Amazon has been accused of making a huge oversight of the rollout of HFSS regulations across its website, which left many brands unable to properly display products on search and category pages.
The restrictions are limiting the placement of HFSS products online, meaning they can no longer be promoted on website homepages or as recommended basket additions when on the final transaction page.
Online sellers are required to fill out a form and wait for the global ecommerce platform to approve.
However, several brands have reported they are unable to select the non-HFSS option, facing long delays to their product listings as a result.
In some cases, brands or independent suppliers not completing the form get rejected and consequently blocked from advertising on the website.
“The changes have been particularly challenging for our clients,” said Elise Jackson of Amazon agency and partner This Is Unicorn.
“There has been conflicting guidance on how the rules would affect Amazon advertising, and the change has been hugely impactful, especially in the run-up to the holiday season,” she added.
“I am assuming Amazon’s bots are trawling their database for keywords and making a blanket decision,” said Amazon growth expert and founder of startup marketing agency Zeal, Emma Bagley.
She continues: “The challenge for brands is proving to Amazon the product is unrelated to HFSS regulation.”
This sounds easy, but we know how challenging Amazon seller support is to deal with. This will take time and resilience, which a lot of smaller brands do not have. And in the meantime, this is costing the brand in terms of ranking and lost sales,” Bagley added.
It is understood Amazon is aware of the issues with the HFSS implementation on its website and is working to resolve the situation.
