”  “At-Risk,” or “Unhealthy.” It is also expressed as a numerical value.

Amazon created the AHR to help sellers better monitor and manage their account health. To maintain a “Healthy” account rating, sellers must timely address all policy violations. This rating assists in understanding whether Amazon account health is at risk of deactivation because you failed to comply with Amazon policies.

If you have any policy violations, they will appear in your Amazon account health dashboard. To maintain a “Healthy” account, Amazon expects sellers to avoid policy violations. However, if such violations happen, sellers must react to all violations asap, prioritizing the most severe ones. Typically, Amazon will guide you on correcting the violation for each product in your account health dashboard.

How Is Account Health Rating Measured?

AHR measures your account in statuses, colors, and numbers. The account is assigned one of the three statuses. Each status receives a color and score.

Your account status can be either “Healthy,” “At-Risk,” or “Unhealthy.” If your Amazon seller account health rating is “Healthy, ” that means your account is not at risk of deactivation. If AHR indicates the account is “At-Risk” or “Unhealthy,” it may be deactivated.

AHR rates your account health in three colors—green for “Healthy,” orange for “At-Risk,” and red for “Unhealthy.”

It is also assigned a numerical score that ranges from 0 to 1,000. A score reflects AHR concerning policy compliance and selling activities over the last 180 days. All new sellers initially receive a score of 200 points.

AHR statuses, colors, and scores

• if your AHR is “Healthy” (green), you have a score of 200—1,000 points;
• if your AHR is “At Risk” (yellow), you have a score of 100—199 points;
• if your AHR is “Unhealthy” (red), you have a score of 99 or lower, and your account is either eligible for deactivation or already deactivated.

If Amazon detects policy violations on your account, you’ll lose points. If you successfully correct them, you’ll gain points.

The AHR is updated in real-time and lets you know whether your account is in danger of deactivation.

Note. No matter how high is your AHR score, Amazon may deactivate your account immediately if they suspect fraudulent or illegal activity.

Which Policy Violations Does the AHR Include?

Policies included in Account Health Rating are anti-counterfeiting policy, brand name policy, intellectual property policy, marketplace fair pricing policy, and more. If you violate any of these policies, Amazon will notify you in the account health dashboard.

Anti-counterfeiting policy

You must sell only authentic products. The sale of counterfeit products is strictly prohibited. It is the seller’s responsibility to ensure the product’s authenticity. Prohibited products are bootlegs, fakes, or pirated copies. They also include illegally replicated, reproduced, or manufactured items. Violating the anti-counterfeiting policy may result in the loss of selling privileges or other legal consequences.

Brand name policy

The Brand name policy is about using the brand attribute on your products. The brand attribute on a listing should match the name of the brand that produced the product.

Products from a brand are distinguished from similar products that do not belong to that brand. All brands new to the Amazon marketplace must be approved before listing products. If you sell a non-branded product, list it as “Generic.”

Intellectual property policy

Sellers must observe intellectual property (IP) rights. They must comply with all applicable federal, state, and local laws and Amazon policies. You are not allowed to breach the IP rights of brand owners. Violating IP rights may result in the loss of selling privileges or other legal consequences.

Tip: Seller Assistant App’s IP Alert functionality indicates if a product has IP claims. It shows a red triangle icon on the Amazon search or product pages.

Marketplace fair pricing policy

Amazon expects sellers to set competitive prices. If they see that the price is too high, they can remove the Buy Box or remove the offer.

ASIN creation policy

To sell an item available in the Amazon catalog, sellers must match it to the existing ASIN. If a product does not exist in the Amazon catalog, you must create a new ASIN for it. If an item is a variation (differs by size, color, etc.), it should be created per the variation policy. Creating a new ASIN when the product already exists in Amazon's catalog is prohibited.

Communication guidelines

Sellers can communicate with Amazon buyers both directly and indirectly. Amazon requires that sellers follow a communication policy to protect shoppers from fraud and defend merchants from competitors’ abuse. To communicate with the shoppers, Amazon encourages sellers to use the Buyer-seller messaging system.

Customer product reviews policies

Amazon attaches great importance to customer reviews and protects their authenticity. Amazon doesn’t allow sellers to review their own items or competitor products. You can’t manipulate reviews, ask buyers to make, change, or remove a review, or incentivize them to leave positive reviews with refunds and discounts. If Amazon suspects that you manipulate reviews, they will remove the reviews and remove the listing. They may suspend or ban your account as well.

Product condition guidelines

Sellers are required to assign the correct condition to each product they list on Amazon—“New,” “Used,” “Refurbished,” etc. If a customer complains that purchased products are listed as “New” but have signs of wear, are damaged, or have other signs of being used, Amazon will remove the listing and consider it a product condition guidelines violation. That may affect your AHR.

Product detail page rules

These rules include policies for writing listings, adding detail pages, and editing detail pages. You must comply with Amazon style guides, exclude obscene or offensive content and advertising, and accurately categorize products. Creating duplicate pages or non-compliant variations for a product is also considered a product detail page rules violation and affects your AHR.

Product guidelines for adult products

Sellers listing adult products on Amazon must comply with all laws and Amazon policies applicable to those products. You can sell sexually suggestive products if they do not exploit minors, promote non-consensual sex acts, or violate laws. Trading such products also involve specific packaging rules.

Tip: Seller Assistant App indicates if a product belongs to the Adult category. It shows an 18+ icon on the Amazon product pages.

Product guidelines for selling software

On Amazon, you can only sell full retail versions of software. Duplicated or copied software and digital downloads are not allowed for sale.

Restricted products policy

Restricted products are those that Amazon requires you to receive approval to list. You need to apply for permission to sell them. Amazon has lists of restricted categories and brands. You can find them in your Seller Central. If you sell a restricted product, this is considered a violation and affects your AHR.

Tip: Seller Assistant App’s Restricted checker functionality indicates if a product is restricted. It shows a closed red lock icon on the Amazon search or product pages if a product is restricted.

Selling policies and seller code of conduct

All sellers must adhere to Amazon's seller code of conduct. That means acting fairly and honestly, providing accurate information, and following feedback, customer communication, pricing, and other Amazon guidelines. If you breach the code of conduct, this is considered a violation and affects your AHR.

How to Prioritize Policy Violations?

Amazon distinguishes between four levels of AHR policy violation severities. They are critical, high, medium, and low.

Critical. These violations have serious consequences for customers or violate laws. One such violation qualifies your account for deactivation.

High. Amazon treats these violations seriously and may deactivate the affected listing or your account.

Medium. These violations affect your account health if they occur repeatedly.

Low. These violations are treated as mistakes that happen in the course of doing business and should be corrected. They have a low impact on AHR.

What to Do if Seller Account Is deactivated Due to the AHR?

If Amazon found out a critical violation on your account, they will notify you in the account health dashboard and by email.

Your AHR will become red, and your score will drop to zero. You will have 3 days to address the violation. After that, Amazon will deactivate your account.

Within 3 days, an Account Health specialist will contact you to help resolve the problem. If you successfully correct the violation within the 3 days, your account will not be deactivated, and your AHR score will be updated.

Your account will be reinstated once your AHR score becomes 100 points or higher.

Tip: If your account was suspended by Amazon, there is a solution to it. Solver can help you with Amazon suspension appeals. Solver deals with any kind of suspension: from “defective items” to “related accounts”, from dropshipping violations to intellectual property infringements. Every case is taken with an individual approach to get you back to selling as soon as possible.

How to Improve AHR?

To increase AHR, you must successfully fulfill orders. You can also grow AHR by correcting outstanding policy violations. You may either file an appeal or dispute a violation if you think it was issued in error. In the case of a successful appeal or dispute, Amazon will reverse the policy violation and its impact on your account health.

Final Thoughts

Maintaining good Amazon seller central account health is vital for selling on the marketplace. If you violate any Amazon policies, they may deactivate your account. Account Health Rating allows you to see all Amazon policy violations, estimate their severity, and address them before Amazon deactivates your account.

However, it’s much better to proactively avoid Amazon policy violations affecting your AHR. A good solution is to use Amazon seller tools to keep your account in good standing.

Seller Assistant App helps you immediately see if a product has any sales restrictions or has led to problems with account health in the past. It combines an FBM&FBA profit calculator, Quick View, Stock Checker, and Restrictions Checker in one tool.

Try Seller Assistant Аpp now. Register for our 14-day trial. Grow your Amazon business with confidence.