Next to the seller’s avatar, on the top right corner of the page, there is a magnifying glass. Clicking it expands a banner, where sellers can enter full questions, words or sentences. The forum will return a list of results. These results are sorted by “Relevance” , but sellers can filter them by: “Latest Post”, “Most Liked”, “Most Viewed”, and “Latest Topic” . Additionally, a menu on the right of the page allows for an “Advanced Search” function, where sellers can further filter by “author”, “category”, “interactions”, “date” and more.

Seller can use the “Search” function in the uppermost banner in Seller Central to navigate through Amazon’s Help Articles and the Forums. When a question or words is typed on the search bar, Amazon will open a pop-up window to the right of the screen that will list Amazon’s Articles, and forum entries that cover the same topic. The option of seeing the “Forum Answers ” can be disable by a sliding tab. If enabled, the threads will be listed after the official Amazon Articles. The search result looks something like this (for the sake of the exercise I searched for “Variations” )

image.png 425×670 98.1 KB

Please note that Forum Threads are included under “More Results”, have a Dialogue Box in-front of the name of the thread, and also indicated in the bottom that they are a link to the Forums.

This is a very intuitive way to search for information on the internet. Whenever I use this function, I usually type: “ Amazon seller ” and then the question. That way the searches are narrowed to Amazon, and don’t give results that apply for other platforms. For instance, if you Google “ how to make a variation ” but do not indicate that you’re selling on Amazon, google may filter many results that are not pertinent. Additionally, by indicating “ Amazon Seller ” to start the query, most of the results are filtered showing first Amazon’s links, then the forums, and then the gurus of other platforms (who might have perfectly accurate information but are not an official source).

One of the advantages of Google Searches is that it allows to look in the forums of other marketplaces. I have been able to find many answers to problems in the Europeans and Indian forums.

I Imagine you can also use Bing or Yahoo! for the purpose of the search. I haven’t.

All users can “bookmark” posts or threads by clicking the three dots next to the like symbol. To bookmark a post, simply click the symbol to the right (that looks like a bookmark). Bookmarks are saved to the user-profile and are available to review later by simply clicking the bookmark link in the “ summary tab ” of the seller’s profile or the “ bookmark ” sign that can be reached by pressing on your avatar in the top-right corner of the screen. More details on bookmarks in the next two sections of this thread.

A seller can check their profile to check for their interactions with an existing Topic or Thread.

When sellers click on their Avatar (upper right corner) a drop-down menu expands showing the Seller’s username and the recent responses received from other members of the Forum. If the Seller clicks on their username, a profile-page will open showing 6 different tabs:

• Summary: It starts by showing the participation-stats of the seller. Those aren’t important, for the purpose of this thread, but there are four links under “ Stats ” that can be used when searching for Topics and Posts . “ Topics Created ” refers to the threads opened by the seller. “ Post Created ” refers to the answers added by the seller. “ Solutions ” are the post the creator of a thread deemed as the right answer to their question (There are two things that I have always found curious about solutions: 1) the number of sellers that self-award themselves with solutions to their threads… like an “ auto-like ”. 2) The number of threads from Sellers complaining about not receiving Seller-Feedback on Amazon vs the number of Posts that get awarded a “ Solution… ” Ironic). “ Bookmarks ” Bookmarked Topics and Posts.
  Scrolling down the Summary tab, sellers can also see their 6 “ Most liked post ”, “ Most liked threads ” and “More Shared Links” .
• Activity: the activity tab expands on the “ Stats ” from the “ Summary ” tab. By scrolling through the menu on the left of the page, the seller can see “ All ” (every post and thread they have created). “ Topics ” (threads they have created). “ Replies ” (posts they have created). “ Drafts ” (posts and topics that haven’t been posted). “ Likes Given ” (all the posts a seller has liked). “ Bookmarks ” (all the topics and posts a seller has bookmarked) “ Solved ” (the solutions a seller has been awarded). “ Download all ” (starts the download of all the threads and post created by the seller. When the file is created, the seller receives a message with a link for the download).
• Notifications: similar to the Activity tab , there’s a Menu to the left that allows the seller to see “ All ” (every interaction from another seller), “ Responses ” (direct answers to Topics and Posts created by the seller), “ Likes received ” (who has liked their Topics and Posts), “ Mentions ” (when they have been “@” by another seller), and “ Edits” (Topics and Threads that the moderators have edited to fit the community guidelines)
• Messages: not useful to find threads. But indicates received, sent, and archived messages.
• Badges: completely useless unless Amazon accepts my suggestion of “badges” for flagged posts. Badges can help search for popular threads or posts, but the vast majority of the threads or posts that accumulate many likes are popular either because they are funny or because they express a sentiment. Only a fraction become popular for having useful information, searching through “ badges ” is not the most efficient way to find Topics and Posts .
• Preferences: does not help to search for existing Topics and Posts but allows the seller to personalize their profile and forum account.

This is the least efficient way to search for Topics and Posts , and it can lead to abuse or harassment from one seller to another. I’m only adding it to the thread because I consider that it’s best for the information to be clear than accidentally stumbled.

Some sellers keep their profile private, while others have it public . In this context “ private” and “ public” refers to the possibility of checking the threads and posts with which another seller has contributed to the forum; not to whether the seller has a picture on their profile or not. Only active members of the forum can expand the profile of another seller.

A seller can search for a Topic or Post by accessing the profile of another seller. If a seller “A” clicks on the avatar of seller “B”, a pop-up window will appear, expanding the basic info of the seller “B”. If seller “A” clicks on the username of seller “B”, they will reach seller “B”’s profile page. A public profile page will show three main tabs” “Summary”, Activity” and “Badges” . A private profile will simply indicate that the info is private and can’t be seen by other sellers.

Seller “A” can see a lot of information on the profile of Seller “B”. Bookmarks are not public, but other than that, Topics, Posts and Solutions are. There is also a reduced version of the “ Activity ” tab that shows the “ Topics ”, “ Replies ”, “ Likes Given ” and “ Solutions ” of Seller “B”.

I keep an open Thread with (most of) the Topics and Threads that I bookmark: What threads have you bookmarked?
(I’ve opened a few Threads lately, and I think that this index of bookmarks may be my best contribution to the forums. I’m thankful to anybody who has other threads and topics bookmarked and wants to add them to the list, as I think it has potential to be a useful tool for both new and experienced sellers)

Lastly. Any seller “A” that checks the profile of any seller “B” is expected to respect the information and opinions of seller “B”. Having the opportunity to search through the contributions of another seller can be a good tool if used correctly, but it’s not the most efficient way to look for a topic.