Buyer-Seller Messages FAQ
This article applies to selling in: United States

Buyer-Seller Messages FAQ

The Buyer-Seller Messages page facilitates communication between buyers and sellers in the Amazon store. It allows buyers and sellers to communicate with each other in ways that help protect the privacy of both parties, including assigning a unique, anonymized email alias to each buyer. Buyers receive assigned a unique email alias for each seller relationship. This anonymized email alias remains the same for all future contact with the same buyer.

Contact Buyer page

Why did you change the Contact Buyer experience?

You can now use templates that have Amazon-supplied content so that you do not have to enter repetitive content. These templates bring consistency to the style and tone of messages buyers receive. Additionally, the text provided by Amazon will be automatically translated into the default language of your buyer's store.

Why are some contact reasons unavailable?

On the Contact Buyer page, contact reasons are available for you based on the order fulfillment type, status and specific product categories. For example, if the order has not been completed yet, you'll see the option to contact the buyer to report an unexpected problem, but you won't yet have the option to contact the buyer regarding a return.

Message delivery

Why did I receive a notification from Amazon that my message could not be delivered?

A buyer can opt out of receiving unsolicited messages from all sellers. This means that your email will be blocked, and you will receive a bounce back email with instructions for contacting the buyer. This opt-out does not apply if the buyer messages you first, as long as you reply on the same message thread. If your response is blocked, try responding to the buyer's original message.

Note: If you do not want to receive a bounce back message when a buyer opts out of seller communications, see the "How do I block the bounce back message?" section below.

Can buyers opt out of messages from sellers?

Yes, Amazon allows buyers to opt out of receiving unsolicited messages from sellers. However, buyers cannot opt out of responses from you when the initiate contact with you or when you use one of the critical proactive message templates.

How do I send messages that are critical to completing the order if my message was blocked?

Amazon does not block messages if they are necessary for completing an order. If your message was blocked, it is either because the buyer opted out of non-critical messages from sellers, or Amazon treats the selected contact reason as one that is not critical for completing the order.

What kind of messages are critical to completing an order?

The following messages are considered critical to complete a buyer's order:

  • Product customization questions
  • Delivery scheduling
  • Issues with a shipping address.

The following messages are not critical to complete an order:

  • Requests for seller feedback or buyer reviews
  • Order, shipment, delivery, or refund confirmations. Amazon already sends these emails
  • Proactive customer service, for example: product manuals, tips for using the product, answers to frequently asked questions, suggestions if something goes wrong
  • Out-of-stock or delay notifications, or offers of alternative products (cancel the order instead).

How do I block the bounce back message?

You can choose to stop receiving a bounce back message when buyers opt out of seller communications.

  1. Click Settings > Notification Preferences .
  2. Next to Messaging, click Edit.
  3. Clear the Buyer Opt-out check box, and then click Save.
Warning: If you block the bounce back message, you will not be able to confirm whether a message to a buyer was blocked or delivered.

Managing messages

How do I find messages that I have not responded to?

By default, you will see messages requiring a response when you first navigate to the Buyer-Seller Messages page. You can change the filter by clicking on the Response Needed dropdown and selecting a different option.

I have an email message from a buyer that does not need a reply. How can I stop it from counting toward my response-time calculation?

To mark a message that does not require a response, click No Response Needed below the message on the Buyer-Seller Messages page. You can also click the Mark as no response needed link in the email you received. Either of these actions will exclude the message from response time calculations.

Can I continue to use my existing email client to manage my communication with the buyers?

Yes. You do not need to sign in to your Seller Central account to reply to buyer messages.

Note: If you send an email to a buyer from any address other than your account's registered Messaging permissions email addresses, it will be rejected. You can resend these messages after you add and approve the email address you want to use.

Is there a limit to the number of messages I can send each day?

Yes. We use the following formula to set the maximum number of daily messages you may send: 5 times your average daily order volume, plus an additional 600 messages.

It is not necessary for you to send separate shipment notifications or tracking numbers using Buyer-Seller Messaging since Amazon sends those on your behalf when you confirm a shipment from the Manage Orders page.

What are cases?

Cases are a group of messages that are centered around a specific customer service event (for example, asking for a refund). All messages pertaining to that event are held within the case and any order context associated. Once a case is closed, communication around it ceases. If necessary, a buyer or seller can open a new case for customer service issues that are not resolved.

Cases have three states:

  • Opened
  • Resolved
  • Closed

A case is resolved when a seller believes that the matter is resolved but is awaiting customer feedback. Once a case is closed there can no longer be communication on it.

Emails can still be used to send messages related to a case, but changing a case status needs to be completed in the Seller Central inbox. Cases without recent activity from the buyer or seller will be marked as closed automatically.

Note: If you send an email on a closed case to a buyer, it will be rejected. If communication is still required, you have to begin a new case with a proactive message.

How does a buyer report a case as unresolved?

Your each response message has an associated buyer survey question asking “Did this [response] solve your problem?” to which the buyer can respond with either Yes or No. If a buyer selects 'No', their problem was not solved by your most recent response, the case will be marked as Buyer Reported Unresolved within the Seller Central inbox.

What should I do if a case was reported as unresolved by the buyer?

If cases within your Seller Central inbox have been reported as unresolved by the Buyer, you may either:

  • Send a message to the buyer and pursue a more agreeable solution for the situation, or
  • Select "No response needed" on the case if a resolution has already been provided that is within Amazon's policies and there are no additional customer service steps that you are willing to take in order to resolve the buyer's issue to their satisfaction.
Currently, this is not considered as a factor within your account health.

Email address and features

How long is the email alias? What is the format?

The email alias is 35 characters including the domain. Here is an example: t969vz2jn3bdsy7@store.amazon.com.

Does a buyer have the same email alias across multiple sellers?

No. Buyers are assigned a unique email alias for each seller relationship.

Are there separate email addresses per case?

No. The anonymized email alias remains the same for all contacts that you have with each individual buyer. This way, you can use the buyer's anonymized email address as a unique identifier to follow conversations across multiple orders.

Is HTML email supported?

Yes, HTML email is supported between buyers and sellers.

Are email attachments supported?

You can send attachments to a buyer and receive attachments from buyers. See Send attachments to buyers.

Additional information

I received a buyer message without an order ID. How can I find the buyer's order information?

When the buyer initiates contact from outside the order page, the message may not include an order ID. You can find a buyer's order ID by searching for the anonymized email alias in Manage Orders. Their email alias is included in the From field of the message you received.

Why does Amazon retain a record of buyer-seller contacts sent through Amazon?

By maintaining a record of contacts between buyers and sellers, we can arbitrate disputes faster by ensuring that the Amazon Dispute Resolution Team has access to all buyer-seller communications when reviewing A-to-z Guarantee claims and chargebacks.

As a seller, can I contact other sellers?

No. As a seller, you must not contact another seller using the "Ask a question" feature on the seller’s storefront page. If you have to report copyright, trademark, or patent infringement, see the Report Infringement page.

How do I report a message from buyer?

To report a message, click the Report Message on your Buyer-Seller Messages page, the seller App, or the email you receive. Then select the appropriate reason for reporting and click the Report Message that is displayed at the bottom of the message to submit the report.

Use the Report Message to report any suspicious activity to Amazon, such as messages you think are spam. While we cannot investigate every reported message, we analyze this data to identify patterns of suspicious activity and prevent such abuse in future. Once a message is reported, you are not required to respond to the message or mark it as No response needed. There is no need to remove a reported message from your inbox.

How do buyers distinguish between messages sent by sellers from other email sent by Amazon?

Your messages to a buyer will have your business name in the From field instead of displaying Amazon in a buyer’s email inbox. Once the buyer opens your message, we state your business name in the message’s body text.

Top

Buyer-Seller Messages FAQ

  • How do I contact a customer about their order?
  • What do I do when a customer contacts me about an order I haven't received?
  • How can I protect myself against fake emails?