Sales Channels : Rules and Suspensions

Inventory Source is not a party to any third-party agreements our customers have with suppliers and sales channels (see our Terms of Service here, specifically 3.2)

While we do not give general business or marketing advice and act primarily as a data connector between our customers and their suppliers and sales channels, we do have a few recommendations to minimize the chances of our customers becoming suspended (or banned) from Amazon, Walmart, eBay, Shopify, and other sales channels.

1. Start slowly: Don't add too many products (or integrations) until you are fully comfortable and know what you are doing. You can easily list hundreds or thousands of items from your Store Catalog to your sales channel. While we make it as easy to list the full catalog, we recommend using the filter options in your account to only list a small amount of products when first getting started. This will give you the chance to assess your initial order volume, get more familiar with the order process and shipping details of your supplier. It will also give you more time to get familiar with managing sales from your sales channel account and allow you the opportunity to reach out to your initial group of customers. See also our guides on:

2. Know the Rules: Step one of being successful on a sales channel is knowing the rules of the platform for which you are trying to sell on. Make sure you have fully read and understand all the rules necessary to list and sell items on each platform straight from the platform itself. Inventory Source is not a party to those rules, nor is responsible to know the rules. If you use Inventory Source to push products that a platform does not allow (or does not allow for you), only you will be subject to a sales channel's penalties, up to and including suspension from that platform. Additionally, Inventory Source does not refund customers for being suspended or banned from platforms. So it's important to be aware of the rules of your sales platform.

A few helpful links:

3. Get involved with your Sales Channel's community: Once you know the rules, you can be sure they will change over time. Each sales channel has online communities where sellers can discuss rules and selling strategies. If a sales channel doesn't host their own forums, or if you want information not found in there, you can also look for information on third-party sites like Reddit.

What happens if your Amazon account is suspended?

Read our 2021 blog post entitled How to Get your Amazon Suspension Lifted. Although it's specific to Amazon, some of the basic guidelines there apply to other sales channels.